October 23, 2014 | The Israeli military and security technology company Elbit Systems won $85 million in contracts from an unnamed Asian country. According to reports, the majority of the amount will go towards an F-5 aircraft avionics upgrade program, and the rest will go towards communications and electro-optics systems. The F-5 is a very maneuverable fighter jet that serves customers like the United States, Switzerland, Norway and Brazil. Elbit Systems was founded in 1996 and is headed by Chairman Michael Federmann and President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis.
News Briefs
October 23, 2014
Elbit Systems Wins $85M In Contracts From Asia
October 23, 2014
MyHeritage To Partner With 23andMe For DNA-Based Ancestry Results
October 23, 2014 | The Israeli genealogy search engine MyHeritage will team with the personal DNA service 23andMe to make it possible for users to take personal DNA tests to discover more about their family history. According to reports, the first stages of integration between the companies is set to be completed in early 2015. “Combining genealogy with DNA-based ancestry is the next evolution in uncovering family history,” said MyHeritage founder and CEO Gilad Japhet. MyHeritage is the online platform that allows users to discover their family history and create family trees by conducting ancestry research in the site’s 5.5 billion historical documents. 23andMe was founded by Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, and Paul Cusenza and provides ancestry-related DNA reports.
October 23, 2014
Beta-O2 Successfully Implants First Bio-Artifical Pancreas
October 23, 2014 | Beta-O2 Technologies announced that the company’s first broad study of the ßAir Bio-Artificial Pancreas has been successfully implanted. ßAir is a treatment still under development for Type I diabetes, with hope that it may even be a cure. The eight participants in the study will be treated and observed at Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden. According to Beta-O2 chairman, if the eight-person trial is successful, it will be necessary to carry out an efficacy trial on an addition 50 patients, after which it will be possible to market the product. Beta-O2 was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Rosh HaAyin, Israel.
October 23, 2014
DSP Group and Qualcomm Partner On Latest Coms. Tech
October 23, 2014 | The wireless chipset provider DSP Group announced that it has partnered with Qualcomm subsidiary Qualcomm Atheros. The DCX81 DECT/CAT-iq/ULE (Ultra Low Energy) System on a Chip (SoC) can be integrated with Qualcomm’s Internet Processor to enable the delivery of advanced cordless phone features like multi-line, multi-call and multi-handset enhanced with HD voice. “We are excited to work with Qualcomm in facilitating the development of next-generation converged communication solutions with unprecedented performance and power efficiency,” said Daniel Estrakh, Cordless Product Director at DSP Group. Though both companies are based in the United States, DSP Group have a R&D center in Israel, as does Qualcomm.
October 23, 2014
Exalenz Bioscience To Begin Liver Disease Diagnostics Trial
October 23, 2014 | The Israeli biomedical company Exalenz Bioscience announced that their noninvasive diagnostics will now begin clinical trials for diagnosing diseases in the liver. Exalenz developed a system for diagnosing diseases in the digestive tract by testing the composition of the air in the patient’s mouth. Now the company will begin clinical trials to identify disease in the liver using the same method, but a different biological indicator. As a result, Exalenz’s share price rose 2 percent on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, giving the company a market cap of NIS 83.5 million.
October 23, 2014
Meir Shamir Purchases $5M In Shares In Elbit’s Everysight
October 23, 2014 | According to a “Globes” report, Meir Shamir has purchased $5 million worth of preferable shares in Elbit System‘s wearable computing technology company Everysight. The report states that Shamir, owner of Mivtack Shamir Holdings, purchased the shares together with LR Group’s Ami Lustig and Roy Ben-Yami. In addition, Ben-Yami was appointed chairman of the board together with three other Elbit executives: CFO Joseph Gaspar, Aerospace Division General Manager Yoram Shmuely and VP Asaf Ashkenazi. Meanwhile, Elbit has submitted a trademark application for Everysight’s technology in the US.
October 23, 2014
Israeli Security Co. ISDS Will Secure The 2016 Olympics In Rio
October 23, 2014 | The Olympic Committee and the agencies managing the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro have selected Israeli security company ISDS to provide security for the major event. Following a three-year tender, the Committee finally decided to bestow the responsibility upon ISDS, owned by president and founder Leo Gleser. According to the tender, ISDS will be able to draw on a $2.2 billion budget for constructing and managing the complex security system for the event which is set to have billion of attendees. The company will be responsible for integrating the various security systems at the games and will provide consultation and services to see to it that the Olympics go on without incident.
October 23, 2014
Carmel Ventures Closes Fund IV With $194M In Commitments
October 23, 2014 | The Israeli venture capital firm Carmel Ventures, which is a member of the Viola Group, announced the completion of funding for its latest investment fund, Carmel Ventures IV. The total funds committed to the latest investment fund total $194 million, money that will be invested in early-stage transformative technology companies in high growth sectors. Some of the sectors the funds are set to go towards include: enterprise software, data center infrastructure, big data, cyber security, FinTech, digital media and consumer applications. Carmel began investing out of the new fund in January, already placing funds in Shaul Olmert’s PlayBuzz, raising $3 million, and LuckyFish Games, which raised $1.6 million, along with an additional three early stage companies. Carmel Ventures manages over $800 million in investor capital and has invested in over 35 active companies.
October 23, 2014
Tel Aviv U Launches Alternative Fuels Accelerator Program
October 23, 2014 | The National Research Institute for Transportation Innovation at Tel Aviv University will be launching an accelerator program in intelligent transportation and alternative fuels. The accelerator will reportedly open its first round in December as part of a new research institute that the university established this past August with the Alternative Fuels Administration and the Office of the Prime Minister. Participants in the four to six month accelerator program will be housed in TAU’s Porter School of Environmental Studies. The budget for the program is expected to be about NIS1 million annually and will be implemented together with EcoMotion, an Israel-based global community of entrepreneurs in the smart transportation industry.
October 23, 2014
YouAppi App Analytics Closes $3M Funding Round
October 23, 2014 | Mobile application analytics company YouAppi announced the end of a $3 million funding round. According to the company, the funds will be used to expand the analytics featured offered to mobile app creators who are eager to know how customers interact with their app after they download it. YouAppi specializes in figuring out exactly what developers should do to get the most out of their app according to customer preferences. Glilot Capital Partners, 2B-Angeles and Flint Capital led the funding round. “We have developed a platform for mobile app recommendations based on data analysis,” says company CEO Moshe Vaknin. The company is based in New York, but is managed by Israelis.
October 23, 2014
Tipalti Raises $13M To Expand Global Payments
October 23, 2014 | Mass payouts provider Tipalti announced that the company raised $13 million in funding to help money flow smoothly across borders. Tipalti’s platform allows programers to integrate a line of code into their website in order to solve mass payment solution problems. After registering their information, those who want to pay on the website wait until their method of payment in validated and then instruct Tapalti which country and currency the transfer should be in. Tipalti takes care of the rest with the payee with the service being free for the payer and funded by the payee on their website. Tipalti was co-founded in 2011 by CEO Chen Amit and Chairman Oren Zeev with offices in Israel and Palo Alto, California.
October 22, 2014
Spot.IM Launches First Distributed Social Network For Publishers
October 22, 2014 | Spot.IM has released the first distributed social network, an online community creation technology that allows any website to become their own social network. The platform will debut on the website TimeOut.com. Using Spot.IM’s platform, publishers and website owners to turn their web traffic into a vibrant community to improve user engagement, monetizing capabilities and a social space.“We’re creating a new social infrastructure that will overlay the web, giving site owners a way to join the social age and succeed,” said Nadav Shoval, CEO and co-founder of Spot.IM together with Ishay Green in 2012.
October 22, 2014
EY Report: Israel To See $3-3.5B In Mergers And Acquisitions In 2014
October 22, 2014 | According to a new report by accounting firm Ernst & Young, due to economic stability in the U.S., Israel and other countries are likely to see more exits and mergers of companies in the coming year. The survey, whose results will be announced at the company’s ‘Journey’ Conference in Tel Aviv on October 30th, 81 percent of senior managers and officials in companies believe that the next year will see a rise in mergers and acquisitions, a 52 percent rise in estimates in the same survey conducted six months ago. In addition, Oren Bar-On, a senior partner at EY, suggested that Israeli companies supported by venture capital firms will see a total of $3-3.5 billion in exits and mergers by the end of 2014. This would be a decrease from 2013 that saw $4.5 billion in mergers and acquisitions.
October 22, 2014
Sony Pictures Television Acquires 50% Of Dori Media Group
October 22, 2014 | Sony Pictures Television has reportedly acquired 50 percent of Dori Media Group‘s business for tens of millions of shekels, according to estimates. Together, the two companies will form a new subsidiary, Dori TLV, through which they will jointly own the Viva channels in Israel, Viva Walla free video on demand, Baby TV channel in Indonesia, and Dori Media Ot, a dubbing and subtitles service. Dori Media is owned by Tamar Mozes Borovitz and President and CEO Nadav Palti with branches in the United States, Switzerland and Argentina.
October 22, 2014
Mobli Releases Updated Version Of Mirage Photo Messaging App
October 22, 2014 | Mobli Media released a new version of its instant messaging app, Mirage 2.0. The premiere version of Mirage was launched in July 2014 as an instant messaging platform that allows users to send and receive messages that disappear after a few seconds. The new version of Mirage, Mirage 2.0, will allow users to share messages with several contacts at once through the groups and broadcast features. “The new groups and broadcast features bring a wider experience to MIRAGE users,” said Mobli CEO Moshe Hogeg. The new version comes with other new features like Inbox, Search Bar, Localization and more.
