June 14, 2016 | Israeli startup DeepSense (formerly known as SmartLogic) has completed a $2 million financing round. The company specializes in long term prediction of industrial machine failure, to minimize downtime. The round was led by AfterDox, an active angels fund in the Israeli market, with JANVEST Capital Partners and SeedIL, and follows a Chief Scientist grant to the company earlier this year. DeepSense, employs eight engineers and is located in the Matam industrial park in Haifa. The company was founded in October 2015 by David Lavid (CTO), Eitan Vesely (CEO) and Dr. David Almagor (chairman). The company graduated from the Microsoft Accelerator program as well as the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology’s accelerator BizTec.
News Briefs
Industrial IoT Startup DeepSense Raises $2M
Cyber Security Startup Armeron Raises $2M
June 14, 2016 | Israeli cyber security company Armeron has secured $2 million in financing from Glilot Capital Partners, a venture capital fund specializing in Enterprise Software. Armeron’s isolation technology disregards any manipulation attempts on the request sent to the application, which renders all known or unknown application attacks irrelevant. Armeron was founded by Tsion Gonen, Ron Kuper and Dan Pasternak. Prior to founding Armeron, Gonen served in leading roles at global information security companies, most recently as the chief strategy officer for SafeNet Inc, a global leader in data protection. With headquarters in Maryland, USA and a development center in Israel, Armeron currently employs a team of 13, mostly in Israel.
Bot Maker AppFront Raises $1.5M
June 9, 2016 | AppFront, an Israeli startup looking to help restaurants automate bookings using Facebook Messenger bots, has rasised $1.5 million in seed funding from angel investors and prominent VC seed fund 500 Startups. This marks 500 Startups’ first ever investment in an Israeli startup. AppFront also introduced Order Bot, a new chatbot designed for reducing personnel costs through automation. Founded in 2014 by Ori Weisler and Yael Lador, AppFront is a real-time engagement and marketing optimization platform that uses prior purchasing data to “learn” about a brand or restaurant’s customers so they can tailor their marketing accordingly.
Israeli Startup FORTVISION Raises $2.5M
June 9, 2016 | Israeli startup FORTVISION has completed a $2.5 million financing round from private US investors. Previously, in its seed round, the company raised money from Wix.com Ltd. VP customer solutions Elad Eran. Founded in 2015, FORTVISION enables website owners to install a content balloon that is added to the site. The service is designed to improve screen usage, mainly for mobile phone surfing, and to bolster surfers’ involvement. FORTVISION’s platform also enables websites to “host” other websites. The company’s vision is to become the “AirBnB of websites.” CEO Raanan Eran founded FORTVISION, which is located in the Tel Aviv Port. The company says that it is growing rapidly and providing services to dozens of customers around the world.
Reporty Wins Tel Aviv Startup Challenge
June 9, 2016 | Israeli startup Reporty won last night’s “Tel Aviv Startup Challenge” competition run by StarTAU, Tel Aviv University’s entrepreneurship center. Using the power of the crowd, Reporty is revolutionizing the way first response and public safety agencies manage events in the field. The Reporty app, which connects civilians to emergency services, was launched earlier this year. Reporty was founded by Amir Elichai, Alex Dizengof, Lital Leshem and Yoni Yatsun; its chairman is former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.
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Mobile Threat Manager Zimperium Raises $25M
June 8, 2016 | Zimperium Inc. , which provides a mobile threat management platform to deliver continuous and real-time cyber threat protection for mobile devices and applications, has closed $25 million in Series C funding. Warburg Pincus led the round with participation from existing investors Sierra Ventures, Telstra Ventures and Lazarus Israel Opportunities Fund LLLP. Warburg Pincus Managing Directors Cary Davis and Ashutosh Somani will join Zimperium’s board of directors. Zimperium plans to use the funding to expand its global customer reach and mobile partner ecosystem. Zimperium, which is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Tel Aviv, was founded in 2010 by CTO Zuk Avraham and CRO Elia Yehuda.
Image Recognition Company Trax Raises $40M
June 8, 2016 | Israeli retail image recognition company Trax has raised $40 million in a Series C round from existing shareholders to support the growth, new product development and technical innovation of the company. Trax turns shelf images into real-time actionable insights by delivering a unique image recognition platform for the retail industry. Recognizing over 8 million images (with more than 1 million store visits) every month, Trax provides the highest accuracy of data, intelligence, insights and recommendations to consumer good companies and retailers in over 40 countries. Trax will use its latest round of investment, which is its largest to date, to expand its global operations with a focus in North America and a new product line for top tier retailers. Headquartered in Singapore, Trax has over 220 employees worldwide, 130 of whom are based in the company’s R&D and Computer Vision Centre of Excellence in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Company SundaySky Raises $30M
June 8, 2016 | Israeli personalized video company SundaySky has completed its Series D financing round and raised an additional $30 million, bringing total investments in the company to $67 million. Israeli investment firm Viola Private Equity led the round. Founded in 2006 by Shmulik Weller and Yaniv Axen, SundaySky’s platform combines the power of video with personalized storytelling to foster long-term customer relationships.
Eden Springs Bought By Cott for $535M
June 7, 2016 | US soft drink manufacturer Cott is acquiring Eden Springs, the parent company of Israeli mineral water producer Mey Eden, for $535 million (NIS 2 billion) from Rhone Capital. The merged company will be the world’s leading water and coffee solutions platform. Cott has over 9,500 employees, with business in the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. The company exports soft drink concentrates to over 50 countries. The Eden Springs acquisition will bring its business turnover to $3.5 billion. Completion of the deal is slated for the third quarter of the year. Eden Springs has a customer base consisting of more than 800,000 business and private customers in 18 countries, with a million water and coffee machines. The company has over 3,200 employees, with business in Israel and Europe, including 28 production plants, 150 branches, and a fleet of over 1,150 service vehicles.
Data Storage Startup Weka.IO Raises $32M
June 7, 2016 | Israeli data storage company Weka.IO Ltd. announced today the closing of Series B funding, with participation from Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures, Gemini Israel Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, WRV II, L.P. and several individual investors. This new investment round brings the total capital raised to over $32 million. The new funding will be used to accelerate Weka.IO’s go-to-market strategy, with immediate plans to expand sales and marketing in the USA. The company will also apply the funds to continue building an exceptional engineering team at its offices in Tel Aviv and San Jose, California. Founded in 2013, Weka.IO’s software defined storage (SDS) technology is transforming enterprise and cloud storage by radically simplifying the way storage is deployed in the datacenter.
IDC Launches Innovation Program IDCBeyond
June 7, 2016 | Israel’s IDC Herzliya will start a new program in October to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The one-year program for holders of a BA, called IDCBeyond, will include a curriculum of interdisciplinary training in technology, biomedicine, globalization and sustainability while encouraging participants to set up ventures from the very start, with the assistance of mentors from academia and industry. At the end of the school year, those with exceptional initiatives will participate in an accelerator and will be rewarded with access to venture capital funds and networking to further promote their projects. Postgraduate students who have a strong passion for entrepreneurship and a background in science and medicine, engineering, computer science, business administration, design and architecture can apply for the program. Nava Swersky Sofer, a technology entrepreneur, will head the program, which will be part of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC. Swersky Sofer has over 25 years of international experience as an entrepreneur and manager, is an investor in venture capital and is an expert in the fields of innovation and technology commercialization. She is also a member of international forums for innovation and technology promotion, a director at several companies, and the former president and CEO of Yissum, the technology commercialization company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The IDC was founded in 1994 by Prof. Uriel Reichman as a private, nonprofit institution for higher education that doesn’t rely on government subsidies.
HR Management Startup HiBob Raises $7.5M
June 7, 2016 | HiBob, an Israeli-British startup developing human resources management software, went out of stealth mode and announced Monday it had secured $7.5 million in funding from the U.S. fund Bessemer Venture partners and a group of UK angel investors. The company was formed only last year by four Israelis led by CEO Ronni Zehavi, who had previous led Contendo, a startup sold to Akamai five years ago for $268 million. HiBob’s platform is aimed at HR departments at companies employing up to 300 people, with its market focus on Britain. Its most unique feature is an automated function that identifies employees in need of pension consulting or advice on health insurance. HiBob employs 40 people evenly divided between Israel and the UK. Despite its focus on the British market, Zehavi said the company planned to keep its Israel research and development operation intact and expand the payroll by scores of employees in the coming year.
NASA Administrator In Israel, Awarded Honorary Degree
June 6 2o16 |NASA Administrator Charles Bolden arrived in Israel for an official which he began today by meeting with the Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Ofir Akunis. Also participating in the meeting, which took place at the Givatayim Observatory, were Peretz Vazan, CEO of the Ministery of Science, Technology and Space, the mayor of Givatayim, Ran Kunik, and other honored guests. During his visit to Israel, Bolden will meet with entrepreneurs and students involved in space research . On Tuesday, he will deliver a guest lecture at Bar Ilan University where he will receive an honorary doctorate. One of the main issues NASA is investigating now is the plantet Mars.
Tel Aviv University Inaugurates Steve Tisch School of Film & TV
June 5, 2o16 | In a milestone for Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Israel’s film industry, the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at the Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of Arts was inaugurated during the Board of Governors Meeting by Steve Tisch, a 2016 TAU Honorary Doctorate recipient. In 2015, TAU announced a $10 million gift from Tisch to transform the University’s renowned Department of Film and Television into the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television. Over the last year, his investment has helped TAU enhance curriculum, attract and expand top-level talent, boost its capacity to offer scholarships, provide new state-of-the-art equipment and building renovations and bring further international collaborations at the School. The Hollywood Reporter ranked the Steve Tisch School of Film & TV among the top 15 international film schools for the second year in a row. The School has won top titles at film festivals around the world this year, including the Montreal World Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Rome International Film Festival, American Documentary Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.
GMS Digital Bought By WhiteSmoke For $1.2M
June 5, 2016 | Israeli video advertising startup GMS Digital has been acquired by WhiteSmoke for $1.2M. WhiteSmoke, which employs natural language processing and AI technologies to develop products that enhance English writing, was founded in 2012 and is run by CEO Itay Meroz. GMS Digital, a provider of digital video advertising solutions, was founded in 2014 by Danny Slavin, who is the startup’s CEO. According to the details of the deal, the employees of GMS Digital will join WhiteSmoke’s Israel offices and became a division of WhiteSmoke.
