News Briefs

November; 8, 2017 | This year’s Axis Corporate Edition 2017 takes place on December 11, 2017 at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Israel’s Axis Corporate Edition 2017 is an event bringing together multinational corporations and leading startups for corporate challenges, startup pitches, keynote speakers, roundtable discussions, one on one meetings and more. It is the only Israeli event to focus exclusively on connecting corporations and startups to create business partnerships and bring innovation to the forefront. Since 2014, over 75 multinationals have participated in the event. Startups and innovators must apply by November 9th to be able to participate in one of 4 challenges, where they will be  marketed to over 5,000 startups in Israel and Europe. Startups can apply to one of 4 challenges. Challenges include The Customer Experience challenge, Automating Business Practices, Bringing AR and VR to life, and Securing IoT. The Axis Corporate Edition is brought to Israel through Axis Innovation, a boutique advisory firm globally connecting investors and corporations with the best technology startups.

November 7, 2017 | Tel Aviv-based public transportation optimization company Optibus raised $12 million in a funding round led by Pitango Venture Capital, with participation from Verizon Ventures and Sir Ronald Cohen. To date, the Israeli company has raised $14.5 million including this round. Globes reports that the funds will be used to develop the company’s operating system designed to power smart cities and accelerate world growth. CEO Amos Haggiag says Optibus offers a platform for municipalities and transit operators to move from a static schedule to dynamic real-time operation. Optibus currently provides services to 200 cities on five continents including Los Angeles and Washington D.C. It was founded in 2014 by CEO Amos Haggiag and CTO Eitan Yanovsky.

November 7, 2017 | The investment arm of the Israeli national carrier El Al, Cockpit Innovation, and Germany’s Lufthansa are forming a strategic partnership to identify and team up with Israeli startups working in the fields of aviation and travel tech, the companies announced on Tuesday. Stefan Auerbach, the CEO at Lufthansa Systems, said in a statement that Lufthansa was delighted to be part “of this unique digital travel and aviation collaboration for entrepreneurs,” and that “the core of our company strategy is to put airlines in a perfect position for the digital future. Cockpit CEO Henry Chen said “the right partnerships have proved themselves as innovation catalysts. We are constantly working to expand Cockpit’s global ecosystem. The connection between Cockpit and a leader in the worldwide industry such as Lufthansa Systems is undoubtedly a major achievement on the path toward the ability to invest in and support startups that focus on additional sectors in the industry on a global scale.”

November 7, 2017 | The city of Tel Aviv-Yafo has won second place at the 2017 European Capital of Innovation, where it received a prize of over $100,000. Tel Aviv-Yafo was among 10 finalists up for the award and prize of over $1 million that recognizes the city with the best innovation ecosystem. Paris was awarded the first place prize for its mission to turn into a “FabCity” hosting the largest start-up campus in the world, which encourages innovative projects by citizens and entrepreneurs. Tel Aviv was recognized for its impressive high tech sector programs and city policies, leading to the highest concentration of accelerator programs in Europe. The winners were announced on November 7, 2017 at the Lisbon Web Summit. Other finalists included Nice (France), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), and more. The 2017 European Capital of Innovation award was launched in March 2017. Thirty-two cities from seventeen countries applied to this year’s competition. The winner and two runner-ups were selected based on initiatives launched since January 2016. The winner were chosen by a panel of experts selected from the Horizon 2020 expert database. [Photo: Courtesy]

November 7, 2017 | PayPal Israel has launched the ReCharge program, a 20-week paid structured program for women who want to return to the high-tech workforce after taking an extended break from their careers.  The program is part of PayPal’s global initiative to encourage skilled women technologists who have taken a career break for personal or family reasons to return to the workforce. The program provides ways for these women to “recharge” by sharpening their technical and soft skills, expanding their experience, and finding ways for them to network with their respective industries. There is also the opportunity to join PayPal as a permanent (full-time or part-time) employee after the program.  Women can apply for positions that include Analytic Data Scientists, JAVA Software Developer, QA Automation, and Security Automation Engineer. While anyone can apply, PayPal says that is specifically looking for women that have been out of the workforce for at least two years. The Israeli program begins in December and runs through April 2018, but applications should be submitted by November 8. [Photo: rawpixel]

November 6, 2017 | Auto giant Toyota Motor Corp is seeking to invest in more Israeli companies focusing on automotive technology and robotics, months after Toyota AI Ventures invested $14 million in the Israeli robotics company Intuition Robotics, which developed a robot companion that uses artificial intelligence to improve the lives of the aging population. Toyota AI Ventures is a new $100 million-fund launched to invest in AI, robotics and autonomous mobility and is part of the the $1 billion Toyota Research Institute. The managing director of Toyota AI Ventures, Jim Adler, told Reuters during a visit to Israel on Sunday that “we will see more involvement of Toyota in the Israeli market in the future,” adding that “there’s more in the pipeline.” He indicated that technologies enabling autonomous vehicles were on particular interest to Toyota. “There’s a tremendous amount of innovation happening in Israel as cars become more produced by data,” he said.

November 6, 2017 | Israeli defense technology company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., announced late Sunday that it has opened a branch in Melbourn, Australia ahead of a “significant arming program” for the Australian military. Rafael, which co-developed Israel’s famous Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, said the Melbourne office will be run jointly by Israeli and Australian teams. Rafael’s executive VP marketing, Giora Katz, said that there was “potential for deals amounting to several hundred million dollars. Opening the company in Australia is part of Rafael’s global strategy for creating local partnerships with various countries in order to meet the growing demand from many countries for having some of the work performed by local companies.” According to a report in the business daily Calcalist, the Australian military already uses a number of Rafael technologies including remote controlled weapon systems, naval defense technologies and aerial strike guidance systems, Rafael said. The Israeli company has over 100 collaborations worldwide, including a missile factory in India. Defense companies such as Rafael, Elbit Systems Ltd., and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.  will soon be able to more freely market their technologies after the Israeli Ministry of Defense last month approved a plan to loosen restrictions on defense exporters.

November 5, 2017 | Germany and Israel have launched a first-of-its-kind accelerator to collaborate on cybersecurity innovation and technology. The Hessian Israeli Partnership Accelerator for Cybersecurity (HIPA), launched on Thursday at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, “will bring together top talents in cybersecurity from Israel and Germany to jointly work on cybersecurity projects in areas such as network technologies, internet infrastructure and software security,” the university said in a statement. The accelerator will connect participants with entrepreneurs, researchers, mentors, customers and influencers. The program launched with a week of entrepreneurship training and technology lectures in Jerusalem, and will be followed by two months of “targeted development” for students of computer science and engineering. The results are set to be presented at an upcoming cybersecurity conference in Berlin, in front of industry leaders and government representatives.

November 5, 2017 | The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced five new projects in partnership with Israel worth a total of over $10 million. Israel’s Ministry of Energy (MOE) and the Israel Innovation Authority will work with the US energy department through the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program on issues related to hydrogen storage, advanced biofuels, sustainable transportation, and energy efficiency, the DOE said in a statement. The projects are valued at $10.5 million, with $4.8 million coming from the US energy department. US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said the “BIRD Foundation has served as a matchmaker to develop partnerships between US and Israeli researchers at the forefront of technology across the industrial spectrum. This kind of collaboration will be mutually beneficial and allow both countries to achieve their economic and energy security goals.” Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said “together with the BIRD Foundation we can encourage joint R&D efforts that will contribute significantly to the bright and safe future of our world.” The five projects include partnerships between Israel’s Brenmiller Energy Ltd. based in Rosh Ha’ayin and the Power Authority of the State of New York to develop high-temperature storage based on combined heat and power; Rehovot-based CelDezyner Ltd and Milford, Ohio’s AdvanceBio LLC to “develop a process for the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstocks”; Rehovot-based QDM Ltd. and Broomfield, Colorado’s ALD NanoSolutions Inc. to “develop third-generation high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables”; Tel Aviv’s SoftWheel Ltd. and Detroit Bikes to develop “an energy-efficient, low-maintenance, high-performance bicycle”; and Kadima-based TerraGenic Ltd. and Triton Systems, Inc. of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to “develop a safe hydrogen transport and storage system.”

November 5, 2017 | SEAT, the Spanish automobile manufacturer and Champion Motors, the automaker’s Israel importer, have announced plans to set up an Israeli car technology center. The XPLORA center will house specialists that focus on tech and innovation projects related to the car and smart mobility services, particularly ones that will lead to future solutions for the SEAT brand. The first team will members of the Easy Mobility Tea, specializing in UX Design, Electric Development and Business Development. A Project Manager will also be assigned by Champion Motors. Champion Motors has already set up a similar center with Skoda, a subsidiary of Volkswagen. Hyundai is also setting up an Israel R&D center.

November 2, 2017 | The Wisconsin Water Council signed an agreement with Ben-Gurion University‘s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research during a trip to Israel by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker this week who was leading a trade mission to strengthen collaboration with the midwestern state. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in the southern city of Beersheba, announced the agreement which it said “calls for collaboration on water-related applied research aimed at introducing new technologies into the global marketplace.” Another agreement, signed between the Wisconsin Water Council and the Israeli Innovation Authority, aims to develop a new partnership in which Israeli and Wisconsin water tech startups “will collaborate on piloting and developing new applications for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and other Wisconsin water utilities.” Governor Walker welcomed the agreements and said they “will strengthen the sector in both countries, and are expected to open new markets to water technology companies in Wisconsin and Israel.”

November 2, 2017 | The Israeli startup ecosystem raised over $1 billion in just over 100 funding rounds in Q3 2017, according to a new study released by Start-Up Nation Central, an Israel-based non-profit that “connects global corporations, NGOs, and governments to the Israeli innovation ecosystem.” The average deal size was valued at just over $15 million, a 93 percent rise compared to the same period last year. Israeli-founded carpooling tech company Via led the charge, raising $250 million in September in a financing round led by car manufacturer Daimler. The Start-Up Nation Central study also found that venture capital firms were most interested in investing in companies at later stages, with less money going to startups at pre-seed or seed stages.

November 2, 2017 | Israeli cybersecurity think tank Team8, founded by veterans of the elite IDF intelligence unit 8200, announced that it will open a hub in New York. Team8 made the announcement this week at its annual Rethink Cyber event, adding that co-founder Nadav Zafrir will relocate to NYC to lead the US operations. The think tank and its companies, Illusive Networks, which develops deception tech to detect hacking attacks, and Claroty, which provides advanced solutions to secure critical infrastructure systems, and the brand new Sygnia, a “military-grade cyber consulting and incident response company” will all base their US operations in the hub. R&D operations for all the companies will continue to be based in Israel, Team8 said in a statement. New York City Chief Technology Officer Miguel Gamiño, Jr welcomed the announcement, saying: “Team8’s NYC HQ will add jobs to our economy and provide us with opportunities to advance NYC as a cybersecurity hub while strengthening our City’s resilience,” and adding that “to have one of the world’s forward-thinking cyber companies in NYC is a major win for our community.”

November 1, 2017 | The Israeli medical cannabis R&D company Kanabo Research snagged a top award at the recent CannaTech UK event which took place in London on October 26. Kanabo took home the coveted “Live Investor Pitch Award” for its VapePod, a medical device that works with the company’s patent-pending formulations of “targeted, clinically validated” medical Cannabis extracts. The device has received initial approval from Israel’s Ministry of Health and will be available later this year. Kanabo CEO Avihu Tamir told reporters at the event that the company has “worked tirelessly to create a unique product in the world of medical cannabis,” and that its “extract formulations…are able to target specific ailments and medical conditions for a wide range of patients in need.” He said that clinical trials with the product will begin within six months. Kanabo was founded in November 2016 and raised half a million dollars in a Seed round.