News Briefs

July  7, 2016 | Dr. Yosef Buganim, a research scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the prestigious journals Science and Science Translational Medicine, and the Boyalife industrial research consortium, for his work in stem cells and regenerative medicine. Dr. Buganim is a young researcher who recently joined the Department of Molecular Biology and Cancer Research at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC). Part of the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, IMRIC is one of the most innovative and multidisciplinary biomedical research organizations in the world. Awarded for the first time this year, the Boyalife Science & Science Translational Medicine Award in Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine honors researchers for outstanding contributions in stem cell research and regenerative medicine around the globe.

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July 19, 2016 | Israeli cyber security company GuardiCore has raised $20 million in Series B funding. The latest round is led by existing investors Battery Ventures and 83North (formerly Greylock IL) with participation from by Cisco Investments, this brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $33 million. Based in Tel Aviv and founded in 2013 by CEO Pavel Gurvich, CTO Ariel Zeitlin and VP business development Dror Sal’ee, the company has developed internal data center security and breach detection solutions. GuardiCore will use the funds to address growing demand for its GuardiCore Centra Security Platform, invest in additional product research and development, expand its commercial reach through its global ecosystem and channel partners, and to fuel its overall sales and marketing efforts.

 

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Israeli stem cell therapeutics company BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Ltd., which develops adult stem cell therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, has announced success in a clinical trial on ALS patients. 36 patients treated with the company’s stem cell treatment NurOwn exhibited slower degeneration than the twelve patients in the control group. Founded in 2004 and now led by Chaim Lebovits, BrainStorm is developing treatments for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

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July 19, 2016 | ImpactNetwork is launching activities in Israel, by partnering with TechForGood and Impact First Investments. ImpactNetwork, powered by Le Comptoir de l’Innovation is the world largest network of green and social startups, including over 500 startups in 10 countries through 13 programs, and a €100 million impact investment fund. ImpactNetwork, founded by Le Comptoir de l’Innovation in France in 2010, has incubator and accelerator programs dedicated to green and social startups worldwide including Paris, San Francisco, Austin, Hong-Kong, Cape Town, Casablanca, Tunis, Santiago, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Luxembourg.

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July 18, 2016 |  PamBio, an Israeli biotech startup company, has announced the closing of a first round of fundraising of $7 million from a private investor. The company develops drug therapy for acute bleeding conditions. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Nazareth Illit, Israel.

 

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 | July 14, 2016 | Israeli high-performance MRI developer Aspect Imaging has raised $20 million in its latest round of funding. No details were disclosed about the investors. Founded in 2003, this brings to $120 million the amount that the company has raised to date. Based in Hevel Modi’in, the company has developed a line of more affordable, compact, and cutting edge MRI machines that make the diagnostic tests more accessible to patients worldwide. With smaller MRIs that can be installed almost anywhere, and operated by almost anyone, more patients will receive MRI scans on a more regular basis, helping them stay more updated on their health. The company has 100 employees, mainly in its Hevel Modi’in location. Aspect Imaging founder and president is CEO Uri Rappoport.

 

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July 14, 2016 | Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi’s company, Playtech plc, has acquired a 90% stake in Austrian rival Best Gaming Technology (BGT) for €138 million ($152.6 million) in cash. Best Gaming Technology provides software solutions for sports betting and will enhance Playtech’s omni-channel offering and drive digitalization of retail clients The company’s clients include Betfred, Codere, Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power Betfair and William Hill and it provides software services for 24,000 gambling machines, mainly in Europe. Playtech is a gambling software development company that was founded in 1999.

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July 13, 2016 | Israeli-American link management startup Kifi announced in a blog post on Medium that it’s being acquired by Google, for its Google Spaces team. Kifi allows users to collect, analyze, and collaborate on links from across the Internet, will shut down in the coming weeks, the company said. Terms of the deal weren’t shared and it isn’t clear how many employees are joining Google. Kifi, from FortyTwo Inc., was founded by Dan Blumenfeld and Eishay Smith in 2012 and was based in Mountain View, California.

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July 13, 2016 | Israeli molecular diagnostic company ImmunArray has closed a Series B financing round of $10 million led by private investment firm Exigent. With offices in Rehovot, Israel and Richmond, Virginia, ImmunArray has developed novel blood tests and pioneers new and more accurate ways to diagnose autoimmune diseases such as lupus as well as traumatic brain injury (TBI). The company was founded in 2006 based on iCHIP technology licensed from the Weizmann Institute of Science. iCHIP technology can determine the presence of a specific set of molecular biomarkers that are linked to particular disease or condition.

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July 13, 2016 | Israeli startup RedKix, provider of an email/chat team collaboration platform which just launched its private beta, announced it has raised $17 million in seed funding from a group of  investors including Salesforce Ventures, SG VC, Wicklow Capital, Oren Zeev, Ori Sasson, Amnon Landan, Yuval Neeman, Oren Dobronsky, and Kevin Mahaffey. The company is using the funds to continue to develop its solution. Co-founded in 2014 by CEO Oudi Antebi and CTO Roy Antebi, RedKix is advancing a messaging and collaboration solution for the workplace featuring email, messaging, groups and channels to allow people to organize messages into group channels, from favorite people and per topic. The company currently employs around 25 people.

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July 13, 2016 | Industrial cyber security company Indegy has raised $12 million in a financing round led by Vertex Ventures Israel with participation from Silicon Valley-based Aspect Ventures, SBI Holdings of Japan as well as previous investors Shlomo Kramer and Magma Venture Partners. To date the company has raised $18 million. Indegy was founded in July 2014 by Barak Perelman, Ido Trivitzsky and Mille Gandelsman, graduates of the Israeli Defense Force’s elite Talpiot Program. Indegy has developed a software that protects data servers on critical infrastructures from cyber attack threats.

 

 

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 July 12, 2016 | eBay is acquiring Israeli company SalesPredict, which uses advanced analytics to predict consumer-buying behavior. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but sources estimate that the acquisition was for about $20-30 million. This is eBay’s fifth acquisition in Israel. The acquisition is eBay’s latest move to build up its machine-learning capabilities in order to clean up its vast product catalog. eBay has more than 900 million listings, and SalesPredict will assist the company in deciding why those listings end up at a certain price. Once the acquisition is complete, SalesPredict CEO Yaron Zakai-Or will serve as a director of product management, technology. SalesPredict CTO Kira Radinsky will be director of data science and chief scientist for eBay Israel. SalesPredict was founded in 2012 by Zakai-Or and Radinsky and is based in Netanya. The company’s employees will now join eBay Israel’s offices, which are also in Netanya.

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 July 11, 2016 | Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, located outside Tel Aviv, was ranked sixth among the world’s best international airports by Travel+Leisure online magazine. Ben-Gurion, named for Israel’s first prime minister, scored 78 out of a possible 100 for its facilities, ease of use, and especially security. The top-rated hub is Singapore’s Changi Airport, which boasts a butterfly garden with a waterfall, a host of exotic flowers and even a rooftop pool. “These airports have a history of incorporating smart tech to make the lives of travelers easier, as well as staggering architecture that helps the airport seem like a destination in its own right,” writes the magazine.

 

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July 11, 2016 | Israeli behavioral analytics startup CoolaData, has raised a total of $5.6 million from Salesforce Ventures, TEEC Angel Fund and existing investors in CoolaData’s previous financing, 83North and Carmel Ventures. The funding will be used to accelerate CoolaData’s worldwide growth and extend its reach into IoT and enterprise applications. Based in Tel Aviv, CoolaData is a cloud-based behavioral analytics platform offering companies a deep understanding of user behavior across all channels, and providing quick answers to complex business questions. The company was founded by big data veterans and serial entrepreneurs CEO Tomer Ben Moshe and Guy Greenberg.

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 July 11, 2016 | Israeli Fintech startup Sling, announced today that the company has been acquired by Brazilian micro-credit giant, Avante.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources in the industry estimate the price was around $10 million. Sling enables micro-entrepreneurs (street vendors, therapists, flea market merchants, etc.) to quickly access financial services directly from their smartphones, with no need for hardware, contracts or upfront costs. Sling also offers merchants digital card payments, easy installments, and micro- fleet management capabilities. Founded in 2014 by CEO Erez Yerushalmi and COO Jacob Cohen, Sling serves thousands of Israeli micro-entrepreneurs in Israel and intends to deploy its services to an additional 10,000 merchants in the Brazilian market by the end of 2017. Brazil-based Avante enables micro-entrepreneurs to rapidly access micro-credit loans in order to grow and evolve their businesses.

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