News Briefs

Israeli company PolyPid, which develops innovative Drug Carriers, has announced that it has raised $2.4 million in its series C financing round, led by Xenia Ventures. After the financing round, the company’s value raised to $17.4 million. The company has raised a total of $5.4 million to date.

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The Israeli government has announced a scholarship program for Indian scholars. The three-year plan will allow 66 post-doctoral students from India to come to Israel and do research in various fields. The Times of India reports that this is the first program of its kind in Israel.

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Mazor Robotics Ltd., a developer of innovative surgical robots and complementary products, has announced that Foundation Surgical Hospital (FSH) of San Antonio, Texas purchased its Renaissance system. This system sale marks the fifth Renaissance installation in the state of Texas and the 20th U.S. installation in 2012.

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The French national electric company, Electricite de France (EDF), has launched three solar energy fields in the Negev, Israel’s southern desert. The fields, set up at Nahal Oz, Gvulot and Lahav, were made with a NIS 270 million investment ($72 million) and will produce a total of 54 megawatts of electricity.

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Following a visit by Spanish Minister for Development Ana Pastor to Israel and Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz’s visit to Spain, the countries have agreed to work towards implementing Israeli port security system in Spain. The Ashdod Port, located south of Tel Aviv, has one of the most advanced security system in the world.

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Ben Gurion University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) recently announced that they are collaborating in the research and development of three high-impact, pediatric-specific medical devices. The collaboration pairs the technical and engineering capabilities of BGU with the medical expertise of CCHMC physicians. The three projects represent substantial potential to improve patient care and outcomes, and significantly reduce costs to the healthcare system.

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Spring Capital, a VC owned by the Singaporean government, which manages $150 million, is looking to invest in Israeli startups. Israeli financial magazine Globes reports that the VC is in talks with several Israeli startups and that investment will focus on companies at the beginning of the sales stage in areas such as software, algorithm processing, Big Data, security, and biotechnology.

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The Europas, a contest featuring startups at various stages from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will feature seven Israeli contenders this year. The Startups will compete for prizes given in 20 categories, including social, entertainment, gaming, advertising and more. The Israeli companies are: WalkMe, Yotpo, Uppspace, Startapp, GooodJob, Fiverr, Licensario.

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Israeli company Nova, which markets optical measuring devices to chip manufacturers, has announced that it has received orders worth over $15 million. The company has not disclosed who the clients are, but it is estimated that they are TSMC, Samsung and Global Foundries.

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Apple has announced the top apps on its App Store for 2012. Among the top apps of the year, Israeli task management app Any.Do is featured on the ‘Intuitive Touch’ category and photography app GroupShot is on the ‘Photo & Video Magic’ category.

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The Tel Aviv municipality has announced that its city-wide WiFi project is underway. Over the next few months, Motorola Solutions will set up 80 hotspots around the city, offering a bandwidth of at least 20mbps. The project is valued at NIS 6 million ($1.6 million).

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Israeli medical diagnostic technology developer Micromedic Technologies Ltd., has announced positive intermediary results in its trial of CellDetect, a technology for detecting cervical cancer. The results show a 94 percent success rate. In light of these results, Micromedic’s share price rose 10.48 percent.

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Innotribe, a competition between startups involved in financial technology, will launch in Tel Aviv early January. Although this will be the third year in which the competition, sponsored by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), is held, it is the first time that Israeli companies will take part in it.

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The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, alongside the Alfred Mann Institute (AMIT) have founded a company aimed to commercialize stem cell technology developed over the past decade by Professor Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor of the Rappaport institute. The new company, named Accellta, will market technologies and methods which will assist commercial companies and research labs in cultivating stem cells quickly, efficiently and aconomically.

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Technology website Expert Reviews has chosen Israeli taxi hailing app GetTaxi as one of the top ten apps for the iPhone 5. The list also included such power players as Skype, Google Chrome and Instagram. Expert Reviews is part of the Dennis group, which operates in the US and UK.

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