April 16, 2015 | Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology announced that they have entered into a worldwide research and licence agreement. The agreement is aimed at the development of a joint project, based on findings made by Nobel Prize laureate Aaron Ciechanover, that could potentially lead to the development of anti-cancer drugs.
News Briefs
April 16, 2015
Technion, Sun Pharma Partner To Develop Anti-Cancer Drugs
April 16, 2015
Comverse And Tech Mahindra Sign $150-200M Cooperation Deal
April 16, 2015 | Comverse and Indian company Tech Mahindra have signed a $150-200 million deal to establish a research and development center in Israel. “Engineering is a very large part of our business but we want to make it even bigger. We believe it can be a billion dollars annually in the next few years,” said Manish Vyas, President of Tech Mahindra’s communications group. “Given the culture of entrepreneurship in Israel we need to be here,” he continued . According to the agreement, Tech Mahindra will be responsible for R&D and customer services and Comverse will be responsible for product management and sales. Comverse was founded in 1982 in Israel by Kobi Alexander, Boaz Misholi and Yechiam Yemini.
April 15, 2015
Vingroup To Apply Israeli AgriTech Solutions
April 15, 2015 | The largest privately-owned Vietnamese company, Vingroup, announced that it will purchase Israeli technology to be used in its agricultural projects. Israeli figures estimate that Vingroup’s use of Israeli technology could mean a bankroll of tens of millions of dollars in sales, intellectual property fees, services and equipment in the years to come. The firms founder announced that Vingroup would develop commercial farms using Israeli, Dutch and Japanese technology. Vingroup was founded in 1993.
April 15, 2015
Accellta Signs Exclusive Agreement With Stem Cell Technologies
April 15, 2015 | The Israeli stem cell solutions company Accellta announced that it signed an exclusive agreement with the international company Stem Cell Technologies. As part of the agreement, Stem Cell Technologies will market Accellta’s culturing platform that grows stem cells. Accellta was founded at the AMIT Institute of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
April 15, 2015
Confirmed: Adallom Raises $30M
April 15, 2015 | The cloud access security company Adallom confirmed reports that it raised $30 million. The funds were raised from the newly launched Hewlett Packard Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. The funds will reportedly be used to grow the company’s sales and marketing and to expand research and development. Adallom was founded in 2012 by Roy Reznik, Ami Luttwak and Assaf Rappaport.
April 15, 2015
Viola Private Equity Raises $250M Second Fund
April 15, 2015 | Viola Private Equity, an investment firm that deals with growing technology companies, announced that it raised $250 million for its second investment fund. The firm, which is tied to the larger Viola Group in Israel, stated that it doesn’t plan to raise more than $300 million in the second fund. The second fund will be used to invest in between 10-12 growing startup companies with the each investment valued between $20-40 million. Viola Private Equity was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.
April 15, 2015
ClickTale Establishes Office in San Francisco
April 15, 2015 | ClickTale, an Israeli company specializing in digital customer experience tools, announced that it will open an office in San Francisco as part of its expansion efforts. The office will join ClickTale’s existing office on the East Coast of the United States, with both offices working towards growing the company’s customer base. ClickTale was founded by Tal Schwartz and Arik Yavilevich in 2006.
April 15, 2015
Market Tech Acquires Utopia Village For $65M
April 15, 2015 | Teddy Sagi’s Market Tech Holdings will expand its hold over London’s Camden Market by acquiring the Utopia Village office complex for £44 million (approx. $65 million). Utopia Village is near the entrance to Camden Market, an acquisition that will help Market Tech Holdings cement its vision of constructing a tech, fashion, food and design complex. According to assessments, Sagi plans to invest nearly £300 million ($442 million) in revamping Camden Market by the start of 2018.
April 15, 2015
Apple Acquires LinX Imaging
April 15, 2015 | Apple announced that it will acquire the Israeli imaging company LinX Computational Imaging. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple will pay about $20 million for the company, though neither LinX nor Apple confirmed the acquisition value. LinX is a developer and marketer of small cameras for tablets and smartphones, founded by CEO Ziv Attar and VP of software Andrey Tovchigrechko in 2011.
April 14, 2015
Israeli Dan Boneh Awarded 2014 ACM-Infosys Award
April 14, 2015 | The Association for Computing Machinery and the Infosys Foundation announced Israeli Dan Boneh as the recipient of the 2014 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences. Boneh was awarded the honor for his contributions made in the field of pairing-based cryptography and identity-based encryption. The award will be presented to Boneh at a ceremony in San Francisco on June 20th and we will be awarded $175,000 for his achievements. Dan Boneh is a professor in computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University.
April 14, 2015
Report: Roman Abramovich Acquires TA Hotel
April 14, 2015 | According to a “Globes” report, the billionaire Roman Abramovich has purchased The Varsano Hotel in Tel Aviv. The report stipulates that Abramovich paid NIS 100 million (approx $25 million) for the property in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Roman Abramovich is a resident of London, England and is the owner of Chelsea FC.
April 14, 2015
Reporty Receives $1M Investment From Ehud Barak
April 14, 2015 | Reporty Homeland Security announced that it raised $1 million from former Israeli prime minister and minister of defense Ehud Barak. Reporty plans to use the investment to continue the development of its platform that connects between city residents and municipal bodies, allowing residents to file official reports in real time while maintaining their anonymity. Reporty was founded in 2014 by CEO Amir Elichai.
April 14, 2015
EarlySense Signs Partnership Agreement With Mitsui
April 14, 2015 | The contact-free monitoring solutions provider EarlySense announced that it would sign a partnership agreement with Mitsui, one of the largest general trading companies in Japan. As part of the agreement, EarlySense will partner with Mitsui to bring its patient monitoring solutions to hospitals, wellness centers and homes throughout Japan. In return, Mitsui has invested $5 million in EarlySense, bringing the company’s Series F total funding to $25 million. EarlySense was founded by Avner Halperin in 2004.
April 14, 2015
Tonara Raises $5M In Round Led By Baidu
April 14, 2015 | The Israeli music education startup Tonara announced that it raised $5 million in a round led by China’s largest search engine, Baidu. Carmel Ventures also participated in the round. As part of the deal, Peter Fang, Baidu’s Senior Director of Corporate Development, will join Tonara’s board of directors. Tonara was founded by Evgeni Begelfor and Yair Lavi in 2008.
April 13, 2015
BioBlast Pharma Receives Fast Track Status From FDA
April 13, 2015 | The Israeli pharmaceutical company BioBlast Pharma received US Food & Drug Administration approval to fast track clinical trials on its Cabaletta drug. Used to treat a rare muscular condition known as oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), fast track status will give BioBlast better access to FDA tools and staff in order to see rapid approval for the drug. BioBlast Pharma was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv.
