News Briefs

August 28, 2017 | Israeli cloud technology startup Redis Labs has raised $44 million in Series D funding. This brings the company to $86 million in total funding to date. The round was led by new investor Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing and existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Carmel Ventures, with participation from Dell Technologies Capital. Founded in 2011 by Yiftach Shoolman and Ofer Bengal, the startup has developed a popular in-memory database platform called Redis Enterprise, as a service in all major clouds, and as downloadable software. It powers e-commerce, social, personalization, IoT, metering, fraud detection and other real-time applications.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 9, 2017 | Israeli company Oryx Vision, a developer of depth-sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. Third Point Ventures and WRV led the round, with participation from Union Tech Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Maniv Mobility and Trucks VC. Founded in 2009 by David Ben-Bassat and Rani Wellingstein, the company provides driverless vehicles a detailed 3D view of their environment. To date, Oryx has raised $67 million.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 9, 2017 | Technology giant Intel has completed the acquisition of Israeli company Mobileye for $15.3 billion, the largest deal in Israel’s history. The two companies entered the acquisition agreement earlier this year. Mobileye was founded in Jerusalem, Israel, by Prof. Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram in 1999 and went public in 2014. It has developed a warning system that alerts drivers of road hazards using software, cameras, and sensors. It’s also a major player in the autonomous car industry.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 8, 2017 | Israeli startup Qwilt has signed a $25 million, three-year deal with mobile giant Verizon to enhance and speed up video content. Founded in 2010 by Alon Maor and Dan Sahar, Qwilt develops 4k video delivery technology primarily for the online entertainment industry.

 

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 7, 2017 | Israeli venture capital firm Vintage Investment Partners has raised $215 million for its tenth fund, bringing its total equity to $1.5 billion. Founded by Alan Feld, Shlomo Dovrat, and Aharon Dovrat in 2003, the VC has invested in some 25 startups.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 7, 2017| Mexican chemicals company Mexichem is acquiring 80 percent of Israel’s Netafim for $1.5 billion, which puts Netafim’s valuation at $1.9 billion. Netafim is a world leader in drip irrigation technologies for agriculture. Its technique – which saves 30-70 percent of the water used with overhead sprays, oscillating sprinklers and rotors – was developed in Israel in the 1960s.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

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.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 3, 2017 | Multinational company LogMeIn has acquired Israeli chatbot and virtual assistant startup Nanorep for approximately $45 million. LogMeIn is also expected to pay up to $5 million to Nanorep employees, conditional on performance over two years. Founded in 2009 by Amit Ben Shahar, Aviv Dror, Doron Herzlich and Ofer David, Nanorep uses artificial intelligence and patented natural language processing technologies to make self-service more engaging. It is currently used by over 200 companies worldwide, and has raised $11 million to date.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

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.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 3, 2017 | ProoV, an Israeli startup that streamlines the Proof-of-Concept (PoC) process for startups and enterprises, has raised $14 million in a Series B funding round led by Helios Capital and Mangrove Capital Partners. Founded in 2016 by Toby Olshanetsky and Alexey Sapozhnikov, ProoV makes it easier for startups to test product ideas by providing an automated, cloud-based testing environment. ProoV currently has 1,000 companies signed up to their platform. The startup will use to funding to enhance its platform offering, establish an office in New York City, and expand its North American client portfolio.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

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].

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

August 1, 2017 | Silenseed, an Israeli, clinical-stage bio-pharmaceutical company that develops cancer therapies, is raising $10 million. Founded in 1999 by Amotz Shemi, the company is planning to use the money to fund the second phase of a trial, which was recently approved by the FDA, to develop a pancreatic cancer treatment. Silenseed uses a targeted RNA interference (RNAi) to develop the cancer drugs and delivery systems for treatment.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

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.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

July 31, 2017 | Private equity funds invested $807 million in Israeli companies in the first half of 2017, according to a report by IVC Research Center and Israeli law firm Shibolet. Of the $807 million, $470 million were invested by Israeli PE funds, which reflects an improvement from the first half of 2016. Although the second quarter of 2017 was slow (with only $164 million invested in eight deals by Israeli PE funds), the strong first quarter meant that, in total, over the first half of 2017, Israeli PE funds performed above their average investment level of the past three years.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

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.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]