CTECH: Latest Israeli Innovation & Technology News Sept. 1, 2022
Insurtech startup Fairmatic raises $42 million to innovate commercial auto insurance. The company, co-founded and headed by Israeli Jonathan Matus, has developed AI-powered risk and pricing models that have been trained with nearly 200 billion miles of driving data and tested over five years of operations. Read more
Landa raises $25 million Series A for inclusive real estate investing platform. Through a fractional ownership model, the Israeli-founded startup enables individuals to access the real estate market for as little as $5. Read more
Telco giant Airtel partners with Israel’s Qwilt to offer content delivery services across India. The deal is set to generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Qwilt over the next few years. Read more
Match Game: Israel’s Rankset is leveraging tech to optimize soccer transfers. In an in-depth interview, co-founder & CEO Ariel Samuel shares how he turned his passion for ‘the beautiful game’ into a data-driven startup leveling the playing field for both teams and agents. Read more
Newsight Imaging to merge with SPAC at $215 million valuation. The Israeli semiconductor company develops 3D machine vision sensors and spectral vision chips and will go public on Nasdaq as early as the fourth quarter of the year. Read more
New NIS 4 million program to promote research collaborations between manufacturers and academic institutions. The Israel Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Economy and Industry are behind the new program. Read more
Kli Capital unveils new $50 million fund, promotes Elias Davis to partner. Kli will look to lead and co-lead pre-Seed and Seed deals, investing $750k to $1.5 million. The VC’s prior funds have returned a 4.6x multiple on invested capital. Read more
Attention shoppers: Israeli startups putting the ‘AI’ in ‘retail’ management. To stay afloat in these challenging times, retailers must use every technological advantage at their disposal, especially artificial intelligence. With this in mind, CTech presents Israeli startups putting the ‘AI’ in retail. Read more
Rothschild & Co launches Wealth Management representative office in Israel. High-tech boom among reasons Rothschild & Co believes Israeli market has huge potential for its Wealth Management business. Read more
Former Unit 8200 cyber head: “Only a cyber equivalent of September 11 attacks will change perceptions.” Yoav Regev, who co-founded cybersecurity startup Sentra with Asaf Kochan, the outgoing Commander of Unit 8200, believes offensive cyber tools should only be held by states. Read more
CTech’s Book Review: Exploring the traits that leaders should possess. Fedor Zhdanov, Head of Machine Learning at Toloka, shares insights after reading “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek. Read more
Opinion | A deeper look into the “quiet quitting” phenomenon. “A healthy separation between life and work is not resignation; people are not lazy and working from home is efficient and beneficial to employees. It’s not that ‘no one wants to work’, but that ‘no one wants to work under the conditions offered by employers’,” writes Viki Auslender. Read more
Opinion | Collaboration is the key to advancing cancer care. Israel can become a precision oncology powerhouse, but we need to change direction, writes Dr. Ofer Sharon, CEO of OncoHost. Read more
Theranica secures $45 million Series C to treat migraines. The Israeli company has developed an FDA-cleared, smartphone-controlled, drug-free wearable device named Nerivio for the treatment of episodic and chronic migraine. Read more
From Shufersal to startup: Deliverider receives $2 million for its middle-mile logistics solution. The Israeli startup allows e-commerce companies to offer low-cost-non-inventory products alongside their in-stock selections. Read more
Ashdod Port investing in four startups innovating maritime tech. The port will invest approximately $1.35 million in acquiring technologies and signing royalty agreements with Israeli startups Spinframe, ENWIZE, Cyber 2.0, and CyberView. Read more
Israeli radiation vest heading to the Moon on Artemis I. Ahead of the Artemis I launch, which was postponed on Monday due to an issue with an engine bleed in one of the rocket’s four engines, NASA has installed Zohar and Helga, the two identical manikins for testing a new radiation protection vest developed by the Israeli startup StemRad. Read more
Otonomo to lay off dozens of employees after losing over 90% of value. Just a year after it went public via a SPAC merger at a value of $1.26 billion, Israeli autotech company Otonomo has seen its market cap plummet to a mere $62 million. Read more
“The climate crisis will cause a surge of migration. You can’t stop hungry people.” As Chairman of the Israel Water Authority in 2006, Prof. Uri Shani initiated the establishment of desalination plants that saved Israel’s water economy, but “that’s not a workable solution for large countries.” He looks from the side at Europe’s drought and asserts: “To solve the global water crisis, you have to start with irrigation – that’s where the big waste of water happens.” Read more
This dream exit story will break LinkedIn’s algorithm. Marketing manager Tom Orbach created a viral post generator for LinkedIn which automatically writes cringe posts. Within a week the generator went viral and earned him a handsome exit after it was acquired by LinkedIn-focused startup Taplio. Read more
Voices off: Why do we all hate our voice on WhatsApp? In voice messages we don’t sound like ourselves, which is very annoying. A professor of hearing, experts in sound files, a senior psychoanalyst, and a skilled narrator explain why this happens, and what can be done about it. Read more
Waze closes carpool service, cites changing driving trends. Five years after its launch, and after hiring dozens of new employees, Waze is shutting down its carpool service. Israel’s Moovit will continue to operate its own version of the service, but will shared carpools continue to ‘reach their destination?’ Read more
Opinion | Solving the transparency barrier in secondary transactions. “Despite being an established market, the information available to buyers and sellers is limited and characterized by a lack of transparency when compared to the market for publicly-traded stock,” writes Avivit Ben-Avi, Managing Director at AST Private Company Solutions. Read more
