When he was a Brandeis University art major, Ari Teman built a car in his parents’ garage in Teaneck, New Jersey.

He later became a standup comic and founder of GateGuard, an intercom and AI doorman system used by hundreds of US landlords and property managers to enhance safety and catch bad actors.

During the pandemic lockdowns, Teman was running his successful business in Miami and feeling that life was short. It was time to realize his car dreams.

Now in his early 40s and living part time in Tel Aviv, Teman dipped into his pocket to found Jovari, a startup on track to produce the world’s first four-door convertible electric hypercar – in Israel. 

WHAT’S A HYPERCAR?

A hypercar is a limited-edition automobile featuring cutting-edge technology, materials, design and performance. It’s for serious car collectors at the level of Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld, Teman explains.

But this one will be designed as a luxury family vehicle, not merely a collectors’ item.

Jovari buyers will collaborate on their car’s design elements, down to the stitching and the digital interface. “You could customize the car like you customize a phone case,” Teman tells ISRAEL21c.

Teman plans to donate 10 percent of every purchase to the charity of the collector’s choice and work with an artist of their choosing to integrate the story of the charity into the design of the vehicle. A matching display will fold out of the trunk to encourage attendees at car shows to support the cause. 

“This is really important to me, to change the tone of many car shows from ego-driven to soul-driven,” says Teman, who in 2006 founded Jcorps, an international social volunteer network of thousands of Jewish young adults in North America and Israel.

INCEPTION FOR STARTUPS

Jovari was just accepted into NVIDIA’s Inception program for startups. NVIDIA’s design and simulation technologies will power the real-time vehicle customization site, which will then communicate the design instructions to an automated production facility.