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USB Stick Inventor to Test Medtech Waters

"We are at the beginning of a new era," Dov Moran says.

By: Michael Barbella

Managing Editor

Dov Moran’s name is not a familiar one in the medical device arena. But that soon could change.

The Israeli inventor, whose company M-Systems Ltd. invented the USB stick in the late 1990s and expanded the use of flash memory, is turning his attention to the television and medical equipment sectors. “We are at the beginning of a new era,” he told Reuters. “We will be more computerized, better connected and healthier.”

Smart sensors and remote monitoring capabilities increasingly are allowing patients to take charge of their health, revolutionizing healthcare, Moran, 58, said.

“I believe three screens — TV sets, tablets and phones — are going to play an important role in these trends,” he noted during an interview at his technology complex on the Yarkona farming cooperative, where scientists and entrepreneurs regularly visit for consultations.

One of Moran’s main investments is Comigo, which he founded in 2011. He invested $10 million in the company, whose set-top box allows viewers to watch programming on televisions, tablets and mobile phones, switching between the platforms. The Internet-based system adds socialising services. Viewers can invite friends to watch a soccer match with them, order game-related merchandise, place bets and order pizza.

Moran is well-known in Israel for founding M-Systems. The company invented the USB stick, a memory device enabling the quick transfer of information from one computer to another, as well as other flash products, including the DiskOnchip used in mobile phones.
M-Systems went public on the U.S. Nasdaq exchange in 1993 with $2.7 million in revenue. It generated annual sales of $1 billion when it was sold to SanDisk for $1.6 billion in 2006. Moran’s stake then was worth nearly $100 million.

Moran is chief executive of Comigo, which has 40 employees and expected sales of $3 million to $3.5 million in 2013. Based on existing customers’ forecasts, Moran estimates sales will rise to $15-$20 million in 2014, before accounting for any new clients.

Comigo’s competitors include Arris Group, Cisco Systems and Echostar Corp.

Moran is invested in a total of rougly 15 start-ups, several of them in medical devices.

He established a company developing a blood glucose meter after he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and had to test his blood sugar daily. “The fact is that in 2013 you test your blood sugar but no one knows your results, no one knows whether you did the test or not,” Moran said. While his meter aims to resolve this problem he declined to share details with Reuters.

Diabetes in the United States alone affects 25.8 million people, according to the American Diabetes Association. The global blood glucose monitoring devices market is expected to reach $12 billion by 2018, according to market research firm Global Industry Analysts.

Moran also provided seed money for a former M-Systems employee whose firm, Sensible Medical, makes a lung fluids monitor for heart patients. Investors in the company include Boston Scientific Corp.

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