July 7, 2014 | Finnish communications and information technology giant Nokia will open an Israeli development center after purchasing NICE Systems 3D geolocation technology. Nokia hopes to enhance the planning and optimization of its mobile networks through the acquisition of NICE Systems, as well as gain access to the tools and expertise to maximize mobile broadband capabilities. This will not be the first Nokia office in Israel. The original R&D offices were closed about two years ago, a center that at one point employed nearly 500 Israelis. NICE Systems is an Israeli company specializing in telephone voice recording, and data security and surveillance that now has offices worldwide.
News Briefs
July 07, 2014
Nokia Opens Israel Development Center For NICE Systems 3D Tech
July 07, 2014
Digital Advertising Company Matomy To Raise $75M In London IPO
July 7, 2014 | The Israeli digital advertising company Matomy is set to raise $75 million with its latest IPO offering on the London Stock Exchange. Matomy attempted to raise up to $100 million in its IPO offering in March, but at the time was unable to pass the 25 percent threshold of European investors, a condition required by the London Stock Exchange for IPO offerings. Matomy recently purchased a majority stake in German domain monitization company Team Internet, with a current stake in the company of 70 percent. Matomy Media Group was founded in 2007 by CEO Ofer Druker, Adi Orzel, and Kfir Moyal and provides digital advertising tools for big name clients like AT&T, HSBC and American Express. Matomy is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in Madrid, Mexico City, Berlin, Munich, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, New York and San Francisco.
July 07, 2014
Shai Agassi Set To Open Electric Transportation Company ‘Newrgy’
July 7, 2014 | Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, former CEO of Better Place, is set to open an electric public transportation company in Europe called ‘Newrgy’, according to a “Globes” report. The announcement came just a year after the liquidation of Agassi’s electric car venture Better Place during a conference on alternative solutions to municipal transportation in London at the end of June. Major car manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, Ford and other executives in the electric and battery-powered car sector attended the event. The extent of Newrgy’s financing as well as initial seed investors are still unknown. Former Better Place executives believe that Agassi will focus on electric methods of public transportation, including electric cabs, that are popular and profitable solutions in European cities.
July 06, 2014
EarlySense Nabs FDA Approval For Its Monitoring Chair
July 6, 2014 | The Israeli creator of a hospital bed monitoring device EarlySense received U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval for its monitoring chair. FDA approval will allow the company to market the device to hospitals throughout the United States. EarlySense is an Israeli company with offices in Israel and the U.S. that markets sensors for hospital beds, especially those to help patients connected to many monitoring devices. The sensor is placed under the hospital bed mattress and works by sensing changes in pressure caused by the patient moving in the bed, alerting hospital staff of sudden movements or changes, like when a patient falls out of bed.
July 03, 2014
GlassesOff Reading App Secures $15M Financing Facility
July 3, 2014 | Neuroscience technology company GlassesOff has committed to a financing facility in which it is set to sell up to $15 million of its shares of common stock to YA Global Master SPV over a period of 36 months. According to GlassesOff CEO Nimrod Mader, “This type of facility can potentially serve as a cost effective alternative for us to raise capital going forward and potentially increase our stock’s liquidity.” GlassessOff was established as a company set on developing and commercializing next generation vision sharpness applications. Their application is currently available for iOS and Android compatible devices.
July 03, 2014
Ben Gurion Prof. Boussiba Bestowed With Award From Int’l Society For Applied Phycology
July 3, 2014 | The International Society for Applied Phycology bestowed Ben Gurion University in the Negev Professor Sammy Boussiba with their Distinguished Applied Phycologist Award. Prof. Boussiba was bestowed the award at the 5th annual Congress of the society last month in Sydney, Australia. Phycology is the study of algae. Prof. Boussiba is one of the scientists working toward the creation of algae-based fuels and he is the vice president and out-going president of the International Society for Applied Phycology.
July 03, 2014
SolidRun Releases New HummingBoard Mini-Computer That Costs $45 And Is Size Of A Credit Card
July 3, 2014 | The Tel Aviv-based company SolidRun released its newest computer that’s the size of a credit card and costs $45. The HummingBoard was designed to help users connect to the Internet of Things (IoT), or the syncing of common objects, such as fans or a garden hose to the internet. The HummingBoard is essentially an ARM computer and it is the company’s second mini-computer following the CuBox-i. The newest computer will come in three models including the basic model that has 512MB RAM, two USB ports, and a fast ethernet network port and the high-end model that has a Graphic Processing Unit, four USB ports as well as LVDS interface for integration with touch screens, among other features. SolidRun was founded in 2010 by Kossay Omary and Rabeeh Khoury.
July 03, 2014
AcousticEye Raises $2M From Mr. Roman Abramovich
July 3, 2014 | Israeli company AcousticEye received a $2 million investment from big-time oil and gas industry investor, Mr. Roman Abramovich. The funds from Abramovich and other investors will be used by AcousticEye to accelerate product development, sales, and deployment. The investment from Mr. Abramovich follows a recent funding round that ended in December 2013 in which the company raised $7 million. Co-founded in 2006 by Dr. Noam Amir, current CTO, AcousticEye specializes in the production of non-traversing tube and pipe inspection technologies for the global non-destructive testing (NDT) industry, which includes inspection service providers as well as end users worldwide.
July 03, 2014
Cloud Storage And Data Protection Co. CTERA Closes $25M Funding Round
July 3, 2014 | The cloud storage and data protection service for enterprises CTERA closed a $25 million funding round yesterday (Wednesday). The funding round was led by the American venture capital firm Bessemer Ventures together with Benchmark Capital, Cisco and Venrock. Following this round of funding, the total funding for CTERA since the company was founded in 2008 will total $45 million. CTERA’s technology enables enterprises and companies to provide their employees, as well as outside customers, with cloud-based storage, sharing and backup services. The company recently opened an office in New York City.
July 03, 2014
Qualcomm Acquires Wilocity Chipmaker For $300M
July 3, 2014 | The American global semiconductor company Qualcomm acquired chipmaker Wilocity for $300 million. Qualcomm hopes to use Wilocity’s WiFi chips to provide faster wireless technology in more of the company’s devices. Wilocity has developed a new kind of WiFi chip called WiGig that runs on a high radio frequency, 60 gigahertz to be exact, working several times faster than standard WiFi. Wilocity was founded in 2007 by CEO Tal Tamir and COO Dany Rettig with the goal of eliminating cords and connectors for high-speed connectivity and data transfers, from tablets to TV for instance. The company is based in California with the majority of its employees in Israel.
July 02, 2014
Israeli Company Emblaze Begins Patent Infringement Trial Against Apple
July 2, 2014 | Israeli tech and IT company Emblaze has sued Apple over patent infringement for the use of the company’s platform for delivering live-streaming video over wireless networks. The trial began on Monday in a California Federal Court with U.S. District Judge Paul S. Grewal presiding. Emblaze’s case of patent infringement was limited to seven video-streaming services, including Major League Baseball’s “At Bat” and WatchESPN, which the company asserts are platforms based on their technoogy. Emblaze was issued a US patent in 2002 covering a certain process for delivering live-streaming video via wireless networks without interruption. Apple, however, only began working on a similar HTTP live-streaming platform around 2007, demanding that services like “At Bat” use Apple’s platform, therefore infringing Emblaze’s patent. Emblaze is an Israeli company founded in 1994 and is the maker of the advanced “Else” smartphone.
July 02, 2014
Tower Semiconductor Announces Opening Of Japanese Office
July 2, 2014 | The Israeli company Tower Semiconductor announced the opening of a sales and technical support office in Kyoto, Japan. The office will be the central base for Japanese sales, technical support and the integration of interface activities for the newly established TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Company, in which Tower Semiconductors has the majority stake. TowerJazz’s presence continues to grow throughout Asia, with offices in Korea, China and Taiwan. Founded in 1993 by Dr. Giora Yaron, Tower Semiconductor is an Israeli company that manufactures semiconductors and integrated circuits for the electronics industry.
July 02, 2014
Hexadite Cyber Security Startup Raises $2.5M In Seed Funding
July 2, 2014 | Israeli cyber security company Hexadite raised $2.5 million in seed funding in a round led by YL Ventures, with participation by Microsoft Corporate VP Moshe Lichtman. The startup only recently emerged to launch its groundbreaking new approach to cyber security incident response, using special investigative tools to cut down the time it takes to identify cyber security breaches by 95 percent. The Hexadite Automated Incident Response Solution (AIRS) is already being implemented by four global customers. Hexadite was founded by former military intelligence officers and cyber security experts Eran Barak, Idan Levin and Barak Klinghofer.
July 02, 2014
Report: EZchip Semiconductor Acquires Tilera For $130M
July 2, 2014 | The Israeli company EZchip Semiconductor acquired the US-based Tilera Corporation for $130 million, according to a “Globes” report. EZchip stated that the acquisition is set to provide meaningful opportunities for the company’s growth by helping the company accelerate into new markets, diversify its consumer base, product lines and to double its market. According to the agreement, EZchip will pay Tilera’s stockholders up to $130 million in cash deposits, $50 million of that sum up-front, and the remaining $80 million dependent on the achievement of future performance milestones. EZchip is a Yokneam-based company that provides Ethernet network processors for networking equipment. Tilera develops high-performance multi-core processors, intelligent network interface cards and white-box appliances for data-center networking equipment.
July 01, 2014
Priceline Acquires Hotel Ninjas For Up To $20M
July 1, 2014 | According to reports, Priceline Group purchased cloud-based hotel property management system Hotel Ninjas for between $10-20 million. The final details of the sale were not yet made available, but it was most likely completed by May 29, when Booking.com became the sole proprietor of Hotel Ninjas. Hotel Ninja was founded two years ago by COO Avi Meir and CEO Christian Enestrom and is currently working on a second version of its product.
