News Briefs

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly and his wife, Martha, are visiting Israel to learn about the Israeli approach to agricultural technology and tourism. Shelly also intends on formally inviting prime-minister Netanyahu to visit Navajo Nation. After Israel, Shelly plans on visiting the Gaza strip.

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American electric car company CODA automotive will join forces with Israeli electric car venture Better Place on its San Francisco pilot in 2014. CODA will supply a modified version of its electric cars that will make use of Better Place’s charging stations, to be deployed in San Francisco in 2014.

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Online farmer’s market company Farmingo, which offers fresh produce for organized purchasing, has announced a successful series B financing round, totaling at $8 million. The round was led by Sherbrooke Capital and RSF Social Finance. Farmingo was founded by Israelis Benzi Ronen and Yossi Pik and operates out of Palo Alto, California with an R&D center in Tel Aviv.

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The Weizmann Institute has announced that Dr. Zohar Komargodski of the institute was awarded a New Horizons in Physics Prize. The prize, awarded by the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation, is given to three promising young researchers around the world. Each of the laureates will receive $100,000.

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The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Fund is providing more than $6.2 million to Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) for multidisciplinary, application-oriented robotics research and systems development. The grant will be used to establish the ABC (agricultural, biological and cognitive) Robotics Center at the University.

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A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed for collaboration between Tel Aviv University and the Korean National Institute of Health. The Memorandum includes plans for exchange of researchers and students, joint symposia and research collaborations between the two institutes on a range of human health projects.

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Robot App Store, an Israeli startup which offers an online app store for robots, has announced that it has raised $250,000 from Grishin Robotics. The money will be directed to further developing the company’s online store and for hiring new personnel.

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Israeli company ScaleIO has raised $12 million in its first financing round, led by Norwest Venture. ScaleIO develops software which enables data storage on multiple servers and rapid data recovery. The company says it will use the money to expand its sales and support teams.

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Israeli MR guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery company InSightec Ltd. has announced that it has completed its Series C financing round, totaling $30.9 million. InSightec, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, is developing innovative medical devices for personalized non-invasive treatment that can replace invasive procedures.

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Online search and advertising giant Google has opened a Startup Campus in Tel Aviv. The company describes the campus as a “one-floor event & community space and pre-accelerator program.” Google Campus TLV will cater to local early-stage startups and developers with tech talks, events and hackathons.

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Israeli mobile gaming company MoMinis has announced a successful financing round, in which it raised $6 million from Gemini Israel Ventures. The company, which has 35 million active users on its PlayScape Android game network plans to use the funds to further expand its gaming platform.

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Israeli and Russian officials have agreed on collaboration between the two countries in the field of renewable energy. Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anton Inyutsyn met with Israeli Energy and Water Ministry director-general Shaul Zemach and the two agreed on collaborating specifically on the fields of natural gas, electricity, renewable energy and energy conservation.

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A leading regional chain of Japanese medical laboratories has chosen Israeli content management company Top Image‘s eFLOW forms for its lab test results management system. The system is to be deployed at twenty processing centers, where within a few hours eFLOW will scan and read the thousands of blood test forms submitted by healthcare facilities each day. The system is expected to go live by the end of 2012.

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Israeli pharmaceutical company Protalix has signed a development deal with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, for the continuation of development of its Elelyso drug. According to the agreement, Portalix will continue to conduct the clinical trials for the drug, which is currently being tested on children and adults. As part of the agreement, the Israeli company will receive up to $8.3 million for milestone achievements.

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Israeli corporation ICL, a multinational fertilizer and specialty chemicals company, has announced that it has launched an Open Innovation program with a budget of several million dollars per year. The new program is part of ICL’s plan for accelerating its development of the sustainable new products and processes that will drive the Company’s future growth.

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