News Briefs

March 9 , 2015 | According to the website, IsraeliMappedinNY, Israeli startups based in New York raised $1 billion in the past 12 months. The website was founded to track ventures and startups founded by Israelis in the Big Apple and was established by Guy Franklin in 2013. According to the report, WeWork raised $505 million in two separate funding rounds, as well as Taboola and other companies, with the majority of the funds coming from venture capital firms.

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March 9, 2015 | The information and measurement company Nielsen announced that it would acquire Israeli startup eXelate for $200 million. EXelate is a data and technology startup helping advertisers better target their audience. Though the terms of the deal were not formally disclosed, sources close to the company revealed that the acquisition was closed at $200 million. EXelate was founded in 2007 by Elad Efraim and Meir Zohar.

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March 9, 2015 | The Korean investment firm SoftBank Ventures (SBVK) will make its first investment in Israel in Saguna Networks. Together with SBVK, the investment arm of SoftBank, Akamai Technologies, a Massachusetts-based cloud services company, participated in Saguna’s latest funding round. Saguna has created a system to speed-up data delivery. The total amount investment wasn’t disclosed. Saguna was founded in 2008 by Lior Fite and Danny Frydman.

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March 9, 2015 | “National Geographic” magazine has named Tel Aviv one of world’s top ten oceanfront cities. Israel’s source of seaside pride is joined by locations like Saint John’s, Canada, San Diego California, Perth and Brisbane, Australia, among others.“There’s plenty of room for beach bathing in this modern Israeli city on the Mediterranean,” the magazine stated.

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March 9, 2015 | The Hollywood producer and businessman Steve Tisch made a donation of $10 million to the Department of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. The donation from the producer of “Forrest Gump” and the New York Giant’s owner is the largest ever received by the institution, which merits the renaming of the school to the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television.

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March 9, 2015 | PayPal has acquired the Israeli cybersecurity company CyActive for $60 million. CyActive, which has developed a cybersecurity algorithm based on biology, is based out of Beer Sheva and was founded in 2003 by CEO Liran Tancman and CTO Shlomi Boutnaru.

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March 4, 2015 | Ormat Technologies, the provider of renewable and alternative energy technologies, has been selected to supply 25 megawatts of electricity from a geothermal power plant in Hawaii. Ormat already has a 38-megawatt plant on the big island of Hawaii at Puna. Ormat Technologies was founded in 1965 by Lucien Bronicki and Yehudit Bronicki.

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March 4, 2015 | Babylon, the former provider of translation services, announced that it will invest in Israeli and international startups that are active in the areas of digital media, especially as they pertain to mobile. Babylon has already announced that it invested $1 million in an Israeli startup called ‘GameIN30’ in exchange for 42 percent equity in the company. Babylon was established in 2007 and is currently headed by Noam Lanir.

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March 4, 2015 | InsuLine Medical CEO Mike Netz resigned from his position after the company’s share price dropped seventy percent. The big dip the company’s share price occurred after the company announced that it was unable to secure the proper insurance clearance for its product for the treatment of diabetes in Germany. The company reports that Netz will be temporarily replaced by Eyal Levy, a member of the company’s board. Insuline Medical was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Petah Tikvah.

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March 4, 2015 | Tower Semiconductor announced that it has begun the mass production of an IR sensor to be used by the chip-making giant Intel in their 3D sensor solutions. Intel has chosen Tower Semiconductor’s CMOS image sensor platform that has a number of advanced features that are appealing to a company like Intel. “Partnering with TowerJazz was a part of our success in producing our advanced image sensor for 3D imaging and was a natural choice as they were able to offer the required technical specifications and performance for this breakthrough technology,” says Intel’s Director of Depth Camera Engineering Sagi Ben Moshe. Tower Semiconductor was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Migdal HaEmek, Israel.

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March 4, 2015 | The Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi has part another section of the famed Camden Markets through his company Market Tech Holdings. The company has acquired Camden Wharf and the Interchange Building for £95 million ($145.7 million). In March of last year Sagi purchased Camden Market Holdings, including the Stables Markets and the Camden Lock Village for £400 million ($613.5 million) and in October of this year, he paid an additional £70-90 million for Camden Lock and Buck Street. In addition to his acquisition of the majority of the market, Sagi plans to inject over £300 million in renovating and developing the market by 2018. Market Tech Holdings is owned by Teddy Sagi and this last December raised $1.2 million on London’s AIM at a company value of $1 billion.

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March 4, 2015 | The Israeli-invented crowdsourced navigation application Waze will now be included as an integral part of Google’s Mobile Services, the pre-installation software package that Google offers to Android users. The new designation will join Google Maps, Google Chat (now known has ‘Hangouts’) and Google Drive as part of the pre-installed apps on Google-powered devices. The designation is good news for Waze that generates real-time traffic reports from user data, and more users will be that the database of traffic information will be even more beneficial for users. Waze was founded in 2007 by Uri Levine, Amir Shinar and Ehud Shabtai and was acquired by Google in 2013.

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March 4, 2015 | Israel and Italy are founding and funding joint laboratories to research and improve knowledge on a variety of issues. The countries have jointly founded a brain and neurology laboratory in Tel Aviv, a solar laboratory in Sde Boker, a health sciences laboratory at Ben Gurion University and a physics and magnetism laboratory at the Weizmann Institute. The two countries also established a space laboratory. Both Israel and Italy will allocate €3 million ($3.33 million) to the project, with the Israel Council for Higher Education Planning and Budgeting Committee donating an addition €3 million.

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March 4, 2015 | The mayor of Akron Ohio Don Plusquellic announced that the American city had reached a tentative agreement with five Israeli water tech companies with the goal of making the city an exclusive partner for Israeli water research in America. The plan, which is reportedly worth $5 million, has not been entirely formalized but would provide up to $500,000 in investments in five water companies or equivalent in-kind help. The companies would make an investment of $3.5 million in local water research in exchange for the municipal investment. The water technologies that are included in the agreement at Mekorot, Technion water initiatives and MemTech, among others.

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March 3, 2015 | Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Monash University in Australia will partner to increase their impact in the areas of sustainability, social inclusion and entrepreneurship. The two universities have established The Monash Ben-Gurion Seed Fund, which was established to support joint research and education programs within these areas.

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