News Briefs

  | November 22, 2016 | An analysis of graduates’ employability published by Times Higher Education (THE) ranked graduates of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the 67th most employable in the world, the highest among all Israeli institutions. The rankings, which reveal which universities recruiters at top companies think are the best at preparing students for the workplace, also included the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 122nd place, and Tel Aviv University in 139th place. The top 3 ranked institutions globally were California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

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November 17, 2016 | Three Israeli companies, Logz.io, SeaLights, and Siemplify, announced major funding rounds this week, raising an aggregate total of $37 million. Logz.io, which combines machine learning with human insights so businesses can better understand and monitor their networks, raised $16 million, bringing the capital raised since its founding in late 2014 to $24 million. SeaLights announced it has raised $11 million. The company has developed a cloud platform, allegedly the first of its kind, for continuous quality assurance (QA) tests. Cyber security company Siemplify completed two financing rounds within nine months, raising $4 million in the first last February and $10 million in the current round.

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November 17, 2016 | Israeli startup Kang Health has raised a $3.3 million seed round from Bessemer Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, Mangrove Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Primary Ventures, and Taboola CEO Adam Singolda who is joining their board. The new company is headed by former Vroom and Wix CEO Allon Bloch. Their software takes an AI approach to diagnosing symptoms, that will at both facilitate a conversation with a user about his or her symptoms while simultaneously drawing crowd-sourced data from others who reported similar symptoms. From there, Kang’s platform would draw diagnostic and treatment suggestions.

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November 17, 2016 | EverThere, a San Francisco and Tel Aviv based company that helps advertisers precisely target event attendees, has raised $1.8 million in a round led by Elevator Fund. The company boasts a 21% conversion rate through personalized advertising campaigns at events and trade shows. The funding will be mainly used to grow its event marketing automation platform and its West Coast sales and marketing team. EverThere’s platform enables advertisers to connect with event audiences who are actively seeking solutions, then engages their addressable target market with unique offerings, even when do not attend or sponsors those events.

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November 17, 2016 | Israeli startup ParaSonic, which developed a comb-like device that destroys head lice using ultrasound waves, has raised $1.6 million from a private American investor, the company said yesterday. ParaSonic is an early-stage startup led by David Tavor and backed by Arab-Israeli technology incubator NGT3, which is located in Nazareth.

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| November 15, 2016 | Mortimer B. Zuckerman was presented with The Technion Medal, the highest honor of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology at a festive dinner last night in New York City. A business leader and philanthropist, Zuckerman was honored for establishing the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program—a transformative initiative designed to foster collaboration between scientists in the U.S. and Israel. “The idea is to have Israelis study at the highest level of technology and science in America and vice versa, for Americans in Israel,”  Zuckerman said in a statement. “Collaboration and cooperation are crucial in today’s fast-paced world of science. This is a win-win for both countries,” Technion President Professor Peretz said in a statement.

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 | November 14, 2016 | Gaming software development company Playtech has agreed to buy Consolidated Financial Holdings for up to $120 million– a deal it said will enhance its position as it continues to build a B2B offering in its financials division. Playtech is controlled by self-made Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi and the acquisition will be made in two stages, as is customary with Playtech. CFH Clearing was founded in 2008 and is part of CFH – an investment group founded by two leading UK private equity funds. CFH Clearing has about 100 employees, including a 70-person IT staff.

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November 13, 2016 | The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources (MIEW), along with the Israel Innovation Authority, announced the investment of $4 million in five newly selected clean energy projects as part of the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program. The total value of the approved projects is $8.6 million in the areas of solar energy, biomass, fuel cells and energy efficiency. The selected startups are: BrightSource, CelDezyner, Solview Systems, Technion IIT, and Waves Audio.

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November 10, 2016 | Israeli unified marketing analytics platform developer Singular has closed a $15 million Series A financing round from KDWC, Translink Capital, Telstra Ventures and previous investor General Catalyst. Singular helps empower data oriented marketers at companies like Lyft, Twitter, Match.com and Zynga. The Singular platform connects disparate data from any digital marketing point solution provider to uncover ROI and actionable marketing insights. Founded in 2014, the company has raised $20 million to date. Singular’s cofounders CEO Gadi Eliashiv, CTO Eran Friedman and COO Susan Kuo were all senior executives at Israeli mobile apps analytics solutions company Onavo, which was sold to Facebook for $150 million. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with its development center in Tel Aviv and offices in Berlin.

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November 10, 2016 | Israeli company Frutarom Industries, one of the world’s largest companies in the field of flavors and fine ingredients, has acquired of 75 percent of the shares of Mexican group Piasa, a provider of savory solutions, in exchange for $20.5 million. This is Frutarom’s eighth acquisition this year. Frutarom was founded in 1933 by Yehuda Araten and Maurice Gerzon.

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November 9, 2016 | “Israel IoT Innovations” – i3 Equity Partners (“i3”), a new global consortium, has announced the establishment of a new Investment Vehicle, with a first closing of $20 million, for developing next-generation IoT (Internet of Things) and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies. The consortium is comprised of five global leaders in the IoT industry – GE Ventures, HNA EcoTech, Microsoft Ventures, Qualcomm and Tata, in partnership with Pitango Venture Capital and Tel Aviv University (TAU) through its Business Engagement Center RAMOT. With headquarters on the TAU campus, i3 is headed by Managing Partners Noga Kap and Eran Wagner, both successful Israeli entrepreneurs as well as investors with years of proven track records and extensive experience in early-stage investments, and chaired by Shlomo Nimrodi, CEO of RAMOT, and a veteran of the Israeli High-Tech industry.

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November 9, 2016 | Israeli startup and high-tech companies raised $3.26 billion from private equity firms in the first nine months of 2016, topping the entire year of 2015, when companies raised $3.22 billion in private equity, according to a survey by IVC Research Center and Israeli law firm Shibolet. In the third quarter of 2016, Israeli private equity deal-making rose to $1.7 billion in 18 deals, the highest quarterly amount in the past two years.

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November 8, 2016 | Israel Railways opened the Kiryat Sapir railway station in south Netanya on Saturday night. The new station is on the existing Haifa-Tel Aviv coastal line between Netanya and Beit Yehoshua. The station is located near the Poleg interchange and the IKEA furniture store and will serve the Kiryat Sapir (Poleg) southern Netanya industrial zone and Netanya soccer stadium as well as southern Netanya residential neighborhoods. The station costing NIS 70 million covers 3,600 square meters as well as a car park for 600 vehicles. One train in each direction will stop at the station each hour and two trains per hour during the morning and evening rush hours. This is Israel Railway’s 61st railway station and follows the opening of four new stations last month on the Valley Line between Haifa and Beit Shean. Under construction and due to open in the next few years are the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv fast rail link and the Western Galilee line to Karmiel.

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November 8, 2016 | Israeli network solving problem company Indeni has raised $10 million from Sequoia Capital, iAngels, and CIRtech. The startup provides a crowdsourced and machine learning network operations platform. The funds will support Indeni’s aggressive plan to enable its enterprise customer base, increase investment in sales and marketing, and create category-defining technology for mission critical devices. Founded in 2010 by CEO Yoni Leitersdorf, the company has offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto and its development center in Tel Aviv.

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November 8, 2016 | German corporation Daimler, which, among other things, controls car manufacturer Mercedes Benz, announced today that it will open a new R&D center in Tel Aviv. The new center will join the corporation’s global network of R&D centers, currently operating in the US, Germany, India and China. The Israeli technology center will be managed by Adi Ofek, an Israeli with international management experience, who has served in several management positions in Daimler since 2000. The center will focus on “car mobility and information services, in addition to the development and testing of various projects and user interfaces.”

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