Dov Moran

Dov Moran (Hebrew: דב מורן‎‎; born 1955) is an Israeli entrepreneur, inventor, and investor, best known as the inventor of the USB memory stick.

Born in Ramat Gan, Israel, a town near Tel Aviv, Moran obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (with honors) at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa. He served in the Israeli Navy for seven years and was commander of its advanced microprocessor department. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Moran was an independent consultant in the computer industry.

Moran formed M-Systems in 1989, a pioneer in the flash data storage market. The company invented the USB Flash Drive (DiskOnKey), the FlashDisk (DiskOnChip) as well as several other innovative flash data storage devices. Under Moran's leadership, M-Systems grew to $1B revenue within 18 years, and at the end of 2006 it was acquired by SanDisk Corp (NSDQ: SNDK) for $1.6B. This still ranks as the third largest acquisition in Israel's history.

After the sale of M-Systems, Moran founded Modu, an innovative company with a revolutionary modular phone concept, which eventually sold its patents to Google in 2011. These patents are the basis for Google's modular phone project, called Project Ara .

During his time at Modu, Dov was also the chairman of Tower Semiconductor, a developer and manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuits. During his tenure, he turned the struggling company around towards profitability. Moran was also chairman of Biomas, a developer of innovative pharmaceuticals.

In 2011, Moran founded Comigo, a company with a vision of revolutionizing the TV viewing experience. The company developed a multi-screen platform for Pay TV operators, redefining personalization, social viewing and engagement. Moran is acting as the chairman of the company.

In the course of his entrepreneurial work, Moran has filed more than 40 patents.

After several years of successful angel investing, Moran founded Grove ventures, a $100M venture capital fund primarily investing in Cloud, Big Data, and IoT. His portfolio companies include:

Moran is the recipient of multiple industry awards:

In 2003 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young - (enter "Moran"), and "CEO of the Year" by the IMC.

In 2007, the IVA (Israel Venture Association) awarded Dov Moran the Israeli Hi-Tech award as Entrepreneur of the Year.

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