| December 7, 2016 | Israeli laparoscopy company Gordian Surgical has closed a $2.25 million financing round. German medical device company, B. Braun Melsungen AG led the investment round with €1 million, with the remainder from current shareholders and three VC funds, two of which are Chinese funds. Gordian Surgical was founded in 2012 by CEO Zvi Pe’er and is a Trendlines Group Medical portfolio company based at the Misgav Business Center in the Western Galilee. Gordian also announced it has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory clearance for its TroClose1200, an innovative trocar with integrated closure system for the suturing of abdominal wall incisions during laparoscopic surgical procedures. The FDA approval follows Gordian’s receipt of CE Mark certification in September.
News Briefs
Laparoscopy Co. Gordian Surgical Raises $2.25M
Cyber Security Co. SECDO Raises $10M
| December 6, 2016 | Israeli cyber security startup SECDO has closed a Series A financing round, bringing total investment to $10 million. The investment was led by RDC, a subsidiary of Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., cofounder and chairman Marius Nacht, and the founders of Anobit, acquired by Apple. Founded in 2014 by CEO Shai Morag and CTO Gil Barak, both graduates of the IDF 8200 intelligence unit, SECDO has developed a platform to provide Next-Generation Incident Response solutions on cyber attacks. The funding will be used to expand US sales operations, customer support, and its R&D center.
P2P Insurance Co. Lemonade Raises $34M
| December 6, 2016 | Israeli P2P insurance company Lemonade has announced a $34 million Series B financing round. The funding was led by General Catalyst with participation from GV (formerly Google Ventures), Thrive Capital and Tusk Ventures, as well as existing investors Aleph, Sequoia, and XL Innovate. This brings Lemonade’s total funding to date to $60 million. Lemonade’s P2P insurance platform is powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics. The investment comes less than two months after the Israeli insurtech company launched in New York, and less than a year after announcing its seed round. Lemonade was founded by veteran Israeli tech entrepreneurs CEO Daniel Schreiber former president of Powermat and president and CTO Shai Wininger, a co-founder of Fiverr.com.
Shoulder Implant Co. OrthoSpace Raises $7M
| December 6, 2016 | Israeli shoulder implant medical device company OrthoSpace has raised $7 million in a financing round from new investor Johnson & Johnson Innovation and previous investors HealthpointCapital, Smith & Nephew and TriVentures. Led by Itay Barnea, CEO, Caesarea-based OrthoSpace produces InSpace, an orthopedic biodegradable balloon system that is a minimally invasive method for rotator cuff repair. The product, marketed in Europe, Israel, Russia and Hong Kong where 10,000 balloons have been implanted, is for patients who suffer from a rotator cuff injury, and reduces shoulder pain and improves the range of motion.
[sharethis-inline-buttons]
Tel Aviv U. Student Film Wins Latin American Festival
| December 5, 2016 | Hadas Ben Aroya’s senior film, ‘People That Are Not Me’, created as part of her studies at the Tisch School of Film at Tel Aviv University, has won first prize at the prestigious Mar del Plata film festival, the most important festival in Latin America. The film deals with the lives of twentysomething residents of Tel Aviv, and was produced, written and starred in by the director herself. The film was produced on a low budget, and is a rarity in the film world, winning awards as a feature film despite being produced as part of an undergraduate degree.
Three Hebrew U. Researchers Awarded EMET Prize
| December 4, 2016 | Three researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will be awarded prizes in three of the five award categories of the prestigious EMET Prize, accounting for three of the eight total prizes awarded in 2016. The awarding of the prizes will take place this evening at the Jerusalem Theater with the participation of the Prime Minister of Israel. The Hebrew University winners are: Professor Yehuda Bauer in Humanities (Holocaust Research) for his multifaceted research that raised public awareness of the Holocaust and influenced the study of the Holocaust and the public discourse in Israel and worldwide on antisemitism, the Holocaust and genocide; Professor David Kazhdan, winner in Exact Sciences (Mathematics) for major contributions in the design of representation theory and its uses in algebra, algebraic geometry and number theory; and Professor Haim Sompolinsky, winner in Life Sciences (Brain Research) for establishing the theoretical framework for understanding the principles of brain function and the behavior of neuronal networks, and for shaping brain theories into a systematic discipline using methods borrowed from statistical mechanics.
Israel’s SintecMedia Buys Operative Media For $200M
| December 1, 2016 | Israeli TV advertising management technology company SinTecMedia is acquiring the US digital advertising solutions company Operative Media Inc. for $200 million. The merged company will offer a range of tools that will help companies save costs by streamlining TV and digital advertising expenses. Jerusalem based SinTecMedia was acquired in April by US private equity fund Francisco Partners for $400 million from Riverwood Capital, another US private equity fund. Founded 16 years ago, SinTecMedia took a big step forward in early 2014, when it acquired Pilat Media Global, a competitor listed on the UK AIM stock exchange in which it already had a 22.7% stake. SintecMedia paid $103 million for the rest of Pilat Media, a company whose business was identical to its own.
F2 Capital Opens, Launches $50M Fund To Back Israeli Startups
| December 1, 2016 | Three members of the senior investing team at major Israeli venture firm Genesis Partners, Eddy Shalev, Jonathan “Jonny” Saacks and Barak Rabinowitz, announced today the the creation of their own early-stage fund, F2 Capital. F2 Capital is in the midst of closing a $50 million debut fund to back seed stage companies. The newly spun out firm is taking over the management of The Junction, an accelerator program that was started by Genesis Partners. Founded in 2011, the Junction is modeled after the Israeli military selection process for elite units with some 250 applicants pitching and only five companies selected to enter the six month bootcamp program. F2 provides $100,000 of funding on a convertible note to those top five selected companies. The firm maintains an option to invest more in their later rounds. Previous participants in the Junction have included: Appsflyer, Honeybook, Simplee, ClarityRay (acquired by Yahoo!), KitLocate (acquired by Yandex) and Moment.me (acquired by Wix). F2 will focus on “frontier” technology, tech that’s beginning to transform existing industries or create new industries.
[sharethis-inline-buttons]
Intel Joins Delphi, Mobileye To Make Driverless Car
November 30, 2016 | Giant chip maker Intel has joined Delphi Automotive and Israeli company Mobileye on their quest to manufacture a driverless car by 2019. The companies will present at CES 2017, to be held in Las Vegas in January. With Mobileye contributing its cutting-edge autonomous driving technologies, and Intel (which employs some 10,000 people in Israel) contributing the tremendous computing power needed for the future car, there’s no doubt Israel is playing a significant role in the emerging self-driving car industry. Mobileye is already collaborating with BMW and Intel on an autonomous car. Mobileye, which develops vision-based driver assistance systems that help prevent collisions, was founded in 1999 by Prof. Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram.
[sharethis-inline-buttons]
AT&T’s New TV App Developed In Israel
| November 29, 2016 | Yesterday, US telecommunications conglomerate AT&T launched a new TV project, in which content is streamed to the web via an application. The application was mainly developed by AT&T’s Israel R&D center. The R&D center had started out as Israeli company Interwise, acquired by AT&T in October 2007. It has over 500 employees and is managed by the center’s CEO Nir Shalom. Other than video content, the new service offers more than 120 TV channels: sports channels, content channels, live performances and more. The company said that DirectTV Now will be offered on all devices, independently of AT&T’s mobile phone services. The app is available on both Apple and Android devices, but is not currently available outside the US.
Spinal Implant Co. ApiFix Raises $5M
| November 29, 2016 | Israeli spinal implant company ApiFix has raised a $5 million Series B investment round, which will be closed by the end of next month. ApiFix is developing a minimally invasive deformity correction system for patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). Based in Misgav in northern Israel, ApiFix is part of the Trendlines Group. B. Braun Melsungen Aesculap division has invested $2.8 million in the latest financing round.
OurCrowd Opens Singapore Office
| November 28, 2016 | OurCrowd, a global leader in equity crowdfunding, announced today that it has opened an office in Singapore, its seventh worldwide, to serve the growing community of Asian investors interested in funding early stage high-growth companies. It has also appointed Denes Ban, a successful entrepreneur and technology executive, as Managing Partner Asia and head of OurCrowd’s Singapore Management company. The move follows OurCrowd’s announcement earlier this year that it has partnered with United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Sassoon Investment Corporation (SassCorp) to pursue equity crowdfunding for startups and SMEs in the region. OurCrowd also received a formal license to begin operating in Singapore from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in August 2016.
Technion Opens New Cancer Research Center
| November 24, 2016 | Scientists and researchers from around the world gathered this week in Israel for the inauguration of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC), a first-of-its kind hub for global cancer research, which will expedite the discovery of new diagnostic tools and treatments through a collaborative “bench-to-bedside”approach. In addition to serving as a hub for multiple fields of research, the TICC will also be a nexus for the Technion’s five affiliated hospitals that run clinical trials. It will be co-led by Professor Ze’ev Ronai and Distinguished Professor Aaron Ciechanover – who along with Technion Professor Avram Hershko and the late Dr. Irwin Rose won the 2004 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the ubiquitin system, a discovery which led to the development of efficient anti-cancer drugs, e.g. Velcade® for Multiple Myeloma.
Fintech Company PayKey Raises $6M
| November 24, 2016 | Israeli fintech company PayKey has completed a $6 million financing round. The company has developed a system enabling banks to provide peer-to-peer fund transfer services via social networks and instant messaging applications. PayKey was founded in 2014 by CEO Daniel Peled and CTO Offer Markovich. It has so far raised $6.4 million and has 20 employees.
SDK Management Co. SafeDK Raises $3.5M
| November 23, 2016 | Israeli SDK management company SafeDK has closed a Series A financing round of $3.5 million led by StageOne Ventures with the participation of Samsung Next Tel Aviv, Marius Nacht, Kaedan Capital, and angel investor Leon Waisbein. This funding round follows a seed investment of $2.25 million in November 2015. SafeDK is an SDK management and marketplace for enterprises and mobile developers. It offers an infrastructure solution, which improves mobile apps’ security, stability, and QoS by monitoring and controlling 3rd party tools integrated in the apps. The company was founded in 2014 by two women – CEO Orly Shoavi and VP Business Development Ronnie Sternberg.
