CTECH: Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News June 18, 2024
Finaloop raises $35 million Series A for e-commerce accounting platform. The Israeli startup’s platform makes all financial data accessible to e-commerce stakeholders, from periodic accounting to real-time finance metrics. Read more
Quantum Machines launches Israeli Quantum Computing Center. The IQCC is a state-of-the-art Quantum and HPC center that integrates the power of quantum and classical computing resources. Read more
Aim Security closes $18 million Series A to secure GenAI enterprise adoption. Less than five months after announcing its Seed round, the Israeli startup has landed additional funding for its security platform that governs and secures AI use across the modern business environment. Read more
Most promising Israeli startups: 5 enterprise software companies to watch in 2024. Trullion, Frontegg, Volumez, Bridgewise, and Port were the highest-ranked enterprise software companies in this year’s list of the 50 most promising Israeli startups. Read more
Cyber attack shuts down Israeli pharma company’s distribution. Rekah, a prominent local producer of medicines, cosmetics, vitamins, and nutritional supplements, said it is working “to contain the incident, locate and thwart it, and restore compromised systems to operation.” Read more
Big fish leave small ponds: When startup CEOs move to large companies. Whether following a successful exit or due to the closure of their startup, many CEOs find themselves moving from running a small company to management positions in large corporations. “As CEO of a startup, you are used to being the ultimate decision maker. If you need to change direction, you can make a decision in an instant, and it’s done. In a large company, there are more processes, more stakeholders, and more competition for the organization’s resources.” Read more
Eyes beyond the prize: Dissecting a Turing Award-winning Israeli scientist. Prof. Avi Wigderson is one of the most prominent computer science researchers in the world and the man behind studies that laid the foundation for the establishment of the Internet. The only person to win the Turing Award, the “Nobel of Computer Science”, and the Abel Prize, its counterpart in the branch of mathematics explains why “difficult problems are a blessing”, why his life’s challenge is to prove that there are problems that have no solution, and why he is not bothered by the anti-Israel demonstrations, but by the Israeli leadership. Read more
Fhenix raises $15 million Series A to bring confidentially to the Ethereum blockchain. The company plans to use the funds to support the initial stage of its open testnet, dubbed Helium, which will enable developers to deploy smart contracts to the Fhenix network for the first time. Read more
“We’re transforming the market by making LLM deployment more practical and effective.” FalkorDB has raised a total of $3 million to penetrate the $200 billion GenAI market. Read more
BlinqIO raises $5 million Seed round for generative-AI software testing platform. The startup’s platform provides an essentially infinite pool of human-like testers that can be integrated into the development process, allowing companies to allocate higher value work to their human workforce. Read more
The Gili Ra’anan model: Questions emerging from Cyberstarts’ remarkable success. Calcalist reveals the mechanism behind Cyberstarts’ amazing returns: points worth tens of thousands of dollars are awarded to CISOs of organizations for deepening relationships with the fund’s portfolio companies, aiding their growth. Is this model, which is increasingly questioned, one of the explanations for the fund’s extraordinary success? Ra’anan said in response: “No CISO received compensation for purchasing products.” Read more
All eyes are not enough to spot a fake image. A viral image supposedly depicting a refugee camp with the subtitle, “All Eyes on Rafah” created with the help of AI ignited a discussion about the ability to recognize realistic but inauthentic images, raising issues regarding the spread of misinformation and lack of tools to identify AI-generated content. Read more
“Intel can no longer afford to build a production line without knowing in advance who its customers will be.” The freeze on construction at the Kiryat Gat Intel plant is a severe blow to Israel, potentially creating ripples throughout the industry. This situation arises from internal troubles within the faltering company, which is hesitant to open a new plant without having customers, especially since subsidies abroad are much higher. Read more
Robotics: Evolution and the dawn of new opportunities. “While the commercial robotics market is still in its infancy, the potential effect of robotics on our lives, across all categories, is immense,” writes 10D. Read more
“I don’t know what the phone of 2050 will look like, but we’ll still be eating cucumbers and corn.” Israeli agriculture has been severely impacted by the war. Prof. Benny Chefetz, the new director of the Volcani Center, explains how agriculture will once again become an engine of growth, warns against the drying up of agricultural research and tells about the future field that will be controlled by robots and drones. Read more
Intel halts construction of new $25 billion factory in Israel. Intel’s suppliers received notice of the cancellation of contracts for the supply of equipment and materials required for the establishment of the company’s new factory over recent days. The Ministry of Finance was aware of the company’s decision to halt the establishment of the plant. Read more
Most promising Israeli startups: 4 fintech companies to watch in 2024. FundGuard, Obligo, Okoora, and IVIX were the highest-ranked fintech companies in this year’s list of the 50 most promising Israeli startups. Read more
Unicorn powerhouses: Five Israeli universities rank among top non-US institutions for startup success. Israeli Institutions, led by the Technion, outshine Cambridge and Oxford in unicorn founder study. Read more
Israeli women in tech gather to select representatives for global competition. Female founders, investors and entrepreneurs congregated to select Israel’s representatives for the She Loves Tech competition’s regional semi-finals in Amsterdam, the largest startup competition for women and technology, led by Yazamiyot in partnership with the FinSec Innovation Lab, Mastercard, Arieli Capital and ESOP-Phoenix. Read more
US investigation against AI giants can’t keep up with pace of development. Microsoft, NVIDIA, and OpenAI face regulatory heat as US agencies divide oversight responsibilities. Read more
Cybereason co-founders unveil new AI startup, raise $36 million in Seed funding. “With attackers harnessing the power of AI to unleash unprecedented levels of cyber assaults, the time has come to equip defenders with the same cutting-edge technology,” said Yonatan Striem-Amit, who founded Seven AI with Lior Div after leaving Cybereason last year. Read more
AI data acceleration startup Pliops loses over 90% of value in merger with Kalray. The Israeli startup, which develops acceleration solutions for AI and storage servers in data centers, raised $100 million at a valuation of over $650 million in August 2022. However, its shareholders will receive only around $100 million-worth of Kalray shares in the merger. Read more
Is the cultured meat industry cooked? Layoffs of 30% of Aleph Farms employees signal trouble for an industry that promised big dreams but has struggled to deliver. Investors are fleeing, and the industry’s survival may hinge on government support. Read more
What is an AI expert and how do you become one? AI experts are becoming the most sought-after professionals in the job market. Their unique skills and knowledge are essential as AI technologies rapidly transform industries. Read more
HarvestR: “The world needs us to succeed in our mission.” The company has raised a total of $400,000 to take on legacy agrichemical companies and the $280 billion market. Read more
“Israel is becoming a pariah state, a hated country, and it’s trickling down to high-tech.” High-tech executives point to the depth of the crisis in the industry: from the more extensive recruitment of employees from abroad at the expense of workers in Israel to the difficulty of raising money due to criticism of Israel. Read more
Tenable acquires Israeli cyber startup Eureka for tens of millions of dollars. Eureka had several offers before closing a deal with the American cyber giant. Read more
Cyber wars: Wiz denies Orca’s patent claims, strikes back with counterclaims. Patent dispute intensifies as Wiz rejects claims that it has infringed on any of Orca’s patents, offering a counter-narrative highlighting its own technological advancements and market success. Read more
Gauzy settles for underwhelming $244 million valuation in Nasdaq IPO. The nanotech startup was forced to make a significant compromise on its valuation, even though it aimed for a valuation of $500 million, as it only had $4.2 million remaining in its account as of the end of the first quarter. Read more
Employee concerns, investor pressure, and security woes: WalkMe’s exit is no celebration. The enterprise digitization solutions company is being acquired by the German giant SAP for $1.5 billion, far below its 2021 IPO value. After the completion of the transaction, it is uncertain if SAP will maintain WalkMe’s inflated workforce of 1,000 employees. Read more
