Oliver Mitchell

Oliver Mitchell is a partner at Arkenstone Venture Partners, a dual-use venture firm investing in defense technology, cybersecurity, automation, and AI-driven enterprise software, born out of Israel’s elite military units. Oliver is also a partner at ff Venture Capital, where he leads investments in robotics, artificial intelligence, drones, industrial automation, and climate tech, and builds strategic alliances with limited partners and corporate venture groups. A seasoned investor, Oliver boasts a proven track record of successful exits, including two IPOs (Novocure and Ekso Bionics), a $1.4 billion private equity sale of TripleLift, and high returns from recent transactions, including the acquisition of Scite.ai by Research Solutions (RSSS) and CardFlight’s growth equity round led by WestView Capital Partners. He currently serves on the boards of CivRobotics, Cambrian Robotics, and Paraspot, leveraging his deep tech expertise to scale transformative companies. Previously, he built and exited ventures such as Holmes Protection, AmeriCash, and RobotGalaxy, a national STEM-focused brand. As an Adjunct Professor at Sy Syms School of Business and the author of A Startup Field Guide in the Age of Robots and AI, he continues to shape innovation, sharing insights on his blog as the “Robot Rabbi.“

Big Brother (or Sister) Is Always Listening

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Alexa had a good show. She was everywhere at CES with 35 new embedded product introductions, from cars to refrigerators to robots to vacuum cleaners. Google Home chose the more luxurious path by partnering with Mercedes and Sony. While consumers love talking to their devices, no one has ever asked Alexa if she enjoys listening to our every whim, burp, … Read more

CES 2017: Report From The Show Floor

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Shelly Palmer (aka Mr. CES) is wrong. Yesterday, he declared in his daily missive that his vote for 2017 “best in show” was the Mercedes-Benz Vision Van. My retort: “Shelly, go outside the North Hall to the Gold Parking Lot and take a ride on NVIDIA’s self-driving car.” I do agree with Shelly’s wisdom that the Mercedes … Read more

2016: The Year of Drones, Cars, Bots (and Less Jobs…)

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At a JP Morgan conference this month, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that “forty percent of New York City’s jobs will be automated over the next 10 years.” This means over 1 million people will be out of work by 2026. Bloomberg’s statistic is even less than the UN Report last November, which stated over two-thirds of the jobs in developed … Read more

An Update To Solving The Impending Food Crisis

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As I reported earlier, the the Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) announced that the demand for food will outpace food production by 2050 when the world’s population is estimated to reach 9 billion people. The report according to Margaret Zeigler, executive director of GHI, is “a call to action.” “Countries need to prioritize agriculture and the growing of food in … Read more