Natural Language Processing (NLP), the ability of a software program to understand human language as it is spoken, has seen major breakthroughs, thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and improved access to fast processors and cloud computing. With the introduction of more personal assistants, better smartphone functionality, and the evolution of Big Data to automate even more regular human jobs, NLP adoption is projected to gain up steam in the future years. SoundHound creates AI and conversational intelligence systems that are voice-enabled. It offers a Speech-to-Meaning engine as well as Deep Meaning Understanding technology, which may be integrated into other services and devices. It also creates music recognition apps and voice search assistants.

Israel is a country full of history, which is why they have more museums per capita than any other country. They also have the oldest continuously used cemetery in the world and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Hearing that, you'd think that not a whole lot has changed over the years, but one thing that has constantly been evolving is their ability to innovate and be productive. Next to the U.S. and Canada, Israel has the largest number of publicly traded companies, which shows that they can also build successful businesses. Our recent article on "The Top-10 Biggest Startups in Israel by Funding" proved to be quite popular so we decided to do another article on the top 10 Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

Israel is a country full of history, which is why they have more museums per capita than any other country. They also have the oldest continuously used cemetery in the world and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Hearing that, you'd think that not a whole lot has changed over the years, but one thing that has constantly been evolving is their ability to innovate and be productive. Next to the U.S. and Canada, Israel has the largest number of publicly traded companies, which shows that they can also build successful businesses. Our recent article on "The Top-10 Biggest Startups in Israel by Funding" proved to be quite popular so we decided to do another article on the top 10 Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

Twiggle is the only search technology built on both human-like understanding of linguistic structure and a deep retail awareness - to allow your search engine to mimic how an experienced salesperson would behave.

Just under a year after their $12.5 million Series A funding round, Israeli Artificial Intelligence for ecommerce startup Twiggle announced today the release of their Semantic API product, bringing their accumulated expertise in search to the wider online shopping market. Twiggle was co-founded in December of 2013 by CEO Dr. Amir Konigsberg, previously one of the members of Google's emerging markets operations, and Dr. Adi Avidor, a former engineering tech lead at Google. In the time since their Series A, they have picked up another $5 million from Alibaba, doubled their team, and moved shop to new offices overlooking Tel Aviv. Describing what they have built in short, this company has made search for ecommerce usable to the point that it becomes a near enjoyable experience. Their engine processes through lists of products, understanding the attributes that make them what they are.

Start-ups are hoping new artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that make searching the web more like talking to a friend will help them take on Google. Companies are developing search software that understands natural language, something that has typically been difficult for computers to do. Israel-based start-up Twiggle has come up with a solution specifically for e-commerce. The company, backed by Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, is trying to help make searching sites for items a lot easier. "We are trying to bring the search experience as close as possible to the positive aspect of the in-store experience," Amir Konigsberg, chief executive of Twiggle, told CNBC in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Israeli startup Twiggle, which is developing next generation e-commerce search technologies, announced today that it secured additional funding from the Alibaba Group as the second tranche of its Series A financing. This follows the announcement in April of a 12.5 million round led by Naspers with participation from YJ Capital, State of Mind Ventures and Sir Ronald Cohen. The funding will be utilized to grow the company's R&D team in Israel and drive the company's global expansion plans. No details were disclosed about the amount Alibaba is investing but "Bloomberg" reported that it is 5-10 million. Twiggle uses advanced techniques in data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to power the next generation of digital commerce.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is investing in Israeli startup Twiggle to tap its search technology and solidify its lead in Chinese e-commerce, according to people familiar with the matter. The Tel Aviv-based company could help Alibaba improve the quality of online-shopping searches as the e-commerce operator expands in China and abroad, people familiar with matter said, declining to be named because the matter is private. The startup will get 5 million to 10 million from Alibaba, one of the people said. Refining search technology has proven pivotal to shopping services like Amazon.com Inc. Twiggle, led by former Google Inc. executives Amir Konigsberg and Adi Avidor, uses machine learning and natural language processing to guess what shoppers are after. When users search for the "best laptop," Twiggle will try to understand what that means: such as highest screen resolution, most memory, longest battery life and so on.

Search engines on large e-commerce sites often spit up a lot of results, which is great if you want to browse, but otherwise annoying. Twiggle thinks it has the solution. Internet conglomerate Naspers agrees, because it has led the Tel Aviv-based startup's 12.5 million Series A. Yahoo Japan, State of Mind Ventures (a returning investor), and Sir Ronald Cohen also participated in the round. Twiggle, which has raised 14.7 million so far, will launch on several e-commerce sites in August. It hasn't revealed who its clients are yet, but they will include other Naspers portfolio companies.