CTECH – Latest Israeli Innovation and Technology News June 2, 2022
Cybereason laying off 100 employees in Israel, U.S. and Europe. Earlier this year, Cybereason, which is backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s investment firm, confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering that could value it at more than $5 billion. Read more
Coralogix closes $142 million Series D for full-stack observability platform. The Israeli startup’s platform tracks and analyzes metrics, tracing, and security data, in addition to logs. Read more
Hourly.io raises $27 million for platform providing hourly workers payroll and insurance solutions. The startup’s platform allows employers to run payroll, track time and attendance, and manage workers’ comp insurance premiums. Read more
Air Doctor raises $20 million for platform that connects ill travelers abroad with local private doctors. The Israeli startup’s outpatient medical network covers 74 countries and includes over 20,000 medical professionals who provide either in-person or telemedicine consultations. Read more
Freight digital booking and payment platform Freightos to merge with SPAC at $435 million valuation. The Israeli startup’s platform serves over 10,000 importers/exporters, 3,500 freight forwarders and 200 carriers, enabling hundreds of thousands of international freight bookings annually. Read more
Good Company, Sompo Digital Lab Tel Aviv, seeking SilverTech solutions for new program. The startups selected to participate in the program could receive up to a $500,000 investment from Good Company for their technology solutions designed to meet the needs of the 65-plus demographic. Read more
Fundbox partners with Visa for small business payment solutions. The first step in the collaboration is the launch of the Fundbox Flex Visa Debit Card. Read more
Values from Athens and Jerusalem “have given us the modern West”. CTech journalist and editor James Spiro made the remarks at the opening of Calcalist’s first Israel-Greece conference. Read more
Appointment | TULU appoints former Uber and Lime executive Yaniv Goder as Vice President of Operations. The startup provides on-demand rentals of high-quality home products, household items, and perishables to reduce the cost of living and waste in compact city living. Read more
“There won’t be any unemployed in high-tech, there will be demand for everyone.” Yuval Tal, managing partner at Team8 and local fintech leader, is convinced that “the crisis will give birth to better companies, as in 2008 and 2001.” Read more
Playtika to lay off 250 employees in North America and Europe. The gaming giant is looking to consolidate some of its activities and therefore decided to close its R&D centers in London and Montreal, and to transfer the activity of its Los Angeles studio to Israel and Poland. Read more
Seemplicity raises $26 million for productivity platform for cybersecurity teams. The Israeli startup’s platform aggregates, normalizes, and orchestrates findings from multiple siloed security tools to generate a single consistent security backlog. Read more
“The Israeli economy is so strong that it’s worth investing in,” says Microsoft VP. “Israel is an important creator of technology,” noted Ulrich Homann, a Corporate Vice President in the Cloud and AI business at Microsoft. Read more
Cutback nation: Who’s afraid of layoffs? Mass layoffs at American unicorns Lacework and Bolt signals the hysteria that could turn out to be excessive and harmful in the venture capital industry. This panic could also spread to Israel and hurt companies whose situation is not necessarily bad. Read more
Volcani International and Releaf partnering to boost African agriculture with Israeli tech. The hope is that it will act as a path for other ecosystems to collaborate on a similar framework in other sectors. Read more
Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk appointed as CTO for Microsoft’s new Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management Division. The appointment of Braverman-Blumenstyk, who will continue to serve in her position as General Manager of Microsoft Israel R&D Center, is part of a comprehensive re-organization at Microsoft in which the company will merge all of the security products under a single division. Read more
Gadi Evron joins Team8 as CISO-in-Residence. The former CEO of Cymmetria will help expand the group’s CISO Village and advise portfolio companies. Read more
Pixellot raising $161 million at $500 million valuation. The Israeli startup has developed a system that automatically captures, produces, and streams games and their highlights to any device, live or on-demand. Read more
Assaf Rappaport: “Anyone who thinks that salaries in high-tech will fall is wrong.” The CEO of cybersecurity company Wiz, which is valued at an estimated $6 billion, manages to remain optimistic even in light of the crisis plaguing high-tech. “There will be no drop in demand for workers and there will be no pay cuts,” he estimates. “Israeli high-tech will not disappear because the talent here is among the best in the world.” Read more
“The prophecies on the downfall of the high-tech industry are out of control,” says Innovation Authority CEO. “The industry doesn’t need saving,” says Dror Bin, the CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority who believes that local high-tech is strong enough to survive the oncoming crisis. Read more
Liquidity Group to launch $2 billion fund with Japan’s MUFG Bank. The fund will invest in growth companies and is set to begin investing in around a month, with the investment in each company set to stand at between $25-50 million. Read more
Microsoft Israel GM Ronit Atad steps down, to be replaced by Alon Haimovich. Atad headed Microsoft Israel for the past three years and will be replaced by Haimovich, who serves as Public Sector and Enterprise Commercial Lead, VP Sales at the company. Read more
CTech’s Book Review: Pixar’s storytelling lessons for Startup Nation. Yehiel Atias, Co-Founder and CEO of Hexa, shares insights after reading “Creativity, Inc.” by Amy Wallace and Edwin Catmull. Read more
Start me up nation: The connection between music and high-tech. In a growing phenomenon in recent years, musicians are making the transition to high-tech – but can they find harmony between music and tech? Read more
Opinion | Don’t cut your marketing spend just yet. Marketing is not a pause button that you can switch on and off at your leisure, it is an engine that builds on momentum, writes Yaffa Abadi, F2 Venture Capital’s Content Manager. Read more
Opinion | Israeli high-tech has plenty of reasons for optimism, even in difficult times. Israel has built a backbone of dozens of healthy growing companies who are capable of emerging from this crisis stronger than ever. Read more
StarkWare valuation hits $8 billion with $100 million Series D. The Israeli company, which develops scalability and privacy solutions for blockchain technology, has quadrupled its valuation in six months. Read more
ClearPier acquires adtech startup PubPlus for $60 million. The Israeli company’s platform enables real-time analysis of content effectiveness and content optimization based on profitability and financial performance. Read more
Institutional investors poured $1 billion into Israeli tech in two years. Nevertheless, the institutional investors utilized only about NIS 1.2 billion from the NIS 2 billion safety net provided by the Israel Innovation Authority, which promised to cover 40% of potential losses they would incur from investing in startups. Read more
Livestream shopping platform buywith closes $9.5 million Seed round. The Israeli company enables brands and retailers who own e-commerce sites to use the buywith platform to host on-site livestream shopping events with thousands of participants watching in real time. Read more
Amdocs to acquire MYCOM OSI for $188 million. The tech giant hopes to expand its network services and monetization offerings with cloud-native, intelligence-powered assurance solutions to deliver better customer experiences. Read more
CTech’s Book Review: A journey into the history of GPS. Oded Fossfeld, Co-Founder and CTO of Placer.ai, shares insights after reading “Chasing Venus” by Andrea Wulf. Read more
Appointment | Payoneer appoints John Caplan as co-CEO. Caplan will lead alongside Scott Galit as the company invests to scale for growth. Read more
Opinion | A new cybersecurity opportunity: protecting cloud shadow data. The challenge of securing data in the cloud is only intensifying as time goes by and the existing solutions focused on securing cloud infrastructure are not sufficient, writes Guy Shanny, Co-Founder & CEO of Polar Security. Read more
StartUp+ | “Only countries that continue to innovate can lead.” Calcalist and Poalim Hi-Tech’s third StartUp+ competition is underway. “The state needs to invest in more companies at the Seed round, companies need government assistance in the beginning,” says Michal Kissos-Hertzog, CEO of Poalim Hi-Tech. Read more
Cybersecurity startup Semperis raises over $200 million. The Israeli-American company provides identity security solutions for hybrid Active Directory users, with a focus on Microsoft’s Active Directory. Read more
Israeli startup Dealtale acquired by enterprise AI platform Vianai. Dealtale, founded two years ago, has developed a no-code platform to analyze and optimize customer journeys to enhance the capabilities of sales, marketing, and product professionals. Read more
Rivery raises $30 million B round for data infrastructure solution. The Israeli startup provides a single end-to-end ELT (extract, load, transform) solution which covers key processes to create the optimal data stack. Read more
Group support platform Circles raises $16.5 million Series A. The Israeli startup’s platform matches into cohorts people experiencing similar life challenges such as divorce, grief, infertility, etc. for weekly meetings to give and receive emotional support, guided by trained and vetted mental health professionals. Read more
Fast-charging battery unicorn StoreDot receives investment from Volvo’s EV manufacturer Polestar. The Israeli company, which aims to produce batteries for EVs capable of charging up to 99 miles of range in just five minutes, was valued at $1.5 billion earlier this year. Read more
Gal Gadot investing in edtech startup Safe School. The Israeli company, founded last summer by former journalist Doron Herman and President and COO of Wix, Nir Zohar, creates personalized educational plans to combat and reduce bullying and cyberbullying. Read more
Microsoft announces third cycle of AI For Good Accelerator Program. The 15 AI companies selected across the fields of health, sustainability, and agritech will benefit from Microsoft support worth millions of dollars. Read more
NeuraLight secures $25 million Series A to develop precision medicine for neurological diseases. The company leverages oculometric data and uses computer vision and smartphones to measure the progression of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, and ALS. Read more
Adam Neumann-backed climate tech startup Flowcarbon raises $70 million from a16z, token sale. The blockchain-enabled carbon credit trading platform aims to tap into the growing market for carbon credits
companies buy to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. Read more
Red Access emerges from stealth, raises $6 million to secure ‘browserization’. Its SaaS-based security platform offers a solution to cyber threats on any browser, app, or device. Read more
“More employers choose to focus on hard skills and less on academic background.” Ilil Amir-Kasif, the Director of the Center for Higher Education and Employment, founded by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, was speaking during Calcalist’s “Academia that Works” conference. Read more
The Portland Trust and MEDX Xelerator launch northern branch for local medtech innovation. MEDX Xelerator’s newly-established incubator branch in the Sakhnin Valley will help spur more startups in the health and medical sectors, and boost healthcare services and the economy. Read more
Opinion | Did you know code can kill? The conversation on system bugs can start with user experience and data but can very quickly reach human life, writes Eran Agmon, Chief Product Officer at DreaMed. Read more
eToro targeting $1 billion funding round after SPAC stalls. While it continues to work to complete the SPAC merger, eToro is also in advanced stages of completing a massive private funding round of between $800 million and $1 billion. However, the valuation of the company in the round is set to only be around $5-6 billion. Read more
AI startup BeyondMinds shutting down, laying off all 65 employees. The Israeli company raised $15 million in November 2020, but couldn’t survive the downturn in the tech market and is closing its doors after failing to find a buyer. Read more
Starburst announces ASTRA accelerator to power next-generation of space tech startups. The aerospace accelerator will guide three space tech startups, and help them launch go-to-market products with the aim of turning Israel into the Spacetech Nation. Read more
The SPACs are dead, but what about the zombies stuck in the middle? Those who managed to complete the merger became public, in contrast to the “zombies”, companies that are in the process of merging with a
SPAC, but are unable to complete it. Read more
A picture of grandma on a porcelain mug is also high-tech. Shutterfly is the undisputed global giant in custom photo printing. This means that it takes the countless photos on your smartphone, and turns them into photo albums or prints on cups, textiles, puzzles and bottles. CEO Hilary Schneider explains why the company is absolutely high-tech, and how the algorithm developed in Haifa is responsible for a significant portion of their $2 billion annual revenue. Read more
Appointments | Bright Data appoints Erez Naveh as new VP of Product. Naveh joins from Meta (formerly Facebook) where he served as a product team leader tasked with working across multiple data-driven services. Read more
CTalk | Compete: “It doesn’t start and end with salary: you need to understand all the different components.” At WorkTech 2022, Compete Co-Founder and CEO Amit Rapaport discussed the challenge of offering employees a fair reimbursement package. Watch full interview
“You have to make sure that your employee benefits plan is recession-proof.” As inflation occurs around the world, and fears of a recession rise, Sorbet Co-Founder and CEO, Veetahl Eilat-Raichel, discussed the need to disrupt Paid Time Off. Watch full interview
