October 19, 2014 | Israel’s National Transportation Authority (NTA), responsible for the Tel Aviv-area light-rail project, announced that it is in the final stages of negotiations with Parsons Brinckerhoff for a management agreement without tender. According to the agreement, American global consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff will be paid $233 million in order to manage the Tel Aviv light-rail system currently under construction for a period of 10 years. Parsons Brinckerhoff is an international company that provides professional energy and infrastructure services, with over 14,000 employees. The company is well known for its extensive knowledge in producing efficient and effective railway plans.
News Briefs
October 19, 2014
Israeli Transit Authority Will Pay $233M To See Tel Aviv Light-Rail Done Right
October 19, 2014
Israel And Saskatchewan Announce Tech Industry Partnership
October 19, 2014 | The government of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan announced that it will partner with Israel to connect tech and industry experts in both locations. The goal of the partnership is to increase resource research and sharing between the entities and to work towards exporting more products and technologies to other parts of the world. The partnership was announced by the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF) and the Israeli Embassy in Canada, currently headed by Israeli Ambassador Rafael Barak. Many in the rural Canadian province were in support of the announcement.
October 19, 2014
Vintage Investment Partners Raises $144M For Series A Startups
October 19 2014 | Israeli-based venture capital firm Vintage Investment Partners announced that it closed Vintage Investments VII, raising $144 million in funds. While previously focusing on investments within Israel, Vintage is set to turn its attention to Series A investments in the United States and Europe, while continuing its activities in Israel. In the past, Vintage invested in Wilocity, a chip manufacturer that sold to Qualcomm in July, as well as international payments company BorderFree and content recommendation platform Outbrain. According to the “Wall Street Journal,” the current funding round was secured mainly from U.S., Canadian and Israeli donors and investors. Vintage Investment Partners was founded by Managing Partner Alan Feld and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
October 19, 2014
South Korean Govt. To Seek Venture Capital Advice From Yozma Group
October 19, 2014 | The Finance Ministry of the Government of South Korea announced that it will partner with the Yozma Group, an Israeli company that specializes in venture capital creation. The goal of the partnership is to foster the creation of startups in South Korea and to help the government realize its vision of a creative economy. According to the partnership, Yozma Group will open up a South Korean branch of its company within the next year and it will be charged with investing $939 million over the next three years. According to the company, “We successfully boosted Israel into a venture power through a series of Yozma funds, and we plan to share such experience to help Korea become Asia’s venture hub.” Yozma Group will reportedly hunt out the next ‘Samsung’ in South Korea’s communications and information technologies sector and see to such a company’s expansion over seas. Yozma Group was founded in 1993 to support foreign venture capital investments in Israel.
October 19, 2014
Camilyo Launches All-In-One Platform For Server Agencies
October 19, 2014 | Israeli company Camilyo has launched a new cloud-based platform for computer networkers. Together with the launch Camilyo, founded in 2010 as MobeeArt, will reorient its functions away from web and mobile site building to focus on cloud-based services. The new Camilyo platform includes site building and maintenance tools, tools for creating e-commerce catalogs, offering and managing coupons, contacts, allows the sending of SMS messages and more. According to CEO and co-founder Gil Ilani, Camilyo is the first white-labeled, all-in-one platform at a suitable price for agencies that serve SMBs (server systems).
October 19, 2014
One Year Later, Keepy Has 500K Users On Its Memory Sharing Platform
October 19, 2014 | Nearly a year after Keepy, the online platform for sharing memories with family members, was launched, the website announced that it has over 500,000 users. In an interview with TechCrunch, Keepy CEO Offir Gutelzon stated that the site reached 500,000 users in the last few weeks and discussed plans to expand inside of the United States. Currently, Keepy is based out of New York City, but it will soon expand some of its operations to Palo Alto California with the goal of growing the company. According to Gutelzon, 75 percent of Keepy users come from the United States and 25 percent of the site’s visitors purchase a premium memory sharing account for $1.99-2.99 per family a month. In addition, Gutelzon sited that 60 percent of Keepy’s users interact using mobile technology, the iPhone in particular. Keepy was founded by Gutelzon as a platform for families to share their favorite photo, text and video memories.
October 19, 2014
Imperus Technologies Acquires Diwip Social Gaming Co. For $100M
October 19, 2014 | The Israeli social gaming company Diwip was acquired by international gaming technology company Imperus Technologies. According to reports, Imperus Technologies (formerly Isis Labs) of Canada stated that the company would acquire Diwip for up to $100 million. The company is set to pay $50 million in cash and stocks up front and the additional $50 million over a period of years, dependent on Diwip’s performance and results. Diwip is the creator of the Best Casino games series, a series of top-grossing games on Facebook that allows players to gamble, but not with money. Diwip was founded in 2010 and is currently headed by Ehud Kantzuker and Yaniv Gamzo
October 19, 2014
Protalix Sees Share Price Spike Amid Ebola Threat
October 19, 2014 | The Israeli biopharmaceutical company Protalix Biotherapeutics saw an 11 percent spike in its share price amid growing Ebola concerns in the United States. Protalix, which recently went public on the New York Stock Exchange, has developed a plant-based cell expression system that could potentially be used to produce the experimental ZMapp drug. Protalix’s share price similarly rose 20 percent after the inventor of Protalix’s technology, Prof. Yoseph Shaaltiel suggested that the company’s technology could be used to create the ZMapp treatment. Protalix specializes in the development of treatments from plant-based recombinant therapeutic proteins.
October 14, 2014
Hello Doctor Raises $700K In Seed Funding
October 14, 2014 | The medical data startup Hello Doctor announced that it raised $700,000 from angel investors from Facebook, Google and pharmaceutical companies. According to Hello Doctor CEO Maayan Cohen, the investors asked to remain anonymous, but in the past, the company received funding from BlueRun Ventures. Cohen also reported that Hello Doctor’s medical record database application can now interface with about half the hospitals in the United States. According to Cohen, “Hello Doctor is the first mobile solution to aggregate all of our medical data in one place — online lab results, paper records, and blood pressure trends.”
October 14, 2014
Publicis Groupe Purchases 20 Percent Stake In Matomy Media Group
October 14, 2014 | The international French media company Publicis Groupe will purchase a 20 percent stake in the Israeli digital media advertising company Matomy Media Group. According to reports, Publicis will pay $65.6 million to the company at £2.27 per share, with the option to purchase an additional 4.9 percent of the company at the same share price. Founded in 2007 by Chairman and ad executive Ilan Shiloah, Matomy completed an IPO on the London Stock Exchange this past July, raising $70.1 million at a company value of $347 million. Matomy is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel and has offices in the United States and Europe.
October 13, 2014
C-B4 Raises $6M From Sequoia Capital
October 13, 2014 | According to reports, Sequoia Capital has invested $6 million in the Israeli predicative analytics firm C-B4. Following C-B4’s latest round of funding, the company hopes to expand its operations to the United States and to recruit a sales team there. C-B4’s predictive analytics combine intelligence, statistics, and data comparison by analyzing patterns and providing insight. The company is the offspring of an extensive research project carried out at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
October 13, 2014
My Size Plans $10M NYSE Offering
October 13, 2014 | My Size, which recently merged with TopSpin Medical, has decided to raise $10 million on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Currently, the automated clothing size measurement technology company trades on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) at a NIS 8.5 million market cap. My Size’s main product is still under development, but according to the company, it will be able to take a person’s clothing measurements through his or her smartphone, allowing users to purchase clothes online in the right sizes. The product is not only in trying to tackle this problem in the online fashion industry, with another Israeli company Mipso developing technology that also be able to determine sizes. My Size recently displayed its systems at the National Investment Banking Association Conference in the United States.
October 13, 2014
Elbit Receives $12.7M Contract For US Army Apache Helmets
October 13, 2014 | The Israeli defense electronics and technology company Elbit Systems was awarded a $12.7 million contract to provide Apache Aviator Integrated Helmets to the US military. The company believes that work on the order will take up to two years and will be conducted at the company’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas. Elbit Systems is owned by its US subsidiary Elbit Systems of America. Elbit Systems was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Haifa, Israel.
October 13, 2014
Micromedic Reports Successful Cervical Cancer Diagnosis In China
October 13, 2014 | Israeli cancer diagnostics company Micromedic announced the trial of its product for detecting cervical cancer at the Beijing Military Hospital. The product proved successful in the trial at marking the cancer cells, making the diagnostic process more effective. However, Micromedic also reported that its current distributor in China is unable to handle the anticipated sales volume, forcing the company to consider other possibilities for distribution in the country. China and India are currently the major markets for Micromedic’s product because it is the only effective diagnostic test in the commercial stage. Micromedic is the cancer diagnosis technology unit of Bio-Light Israeli Life Science Investments, which owns 31 percent of the company.
October 13, 2014
Therapix Biosciences Set To Begin Trading On Wall Street
October 13, 2014 | The Israeli pharmaceutical technology company Therapix Biosciences registered with the American Depository Receipts to begin trading on Wall Street’s OTCQB exchange. Therapix currently has a NIS 9.3 million market cap on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and following the announcement, the company’s share price rose 10 percent only to drop by 11 percent in the subsequent days. Therapix now hopes that trading on Wall Street will improve its situation, as medical marijuana research companies have seen a downturn since the beginning of 2014. Therapix focuses on the advancement of specialty biopharmaceuticals, recently investing in medical marijuana company Lara Pharma.
