CTECH – Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Nov. 9, 2022
Meta layoffs: Employees paying the price for excessive growth. The huge layoffs planned by Meta this week, which will include thousands of employees, may also reach its centers in Israel. The technology companies that experienced tremendous growth during the pandemic are now paying the price for inflating their organizations, and the big test awaits them at the end of the year. Read more
Veriti secures $12 million to close security gaps. The Israeli startup provides a consolidated management layer that continually and proactively monitors exposure to threats and provides actionable remediation paths for security gaps and high-risk vulnerabilities. Read more
Everybuddy Games raises $15 million Series A to build on Lucky Buddies success. Since its official launch in the first quarter of this year, casual mobile game Lucky Buddies has attracted hundreds of thousands of players from all over the world. Read more
Wib raises $16 million for API security platform. The Israeli startup’s solution provides complete visibility across the entire API landscape, from code to production. Read more
Israeli startups leading the way in cutting edge foodtech innovation. Alteco.io, Blue Tree, Bountica, Eggmented Reality, Pigmentum, ProFuse Technology, Sea2Cell, and Sweet Balance starred in the recent Demo Day held by local foodtech incubator Fresh Start. Read more
Cato Networks achieves Centaur status after reaching $100 million in ARR. The cybersecurity unicorn grew from $1 million to $100 million in revenue in just five years and said its SASE Cloud has been adopted by over 1,500 enterprise customers. Read more
Toyga places all 110 of its Israeli employees on unpaid leave. The financial services company said it was taking the latest cutback measure due to an upcoming merger. Toyga laid off 50 employees six months ago. Read more
Former President of Check Point now has sights on revolutionizing healthcare. Amnon Bar-Lev, CEO & Co-Founder of Alike, is building a solution to help consumers connect with patients with a similar medical condition to learn from each other about ways to cope. Read more
Unity and ironSource complete $4.4 billion merger. The Danish-founded company had previously rejected an offer to be acquired by AppLovin for $17.5 billion in favor of a deal with the Israeli-founded mobile app monetization company. Read more
AutoLeadStar raises $40 million for auto-dealership marketing platform. The Jerusalem-headquartered startup has developed AI-powered marketing automation technology for auto-dealerships and manufacturers. Read more
Deutsche Telekom investing $25 million in Teridion. The Israeli company provides multi-cloud wide area network (WAN) connectivity solutions and has been collaborating with Deutsche Telekom since the start of the year. Read more
X-trodes skin patch aims to revolutionize wearable wireless technology. Ziv Peremen, CEO and Co-founder of X-trodes, explains how his company is looking to change the way heart, muscle, eye and brain signals are measured. Read more
BioBetter wins FoodTech 2022 competition. The competition, which was sponsored by Calcalist and Tnuva, crowned a winner from the field of alternative protein and growth factors for cultured meat. “The combination between veteran food manufacturers and startups in the foodtech field will help create solutions for the food crisis,” said Tnuva CEO. Read more
Gideon Shmuel appointed as new CEO of Supersmart. The Israeli startup has raised about $20 million to date for its automatic checkout solutions. Read more
Varonis lays off 110 employees, downsizes R&D staff. The Nasdaq-traded firm saw its share price plummet by more than a third last week following its disappointing results for the third quarter of the year. Read more
Survey: One in three Israeli startups has laid off employees in 2022. New data shows half of the startups have frozen hirings, while workers seek stable companies, but won’t lower salary expectations. How can the storm be weathered? Read more
The founder bringing diversity to the workplace. Ilit Raz, CEO and founder of Joonko, was never good at school and yet her startup has raised $40 million to develop an automated sourcing platform focused solely on underrepresented candidates. Read more
Not under the microscope: Scopio Labs transforms blood testing. Co-founder & CEO Itai Hayut shares how his Israeli startup streamlines the hematologic diagnostic process while rendering blood lab microscopes obsolete. Read more
Y Combinator’s newest member wants to revolutionize the online real estate game. Apply Design has received $3.3 million in Seed for its technology that generates furniture in images of empty properties. Read more
New Sheba center to tackle challenge of attaining healthy longevity. Dr. Zipora Strauss, Director of Neonatology and Pediatric Physician at Sheba Hospital, is the person behind the new center that aims to ensure healthspan goes hand in hand with life expectancy. Read more
Retail giant Tesco to open three autonomous stores with Israel’s Trigo. The stores will allow purchasing without payment stations, based on the technology developed by the Israeli company. The first store opened this week on Chiswell Street in London and in the coming months will be joined by other stores in Parrs Way and near Aston University in Birmingham. Read more
Tagado lands $4 million Seed to turn customer feedback into actionable insights. The Israeli startup’s platform collects customer feedback from any source and provides business insights through NLP technology. Read more
Apiiro raises $100 million Series B to secure cloud-native applications. The cybersecurity startup was recently linked to being a possible acquisition target for Palo Alto Networks in a deal that would have valued it at $500-600 million. The deal ultimately fell through and the company raised funds at a similar valuation. Read more
Revuze raises $12 million to provide brands with real-time consumer insights. The Israeli startup’s platform uses AI-based natural language processing technology to generate consumer insights. Read more
“Discrimination drove me to break every glass ceiling out there.” Noga Halperin, Chief Revenue Officer at SciPlay, tells the story of how she built her career and her long and adventurous journey to the top. Read more
Port raises $7 million to build an internal developer portal. The Israeli startup’s platform allows engineering teams to create a portal that provides a product-like user experience for developers, abstracting away environments, cloud resources and devops processes. Read more
“The global food crisis requires us to accelerate investments in foodtech.” According to Tnuva CEO Eyal Malis, it won’t be long before we encounter food products that will greatly challenge the way we perceive food today. Read more
Opinion | Twitter charging $8 per month for verification is going to cause one massive headache. Verification on Twitter is supposed to confirm authentic accounts and prevent abusive behavior – a monthly payment will do none of that. Read more
Cybersecurity unicorn Checkmarx cuts 10% of workforce. The Israeli company, acquired by American private equity firm Hellman & Friedman at a $1.15 billion valuation in March 2020, is laying off around 100 employees. Read more
“The point of a startup is not the idea, it is to find a solution for a challenge.” Agritech has the potential to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, explains Dr. Michal Levy, Chief Scientist & Senior Deputy Director General, Agricultural Innovation at the Ministry of Agriculture. Read more
Synaptics acquires Israel’s Emza and its AI visual sensing solutions from Taiwan’s Himax for $10 million. Emza provides solutions including hardware, software, algorithms and IP to semiconductor companies and OEMs bringing AI capability to tiny, power- and cost-constrained edge devices. Read more
Opinion | A Gattaca replica? From science fiction to IVF reality. With the 25th anniversary of the sci-fi thriller focusing on genetic ethics, it’s time to examine the lack of regulatory oversight in the field, including the recent Israeli case of an IVF baby’s unknown birthparents. Read more
Round B | Bye-bye hybrid work? Not so fast. If the global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the way we used to work might not have been the best way. Read more
