The founders of Polyfos, an Israeli startup working on multi-material digital light processing (DLP) additive manufacturing solutions, have dedicated their startup to the memory of Adi Vital-Kaploun, one of the hundreds of individuals who were murdered in the October 7th massacre. After saving her children, husband and father, Adi was murdered in Kibbutz Holit. Dedicating the startup to her memory is part of the October 7th Startups project, which calls on Israeli startuppers to “continue to build a better world in memory of the 7/10 fallen”.
“We chose to dedicate our startup to Adi, as we believe that in this war, women are the real heroes,” the Polyfos team said in a statement. We believe that the bravery of our women should be remembered and cherished. But it is not only for how Adi was killed but more than this, for how she led her life and the values she believed in.”
For those who are not familiar with it, Polyfos is one of many Israeli AM startups looking to AM as a way to create a better world. As the birthplace of material jetting 3D printing technology, one of the 7 main technological families according to the (now somewhat outdated) ASTM definition, Israel has spawned dozens of startups. This writer usually visits family in Israel around this time every year, taking the opportunity to meet with both established and new companies. I met with Polyfos CEO Omri Rulf for the first time exactly a year ago. Due to the ongoing crisis, which originated from the cowardly and unprovoked attack on civilians by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, this visit will not be possible this year.
It would have been a great opportunity to see the company’s progress after closing its first funding round. Polyfos envisions distributed, and sustainable mass manufacturing being done at local micro-factories, digitalizing production, transportation, and inventory. Its vision is to convert traditional manufacturing into Additive Manufacturing (AM), through the development of industrial-grade AM materials and workflows to eliminate manual post-processing.
New life and new hope
But the Israeli spirit is far from defeated and the initiative looks to October 7th Startups project looks to once again turn hardship into strength. The initiative was launched by David Chesterman CEO of MentMe. “Nine days after I lost my cousin in the tragic events of October 7, I came across a quote from Izhar Shay who lost his son on that same terrible day: ‘For every fallen soldier, for every murdered civilian, let’s put together a new innovative startup’.
“Those words—he explained—resonated with my thoughts about how to navigate life after such a disaster and how it is possible to even consider continuing to develop my new startup. I decided to dedicate my startup to the memory of my cousin. I displayed a picture of him (smiling, as he always was) beside our logo and I shared a post about it. My family was deeply touched by this gesture, work meetings began to open with Ori’s story, and other startups began to inquire about dedicating their ventures to one of the Oct 7 fallen.
“So we decided to turn this into a national commemoration project, to create a website where every Oct 7 fallen will be displayed, alongside a new early-stage Israeli startup dedicated to their memory, as a symbol of new growth.
“They will try to destroy, we will keep building.”
