CTECH: Latest Israeli Technology & Innovation News Oct. 12, 2022
Intel’s Habana Labs lays off 10% of workforce. The chip maker, which was acquired by Intel in 2019 for $2 billion, denied the downturn in the market was behind the decision to fire around 100 employees. Read more
Analysis | 2022 crisis has a long way to go until it reaches 2008 levels. There is a sense of the perfect storm brewing this week with the publication of important macro data, including the rate of inflation in the U.S., and the beginning of the financial report season that will reveal the real state of the economy and consumer mood. Read more
Bank of Israel Governor: “Current interest rate can contain inflation.” In an exclusive interview, the Governor of the BOI, Amir Yaron, clarifies the need for the interest rate to jump and explains why he’s convinced that Israel will overcome even an extreme economic scenario. Read more
The LinkedIn Whisperer: Finding your dream job. How do you get from a low point in your career to a situation where suitors are seeking to hire you? Morad Stern, author of the book “Tiebreaker: The Power of Networking, Communities, and Personal Branding”, shares how he climbed from being in an employment crisis to where job offers started flowing to him. Read more
“I never looked at obstacles in my life as a part of me being a woman.” Jasmin Inbar, VP Corporate Development at ASTERRA, shares how she reached the pinnacle of her career and her role in the company’s latest success, finding Lithium. Read more
“People didn’t think I could make it as a female airline pilot, but I believed in myself.” Adva Amir, CEO & Co-founder of Direct and an airline pilot for Skywest Airlines, tells her story of adversity and what she thinks women should do in order to succeed. Read more
“I am not aware when I am the only woman at the table. I try to ignore things that don’t help me.” In an interview with CTech, Yael Ben Arie, CEO of Octopai, explains how she became a leader and what three things made her fall in love with the company she is heading. Read more
Biotech company Equashield sells 25% stake to Nordic Capital at $1.3 billion valuation. CEO and co-founder Eric Shem-Tov is the largest shareholder at the company, which has registered sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars to hospitals across the world for its manual and automated solutions for the compounding and administration of hazardous drugs. Read more
“The main lesson I learned from men is to say a smart sentence at the end of a meeting.” In an interview with CTech, Yael Ben Arie, CEO of Octopai, explains how she became a leader and what three things made her fall in love with the company she is heading. Read more
Celsius co-founders cashed out over $42 million shortly before collapse. Former CEO Alex Mashinsky, former CSO Daniel Leon, and CTO Nuke Goldstein withdrew the funds shortly before the crypto lender suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy. Read more
“In 2023 weSure will have premiums of more than a billion dollars.” Emil Vainshel, the co-founder of the digital insurance company, talks about the move to the US, discusses the latest challenging acquisition of Ayalon and downplays the drop in the stock price. Read more
JFrog appoints Yvonne Wassenaar to its Board of Directors. Across her career, Wassenaar, who will be the fifth woman among the company’s 11 board members, has helped drive profitability and business impact across a variety of industries. Read more
Opinion | Falling in “like”: The internet’s measurement frenzy affects our self-worth. The internet’s obsession with measurement, from the number of posts on social networks to the number of emails, is designed to affect the self-worth of users and make them stay on the platform as much as possible. Read more
Newly IPO’d Israeli tech companies lost over 50% of value in first three quarters of 2022. The market cap of the 21 Israeli tech firms that went public on Wall Street in 2021 dropped from $70 billion to $32 billion over the first nine months of the year. Read more
LayerX lands $7.5 million Seed round to make every browser secure. The Israeli startup’s platform transforms existing web browsers into protected and manageable workspaces without negatively impacting the user experience. Read more
Israeli company Matricelf finishes third in 2022 Startup World Cup. The startup made it to the Grand Finale and placed in the top 3 out of 17,000 startups that applied worldwide. Read more
From DevOps to front-end – a guide to high-tech’s most wanted jobs. Ever wondered what a Big Data architect does all day? How about an information assurance analyst? CTech is here to help with a glossary of some of the most sought-after professions in tech. Read more
Plus500 and Chicago Bulls announce multi-year global partnership. The trading company’s first US-based sports sponsorship agreement with the Bulls is aimed to drive awareness of the global multi-asset fintech group in the US. Read more
The Keter affair: Following IPO failure, Keter lays off 100 workers. When the group’s American CEO, Alejandro Pena, was appointed in 2018, his main task was to guide the company to a successful Nasdaq IPO, but ultimately the IPO was canceled and now Keter’s employees are paying the price of Pena’s failure. Read more
83North nets new $400 million fund. The Israeli-founded VC, which also invests in U.S. and European companies, recently received major returns on its investments in ironSource and Wolt. Read more
SensePass bringing new opportunities for the un-banked and under-banked. The Israeli company recently raised $3 million to take on credit card monopolies. Read more
The layoff payoff: “Getting let go came as a surprise, but it only helped my career.” At a time when many companies are announcing downsizing, we talked to three people for whom the layoffs were a turning point in their careers. “It’s great fun to be on the other side when you can say in retrospect that everything was for the best, but when you go through it, the job search doesn’t feel optimistic.” Read more
“In most cases, a $25m Seed is too high. It doesn’t make sense.” IBI Tech Fund’s Dan Aks and Dor Lee-Lo have joined CTech to discuss the current climate of the tech industry. Read more
“I’m not optimistic about the future of the global economy and I don’t expect the next 10 years to be particularly good.” Prof. Daron Acemoglu, one of the world’s leading economists and a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Economics, sees inflation as a greater threat to democracy and the fight against populism than it is to the cost of living. Read more
“As a pregnant CEO & Founder I am slowly realizing all my fears were in my head.” In an interview with CTech, Heli Goldenberg, CEO & co-founder of Goods, shares her vision and how she changed her life. Read more
TripActions reportedly targeting IPO at $12 billion valuation. “We are not far from an IPO, we believe that something very big can be built here, something like Amazon but for business travel,” TripActions CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen told Calcalist last October. Read more
OX Security completes $34 million Seed round for end-to-end software supply chain security. The Israeli startup was founded less than a year ago by Neatsun Ziv and Lior Arzi, two former Check Point executives. Read more
Kahun secures $8 million for its ‘XAI’ engine for clinical reasoning. The company bases its decisions on a proprietary map of over 30 million evidence-based medical insights. Read more
Onyxia raises $5 million for cybersecurity strategy and performance platform. Leveraging AI, the Israeli startup’s platform provides a centralized way for security teams to monitor and manage cybersecurity efforts in real-time. Read more
“Everyone is very motivated to return Intel to what it used to be.” Shlomit Weiss was recently appointed as senior vice president and co-general manager of Intel’s Design Engineering Group. This comes at a time when the company is at one of its lowest points, registering its first quarterly loss in 30 years. However, Weiss, the most senior Israeli at the company, insists: “At Intel we learn from our mistakes, we can close the gap.” Read more
Pitango HealthTech adds Hila Karah as Managing Partner and Joel Schoppig as Senior Principal. Pitango HealthTech’s portfolio includes, among others: Protai, Visby Medical, TScan, Connie Health, DouxMatok, Plantish, Clew Medical, and HomeThrive. Read more
Three Israeli startups in the hunt for FoodTech Challenge’s $2 million prize. Neolithics, FreezeM, and Yeap made the final list of 30 companies after a panel of regional and international judges assessed over 660 submissions from across 79 countries. Read more
