May 4, 2015 | El Al Israel Airlines has announced the launching of a startup support program called Cockpit. The program will serve Israeli startups innovating the fields of aviation and tourism and hopes to expose El Al to new technologies. The program plans to host at least 10 startups, providing them tens of millions of dollars in investment, mentoring services and direct support from El Al professionals. Selected startups will be able to try out their technologies on El Al’s beta site.
News Briefs
May 04, 2015
El Al Launches ‘Cockpit’ Startup Support Program
May 04, 2015
Terra VP, TLV Municipality Establish ‘Create Tel Aviv’
May 4, 2015 | Terra Venture Partners is setting up an innovation program to help entrepreneurs develop technological solutions to international industries’ needs called ‘Create Tel Aviv’. The program will focus on the fields of energy, IoT, fintech, food-tech, transportation, health and smart-cities. The Tel Aviv Municipality, the investment fund of the Bosch Group, Visa Europe, Leumi Card, and Energias de Portugal will take part in the initiative. It was established with and initial investment of $1 million and it will operate out of ‘The Library’, the Tel Aviv municipal center for innovation projects.
May 03, 2015
LiveU Named Sky News Tech Partner For UK Elections
May 3, 2015 | The giant British news and television network Sky News has chosen Israeli company LiveU as its technology partner for the upcoming UK general election. LiveU, a live video services and broadcast solutions provider, will cover the election taking place on May 7th from over 270 districts. The head of Sky News, John Ryley called the coverage, “the most exciting campaign and election night for decades.” LiveU was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New Jersey.
May 03, 2015
Confirmed: Microsoft Acquires N-trig For $30M
May 3, 2015 | Microsoft has confirmed that they acquired the touch screen technology company N-trig for about $30 million, as opposed to the $200 million that was originally reported. In the past, N-trig’s stylus pen and screen surface were used in Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet. N-trig was founded in 1999 and is based in Israel.
April 30, 2015
Spondoolies-Tech To Merge With Bitcoin Shop
April 30, 2015 | Bitcoin Shop signed a letter of intent to merge with Spondoolies-Tech, according to reports. The announcement comes just a week after Bitcoin Shop raised $2.3 million in funding. Spondoolies-Tech is a digital currency hardware manufacturer that was founded in 2013.
April 30, 2015
Prof. Alon Peled Participates In NASA’s Int’l Space Apps Challenge
April 30, 2015 | For the first time, an Israeli scientist has competed in NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge. The fourth annual Space Apps Challenge was held at the end of April in which 12,780 participants developed 947 projects from 133 locations. The teams were asked to solve 25 space challenges and Prof. Alon Peled of the Hebrew University was the Israeli participant who proposed a new way of organizing NASA’s information.
April 30, 2015
Loop Commerce Raises $16M
April 30, 2015 | Loop Commerce announced that it received $16 million in new funding. The fast check-out solution for ecommerce websites announced that the round was led by Houzz, Chegg, Oren Zeev and Wicklow Capital and that the round brings total funding in the company to $30 million. Loop Commerce was founded in 2012 by Alex Sirota and Roy Erez.
April 30, 2015
Amdocs To Purchase Comverse’s BSS Unit
April 30, 2015 | Amdocs has confirmed that it will acquire the business support systems (BSS) unit of Comverse for $272 million in cash. Amdocs asserts that the acquisition will allow the billing services provider to expand is global reach into Asia, Latin America and Europe. Comverse, however, is in the process of divesting its assets. Both Amdocs and Comverse are Israeli-founded companies, though Amdocs is now based out of the United States.
April 30, 2015
ClickSoftware Acquired By Francisco Partners For $438M
April 30, 2015 | ClickSoftware Technologies, the Israeli automated mobile workforce management solutions provider, was acquired by the US private equity fund Francisco Partners. As a result of the acquisition, ClickSoftware will delist from NASDAQ and become a private company. Francisco Partners will reportedly pay $12.56 per share for ClickSoftware’s ordinary shares, reaching a total of $438 million. ClickSoftware Technologies was founded by Moshe BenBassat in 1997 and is headquartered in Petach Tikvah.
April 30, 2015
Fortissimo Raises $470M In Fourth Round
April 30, 2015 | Fortissimo Capital Fund announced that it closed its fourth round totaling $470 million in investments. Large institutional investors from the United States, Europe and Israel participated in the funding round, bringing the total amount managed by Fortissimo to $1 billion. Fortissimo was founded by managing partner Yuval Cohen.
April 29, 2015
ICONYC Opens Accelerator For Israeli Startups In NYC
April 29, 2015 | A new accelerator for Israeli startups has opened its doors in New York City, called ICONYC Labs. The goal is to promote young Israeli startups that are looking to penetrate the startup ecosystem in New York and the larger American market. The company began its first round yesterday in which five startups were selected to travel to New York and begin growing their startup. ICONYC was founded by Eyal Bino and Arie Abecassis.
April 29, 2015
Apple To Expand Israeli Offices
April 29, 2015 | Apple will reportedly expand its Israel office, located in Herzliya Pituach, taking over an additional 4,000 meters. According to reports, the new workspace will accommodate between 150-250 employees that are set to join the company’s Israel branch. Apple currently employs 700 engineers in Israel, many of which are chip engineers. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook visited Israel in February to inaugurate the new office and met with the company’s Israeli employees.
April 29, 2015
GetTaxi Rebrands As ‘Gett’, Offers New Features
April 29, 2015 | The taxi-hailing company formerly known as GetTaxi has rebranded to Gett and will now offer delivery services. The platform will now allow its users to order pizzas, flowers, massages and manicures, cleaners and other services all within a matter of ten minutes. In addition, the company plans to announce further taxi features, such as extra large taxi cabs and taxis suitable for handicapped passengers. Gett was founded in 2010 by Shahar Waiser and Roi More.
April 29, 2015
Infinidat Raises $150M
April 29, 2015 | Infinidat, a provider of enterprise-class storage solutions, announced that it raised $150 million in an investment round led by TPG Growth. This, the second round of funding for the company, bringing total funding to $230 million at a post-funding valuation to $1.2 billion. Moshe Yanai, Infinidat CEO, founded the Company in 2011 to create solutions for the most pressing information storage problems facing today’s enterprises.
April 28, 2015
Technion- U Waterloo Granted $1.6M For Research
April 28, 2015 | The Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman Foundation has donated a $1.6 million gift to the University of Waterloo and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. The funds will go towards enabling research in a number of disciplines, namely research into lung disease and quantum computing. “This gift shows what a partnership between two of the world’s top innovation universities supported by the vision of Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman can accomplish,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo said in a statement.
