“We have come to realize our national and social responsibility to stand as a protective wall for democracy.” High-tech executives are urging an escalation in protests against the judicial overhaul as the coalition prepares to approve the abolishing of the reasonableness standard in court rulings, with a vote on the first hearing scheduled for Monday. Read more

Deel denies senator allegations of violating California labor laws, claims they are “completely made up”. Senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat from San Diego, blamed the remote HR startup of advising its clients, including major California companies, to misclassify their employees and evade taxes, as well as avoid providing employee benefits. Read more

Meta’s Threads: Challenging Twitter’s dominance with TikTok-inspired strategy. Meta has deliberately diverged from the recipe that has been at the core of Twitter’s success, which revolves around news and politics, and instead focuses on users’ desire for communities and memes. Read more

“The word ‘robot’ was invented more than 100 years ago. But everyone is still waiting for them.” Vlad Zaharov, Founder and CEO at Tider, spoke to CTech about the future of robotics in our homes and how they can help us with our everyday tasks. Watch full interview

Amdocs laying off around 2,000 employees, 6.5% of workforce, in another round of cutbacks. The software company parted ways with around 700 employees earlier this year and is reducing its staff yet again despite positive financial results over recent quarters. Read more

Sienna VC raising $250 million to invest in Israeli startups. The European fund plans to invest between $5-15 million in each funding round, with varied areas of focus including AI, cybersecurity, fintech, digital health, foodtech, agritech, and more. Read more

Healthtech startup DayTwo facing uncertain future after dramatic restructuring. The Israeli startup, which raised $85 million mainly from co-founder Marius Nacht, has reduced its staff by over 75% over the past year and is hoping to sell its technology to another company. Read more

Telehealth startup TytoCare lays off 10% of workforce. The Israeli company, which develops a digital device for remote medical testing and diagnosis and has raised $155 million to date, is laying off 20 employees. Read more

CTalk | “Don’t rush to run after trends and buzzwords – it’s fluff.” Lior Simon, General Partner at Cyberstarts, spoke to CTech about the changing market and how early-stage companies can succeed in today’s market. Read more

“The decline in new startups and the loss of trust from global investors will take several years to recover from.” Avichay Nissenbaum and Roy Katzenelson of lool Ventures spoke with CTech as part of the series “Where do we go from here?”, aiming to examine how the Israeli VC industry is dealing with the crisis in the sector. Read more

Plarium co-founder strikes big again with gaming startup Whaleapp. After the $500 million sale of Plarium to Australian company Aristocrat, Ilya Turpiashvili founded Whaleapp in 2018, raising approximately $50 million to date and generating $80 million in revenue from mobile games. Read more

Sex, lawsuits, and millions down the drain: the secrets behind Aerodrome’s value destruction. A staggering 95% plunge in value merely scratches the surface of the tumultuous events that have unfolded at this UAV manufacturer in recent years. One instance involved an employee who, while providing training in Kazakhstan, violated security protocols by bringing a local woman to his hotel room, resulting in severe damage to the company’s collaboration with Elbit. Read more

The dark side of technology: Misinformation and AI in the US elections. The public already requires an unusually high level of digital literacy to successfully navigate the sea of interests and forgery, and now it will have to make a much greater effort. Read more

Opinion | Joonko fraud: 5 warning signs for entrepreneurs and investors. Although one rotten apple is unlikely to ruin the entire bowl, the exposure of fraud at startup Joonko in recent days raises suspicions about the prevalence of invalid norms throughout the entire Israeli high-tech industry. Here are five valuable lessons that can be learned from this incident. Read more

“The FemTech revolution has happened. We stopped asking for permission to talk about what bothers us.” EZbra founder and FemTech pioneer Efrat Roman spoke to CTech about her iconic post-op bra for breast cancer patients and the odyssey of FemTech. Read more

“We don’t all need to know exactly how AI works, but we need to know that we control it.” John Chris Inglis, who left his role as the National Cyber Director at the White House earlier this year, added that “we also need to make sure that we improve our critical thinking skills so that we understand what technology offers us and what it offers us in the context of the world we live in.” Read more

“The fear of f**king up (FOFU) has replaced the fear of missing out (FOMO).” Adam Fisher, Partner at VC firm Bessemer Venture Partners, added that he is looking for “entrepreneurs who look a little further ahead. If it’s too easy to raise at the beginning, it’ll probably be harder later. The chance that you come up with an idea that no one else has at that moment is slim.” Read more

“You have to look at the map and know that California is much more than Silicon Valley.” Sharon Vanek, Executive Director of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce, joined CTech to discuss the appeal of the Golden State despite its local challenges. Read more

“When we raised money two and a half years ago, it felt almost free; today it is no longer like that.” Yael Peled Adam, co-founder and CPO of Laguna Health, added that her startup has “always been conservative in spending and in the employees we brought in. We have 24 employees and have raised $23 million.” Read more