Founder of The Week: Emi Gal

• Emi Gal is a serial entrepreneur whose shift from ad-tech to healthtech was driven by a desire to solve one of medicine’s biggest challenges: catching cancer earlier.
• He founded Ezra after losing his mother to cancer, a personal experience that fuels his mission to make early detection accessible, affordable and non-invasive for everyone.person
• Under his leadership, Ezra has developed advanced AI-powered MRI screening protocols, including a breakthrough 30-minute full-body scan designed to make proactive health checks routine.
• His approach blends deep technical expertise with relentless iteration, helping Ezra evolve from a promising scientific idea into a scalable service with growing partnerships across the UK and beyond.

Tell Me About Yourself and Ezra

I’m Emi Gal, a software engineer and entrepreneur. My entrepreneurial journey began with founding my first company, Brainient, at the age of 19. After building it into one of Europe’s leading ad-tech firms and it being acquired in 2016, I turned my attention to healthcare.

I founded Ezra in order to tackle the problem of late cancer detection by combining MRI with artificial intelligence. Ezra’s mission is to make cancer screening fast, affordable and accessible – and we’re now deploying advanced MRI scans powered by AI to detect serious conditions early.

What Inspired You To Ezra? What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

My motivation for starting Ezra is deeply personal. I lost my mother to cancer, and I’ve spoken openly about the fact that if it had been detected earlier, she would probably still be alive today. That experience made me realise how often cancer is found too late and how fragmented and slow traditional screening can be.

I wanted to build a non-invasive, radiation-free full-body MRI service that could help people spot issues earlier across multiple organs. The goal is to make proactive, routine early detection part of everyday healthcare, rather than something people only do once symptoms appear.

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

One of the biggest challenges has been taking an idea that was scientifically promising and turning it into something people would actually use at scale. When we launched Ezra’s first MRI protocol, we quickly discovered how difficult it is to bring a new medical product to market and convince people to adopt it.

Like my earlier experience building Brainient, the early days required a huge amount of perseverance: constant iteration, long hours and a willingness to improve every detail until the product resonated. What helped us overcome this was staying disciplined, refining the service step by step and focusing relentlessly on creating something people genuinely valued. Overnight success took us about seven years.

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Ezra?

A key moment came when we launched our 30-minute MRI scan. That leap in speed and accessibility was a major inflection point – it shifted our thinking from “this is a luxury diagnostic” to “this is something scalable and routine”.

Also, the decision to partner with established imaging networks for our UK launch (for example our partnership with Alliance Medical) marked a shift from purely offering a novel tech to becoming part of credible, clinically-trusted delivery systems.

How Do You Define Success? 

As A Founder: For me personally, success means staying true to the mission of making cancer non-lethal in our lifetime, while building a company that’s sustainable and scalable. It also means continuous learning and pushing boundaries – I’ve always been someone who experiments, whether in biohacking or in entrepreneurship, so being able to do meaningful work that moves the needle counts.

As A Business: For Ezra, success is when we make early cancer detection truly accessible: when our screening becomes part of people’s normal annual health check-up, when we reduce the number of cancers found at late stage, and when we show measurable improvement in outcomes because of our technology.

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

Start with a clear and compelling mission, because when things get hard – and they always do – that’s what will keep you going. At the same time, build with humility: understand the problem deeply, engage with customers and end-users early, and iterate based on real feedback. Surround yourself with great people – one of the hardest things isn’t product or market, it’s building the right team. Finally, recognise that startup success is a marathon, not a sprint: scale thoughtfully, stay aligned with your purpose, and remain flexible to pivot if needed.

What’s Next For Ezra? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

Looking ahead, we’re focused on making our advanced MRI scans faster, more affordable and available to more people – our roadmap includes reducing scan time toward a 15-minute protocol and expanding our UK (and broader European) footprint this year. We believe we’re entering a phase where proactive diagnostics will become a standard part of wellness.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

Founder’s Five with Emi Gal

We wanted to find out more about the man behind Ezra – here’s TechRound’s exclusive Founder’s Five with Emi Gal.

1. Favourite business tool?

Superhuman.

2. One Lesson you’ve learned the hard way?

Hire slow, fire fast.

3. A future trend you’re watching?

 Gene therapy.

4. One quote you live by?

Make no small plans.

5. A book/podcast you recommend?

Antifragile/Founders podcast.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.