News Briefs

October 12, 2015 | Israeli startup Parola raised $2 million in seed funding for its collaborative music app that allows users to jointly create, remix and discover music. Investors include Michael Cohen, Partner in Capital International; Yanki Margalit, the founder of Innodo and former chairman and CEO of Aladdin; and Miki Tunis of The Orchard, a Sony Music Entertainment Company. Parola, led by Ido Ariely since 2014, pre-launched at TechCrunch’s Disrupt Conference in San Francisco this past September to demo the beta version of the app, with which users can record and mix songs using their smartphone.

October 12, 2015 | Bank of Israel Governor Dr. Karnit Flug met with US Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew, and central bank governors during the annual joint conference of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. During the meeting that took place in Lima, Peru, Global Finance magazine awarded Flug and eight other central bank governors an A rating.

October 12, 2015 | 4Eyes, an Israeli collision warning system, has signed a merger agreement with Asia Development, which will now trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The technology was initially developed at Magna BSP, 4Eyes’ parent company, by current CEO Haim Siboni, and physicist Levi Tzeruya. The new company aims to compete with Mobileye, the Nasdaq-listed Israeli company that has developed an automotive accident prevention system, which has already been integrated into cars manufactured by BMW, GM, and Volvo.

October 12, 2015 | Dutch drug-maker Mylan formally filed a request to list on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) as part of the company’s ongoing hostile bid for the Irish pharmaceutical Perrigo, which also trades on the TASE. Israeli pharma companies made M&A headlines earlier this year when Teva pursued a hostile takeover of Mylan, and in order to fend off the bid, Mylan pursued its own hostile takeover of Perrigo. Teva has since abandoned its bid in favor of Allergan’s generic drug business. However, Mylan has stayed its course and become engrossed in a legal battle, in which both Mylan and Perrigo have filed suits regarding share purchases in US district courts.

October 12, 2015 | Novartis invested an additional $15 million in Gamida Cell, a Jerusalem-based medical company that develops immune treatments for cancer and orphan genetic diseases. Gamida will use the investment to begin a Phase III clinical trial of NiCord, an experimental treatment for patients with blood cancer. This round of funding follows Novartis’ initial investment of $35 million in August 2014, in which the Swiss pharmaceutical received 15 percent equity interest in the startup. Novartis had reportedly been in talks to buy the company for $600 million. However, under the terms of this current agreement, Novartis does not have options to purchase Gamida Cell.

October 12, 2015 | Rollout.io, a new Israeli startup, is offering app developers a software development kit (SKD) with which they can debug, patch and update the running code of their apps without asking users to download the latest version. Open to limited testing, the company is already working with more than 100 apps, including GrabTaxi (an Uber competitor in Asia), Ask.fm, Glow, and Musical.ly. Founded in 2014 by former Intel engineers Erez Rosovsky and Eyal Keren, the Tel Aviv-based startup officially launched this past September at TechCrunch’s Disrupt Conference in San Francisco, where the founders announced that they had secured $2 million in funding from Canaan Partners Israel, Plus Ventures, and Star Farm Ventures.

October 12, 2015 | Vertex Ventures is raising another $600 million to invest in startups in China, Israel, and the US. The subsidiary of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Vertex has already invested $190 million in 30 Asian startups, including Grabtaxi (an Uber competitor in Asia), dating app Paktor, and parenting media site TheAsianparent. Now the firm is looking to expand its global coverage, especially in the area of healthcare.

Israeli shipping company Zim may be planning a U.S. IPO and has reportedly hired advisors, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays, according to a report by Bloomberg. The marine transportation company, controlled by billionaire Idan Ofer’s Kenon Holdings, had previously planned to raise more than $500M in a Hong Kong IPO before falling behind on bond payments during oversupply in the shipping industry.

October 11, 2015 | Spacecom raised a total of $224M in its institutional offering of two new bond series last week, attracting demand amounting to over $313M. The satellite communications company, controlled by Shaul Elovitch, garnered media attention last week when, as reported by nocamels, Facebook announced it would use the Israeli satellite, AMOS-6, to beam free internet to most of sub-Saharan Africa.

October 11, 2015 | Flash Networks will this week let go 20% of its workforce, its third round of layoffs in less than 18 months. The downsizing comes after Verizon, the company’s main client, pulled back most of its business with Flash Networks.

 Oct 11, 2015 | Boston Scientific, the American medical devices company, announced that it has closed an additional round of financing with Israeli company MValve Technologies, a heart valve developer. Boston Scientific has already invested at least $15M in the Israeli startup, founded by Dr. Maurice Buchbinder and Assif Stoffman in 2012. MValve plans to use the new financing to fund its first in-vivo trials in patients with mitral regurgitation, a life threatening heart condition. Boston Scientific also has an exclusive option to buy the company, last valued at $200M.

October 11, 2015 | In a report on the Israeli economy, the international rating agency Moody’s says that “Israel’s resilient growth model, effective governance and steadily improving debt metrics underpin its A1 government bond rating and stable outlook.” In a generally positive review of the Israeli economy, the report did warn against further delay in developing the Leviathan gas field in the Mediterranean Sea.

October 11, 2015 | Tadiran Batteries will provide 50,000 lithium-ion rechargeable battery packs to BrightSource’s 121 MW Shalim Thermal Solar Power Station in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Using long-lasting batteries instead of expensive cabling will reduce overall costs of the project, which is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 120,000 homes in the area. Tadiran is a subsidiary of the French industrial, Saft Groupe and BrightSource is Oakland, CA – headquartered provider of solar power technology.