February 10, 2015 | Israeli alternative energy company Brenmiller Energy announced that it would construct a solar field using its energy-storage technology that will generate electricity for 20 hours per day. The field will supply 10 megawatts of energy and will be located near the southern Israeli town of Dimona. The field will reportedly cost the company and its investors NIS 300 million (approx. $77.2 million) and should be completed by early 2017. The company plans to sell the electricity generated through the standard power grid, and in the four hours of the day when the systems are not generating electricity, will use natural biomass to create power. Brenmiller Energy was founded in 2012 by Avi Brenmiller, the former CEO of Siemens CSP and Solel.
News Briefs
Brenmiller Energy Builds 20 Hour Per Day Solar Field
OurCrowd Announces Largest Crowdfunding Round Ever With Borro
February 10, 2015 | The equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd announced that it helped the UK-US startup Borro raise $19.5 million in Series E funding. Borro, a company based in the United Kingdom and New York, is an asset-backed online lender that raised the current funds from Rocket Internet AG, Canaan Partners and Augmentum Capital, along with OurCrowd. According to OurCrowd, the fund raised $6 million of the total, making it the single largest equity crowdfunding round ever completed. OurCrowd founder Jon Medved stated: ““In under two years, OurCrowd went from participating in early seed rounds to now successfully leading a $19.5M dollar major funding round together with Tier 1 VCs such as Canaan and the renowned internet company, Rocket. We are delighted to be investing in quality companies like Borro, which is redefining the Fintech industry.” Borro was launched in the UK in 2009 and in New York in 2012 by CEO and founder Paul Aitken.
Salarium Wins Seedstars World Competition
February 9, 2015 | The Philippines-based startup Salarium founded by Israeli Judah Hirsch took first place at the Seedstars World global competition. The payroll automation company won $500,000 in equity seed investments at the competition held in Geneva, Switzerland. Selected by a prestigious panel of judges, Salarium counts companies like international shipper DHL among its clients. The goal of Seedstars World, now held for the second consecutive year in a row, has been to promote startups outside of Silicon Valley and Western Europe. Salarium was founded by Judah Hirsch in May 2013 and is based out of Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Segoma Acquired By JamesAllen For $18M
February 9, 2015 | The Israeli company that takes 3D pictures of diamonds and jewelry items, Segoma announced that it was acquired by the US website for the online sale of jewelry, JamesAllen. According to reports and industry estimates, Segoma was acquired for NIS 70 million, about $18 million, by JamesAllen, a company that belongs to the Israeli ecommerce company R2net. Segoma was founded in 2012 by Litan Yahav, Tomer Salvi and Gilad Kapelushnik as a patented platform for capturing 3D images of precious stones and items of jewelry. Segoma’s previous cooperation with JamesAllen included photographing about 400,000 precious stones using the special method developed by the company.
Nano-Textile To Raise $3M In OTC Offering
February 9, 2015 | The Israeli company Nano-Textile announced that it has filed to raise $3 million on Wall Street’s over-the-counter (OTC) market at a company value of $11 million. The company plans to issue 30 million shares at a share price of $0.10 each, including an offer to sell 21.1 million shares owned by the company’s shareholders. Based in Nahariya, Nano-Textile was founded in 2013 as a producer of anti-bacterial solutions for the textile industry, namely as the maker of sterile hospital bed sheets and linens.
SteadyMed Therapeutics Plans To Raise $55M In IPO
February 9, 2015 | The Israeli company developing drug delivery platforms, SteadyMed Therapeutics filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $55 million in a NASDAQ IPO. The company made the move just ten days after raising $12.2 million in equity financing. The reported underwriters for the IPO are Wells Fargo, RBC and JP Morgan. SteadyMed was founded as part of the RAD Biomed incubator. The company is headquartered in San Ramon, California, but a good deal of product development still occurs in Rehovot, Israel. SteadyMed was founded in 2005 and has developed the PatchPump for drug delivery and other novel drug delivery methods.
Porticor Acquired By Intuit For Tens Of Millions
February 8, 2015 | The American software company Intuit announced that it will acquire the Israeli cloud security company Porticor for tens of millions of dollars, according to reports. Porticor has reportedly raised $2 million in funding since the startup was founded in 2012 from Glilot Capital and the US fund Lazurus Partners, among other investors. In an announcement, Intuit stated that it acquired Porticor in order to help organizations and the US government in particular combat tax evasion and scams on the Internet, which costs Americans nearly $5 billion in extra taxes each year. Porticor was founded by Ariel Dan, Yaron Sheffer and Gilad Parann-Nissany and is based out of Ramat Sharon, Israel.
Ormat Raises $175M From Northleaf Capital
February 8, 2015 | Ormat Technologies announced that its subsidary Ormat Nevada has entered into an agreement to receive infrastructure funds managed by Northleaf Capital Partners. According to a report, Ormat will provide geothermal and recovered energy generation power plants to a new joint-venture holding company that will be established together with Northleaf. Ormat will raise $175 million as part of the deal that is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2015. The Ormat power plants that will be a part of the joint venture include the Puna geothermal power plant in Hawaii, the Don A. Campbell geothermal power plant in Nevada and nine other power plant units. Ormat was founded in 1965 by engineer Lucien Bronicki and his wife Yehudit Bronicki.
Synergy China Funds Names Eran Lesser Senior Advisor
February 8, 2015 | Synergy China Funds, a China-Israel investment fund focusing on companies interested in entering the Chinese market, announced that Eran Lasser has been named senior advisor for Israeli high-tech investments. Lasser has over 20 years of experience in the high-tech industry, serving as the founder and CEO of the Israeli high-tech training firm John Bryce and software firm Matrix Global. Lasser has established John Bryce and Matrix Global operations in China, as well as establishing a research and development center for Matrix in the country. As a senior advisor for Synergy, Lasser will focus on big data, enterprise software, mobile applications, Internet of Things and financial tech startups seeking investment. The fund was founded by B&P Management, PTI Group and the Wujin Economic Zone (WEZ).
Gigawatt Global Dedicates Large Scale Solar Field In Rwanda
February 5, 2015 | Gigawatt Global will dedicate a large solar field in the East African country of Rwanda, providing power to an estimated 15,000 homes. The 28,360 panel solar field, which was built in the shape of the continent of Africa, cost about $23.7 million and will provide 8.5 megawatts of power to about 12 million people. The initiative is part of the United States’ government’s Power Africa Initiative that seeks to increase access to electricity in Sub Saharan Africa. Gigawatt Global is a Dutch-owned American company with research and development branches in Israel.
Taditel Opens Production Plant In China
February 5, 2015 | The Israeli automotive electronics company Taditel announced that it will establish a new production plant in China. The plant will be located in the city of Changzhou in the Wujin Economic Zone. Some of Taditel’s advanced voltage regulators can be found in vehicles made by GM, Volkswagon, Hyundai, Toyota, Audi, Fiat and more. The new plant will be a part of the CI3 industrial incubator initiative to encourage Israeli companies to manage the production of the product in China, as well as giving them access to the market. Taditel has offices in the United States and in Israel.
Taboola Raises $117M In Series E Funding
February 5, 2015 | The content recommendation platform Taboola announced that it raised $117 million in new funding. The round was led by Fidelity Investment and Research Company, along with existing investors Marker LLC and Steadfast Capital, among others. The Series E round of funding will be used “to develop cutting edge technology and tools,” according to company founder and CEO Adam Singolda told “VentureBeat,” and will also go towards the global expansion of the company. The Series E round brings total investment in Taboola to $157 million. Taboola was founded in 2007 by Adam Singolda.
Beer Sheva Rated A Global ‘City Of Tomorrow’
February 4, 2015 | The city of Beer Sheva was rated one of the seven cities signaled out as a city of tomorrow for technology and life sciences by T3 Advisors and Brandeis’s international school. A global real estate consulting firm, T3 and the Brandeis International School of Business announced the results for the first “Global Technology In Emerging Markets” study, providing leaders in the technology and life sciences sector with recommendations on the best “cities of tomorrow” based on a variety of data and analysis. The study identified seven locations worldwide as emerging technology hubs that global companies should consider when planning their international expansion. Ben Gurion University in particular was mentioned for its centers of excellence, as well as the CyberSpark initiative that has drawn international interest to the city.
Healarium Selected To Join StartUp Health Accelerator
February 4, 2015 | The Israeli company Healarium was selected to become part of the StartUp Health accelerator. The StartUp Health accelerator likes to refer to itself as a “global entrepreneurship development company for healthcare transformers,” and was launched three and half years ago in an initiative supported by President Barack Obama. Since, StartUp Health has added about 90 health-related startup companies to its portfolio that have raised a total of $190 million. Healarium has been selected to join the accelerator’s next 12-week program as a platform that provides digital care plans to help patients following their daily regimens. Based in Israel and the United States, Healarium was founded by Arturo Weschler, Amir Weinstein and Amnon Keynan.
Report: ClickSoftware Puts Itself Up For Sale For $300M
February 4, 2015 | The Israeli company that helps enterprises manage their workforce, ClickSoftware is putting itself up for sale for $300 million, according to a report in “The Marker.” In addition, Piper Jaffrey has been selected to manage the sale of the company that has offices in California and Israel and employs nearly 300. The company declined to comment to “The Marker” on the sale. ClickSoftware was founded in 1997 by Moshe BenBassat.
