The Mossad intelligence agency has set up an investment fund to help development of new cloak-and-dagger know-how, and is offering grants of up to 2 million shekels ($570,000) per project to bring in new ideas. The new fund, called Libertad, issued a statement on Tuesday saying the Israeli spy agency is seeking technologies in various fields, including robotics, miniaturization and encryption, as well as new automated methods of gleaning information from documents and new ways of improving stealth. The statement said the fund would be willing to give grants of up to 2 million shekels per project in exchange for non-exclusive rights to the technology. Developers would retain the rights to their product and could sell it on, it said. "The Mossad wants to encourage innovation and creation of groundbreaking technology. The technology developed will be implemented by us, in cooperation between the parties," the statement said. It advised potential applicants to "closely observe" areas of interest on its website and said that calls for proposals would be posted publicly. The Mossad, widely considered the world's top intelligence agency, said the fund would facilitate "efforts to improve technological abilities" as well as meet its objectives in "an innovative and challenging environment. The Mossad is dealing with complex and dynamic challenges on multiple fronts. Technology is one of the organization's main growth engines, and serves as a basis for generating intelligence and operational successes." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a short video clip on Twitter showing possible futuristic technology and wrote: "Mossad will continue to be sophisticated, daring and groundbreaking in its paramount task of ensuring Israel's security." The Mossad's undertaking is not new. In 1999, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency established IQT, a non-profit investment fund aimed at accelerating the development and delivery of new technologies to U.S. government intelligence bodies. Libertad's statement said "anyone" could apply, suggesting that the offer is also open to foreign companies, though it did not provide details. But the intelligence agency plans to back only projects directly relevant to its needs, such as technology for the rapid dissemination of information; automatic personality profiling based on online patterns of behavior; automated methods for document implementation; cataloging, entity extraction and semantic connections; and using machine learning in Hebrew and other languages and fields. Israel has over 450 cybersecurity firms. In 2016, 78 startup companies raised more than $660 million from investors, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center. Israel's advanced defense industry, led by Elbit, Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel Military Industries, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, accounts for about 14% of the country's exports.
