News Briefs

Ormat Industries Ltd. will partake in the building of a geothermal plant in Sumatra, Indonesia. The $254 million deal was signed through the Israeli company’s Indonesian partner, Sarulla Operations Ltd. Ormat, which designed the plant, will supply its energy converters for the plant, which will manufacture 330 megawatts of electricity.

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SiSense, an Israeli company which develops analytic tools for various uses, has raised $10 million in a financing round led by Battery Ventures. TechCrunch reports that the company is developing tools for companies in need of analyzing terabaytes of data.

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For the first time in TEDMED history, a country other than the United States will be officially represented at the annual conference, to be held in Washington DC in April. The conference is a version of TED dedicated to the healthcare industry. In addition, a parallel TEDMED event will be held in Israel in April, which will be the first conference TEDMED organizers approve outside of the US.

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Israeli surgical robot developer Mazor Robotics Ltd. has announced that it signed an agreement for the acquisition of four Renaissance systems by a major US hospital corporation. The systems were installed in acute-care facilities owned by the corporation in four separate US markets. The agreement brings the total number of Renaissance installations in clinical institutions in the USA to 26, and globally to 48.

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The L’Oréal-UNESCO “Women in Science” award, which is given each year to women with exceptional achievements in science, has been awarded to Israeli researcher Dr. Osnat Zomer-Penn. Zomer-Penn has been researching the genetic basis for autism. Zomer-Penn is the third Israeli to win the prize, since Israel joined the competition in 2008.

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Israeli startup SiteBlackBox, which is developing a platform for managing and monitoring web traffic, has announced the closing of a $4.5 million financing round. The company will direct the funds towards product growth, introducing new features and expansion into new markets.

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Israeli company Orbotech Ltd., which develops manufacturing solutions for electronics companies, has announced that it has signed two deals with Asian printed circuit board manufacturers (PCB), totaling at approx. $18 million. The companies are based in Taiwan and China and the equipment provided will be used for the mass production of high density interconnect PCBs

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Israeli company Mazor Robotics Ltd., which develops surgical robots, has announced a first order placed with its Taiwanese distribution partner, Pinnaclemed Co., Ltd. The order comes just three months after the Renaissance system was approved for medical use in Taiwan.

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Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva has announced that its Quartette birth-control pill has won FDA approval. The new pill has been designed to reduce breakthrough bleeding (BTB) between scheduled periods, a reason for many women’s choice to discontinue the use of the popular contraceptive.

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Mobli Ltd., an Israeli startup developing an image and video sharing platform, is trying to tackle its greatest rival, Facebook-owned Instagram, with a bold move. The Israeli company is offering Instagram users a $100,000 prize if they agree to quit Instagram for three months. Mobli is urging users to upload photos on both platforms with a #mylastinstagram tag and then quit Instagram. The Israeli company even hired an airplane carrying a banner announcing the competition to fly over Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters.

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Chip manufacturing giant Intel is planning to acquire Israeli gesture-control firm Omek Interactive. Venture Beat reports that Qualcomm and Samsung are also interested in the Israeli company. Omek’s last financing round was in July 2011, when the company raised $7 million.

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Inkjet printing systems developer DigiFlex Ltd. has raised $2 million in a inancing round was reported by investor ProSeed Venture Capital Fund. ProSeed said that it had itself invested $200,000 as part of the latest financing round and that this brings its holding in DigiFlex to 7.82%. Teuza – A Fairchild Technology Venture Ltd. reported to the TASE that it had invested $500,000 in the current round and that it now holds a 22.7% stake in DigiFlex. DigiFlex was founded in 2008 by Uri Adler and CTO Dr. Moshe Frenkel. The company develops, manufactures and markets an inkjet solution for labels, cartons, and flexible packaging. The solution can replace laser-based systems, which use flexographic plates for these materials.

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VoIP systems security developer VibeSec has closed a $4 million financing round. The financing round was reported by investor ProSeed Venture Capital Fund which had already invested $600,000 in the latest financing round giving it a 10.42% stake in the startup. ProSeed said that the financing round included a new investor and some of the existing shareholders. VibeSec said that proceeds from the financing round will be used to expand its marketing and sales network, and develop new applications.

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American software giant CA Technologies will acquire Israeli startup Nolio over the next few weeks at a company value of $40 million. The Israeli company, founded in 2006, develops technology for the deployment of applications on the cloud.

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Glide, an Israeli company developing a real-time video messaging platform, has announced that it has raised over $1 million. The company is developing technology that enables transmitting a video message while it’s being recorded and also stores the message on the cloud for on-demand viewing. The exact sum of the investment was not disclosed.

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