News Briefs

December 2, 2014 | The video-messaging startup Glide Talk announced that it closed a $20 million investment round, bringing total investment in the company to $28.5 million. Following the funding round, the company, founded in 2012 in Jerusalem, will reach a $100 million valuation, sources tell the “Wall Street Journal.” Glide Talk allows users to send video messages over the cloud, so that the videos they record, send and receive don’t take up space on their device. Managed by Chief Executive Ari Roisman, the company is reportedly tailoring their technology for use in smartwatches, a growing sector.

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December 1, 2014 | Tel Aviv University‘s Porter School of Environmental Studies has received the final approval of the American institution responsible for green building, the LEED Platinum designation. The project was awarded 92 out of 93 points that the building’s planner aimed for, with the maximum number of points being 110 for a green building. According to the University, only a number of universities in the world can claim this designation for their campus, including Harvard and Yale. In addition, only about 14 structures in the world have received above 90 points towards a LEED designation. The building houses the environmental studies department of Tel Aviv University.

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December 1, 2014 | The energy management solutions provider Panoramic Power announced that it will collaborate with Autodesk on a joint product. Autodesk is the producer of 3D design and simulation software, and together the companies will combine Autodesk’s cloud-based Building Information Modeling (BIM) portfolio and Panoramic’s device-level energy platform. In addition, Autodesk will invest $7 million in Panoramic along with existing investors. “Through our collaboration with Autodesk, we will deliver solutions that define a new way of proactively managing facility operations,” said Yaniv Vardi, CEO at Panoramic Power. Panoramic Power was founded in 2009 by Chairman David Almagor and COO/CTO Adi Shamir.

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December 1, 2014 | The Israeli company Grid4C announced that it raised $1.5 million from Israel Clean Tech Ventures Fund (ICV) in its first round of funding. Grid4C develops machine-based artificial learning software for power producers and providers. Grid4C has clients in Israel, the United States and Europe. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Dr. Noa Ruschin-Rimini in order to answer challenges facing power-providers.

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December 1, 2014 | Despite recent announcements that the biomedical company Polypid would seek to raise $20 million at a company valuation of $100 million on NASDAQ, the company is likely to put off the offering until the beginning of 2015. The comment was made by Haim Horowitz, the head of the cHealth innovation fund, to “Globes,” with Horowitz stating that the company decided to put off the IPO due to weak markets in anticipation of the holiday season. The offering was set to be led by underwriters Aegis and secondary underwriters Chardan Capital and MLV. Polypid is best known for the development of extended-release tablets against bone fracture infections.

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December 1, 2014 | The chip developer for digital pens, N-trig, announced that it will forego its plans to issue a public offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), according to a “Globes” report. Accordingly, the company was unsuccessful in raising the $75 million company value it sought, though there were a number of investors who showed interest in taking part in the public offering. In order to continue N-trig’s growth, existing investors pledged $4.4 million and more in investments to be injected into the company (but will not go towards the public offering). N-trig was founded in 1999 and has offices in Israel, China, Taiwan and Japan.

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December 1, 2014 | The wireless machine-to-machine technology provider, Telit, will hold an Internet of Things Big Data Challenge together with Google. This is set to be the first competition of its kind, with the hopes of encouraging IoT innovation as the sector continues to grow. As part of the competition, Internet and mobile developers will be asked to submit innovative applications based on information taken from Google’s and Telit’s clouds. Details regarding the date, location and application to the competition have yet to be released. Telit was founded in 1986 in Italy and today is run by Israeli CEO Oozi Cats.

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December 1, 2014 | The American bank Citibank announced that it will found two social-business entrepreneurship accelerators in the Arab sector. The bank will pay $150,000 to establish two accelerators in Baqa al-Gharbiyye and Nazareth, money which will be provided by the bank’s philanthropic arm. The first accelerator, Q-start, will begin activities next month in Baqa al-Gharbiyye and will be managed by PresenTense and Al-Qasemi College. At the end of the six-month accelerator program, 15 entrepreneurs will be chosen to undergo extensive training, learn new tools and will receive links in the social business community. According to CitiBank Israel CEO Neal Corney, “At Citibank, we regard the entrepreneurship existing in the Arab community as a tool with very great potential for leading to inclusion in Israeli society.”

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November 30, 2014 | According to an exclusive report by “Forex Magnates,” Singulariteam, which is managed by serial entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg, acquired the domain ‘invest.com’ for $5 million. The goal of the private investment fund engaged in seed capital funding is to enter into the forex industry, establishing an all assets brokerage site. Singulariteam is also behind a new platform called ‘Stox’ for social etrading, competing with similar Israeli platforms like eToro.

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November 30, 2014 | According to reports made by “Reuters,” the European private equity and venture capital firm Apax will reach its $300 million goal for its mid-market fund called the Apax Middle-Market Israel (AMI). The funds will be used by AMI to fund companies in the technology, telecoms, healthcare, services and consumer sectors. Apax will be the investment adviser within the arrangement, which has already invested $1.2 billion in Israel since 2005. The AMI firm in Israel will be headed by Zehavit Cohen, the head of Apax Israel, who also led the group’s investments in Tnuva and the Psagot investment firm.

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November 30, 2014 | The content recommendation platform Outbrain has reportedly filed a confidential offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an offering on NASDAQ. According to reports made by the “Wall Street Journal,” the company will reportedly seek a $1 billion valuation if it decides to go ahead with the offering. In addition, reports suggest that Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan will be the chief underwriters for the offering. Outbrain is a content marketing module employed by a number of websites and was founded in 2006 by Yaron Galai.

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November 27, 2014 | Tel Aviv University and Tsinghua University in China’s joint research center held its first conference at the XIN Center this October. During the three-day conference, attended by entrepreneurs, investors, government and industry leaders, was the joint research center’s first event since it was established last May. “I believe that the hard work of the XIN Center team and their supporters is bound to produce outstanding scientists, entrepreneurs, and successful investors,” said Chen Jining, Tsinghua University’s president. The XIN Center was established as an forum dedicated to training scientific innovators in both Israel and China in the fields of nanotechnology, renewable energy and biotech.

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November 27, 2014 | Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced that the board of directors has elected Professor Yitzhak Peterburg as chairman, becoming effective on January 1, 2015. Prof. Peterburg has been a member of the board since 2012 and will replace Dr. Phillip Frost. In addition, the board appointed Dr. Sol J. Barer to the position of director of the board. Prof. Peterburg has previously served as the CEO and president of the Israeli mobile carrier Cellcom from 2003-2005.

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November 27, 2014 | The family history network, MyHeritage, will provide its Smart Matching service to another family history service, RootsMagic. The service, which compares millions of family trees  to discover a more accurate family history, is integrated into the latest version of RootsMagic’s geneaology software. “MyHeritage matches are a very exciting feature”, said RootsMagic, Inc.’s Vice President, Michael Booth. MyHeritage is a leading genealogy website that services millions of families in 40 different languages. The company was founded in 2003 by Gilad Japhet.

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November 27, 2014 | Apple co-founder and technology guru Steve Wozniak will serve as the chief scientist for the American-Israeli data virtualization company, Primary Data. In the past, Wozniak has counseled the company on its technological vision and architecture, as well as working to advocate the company’s technology overseas. According to Wozniak, “Primary Data uses data virtualization to dynamically place data anywhere as applications demand. I’m excited to share our data virtualization platform with the world.” Primary Data was founded in 2013 by David Flynn and Rick White, and is headquartered in the US, with offices in Israel.

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