News Briefs

November 5, 2015 | Israeli virtual reality startup WakingApp has raised $4.3 million from Youzu Interactive, as well as one of largest Chinese Internet companies. The new injection of capital will be used toward expanding the company’s AR/VR platform offerings, ENTiTi Creator and ENTiTi Viewer, and expanding its sales, marketing and business development in the United States and China. Founded in 2011 by Alon Melchner, WakingApp provides tools for quick and easy creation of augmented and virtual reality content.

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November 4, 2015 | Origami Logic announced yesterday that it will build out a new R&D lab in Tel Aviv and double its engineering team, led by Raviv Pavel, the newly appointed general manager of Origami Logic Israel. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO and Co-Founder Opher Kahane, Origami Logic has developed a Marketing Signals Measurement (MSM) platform used by Fortune 500 companies. To date, the company has raised just under $50 million, including investment from Accel, DAG Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Icon Ventures.

 

 

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November 4, 2011 | 3-D printing company Nano Dimension has raised an additional $2.2 million, including investment from Morris Kahn, an early investor in Amdocs, and Comverse CEO Zeev Bregman. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Amit Dror, Nano Dimension, develops advanced 3-D printed electronics systems that produce multi-layer PCBs (printed circuit boards) and advanced nanotechnology-based conductive and dielectric inks. The company is traded as an ADR on the OTCQX in the US and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and has raised $17 million since its listing August 2014.

 

 

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November 4, 2015 | Israeli medical device company, Lumenis, has acquired the Israeli aesthetic company Pollogen. No financial details regarding the deal were disclosed, but Lumenis said in a statement that Pollogen will strengthen its position in the cosmetic segment with its advanced solutions in radio-frequency technology. Early this year, Lumenis  de-listed from the Nasdaq when Chinese firm XIO acquired it for $510 million.

 

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November 3, 2015 | Transit app Moovit has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Sound Ventures, the firm co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, talent manager for both U2 and Madonna. The company plans to use this investment to advance its growth in promising markets like India and China, where it is already active in major cities including Bangalore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. Moovit relies on crowd-sourced data from its community of 20,000 editors, who provide live public transit data, including accurate bus and train arrival times. With 30 million users across 700 cities, Moovit is already competing with Google Maps for market share. Launched in 20102 and run by Co-Founder and CEO Nir Erez, Moovit has raised over $81 million, including investment from Nokia Growth Partners, BMW i Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.

 

 

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November 4, 2015 | Dutch pharmaceutical company Mylan will begin trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) today, effectively becoming one of the largest companies listed on the Israeli exchange. The decision to dual list on the TASE and the NASDAQ, where the company’s shares are currently traded, is part of Mylan’s takeover strategy in its hostile bid for rival pharmaceutical company Perrigo.

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4 November 2015 | Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A arm, announced last night that it is investing a total of $22 million in 10 startups, two of which are Israeli. Sckipio, a chip developer that hopes to deliver fiber-optic speeds for broadband access based on the G.fast modem standard; and Parallel Machines, an early stage company developing advanced predictive analytics and machine learning. Intel did not disclose the amount invested in each company, but stated that they have invested a total of $300 million in Israeli startups. Sckipio has already raised $27 million from venture capital firms Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital.

 

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November 3, 2015 | Israeli venture capital fund Pitango has announced the closing of its Pitango Growth Fund, with a planned scope of $250 million. Isaac Hillel and Aaron Mankovski will lead growth investments, and Pascal Cagni, founder of C4 Ventures and former GM & VP Apple Europe, will also join the firm as a partner. Founded in 1993, Pitango has raised over $2 billion to date, not including the new growth fund, and invested in more than 120 companies across the IT and life sciences sectors.

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November 2, 2015 | SoniVie has raised an additional $2.5 million from Israeli bio-medical fund Accelmed. Led by Assaf Bernstein, the company is developing a system for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension – a severe disease that narrows the blood vessels connected to and within the lungs. The new financing will be used to fund the first in vivo trials.

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November 1, 2015 | Upround Ventures announced that it will lead its second annual Israel-China Investment Continuum road trip next month, designed to introduce Israeli startups to strategic investment partners in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Upround Ventures has selected six Series A and B companies to participate in its upcoming Asian Road Trip, slated for November 9-16. The program will include intimate forums in each city with key private equity, venture capital and corporate investors in the areas of IoT, m-health, digital marketplace, big data, fintech, and mobile advertising.

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November 1, 2015 | Israel was accepted as a full member to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). Created in 1959, the UN body promotes international cooperation and legal codes for space exploration. The organization also works to clean up space debris (thousands of now-defunct satellites orbit the earth and obstruct new satellites), and develop technology based applications to solve earthly problems, including food shortages and desertification.

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November 1, 2015 | Facebook is planning to hire 100 new employees in Tel Aviv, Calcalist reports. The decision is a part of Facebook’s global growth plan, which includes delivering internet access to Sub-Saharan Africa using Israeli satellite Amos-6. The Israeli branch of the internet giant, led by Adi Soffer Teeni, currently employs 80 people at its R&D center on 22 Rothschild.

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October 29, 2015 | The Israeli Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Interior, along with the office of Chief Scientist, have announced the launch of a new visa which will allow entrepreneurs from around the world to come to the startup city of Tel Aviv for 24 months in order to develop innovative projects. Entrepreneurs who wish to stay in Israel and open a startup company will be granted a specialist visa. According to Compass report ranking Tel Aviv as the #1 ecosystem outside of the United States, Tel Aviv’s greatest challenge is the integration of international talent (40% lower share than Silicon Valley).

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October 29, 2015 | Israeli clean-tech company Phoebus Energy announced that they have signed a 10-year contract with US manufacturer Jabil to produce their Hydra Balance smart water heating and cooling solutions. Founded in 2007 and led by CEO Yaron Tal, Phoebus has developed a system for heating and cooling water, yielding 50-60% savings on clients’ energy costs.

 

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October 29, 2015 | Israeli startup HyPR has closed a seed fundraising round of $5 Million, led by Silvertech Ventures and Edgewater Capital. Founded in 2013 and led by CEO Gil Eyal, HyPR automates and optimizes influencer-marketing. The company is headquartered in New York with an R&D center in Israel.

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