September 22, 2014 | The emotions analytics company Beyond Verbal announced that it raised $3.3 million in a funding round led by Winnovation and SingulariTeam. With this investment, the total funds invested in BeyondVerbal since the company’s founding in May, 2013 has reached more than $7 million. Beyond Verbal also unveiled its new cloud-based solutions for the developers of wellness and fitness apps that want to add an emotion-screening features to their technology. Using smartphones Beyond Verbal’s Wellness API can turn any smartphone microphone into a sensor that discovers and tracks emotional well-being over time and in correlation with different activities. Beyond Verbal’s technology is based on research that began in 1995 (now with five patents) and is able to detect hundreds of thousands of emotional states via voice in over 30 different languages.
News Briefs
Beyond Verbal Raises $3.3M And Releases Wellness API
Arab Israeli Incubator Takwin Labs Raises $4.5M In Series A Funding
September 22, 2014 | Takwin Labs, a new incubator for the Arab Israeli community, announced that it closed $4.5 million in Series A funding. Takwin (meaning Genesis or ‘start’ in Arabic) Labs will focus on mobile and internet technology startups, with the hope that it will be able to help Arab Israeli entrepreneurship grow. The incubator was created out of cooperation between MK Erel Margalit, the founder of Jerusalem Venture Partners, Chemi Peres, founder and managing partner at Pitango Venture Capital and the Al Bawader, the first venture capital investment firm for the Arab Israeli community, and founder of Babcom Centers Imad Telhami. Takwin Labs is based in Haifa, Israel, raising the Series A funding from Israeli, Arab and American investors, with plans to raise a total of $20 million. In the coming year, Takwin Labs will invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in 4-6 startup companies.
Israel Chemicals To Fire 300 Employees
September 22, 2014 | Israel Chemicals announced at the end of August its plans to lay off 300 employees in at its Bromine Compounds plant in the Negev. In addition, the company will close its magnesium plant in Sdom, Israel. Israel Chemicals asserts that its streamlining plan is in response to recommendations from the Sheshinski Committee to pay higher royalties. The company plans to shut down its magnesium plant by January 2017 when the Sheshinski’s Committee’s recommendations will take effect. Israel Chemicals is a multinational manufacturing company that develops, produces and markets fertilizers, metals and other chemicals products based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
EatWith Raises $8M From Greylock Partners
September 21, 2014 | The Israeli marketplace for diners and people who want to host them in their home EatWith announced that it raised $8 million from Greylock Partners. In addition, Greylock Partners marketplace expert Simon Rothman will join the board. The company, which was founded in 2012 by Guy Michlin and Shemer Schwartz now has more than 500 hosts in 160 cities and 30 countries around the world, providing those that are willing with a chance to sample local cuisine made by locals. The company recently moved from its home base in Tel Aviv to open up an office in San Francisco, which currently houses the company’s 18 employees.
Israeli-Born Safra Catz Promoted To Co-CEO Of Oracle
September 21, 2014 | An Israeli-born woman, Safra Catz was appointed to the position of co-CEO at the international enterprise software company Oracle. Catz, together with co-CEO Mark Hurd, will replace Oracle co-founder, former CEO and billionaire Larry Ellison who stepped down this past Thursday (September 18). Catz and Hurd have experience working together in the past as co-president of Oracle prior to their promotion. According to Oracle, Catz will be responsible for the manufacturing, finance and legal decisions, while Hurd will take charge of sales, service and global business units. Although he has stepped down, Ellison will remain in charge of all software and engineering development. Catz was born in Holon, Israel, but moved to the United States where she was raised and received her education in law and business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Foamix Raises $40M In NASDAQ IPO
September 21, 2014 | The Israeli dermatology company Foamix Pharmaceuticals announced that it finished the pricing stage of its NASDAQ IPO. However, the company was forced to dramatically reduce the price and extent of the offering in order to complete it. Foamix originally wanted to raise $65 million at a company value of $234 million, after money, but it only raised $40 million after increasing the number of shares and lowering the share price to $6 per share at a company value of $128 million, after money. The chief underwriters for the IPO were Barclay’s Capital and Cowen & Co., and second underwriters were Oppenheimer and Maxim Group. Foamix specializes in the development of new foam formulations for drugs and dermatology products, as opposed to traditional ointments, founded by CEO Dr. Dov Tamarkin and COO Meir Eini.
Babylon Sells Services To Babylon Software For $2.5M
September 21, 2014 | As part of its efforts to bounce back from the end of the company’s cooperation with Google, Babylon‘s translation services and organizational data retrieval will be sold to Amnon Ovadia for $2.5 millon. Ovadia is the original founder of the company that in the past collaborated with Google until the collaboration was suspended in 2013 due to toolbar malware issues. The company, currently controlled by Chairman Noam Lanir, will sell its traditional translations services and organizational data retrieval to Babylon Software, a company created for the sole purpose of the deal, controlled by Ovadia and his wife, Bela. The $2.5 million will be injected into Babylon in stages: $1 million upon the signing of the deal, $750,000 a year later and an additional $750,000 within two years of the deal. Babylon was founded in 1997 as a direct translation tool.
Lockheed Martin Establishes Israel Subsidiary In South
September 18, 2014 | The American aerospace, defense, security and advanced technology company Lockheed Martin has established a subsidiary in the south of Israel, operating under the name Lockheed Martin Israel. The subsidiary registered with the Israel Corporations Authority in August, and will focus on technology in the fields of cyber security, data centers, mobile, analytics and cloud, among other sectors. The subsidiary will also engage in acquisitions, partnerships, and investments as part of its business strategy within Israel. The Lockheed Martin subsidiary will be located in Beer Sheva as part of the Israel Defense Forces movement to the southern city away from its traditional hub in Tel Aviv and in hopes of receiving more defense contracts. Lockheed Martin was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.
Siemens Acquires CyActive For Undisclosed Amount
September 18, 2014 | The venture capital unit of Siemens announced that it will invest an undisclosed sum in Israeli cyber-security startup CyActive. CyActive’s services focus on industrial and utility companies, which are considered high-risk targets for cyber security attacks. The company’s premise is that most hacker are unable to create entirely original viruses, therefore they take existing malware strains and mutating them in every possible format in order to predict and ware off future attacks. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Liran Tancman and CTO Shlomi Boutnaru, gaining attention earlier this year when it was accepted into the Cyber Labs startup incubator, which is backed by Jerusalem Venture Partners and Ben Gurion University in the Negev.
Square Peg Capital Sets Aside $100M For US, Israeli Startups
September 18, 2014 | One of Australia’s largest venture capital firms, Square Peg Capital, has set aside $100 million for Israeli and US startups technology startups. The millions that Square Peg has set aside are not structured as a fund, but the firm functions more like an angel network that requires group consensus to invest in a company. The Square Peg team has invested more than $45 million in over 19 investments.
PrivatEquity.biz Expands Services To United Kingdom
September 18, 2014 | The trading platform PrivatEquity.biz, the first secondary market platform in Israel, will expand its operations to the United Kingdom. PrivatEquity.biz will offer private and institutional investment managers in the UK the opportunity to establish in-house venture capital fund to invest in private Israeli high-tech companies in the secondary market. As part of PrivatEquity.biz’s services, British investors will be able to invest in securities held by entrepreneurs, employees and former employees of former Israeli high-tech employees. Currently, the company is negotiating with UK authorities to establish an extension of its services in London. PrivatEquity.biz’s “broker-dealer” program enables the creation of an innovative long-term profit center in the secondary market of private Israeli high-tech companies.
Cloudyn Raises $4M In Series A Funding Round
September 18, 2014 | The Israeli cloud monitoring and optimization startup Cloudyn announced that it raised $4 million in a Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Titanium Investments, together with existing investor RDSeed, bringing Cloudyn’s total investment to date to $5.5 million. Cloudyn will use the funds to support more cloud computing infrastructure platforms and to enhance its flagship offering to companies. In addition, Cloudyn announced that Titanium Investments Managing Partner Alexander Aivazov has joined the board of directors. Cloudyn’s platform delivers analytics that allows customers to identify factors like unnecessary spending, unused resources and over-provisioned services on public, private and hybrid clouds. In the past year, the company has expanded its ability to support more cloud computing platforms like Amazon AWS, Google GCE, and OpenStack.
Secure Islands Technologies Raises Up To $12M From Credit Suisse
September 18, 2014 | Israeli cyber security company Secure Islands Technologies raised an undisclosed amount from Credit Suisse NEXT Investors, the venture capital arm of Credit Suisse. According to some reports, the investment totals up to $12 million and will allow the company to continue expansion in North America and Europe. Secure Islands works to protect the most sensitive date of corporations throughout the content creation lifecycle, focusing only on entry and exit points. Secure Islands was founded in 2006 by CEO Aki Eldar and CTO Yuval Eldar.
“Bloomberg” Report: Israel Chemicals To Delist From TASE
September 18, 2014 | According to a “Bloomberg” report, Israel Chemicals may use its upcoming IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in order to delist from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The move may be taken by the company in order to pressure the Israeli government into easing the new regulatory tax and royalty regime that is currently being considered by the Sheshinski II committee. Israel Chemicals has the second largest market cap on the TASE, and has already threatened to reduce activities and investments if the government does not meet its demands. Israel Chemicals commented in response that it does not plan to delist from the TASE.
Three Israeli Universities Rank In Top 200 In 2014 World University Rankings
September 18, 2014 | According to the 2014 QS World University Rankings, three Israeli universities ranked in the Top 200 universities. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s top ranked university, rising three places since last year to 138. The Technion Israel Institute of Technology slipped seven places to 190, while Tel Aviv University’s ranking rose to 195. Out of the non-Israeli universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology placed first on the list for the third straight year, followed by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London in second and third places.
