CTECH PURIM Israel’s Latest Technology and Innovation News
What’s in store for the markets in 2022? VCs weigh in with some predictions. With fluctuating valuations, IPOs, acqui-hiring, and rising inflation, what can investors expect in 2022? Partners at Israeli venture capital firms weighed in with their assessments. Read more
Citi, Discount Bank, announce Israel’s Most Promising Fintech Startups for 2022. Voted on by Israel’s leading VC’s and financial institutions, the eight winners were awarded an NFT. Read more
“High-tech is the engine of the Israeli economy and the banks must be there.” In an exclusive interview with Calcalist, LeumiTech CEO Timor Arbel-Sadras talks fundraising, credit, Ukraine, and what’s in store for 2022. Read more
Cybersecurity unicorn Cato Networks recruiting 180 new employees. The Israeli company, valued at $2.5 billion in its latest funding round five months ago, saw its business surge by 96% in 2021. Read more
Women in Gaming | “Gender equality contributes to a peaceful, equal workplace environment, helps companies succeed.” Calcalist spoke with Israeli women changing the future of gaming, with Part 4 featuring Elya Topol, Product Manager at Playstudios-Israel, who discusses how the gaming industry is helping slash widely-accepted stigmas. Read more
Salesforce exec sheds light on ‘Change Management’ theory. Itai Margalit joined CTech to discuss digital transformation and how companies can prepare for the future. Read more
Opinion | The reshaping of the venture capital landscape. “The era of easy money and non-discriminating investors is likely coming to an end,” write Gal Gitter and Daniel Cohen of Ibex Investors. Read more
Appointments | Pentera appoints nine new members to its management team. “These appointments reflect our commitment to diversity and the reward of outstanding employee performance,” says CEO. Read more
SentinelOne to acquire Attivo Networks for $616.5 million. Attivo Networks protects companies and government entities against identity compromise, privilege escalation, and lateral movement attacks and will help SentinelOne extend its AI-powered prevention, detection, and response capabilities to identity-based threats. Read more
Run:AI raises $75 million Series C for AI orchestration platform. The Israeli startup’s platform allows organizations to have their AI resources on a single, unified platform that supports AI at all stages of development, from building and training models to running inference in production. Read more
Compete raises $15 million Series A for employee compensation and benefits benchmarking. The Israeli startup’s platform provides insights into complete compensation package data and enables organizations to develop more effective workforce management strategies. Read more
Ramon.Space unveils high-capacity space-resilient storage solution. The company’s ultra-high density storage solution will revolutionize space computing infrastructure by giving it Earth-like capabilities and the ability to deliver data in real-time. Read more
anywell raises $10 million Series A to help companies transition to a hybrid work model. The Israeli startup, which currently has a market presence in Israel and New York, helps companies transition to a hybrid work model by enabling employees to work from spaces in their local communities. Read more
Overwolf acquires Tebex for $29 million to expand creator economy platform. The Israeli company is expanding into a new creator category – private server owners and creators. Read more
Women in Gaming | “Teaching young girls to code is shattering the stigma that ‘programming is only for boys’.” Calcalist spoke with Israeli women who are changing the future of gaming, with Part 3 featuring Rimon Shushan, NOC engineer, and a programming mentor at QueenB, an organization that helps teach young girls programming. Read more
SupPlant raises $27 million to help farmers fight climate change. The Israeli startup recently launched an API product, a sensor-less technology that has served 500,000 female maize farmers in Kenya over the last season. Read more
Appointments | Melio appoints Guy Zipori as VP of R&D. The former co-founder and CEO of Skyline AI will lead R&D as Melio expands to become a leading B2B payments platform. Read more
Round B | PMF: The Key to POC. Before a startup rushes to reach the Proof of Concept stage, it should first tackle Product Market Fit. Read more
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman: “Cryptocurrencies will redefine the financial world.” The head of the fintech powerhouse made the remarks in an interview with CTech ahead of his keynote speech at Axis Tel Aviv
2022. Read more
These are the Russian oligarchs circling Putin. Toy soldiers or a hope for a coup? Here’s a rundown of the oligarchs surrounding the Russian president and why the West should lower their expectations of them. Read more
Affogata increases Seed funding to $9.5 million to expand customer voice analysis platform. The Israeli startup’s AI-driven technology provides brands with expansive data related to their brand and competitors from across the web, online forums, and internal data sources in real-time. Read more
Boarding Pass | Crowdsense: “For crypto, social media is the new fundamental.” Last year Crowdsense increased its Seed funding to $1.5 million following its pivot into the Crypto space to help users make money through social media sentiment. Read more
Women in Gaming | “Women work harder than their male counterparts to earn senior positions.” Despite the increase in the number of female gamers, the number of those who design games is still relatively low. Calcalist spoke with several Israeli women who are changing the future of gaming, with Part 2 featuring Rotem Ben-David and Michal Issachary of CrazyLabs. Read more
Israel’s massive fintech year confirms the sector as a powerhouse. A new report from Viola Group has highlighted the impact that fintech had on Startup Nation in 2021. Read more
Appointment | Gily Netzer appointed as VP marketing of cyber company Perimeter 81. Netzer is taking on her third position as VP Marketing at a cybersecurity company, previously working at Cymulate and
Illusive Networks. Read more
Rapyd reaches $15 billion valuation, becomes Israel’s highest valued unicorn. The fintech company, which offers payment services across the world, has seen its value surge six-fold since January 2021. Read more
Teddy Sagi launches new fintech company – Pay.com. Less than three years after selling payment solutions company SafeCharge for $889 million, Sagi is unveiling his new fintech startup. Read more
The biggest mobile marketing agency you have never heard of. Moburst carefully balances its work with startups and corporates, with varying
results. Read more
Gett cancels SPAC merger, exiting Russian market. The Israeli-founded ground travel company said that recent market volatility led to the decision to call off the merger with Rosecliff Acquisition Corp I, but it didn’t detail the reasons for its departure from Russia. Read more
Ashdod Port Company and 500 Global launch new accelerator program for maritime tech. The first cohort is expected to begin at the end of the month and last until September. Read more
Ayecka aims to power an IoT revolution with its internet-over-satellite solutions. The company aims to provide internet for applications where satellite is the sole solution, particularly in areas that lack communications infrastructure, like in Africa or rural parts of the U.S. and Australia. Read more
“Things are changing. Having a female gaming community is important.” Despite the increase in the number of female gamers, the number of those who design games is still relatively low. Calcalist spoke with
several Israeli women who are changing the future of gaming, with Part 1 featuring Shay Segal, Head of Design at Resight. Read more
Dr. Uri Yaron to head Marius Nacht’s biotech and health investment
arm. Yaron previously served as Worldwide President of Biosense Webster at Johnson & Johnson. Read more
“High-tech companies need to take into account the language difficulties of Arab candidates.” This is what Ali Ayoub, Senior Director at Nvidia and a serial entrepreneur, said at a panel on high-tech and entrepreneurship at the Arab Economic Forum in collaboration with Calcalist; Entrepreneur Khalil Shawahna: “Only 3% of high-tech employees are Arabs”; Basma Khalaff, a senior Intel executive: “There is room for optimism but the process is very slow.” Read more
Israel’s Supervisor of Banks: “When it comes to loaning money, there is no difference between an Arab and a Jew.” Yair Avidan spoke at the second annual conference of the Arab Economic Forum in collaboration with Calcalist: “If there is discrimination I will not stand for it;” CPA Mohamed Hibi, Partner in Deloitte: “Companies from the Arab sector have a place in the capital market.” Read more
Opinion | The legal implications of esports’ ever-growing popularity. “While many might dismiss esports as limited to Cheetos eating, Mountain Dew swirling, sweats wearing denizens of moms’ basements worldwide, there are clearly many complicated legal concerns associated with this rapidly expanding multi-billion dollar sector,” writes Dov Greenbaum. Read more
StarkWare set to hit $6 billion valuation in new funding round. The Israeli blockchain company is set to raise at least $100 million after receiving $50 million at a $2 billion valuation in a Series C last November. Read more
Autobrains closes $120 million Series C as it continues pursuit of Mobileye. The Israeli company added $19 million to its funding round, initially announced four months ago. Read more
DataRails raises $50 million Series B for Excel financial planning and analysis platform. The Israeli company’s solution provides real-time consolidation of disparate financial and operational data from across a company. Read more
Spotlight | Just deserts: Sorbet unlocks employee PTO. Moving from the corporate finance world to an innovative new startup, Sorbet’s CEO is determined to help employees and employers get the most out of paid time off. Read more
Maverick Medical closes $5 million Seed round for AI medical coding platform. The Israeli startup has developed an AI platform, mCoder, that addresses the challenges of medical coding efficiency, accuracy, and capacity. Read more
Cybersixgill raises $35 million Series B for threat intelligence platform. The Israeli cybersecurity company collects threat intelligence sourced from social media, instant messaging, and clear, deep, and dark webs to create threat and risk intelligence data for customers to implement preemptive security responses. Read more
Appointment | Cynet appoints former Check Point executive Bruno Darmon as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining the Israeli cybersecurity startup, Darmon served from 2004 to 2021 as Vice President of EMEA Sales at Check Point. Read more
Out of the Bubble | “Background stereotypes get demolished” when Jews and Arabs work together. As a student at the Unistream Association, Lara Musalam learned how Jews and Arabs can not only work together, but thrive in doing so. Watch full video
Nazareth: A modern-day ‘David and Goliath’. Mo Mitwaly, Mentor at Loop and Founder at Altooro, speaks to CTech about the Arab city and draws parallels to the biblical tale. Watch full video
Nazareth-based VC firm NGT HealthCare II raises $92 million for its Impact Fund. The fund will invest in technologies in the field of health and help promote Arab entrepreneurship. Read more
Lendai raises $13 million Seed round to help foreigners invest in US real estate. The Israeli startup’s platform provides a pre-approval within minutes and allows for full loan closing within a third of the average time it takes a traditional U.S. lender. Read more
Blink raises $26 million in Seed funding for cloud tools platform. The Israeli startup’s platform helps cloud operations teams build workflows to automate everyday DevOps and SecOps tasks. Read more
Urecsys raises $7 million to improve indoor air quality. The Israeli startup optimizes the fresh air intake within buildings by monitoring air pollution levels from the urban area surrounding buildings, as well as meteorological and climate data. Read more
Juganu partners with Qualcomm, Nokia, and Abdi to showcase its 5G and smart cities solutions. Juganu and Qualcomm have been collaborating for several years in smart city and communication ventures, including in Brazil and the U.S. Read more
