CTECH: Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Jan. 26, 2024
Tech titans start 2024 with mass layoffs, but is the worst yet to come? Layoffs signal broader industry challenges, prompting fears of further job losses. Read more
“Gaza would look like Dubai if the money that flowed there was not used for terrorism.” Dr. Shlomit Wagman, Global Chief Regulation and Compliance Officer at Rapyd, added that future funds going to Gaza from all over the world for reconstruction must be monitored to ensure they are not again used to finance terrorism. Read more
Despite 2024 worries, Mobileye’s Q4 success points to resilient future. In the fourth quarter of 2023, revenues grew by 13% compared to the corresponding quarter, reaching $637 million. However the company anticipates a 50% drop in revenues to $230 million in Q1 of 2024 due to the supply glut in the market for driver-assistance chips. Read more
Tipalti CEO: “Every day I get inquiries from struggling companies looking to be acquired.” Chen Amit, founder and CEO of Tipalti was speaking on a panel with Or Liban, Head of Israel and the Middle East at Airwallex, Keren Danziger, CEO of the Pagaya investment funds, Lilac Bar David, co-founder and CEO of Lili, and Limor Hassid Levenberg, Director of Data and Digital, Bank of Jerusalem. Read more
Court rules against Meta in Bright Data scraping case. “The Facebook and Instagram Terms do not bar logged-off scraping of public data; perforce it does not prohibit the sale of such public data. Therefore, the Terms cannot bar Bright Data’s logged-off scraping activities,” said U.S. District Judge Edward Chen. Read more
Minute Media acquires STN Video for $150 million. The sports content unicorn raised around $100 million in debt and equity from HSBC Innovation Banking and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock at a valuation of over $1 billion in order to help fund the deal. Read more
Google announces $4 million support fund for Israeli AI startups amid war. The company has provided Israel with a total of $8 million in relief since the October 7 attacks. The fund aims to help maximize the success of roughly 20 Israeli startups in need of immediate funding. Read more
Microsoft looks at Israeli high-tech as its ‘Gas and Oil’ in the Middle East. As the company searches for potential growth engines in the region, it partnered with Sapiens as a way to better penetrate the insurtech industry. Read more
Bill Ackman and wife Neri Oxman buy 5% of Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for $17 million. The Jewish billionaire and his Israeli wife are making their first investment in Israel since the outbreak of the war with Hamas. Read more
War in Gaza highlights Egypt’s energy dependence on Israel. The suspension of activity at the Tamar Gas Field due to the war led to an 80% drop in gas exports to Egypt, which needs it both for energy production and for the foreign exchange it earns from its liquefaction and sale. Even if it appears that the war damaged relations between the countries, Egypt still needs Israel. Read more
CEO of startup developing life-saving system killed in battle in Gaza. Adam Bismut was killed along with 20 other Israeli soldiers in the deadliest IDF incident since the beginning of the fighting with the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza. His startup, SightBit, developed a life-saving AI system that locates drowning people at sea and alerts rescuers. Read more
Silverfort raises $116 million Series D for identity security platform. According to the company, the investment follows another record year of more than 100% growth where Silverfort added tens of millions in new Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Read more
Bluewhite raises $39 million to bring autonomous innovation to farms worldwide. The company’s product is retrofitted onto any tractor and leverages computer vision and AI to navigate and execute multiple tasks autonomously, from crop seeding and spraying to mowing and harvesting. Read more
Cyber startup Torq adds $42 million to Series B. According to the company, it registered 300% revenue growth and 500% customer growth in its third year of operation in 2023. Read more
Vroom laying off 90% of workforce, shutting down used-vehicle platform. The company, which peaked at a valuation of over $8 billion in August 2020 but has seen its market cap fall to $75 million, said that it is discontinuing its e-commerce operations and winding down its used vehicle dealership business, resulting in the layoff of 800 employees. Read more
How an Israeli CEO balanced saving lives in Gaza with running his healthtech startup. Alon Joffe, CEO of Eleos Health, talks about balancing being a major in the IDF’s combat search and rescue extraction unit and managing a promisng startup. “There was a quarter when the company was run without a CEO, but rather by the management team and they were amazing.” Read more
From Seminary to Startup Nation: Could Haredi women propel Israel’s tech boom? Employment and education among ultra-orthodox women, including in tech, is only rising, says a recent Israel Democracy Institute report. This is in part due to initiatives like Ultra-Code, a two-year program that provides haredi women with advanced study and training in technological subjects to help them gain employment in the tech sector. Read more
Shadow of uncertainty still lingering over SolarEdge despite huge cutbacks. Sources close to the company reveal that SolarEdge had formulated a work plan based on quarterly revenues ranging between $600-700 million. More layoffs could be coming should the company continue to fall short of its target. Read more
J.P. Morgan affirms commitment to Israel through expanded local tech center. The global bank has a center in Israel that is partly responsible for Athena, its risk and trade management platform. Read more
Red Dot Capital Partners completes first close of $250 million early growth fund. The fund leads investments in Israeli companies that show first signs of product market fit and have reached revenues of $1-5 million, usually in A-C rounds. Read more
Zscaler in negotiations to acquire cyber startup Avalor for $250-350 million. Avalor, which came out of stealth with a $25 million Series A last year, has developed an open data platform which can integrate data from legacy systems, data lakes, data warehouses, SQL databases, applications, and more, and then normalize and analyze it. Read more
SolarEdge to embark on massive layoffs, cutting 900 jobs amid sharp drop in revenue. The renewable energy company, which has seen its valuation fall by 80%, is expecting its revenues in the fourth quarter of 2023 to be 55% lower than the third quarter, which were themselves 27% less than the second quarter. Read more
HP Indigo firing 50 employees in Israel in another round of layoffs. One year after cutting 100 jobs in the country, the American conglomerate is laying off an additional 2% of its local team. Read more
Intel-Israel negotiations revealed: What did the chip giant demand for $25 billion investment? Kfir Battat, Deputy Director of the Budget Department at Israel’s Ministry of Finance, who led the talks with Intel, believes that even though the chip company did not make life easy for him and his colleagues, the final outcome is positive for both Israel and Intel. Read more
CTalk | Israel Innovation Authority calls global VCs to invest in “the pearls and gems of Israeli tech.” CEO Dror Bin spoke to CTech at TechTLV about the urgency faced by early-stage startups amid the ongoing war. Read more
The Israeli unicorn that prepared for disaster and saved lives on October 7. Guy Bloch, CEO of the unicorn Bringg, had a gut feeling that something was going to happen, and prepared a contingency plan to save his company for when disaster would strike. Then, on October 7, he discovered that the software used to manage the shipments of American giants could also manage the rescue of survivors from Gaza border towns. In his first interview since, he explains how it all happened, and what he learned along the way. Read more
Indian workers desperate for jobs in Israel despite war: “If it’s in our destiny to die, then we can die either here or there.” Masons, painters, electricians, plumbers and some farmers said they were looking for jobs in Israel with some willing to risk going into a conflict zone because they could make five times more money in a year than they would at home. Read more
Silicon Valley icons unite in Palantir Davos event to bring hope and support to Israeli hostages. Over 150 prominent tech and business leaders, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, convened to address the aftermath of the October 7 attacks in Israel and show solidarity with the hostages being held in Gaza. Read more
CTalk | “Tech has a huge role in helping boost the economy forward.” Yonatan Sela, Partner at Square Peg, joined CTech to discuss how Israel can maintain its tech scene amid war. Read more
Opinion | Israeli tech in 2024: Emerging stronger from this crisis is up to us. “If we manage to resolve the disagreements between us, and ensure that Israel’s high-tech has the best possible environment to allow it to thrive, then this magnificent backbone of entrepreneurs and technologists will be able to create the right conditions for the high-tech sector to emerge stronger from the crisis and put the entire Israeli economy back on a path of growth,” writes Sarit Firon, Managing Partner of Team8. Read more
