May 27, 2015 | Visa Europe announced that it will open a startup center in Tel Aviv, after it opened a similar center earlier in the year in London. Visa’s program will reportedly take at least 20 startups through its 100-day program, mainly focusing on financial technology startups. “Four Israeli companies – Zooz, Prontoly, Payitsimple and MyCheck – have already entered the Visa Europe Collab innovation pipeline and more fresh and exciting concepts are coming through the door every day,” said David Page, the co-creator and innovation partner at Visa Europe Collab. Terra Venture Partners will join Visa in the endeavor, along with other local Israeli partnerships.
News Briefs
May 27, 2015
Visa Europe Establishes Tel Aviv Startup Center
May 26, 2015
Gazit Globe Acquires Sektor Gruppen For $1.6B
May 26, 2015 | Gazit Globe will acquire all of the shares in Sektor Gruppen, a Norwegian real estate company, for €1.47 billion ($1.6 billion). The deal will be conducted through Citycon, Gazit Globe’s Finnish subsidiary. Headed by Chaim Katzman, Gazit Globe owns a 42.8 percent stake in Citycon, together with Canadian fund CPPIB, which owns a 15 percent stake.
May 26, 2015
Logic Industries To Lay Off 270
May 26, 2015 | Logic Industries, controlled by Mati Kochavi, has plans to close by the end of 2015 and as part of the move, 270 employees will be laid off in the coming months. Currently, Logic Industries is working on completing a project for a Persian Gulf country. The employees in the research and development unit will be moved to a new company in Kochavi’s AGT Group. Logic Industries focuses mainly on the homeland security solutions sector and is headquartered in Yakum, Israel.
May 25, 2015
Switch Raises $2M In Seed Funding
May 25, 2015 | The ‘Tinder’ of job apps Switch announced that it closed a seed funding round of $2 million. The seed round was led by Marker VC together with Metamorphic, Rhodium, BAM, SGVC and Marcel Legrand. Switch hopes to make job hunting simple with a swiping platform that allows users to narrow-down their job search. Switch was founded in 2014 by Yarden Talmor.
May 25, 2015
Wibbitz Raises $8M In Series B Funding
May 25, 2015 | The Israeli-created text-to-video production startup Wibbitz announced that it raised $8 million in Series B funding. The round was led by NantMobile, which invested $6 million of the total to help the company expand, together with existing investors Horzion Ventures, Lool Ventures, Initial Capital and Kaima Ventures. Wibbitz was founded in 2001 by Yotam Cohen and Zohar Dayan.
May 21, 2015
Report: Coral Group To Establish Telefonica’s VC
May 21, 2015 | According to a “Calcalist” report, Yuval Almog of Coral Group will establish a $200 million venture capital firm for Telefonica, the Spanish telecommunications company. Almog, who is the chairman of Coral Group, will manage Telefonica’s investments in international startup companies through a firm called Open Future. Coral Group is an venture capital firm investing in high-tech companies in the United States, Israel and Europe.
May 21, 2015
Glilot Raises $77M Second Fund
May 21, 2015 | Glilot Capital Partners announced the closure of its second fund “Glilot II” at $77 million. The previous fund “Glilot I” invested $30 million in eight startup companies, including three that were acquired – Aorato, Insightera and Porticor. The funds from “Glilot II” will be used to invest in seed and early seed stage Israeli software companies in the cybersecurity and enterprise software arenas. Glilot Capital Partners was founded in 2011 by Arik Kleinstein and Kobi Samboursky.
May 21, 2015
OrthoSpace Raises $8M
May 21, 2015 | OrthoSpace, the Israeli company developing a support product for shoulder injuries, announced that it raised $8 million in a round led by Healthpoint Capital. Existing investors Triventures and medical device company Smith and Nephew also participated in the round. In addition, Xenia Venture Capital sold its holdings in the company for $2.15 million to Healthpoint Capital. OrthoSpace was co-founded by CEO Itay Barnea and Medical Director Assaf Dekel in 2009.
May 21, 2015
FlyOnWall Raises $3M In Series B Funding
May 21, 2015 | The mobile live streaming company FlyOnWall announced that it raised $3 million in Series B funding from private investors. Formerly known as LiveLens, FlyOnWall plans to use the funds to launch its live streaming product, to expand its product development and marketing. FlyOnWall’s platform allows users to stream video on their devices at any time and from any location. FlyOnWall was founded in 2013 and is headed by CEO Max Bluvband.
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May 21, 2015
Elbit Acquires NICE Systems’ Cyber Division For $157.9M
May 21, 2015 | Elbit Systems announced that it will acquire NICE Systems cyber and intelligence division for up to $157.9 million. $117.9 million will be paid in cash at the completion of the deal and the remaining $40 million based on performance and milestones. NICE’s cyber and intelligence division offers solutions to a number of law enforcement agencies and intelligence organizations. Elbit Systems was founded in 1996 and is headed by Bezhalel Machlis.
May 21, 2015
Ontario Invests $6M In Joint Research Projects
May 21, 2015 | Following a decade-long partnership between Israel and Ontario, the joint Israeli-Canadian R&D projects received a $6 million investment from the province. To announce the investment, Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation Reza Moridi visited Israel last week. The program will continue to support projects with a strong economic focus, particularly in the fields of medical devices, information and communication technologies, clean technologies and life sciences.
May 21, 2015
Samanage Raises $16M In Series B Funding
May 21, 2015 | The SaaS platform for managing internal assets Samanage announced that it raised $16 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Marker, LLC and Vintage Investment Partners together with existing shareholdings Carmel Ventures, Gemini Israel Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The Series B funding brings total investment in the company to $24 million. Samanage was founded by Doron Gordon in 2007 and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.
May 20, 2015
Wikiwand Wins ‘Best User Experience’ At 2015 Webby Awards
May 20, 2015 | The Israeli-created interface platform for Wikipedia users, Wikiwand announced won ‘Best User Experience’ at the international Webby Awards for 2015. Wikiwand was presented the award at an event held on Tuesday night in New York City. Wikiwand works with large publishing bodies like the LA Times and Virgin America to improve their interfaces. In previous years, the People’s Voice award for ‘Best User Experience’ was awarded to Medium, Hulu and Tumblr. Wikiwand was founded in 2013 by Lior Grossman and Ilan Lewin.
May 20, 2015
Little Labs Raises $3M In Seed Funding
May 20, 2015 | The LA-app studio Little Labs announced that it raised $3 million in seed funding in a round led by NEA. Little Labs has a number of apps Android Wear and Apple Watch. Little Labs, based out of Los Angeles, was founded in 2014 by Ariel Vardi, Kris McDonald, and Michael Marchetti.
May 20, 2015
Stox Raises $8M In Series A Funding
May 20, 2015 | The Israeli online stock brokering startup Stox announced that it closed $8 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by the Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg of Singulariteam. According to the company, the funds will be used to develop Stox’s proprietary real equity trading platform. Stox was founded in 2013 by Or Arbel and CEO Roy Shaham.
