June 18, 2014 | According to a “Globes” report, Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) is up for purchase by a German competitor on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for an estimated amount of $77 million. AVT is one of the two Israeli companies traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Founded in 1992 and based out of Hod HaSharon, AVT is a leading developer and manufacturer for web applications for labels, packaging and printing.
News Briefs
June 18, 2014
AVT To Reportedly Sell For $77M In Germany
June 18, 2014
BioCatch Biometric Fraud Detection Raises $10M In Funding
June 18, 2014 | Behavioral biometric authentication and threat detection company BioCatch raised $10 million in its latest financing round. Blumberg Capital and crowdfunding group OurCrowd led the financing round, the funds from which BioCatch hopes to use to expand its R&D and reach U.S. and European markets. BioCatch has already been launched by several banks and ecommerce websites where the company works to reduce security threats resultant from risky transactions. The company’s technology is able to collect over 400 bio-behavioral, cognitive and physiological parameters to create unique user profiles for each website visitor. BioCatch was founded in 2011 by company CEO Benny Rosenbaum and Head of Cyber Strategy Uri Rivner.
June 18, 2014
Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Raises $10.5M In Non-Public Offering
June 18, 2014 | Israeli biotechnology company Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics announced that it raised $10.5 million in private placement, or a non-public offering. The funds from the offering will go towards the phase II clinical trials for an ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) treatment that the company has developed. Brainstorm Cell’s treatment is called NurOwn for both ALS, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, but now the company is considering examining its use for the treatment of autism.
June 18, 2014
Afcon Holdings Raises NIS 200M For Construction Of Wind Farms
June 18, 2014 | Afcon Holdings headed by Shlomo Shmeltzer raised NIS 200 million in order to construct two wind farms at Kibbutz Maaleh Hagilboa and Kibbutz Degania in the north of Israel. As part of the financing round, Bank Hapoalim will lend 160 million to company, with the rest of the 40 million derived from Afcon’s own equity and loans. Together, the two wind farms will generate 21.25 megawatts of electricity, with an expected total revenue of NIS 22-26 million. Afcon Holdings (formerly Afcon Industries) is one of the largest industrial enterprises in Israel.
June 18, 2014
Phinergy Test Drives Longest Range Battery Powered Car
June 18, 2014 | The creator of the longest-range battery powered car, Phinergy test drove the vehicle in Canada last week as part of their partnership with Alcoa Canada. The Phinergy battery-powered car is able to travel 1,100 miles (1,750 kilometers) between charges, while Tesla’s Model S electric car can travel 300 miles (500 kilometers) between charges. Phinergy’s battery powered car is unique in that it switches between a standard lithium-ion battery for short trips and their aluminum-air battery for longer hauls. The technology to power Phinergy’s cars originated at Bar Ilan University the company’s chief scientist Ernst Khasin PhD. Currently, the company is headed by CEO Aviv Tzidon.
June 17, 2014
Interlude’s Vania Heymann Wins First Place At Cannes For Interactive Dylan Clip
June 17, 2014 | Interlude video artist and director Vania Heymann won first place at the Cannes Film Festival in the category of “Digital Marketing” for the interactive music video he created for Bob Dylan’s classic song “Like A Rolling Stone”. The clip went viral this year on the internet because of its fun interactive feature that allows viewers to flip through various television stations that are all singing in sync with the song. The clip, which introduced Israeli celebrity Yoni Bloch’s startup Interlude to the world, also won the Webby prize for web creations.
June 17, 2014
Second 8200 Accelerator Seeks To Solve Social Problems Through Entrepreneurship
June 17, 2014 | The chairman of alumni for elite intelligence unit 8200, Nir Lempert has plans to launch a second accelerator program, this time with the goal of solving social problems through entrepreneurship. According to a report in “Globes,” Lempert, who is also the CEO of Zap Group, hopes to hold the first courses for socially-aware entrepreneurs this coming October. The goal of the accelerator program is to use technological means in order to solve social problems, and the course hopes to provide entrepreneurs with the tools and knowledge to do so. This is the second accelerator program founded by alumni of the 8200 unit, with the first founded by Roy Goldenberg and called EISP 8200.
June 17, 2014
Hebrew U And Al Quds Public Health Society Receives €800,000 From Netherlands
June 17, 2014 | A collaborative effort between the Hebrew University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Al Quds Public Health Society received €800,000 in funding from the government of the Netherlands to conduct their research. The team will examine five diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans with significant health implications in a project entitled, “Improving Public Health through Spatial Risk Assessment of Vector-Borne Diseases in the Palestinian Authority and Israel.” The research group is lead by Prof. Shimon Harrus and Prof. Gad Baneth of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Hebrew University and Prof. Ziad Abdeen from the Public Health Society.
June 17, 2014
Moment.me Event Platform Raises $1.65M
June 17, 2014 | The event technology company Moment.me raised $1.65 million in funding from investors Singtel Innov8, Blumberg Capital and European investors. To date, the company has raised nearly $3 million. The new batch of funds will be used to improve the quality of its application’s various services, to expand the company’s marketing and advertising efforts and to accelerate its microsite creation service. Moment.me is a platform that allows event planners to create a website, without any coding knowledge, that provides all of the event’s attendees with the information they need to know, tools to purchase tickets, photo galleries and even tweet records, allowing all attendees to visually remember and share the event. Moment.me was founded in 2012 in New York by Ronny Elkayam, Boaz Adato and Elion Tirosh and claims that it is currently experiencing a growth rate of 15,000 users per day.
June 17, 2014
Noise Reduction Technology Developer Silentium Raises $10M
June 17, 2014 | Israeli device-noise reduction company Silentium raised $10 million in funding from an unidentified Russian investment bank, according to “TheMarker.” The company has developed technology that is able to silence noise by about 90 percent from devices, home appliances, and even automobiles, previously raising $15 million from Israeli cleantech fund Terra Ventures. Founded in 1997 by CEO Yossi Barath and Nehemia Amir, Silentium is based in Rehovot, Israel and employs nearly 25 individuals.
June 17, 2014
Eric Schmidt To Arrive In Israel Today For Personal Visit
June 17, 2014 | According to an exclusive report in “TheMarker,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt will arrive in Israel for a personal visit and is set to meet with a number of Israeli high-tech companies while he is here. Schmidt’s visit will be short, only a day and a half, and today (Tuesday) he will attend a closed meeting with senior members of Israel’s high-tech sector. Schmidt is an active investor in Israeli startups through the venture capital fund Innovation Endeavors, which is managed by Israeli partner Dror Berman. Just two years ago Schmidt visited Israel for the Presidential Conference, after which he wrote on his Google+ account, “Israel has become a center for high-tech.”
June 17, 2014
GreenIQ, HopOn And Zeekit Win 2nd Smartup Competition
June 17, 2014 | In the second Israeli Smartup competition, hosted by “Globes” and Bank Hapoalim, GreenIQ, HopOn and Zeekit were chosen to receive a startup package. The package will include a NIS 20,000 grant, a high-tech bank account with preferential terms and advise from executives at Explore.Dream.Discover, Nielsen Innovate and EISP 8200. The three startups were chosen out of the ten Israeli contestants for the prize, which requires startups to have raised at least NIS 250,000 in their first round of financing. GreenIQ developed a smart garden computer that automatically updates weather forecasts and allows gardeners to save water on irrigation and light resources. HopOn is an application that allows users to pay for public transportation using their smartphones, with each bus having a special code and no need for making contact with the driver. Zeekit is a platform that allows avid online shoppers to take a picture of themselves and virtually try on the clothes they want to purchase.
June 17, 2014
Nucleix Cancer Detection Company Raises $5M
June 17, 2014 | The Israeli cancer screening company Nucleix raised $5 million in an investment round led by OrbiMed Advisers Israel, according to a “Globes” report. The $5 million raised in the current financing round is added on to the previous $3 million raised from private investors to develop the company’s early stage detection mechanism for bladder cancer. Nucleix was founded by Elon Ganor, who is best known for leaving the IT field in 2006 after founding and managing MagicJack VocalTec and for his diagnostic companies that were founded in the 1980s. Nucleix hopes to use epigenetics to pinpoint cancer cells that show signs of growth, including about 15 small changes in cell’s DNA that help differentiate a healthy cell from a cancerous one.
June 16, 2014
Content Platform PlayBuzz Raises $3M
June 16, 2014 | The Israeli content and quiz-creating platform PlayBuzz announced that it raised $3 million in its current fundraising round led by Carmel Ventures. Founded in 2012 by Shaul Olmert, CEO, Yaron Buznach and Tom Pachys, PlayBuzz is already making waves on the Internet, with over 40 million unique users registered on the site in the first six months after launch. PlayBuzz, which has already been ranked in the top 50 leading sites for US traffic by Quantcast, is a content platform that allows users to create quizzes, lists and surveys (similar to BuzzFeed) that can then be shared and made ‘viral’ on social networks.
June 16, 2014
SCiO Raises $2.7M At End Of Kickstarter Campaign
June 16, 2014 | In a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the Israeli-developed hand-held molecular scanner SCiO raised $2.7 million from fans around the globe. As the campaign came to a close yesterday (Sunday), SCiO reported that it had raised 1,300 percent of its original funding goal of $200,000, raising the latter amount in just one day. The USB-sized device is what some are calling our “sixth sense” that will be able to instantaneously scan any item and report on its molecule make-up. Now SCiO, a project begun by Consumer Physics based out of Tel Aviv, hopes to use its newly won funds to begin full-scale development of their product for the project’s nearly 13,000 backers.
