August 12, 2015 | The Israeli startup Lightricks announced that raised $10 million from Carmel Ventures. The developer of premium image processing software for mobile, Lightricks is the developer of two leading apps, Facetune and Enlight. Lightricks employs 30 in its Jerusalem office. Lightricks was founded in 2013 by Amit Goldstein, Nir Pochter, Zeev Farbman, Yaron Inger, and Itai Tsiddon.
News Briefs
August 12, 2015
Lightricks Raises $10M
August 12, 2015
eBay To Expand Activities In Israel
August 12, 2015 | eBay announced that it will expand its activities in Israel by recruiting 50 new employees. The company is seeking out employees who served in technology/ intelligence units, as well as speakers of foreign languages. eBay Israeli currently employs 230 and operates out of Netanya. eBay was founded in 1995.
August 12, 2015
Samurai Begins Recruiting Japanese Cos. For Israel Program
August 12, 2015 | Samurai Incubate announced that it has begun recruiting Japanese companies to participate in its Accelerate Israel program. The Accelerate program is a three-month long program to encourage sharing knowledge between Israeli and Japanese startups. The program will be hosted at Samurai Incubates’ shared work space in Tel Aviv. Samurai Incubate was founded in 2008 by Kentaro Sakakibara and Hayato Ikegami.
August 12, 2015
State Of Mind Ventures Raises $8M
August 12, 2015 | According to a report in “TheMarker”, State of Mind Ventures has raised $8 million from Israeli businessman Meir Shamir for its first fund. The fund will go towards the $75 million that the fund aims to raise for its first fund. The firm reports that they have succeeded in raising nearly half of this amount from Israel, American and European investors. State of Mind Ventures was founded by Pinhas Buchris and Yuval Baharav in 2014.
August 12, 2015
CyberArk Acquires Cyberintel
August 12, 2015 | The Israeli cyber security company CyberArk Software acquired the Israeli cyber detection company Cybertinel. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, the deal is estimated at $20 million. Cyberintel has 20 employees. CyberArk was founded in 1999 by Udi Mokady.
August 12, 2015
Teen Israeli Team Takes Third At Int’l Competition
August 12, 2015 | Teenager Israeli entrepreneurs took third place at a Junior Achievement competition in Berlin. The Israeli teens presented their product Sit Up, which is a safety harness for carrying young children on the shoulders. Teen delegations from 37 countries attended the competition, and the Israeli team happened to be some of the youngest participants. Sit Up has already sold a number of their products in Israel.
August 12, 2015
Woosh To Establish Dayton, Ohio Office
August 12, 2015 | Israeli startup Woosh Water Systems is reportedly looking to establish a US office in Dayton, Ohio. According to the report, Woosh will also install its sustainable water-filling stations for the public at three locations in the city. Woosh’s sustainable solutions offer users the ability to clean their water bottles and refill them, with the hope that less people will purchase water bottles. Woosh’s entrance into Dayton is most likely part of a larger plan to expand the company in the US. Woosh was founded in 2010 and is based in Tel Aviv.
August 11, 2015
Report: Sol Chip Raises $5M
August 11, 2015 | According to a “Geektime” report, the Israeli solar battery producer Sol Chip raised $5 million as part of a funding round. The funding round is being led by Dowell Property Holdings Limited out of Hong Kong. The company plans to put the funds towards its continued growth and to hire new employees. Sol Chip was founded in 2009 by Rami Friedlander and Shani Keysar.
August 11, 2015
William Hill To Acquire 30% Of NeoGames For $25M
August 11, 2015 | One of the world’s largest gambling companies William Hill announced that it will acquire a 29.4 percent stake in the Israeli gaming company NeoGames. William Hill is set to pay up to $25 million for the state in the company that creates online lottery software. William Hill has reserved the option to acquire the remaining 70.6 percent of NeoGames in the next three to five years. NeoGames was founded in 2015.
August 11, 2015
Report: Como To Fire 30 Employees
August 11, 2015 | The Israeli app-making service Como, formerly known as Conduit, reportedly plans to fire 30 employees as part of its recent acquisition of Keeprz. Como currently employs about 100 employees and is set to absorb new employees from Keeprz, which it acquired for $50 million. Como was founded 2010 by Ronen Shilo and Dror Erez.
August 11, 2015
Report: Fosun In Talks To Acquire Ahava
August 11, 2015 | Fosun International of China is in talks to acquire the Israeli skincare treatment producer Ahava, according to reports. Fosun reportedly plans to buy a controlling stake in Ahava at a company value of $60 million. Fosun was also recently in talks to buy a controlling stake in Israeli insurance company Phoenix Holdings. Ahava Skincare was founded in 1988 by Ziva Gilad.
August 11, 2015
Google Rebrands Holding Company As Alphabet
August 11, 2015 | Google announced that it will rebrand and restructure its company, founding a new company called Alphabet that will preside over Google’s collection of companies. Google founder Sergey Brin will become the president of Alphabet and Eric Schmidt will remain the chairman. Ruth Porat has been named CFO of Alphabet. Control of Google’s search engine entity, which will still be called ‘Google’, has been handed over to Sundar Pichai. Alphabet will continue to pursue Google’s endeavors into the fields of autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things, and medical research.
August 11, 2015
Technion Initiates Seven-Part Funding Course
August 11, 2015 | The Technion Israel Institute of Technology has initiated a new course that will teach startups and budding entrepreneurs the ins and outs of funding. The classes will be offered in partnership with the local accounting firm BDO Ziv Haft and hopes to improve entrepreneurs’ chances of securing funding for their ventures. The course will be taught in seven parts at the Technion’s campus in the Sarona complex in Tel Aviv. The course will be led by the former investor in Giza Venture Capital Dr. Yuval Avni, with courses to be taught by some of the leading names in Israel’s tech industry, including Gigi Levy and Izhar Shay, among others.
August 11, 2015
FirstTime Raises $60M For First Fund
August 11, 2015 | The co-founders of TheTime Ilan Shiloah, Nir Tarlovsky and co-founder of LATTO Jonathan Benartzi announced that they raised $60 million for their venture capital fund FirstTime Investments. Raising nearly 50 percent more than their initial goal, FirstTime will use the funds to invest in Internet and media companies in post-seed to pre-Series A funding. The fund will invest up to $2 million in a number of startups, providing the companies with financial and tech advisory services. FirstTime was established last year and portfolio includes companies like PlayBuzz, TalkSpace, Pixellot and Brayola.
August 10, 2015
NICE Systems Signs Contract With NYC Emergency Response
August 10, 2015 | The Israeli software company NICE Systems reports that it has received an “eight-figure” contract from the City of New York to ramp up the metropolitan emergency hotline. Reported in “Haaretz”, NICE apparently will be installing state-of-the-art call recording and emergency incident management technology as part of its contract with the city. The new 911 call center will be operated by the New York City Police as well as the fire departments. NICE Systems was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Ra’anana, Israel.
