The Olam
Universities & Research

Yissum and the Hebrew University Engine

By The Olam Editorial Team · May 30, 2026
Yissum and the Hebrew University Engine

Yissum is the commercialization arm of Hebrew University — the office that turned academic research into Mobileye, BriefCam, and a generation of Israeli companies. The original template.

Originally published May 2026. Updated June 2026.

Part of: Israeli Universities & Tech Transfer

The Olam · Universities & Research

Yissum is the commercialization arm of Hebrew University — the office that turned academic research into Mobileye, BriefCam, and some of Israel's most important companies. The original template, and the one the rest of the system followed.

Yissum Research Development Company is the technology-transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Founded in 1964, it is the third-oldest university technology-transfer office in the world and the oldest in Israel — the institution that established the commercialization model the rest of the Israeli academic system later adopted.

Yissum owns, protects, and licenses the intellectual property generated by Hebrew University researchers. Over six decades it has registered thousands of patents, licensed technology into hundreds of products, and spun out more than 200 companies. The portfolio it manages is the clearest single demonstration that Israeli academic research converts into commercial scale at a rate few institutions anywhere match.

BY THE NUMBERS

Founded: 1964

Rank: 3rd-oldest university TTO in the world

Patents filed: thousands across six decades

Companies spun out: 200+

Largest single exit: Mobileye (~$15.3B, Intel acquisition 2017)

Royalty franchises: Exelon (Alzheimer's), long-shelf-life cherry tomato, agritech licensing

The defining outputs

Yissum's significance is measured in the companies and products that carry Hebrew University IP. The list anchors the case:

  • Mobileye — the autonomous-driving vision company founded on the research of Hebrew University professor Amnon Shashua. Acquired by Intel in 2017 for roughly $15.3bn, then re-listed; the single most consequential company to trace to Hebrew University research.
  • BriefCam — video-analytics technology developed at Hebrew University, acquired by Canon.
  • Exelon and pharmaceutical licenses — Exelon (rivastigmine), the Alzheimer's drug invented by Hebrew University professor Marta Weinstock-Rosin, plus a deep agritech licensing book including the long-shelf-life cherry tomato. Durable royalty streams across drugs and agriculture.
  • Mobileye's successor cohort — the OrCam assistive-vision company, also founded by Shashua and Ziv Aviram, extends the same research lineage.

How the model works

Yissum operates the layered TTO economics common to Israeli tech transfer: it takes assignment of researcher IP, files and maintains the patents, and licenses to either established industry or new spinouts in exchange for licensing fees, milestone payments, royalties, and equity. The proceeds are shared with the inventing researchers and the university under a defined formula, funding further research and keeping the pipeline fed.

The Yissum model predates and informs Yeda at the Weizmann Institute and T3 at the Technion as a structural template, though each office has since specialized: Yeda toward the long-royalty pharmaceutical license, the Technion toward founder volume, and Yissum toward a broad patent-and-spinout portfolio spanning life sciences, agritech, computer science, and nanotechnology.

The Shashua Lineage

The most strategically significant fact about Yissum is that Amnon Shashua — one of the most prolific founder-academics in Israeli history — built his entire commercial career on Yissum-licensed Hebrew University IP. Mobileye (1999, sold to Intel 2017 for $15.3B, re-listed 2022). OrCam (2010, assistive vision). AI21 Labs (2017, Israeli foundation models). Three companies, three categories, one academic-research origin. Yissum is upstream of all of them.

This lineage is the answer to the structural question: can a single TTO produce sustained company-building output at scale, or does it depend on lucky one-offs? Yissum's answer is the former. The pipeline keeps producing.

The Hebrew University Research Base

Yissum sits downstream of a research footprint that includes life sciences (the Faculty of Medicine at Ein Kerem, the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot), computer science (the Rachel and Selim Benin School at the Edmond J. Safra Campus), the Racah Institute of Physics, the Earth Sciences Institute, and a deep nanoscience and quantum-science program. Hebrew University's combined annual research expenditure runs in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with a meaningful share coming from competitive international grants (ERC, NIH, Horizon Europe) — the basis on which Yissum can be confident that the IP pipeline will continue to produce.

Why Yissum matters

Yissum is the proof that a single university tech-transfer office can produce a company of genuine global consequence — Mobileye — while running a diversified portfolio underneath it. For anyone mapping where Israeli companies actually originate, Yissum is the upstream node behind a disproportionate share of the country's most-cited technology outcomes. It is the founder pipeline at its oldest and most institutionalized point.

Key Takeaways

  • Yissum is the third-oldest university tech-transfer office in the world and the structural template for every other Israeli TTO that followed.
  • 200+ company spinouts in six decades, anchored by Mobileye ($15.3B Intel acquisition) — the single most consequential Israeli academic-research-to-company conversion ever.
  • The Shashua lineage (Mobileye, OrCam, AI21 Labs) shows TTO output is sustained company-building, not lucky one-offs.
  • Long-royalty pharmaceutical franchises (Exelon) and agritech licenses (long-shelf-life cherry tomato) provide stable income beneath the equity-spinout layer.
  • Yissum's specialization is breadth — life sciences, agritech, computer science, nanotechnology — versus Yeda's pharma depth and the Technion's founder volume.

FAQ

What is Yissum? Yissum Research Development Company is the technology-transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded in 1964. It owns, protects, and licenses the intellectual property generated by Hebrew University researchers and has spun out more than 200 companies over six decades.

What companies did Yissum spin out? The most consequential is Mobileye, the autonomous-driving company founded on Amnon Shashua's research and acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion in 2017. Other spinouts include BriefCam (video analytics, acquired by Canon), OrCam (assistive vision), and AI21 Labs (foundation models). Yissum also licenses major pharmaceutical IP, including Exelon (rivastigmine) for Alzheimer's.

How old is Yissum? Yissum was founded in 1964, making it the third-oldest university technology-transfer office in the world and the oldest in Israel. The model it established was later adopted by Yeda (Weizmann), Ramot (Tel Aviv University), T3 (Technion), and BGN Technologies (Ben-Gurion).

How does Yissum make money? Yissum takes assignment of researcher IP, files and maintains patents, and licenses to established industry or new spinouts in exchange for licensing fees, milestone payments, royalties, and equity. The proceeds are shared with inventing researchers and the university under a defined formula.

Who is Amnon Shashua? Amnon Shashua is a Hebrew University computer-science professor and one of the most prolific founder-academics in Israeli history. He founded Mobileye, OrCam, and AI21 Labs, all on Hebrew University IP licensed through Yissum.