In April 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Health asked AID Genomics — at the time a one-year-old molecular diagnostics company — to build PCR testing capacity for the country at a scale no Israeli operator had ever attempted. AID's CEO, Snir Zano, accepted the brief in a single phone call.
Forty-five days later, six high-throughput laboratories were operational, with combined capacity reaching 100,000 PCR tests per day at peak. AID Genomics became the largest molecular diagnostics platform in Israel during the pandemic and recorded over US$100 million in revenue from the programme.
Central to the speed was the Babba Tube — a single-use specimen collection device invented by Zano that materially shortened the PCR sample-prep cycle. The tube was patented in mid-2020 and became standard issue across the Israeli testing programme.
The COVID build remains the most-cited proof-point of AID's operating model: not financial engineering, not portfolio management, but compressed-timeline execution of physical infrastructure when the stakes demand it.
AI.D Group · Jerusalem, Israel