News Briefs

March 27, 2018 | Israeli-Cypriot businessman Teddy Sagi, founder of gambling software company Playtech, and owner of London’s Camden Market, will invest $3 million in energy management startup SmartGreen, Globes reports. The investment comes just as the system was installed in some properties of the Teddy Sagi Group, including Camden Market. SmartGreen’s CEO Nati Freiberg says Sagi’s investment will help the company grow in the international market and that “the potential is huge.” Founded in 2014, SmartGreen has developed an advanced energy management, monitoring, and optimization system using cutting-edge technology. The Rehovot-based company already has some large companies utilizing its technology including McDonald’s Israel, Electra, the electric company in Hong Kong, HP, and Israel’s largest supermarket chain Shufersal.

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March 27, 2018 | US fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions announced that it has acquired Israeli digital tech company ActivePath for an undisclosed amount. “ActivePath’s unique technology enhances the consumer experience associated with consumer statements, bills, and regulatory communications,” Broadridge said in a company statement, adding that “ActivePath extends Broadridge’s ability to transform and accelerate the pace of digital adoption, further strengthening Broadridge’s leading governance and communications businesses.” ActivePath CEO Avi Weiss said, “ActivePath is aligned with the Broadridge mission to lead the transformation of communications into valuable touchpoints for both consumers and brands alike. We are thrilled to support Broadridge’s global growth and excited to welcome them to the innovative Israeli market.” ActivePath was founded in 2013. Its “unique platform lets enterprises, including banks, brokers, healthcare providers and other billers, quickly compose and project HTML experiences typically found on brand websites and apps into interactive email with new levels of personalization, engagement, and security,” the Broadridge statement says. “In addition to email, ActivePath when combined with the Broadridge platform enables full omni-channel capabilities including SMS, social, audio UI, chatbots and personal cloud solutions.”

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March 26, 2018 | Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), the top Israeli venture capital firm in Israel, announced Monday the launch of their JVP Play platform, matching early-stage Israeli startups with leading multinational companies. The 10 chosen startups will work with Tesco, PepsiCo, and Barclays to develop innovative solutions in AI and deep learning that will help form the future of the finance and retail industries, a statement said. Additional JVP partners include Microsoft Accelerator and global consulting firm Deloitte. The startups were chosen from over 150 applications in a rigorous review process by JVP, Tesco Labs, PepsiCo, and Barclays, through its Israeli innovation arm Rise Tel Aviv asking them to solve a challenge that would significantly impact the multinationals. The startups include indoor GPS startup Oriient; Bravo.ai, the AI-powered startup automating manual labor in; retail software company CB4; Polymer Logistics, a one-touch/retail ready packaging solutions provider; smart packaging company Water.IO; full stack data science platform cnyrg.io; risk-mitigated advanced money transfer platform Payzday; Kinor, a company that develops semantic languages to automate integration of data, and an unnamed stealth mode startup providing video analytics for frictionless checkout. “The JVP Play platform facilitates a win-win situation for startups, strategic partners and investors. Our aim is to expose the Play startups to the global market, premium clients, and potential business partnerships,” says JVP General Partner, Yoav Tzruya. “We are connecting our strategic partners PepsiCo, Tesco, Barclays, Microsoft and Deloitte with Israeli innovators who can aid them in the digital revolution they are initiating. For us, as investors, this cooperation enables us to identify issues, their solutions, and to work on products that meet market needs. Our aim is to invest in technology that can be the next big thing.”

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March 25, 2018 | Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei is in talks with Sirin Labs, the Israeli-founded, Switzerland-based blockchain firm known for developing a $17,000 smartphone and signing Leo Messi as a brand ambassador, to license its SirinOS operating system for a Huawei smartphone that will be able to run blockchain-based apps, anonymous sources told Bloomberg. The operating system will be able to run blockchain applications alongside Alphabet Inc.’s Android system. Both companies confirmed they met in February, but would not provide further details.  If an agreement is signed, this would be the first time a major smartphone company’s move into blockchain. Sirin Labs is also working on the development of its own blockchain-based smartphone and plans to sell its Finney phone in the second half of the year. Sirin Labs has already raised over $157,000 million in ICO for the phone and PC.

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March 25, 2018 | The Israeli cabinet approved a NIS 1 billion (roughly $300 million) national digital health plan first announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland in January.

Netanyahu said at the time that Israel would team up with multinational software company SAP over the next five years for a program to digitize the personal health records of Israeli citizens, and designed to develop personalized and preventive medicine with the use of AI and machine learning tools for more tailored diagnoses and treatment.

The plan, approved and officially announced on Sunday, includes “technological development, international cooperation, concentrated academic and industrial efforts and regulatory changes to encourage data research,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Some of the projects included in the plan, which has raised privacy concerns, are “a national information infrastructure initiative for health researchers in genetics and medical information,” dubbed the Mosaic Initiative, which will help with the “development of medical solutions that are coordinated personally and with in-depth big data analyses”; improving existing medical registries and systems; establishing a digitized sample bank for research purposes; advancing joint projects between the Israeli health system and world health systems; evaluating the establishment of an Israeli national center for genetic sequencing, for the study and analysis of samples; increasing export-oriented marketing in digital health solutions and encouraging foreign companies to invest in Israel; encouraging companies and start-ups to carry out research and development in digital health; and creating information science retraining plans in the digital health field.

Netanyahu welcomed the decision, saying in a statement released by his office that Israel was “doing something of historic significance.”

Israel is “developing the industries of tomorrow… based on a combination of three things: Very large databases, artificial intelligence, and connectivity. This has a greater potential than cyber. It is gigantic, greater than transportation, which is also a gigantic field.”

The digital health field, he said, is “estimated at $6 trillion. Let us assume that we will receive 10 percent of the real market for this potential, not our market, the real global market in the coming years. In my view, this is the maximum estimate. It is a $600 billion market and of it, if we succeed, as we did in cyber and autonomous vehicles and our vehicle industry, we can expect here a significant increase in new products.”

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March 25, 2018 | Israel announced this past week that it would launch an investigation into the activities of social media tech giant Facebook amid an unfolding scandal surrounding misuse of private data of some 50 million Facebook users by British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The Israeli Justice Ministry’s Privacy Protection Authority said it has “opened an investigation into its activities, following the publications on the transfers of personal data from Facebook to Cambridge Analytica, and the possibility of other infringements of the privacy law regarding Israelis.” Cambridge Analytica is accused of using the mined data to influence political opinion and decision-making, namely with Brexit and in the lead-up to the election of US President Donald Trump. “According to the Israeli Privacy Law, personal data may only be used to the purpose for which it was given, with the consent of the individual,” said the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority, adding that it will “investigate whether personal data of Israeli citizens was illegally used in a way that infringes upon their right to privacy and the provisions of the Israeli Privacy Law.” Cambridge Analytica used Israeli companies and former Israeli spies in some of its intelligence gathering, as revealed by Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix in a secretly recorded conversation by Britain’s Channel 4 news. And Israeli hackers reportedly offered Cambridge Analytica hacked emails of politicians in Nigeria and the Caribbean island of St Kitts and Nevis who are now heads of state.

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March 22, 2018 | Scientists from Tel Aviv University, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley announced a joint initiative to collaborate on medical and information technology research over the next five years. The initiative is funded by a $10 million grant by the Koret Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization that works on strengthening the US-Israel relationship. Scholars from TAU will work with counterparts University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University School of Engineering’s Department of Management Science & Engineering to conduct multidisciplinary research in the fields of bioinformatics and smart cities, respectively, TAU said in a statement. “We welcome these faculty research relationships,” said Prof. Joseph Klafter, President of Tel Aviv University. “We are deeply grateful to the Koret Foundation for supporting new joint paths toward discovery and real-world impact.” The respective programs will award joint research grants to groups at the institutions, hold workshops and seminars, and visiting programs.

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March 21, 2018 | Israeli social trading company eToro announced Wednesday it has raised $100 million in a Series E funding round led by China Minsheng Financial and with participation from Korea Investment Partners, SBI Group, and World Wide Invest. The money will be used for R&D of the company’s blockchain technology, as well as expanding to new markets. Globes reports that a source close to the deal said that the company had a valuation of $800 million when the deal was raised. The company has raised $162 million in total so far. Founded in 2006, eToro has a website that allows social trading and investments in a variety of financial assets including cryptocurrencies, currencies, indices, ETFs, and commodities. The company has over 9 million registered users.

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March 21, 2018 | A former head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, says he has recruited over 30 hackers from Israel’s security and intel services for his cybersecurity firm XM Cyber, founded two years ago and for which he serves as president. Pardo told Reuters that XM Cyber aims to secure networks by imitating how real hackers operate and simulating attacks to expose vulnerabilities. “I thought there are so many companies with great products but they are not focusing on the right question,” Pardo told Reuters. “The real question is are my crown jewels really protected.” Pardo said he staffed his teams with hackers from the Mossad, the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, and the army’s elite intelligence unit 8200. The former spy chief, who headed the Mossad from 2011 to 2016, said his clients include insurance companies, banks and critical infrastructure companies in Israel, the US and Europe. Last month, Pardo warned at the MUNI-EXPO urban innovation event at the Tel Aviv Convention Center that cyber threats amounted to “a nuclear weapon — a soft and silent nuclear weapon,” and that using such threats, one “can damage societies, destroy states, and win a war without firing a shot.”

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March 21, 2018 | Global venture firm Eight Roads Ventures Europe (ERVE) announced that it was setting up a $375 million fund to invest in fast-growing tech companies in Israel and Europe. The fund will look for scale-up companies across enterprise, consumer, fintech, and healthcare IT sectors, the firm said in a statement, adding that this was the third fund of its kind. ERVE said it will seek to back a total of 15 to 20, with an average investment size of $10 million to $30 million. The London-based firm said with Israel already having established itself “as a leader in a number of fast-growing verticals including cybersecurity, fintech, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence, this market stands out for its global ambitions and talented pool of engineers.” Eight Roads said it has been investing in Israeli entrepreneurs for close to a decade, noting companies like AppsFlyer, a global leader in mobile marketing attribution, and Hibob, an emerging leader in human resources for small and medium enterprises. Davor Hebel, Managing Partner and Head of Eight Roads Ventures Europe said: “We find ambitious entrepreneurs across the continent but there is a real lack of credible scale-up advice and business-building experience to help them beat the odds. We will continue to support our entrepreneurs with our global platform and value-add team of operators as they take their companies from 50 to 500 employees and beyond. We are confident that with the right help the European ecosystem can systematically create $10bn+ global tech businesses.”

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March 21, 2018 | Entrepreneur Elon Musk has denied reports that he is in talks with Tel Aviv-based AI vision company Cortica during his trip to Israel this week, tweeting, “This is completely false. Never heard of Cortica. Just taking my kids on a Spring Break trip to see ancient sites in Israel & Jordan.” Musk’s electric car company Tesla, which is said to be looking for possible collaboration, investment or acquisition with the Israeli AI firm, has also denied the talks, Globes reports. But sources very close to the subject have told Globes that Cortica is indeed in talks with Tesla and that the talks were initiated by Tesla, which is interested in a collaboration. No deal has yet been reached. Cortica, founded in 2007, develops AI technology for visual perception and has raised close to $70 million over the course of its existence. It has registered at least 200 patents, the company says, and its tech for understanding images has a number of applications including in autonomous vehicles, smart city, security cameras, drones, media, robotics, and medical image analysis. Musk has posted a number of images on social media during his trip to Israel, including from Jerusalem and Masada. Cortica declined to comment, according to Globes.

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March 20, 2018 | Business and entrepreneurial heavyweight Elon Musk is said to be in talks with Tel Aviv-based AI vision company Cortica during his trip to Israel which began this week, Globes reported, citing industry sources. Cortica, founded in 2007, develops AI technology for visual perception and has raised close to $70 million over the course of its existence. It has registered at least 200 patents, the company says, and its tech for understanding images has a number of applications including in autonomous vehicles, smart city, security cameras, drones, media, robotics, and medical image analysis. Musk is co-founder and CEO of Tesla, the Palo Alto-based company specializes in electric vehicles, energy storage, and solar panel manufacturing. Musk has posted a number of images on social media during his trip to Israel, including from Jerusalem and Masada. Globes speculated that the talks between Tesla and Cortica could develop into a financial investment in the Israeli company or even an acquisition. Cortica declined to comment, Globes reported.

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March 20, 2018 | The American Botanical Council (ABC) said it awarded the 2017 ABC Norman R. Farnsworth Excellence in Botanical Research Award to Israeli professor Raphael Mechoulam, an organic chemist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the “father of cannabis research.” Mechoulam was the first researcher in 1964 to isolate, and synthesize delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, one of 70 cannabinoids (the active molecules in cannabis). THC is responsible for the ‘high’ feeling, while CBD is marijuana’s non-psychoactive component, which has been proven to have several health benefits. Cannabinoids are generally used to reduce pain, stress, as well as to increase appetite, among other uses. “Cannabis has been known for millennia both for its therapeutic effects and for its effects on mood and behavior. However, as the chemistry of the cannabis constituents had not been well established when we started our research in the 1960s, there was essentially no modern medical use of cannabis,” Mechoulam said in a statement, adding that he strongly believes “that plant and endogenous cannabinoids or their derivatives will become major drugs.” Present day pharmacology, he said, and clinical work with any drug — including drugs from plants — “is based on reliable chemical knowledge.” Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC said the council was “pleased and honored to bestow the Norman R. Farnsworth Award to Professor Mechoulam,” whom he said was “internationally recognized for his many compelling and pioneering discoveries regarding the chemistry and pharmacology of cannabis. These accomplishments created new research opportunities in the novel field of the human endocannabinoid system, one of the most important regulatory systems in human physiology.” Stefan Gafner, PhD, ABC’s chief science officer, said, “Professor Mechoulam is truly a giant among natural products scientists. He made some of the most impactful discoveries in the area of botanical research. With the elucidation of the structures of THC, CBD, and many of the minor cannabinoids, he laid the foundation for scientific research on cannabis. The discovery of endogenous ligands to the cannabinoid brain receptors provided an avenue for numerous researchers to investigate the physiological processes in which the endocannabinoid system is involved.” The award, named for Norman R. Farnsworth, an internationally renowned research professor of pharmacognosy who passed away in 2011, was presented to Mechoulam at the 13th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 8, 2018, in Anaheim, California. The recognition is given annually to an individual who has made significant research contributions in the fields of pharmacognosy, ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, or other related scientific disciplines dealing with medicinal plant research, ABC said in the statement.

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March 19, 2018 | Israeli hotel management company Fattal Holdings, owned and managed by businessman David Fattal, has announced the construction of the NYX Jerusalem Hotel, according to Globes. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2021 and is the company’s fourth Jerusalem hotel. The hotel will be located at the Etz Chaim site, close to the Mahane Yehuda Market in downtown Jerusalem. The hotel will be two buildings with 168 rooms, including 12 suites. One building will have 144 rooms while the other will be 24 rooms and public spaces (including a lobby, bar, restaurant, and balcony.) “The NYX brand name, the chain’s lifestyle brand, provides a different, young, and cool experience. We expect it to also be attractive to new groups that have not yet stayed at the existing Fattal hotels in Jerusalem. The hotel’s location in the Mahane Yehuda market will also be a significant factor in attracting a colorful and diverse group seeking to enjoy a complete authentic Jerusalem experience – the past, present, and future – the old and the new,” said Fattal Holdings business manager Assaf Fattal. Earlier this year, Fattal Holdings filed for an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE.) Founded in 1998, Fattal Holdings currently has 167 hotels in 17 countries worldwide, including Germany, Spain, Italy, England, and Belgium. The company has 38 hotels in Israel in locations like Tel Aviv, Tiberias, Eilat, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

 

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March 19, 2018 | The annual CannaTech conference, one of the biggest events in the medical cannabis field, opened today in Tel Aviv. The two-day summit brings industry leaders, scientists, researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs together for the latest in the booming sector, in which Israel is world leader. Over 800 participants from some 40 countries around the globe are expected at the event taking place at the Tel Aviv port.

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