BIRD Foundation
The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation works to encourage and facilitate cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies in a wide range of technology sectors and offers funding to selected projects. BIRD has approved close to 950 projects over its 40-year history.
The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any equity or intellectual property rights in the participating companies or in the projects, themselves. BIRD funding is repaid as royalties from sales of products that were commercialized as a result of BIRD support. The Foundation provides funding of up to 50% of a project's budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and does not require repayment if the project fails to reach the sales stage.
Top Sectors
Top Regions
Past deals in Self-driving
TriEye
Grant in 2025
TriEye Ltd., established in 2017 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, specializes in developing Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles. The company's core business involves creating CMOS-based SWIR sensors that enable clear imaging and accurate depth perception in challenging driving conditions such as darkness, rain, fog, and dust. TriEye's proprietary technology significantly reduces costs compared to existing industry rates while delivering reliable image data, thereby enhancing vehicle safety and autonomy.
Lumotive
Grant in 2025
Lumotive develops programmable optical semiconductors and solid-state lidar systems that use light-control metasurfaces to enable compact, software-defined beam steering for sensing and perception across autonomous vehicles, robotics, mobile devices, and industrial automation. Its silicon-based beam steering chips are designed to reduce lidar size, cost, and complexity while delivering improved performance and reliability for 3D sensing and AI computing. Founded in 2017, Lumotive is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.
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