CTECH – Israel’s Latest Technology and Innovation News
SentinelOne aiming to raise over $1 billion at more than $8 billion valuation after hiking IPO price range. The Israeli-founded cybersecurity company now plans to sell 32 million shares priced between $31 and $32 per share when it goes public on the New York Stock Exchange. Read more
BreezoMeter closes $30 million round led by Fortissimo Capital. The Israeli startup aims to monitor air quality and improve people’s health by using atmospheric data that is acquired through multiple sensing stations, AI, and machine-learning algorithms. Read more
Study: Genetic characteristics in embryos can be identified by non-invasive AI analysis. Israeli startup AiVF claims its technology “can automatically and reliably determine an embryo’s ploidy status i.e, whether it is genetically suitable.” Read more
A Day in a Life | “Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.” Itay Galea, a software developer at Otonomo, loves his early morning runs, office ping-pong tournaments and the opportunity to have a voice in development decisions, but makes sure to get back home just in time to get the kids ready for bed. Read more
Israeli military’s digital transformation on full display in Gaza conflict. “Using technology, the IDF was able to attack more targets, faster and with greater accuracy,” said Omer Dagan, the Head of Lotem, the IDF’s Digital and Data Unit. Read more
Appointments | Kendago names Izhar Shay as Chairman of its Board of Directors. “The company holds tremendous growth opportunities and is well positioned to take full advantage of them,” said Shay, Israel’s former Minister of Science and Technology. Read more
Opinion | Hacking trends you need to know about. Home security cameras, Slack and delayed delivery messages have all become increasingly popular phishing strategies for cyberattacks, writes Liron Barak of BitDam. Read more
FinTech 2021 | TripActions seizing fintech opportunity after Covid-19 pivot. The Israeli company’s founders, Ilan Twig and Ariel Cohen, explained during Calcalist’s FinTech 2021 conference how fintech solves many issues for both employees and companies while traveling. Read more
“We won’t be a free bank but we’ll disrupt the existing order.”
Chairman of the First Digital Bank, Shuki Oren, said that it will launch its services towards the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year with the aim of making an immediate footprint. Read more
“There has been regulatory disorder for many years here, but I am very optimistic.” Mesh Payments’ co-founder and CEO Oded Zehavi spoke at a panel alongside Fundbox’s GM Israel and CTO Dror Yosef and Michman Business Credit Chairman Doron Spair. Read more
From vocational school to the CEO’s chair. Eternity-IT CEO Asaf Bar’s journey to build his IT company included many twists and turns. Along the way, he burned a computer, worked from his basement, and created an app to find missing people. Read more
The entrepreneur with an eye for autotech unicorns. Delek Motors, led by CEO Gil Agmon, has been generating plenty of income from investments over recent years to supplement its handsome profits from being the importer of Mazda, Ford and BMW products to Israel. Read more
Insurtech company WeSure boosts portfolio with $110 million acquisition of Ayalon. WeSure is buying 50.4% of insurance company Ayalon’s shares at a $216 million valuation, 33% higher than its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange market cap. Read more
Analysis | Transmit Security’s serial unicorn entrepreneurs strike again. The Israeli cybersecurity company’s recent $543 million round was just the latest on a long list of successes by its founders, Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh Loonkar, highlighting how much easier it is for returning entrepreneurs to raise funds and recruit employees. Read more
Facebook Israel invites small businesses to its Commerce School. One in three shoppers plan to spend less time in-store even after the pandemic is over, so businesses small and large need to prepare accordingly. Read more
What you must know when your company goes public. The recent wave of Israeli tech IPOs is only gathering pace, and there are numerous ways in which this big change affects the company, management and employees. Read more
Opinion | Protecting AI and ML IP is crucial to remaining competitive in booming domain. “Contrary to the common myth, in most leading countries including but not limited to the U.S., Europe (EPO), China, Korea and Japan, software-related inventions are patentable and enforceable,” writes Ehud Hausman of Reinhold Cohn & Partners. Read more
Innovid announces $1.3 billion SPAC merger with ION Acquisition. The Israeli company is set to raise approximately $403 million including proceeds from ION Acquisition Corp 2 and $150 million in PIPE financing. Read more
Firebolt raises $127 million Series B to boost cloud data warehouse innovation. Over the past six months, Firebolt has doubled its employee headcount to 100 with plans to double again over the next 12 months. Read more
Fintech startup Sorbet completes $21 million Seed round. The Israeli startup’s platform allows employees to convert their unused Paid Time Off (PTO) into cash. Read more
Payoneer and ironSource clear final hurdle ahead of multi-billion SPAC mergers. The Israeli unicorns will hit U.S. public markets in the coming weeks after their mergers were approved by their respective SPACs. Read more
Tonkean raises $50 million Round B led by Accel. The Israeli startup, which is developing an operating system for business operations, also received investments from Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Read more
ZzappMalaria wins IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition by helping eliminate Malaria. The company won a $3 million grant to help prevent the 400,000 deaths each year caused by the illness. Read more
env0 raises $17 million in Series A led by Microsoft’s Venture Fund.
The Israeli startup said the funds will be used to expand the company’s Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform and accelerate visibility, predictability and governance of cloud deployments. Read more
Loss of $75 million in Ether highlights infancy of crypto infrastructure. According to crypto angel investor Maya Zehavi, StakeHound’s lawsuit against Fireblocks following the loss of access to a wallet with 38,178 of ETH exposes the clear uncharted territory of crypto intermediaries. Read more
Round B | Exposure, education and preservation: A user’s journey. When startups plan to turn their users into marketers they need to make sure they are ready to represent. Read more
Opinion | While the fintech market is booming: this is the next growing post-Corona high-tech field. Although Covid-19 brought about increased interest in fintech, investors with a good nose for the next big thing should be closely watching the field of medical devices. Read more
Hailo to become newest Israeli unicorn with $110 million Series C. The Israeli AI chipmaker isn’t planning any additional rounds before it goes public, aiming to reach Nasdaq over the coming year at a valuation of $1.5-$2 billion. Read more
Fintech company Lendbuzz announces $60 million Series C and $300 million in debt financing. The AI-based auto finance platform helps individuals currently underserved by the traditional credit system to purchase a car. Read more
A Day in a Life | Joining Samsung was not very different from my startup days. Rutie Adar, Head of Israel, Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center, believes that having a wide lens that includes the humanities and social studies enables better decision making and to become a better-rounded thinker. Read more
How are corporate VCs reshaping the Israeli tech landscape? We’re all familiar with venture capital firms – but what happens when large corporates check into the game? Read more
Better Juice raises $8 million in Seed funding. The Israeli startup’s enzymatic technology uses all-natural ingredients to convert fructose, glucose, and sucrose into prebiotic dietary fibers and other non-digestible molecules. Read more
Cloud security platform Lightspin raises $16 million A Round. The Israeli cybersecurity startup has developed a context-based cloud security platform for cloud-native and Kubernetes environments. Read more
Video giant Vimeo doubles Israeli workforce. The video platform company aims to go from 120 to more than 200 workers in its Ness Ziona R&D center in the coming year. Read more
Mitiga raises $25 million Series A for cloud-based incident readiness and response solution. The Israeli cybersecurity startup’s cloud-based solution for cloud and hybrid environments is aimed at dramatically improving efficiencies around incident readiness and response by aligning around the client’s goals. Read more
Opinion | In becoming “scale-up nation” focusing on the customer has played an outsized role. “The innovation that exists in this tiny strip of land on the Mediterranean is breathtaking, and it’s poised to continue to reach new heights,” writes Sharel Omer. Read more
Transmit Security raises record $543 million Series A at $2.2 billion valuation. The company co-founded by Mickey Boodaei, which developed a device-based biometrics solution for customer authentication, was bootstrapped prior to completing the largest Series A funding round in cybersecurity history. Read more
Cryptocurrency security company Fireblocks sued for losing $75 million worth of ETH. Crypto company StakeHound claims that Fireblocks was negligent and failed to back up its wallet appropriately. Fireblocks has denied any wrongdoing. Read more
Spotlight | NanoGhost: Delivering the greatest things in the smallest packages. Prof. Marcelle Machluf’s life’s work, creating a medicine delivery system that can defeat cancer, is showing promising progress, aiming for clinical trials by 2023. Read more230 new millionaires to be born thanks to ironSource SPAC merger. The Israeli company’s merger with a Thoma Bravo-backed SPAC next week at an $11 billion valuation will provide life-altering fortune to hundreds of its employees. Read more
Equinom raises $20 million in Series C to boost plant-based nutrition solutions. “Leveraging our cutting-edge seed-to-plate food-application technology to create source ingredients, Equinom helps market-leading food brands turn regular food into super food,” said CEO Gil Shalev. Read more
Appointments | Nayax appoints Sagit Manor as Chief Financial Officer. Manor replaces Liron Grosman, who has held the position for four years. Read more
