News Briefs

Israeli venture capital fund JVP is the top VC in Israel and one of the most successful in the world. Financial magazine Calcalist reports that the ranking was determined according to PeHub, an online forum for the private equity community, and the company’s financial reports. JVP runs six funds, which are worth a total at $900 million. Five of the funds are for investment purposes and the sixth is used for injections in companies already owned by the VC.

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New Israeli micro-fund Inimiti has chosen TinyTap, an Israeli company which develops iPad games for kids, as its first investment recipient. TinyTap will receive $500,000 and will continue developing its product – a platform that enables users to easily design personalized iPad games.

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OptimalTest, and Israeli company which specializes in chip testing, has announced that it has raised $7.5 million on its most recent financing round. The investment was made by existing investors, and Aviv Venture Capital. The company was founded in 2004 and has raised $39 million to date.

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Israeli company Skycure, which develops firewalls for mobile devices, has raised $3 million from Pitango Venture Capital on its seed financing round. The company is developing a mobile firewall that protects against security threats without compromising usability, privacy or battery life.

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Evature, an Israeli company which enables natural-language travel search, has secured a $2 million investment from Concur Technologies’ Perfect Trip Fund. Evature’s service is based on advanced Natural Language Processing algorithms, which are specifically designed to understand “travel language”. Concur has allocated some $150 million for its Perfect Trip Fund.

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EarlySense Ltd., an Israeli-U.S. developer of patient monitoring systems, raised $15 million in a financing round led by Israeli fund Pitango Venture Capital. Reuters reports that EarlySense plans to use the financing to accelerate sales, further develop its patient monitoring systems and to expand clinical research.

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Chinese-owned company Hutchison Water has announced the acquisition of Kinrot Ventures, a technological incubator founded in 1993 in Israel, as part of the Israeli Incubator Program. Kinrot is a worldwide leading seed investor in water and Cleantech technologies. Hutchinson could invest NIS 100,000,000 (or about $25 Million) in the incubator and in its portfolio companies over the coming 8 years.

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Crossroad Fund, an Italian-owned fund which invests in the Israeli market, plans to invest some NIS 6 million (approx. $1.5) in Israeli company Hairstetics, which develops innovative hair transplant procedures. The company will invest an initial NIS 2.1 million and the rest will be delivered in milestone payments.

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Israeli company iOnRoad has won Qualcomm’s Qprize 2012 Regional competition, receiving $100,000 in prize money. The company, which develops smartphone-based, augmented reality driving aides, will represent Israel in Qualcomm’s international competition, in which the winner receives an additional $150,000 and international exposure.

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LiveU, an Israeli company which develops and manufactures live video cellular broadcasting equipment has concluded a successful financing round, securing $27 million. LiveU was founded in 2006, employs 80 workers and has costumers in 60 countries. The recent financing round is the company’s largest, after raising a total of $23.5 million in the past.

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Israeli company Orbit Technologies has signed an agreement with an unnamed satellite venture, which is reportedly a one of the world’s largest. Orbit will supply the company with hundreds of its Ka-Band communications system over five years. The first order placed is estimated at NIS 4 million ($1 million).

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Cell Cure Neurosciences, an Israeli company which develops stem cell based treatments for degenerative diseases, has raised $3.5 million via share swap with BioTime Inc. The investment reflects a company value of $15.1 million for Cell Cure, and assures BioTime an ownership of 62 percent.

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Outbrain, an Israeli content discovery platform, has beat out such power players as Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo! in advertising popularity in September. According to Comscore, Outbrain had 164.8 million unique visitors in the US and an exposure rate of 74.9% in September.

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Immune Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a privately held Israeli company, and American EpiCept Corporation, announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. The transaction is anticipated to close during the first quarter of 2013. The combined company, to be named Immune Pharmaceuticals, Inc., will be primarily focused on developing antibody therapeutics and other targeted drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer.

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Perion Network Ltd. announced the acquisition of SweetIM (a.k.a. “SweetPacks”), an Israeli consumer internet company. SweetPacks produces a variety of free apps and downloadable content for everyday use. Perion will make an initial payment of $10 million in cash and additional payments over 18 months, with a total potential price of $41 million.

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