August 3, 2017 | Israeli bio-pharmaceutical company Eloxx has raised $8 million in a Series C funding round led by LPS, a leading healthcare investor. Other investors such as Pontifax VC, Catalyst, KIP, DSC Funds, Dr. Phil Frost, OPKO Health Inc., and private investors also participated. This brings the company’s total equity to $38 million. The Herzliya company develops treatments for patients with rare genetic diseases triggered by mutations like Cystic Fibrosis and Cystinosis. Founded in 2013 by Dr. Silvia Noiman, Eloxx recently merged with Sevion Therapeutics and became a Sevion subsidiary. Sevion will use the name Eloxx and attempt to list its shares on Nasdaq.

August 3, 2017 | GuardiCore, an Israeli cyber-security firm, has raised $15 million in funding from TPG Growth, a private equity firm. Founded in 2013 by Pavel Gurvich, Dror Sal’ee, and Ariel Zeitlin, GuardiCore specializes in protecting data centers from cyber threats with real-time breach detection and response. The latest investment brings the company’s total equity funding to $46 million, and its investors include 83North and Battery Ventures.

August 3, 2017 | Inception, an Israeli startup that specializes in virtual reality entertainment content, has raised $15 million. Founded in 2016 by Dana Porter, Effi Wizen, Benny Arbel, Nitzan Shenhar, and Gigi Levy-Weiss, the company created an app to deliver premium 360 and VR content including musical, artistic, and cultural experiences to its international users. The Series A funding round was led by RTL Group. The funds will be used to expand the company’s content, enhance their technology platform, and accelerate growth. [Photo: Courtesy].

August 1, 2017 | Atlas Dynamics, an Israeli-founded startup that provides fully autonomous drone-based solutions, has raised $8 million from investment groups in Israel and in Asia. Founded in 2015 by Ivan Tolchinsky (CEO) and Igor Zhydanov (CTO), this is the first round of funding obtained by the company. It will use the funds to further develop its technical drone-based data solutions and to build its presence in North American markets. The drones provide users with valuable data in a timely manner, which can benefit markets such as infrastructure inspection, construction, security, first response, delivery, and insurance.

July 31, 2017 | i3 Equity Partners, an Israeli VC fund, has announced the addition of Singaporean investment company Temasek as its eighth global partner. Founded in 2016, i3 is a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups in the Internet of Things (IoT) sector, spanning areas such as Smart Home, Robotics, and Transportation. In addition to financial resources, the partnership will give i3 access to networks and services in the Singaporean and Asian markets. The fund is led by Managing Partners Noga Kap and Eran Wagner; its existing global partners include Microsoft Ventures, GE Ventures, and Israeli VC firm Pitango Ventures. Temasek, which was incorporated in 1974, owns a $197 billion portfolio across a broad spectrum of industries.

July 30, 2017 | Japanese company ORIX has purchased 22.1 percent of Israeli geothermal energy company Ormat Technologies for $630 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017, will give Ormat exclusive rights to develop, own, operate and provide equipment for ORIX geothermal energy projects in all markets outside of Japan. Ormat was founded in 1965 and went public in 2004. It is currently led by CEO Yehudit Bronicki.

July 30, 2017 | Israel’s first environmental research satellite, VENµS, will be launched into space August 2 on the “Vega” launcher from French Guiana. This is the second satellite project in which Israel’s Ben-Gurion University has been involved, following the successful launch of the nano-satellite BGUSAT earlier this year. VENµS is Israel’s first scientific observation satellite to conduct agricultural and ecological research, and Prof. Arnon Karnieli, head of the Remote Sensing Laboratory at the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, is its  principal investigator. [Photo courtesy of Ben-Gurion University].

July 27, 2017 | Israeli cyber-security startup Votiro has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Australian investor Divergent Group. Votiro intends to use the funds for global expansion, building a broader presence in Asia Pacific and the US, and establishing headquarters in Australia. Votiro was founded in 2009 by CEO Itay Glick and CTO Aviv Grafi. The company has more than 1.5 million users and has raised $12 million in total.

July 27, 2017 | Maniv Mobility, an Israeli venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to mobility tech, has raised $40 million. This was twice the target value, and is indicative of the increasing interest in Israeli automotive companies since the acquisition of Mobileye for more than $15 billion this year. An affiliate of Maniv Investments, which was founded in 1997 by Michael Granoff, Maniv Mobility invests in early-stage companies in the new mobility sector. Its portfolio consists of 15 mobility technology startups, mostly in Israel, with some in the US.

July 26, 2017 | Nyotron, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, has completed a $21 million financing round led by DGB Investments. Founded in 2008 by Nir and Ofer Gaist, the company has developed innovative technology that protects against known and unknown cyber attacks by securing endpoints. The technology offers protection regardless of the type of threat or the attack vector, making it one of the most advanced solutions available. Nyotron is being used by organizations such as El Al Airlines and the Israeli military, and has raised a total of $33 million to date.