News Briefs

May 29, 2018 | UK tech firm Halma, which makes products for hazard detection and life protection including products healthcare professionals can use to diagnose and treat patients, has partnered with Israeli-founded equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd to gain access to the Jerusalem-based company’s portfolio of 150 promising tech, medical, digital health and big data startups, the two companies announced in a joint statement. This is the first time Halma is getting involved in the Israeli tech scene. “We’re looking for the best innovations in Medtech, smart buildings and environmental analytics and Israel is the place to find them. It is one of the most vibrant innovation hotspots in the world. We’re excited to collaborate with OurCrowd – who is the ideal partner to help us access the talent and ideas of this unique innovation and digital ecosystem. OurCrowd will help Halma grow faster by identifying new investment opportunities within the Israeli tech ecosystem,” said Halma Chief Digital and Innovation Officer Dr. Inken Braunschmidt. Our Crowd is the leading global equity crowdfunding platform, founded by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved in 2013. OurCrowd, which has raised $750 million and invested in 150 portfolio companies and funds, has almost 25,000 accredited investors from over 150 countries.

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May 28, 2018 | US-Israeli software firm Verint Systems is reportedly in talks to merge with Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group valued at $1 billion, an anonymous source close to the matter said Monday, according to Reuters. NSO Group, the Israeli firm founded in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio that develops mobile device surveillance software, would remain independent, but as a division within Verint, the source said. NSO was acquired by US private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014 for $110 million and is currently the Israeli company’s controlling shareholder. According to the Wall Street Journal, where the talks were first reported, Verint has offered to pay Francisco Partners with Verint stock, which will make the San Francisco-based firm Verint’s largest shareholder, if the merger occurs. NSO Group supplies mobile surveillance tools for governments and law enforcement agencies but has been criticized by human rights and online privacy activists for creating spyware.

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May 28, 2018 | Pixoneye, a data analytics startup based in Tel Aviv and London that uses on-device software to analyze a user’s smartphone pictures to predict his or her interests, in order to allow retailers to send tailored advertisements, rewards programs, and special offers, has raised $8 million in a Series A round from UK venture capital fund Octopus Ventures. Pixoneye says it hopes to improve its deep learning code to predict the user’s forthcoming events so that brands can interact with them at appropriate times, UK daily The Telegraph reports. Founded in 2014 by Nadav Tal-Israel and Ofri Ben Porat, Pixoneye says it “uses AI and computer vision to understand your users and personalize their in-app experience.”

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May 27, 2018 | Thinking Out of the Box, the first international ministerial-level science conference will be held in Jerusalem from Monday, May 28  to Wednesday, May 30. The conference will deal with innovative ideas in science that have led to groundbreaking success and government science policy, the Science and Technology Ministry announced earlier this month. More than 20 countries around the world are expected to send delegations headed by ministers and deputy ministers of science to the conference, the Ministry said in a previous statement. “We will mark an unprecedented international event, with more than 20 international delegations – including science ministers from all the world – coming to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, to salute science, innovation, and Israeli technology,” Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis had said at an earlier cabinet meeting. “Leading figures from the international world of science and technology will present their work alongside an exhibition of Israeli science and tech innovations.” Countries that will send delegations include India, Britain, Argentina, Poland, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Spain and the Czech Republic. The main topics of the conference include scientific intellectual innovations, from the birth of an idea until execution and global success, Israel’s effort to supply creative and innovative solutions to scientific challenges resulting in great importance to humanity, and the role of public policy and prioritization of resources while advancing innovative research and application in efforts of discovering solutions to future challenges. Renowned speakers at the conference include Uri Levine, co-founder of Israeli navigational app Waze, Adi Soffer-Teeni, general director of Facebook Israel, Professor Alexander Bligh, Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Professor Eric R. Kandel, 2000 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, and Saul Singer, co-writer of the book Startup Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle. Besides three sessions at the conference, activities for distinguished guests include dinner at Israel’s governing body, the Knesset, a visit the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, touring Israel’s landmarks and scientific hubs, exploring Jerusalem nightlife at Machane Yehuda market, and a choice of receptions at Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, or the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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May 24, 2018 | Israeli entrepreneuers hosted a hackathon this month for the benefit of Holocaust survivors in Israel and across the world. Twenty-three teams took part in the 36-hour “Spark Hackathon” event on May 10 and 11 at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), hosted by TLV Starters, the organization behind the book “Startup Guide Tel Aviv.” A panel of judges, which included Dov Moran, founder of Grove Ventures and Shira Fayans Birenbaum, the VP of Microsoft Israel, chose a third place, second place, and first place winner from the groups, who created projects that aim to “find and create feasible solutions for challenges in education, remembrance, and quality of life of Holocaust survivors,” as well as establish a platform that will enable collaboration and partnerships between companies and organizations, TLV Starters said in a previous statement. Third place went to Meetnadev, a database that connects professionals, survivors, and volunteers, enabling Holocaust survivors to access free use of various professionals. The team won 2,500 NIS ($700) from Israeli companies AppsFlyer and Nice and Matav, the largest nursing support organization in Israel. Second place went to הילף (meaning Help in Yiddish), a mobile app that creates a community to help Holocaust survivors, the elderly and the disabled. They received 5000 NIS (about $1400) from EY Israel, a member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited and Matrix, an IT company in Israel. The winner was Momento, a group using virtual reality tech and augmented reality to create a visual experience of Jewish sites before and during the Holocaust, offering an authentic reconstruction of buildings, streets, ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination. The group received 10,000 NIS ($2,802) as well as two months free access to Microsoft and a TFT screen. TLV Starters was founded by Erez Gavish and Natan Leibzon. The initiative, led by Gavish, Leibzon, Anat Greemland, Talia Savchenko, and Alon Rapaport had the support of leading Israeli venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, as well as the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, Tel Aviv University, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and tech giant Microsoft. Israel marked Holocaust Memorial Day, or Yom Hashoah, on April 12 this year.

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May 24, 2018 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has launched a$1 million BGU Entrepreneurship Fund (BEF) to invest in technologies developed by BGU students and graduates, BGU President Rivka Carmi announced at the SilicoNegevBGU entrepreneurship festival on Wednesday. Students will be invited to join a course to learn how to identify innovative and disruptive technologies with a chance to join the fund’s investment team alongside industry leaders and BGU management, once they have successfully finished the course. These students will also become on-campus scouts for innovative technologies. BGU says this is the first student-led entrepreneurship fund created by an Israeli university. Tel Aviv University has also established TAU Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund to invest in early-stage startups founded by students and alumni in the TAU network.

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May 23, 2018 | Italian Banking group Intesa Sanpaolo signed an institutional partnership agreement with OurCrowd, a global leader in equity crowdfunding, to facilitate collaboration between Israeli and Italian startups and access to commercial opportunities in Europe in the areas of automotive, FashionTech, FoodTech, and manufacturing, the two firms announced. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed Wednesday “with the aim to promote startup access to international capital markets” As part of the agreement, Intesa will provide “tailored access for its corporate and SME clients into OurCrowd’s high-tech portfolio, leveraging synergies with strong potential to deliver faster go-to-market traction.” OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said, the partnership “will accelerate the activity between our companies and between two very important economies in the technology ecosystem.” Mario Costantini, General Manager of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, said the deal “has the dual target of making available to our business customer.” OurCrowd also has institutional partnerships with National Australia Bank, Singapore’s United Overseas Bank in ASEAN, Citic Pacific in Hong Kong, Reliance Private Client in India, Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank in Taiwan, and Bangkok Bank in Thailand. Since OurCrowd was founded in 2013, the company says it raised over $700 million from over 25,000 investors for over 150 early-stage companies.

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May 23, 2018 | WeWork’s Creator Awards are coming to Jerusalem next month and the event will feature an opening performance by the Israeli singer who won the 2018 Eurovision song contest this month, Netta, as well as live appearances by Aviv Geffen. The award show, which honors entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups and non-profits, is scheduled for June 20 at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena. The accolades are awarded in four categories with a chance to win up to $360,000: performing arts, nonprofits, business venture, and community giver. WeWork launched the Creator Awards Initiative in March 2017, and hosted them in Tel Aviv last October. Over 5,000 people attended that event, where winners were awarded a total of $1.4 million. WeWork says that since launching the program, it has given away more than $16 million in funding and has received over 9,000 applications from creators in cities all over the world. Creator Awards events have already been hosted in Mexico City, Shanghai and San Francisco, with events planned for Nashville, São Paulo, Seoul, London and Berlin.

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May 23, 2018 | BP Ventures, the venture capital arm of British multinational oil and gas company BP, announced that it was investing $20 million in the Israeli startup StoreDot, which develops fast-charging batteries for mobile devices, electric vehicles and next-generation LCD displays. In a press statement, the company said that BP was specifically focused on “working across the supply chain to support the development of the technologies and infrastructure” required to support the growth of electric vehicles. “BP believes that ultra-fast charging will be key in accelerating the adoption of EVs worldwide,” it said. StoreDot has been working since 2012 to develop ultra-fast charging technologies, starting with a smartphone solution, based on lithium ion-based batteries. Using this tech, StoreDot has been developing “a new type of electric-car battery that will aim to achieve a charging experience that is comparable to the time spent to refuel a traditional car,” with the company expecting first sales of its flash batteries for mobile devices as early as 2019.” Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of BP’s Downstream segment said, “Ultra-fast charging is at the heart of BP’s electrification strategy,” and “StoreDot’s technology shows real potential for car batteries that can charge in the same time it takes to fill a gas tank.” He added that BP was looking “to develop truly innovative EV customer offers,” and was “committed to be[ing] the fuel provider of choice – no matter what car our customers drive.” Co-founder and CEO of StoreDot Dr Doron Myerdorf said, “Working closely together with a global energy leader is a significant milestone in StoreDot’s direction of strengthening the EV ultra-fast charging eco-system.” David Gilmour, VP of business development at BP Ventures, said BP Ventures was “committed to identifying and investing in companies that we believe are at the cutting edge of this industry. StoreDot has shown significant progress in the development of ultra-fast charging, both in mobile phone and vehicle applications. BP looks forward to working alongside them, as an investor and strategic partner, to bring their technology from the lab to the vehicle.” Last year, Storedot raised $60 million in a funding round led by automotive giant Daimler Trucks.

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May 22, 2018 | Israeli patented kinetic storage manufacturer Chakratec has announced the completion of a Series C financing round, raising $4.4 million to further the development of its electric vehicle (EV) charging technology and bring it to market. The money was raised from the Israeli iArgento Group and the Singapore-based company Goldbell. The round will help the company conduct its first three pilot projects in Europe, with three of Europe’s leading utilities, which will potentially lead to the first orders later this year. “Chakratec has developed an innovative EV charging technology that obviates the need for upgrading the power grid, enabling rapid deployment of fast EV charging systems. The company is currently conducting pilot projects with three global energy providers that see our technology as the solution for reduced EV charging times, and a facilitator for global market penetration by electric vehicles,” Chakratec CEO Ilan Ben-David said in a statement.  The company has already raised $3.2 million on its previous rounds. Chakratec’s innovative charging technology, which requires the use of kinetic batteries in a flywheel concept, rather than a costly and complicated high-power electricity connection, is faster and easier than the ‘fast charging’ of electric vehicles currently on the market. When a vehicle enters a charging station, the kinetic battery empties and quickly transfers energy to the vehicle, filling up again. The company’s batteries allow a large number of charge and discharge cycles of a period of 20 years. Chakratec was founded in 2013 by Israelis Ilan Ben David, Nir Zohar, and Dudi Pincu. 

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May 22, 2018 | Tel Aviv will host EcoMotion’s 6th annual main event, a one-day conference featuring innovations from all disciplines in smart transportation. The event is expected to draw up to 2,000 participants including entrepreneurs, investors, mobility executives, government officials, and mobility experts. The confab will include panel discussions on topics such as new mobility trends, cybersecurity, and investing in mobility technologies, demos from companies like Arbe Robotics and Vayavision, and keynote speakers from multinational companies like Nvidia and Deloitte.  There will also be a startup competition where 12 companies will get to pitch for three minutes each on the Startup Stage. Volkswagen too will host a separate startup competition where selected early-stage startups focused on bringing mobile services and digitization on the road present their ideas and products to Volkswagen Group. Additionally, there will be a mobility and transportation startup exhibition featuring 100 Israeli companies showcasing their products. Moovit, Nexar, Cognata, Innoviz Technologies, Vayyar Imaging will be among the exhibitors. EcoMotion Israel is a joint venture of Israel Innovation Institute, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Science, Keren Hayesod and the Israeli automotive and high-tech industry. EcoMotion says it is building an interdisciplinary community focused on developing smart transportation, stimulating multiple solutions in R&D and entrepreneurship. It boasts some 580 startups and 5,000 members in the smart transportation sector.

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May 22, 2018 | German auto giant Volkswagen opened a new innovation center in Tel Aviv focused on connectivity, smart navigation, cybersecurity, e-mobility, and big data. The new Volkswagen Group Campus Tel Aviv, dubbed “Konnect,” was inaugurated this week in the presence of the Israeli Minister of Economy Eli Cohen “will provide local partners and [mobility-based] startups with direct access to the Volkswagen Group and its many brands,” and will engage “in business collaborations with the highly innovative tech scene in Israel,” the company said in a press announcement. Chief Customer Officer of Volkswagen Group Peter Harris said, “I am a strong believer in the technological innovations being developed within the Israeli market and I am convinced that they can help us reach our goal of being one of the global market leaders in sustainable mobility. Konnect is another step in expanding our activities in Israel and will help our portfolio of brands engage with the Israeli start-up ecosystem.” Konnect will be headed by Stephanie Reimann who said she was “excited to be moving to Israel in order to head the new Volkswagen Group Campus Tel Aviv and I look forward to working with the Israeli start-up ecosystem in order to identify cutting-edge technologies for our future mobility solutions. The mission of ‘Konnect’ is to connect, foster and accelerate the high-tech initiatives of the Volkswagen Group brands in the future within the Israeli ecosystem. We will invite relevant companies to approach us and form a meaningful partnership with the Volkswagen Group and our strong brands.” The center, according to the announcement, plans to support “41 local start-ups with innovative business ideas connected to the future of mobility.” The selected entrepreneurs will present their ideas to a professional jury of VW experts, after which the winning startup will spend six months at the “Gläserne Manufaktur” or Transparent Factory in Dresden, while under professional mentorship.

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May 22, 2018 | Nanit, an Israeli-developed baby monitor that uses computer vision, machine learning and advanced camera sensors to monitor a baby’s sleep cycle and development, announced that it raised $14 million in Series B financing led by new investor Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), with additional participation from existing investors Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Vaal Investment Partners. The company that developed Nanit was founded by Dr. Assaf Glazer, Tor Ivry and Andrew Berman in New York and Israel. This latest round of funding brings on JVP Founder and Chairman Erel Margalit as a member of Nanit’s Board of Directors, joining longtime investors Upfront Ventures Partner Mark Suster and RRE Ventures General Partner Will Porteous. Glazer, who serves as Nanit CEO said the company was “redefining the baby monitor space by creating a non-wearable device that provides parents with valuable information about their baby’s sleep development. This is a game changer not only for parents, but for research institutes.” Last month, Nanit announced that its products would launch at US retail chain buybuy BABY® nationwide, selling the Nanit Camera and Wall Mount ($279) and Multi-Stand ($49). “Sleep has become one of the most important factors affecting our health and is part of an emerging category in the global high-tech arena,” said Margalit in a press statement. “Nanit takes the science of sleep one step forward and revolutionizes this field through computer vision and machine learning technology. Just as we know how to monitor our nutrition and physical fitness, Nanit enables the monitoring of each person’s sleeping habits, the first stage starting off with babies. Nanit’s unique home-based camera monitors and analyzes sleep patterns in real-time and updates parents on their children’s quality of sleep, something which directly affects their physical, mental and emotional development.” Nanit’s latest funding round brings its total raised to almost $30 million. The company said it will use the funds to expand its team of world-class computer vision and machine learning engineers and scale production to meet growing retail demand domestically and abroad.

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May 21, 2018 | The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by the British-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist Leonard “Len” Blavatnik, announced Monday it was giving a $16 million grant to Tel Aviv University (TAU) to support the multi-year Blavatnik Initiative with the purpose of promoting interdisciplinary scientific research, discovery, and development. This is one of the largest donations ever received by the university, a TAU statement said. Over the past few years, the foundation has donated over $40 million to TAU as part of this Blavatnik Initiative. Launched in 2014, the Blavatnik Initiative has established five new centers and funds at TAU focusing on various fields of science, film production, and new researcher recruitment. The current grant will enable further development of the centers, which include the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center.

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May 21, 2018 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Tech 7 innovation community, and the Mata Foundation for Development and Growth will host the South’s “biggest innovative entrepreneurship festival” SilicoNegevBGU on Wednesday, May 23, at BGU’s Abraham Ben David Ohayon Behavioral Sciences Complex. This is the first year for the festival, which initially began as a startup competition in 2016 where 20 ventures competed for 500,000NIS ($138,485).  The event, an entrepreneurship and financing day for young companies, includes the 2nd annual SilicoNegev competition for tech startups focused on the Negev region and working to strengthen the Negev on national and international levels. Seventy startups applied to the competition, of which 15 had the chance to pitch their companies for five minutes during a pitch night event on Tuesday, May 1st. The three finalists, companies Stress Factor, Green-Eye Technology, and Sindesy IoT Solutions, will go on to present their technologies at the event Wednesday. Green-Eye Technology uses machine learning and AI to provide precise herbicide application, transforming the pest control process in agriculture. Stress Factor measures accumulated damage concealed in the immune system, the source of chronic stress. Sindesy IoT Solutions uses unique, patented sensor deployment technology and cloud-based real-time data analysis to transform the water heating business. The winner announced that day will also get an investment of up to 500,000 NIS ($138,845) from the Mata Foundation for Development and Growth. Each startup featured in the competition is focused on the Negev region and working to strengthen the Negev on national and international levels. The startup competition “kicks off at the growing southern arena of the innovation industry in Israel,” a press release announcing the event said. “The University is the beating heart of the developing innovation ecosystem of the Negev. For that reason, our joint venture with the SilicoNegevBGU event, which includes the most significant startup competition in the area, is natural. The University promotes entrepreneurship in the south through its Advanced Technologies Park, attracting international companies that raise the quality of jobs in the Negev region, as part of the vision of turning the Negev into the wellspring of innovation coming out of Israel,” Prof. Rivka Carmi, President of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said in the statement. The winner of last year’s competition was Consis Medical, a company developing an innovative disposable colonoscopy device used for colon screening and expected to reduce the costs of gastro-therapy and treatments significantly. The company was founded in 2016 by Oleg Popov and Raphael Moisa,  co-founders and CEOs of the leading engineering company from Beer-Sheva, IBEX Technologies. SilicoNegevBGU is a full day with a packed agenda, featuring speakers like the Israel Innovation Authority’s CEO Aharon Aharon, Airobotics CEO & Co-Founder Ran Krauss, and Microsoft Israel R&D Center General Manager Assaf Rappaport.

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