Dor Skuler

CEO & Co-Founder Intuition Robotics

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Dor Skuler is co-founder and chief executive of Intuition Robotics, the Israeli company behind ElliQ, a proactive digital companion designed for older adults who live alone. The distinguishing choice in the product is that ElliQ initiates — it starts conversations, suggests activities and checks in, rather than waiting to be addressed like a smart speaker — and that the company framed the problem as loneliness and social isolation rather than as care delivery or fall detection. Skuler has been explicit that the design brief was to celebrate the period of life rather than centre on disability. Intuition Robotics is his fifth venture: he was an officer in Israel’s Unit 8200 signals-intelligence corps, founded and sold four companies across interactive radio, endpoint security, cyber and telecoms cloud, and spent roughly a decade in senior roles at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia, where he founded and ran the CloudBand network-virtualisation business unit. What makes the current company unusual is its distribution: rather than selling a consumer gadget, it has placed ElliQ through state ageing agencies, most prominently the New York State Office for the Aging, which supplies the device free to eligible isolated older adults.

Career Highlights

• Served as an officer in Unit 8200, Israel’s military intelligence corps, discharged in 1999.
• Founded Zing, an interactive radio technology startup, immediately after discharge; it raised $4.3m and was sold after two and a half years.
• Founded a cyber venture developed inside Bell Labs which was subsequently sold to Alcatel.
• Co-founded the endpoint-security company Safend, reported sold for $13m.
• Held senior positions at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia between 2005 and 2017, including Vice President of Strategy and Head of Corporate Development at the Paris headquarters.
• Founded CloudBand and ran it as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the CloudBand Business Unit at Alcatel-Lucent — a leading platform for network functions virtualisation.
• Served as a board director of ClearPath Networks.
• Co-founded Intuition Robotics in January 2016 with Itai Mendelsohn and Roy Amir, his fifth startup.
• Unveiled ElliQ at CES in January 2017; designed with Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject; commercially launched March 2022; ElliQ 3 released January 2024.
• Built the New York State Office for the Aging partnership, running since 2022, with over 800 units delivered and roughly 750 of about 900 programme units deployed by early 2026.
• Raised $87m in total for Intuition Robotics, including a $25m round ($20m equity, $5m venture debt) led by Toyota’s growth fund Woven Capital with Toyota Ventures, OurCrowd and Western Technology Investment.
• Established a 2019 collaboration with Toyota Research Institute on an in-car AI agent.
• Co-author of a 2024 study on ElliQ published in The Journal of Aging Research & Lifestyle.

Professional Journey

Skuler’s career began in Israel’s Unit 8200, the signals-intelligence formation that has seeded a large share of the country’s technology industry. He was discharged as an officer in 1999 and founded his first company, Zing, almost immediately: an interactive radio technology venture that raised $4.3m and sold about two and a half years later. The sale had an unusual consequence. The dean of Temple University’s School of Business Administration invited him to pursue a master’s degree on the strength of what he had built, despite his not holding a bachelor’s degree.

Three further ventures followed. He co-founded Safend, an endpoint data-security company, reported sold for $13m. He founded a cyber venture developed inside Bell Labs which Alcatel acquired. And he founded CloudBand, a distributed cloud management platform for telecoms operators, which became a business unit inside Alcatel-Lucent with Skuler as its senior vice president and general manager. Between 2005 and 2017 he held senior corporate positions at Alcatel-Lucent and, after the 2016 acquisition, Nokia — including a spell as vice president of strategy and head of corporate development at the Paris headquarters, and a board seat at ClearPath Networks. CloudBand was a market-leading network-functions-virtualisation platform; accounts of its eventual disposition differ and are not settled here.

In January 2016 he co-founded Intuition Robotics with Itai Mendelsohn and Roy Amir. The premise was broader than elder care: that the relationship between humans and machines needed redefining through digital companion agents that build a relationship over time. The team chose older adults as the first application because loneliness and social isolation were a concrete, measurable and under-served problem. ElliQ was unveiled at CES in January 2017, industrially designed by Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject, and deliberately shaped as a small expressive presence rather than a humanoid or a screen.

Commercial launch came in March 2022, followed by ElliQ 3 in January 2024. The decisive strategic move, however, was institutional rather than retail. Since 2022 Intuition Robotics has partnered with the New York State Office for the Aging, which distributes ElliQ at no cost to eligible older adults through local Area Agencies on Aging. More than 800 units have been delivered under that programme, and by early 2026 roughly 750 of around 900 units acquired for the pilot had been deployed. That channel turned a consumer device into a publicly funded intervention and generated the usage data the company now leads with, including a 2024 peer-reviewed study in The Journal of Aging Research & Lifestyle that Skuler co-authored.

Funding has followed the same trajectory. The company has raised $87m in total; a $25m round of $20m equity and $5m venture debt was led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, with Toyota Ventures, OurCrowd and Western Technology Investment participating — a continuation of a relationship that began with a 2019 collaboration with Toyota Research Institute on an in-car AI agent, applying the same companion-agent thinking to the vehicle.

Education

Temple University, Fox School of Business

Master’s degree in business administration. Skuler was invited to enrol by the dean of the School of Business Administration after selling his first company, despite not holding a bachelor’s degree. Widely republished speaker biographies describe the qualification as a Master of Science in Marketing together with an MBA in International Business; the two accounts could not be reconciled and the specific degree titles are not asserted.