“Cyber solutions will have to be reinvented to remain relevant for AI.” Without an academic education or technological background, Emily Heath climbed to the top of the global cyber industry, ultimately joining the Israeli VC firm Cyberstarts as a General Partner. In an in-depth interview with Calcalist, Heath shares how Cyberstarts guides Israeli entrepreneurs before they write a single line of code and discusses the threats and prospects in a field that is undergoing major upheavals. Read more

Snyk losses surged to $267 million in 2022 despite 157% increase in revenue. The cybersecurity startup ended the year with total cash balances of $523.3 million after raising $196.5 million in a Series G downround last December at a valuation of $7.4 billion. Read more

Advanced Israeli weaponry playing major role in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh offensive. Over the past two decades, Israeli companies have reportedly sold the Azeri army advanced weaponry worth billions of dollars, including UAVs, anti-tank missiles, and precision surface-to-surface missiles. Read more

Israeli foodtech leading the way in alternative protein innovation. Ahead of the final of Calcalist and Tnuva Ventures’ 2023 FoodTech competition, we discussed industry trends with Anat Gross-Shon, CEO of the dairy division at Tnuva. Read more

Investments in Israeli startups fall for a seventh straight quarter. Tech funding dropped by 63% over the first three quarters of 2023 compared to the first nine months of the previous year. Read more

“The state is responsible for protecting citizens from AI.” Dr. Galit Wellner, an advisor to the Ministry of Innovation and Science, explains that in a world where “we have almost no tools to prove the harms of artificial intelligence, it is the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens through regulation.” Regarding AI’s capabilities, she says: “The future is scary, but it can also be inspiring.” Read more

Space tourism is growing, but only for the rich. Commercial flights into space are becoming more routine, and despite the very high prices, it is estimated that the value of the space tourism industry will reach $3 billion by 2030. Read more

The new space race: Mars, the Moon, and the new political frontier. In recent years, the business sector has picked up the gauntlet and the journey to Mars is back on the table, accelerating the geopolitical race globally, as China, the US, and India all vie for dominance. Read more

Blockchain unicorn Fireblocks acquires Australian tokenization startup BlockFold. The Israeli company is estimated to have paid $10 million for the smart contract development and consulting firm which specializes in advanced tokenization projects for financial institutions. Read more

Crypto fund Collider wins $1 million grant for discovering critical security breach. The research arm of the Israeli venture capital fund, which focuses on investments in digital assets, claimed the award for finding a critical security breach in crypto exchange GMX. Read more

Pharma giant Merck expands collaboration with Quris-AI. This follows the successful initial collaboration, a preclinical study to assess Quris-AI’s ability to predict drug toxicity in comparison to traditional in vitro and in vivo approaches. Read more

Loud & clear: Tuned aiming to transform hearing aid world. Harnessing the power of AI, the Israeli startup is slashing the long process of hearing aid fittings and adjustments from months to mere minutes – and at a fraction of the cost. “This is a fundamental change for an industry that has hardly changed at all in the last 50 years,” Tuned CEO Omri Gavish told CTech. “Compared to the old model, we’re reducing the cost of hearing aids by up to 80%”. Read more

Founder-investor dynamics: From the founder’s perspective, visibility is key. In part 1 of her ‘founder-investor dynamics’ series, Noa Matz explains why founders seek investors not only for the much-needed financial infusion but also for their valuable insights, connections, and wealth of experience. Read more

“It will take some time, but I have no doubt that there will be Israeli space unicorns.” While the space sector presents numerous challenges and requires substantial investments, it also offers boundless opportunities for innovation and technological advancement. Israeli entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors are increasingly recognizing the potential. Read more

Gem Security raises $23 million Series A to stop cloud-native threats. The Israeli startup has developed a purpose-built Cloud Detection and Response platform that shortens the time to detect, investigate and contain cloud-native threats. Read more

Star wars: “Israel is interested in space weapons. Every one of our satellites is a machine of war.” In his first interview since taking office a year ago, Avi Berger, head of the space administration at the Ministry of Defense, takes Calcalist behind the scenes of the launch of the Ofek-13 satellite, discusses the plan to cover the sky with both large and small satellites, and explains why he believes competition is essential. Read more

Senser emerges from stealth with $9.5 million in Seed. The Israeli startup’s platform provides companies with insights into their cloud and IT environments. Read more

Israeli satellite industry booming thanks to geopolitical shakeup and Elon Musk. Israeli companies are experiencing a surge in demand due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and concerns about escalation in other conflict zones. Read more

Palo Alto Networks in advanced negotiations to acquire Dig Security in $300-$400 million deal. Palo Alto is closing on two acquisitions of Israeli startups, with negotiations currently also ongoing to purchase Talon Cyber Security for $600-$700 million. Read more

Israeli high-tech funding continues to fall, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Startups raised $1.676 billion in the not-yet-concluded third quarter of 2023, a 38% decrease compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022. However, in comparison to the second quarter, there was only a 14% decrease in fundraising volume, and after five consecutive quarters of decline, Seed investments are on the rise. Read more

Sabra Trek: Will Israel ever reach the moon? On April 11, 2019, Israel was about to become the fourth country to reach the moon, but the crash of the Beresheet lunar probe shattered the dream. Billionaire Morris Kahn promised to restart the project but in the meantime he has stopped providing funding, the state is in no hurry to invest, and the landing target is only getting further and further away. Read more

6 vital steps to turn a startup into a global force. International consulting firm BCG has prepared a guide for turning a startup into a large company that thinks strategically and not just reactively. Read more

Fhenix raises $7 million Seed for confidential blockchain powered by homomorphic encryption. The Israeli startup is building a confidential smart contract platform using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), a novel cryptographic scheme that enables direct computation over encrypted data without ever revealing the underlying data. Read more