Israeli AI Founder Maor Shlomo Launches Private Cancer Research Investment Fund

Maor Shlomo, the 32-year-old founder of Israeli AI startup Base44, revealed on July 30, 2026, that he has established a private investment fund dedicated to cancer research and breakthrough therapies. Shlomo, who sold Base44 to Wix last year for approximately $80 million, is funding the venture with his own money. Over the past four months, the fund has invested in seven companies, with plans to continue investing as liquidity allows. The initiative was inspired by the loss of his mother to cancer about four months ago.

Shlomo highlighted that around 40% of people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and about one-third of those will not survive, statistics he says have not improved sufficiently despite advances in other technological fields. His investment thesis centers on the role of artificial intelligence in accelerating drug design by rapidly identifying target proteins and creating new molecules, generating a wealth of potential drug candidates. He believes the industry's bottleneck is shifting to drug manufacturing and real-world testing.

He pointed to companies like Starget Pharma, which combines AI with internal manufacturing capabilities to speed up drug candidate iterations. On the testing front, Shlomo noted the low success rate of under 8% for transitioning from animal models to human clinical trials and the high costs exceeding $100 million to complete oncology drug development. He emphasized that improving early-stage understanding of drug mechanisms could save years and lives, potentially enabling regulatory cooperation to shorten or skip some clinical trial phases.

Among his portfolio are CuResponse, developing functional tests on real cancer biopsies, Cellint, offering an automated R&D platform for cells, and Baccine, which creates bacteria-based cancer immunotherapy. He also holds a limited partnership in Even One Ventures, founded by Yaakov Stern and Sid Sibenrday, GitLab co-founder who is himself battling cancer. While continuing to focus primarily on Base44, Shlomo leverages his expertise to support portfolio companies with AI tools. He invited others with financial means to join or assist these ventures and plans to announce more details about the fund soon.