May 12, 2015 | The University of Haifa and East China New University (ECNU) of Shanghai inaugurated their joint Shanghai-Haifa research center. The center will enable researchers from both countries to submit grant proposals to Chinese research funds, which is supported by the Chinese government. “The University of Haifa is proud to be the first university in Israel to open an academic research center in Shanghai. This is an important step for the institution,” said U Haifa Rector Prof. David Faraggi.
News Briefs
May 12, 2015
UHaifa, ECNU Establish Joint Research Center
May 12, 2015
MasterCard Brings ‘Masters Of Code’ Hackathon To Tel Aviv
May 12, 2015 | MasterCard announced that its “Masters of Code” competition will hold its Tel Aviv event on June 11-12 at the Lool Space. This will make Tel Aviv the host of the first European hackathon in the series. The winning team will be recognized as the Masters of Code champions and will be awarded $100,000, among other perks.
May 12, 2015
Global Blue Invests In TravelersBox
May 12, 2015 | The international tax refund company Global Blue has invested in Israeli currency conversion company TravelersBox. Global Blue is taking part in TravelersBox’s latest funding round, with $4.5 million raised since the company’s founding. TravelersBox provides a solution in airports for travelers to deposit their foreign currency into a PayPal account, or to convert it into credit with various retailers, like eBay, Starbucks, Aroma, Skype and more. TravelersBox was founded in 2012 by Tomer Zussman, Idan Deshe and Dror Blumenthal.
May 11, 2015
Teddy Sagi Acquires VisualDNA
May 11, 2015 | The Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi will acquire the London-based ad-tech startup VisualDNA for an undisclosed amount. Formerly known as Imagini, VisualDNA previously raised $28.6 million and it will now become part of Sagi’s group. VisualDNA was founded in 2006 by Alex Willcock.
May 11, 2015
Israeli Team Takes Second At FLL
May 11, 2015 | A team from the AMIT boy’s high school in Modiin, Israel took second place at the First Lego League tournament in South Africa. The group, the KipaBots, took second place out of 44 international teams for designing a futuristic classroom that will be built next year in their school. The group also took first place in the research and contribution to society category.
May 11, 2015
Twistlock Raises $2.5M
May 11, 2015 | The Israeli startup Twistlock announced that it raised $2.5 million in funding. The funding round was led by YL Ventures and an unnamed angel investor. Twistlock is a container security startup, a growing sector in computing that allows businesses to store their application’s code. Twistlock was founded by Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel.
May 11, 2015
EndoChoice To Raise $115M In NYSE Offering
May 11, 2015 | The medical device company EndoChoice has filed with the SEC to raised $115 million in a NYSE IPO. The company is expected to be valued at around $500 million. EndoChoice is a US-based company that develops treatments for digestive tract disorders. The company has a development center in Israel with about 70 employees. EndoChoice was founded in 2008 by Mark Gilreath and Will Parks.
May 11, 2015
Conwert Sells 25% Stake To Teddy Sagi
May 11, 2015 | The Haselsteiner Foundation and Albona Limited have sold their 24.8 percent stake in Austrian real estate group Conwert to Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi. The stake will go to Sagi through his company MountainPeak Trading. Conwert owns over 30,000 properties, mainly civilian residential properties in metropolitan areas.
May 11, 2015
CrediFi Raises $8M In Funding
May 11, 2015 | The Israeli big data company CrediFi announced that it completed a $8 million funding round. Battery Ventures, Carmel Ventures, OurCrowd and private investors participated in the round. CrediFi has aggregated data and analytics on over 10 billion square feet of commercial real estate in the United States, which it plans to use to increase transparency in the real estate market. CrediFi was founded in 2014 and operates out of its headquarters in Modiin and New York.
May 11, 2015
Uber To Begin Offering Services In Jerusalem
May 11, 2015 | The ride-share service that originates in the United States, Uber announced that it will begin to operate in Jerusalem. The company announced that it will begin to provide its services in Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day, May 17th. As a promotion, Uber is offering riders two free rides within 24 hours valued at NIS 50 each, and during the first week, Uber will offer a 50 percent discount on any rides starting in Jerusalem. Uber was founded in 2010 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp and began to offer its services in Israel in 2014.
May 10, 2015
Israeli Biomed Companies Raised $2B in 2014
May 10, 2015 | Israeli biomed companies raised $2 billion in 2014 from VCs and in IPOs, according to Israel Advanced Technology Industries and IVC Research Center. 2014 set an all-time record in the amount invested in Israel’s life sciences sector, which includes roughly 1,380 active companies. The sector is heavily biased towards the medical device sub-sector, with 725 companies or 53 percent of the total.
May 07, 2015
Webydo Raises $5M In Series C Funding
May 7, 2015 | The website design platform Webydo announced that it raised $5 million in Series C funding. The funds for the most recent round, which bring total funding in the company to $13.4 million, came from Singulariteam, a venture capital fund headed by Mobli and Yo founder Moshe Hogeg. Webydo was founded in 2010 by Shmulik Grizim and Tzvika Steinmetz.
May 07, 2015
The Junction Changes Its Format
May 7, 2015 | The Junction, Genesis Partner’s startup accelerator, will change some of its policies. The accelerator has already conducted about 13 courses and helped 112 startups in Israel, but according to Genesis Partner’s managing partner, Jonathan Saacks, The Junction will become more rigorous with its selection process and invest more funds in the company. The Junction will length its cycle from three months to six months for each participating startup and will introduce “boot camps” in the process that will keep the number of supported startups down to 4-6 at most. Each of the selected startups with receive discretionary financing from angel investors. The Junction was established by Genesis Partners in 2010 and is located in Tel Aviv.
May 07, 2015
Opko Acquires EinGen For $135M
May 7, 2015 | Opko Health announced that it will acquire Irish company EirGen Pharma for up to $135 million. Opko will reportedly pay $100 million in cash and $35 million in shares for EinGen, a pharmaceutical company that develops chemotherapy treatments. Opko operates in the US, Israel, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
May 07, 2015
Stratasys 3D-Prints Airplane Parts For Airbus
May 7, 2015 | The 3D printing company Stratasys announced that it has 3D-printed airplane parts for manufacturer Airbus. The company reports that they 3D-printed airplane parts for Airbus on their Stratasys FDM 3D Production Systems and that the parts that will be used in Airbus’s A350 XWB craft were delivered to the company in December 2014. Stratasys is a global 3D printing company that is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.
