CTECH: Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Feb. 28, 2024
Exodigo adds $105 million in new funding to modernize underground mapping. Combining multiple types of powerful sensors, 3D imaging, cloud computing simulations and a proprietary AI platform, the Israeli startup fuses massive amounts of data into one map so companies can see risks and assets underground. Read more
U.S. giant Workday acquiring HiredScore for hundreds of millions of dollars. The enterprise cloud applications company, which has a market cap of around $79 billion, will utilize the Israeli company’s AI-powered talent orchestration solutions to enable companies to use data-driven insights to improve recruiting and talent mobility processes. Read more
Tech, war and motherhood: Meet Israel’s new generation of women venture capitalists. Female partners like Renana Ashkenazi, Nofar Amikam, and Sapir Harosh are leading a paradigm shift in Israel’s VC sector, defying norms and driving innovation even amidst wartime challenges, symbolizing the growing presence of women in Israel’s male-dominated venture capital scene. Read more
“Everyone who deals with security today looks at the field with much more humility.” The commander of the Lotem unit, Brigadier General Yael Grossman, understands that the security reality will occupy Israel for decades to come, and talks about the contribution of the high-tech workers who reported to the unit’s reserves on October 7 without being required to. Read more
OurCrowd: “Great companies come from tough markets.” When times get tough, that’s when innovation sparks new technologies and businesses for a brighter future. Read more
Codefresh acquired by Australia’s Octopus Deploy for $40-50 million. The Israeli software startup, which has raised a total of $54 million, is used by enterprises to run Argo and scaling and deploying to Kubernetes. Read more
The female force rocketing Israel’s David’s Sling air defense system. Anat, the head of the launch and interceptor system project for the David’s Sling at Rafael, whose full name and photo cannot be revealed, discusses the new operational reality since October 7 and the new threats against which David’s Sling is being prepared. Read more
Meta admits defeat against web-scraping firm Bright Data, abandons legal action. “This is not a settlement. Bright Data did not make any agreement with Meta or make any changes to its conduct. This was a total concession by Meta to drop the case it brought against Bright Data for scraping public web data on its website,” Bright Data said. Read more
Foodtech incubator The Kitchen faces uncertain future after Strauss cuts investments. Three of the incubator’s seven employees have been laid off, while the CEO and CBO have seen their roles reduced, after Strauss decided to halt its investments. Read more
“Resilience and adaptability have historically characterized Israeli high-tech.” Grove Ventures’ Lior Handelsman has joined CTech as part of its 2024 VC Survey to shed insight on Israel’s reputation after a turbulent 2023. Read more
Party on? High-tech’s delicate dance navigating festivities in times of turmoil. As the war in Gaza wages on, the Israeli high-tech industry deals with shifting from a culture of fun and excess to raising employee morale modestly in a manner “adapted to the situation”. Read more
The audacious Israeli entrepreneurs founding startups during the war. The war and its impact, including being displaced from their homes in the South on October 7th, or having a spouse serving in reserves, have not been enough to halt Israeli entrepreneurs from starting their ventures. For some, it’s even motivation. Read more
Only 12% of entrepreneurs who secured initial funding in Israeli tech in 2023 were female. A mere 17% of the startups that raised their first funding last year had at least one female founder, notably lower than the figure in the U.S. and Europe (26.2% and 25.5% respectively), according to a new report by RISE Israel. Read more
Teva has sights on $12.2 billion Humira market after receiving FDA approval for arthritis injection. The Israeli pharma company and Iceland’s Alvotech announced that the SIMLANDI injection has been approved as an interchangeable biosimilar to Humira for the treatment of adult rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, adult psoriatic arthritis, adult ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, adult ulcerative colitis, adult plaque psoriasis, adult hidradenitis suppurativa and adult uveitis. Read more
Japanese investments in Israel dropped 57% in 2023. Investments by Japanese companies in Israel returned to 2018 levels, even though the number of transactions remained stable. Read more
How Nvidia became “Taylor Swift for investors”. The chipmaker posted phenomenal results, adding an unprecedented $277 billion to its market cap in a single day, and pulling Wall Street to new highs. Could the Nvidia effect offset the postponement of interest rate cuts in the US? Read more
“Until there is unity and equality here, Israel has no chance.” At night, serial entrepreneur Michal Tsur doesn’t sleep, worrying about her son fighting in the army. During the day, she is busy with her third startup, Remepy, and dreaming of a new country – the same country for which she took to the streets as one of the leaders of last year’s protest against the judicial reform. Read more
“AI has become an overarching catalyst unlocking multiple vectors of growth,” says NICE CEO after company beats forecasts. In the fourth quarter, the Israeli software company recorded 10% growth in revenue to $623 million, along with a profit of $2.36 per share, above market expectations. The cloud activity generated revenues of $429 million. Read more
Forever young? Multi-millionaire believes he can beat death. 111 nutritional supplements a day, a hat that shoots laser beams into his head, blood transfusions from his teenage son, and 30 researchers who analyze him 24/7: Bryan Johnson, a multi-millionaire who made his fortune selling a payment application, is convinced that he can beat death, or at least live another 200 years. Read more
The rise and rise of Nvidia. As Nvidia’s stock soars, market experts ponder the path forward. Read more
Opinion | In 2024, AI is poised to become more useful and accurate than ever. “The risks associated with artificial intelligence are not going away, and some are even expected to stay and increase. However, the ability to use AI in an efficient, accurate and more supervised and controlled manner is expected to improve in 2024,” writes Ori Goshen, co-founder and co-CEO at AI21 Labs. Read more
Palo Alto Networks loses over $30 billion in market cap, sends shockwaves throughout cyber market. The cybersecurity giant’s biggest one-day share drop came after the company said that softer client spending and steep promotions forced it to cut its annual billings forecast and that it plans to offer up to six months of free services to customers who are switching to its one-stop-shop platform. Read more
“Israeli tech will export the innovations created as a result of the war and that will be a game-changer.” “The current situation in Israel is the best in the 12 years I have been working here,” added Justin Borus, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Ibex Investors, which announced a new $106 million fund to invest in Israeli startups. Read more
DustPhotonics raises $24 million in Series B follow-on. The Israeli startup, which develops silicon photonics for hyperscale data center and AI applications, has built a platform for the optical network market, offering improvements in bandwidth and speeds while lowering costs and power consumption. Read more
BRIA raises $24 million Series A for ‘ethical’ visual generative AI platform. The Israeli startup collaborates with many of the world’s leading stock image providers and manages over one billion licensed images. These images are used to train BRIA’s text-to-image foundation models while ensuring the original creators, artists, and media companies receive royalties to fairly compensate for their images’ contribution to the final generated output. Read more
“Israel’s tech sector can recover within months.” Pre-Seed VC firm Fusion joined CTech for its 2024 VC Series to share insights on how the next year may look amid a string of national and global challenges. Read more
Wix registers first full year net profit, forecasts acceleration in “profitable growth in 2024.” The software company ended 2023 with revenues of $1.56 billion, a 13% growth compared to 2022. GAAP net income amounted to $33.1 million. Read more
