Jefferies CEO: “There is an influx of innovation here that makes Israel an important place for investors.” Rich Handler, who led the sale of shares of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to foreign investors, is optimistic regarding the future of the Israeli economy and believes the indices on Wall Street are close to their peak. Read more

The Edge of Tech | Israel’s booming crypto ecosystem revealed. Also on our AI-native show: Nvidia CEO promises to support both Israeli and Palestinian employees and FundGuard nets $100 million for AI-powered investment platform. Read more

From Yemen to Iran: Israel’s new $1 billion spy plane is a war game changer. The American-manufactured aircraft can execute numerous intelligence missions simultaneously. For instance, it can clandestinely monitor a high-ranking official in Rafah, pinpoint the origin of a ballistic missile in Yemen, identify a weapons convoy between Iraq and Syria, locate a suspect near a nuclear reactor in Iran, and track a vehicle carrying senior officials that must be neutralized in the heart of Beirut’s Dahieh – all within a single sortie. Read more

RealEye’s mission to help authorities with the human selection process. The Israeli company has raised a total of $1.1 million to help correctional and immigration authorities, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and the military. Read more

The next FemTech frontier: personalized and innovative birth control. Dr. Yael Maizels, formerly the Senior Scientist at the Institute for Personalized and Translational Medicine at Ariel University, has conducted a new study which shows that 76% of women suffer from non-lethal side effects from hormonal birth control. She spoke to CTech about the need for investment in personalized and innovative solutions for women. Read more

“Anytime we’re threatened, we become more Israeli.” Pitango First’s Eyal Niv joined CTech to share insights about Israel and its tech sector as we settle into 2024. Read more

FundGuard secures $100 million Series C for AI-powered investment platform. The Israeli startup’s platform helps asset managers and their service providers to manage mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds, insurance products, and pension funds, supporting digital transformation, operations automation, AI-based insights, resiliency, and migration to the cloud. Read more

Mapping Israel’s booming crypto ecosystem. Against all odds, and amid the war, the Israeli crypto market is flourishing, driven by the bull market that followed the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF. Over $100 million has been raised by startups since October 7th, with the first Decacorn of the local industry also emerging, according to the Israeli Ecosystem Map published by VC Collider. Read more

Foundational nets $8 million in Seed funding to bring AI agents into data engineering. The Israeli startup, which raised funding from Viola and Google’s AI-focused fund Gradient, helps data and analytics teams to push continuous code changes, safeguarding against frequent issues and harmful incidents that affect critical data. Read more

Simply co-founder and CTO Roey Izkovsky passes unexpectedly at 44. Izkovsky founded Simply (formerly JoyTunes) in 2011 with brothers Yigal Kaminka and Yuval Kaminka, the latter of whom serves as the company’s CEO and with whom Izkovsky served in unit 8200. Read more

Israeli high-tech scene embodies a “big kibbutz” atmosphere, says Flint Capital. Sergey Gribov, Partner at Flint Capital, joined CTech to discuss 2024 investment trends and Startup Nation’s reputation around the world. Read more

How being innovative is helping job seekers land a job in tech. As the competition in the job market for every position has increased, employers are forced to go through hundreds of resumes in order to find the right candidates, making innovative and creative thinking the most important asset for today’s jobseekers. Read more

Ideating in a saturated cybersecurity market. “The rapidly evolving nature of cybersecurity threats outpaces the ability of larger vendors to adapt. This creates a prime opportunity for nimble startups to develop innovative, tailored solutions that address these specific pain points,” writes Nadav Lev, CTO at YL Ventures. Read more

Too soon? Jewish-American comedians use humor to cope post October 7. Jewish stand-up comedians in America are turning the growing anti-Semitism since October 7 into the hottest material in their shows. Because for 2,000 years, from Haman, to the Nazis, to the anti-Israel progressives at Harvard, humor has been the best defense. Read more

Could regulators break up Apple and Google? Regulators allege companies such as Apple and Google have built impenetrable ecosystems around their products, making it difficult for customers to switch to rival services, which led to the coining of the term walled gardens. Read more

How to win the education tech crisis? Empowering teachers is the path to triumph. As the education system crashes inward, its approach to technology won’t salvage it. Can the education system take the lead in technology? Is success possible? And why is it crucial to empower teachers now? Read more

Data unicorn Redis acquires Israeli startup Speedb to boost platform with data storage engine. “Acquiring Speedb takes Redis beyond RAM, and opens the door for us to serve an integral role in powering today’s most exciting and innovative applications,” said Rowan Trollope, CEO of Redis. Read more

Microsoft’s AI power play is bad news for innovation. Mustafa Suleyman, who left Google to found Inflection AI and design artificial intelligence products for the public good, has been swallowed up by Microsoft. The message to consumers waiting for AI products: in this race there is only room for giants who will shape the market according to their interests. Read more

Yango divests Israeli taxi operations to local investors. Established by the Russian technology firm Yandex, Yango is restructuring its operations amid sanctions imposed on Russian companies due to the Ukraine invasion. This includes transitioning taxi operations to local franchisees across various countries. Read more

Bank One Zero announces executive promotions in anticipation of European expansion. The promotion of the CEO of the digital bank Gal Bar Dea to the position of CEO of the group, and the departure of the VP of risk management and the VP of technology of the bank has led to a wide round of appointments. Read more

Zenfone 11 Ultra: Can Asus disrupt the status quo in mobile tech? The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra competes well with leading premium devices but faces challenges due to its limited update support compared to competitors like Samsung, making it difficult for Asus to stand out in the market dominated by larger rivals. Read more

Minute Media strikes deal for Sports Illustrated rights. Sports Illustrated’s publishing portfolio includes Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, and Sports Illustrated Kids. The Israeli company will oversee all digital and print editorial operations across the SI portfolio. Read more

The Israeli startup earmarked by Nvidia as key to solidifying AI dominance. After breaking new ground with the $6.9 billion acquisition of Israel’s Mellanox five years ago, Nvidia is hoping that the purchase of Israeli startup Run:ai will ensure it finds new growth engines and remains on top in the AI race. Read more

GitLab acquiring cloud security startup Oxeye for $30-40 million. The Israeli startup has developed technology for detecting and solving weaknesses in code in the development stages of applications. Read more

Mobileye closing aftermarket division, laying off 130 employees. The unit that provides retrofitted advanced driver assistance technology has seen its revenues decline meaningfully over recent years to roughly $40 million on an annual basis, and in recent years has not positively contributed to Mobileye profitability. Read more

Why are Israeli tech stocks lagging behind Nasdaq? An index built by venture capital fund Viola Group, which includes Israeli high-tech companies issued in the US in the last decade, reveals that despite impressive growth rates and stringent expense management, Israeli public companies are undervalued in the market, presenting a distinctive opportunity. Read more

Nvidia in talks to acquire AI infrastructure platform Run:ai in massive deal. The Israeli startup, founded in 2018, has developed an orchestration and virtualization software layer tailored to the unique needs of AI workloads running on GPUs and similar chipsets. The value of the deal is estimated at many hundreds of millions of dollars and could even reach $1 billion. Read more

“The Artificial Intelligence Woodstock”: Will Nvidia live up to expectations? With an 80% surge in its stock price since the beginning of the year and a market value of $2.2 trillion, the AI giant will present its latest developments in the field at the GTC conference, starting Monday in San Jose, California. Read more

Cyber millionaires: M&A March Madness means major paydays for founders. The entrepreneurs behind Avalor, Flow Security and Gem Security are set to cash in over $50 million each after being acquired over recent weeks by cyber giants Zscaler, CrowdStrike and Wiz, respectively. Read more

Tech firms dash for cash before Wall Street party ends. The Nasdaq index has already produced a return of 8.2% since the beginning of 2024 and some companies are rushing to cash in with secondary IPOs. Read more

The Israeli companies that earned $60 million working with UNRWA. A report presented by MK Yulia Malinovsky found that from 2020-2023, transactions between UNRWA and Israeli companies totaled more than $60 million, with some of the companies saying that UNRWA still owes them money, having severed ties with the organization since October 7. Read more