News Briefs

Oramed Pharmaceuticals, a developer of oral delivery solutions for drugs and vaccines, announced that its wholly owned Israeli subsidiary, Oramed Ltd., was awarded a government grant amounting to a net sum of NIS 2 million (approximately $540,000), from the Office of the Chief Scientist. The funds will be used to support further R&D and clinical studies on its oral insulin capsule. Founded in 2006, Oramed’s corporate and R&D headquarters are based in Jerusalem, Israel.

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Viewbix, the developer of interactive video platforms and analytics software, announced it has raised $2 million in a financing round led by Canaan Partners, along with Longfellow Venture Partners. The company’s platform enables small and medium-sized businesses to put a custom, interactive layer of ‘apps’ on top of their video content to increase user engagement, conversion and social sharing. Viewbix, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, was founded in 2011 by CEO Jonathan Stefansky and COO Hillel Scheinfeld.

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Software testing company uTest announced it has launched AppGrader – a free automated testing tool for Android that shows developers how well their app functions under real-world conditions on popular devices in the US. After uploading a mobile app to AppGrader, developers receive a customized report with their app grade on a scale of 1 to 100, as well as any issues discovered during app download, installation and basic usage. uTest provides software testing services with a community of more than 50 thousand testers from 188 countries.

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Viber, the mobile communications platform offering free HD-quality phone calls, text and photo messages, announced the availability of Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Windows Phone 7 Beta. Accroding to the company, it already has more than 69 million registered iPhone and Android users and is growing by more than 200,000 new users a day. Both Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Viber for Windows Phone 7 Beta initially offer Viber Messaging. The full release for both platforms, including Viber’s free voice calls, will be released “as soon as it meets Viber’s quality standards,” company announced.

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Prolor Biotech reported positive results from a Phase II four-month treatment extension study of hGH-CTP, its long-acting version of human growth hormone, in growth hormone deficient adults. The findings show that a single weekly injection of hGH-CTP has the potential to replace seven consecutive daily injections of currently marketed human growth hormone (hGH), and further validates the dosing regimen for the company’s planned Phase III trial. In the Phase II clinical trial, hGH-CTP was administered to growth hormone deficient adults for a period of four weeks.

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Video recommendation service Taboola announced that it has signed an agreement with Germany’s media network OMS earlier this year, to provide video recommendation functionality on its network of sites. OMS is an alliance of more than 30 newspaper publishers and operates an advertising and video syndication network, which provides online video marketing for about 200 German Newspapers websites. Taboola is headquartered in New York City with R&D in Israel.

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WiFi-based RFID chipset developer AeroScout Ltd. is set to be sold for $200-240 million. The company, founded by CEO Yuval Bar-Gil in 1999 and based in Rehovot, Israel, has 200 employees. AeroScout is in advanced talks with a large multinational infrastructures company, the name of which has not yet been disclosed. AeroScout is a privately held company currently funded by a combination of venture capital firms and investors.

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Israeli businessman Zvi Ziv raised $ 4 million for his venture Tradair from Carmel Ventures and Genesis Partners. The finanacing will be used to increase TradAir’s marketing network and recruit more employees for the firms’ research and development. TradAir enables financial institutions in emerging markets to develop new revenue streams and take part in global forex trading networks.

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Fiverr, which runs a global marketplace where users can buy and sell services starting from $5, announced it secured $15 million in a second round of funding from Accel Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Following previous financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners and angel investors, the site now reached a total of $20 million. According to Fiverr, the funding will support continued company and product growth. The company, which currently lists more than 750,000 services across 200 countries, employs more than 40 people in Israel, the US and Europe.

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Israel’s Chief Scientist, Avi Hasson, announced that he is holding extensive talks with the Ministry of Finance to establish a governmental VC fund that will invest in early-stage startups. According to Hasson, his request from the Ministry of Finance is an annual budget of 100 million Shekels (approximately $26.4 million) for the investment in startups having difficulties to raise initial VC. He added that these companies are expected to enjoy long-term investments and will receive the Chief Scientist’s approval prior to the funding.

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Data analytics company Newvem has secured $4 Million in Series A funding. The round was led by Greylock Partners with participation from Index Ventures and Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, as well as private investors. Newvem, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, enhances cloud usage effectiveness through data analytics. The company will use the funding to enhance its analytics platform, KnowYourCloud.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approved for marketing Protalix BioTherapeutics’ drug Elelyso – for the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher disease. The rare genetic disorder occurs in people who do not produce enough of an enzyme called glucocerebrosidase, resulting in liver or spleen damage, anemia, low blood platelet counts and bone problems. The drug is an injection that replaces the missing enzyme in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Type 1 (non-neuropathic). Following the approval, Protalix will receive a $25 million milestone payment from Pfizer, which developed the treatment with the Israeli company.

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The Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF), an international collaborative effort among national smart grid associations, announced that Israel Smart Energy Association (ISEA) has joined the Federation. According to ISEA, it “promotes technology innovation, economic development and enhances cooperation for the electricity network of the future.” Israel Smart Energy Association is the tenth member of the GSGF.

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Drippler, an application that provides information and updates for gadget users, announced it has surpassed one million downloads of its Android app. In addition, it has launched a new updates app for Android on Google Play. The new app includes a new design and automatic device recognition so it provides users custom updates on their specific Android smartphone or tablet.

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Allot Communications, the provider of service optimization and revenue generation solutions for fixed and mobile data networks, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ortiva Wireless, which offers the solutions for proactive management of mobile video. Ortiva’s solution allows service providers to improve the quality and efficiency of rich media content delivery by optimizing for real-time network conditions and for each mobile connection. Allot’s headquarters are in Hod Hasharon, Israel, and Ortiva is based in California.

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