News Briefs

February 23, 2016 | 12 Israeli startups have been chosen to participate in Intel Israel‘s startup accelerator program this year. They include PetPace, which monitors your pet’s health; OutSense, which facilitates the early detection of cancer; Simgo, a developer of cloud-based SIM cards; and Sevenpop, which creates ambiance through musical customization.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 21, 2016 | Israeli startup Rollout.io has raised another $1 million from Sweet Capital, following a $2 million round that the company completed this past October. Founded by CEO Erez Rosovsky and CTO Eyal Keren in 2013, Rollout offers a software developers kit (SKD) that enables mobile developers to instantly push code level changes to live apps without needing to release a new version through the app store or wait for end users to update their app. The SDK shortens the development cycle, and fixes code vulnerabilities in realtime. To date, more than 3,000 developers use Rollout, including Intuit, Badoo, ask.fm, Glow and GrabTaxi.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 21, 2016 | Israeli founders of Viber are launching a new taxi-hailing app called Juno that aims to compete with Uber by giving its drivers equity in the company. Founded by CEO Talmon Marco and his co-founders from Viber, Juno has reportedly raised eight figures of financing from friends and the co-founders personal wealth when they sold Viber to Rakuten in 2014 for $900 million. In addition to giving equity to their drivers (so that by 2026, half the company’s founding shares will be owned by company drivers), Juno plans to take a smaller cut off every ride: 10% compared to Uber’s 20% to 25%. Juno is slated to launch in its first market, New York City, this spring, with “thousands” of drivers already signed up to work with the company.

 

 

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 21, 2016 | Billionaire entrepreneur Haim Saban will invest $100 million in Israeli startups, through Saban Ventures, a fund that will be managed by Barak Pridor, previously a senior manager at Reuters. Known for, among other things, creating the “Power Rangers” series, Saban, is estimated to be worth $3.5 billion, according to “Forbes.”

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 21, 2016 | Israeli cyber security startup, Siemplify has raised $4 million, in a round led by 83North Venture Capital (formerly Greylock IL) and angel investors David Strohm (Partner, Greylock Partners), Alex Pinchev (Rackspace president Global Sales and Marketing), Alex Daly, (former ArcSight founder and CEO), Tom Kilroy (EVP Intel), and Moti Gutman (Matrix CEO). Coming out of stealth mode today, Siemplify presents a ‘central hub’ security operations platform that shortens the time from when an attack is discovered to when it is remediated. Siemplify’s product automatically correlates security alerts, identifies and prioritizes incidents, and graphically depicts the complete threat chain. “The problem is not detection per se but discerning the threats hidden in the noise of thousands of alerts generated by the disparate security monitoring systems. This makes it impossible to see the broader attack chain and identify root cause quickly,” said CEO Amos Stern in a statement.  Founded by Stern, VP R&D Alon Cohen, and Chief Research Officer Garry Fatakhov, the company has offices in New York and San Francisco, with an R&D center in Israel.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 18, 2016 | Consumer Physics, the Israeli startup developing the SCiO hand-held spectrometer, announced today its partnership with US-based Analog Devices (ADI) to develop a sensor-to-cloud platform, so that users will be able to identify quickly and accurately the chemical composition of materials. The two companies plan to embed the material sensor into smartphones, wearables, industrial, and medical applications, and use cloud storage and machine learning algorithms to deliver information about the analyzed sample back to the user in real time. “We are excited to work together with ADI to embed the SCiO technology for material sensing in more applications and industries,” said Dror Sharon, chief executive officer and co-founder, Consumer Physics. “SCiO’s technology enabled the world’s first handheld molecular sensor and now there is tremendous potential to interpret the world around us not only through smart phone-embedded sensing, but also through the automotive, energy, industrial and medical applications ADI serves.” Founded in 2011 by Sharon and CTO Damian Goldring, Consumer Physics has developed a spectroscopy that can analyze the light that molecules reflect, thereby reading the unique optical signature that each material generates. Near-Infra-Red (NIR) Spectroscopy as such has been used in laboratories around the world for decades, yet current devices are large and expensive, making them unfit for current and future IoT applications. The SCiO spectrometer developed by Consumer Physics is small enough to be embedded into a smart phone, just like a camera lens.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 18, 2016 | Israeli startup YouAppi has raised a $13.1 million from Hawk Ventures, Global Brain, Click Ventures, Digital Future, Emery Capital, Altair Capital, and existing investors Glilot Capital Partners, 2B Angels and Flint Capital. YouAppi, which is considered a pioneer in data-driven mobile customer acquisition, was founded in 2011 by Moshe Vaknin.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 18, 2016 | Israeli high-tech company Clicktale has acquired Turkish startup FlightRecorder, which has developed user-experience solutions for mobile apps. The terms of the deal were not disclosed; however, Clicktale is said to have paid over $1 million, according to sources in the industry. Founded in 2006 by Dr. Tal Schwartz, Clicktale provides customer experience analytics. Founded in 2014 by Can Abacigil and Omer Erkmen, FlightRecorder has offices in San Francisco and Istanbul, Turkey.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 17, 2016 | Pharmaceutical giant Merck has extended its partnership with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science by signing a new framework agreement, building on a successful innovation partnership of almost four decades. “We have focused our healthcare research activities on the highly promising fields of immuno-oncology, immunology and oncology as we’re striving to deliver new solutions to respond to unmet medical needs,” Stefan Oschmann, Deputy CEO and Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck said. “We’re excited that the new framework agreement will cover the first two of these three areas and are already looking forward to the proposals of the distinguished Weizmann scientists.” As part of the new framework agreement, the German pharma giant will fund each of the two research areas with up to €1 million per year over the three-year period initially.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 17, 2016 | FastCompany has released their annual ‘Most Innovative Companies’ List, which has named ten Israeli companies, including cancer treatment Novocure, shipping security solution Windward, cyber security accelerator Team8, app discover technology IronScore, and crowdfunding vehicle OurCrowd.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 17, 2016 | The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Israel’s Bank Leumi, along with LeumiTech, the high-tech banking arm of Leumi, have signed an agreement to increase lending to Israeli innovative startups under ‘InnovFin – EU finance for innovators’, an initiative supported by the European Commission. The new agreement allows Bank Leumi to provide finance amounting to $100 million to innovative companies in Israel with the support of a guarantee provided by the EIF and backed under ‘Horizon 2020,’ the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. This is the first InnovFin SME guarantee signature in Israel, enabling Leumi, Israel’s leading innovative finance provider, to offer innovative companies additional financing at favourable conditions.

 

 

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 17, 2016 | Israeli biotech startup Cellect Biotechnology has raised 8 million shekels ($2.05 million) from a group of Israeli and foreign investors. Founded in 2011 and led by CEO Shai Yarkoni, Cellect has developed a method for higher selectivity of stem cells that was recently approved for preliminary clinical trials at Schneider Medical Center in Petah Tikva. “The capital we’ve raised will enable the company to advance its clinical and business plan, including registration of its shares in the Nasdaq in the United States,” said CFO Ronen Twito in a statement. The company, whose shares are already traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, envisions its products becoming an integral and essential part of Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT), as well as integrated into many aspects of regenerative medicine.

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 17, 2016 | Investment vehicle Israel Secondary Funds has raised the first tranche of capital for its second fund that will invest in venture capital and private equity funds as well as directly in companies. ISF didn’t say how much it has raised for ISF II, but that amount is estimated to be $70 million of its $100 million target, with most of the capital coming from Israeli institutions, family investment offices and private investors. “Companies today are staying private for longer to build a significantly bigger business before they go public or stage an exit,” fund Co-Founder Dror Glass said in a statement. “As a result, there’s a growing need by entrepreneurs and investors for liquidity in the years before an exit.”

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 16, 2016 | Russian venture capital firm Titanium Investments has publicly announced its $50 million fund. Founded in 2013 by CEO Alexander Ayvazov, Titanium has invested in a number of Israeli startups, including Any.do, MUV Interactive and Feedvisor. The firm is now looking to invest in additional companies as well as to add to its existing investments, currently valued at $350 million. “We see Titanium as an partner in addition to being an investor,” said Ayvazov in a statement. “Not many funds play such an active role. Titanium is a chemical element that brings completely new features to regular metals, making it possible for new materials to be crafted. That’s how we work at Titanium Investments, seeking out companies we can have a positive impact on, helping them make it to the next level. More than merely investing, we aim to help startups grow into full-blown successful companies.”

[sharethis-inline-buttons]

February 16, 2016 | Israeli cannabis startup Cannabics Pharmaceuticals, is planning a $4 million private placement, according to Globes.  The company is currently conducting a roadshow for investors in Israel, the US, and Europe, accompanied by the investment banking division of the Aloni Haft Group. The private placement is designed to support commercialization of the technology and finance a clinical trial at Rambam Medical Center. Founded in 2012 by cofounders CEO Itamar Borochov and Chief Scientist Dr. Eyal Ballan, Cannabics has developed a delayed release pill designed to improve the quality of life of cancer patients at an advanced stage of the disease. The company is also developing a system for evaluating biopsies so that doctors will have a better indication of which cannabis treatment is best for the patient. The company presentation for investors estimates the medical cannabis market potential at $3.6 billion in the US alone, and the company optimistically projects a rise in its sales from $750,000 in 2016 (from the pills only) to $84 million in 2019 (sales of both pills and systems). “Within five years, the legal cannabis industry is expected to overtake the US movie industry and the organic food industry,” the company states in its presentation.

 

[sharethis-inline-buttons]