News Briefs

December 11, 2014 | Israeli cyber security researchers have reportedly succeeded in thwarting a security breach to the Chinese e-commerce network, Alibaba. AppSec Labs reported that the personal information belonging to millions of users was threatened by a part of the site’s code that would have allowed hackers to freely access the information. According to AppSec founder Erez Metula, the flaw was discovered by one of the company’s 21-year-old employees, adding that there is no indication that any user data was compromised. Another Israeli, Amitay Dan, founder of the cyber security company Cybermoon, discovered another flaw in the site shortly after, but Alibaba insists that all of the security flaws have been addressed.

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December 11, 2014 | According to a “Globes” report, the Israeli private equity fund Fortissimo Capital will begin raising funds for its largest-ever fund totaling $400 million. The fund will begin operations in 2015 as Fortissimo’s fourth fund. Just two years ago, Fortissimo raised $265 million for its third fund. Fortissimo was founded about a decade ago by managing partner Yuval Cohen and is one of Israel’s leading investment funds, raising $500 million to date.

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December 11, 2o14 | After a test run of its UberX services in Israel, Uber will now begin to hire drives for its service that allows those without a taxi license in the country. The UberX service hopes to compete with licensed taxis with more competitive rates from unlicensed taxi drivers (without a taxi license). However, the Israeli law still hasn’t approved the UberX service and is likely to refrain from doing so as Israel issues a special license to allow individuals to accept payments for transportation services. According to the company, there are certain conditions for hiring drivers: a minimum age of 23, 3+ years of driving experience, 12 years of education, a background check and medical examination. Uber launched its services within Israel earlier this year.

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December 10, 2014 | The French-Israeli cable mogul Patrick Drahi’s telecom group Altice acquired the Portuguese telecommunications company Oi for $9.1 billion. The deal includes Oi’s assets in Hungary and takes into consideration €500 million in future profit and cash generation targets. Altice secured the deal after beating out bids from private equity firms Apax Partners and Bain Capital. In October of last year Portugal Telecom and Oi merged their operations to form a new Brazil-based company with over 100 million subscribers. Altice Group is a multinational cable and telecommunications company with a presence in France, Israel, Belgium and Luxembourg, Portugal, French West Indies / Indian Ocean Area and Dominican Republic and Switzerland.

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December 10, 2014 | eToro has confirmed reports that Ping An and Sberbank invested $27 million in the company last month. According to the company, Ping An Ventures, which operates under Ping An Insurance Group of China, and SBT Venture Capital, a fintech fund who has partnered with Sberbank, led the financing round. In addition, existing investors Spark Capital, BRM Group and the Silicon Valley Bank. The funding will be used to accelerate eToro’s global growth, with an emphasis on China and Russia. There are now hopes that with the new funding, the company will hold an international IPO by the start of 2016. eToro is a social trading company established in 2007 by founders Ronen Assia and David Ring.

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December 10, 2014 | Tower Semiconductor announced that Fairchild Semiconductor will begin mass production at TowerJazz Panasonic’s fabrication facility in Japan. This represents a process transfer from Fairchild of their devices for industrial and consumer markets. TowerJazz’s business model allows for other companies to transfer their process flows into TowerJazz’s worldwide manufacturing facilities. TowerJazz was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Migdal HaEmek, Israel.

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December 10, 2014 | BioLight Life Sciences Investments announced that it signed an exclusive distribution agreement for the sale and marketing of the IOPiMate system in Hong Kong and Macao. The IOPiMate system is based on CO2 laser technology that enables the performance of a unique filtration surgery to treat glaucoma without penetrating the inner part of the eyeball. In Hong Kong, the system has been installed in a trial basis in a medical center after received approval in March from the China Food and Drug Administration. BioLight invests in, manages and commercializes biomedical innovations grouped around defined medical conditions, ophthalmology and cancer diagnostics.

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December 10, 2014 | The Israeli water company TaKaDu signed a one-year contract with Sydney Water in Australia to help conserve water and increase the efficiency of the municipal water network. Sydney Water will engage in a trial of TaKaDu’s Integrated Water Network Management product across its 21,000 kilometer water network. Sydney Water is the largest water utility provider in Australia with a tradition of innovation in water distribution and network management. TaKaDu uses statistical algorithms to integrate, aggregate, and analyse water network data through a web-based solution. TaKaDu was founded by CEO Amir Peleg.

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December 10, 2014 | According to the initial data collected by the European Research Council and the ‘Horizon 2020’ program, twelve researchers from Tel Aviv University have received grants from the prestigious organization. The ERC is part of the ‘Horizon 2020,’ the largest ever research and development program initiated by the European Union that will award €80 million (approx. $99 million) in grant money by 2020. Within the first round of the program, Israeli universities were awarded with 25 different grants, with Tel Aviv University making up 48 percent of the Israeli group of grant recipients.

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December 9, 2014 | The Israeli startup Tufin announced that it raised $8 million in order to simplify the management of data security networks, according to a “Geektime” report. This is the third investment round the company has engaged itself in since Tufin was founded in 2004, bringing the total investments in the company to $32.6 million. The current investment round was led by the Vintage Fund together with the Marker Investment Fund, which has participated in previous rounds. Tufin has over 1,400 customers in over 50 countries and cooperates with leading information security companies, Cisco, Juniper and more.

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December 9, 2014 | The Israeli startup Sckipio Technologies, developing fast modem chipsets, announced that it raised $17 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Pitango Venture Capital as well as Gemini Israel Ventures, Genesis Partners, Amit Ventures and Aviv Ventures. In addition, Pitango General Partner Eitan Bek will take a seat on Sckipio’s broad of directors. Since the company was founded in 2012 it has raised $27 million, including the recent funds. Sckipio was founded in 2012 by Baum, CTO Rami Verbin, COO Oren Mansour and VP of R&D Ron Sterenson.

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December 9, 2014 | The Tres Coracoes Alimentos S.A. joint venture coffee with Strauss Group acquired the coffee business of Itamaraty. Itamaraty produces and distributes coffee and related products in Southern Brazil under the auspices of other brands (Londrina, Charm, Ouriborn, Americano and Cafeare). Itamaraty’s cofffee business is the fourth largest in southern Brazil in the roast and ground coffee market. Strauss Coffee is a leading international coffee producer with annual sales of over $1 billion, with authentic, local coffee brands in Israel, Brazil, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Russia and Ukraine.

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December 9, 2014 | The premature infant and child formula company Nutrinia announced that it raised $12 million from Pontifax, OrbiMed and the Jacobs family, according to a “Globes” report. The company has discovered that by delivering insulin to the intestine makes maturation possible, improving the absorption of nutrients. According to the company’s trials, its product can potentially shorten the duration of infant intravenous feeding by up to 4-9 days, shortening their hospital visit by up to 7 days. The company will use the funds for two Phase III clinical trials of its product that are set to begin in 2015. Nutrinia was founded by Prof. Naim Shehadeh at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and is part of the NGT incubator in Nazareth.

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December 9, 2014 | The Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi will hold an IPO for London’s Camden Market on the city’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) exchange. Sagi will offer up 13 percent of his shares in order to raise up to £100 million (approx. $156 million) at a company value of £750 million ($1.2 billion). The IPO is being supported by Jefferies Investment Bank and DLA Piper lawfirm. Sagi bought Camden Markets Holdings in March 2014, which includes the Stables Market and Camden Lock Village, for £400 million. He paid an additional £70-90 million to buy the Camden Lock and Buck Street venues, which makes Sagi the owner of four out of the six main venues in Camden Market. Sagi has plans to further invest £300 million into the development of the market by 2018.

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December 9, 2014 | The Israeli agri-tech company Adama has plans to invest up to $50 million in India in the next three to four years, in order to increase R&D and distribution. Since Adama began operations in India in 2009, it has invested $50 million, establishing one of the company’s only R&D centers outside of Israel in Hyperabad. Adama is the third largest agro-chemical company in India, a market worth nearly $2 billion. Adama, formerly known as Makteshim Agan, was founded in 1945 and is headed by CEO Erez Vigodman.

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