CTECH – Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Nov. 29, 2022
Tech TLV | Oren Zeev: “Mistakes were made. The pricing of deals in 2020 and 2021 was too high.” “There’s nothing that I look back on and am ashamed of, but I say, in retrospect, I would not have paid that price,” Oren Zeev, founding partner at Zeev Ventures, said at Calcalist’s Tech TLV conference. Read more
Microsoft Israel R&D Chief Scientist: “We are making AI accessible to everyone without the need to be an AI engineer.” “If in the past we had to develop a new artificial intelligence for each function, today’s artificial intelligence consists of one model that can perform many tasks,” said Dr. Tomer Simon, speaking at Calcalist’s Tech TLV conference. Read more
Fintech unicorn Rapyd to continue with acquisitions and recruitment, says CEO. “We conduct ourselves the way we think we should and if it bothers some people, that’s their problem. Our financial performance is excellent and that’s why investors really like what we do,” said Arik Shtilman. Read more
“A car is a computer on the road moving in a complex web.” Michal Frenkel, VP of Product and Strategy at Argus was talking in a panel at Tech TLV together with Guy Sher, CEO of Via Israel. Read more
“Now is the time for companies and investors to work out what the world really needs and what is a luxury.” Fiona Darmon, General Partner at JVP, was speaking in a panel at Tech TLV with Yaron Elad, CEO of Elron Ventures, Sapir Harosh, Partner at Third Point Ventures, and Haggai Schreiber, Chief Investment Officer at Phoenix. Read more
Israel Innovation Authority VP: “Israel can be the world’s most advanced country in autonomous public transport.” “If this project fails, then at least we tried. But if we succeed, we will probably change Israel and the world,” said Sagi Dagan, VP and Head of Strategy at the IIA. Read more
Former Waze CEO raises funds from a16z for new social platform Post News. Noam Bardin said that the platform has already onboarded 65,000 users out of a waitlist of 335,000. Read more
Taboola CEO: “Yahoo is an internet hero and will drive our revenue.” Founder and CEO Adam Singolda was delighted after announcing his company had entered into a 30-year commercial agreement which will see Yahoo receive a 25% stake in the digital advertising platform. Read more
2022 VC Survey | “Employee conditions will only improve” next year, says lool Ventures. lool Ventures General Partner Yaniv Golan and Investor Roy Katzenelson joined CTech to share insights on the VC sector. Read more
Yahoo takes 25% stake in Taboola as part of 30-year commercial agreement. Taboola will power native advertising exclusively across Yahoo in an agreement the companies estimate will generate approximately $1 billion in revenue annually. Read more
Nano Dimension CEO targeting takeover of company and its $1.2 billion in cash. Yoav Stern, CEO and Chairman of Nano Dimension, wants to reprice his options so they will immediately go into the money and see him claim 10% of the company, currently traded at a value of only $633 million despite having $1.2 billion in cash. Read more
Fujitsu establishes new R&D center in Israel to strengthen data and security technologies. The Tel Aviv-based center, which is set to open in April 2023, will initially include a team composed of around 10 experts recruited from Israel alongside researchers from Japan and Europe. Read more
Mapping the modern CFO stack. Despite all the innovation in the CFO software space, we are still a long way from fully automated and digitized financial processes. But the new wave of innovation that has emerged brings excitement around the future of the modern CFO stack, write Raz Mangel and Ortal Sasson-Hendin of Greenfield Partners. Read more
2022 VC Survey | Why is 2022 the ‘Back to the Future’ year of venture capitalism? State of Mind Ventures’ General Partner Nir Adler joined CTech to draw parallels between Israel’s tech crisis and a Hollywood movie. Read more
Bionaut Labs bags $43 million Series B for micro-robotic drug delivery. The biotech startup was co-founded by two Israeli robotics entrepreneurs, Michael Shpigelmacher and Aviad Maizels, who previously co-founded PrimeSense, sold to Apple in 2013 for approximately $400 million. Read more
What’s cooking?: Israeli celebrity chef invests in foodtech startup GreenOnyx. Ruti Broudo, co-founder of R2M hospitality and restaurant group, participated in a $10 million fundraising round for GreenOnyx, the Israeli foodtech company which specializes in growing the Wolffia superfood. Read more
ICON reveals latest batch of alumni for startup program SV101. The accelerator is for startups looking to expand into Silicon Valley and solidify their first steps into the American market. Read more
Boarding Pass | Conbo.ai’s billion-dollar opportunity to revolutionize maritime terminals. The Israeli company has raised $2 million to help with the sensitivities surrounding supply chains. Read more
New treatment aiming to reduce suicidality in Bipolar Disorder. American-Israeli company NRx is currently undergoing a trial that combines two kinds of compounds hoping to reduce the negative side effects of current medicine. Read more
After stock crash, Talkspace in talks to be acquired by Amwell at $200 million valuation. The case of the online mental therapy company founded by Roni & Oren Frank is particularly bleak. This is how Talkspace went from being a promising startup with a SPAC merger at a $1.4 billion valuation, to a sale to American Well at a seventh of the value. Read more
2022 VC Survey | Arkin Holdings: “I’m actually afraid we are not at the bottom yet” of the tech crisis. Dr. Nadav Shimoni, Managing Director of Arkin Digital Health, joined CTech for its VC Survey series to consider how 2023 will look in the investment space. Read more
Boarding Pass | “People working on technologies for humanity should have the best tools possible.” BioRaptor recently raised $3 million in Seed to generate actionable scientist-friendly insights. Read more
CTalk | Is the metaverse still as punchy as it once was? Koren Grinshpoon, Co-founder and COO at echo3D, provides an update on the company since meeting with CTech one year ago. Read more
How Hello Heart is tackling the $300 billion healthcare problem. Maayan Cohen, CEO at Hello Heart, joined CTech to discuss the importance of heart health. Read more
From the Valley to the Wadi: Ballerine back building at home after Y Combinator experience. Straight from Y Combinator, Ballerine CEO Noam Izhaki shares what it’s like to be at Calcalist’s Roadshow. Read more
CTalk | “Last year the industry had a big party – now there is a hangover and bills need to be paid.” Irit Kahan, Partner, Head of DTCP Israel, was speaking in a panel at the Roadshow event together with Sivan Shamri Dahan, Managing Partner at Qumra Capital, Adi Hoorvitch Lavi, VP Growth & Investments at Poalim Hi-Tech, and Adi Gozes, Partner at Entrée Capital. Watch full video
“The market definitely requires more stamina from founders.” Liran Grinberg, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Team8; Nate Meir, Partner at StageOne Ventures; and Keren Kopilov, Partner at Firstime VC, joined CTech at Calcalist’s Roadshow to discuss how early-stage companies can prepare for 2023. Watch full video
2022 VC Survey | “Even with a likely global recession upon us, we are bullish on the opportunities to invest.” Intel Capital’s Roi Bar-Kat joined CTech to discuss some of the trends seen in the VC space and how to keep finding success in economic downturns. Read more
Founders must “come to terms with reality,” says Hetz Ventures. Judah Taub, Managing Partner of Hetz Ventures joined CTech to discuss the winners and losers of the year. Read more
Pagaya goes from highest-valued Israeli company to danger of delisting. The Israeli fintech company has lost over 97% of its valuation in less than four months, going from a market cap of around $20 billion to just $680 million. Read more
Analysis | Unicorn employees paying the price for exaggerated expansion. Two major Israeli unicorns – Trax and Rapyd – admitted on Tuesday that they are going to lay off dozens, if not hundreds, of employees. While no unicorn currently firing workers is going to shut down, they are now dealing with the consequences of last year’s hiring hysteria. Read more
Opinion | Will insurance digitalization introduce a new social platform? Ilan Buganim, chief technology and information officer at Sapiens, explains how social media accelerates insurance digitalization. Read more
Techstars CEO: “2023 will be a graveyard for startups.” Maëlle Gavet, who has headed Techstars since 2021, is far from optimistic about the crisis in the industry: “Those who did not have time to raise enough are likely to encounter quite a few difficulties.” Read more
Fintech unicorn Rapyd set to lay off dozens of employees. Israel’s highest-valued startup, which reached a $15 billion valuation earlier this year, could lay off more than 10% of its 900 employees. Read more
Unicorn Trax embarks on another round of layoffs, parting with 8% of workforce. The Israeli company will be laying off another 70-80 employees after parting with over 100 workers in June. Read more
Would you take a lie detector test for your next job? Valid.it has developed a “reliability test” for employers seeking to analyze the honesty of potential recruits. Read more
2022 VC Survey | OurCrowd: “Flat is the new up. We are looking forward to holding steady.” The company’s CEO Jon Medved spoke on how this year impacted the tech sector. Read more
Torr FoodTech raises $12 million Series A to innovate snack bars. The Israeli startup, which came through Strauss Group’s foodtech incubator The Kitchen Hub, has developed technology that combines mechanical pressure and ultrasonic energy to press ingredients together in the production of snack bars and other food products. Read more
Mobile content creation app Piggy raises $7.7 million Seed funding led by Insight Partners. The Israeli startup has developed a platform that enables users to create documents, presentations, invitations, and more, directly from their mobile phones. Read more
Visionary.ai receives multi-million-dollar investment from National Grid Partners. The Israeli startup’s technology enables cameras to operate in extremely low lighting, in real time, in color and while maintaining high picture sharpness. Read more
Schultz kept Teva away from the abyss, but couldn’t find a runway to growth. Kare Schultz, who served as CEO of the pharmaceutical company for the past five years, has left the company a year early after amassing a salary of more than $100 million. His replacement, Richard Francis, is taking over with less debt and less legal issues, but with the big challenge of creating new growth engines. Read more
CTech’s Book Review: The power of naps in our day. Reuben Braham, VP Marketing at Cynet, has joined CTech to share a review of “Nap: The Secret of Perfect Sleep” by Avi Barssessat. Read more
