CTECH – Latest Israeli Technology and Innovation News June 20, 2022
Fintech unicorn Pagaya to complete SPAC merger despite turmoil. The company, valued at $8.5 billion, is set to begin trading on Nasdaq later this week after shareholders of SPAC EJF Acquisition Corp. voted in favor of the combination. Read more
Priority Software acquiring SilverByte for around $35 million. SilverByte’s hotel management software provides features and functions required to keep the daily work of hotels simple and swift. Read more
Playermaker raises $40 million for wearable athletic performance tracker. The Israeli startup’s wearable performance tracking device turns footwear into a connected solution that captures professional-grade technical, tactical, biomechanical, and physical data from the source of motion. Read more
Six reasons why high-tech companies are laying off employees. Israeli high-tech is alive and kicking, and the demand for manpower remains great. But after years of money flowing like water and hiring sprees, the industry is tightening its belt. Calcalist examines the reasons that led companies to lay off employees – from investor pressure to a change in business direction – to understand where the trend is heading. Read more
“People are starting to see space as a place to travel to, invest in, it’s no longer futuristic.” Starburst Aerospace has big plans for the future: Investing in Israel’s “next SpaceX” and other promising startups to pave way for the future, says Israel Managing Director Noemie Alliel. Read more
Crowdvocate raises $15 million for marketing customer-led growth vision, rebrands as Base. The company is building a CLG ecosystem for customer-led marketers, sales, and product professionals. Read more
AccuBeat’s clocks are powering a mission to Jupiter’s icy moons. The company’s Ultra Stable Oscillator will be active in deep space for 15 years, while its atomic clocks are used for a variety of military applications – from intelligence gathering to missile detection. “Our miniature clocks are the best in their class,” says co-founder and CEO. Read more
Opinion | The dark side of an economic crisis among technology companies. Explaining what economic “damage” is to a private startup company investor is arguably the most difficult challenge in an economic court, writes Dr. Tiran Rothman. Read more
Aidoc raises $110 million for healthcare AI solutions. The Israeli startup’s AI Care Platform operates as an intelligent layer on top of hospital IT systems, offering physicians a centralized platform to address all the care points across the health system. Read more
Edtech startup TinyTap acquired by blockchain gaming unicorn Animoca Brands at $50 million valuation. Animoca Brands said it will leverage the acquisition of the Israeli company to establish a new business segment for blockchain-based UGC educational content. Read more
Greenfield Partners unveils new $200 million fund. Previous Greenfield Partners investments include Guardicore, which was sold to Akamai; Avanan, which was sold to Check Point, and unicorns VAST Data and BigPanda. Read more
Canditech raises $9 million Seed round to help companies assess job candidates. The Israeli startup’s platform allows hiring managers to tailor simulations to their specific roles and at the same time, candidates are given the opportunity to “sample” the positions. Read more
ReturnGO completes $6.5 million Seed round for e-commerce returns and exchanges. The Israeli startup has developed a machine-learning-based platform that enables efficient management of returns and exchanges
for products purchased online. Read more
Finout raises $14 million Series A for FinOps cloud cost management platform. The Israeli startup’s platform combines all invoices into one Mega-bill, enabling a view of cloud spend. Read more
Payments for migrants: Rewire acquires prepaid card provider Imagen. The merger of the two Israeli companies combines an international platform for financial services for migrant workers and one that specializes in smart rechargeable salary cards. Read more
Bitcoin is crashing – but don’t rule out crypto just yet, says Intuit. Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi joined CTech during a visit to Israel to discuss blockchain technology in the fintech space. Read more
Elementor laying off dozens of employees. The total number of staff members that will be leaving the company is estimated to be around 50-60, most of them from the marketing department. Read more
Unicorn OpenWeb undergoing organizational change, management to move to US. The company, which has developed technology to improve online discourse, joins the wave of layoffs in high-tech, with 14 R&D employees – about 10% of the workforce, to leave. At the same time, OpenWeb will hire other employees in the US. Read more
Cybersecurity startup Jit raises $38.5 million in Seed funding. The Israeli startup builds an on-ramp for bringing security into the developer and DevOps workflow and ensure that product security is there from day zero. Read more
Tabnine raises $15.5 million for AI assistant for developers. The Israeli startup’s platform helps developers and teams be more productive by automating the coding workflow while increasing code quality. Read more
ROCH Ventures to invest €20 million in Israeli travel and tourism startups. The fund aims to invest a total of €100 million over the next four years, focusing on sustainable travel, digital nomadism and the future of business travel. Read more
Opinion | Offshore in Europe: Does the old continent hold the solution for the tech employee shortage. “While the challenges of recruiting employees are being experienced globally, in Israel they’re having a
severe impact. We anticipate that in the coming year and the years immediately following it, this will be the ongoing trend despite changes to markets,” writes Alon Reiter, VP HR & OutSourcing at Aman Group. Read more
Travel booking platform Holisto merging with SPAC at $405 million valuation. The Israeli startup’s online travel booking platform uses AI to analyze hotel rates and plans across multiple inventory sources to provide consumers with more personalized bookings. Read more
DealHub raises $60 million for CPQ solution. The Israeli startup aims to combine enterprise-grade CPQ, Subscription Management, Contract Lifecycle Management and Digital DealRooms into one unified, quoting and contracting platform. Read more
Odeeo secures $9 million Seed funding for gaming audio advertising platform. The Israeli startup’s technology enables brands and studios to use audio adverts along with visual elements in a game. Read more
Analysis | Crypto markets shake-up: Why you should care even if you don’t have Bitcoin. More than $30 billion was invested in crypto companies in 2021. Among the investors are also pension funds, which will absorb a significant portion of the losses of the collapsing companies. But blockchain is here to stay, it’s just a matter of finding the right business model for it. Read more
Check Point: Iranian hackers attempted to spy on senior Israeli officials. Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister, was one of the targets of the operation, which also included a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the head of a major research center, and a VP of a major defense establishment. Read more
Offensive cyber company ACE Labs closing down. The company employed several dozen employees who will all be fired after parent-company Cognyte decided to shut it down as it failed to generate significant commercial activity. Read more
Melio appoints Yoav Schwartzberg as Vice President of Product. The former Google executive will join Melio’s executive leadership team as it expands its product offering. Read more
It All Started With | Amplio’s mission to reinvent special education. “When there’s enough fire, other people’s skepticism is your own fuel. There’s nothing more motivating to an entrepreneur than other people saying ‘this won’t work’,” says Dr. Yair Shapira, CEO of Amplio. Read more
Qualcomm acquiring Israeli startup Cellwize for $350 million. The U.S. chip giant had previously invested in the company through its investment arm, but is now buying the startup which develops a smart RAN automation and orchestration platform that can help accelerate deployment of 5G networks. Read more
Zero degrees Celsius: What will happen to the assets frozen by the collapsing crypto platform? The Israeli-American crypto company has frozen the assets of its 1.7 million users. How did this happen, is the company exposed to lawsuits, and what are the implications for the entire digital asset market? Read more
Crypto firm Celsius pauses all transfers, withdrawals as markets tumble. The American-Israeli cryptocurrency lending firm said it was taking “this necessary action… in order to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets.” Read more
ISF raises $312 million for 3rd secondary fund focused on Israeli high-tech market. Israel Secondary Fund has invested directly and indirectly in approximately 220 companies, including MyHeritage, Aidoc, WSC, Innovid, Valens, Pixellot, Verbit, Waze, Glilot, and Vertex. Read more
Orca AI: Taking the helm from the captain. One was born by the Sea of Galilee, the other grew up on yachts, and both of them never left the sea. But it wasn’t until a chance meeting between Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv that Orca AI, “the Mobileye of ships,” was born. Read more
Appointment | Larisa Amir appointed Managing Director of Merck R&D Center in Israel. Amir will be responsible for managing the center and will also focus on in-house innovation and external scouting for technologies and biotechnology capabilities in Israeli startups, academia, and hospitals. Read more
