News Briefs

September 2, 2015 | Teva Pharmaceutical Industries will begin to market ZECUITY, a patch system that provides relief from migraine headaches. The single-use, disposable patch will now be available by prescription in the United States. In order for it to work effectively, ZECUITY must be worn for four-hours on the upper arm or leg. Teva was founded in 1901 and is headed by CEO Erex Vigodman.

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September 2, 2015 | The Israeli company marketing a device for the treatment of brain tumors using electric fields, Novocure announced that it will issue an IPO on NASDAQ. The company hopes to raise $300 million at a company valuation of $1 billion, after money. The IPO is being underwritten by JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Evercore. Novocure’s electric field therapy for brain tumors has been approved for marketing by the US Food & Drug Administration. The technology was developed at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology by Prof. Yoram Palti.

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September 2, 2015 |  The power stations company IC Power, owned by Idan Ofer, filed a draft prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to file an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company has yet to publish its company value for the offering, but the prospectus reveals that IC Power plans to raise a maximum of $100 million. IC Power is an electricity company operating in Latin America and Israel.

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September 2, 2015 | The Israeli cyber security company ForeScout Technologies announced that it plans to expand its Tel Aviv office and to hire 100 additional cyber security experts. The announcement comes just days after ForeScout revealed its plans to issue an initial public offering on NASDAQ. ForeScout is currently based out of Campbell, California, but has its research and development apparatus in Tel Aviv. ForeScout was founded in 2000 by Oded Comay, Dror Comay, Hezy Yeshurun, Ori Naishtein and Doron Shikmoni.

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September 2, 2015 | Israeli trading firms will now have access to Euronext’s cash and derivatives market, the largest exchange in the Eurozone. The agreement will allow for Israeli firms to trade cash and derivatives on regulated markets that are operated by Euronext. In addition, Euronext will be able to promote its products and services with Israeli companies. Euronext is seated in five European cities including: Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris.

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September 2, 2015 | The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya has signed a cooperation agreement with academic institutions in China. The IDC signed an agreement with authorities in China to begin cooperation between the institution and the Central Communist School in China. The IDC joins other Israeli universities, like the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and others in partnerships with Chinese educational institutions.

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September 2, 2015 | Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) was awarded a contract from the Israel National Cyber Bureau, part of the Prime Minister’s Office, for the sharing of real-time cyber information. IAI is being asked to create a platform that will allow for the real-time sharing of operational information between organizations in regard to cyber incidents. The information will also be shared with CERT (Cyber Event Readiness Team) in order to better prepare and address for a potential cyber attack. IAI was founded in 1953 by Al Schwimmer and former President Shimon Peres.

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September 2, 2015 | Two Israelis have been chosen as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) prestigious list of the “Top 35 Innovators Under 35”. Cigall Kadoch, a doctoral student at Stanford, was chosen for her research into the biochemistry of cancer. The other Israeli chosen was Gilad Evrony, a Havard Medical School researcher exploring genome sequencing to better understand brain function. The list has sported Israeli names in the past, most recently Israeli predictive analytics “prodigy” Kira Radinsky. MIT’s list is complied on a yearly basis and in the past has included such important innovators as Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, among others.

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September 2, 2015 | PayPal announced a new service for peer-to-peer payments, as well as a premium payment service called PayPal.Me. The peer-to-peer payment service will allow users to create their own URL for payments and to share it through social media channels. The service was developed in Israel with the goal of competing with Venmo. PayPal was founded in 1998 and has a research and development office in Israel.

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September 1, 2015 | The mobile monetization firm MobCo Media was selected by Amazon to share information about its new app with customers in India. MobCo will market Amazon’s app, which includes encouraging users to download the app and use it make purchases. It is estimated that Amazon has some $2 billion invested in India and that it is the ecommerce company’s second largest market outside of the United States. MobCo was founded in 2011 by Tomer Hen.

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September 1, 2015 | The Israeli-created live-streaming app Meerkat announced that it will roll out new features that include the ability to share photos during a stream and to search for streams according to hashtags. In addition, Meerkat has introduced a feature that makes it possible to issue a poll during live-streaming. “That means you can write, ‘poll, space,’ and then whatever question you want,” said Meerkat cofounder and CEO Ben Rubin. Meerkat was founded in 2012 by Ben Rubin, Uri Haramati, Roi Tirosh and Itai Danino.

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September 1, 2015 | According to a “Calcalist” report, the Israeli venture capital firm Pontifax is seeking to raise $100 million for the creation of a new fund, Pontifax AgTech. The new fund will reportedly invest in agricultural technology and food technology startups in Israel and the United States. Reports assert that Pontifax is expected to close financing for the fund in March 2016. Pontifax AgTech will work closely with Pontifax’s other venture capital funds, namely the fund investing in biotechnology startups. Pontifax was founded in 2004 by Ran Nussbaum and Tomer Kariv.

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September 1, 2015 | The inventors of the Dario Diabetes Management Solution, LabStyle Innovations announced that it closed a $2.5 million funding round. The funding will reportedly be used to support the global roll out Dario as well as for working capital solutions. Dario’s cloud-based diabetes management solution has already received medical approval in Canada and is currently awaiting approval in the United States. LabStyle Innovations was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Newark, Delaware.

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September 1, 2015 | Israel will host one of the largest series of gaming conferences in the world, Casual Connect. Israeli company Playtika is partnering with Casual Games Association to bring the Casual Connect conference to Tel Aviv on October 19-21. The conference organizers hope to attract a large and diverse crowd, with some 1,500 gaming executives and experts and 700 companies expected to attend. As part of the agreement, Tel Aviv will be added to Casual Connect’s yearly roster of events with the likes of San Francisco, Singapore and Amsterdam. “We’ve been following the Israeli Gaming industry for a while and there is no doubt that Israel has become a global powerhouse in the category,” said Casual Games Association managing director Jessica Tams.

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September 1, 2015 | The Luxembourg-based global satellite provider SES is in talks to acquire Israeli digital media services company RR Media for $250 million. RR Media provides digital media and networking services to clients such as: Fox International, the NFL, MTV, Nickelodeon, Disney, the Dish Network and more. RR Media was founded in 1981 by David Rivel and today is headed by CEO Avi Cohen.

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