January 13, 2015 | The Israeli Forex trading technology developer TradAir announced that it closed a $15 million funding round led by the private equity firm Long Ridge Equity Partners. Carmel Ventures and Genesis Partners also participated in the round. The company reportedly plans to use the funds to expand the use of its forex liquidity technology. In addition, TradAir announced the appointment of Cliff Lewis, the former CEO of Currenex, as chairman of the board, replacing former Bank HaPoalim CEO Zvi Ziv. TradAir was founded in 2010 by CEO Illit Geller and COO Ayal Jedeiki.
News Briefs
January 13, 2015
TradAir Raises $15M
January 13, 2015
Meeter Raises $900K
January 13, 2015 | The Israeli startup Meeter announced that it raised $900,000 from the technology incubator VLX Ventures together with private investors. Meeter is an application that suggests the most convenient times to set up meetings for all of the attendees, analyzing their schedules to find a time that works for all. It is synchronized together with widely used scheduling and calendar applications like Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple’s Calendar as well as Yahoo! calendars. Meeter was founded by CEO Niv Kagan and CTo Tamir Shartzer.
January 13, 2015
Samuri Incubate To Create New Fund For Japanese-Israeli Startups
January 13, 2015 | The Japanese incubator Samuri Incubate will reportedly create a new fund for startups in Israel and Japan. The fund has already invested in two Japanese-founded and Israel-based companies: Aniwo, a platform that connects startups to investors and users and Zerobillbank, a micro-donation ecosystem. The founder of Samurai Incubate, Kentaro Sakakibara, is a big fan of the Israeli innovation scene, spending a good deal of the past summer living in Israel and working in Tel Aviv. Samuri Incubator was founded in 2008 and invests in early-stage and seed startup companies.
January 13, 2015
AlgoValue Releases Software To Simplify Valuations
January 13, 2015 | The FinTech startup AlgoValue has launched a cloud-based software platform that hopes to change the way that valuations are made. According to the Israeli company, the new solution uses the SaaS (Software as a Service) platform in order to simplify valuation methods and to create a common language among professionals involved in valuation processes, including lawyers, CEOs and venture capital investors. AlgoValue’s software is heavily used in the United States, where a number of large companies struggle with the valuation process, and is being adopted by an increasing number of companies in Europe and Israel. Founded in 2011 by CEO Raphael Meyara, CFO and product manager Tsachi Hageg, and CTO Ilan Solodki, AlgoValue asserts that their platform not only simplifies the process of conducting valuations, but also but also improves margins by up to 80 percent.
January 13, 2015
WhipClip Raises $16M At $100M Valuation
January 13, 2015 | WhipClip, a new media app developer, announced that it raised $16 million from investors at a company value of $100 million. Investors include Institutional Venture Partners, Raine Ventures, Greycroft Partners, William Morris Endeavor and private investors like Steve Bornstein, the former president of ABC and ESPN. Founded in 2014 and headed by entrepreneurs Ron Zuckerman and Ori Birnbaum, WhipClip is headquartered in Los Angeles, but has its research and development centers in Herzliya, Israel. employing 15 engineers and software specialists. The company reportedly plans to use the funds raised to expand their R&D arm.
January 13, 2015
Benchmark Capital Sells Wix Shares
January 13, 2015 | Four years after its initial investment in Israeli Internet company Wix.com, Benchmark Capital will liquidate its shares in the company. According to a “Globes” report, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing for the end of 2014 shows that Benchmark has a zero percent stake in the company, while at the previous filing, in February 2014, Benchmark possessed 10.7 percent of Wix company shares. It is believed that the value of Benchmark shares sold, which the venture capital body chose not to sell during Wix.com’s public offering in 2013, is approximately $80 million. Wix has created a platform for the simple and easy creation of websites for small businesses with over 1.1 million paid subscribers and 58 million unpaid using the platform today.
January 13, 2015
Bottomline Acquires Intellinix To Provide Cyber Fraud Solutions
January 13, 2015 | Bottomline, a leading digital banking solutions provider, acquired Israeli company Intellinix for an undisclosed amount. As a result of the acquisition, Bottomline will now offer comprehensive cyber fraud and risk management solutions, a market that is valued at nearly $17 billion annually and is projected to grow to $35 billion by 2019. Intellinix’s solutions are already used by a number of major banks and government entities due to their non-invasive monitoring user analysis methods. Intellinix was co-founded by CEO Orna Mintz-Dov and CTO and US General Manager Boaz Krelnbaum.
January 13, 2015
Report: Teradata Acquires Appoxee For $20-25M
January 13, 2015 | Teradata acquired the Israeli mobile marketing startup Appoxee for between $20-25 million according to reports. Appoxee, a mobile marketing startup that is geared towards publishers and developers that want to increase app user engagement. Founded in 2010 by Itay Levy and Elad Kushnir, Appoxee had raised $2 million in funding before it started to pursue Teradata’s acquisition offer. In addition, according to reports made by “TechCrunch,” Teradata is set to use the acquisition as a stepping stone towards the foundation of an Israeli research and development center, though these reports haven’t been confirmed. Teradata is a large American computer company that creates and sells data analytics and related services.
January 12, 2015
Alcobra Raises $26M In NASDAQ IPO
January 12, 2015 | Alcobra Pharmaceuticals raised $26 million in their NASDAQ initial public offering last week. The Israeli company, developing a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), raised the amount at a share price of approx. $5.25 per share and a valuation of $72 million. The success of the IPO came as a surprise to many after Alcobra failed to achieve its main target during a trial of its main ADHD therapy, and reportedly misrepresented the results to investors. According to the company, the funds will be used to carry out further FDA trials and to complete its clinical plans. Alcobra is headed by CEO Yaron Daniely.
January 12, 2015
Israel To Open Centers Of Excellence For Agricultural Research In India
January 12, 2015 | Israel’s current Minister of Agriculture, Yair Shamir, announced that the country will open centers of excellence for Indian farmers in a number of locations. According to reports, the centers will be opened in Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal to encourage agriculture research. Israel is known as a world leader in agricultural research and technologies, which is why India is turning to the country for solutions to its agricultural woes, including massive food shortages.
January 12, 2015
Jinni Wins Technical And Engineering Emmy
January 12, 2015 | At the recent 2015 Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), the winners of the 2014 Technical and Engineering Emmy Awards were announced. The Israeli preference-based video and video content recommendation platform Jinni won an Emmy in the ‘Personalized Recommendation Engines for Video Discovery’ category, along with three other companies, including the American cable giant Comcast. According to the company, the category was created this year due to the fact that platforms, like Jinni’s, for video content recommendation, are growing in their number, diversity and complexity. Jinni was founded in 2007 by CEO Yosi Glick and CTO Itzik Ben-Zaken.
January 11, 2015
Report: Panaya Raises $20M In Series E Funding
January 11, 2015 | According to a “Geektime” report, The Israeli ERP solutions provider Panaya recently raised $20 million from Israel Growth Partners. This amount is added to nearly $39 million in total capital raised by the company since it was founded in 2006 by Yossi Cohen. Specializing in ‘cloud Enterprise Resource Planning,’ which is used by companies to manage large Oracle or SAP changes without compromising the remainder of their systems. The company, which was founded in Israel, serves a number of Fortune 500 companies out of its offices in Menlo Park, California.
January 11, 2015
Report: MediSafe Raises $6M In Series A Funding
January 11, 2015 | According to a “Geektime” report, the Israeli mobile medication management company MediSafe , raised $6 million in Series A funding. The report outlines that Pitango Ventures and well as TriVentures participated in the round, which brings the total amount raised by the company to over $7 million. “Geektime” also reports that MediSafe rejected a $25 million acquisition offer earlier last year made by an unnamed medical data company. MediSafe was founded by brothers Omri and Rotem Shor after their father took one-too-many insulin shots. Currently, the MediSafe app is available for download for iOS and Android systems.
January 11, 2015
Protalix Reports Positive Fabry Disease Trial Results
January 11, 2015 | Protalix Biotherapeutics announced positive results in the trials of a drug for the treatment of Fabry Disease, after which the company’s shares saw a 12 percent spike. The results on 3 patients with Fabry Disease, a rare lysosomal storage disease, demonstrated significant clinical effectiveness, even at a low dosage of the drug. The results showed what the company reports to be a 78.8 percent decrease in the effect of pain on a patient’s daily functions, as well as stable heart and kidney function. The complete results of the study are set to be published by the close of 2015. Protalix was founded in 1993 by Yoseph Shaaltiel and is currently headed by CEO and President David Aviezer.
January 11, 2015
Vascular Dynamics Raises $17M
January 11, 2015 | Vascular Dynamics, a Rainbow Medical fund company, announced that it raised $17 million. Rainbow Medical was joined in the funding round by the US fund Medfocus, the Swiss fund HBM Healthcare Investments, among other investors. Vascular Dynamics, an accelerator developing technologies thought up by Israeli inventor Yossi Gross, has raised $30 million to date. One of Vascular Dynamics’ main products is designed for the treatment of drug-impenetrable hypertension, and is currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States and Europe. Founded in 2008, Vascular Dynamics was chosen by the US Food & Drug Administration in 2012 as one of nine companies in unique pilot program to test out breakthrough medical devices.
