February 11, 2015 | Yelp, the popular crowdsourced review platform, has acquired Eat24 for $134 million. Eat24 is a US-based food delivery service that competes with similar companies like GrubHub and Delivery.com, delivering food for restaurants that don’t usually offer such services. Yelp hopes that the acquisition will provide the company with more access points to restaurants, and peer reviews, and it will help Yelp strengthen is listing business by highlighting which restaurants offer delivery services. Eat24 currently serves about 20,000 restaurants in about 1,500 cities. Eat24 was founded in 2008 by CEO Nadav Sharon and Haim E.
News Briefs
February 11, 2015
Eat24 Acquired By Yelp For $134M
February 11, 2015
Report: Alvarion To Let Go A Third Of Its Employees
February 11, 2015 | The Israeli wireless connectivity solutions provider Alvarion announced that it will let go a third of its employees, according to a “Calcalist” report. Company CEO Giora Levi reported to “Calcalist” that the company would fire 28 of its 100 employees to a change in company focus. Alvarion was acquired by the British businessman Peter Wilkinson in 2013 for a reported £6.7 million ($10 million). Alvarion was founded in 1992 as BreezeCOM.
February 11, 2015
Uri Manber Departs From Google
February 11, 2015 | The Google VP and YouTube VP of Engineering, Israeli Uri Manber, will leave Google after nine years with the company. Manber will reportedly take up a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Manber has a lengthy history in the Internet market, serving has the head of certain search products for Google, Chief Scientist at Yahoo, and as a algorithms VP at Amazon. Manber addressed his departure from Google to reporters at “The Wall Street Journal” stating, “I had a wonderful nine years at Google and YouTube, but I could not resist the amazing opportunities at NIH . . . Improving access to medical knowledge can have a big impact. I hope to help.”
February 11, 2015
Sol Chip Voted ‘Most Innovative’ At iNNOVEX 2015
February 11, 2015 | Sol Chip, an Israeli company creating solar chips, was selected out of 180 Israeli startups as the winner of the ‘Most Innovative Israeli Start-up Award’ at the iNNOVEX Disrupt 2015. The iNNOVEX2015 conference is one of the leading technological innovation and innovative thinking conferences held in Israel. Sol Chip is a worldwide leading energy harvesting company that offers a unique maintenance-free Everlasting Light Battery and Internet of Things communication platform. A portfolio company of The Trendlines Group, Sol Chip was founded in 2009 by Rami Friedlander and Shani Keysar.
February 11, 2015
Team8 Raises $18M In Series A Funding
February 11, 2015 | The Israeli cybersecurity “think tank” Team8 closed a $18 million round of Series A funding. Participating investors included Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Investments, Marker LLC, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Innovation Endeavors, whose founding partner is Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. Team8 hopes to build up cybersecurity companies from the ground up, acting as a research group to pinpoint the greatest needs in the cybersecurity sector according to expertise taken from Israel’s elite 8200 unit. Indeed, Team8 was founded by former 8200 commander Nadav Zafrir, Israel Grimberg and Liran Grinberg of eToro.
February 11, 2015
William Hill To Acquire 888 Holdings For $1.14B
February 10, 2015 | One of the United Kingdom’s largest bookmakers, William Hill is in talks to buy 888 Holdings, the Israeli online gambling company, for £750 million (approx. $1.14 billion), according to reports. The “London Times” reported that a framework agreement had been reached between the two companies to sell 888 at £2.10 a share. While both William Hill and 888 declined to comment on the reports, 888’s shares were up 23 percent to £1.73 per share following the reports. 888 Holdings was founded in 1997.
February 11, 2015
Appsfire Acquired By Mobile Network Group For $30M
February 11, 2015 | The Israeli mobile advertising technology company Appsfire was acquired by France’s Mobile Network Group for $30 million. The acquisition will reportedly give MNG a foothold in the United States where Appfire has been active and working towards innovation mobile advertising. Appsfire was founded in 2009 by CEO Ouriel Ohayon and CTO Yann Lechelle. The company is headquartered in Paris, has offices in California and its research and development center in Israel.
February 10, 2015
N-Join Raises $1M In New Funding
February 10, 2015 | The Israeli production intelligence company N-Join announced that it raised $1 million in new funding. The funding round was led by TerraLab Ventures. N-Join attempts to incorporate the “Internet of Things” into the world of industrial manufacturing, making the production processes more efficient in traditional factories. The platform uses big data and machine learning to collect information on the manufacturing process, which it then uses to suggest more efficient ways to get the job done. The company was founded by CEO Haim Piratinsky, Elkena Poreg and Or Biran in 2013.
February 10, 2015
Wandera Raises $15M To Protect Mobile Data
February 10, 2015 | The Israeli startup specializing in mobile data analytics, Wandera announced that it raised $15 million in funding. The round was led by 83North together with Bessemer Venture Partners. The current funding round, which the company asserts will be used to expand its mobile data security and optimization options, brings Wandera’s total funding to $23 million. Wandera was founded in 2012 by Eldar and Roy Tuvey.
February 10, 2015
Tel Aviv Offers Benefits To Foreign Entrepreneurs
February 10, 2015 | A Tel Aviv municipality subsidiary, ‘Global City’, has launched a pilot to provide incentive packages to entrepreneurs aboard. Some of the benefits include complementary accommodations for a week or two, a free workspace in a startup complex for up to three months, as well as professional support and consulting. The companies can also receive Israeli legal advice, accounting help and other assistance dealing with Israeli authorities. “We review proposals submitted by entrepreneurs who want to come to Tel Aviv, and we select the ones that are the best matches. Those that are selected receive a housing unit, which we rent through a website such as Airbnb, or Televista, and funding for a week or two, to get acclimated in the city and begin working,” said Hila Oren, Global City’s CEO. The municipality asserts that the value of the incentives packages reaches NIS 50,000 (approx. $13,000).
February 10, 2015
Intel Israel’s 2014 Exports Total $4.25B
February 10, 2015 | Intel Israel exports rose ten percent in 2014, totaling $4.25 billion. The figure accounts for about four percent of Israel’s total exports of goods and services in 2014, bringing Intel’s total contribution to Israeli exports to $39 billion in its 41 years in the country. Intel Israel is also pouring $800 million into an upgrade of its plant in Kiryat Gat, and this summer, made a commitment to carry out procurement totaling $1.87 billion in Israel in the next ten years. Intel employs about 10,000 Israeli as of the end of 2014.
February 10, 2015
2015 TeXchange FinTech Winners Announced
February 10, 2015 | Fifteen Israeli financial tech (FinTech) companies have entered the 2015 TeXchange FinTech Challenge hosted by the UK Israel Tech Hub at the British Embassy in Israel. The winners will showcase their innovations to leaders in the finance sector during a visit to London next month. The companies that will participate in the challenge include BondIT, BioCatch, PayItSimple, ThetaRay, Coin Sciences, and finnovest, among others. The delegation will present their technologies to senior executives at leading banks and financial institutions in the United Kingdom, led by Haim Shani and Avi Zeevi. The TeXchange 2015 was organized in partnership with Carmel Ventuers, a leading venture capital firm.
February 10, 2015
IVC Reports: JVP Makes Most Investments In Israeli Tech
February 10, 2015 | Israel’s IVC Research Center released a report that looks into investments in Israel by venture capital funds in the past five years through to 2014. In addition, the report ranked the most active venture capital funds in Israel in 2014. According to the report, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) topped other investors by making 10 first investments, followed by Israeli firms Pitango and Magma. The leading investor in micro venture capital funds was Wadi Ventures, followed by Israel’s First Time fund and iVentures Asia. The five-year average for VC first investments reached 249 deals and 122 investors. The IVC Research Center is a provider of data and analysis on Israel’s high-tech, venture capital and private equity industries.
February 10, 2015
RedHill Biopharma To Offer ADSs In Public Offering
February 10, 2015 | The Israeli biopharmaceutical company RedHill Biopharma announced that it intends to offer its American Depository Shares (ADS) in an underwritten public offering to cover over-allotments. The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to continue the research and development of the company’s therapeutic candidates as well as money to go towards potential future acquisitions and general corporate purposes. Wells Fargo will act as the leading book-running manager and Roth Capital Partners will act as the joint book-running manager, along with MLV & Co. RedHill specializes in the development and acquisition of late clinical-stage, proprietary, orally-administered drugs for the treatment of inflammatory and gastrointestinal diseases, including gastrointestinal cancers.
February 10, 2015
INSS Announces 5th Conference Held In Washington D.C.
February 10, 2015 | The Israel Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) announced that it will hold its fifth annual Defensive Cyberspace Operations & Intelligence Conference and Exhibition in Washington D.C. this year. The dates of the conference are April 27-28, 2015 and it is the first year that the conference will be held in the US. The event will address a number of the primary challenges of cyber security including financial protection, new defense technologies, national policy and strategy, and other topics. The conference will be held in partnership with the Cyber Security Forum Initiative (CSFI) and will host both Israeli and American speakers.
