CTECH: Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Feb. 21, 2024
Back to New York: Who’s who at Calcalist’s Mind the Tech 2024 conference. The best of Israel’s dynamic high-tech industry and American business leaders will come together on March 4th in Calcalist and Bank Leumi’s 6th annual conference to stand with Israeli tech. Read more
Court overturns Vesttoo’s seizure request against founders and execs. District Court in Tel Aviv rules in favor of co-founders Yaniv Bertele and Alon Lifshitz, dismissing seizure bid. Read more
“Israeli tech has the rare ability to bounce back stronger than ever in the face of adversity.” Ofer Schreiber, Senior Partner at YL Ventures, joined CTech to discuss some of the cybersecurity trends to look out for in 2024. Read more
Elbit Systems lands $300 million contract to supply armored vehicle systems to European customer. The Israeli defense company said it will supply weapon, reconnaissance, driving, and situational awareness systems for approximately 230 armored vehicles. Read more
Israel to purchase tens of thousands of local assault rifles for IDF infantry brigades. The Ministry of Defense will soon publish a tender for the purchase of tens of thousands of assault rifles to be used by the infantry brigades and standby units. The tender, valued at tens of millions of shekels, comes following a shortage of rifles in the IDF and with the intention of increasing the combat brigades in the coming years. Read more
Down rounds in Israeli tech hit nearly 20% in 2023. While in 2022, 90% of rounds saw an increase in company value, this figure dropped to 65% in 2023, with 19% of startups raising funding at a decreased valuation and 16% doing so at a similar valuation. Read more
Mor Assia and Shelly Hod Moyal raise $70 million for second iAngels fund. The fund will invest in early-stage startups, with investments ranging between $2-4 million for Seed rounds. Read more
“It felt like a betrayal”: South African Jews caught in the crossfire amid South Africa’s genocide suit. CTech spoke to South African immigrants about South Africa’s ongoing genocide suit against Israel, how it has impacted the Jewish community, and the domestic political and foreign policy interests driving the country’s policy towards Israel. Read more
“We could very quickly find ourselves in a world where reality is controlled by tech corporations.” Augmented reality is like magic that offers endless options. But for Apple, which recently launched the Vision Pro, this is just another avenue to extract more and more information from us. And if we are not careful, explains AR expert Shay Segal, “we could lose touch with reality.” Read more
2024 is the time for “cautious optimism”, says Firstime Ventures. The VC fund has joined CTech to discuss some of the ecosystem trends that investors can expect in 2024 and beyond. Read more
The Israeli entrepreneur who completed an exit while fighting Hezbollah. Amit Brandon Kadosh was on a visit to Israel when the war with Hamas broke out. He immediately joined his IDF reserve unit but never imagined that he would have to make a decision regarding the sale of his startup while stationed on the Lebanon border. Read more
Sam Altman’s $7 trillion chip dream: Bold vision or delusional fantasy? The OpenAI CEO is making headlines again, reportedly trying to raise $7 trillion to reshape the global chip industry. However, the amount is completely unrealistic, computing power is already ravaging natural resources and the industry itself is skeptical of his true goal. Read more
Is OpenAI’s text-to-video AI model Sora a blessing or a curse? The AI pioneer has unveiled Sora, a text-to-video model that enables the creation of spectacular videos using a simple text command; The fear: the new technology will be used to create fake videos featuring real people. Read more
Children’s health and startups – The biggest missed opportunity in Israeli health-tech. “There is significant untapped potential for Israeli startups who want to address gaps in children’s care. Unfortunately, this potential has not been realized, and there is additional infrastructure work that needs to be done to realize this potential, as well as entire aspects of care that have been overlooked,” writes Yoav Fisher, Head of Technological Innovation and Digital Health at HealthIL. Read more
“The amount of fire directed towards Israeli forces is unlike any previous war. It shows how well-prepared Hamas was.” Brigadier General Oren Giber, head of the Ministry of Defense’s Tank and APC Directorate, spoke to Calcalist about the dramatic need for production of tanks and APCs. Read more
Clarity raises $16 million in Seed funding to defend against deepfakes. The Israeli AI startup enables organizations to rapidly identify and eliminate deepfakes and synthetic media created by generative AI. Read more
JFrog hits $5 billion market cap for the first time since 2021 on back of promising 2024 outlook. The software company registered revenues of $350 million in 2023, growing at a rate of 28%. It is forecasting a 22% growth rate this year. Read more
Lava Network raises $15 million Seed round to build infrastructure for scaling blockchain data access. The Israeli startup is building a modular network making it easy for developers and users to access blockchain through RPC & indexing. Read more
X under scrutiny for enabling Hezbollah, Houthi propaganda machine. A TTP report found that over a dozen X (Twitter) accounts linked to Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and other Iranian-backed militias had been granted blue checkmarks. Twitter charges a fee for this verification, potentially violating U.S. sanctions that prohibit financial dealings with terrorist entities. After the report was published, most of the evidence was removed from the accounts in question. Read more
Tower shutting down one Israeli chip factory, pegs hopes on Indian market. CEO Russell Ellwanger said all of the employees from Fab 1 in Migdal Ha’Emek will receive offers to either work in Fab 2 or one of the factories abroad. “There’s no point in keeping a factory alive if it’s operating at a loss,” said Ellwanger. “I’ve never been more bullish on Tower’s future.” Read more
Gigi Levy-Weiss: “I have no doubt the Israeli ‘Startup Nation’ brand will thrive for years to come.” NFX’s Levy-Weiss joined CTech to share how despite its challenges, Israel’s brand remains intact for seasoned investors. Read more
Armis acquires cyber startup CTCI for $20 million. CTCI (Cyber Threat Cognitive Intelligence) is a privately held company specializing in AI-powered pre-attack threat hunting technology. Read more
Riskified laying off 6% of team as growth stutters. The fintech company is parting ways with over 40 employees, with CEO Eido Gal explaining that despite the company’s best efforts to grow its revenue while reducing spending, it requires a faster process to reach its EBITDA targets. Read more
Fiverr CEO: “GenAI will create more jobs than it will eliminate.” Micha Kaufman was speaking on a panel with Dana Maor, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, and Barak Regev, Country Director of Google Israel. Read more
Tower’s Q4 revenue falls as auto chips supply glut adds uncertainty. The Israeli chipmaker said it plans to phase out certain lower margin products without providing further details. Read more
