CTECH – The Latest Israeli Technology and Innovation News
Israel’s 2021 Cyber landscape: Which sector will the new unicorns emerge from? 120 companies from 14 industry sectors made it into Glilot Capital Partners and IVC’s Israeli Cybersecurity Technology Landscape map. Read more
Fintech Mesh Payments raises $13 million in round led by TLV Partners. The company’s cardless technology enables small and medium-sized businesses to manage all company payments. Funds to be used for expanding its marketing and sales operations. Read more
Tesla is in a race against time to release its vehicles in Israel.
Although Tesla-Israel has yet to receive specific import permits for its various models, it has promised to deliver its Model 3 by March to hundreds who have already purchased vehicles. Read more
David Avgi’s new payments startup UNIPaaS raises $10 million seed round. After selling SafeCharge for $890 million, Avgi’s new company is tackling payments for Digital Marketplaces and B2B enterprises. Read more
“Skypes, Skittles, and Yahoos”: Digital Dog Whistles signal new language for online hate. According to University of Haifa professor Gabriel Weimann, online extremists are creating their own language to bypass new rules put in place against hate speech. Read more
Armis raises $125 million from new strategic partner Brookfield Technology Partners. The new investment comes a year after the Israeli company was sold to Insight Partners and Capital G. Read more
ENvizion Medical targeting TASE IPO at over $60 million valuation. The Israeli startup which develops solutions for enteral feeding is aiming to raise around $14 million. Read more
Ministry of Health waging war on fake news pandemic. Thousands of Facebook users are leading an organized campaign against Covid-19 vaccinations with the aim of harming Israel’s national vaccination effort. The Ministry of Health has turned to police and Facebook management, which has already removed one of the anti-vaccine groups. Read more
Report: 87% of enterprises lack proper budgets for data analytics. The report, based on a survey done in collaboration with Global Surveyz, focused on the challenges that companies face when analyzing their data. Read more
SAP.iO and Publicis Sapient partner up for advanced marketing accelerator. The accelerator will take place virtually and help consumer engagement companies work on personalized marketing, product discovery, and more. Read more
Employer Branding | At Appleseeds, “the best talent takes on the hardest challenges.” While it can’t offer the same salaries as Israel’s high tech sector, the online academy fosters a ‘laboratory’ of people helping bridge technological gaps across the country. Read more
Appointments | Sagive Greenspan appointed as new CEO of Priority Software, replacing Andres Richter. Richter is stepping down after seven years, making way for Greenspan, the current General Manager of Finastra Israel. Read more
JVP raising new $450 million growth stage fund. The trend of raising growth-orientated funds signals the high demand for substantial investments in growing Israeli companies. Read more
Meet the Israeli AR startup that made it to the Super Bowl. Fuse.ar provides an extensive suite of seamless AR content creation solutions, used among others by American singing and acting star Nick Jonas in his Super Bowl ad. Read more
The fight for gamers will be “worse than a World War,” according to Incredibuild CEO. As game developers move from on-prem to the cloud, companies like Microsoft and Nintendo will be competing against Amazon – for the eyes of 2.7 billion players. Read more
Fiverr CEO joins Big-tech 50 partnership. The R&D tech partnership plans to produce an index with the largest 50 private tech companies in Israel, and allow others to invest in them prior to their being issued to the public or sold. Read more
Why did Facebook (again) suspend the popular Israeli group Secret Tel Aviv? The group, which had more than 320,000 members, had a prominent job board helping people find jobs during Covid-19. Read more
Japanese investments in Israel rose by 20% in 2020 totaling $1.1 billion. The land of the rising sun has a growing number of foreign investments in Israel and Japanese companies are opening up local branches. Read more
Telegram ordered by court to prevent distribution of copyright-infringing content. As part of a lawsuit filed by Israeli consortium ZIRA, the court ruled that Telegram must prevent groups of users from distributing content such as TV series, movies, translations and music. Read more
IAI reveals WASP, an aerial surveillance system to track moving targets. Its aerial coverage can expand to 15 square kilometers when mounted on a Heron 1 aircraft. Read more
Robotic catheter maker EndoWays acquired by Ascendium Systems. Deal to help the Israeli company accelerate its clinical and commercial development, especially in China. Read more
Which tech jobs will land you the highest salaries in Israel? Job seekers’ priorities are shifting with adoption of work from home; salaries have bounced back up after Covid-downturn. Read more
HR Post Covid | In Covid-19, Intuit Israel asks: “how can we preserve and develop our culture?” As part of CTech’s HR Post Covid series, the company’s General Manager and VP Security R&D discusses some of the ways culture can be fostered and maintained. Read more
Opinion | The David and Goliath eCommerce War: Israel vs. the world, small businesses vs. large retail companies. Now is the time to fight the cart abandonment phenomenon and bring back your local purchasers, argues Funnelyzer’s Founder and CEO, Achishay Buchnick. Read more
The army cook who went on to build a $2 billion company. AppsFlyer CEO Oren Kaniel talks about how he, his wife, and his best friend founded a major tech brand from his living room. Read more
Three Israeli startups working for a future of safe and effortless driving. While Valerann, NoTraffic and Nexar each offer unique hardware solutions to gather road user data, the real treasure is in the data itself and the AI-driven software that detects, classifies and communicates the trove of information. Read more
Israeli researchers devise non-invasive genetic testing screens to ensure healthy fetuses. “Our deep understanding of AI has allowed us to make a really great breakthrough in this field,” says AIVF CEO Daniella Gilboa. Read more
Report: Hippo heading to Wall Street at $5 billion valuation. The Israeli founded insurtech company is in negotiations with SPAC Reinvent Technology Partners, that includes Zynga Inc. founder Mark Pincus and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman as its lead directors. Read more
DiplomaTech | Israel’s tech envoys ready for challenges and opportunities of post-covid world. Ayelet Levin Karp (Ghana) and Nir Adam Sella (Colombia) discuss the biggest lesson they learned from the pandemic and what they believe will be the trends of 2021. Read more
Meet the ‘Data Hunters’: Explorium’s platform aims to commoditize Big Data in Covid-19. As big data becomes more democratized, companies like Explorium help organizations filter their data sources to improve their targets. Read more
Give&Tech works with the Israeli tech sector to make meaningful impact on communities. Israeli nonprofit aims to leverage the tech industry to give back to in-need communities through volunteering, offering technical courses and donating funds to other NGOs. Read more
Interview | “SpaceX brought that Silicon Valley, entrepreneurial corporate culture to space,” says astronaut. Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman speaks of his career at Elon Musk’s SpaceX and how it’s defying the status quo, the hottest space tech companies for investors, as well as his time spent floating above the majestic vastness of the Earth. Read more
As companies return to offices, Autodesk TLV toys with new apps for employee safety. During its annual ‘Bazinga’ hackathon, Autodesk TLV employees developed a slew of apps centered around improving collaboration. Read more
“UAE investors want to get in on the Israeli gaming scene.” Arab gamers partnered with Israeli startup accelerator Hybrid to help boost their startup, Obscure Games, which is set to release its first game. Read more
HR Post Covid | Covid-19 shows us that “every crisis has a silver lining,” says Caja Robotics. It was challenging for most companies to battle the pandemic, but Caja Robotics highlights how Covid-19 helped reinforce the famous cliché. Read more
20-Minute Leaders | “When you approach something as if it’s the most important thing and you execute it in the best possible way, that is a critical thing.” Michael Matias speaks to Keren Fanan, chief commercial officer of Gett about passion, being an “intrepreneur,” and climbing volcanos. Watch full video
“Companies will have to learn how to enable their employees to work from home.” “Communication service providers had to keep up with the increased pace during Covid-19 otherwise the world would have come to a halt,” said Gil Rosen, Amdocs CMO and general manager amdocs:next at the Calcalist Conference. Read more
WalkMe prepares to go public at a $4 billion valuation. Unlike a slew of other Israeli companies who have chosen to merge with a SPAC, WalkMe has chosen to enter Wall Street through the front door. Read more
Survey finds majority of Israelis aren’t worried about sharing vaccine data with drug companies. While Israelis overwhelmingly disagree with sharing their medical data with state security agencies, they are willing to do so with drugmakers in exchange for Covid-19 vaccines. Read more
Covid-19 taught us anything is possible, admit Israeli VC executives.
“We ended up having a record year in which we invested in more startups than ever before,” said Pitango’s Eyal Niv. Read more
Binah.ai launches ‘Binah Team,’ helping companies with employee wellbeing. The app is available on iOS, Android, and Windows in 12 different languages to help combat stress and anxiety. Read more
HR Post Covid | Salt Security: Covid-19 showed us the true meaning of teamwork. The company experienced 200% growth and secured two funding rounds – all in the middle of a pandemic. But how? Read more
Big-Tech 50 R&D Partnership raises NIS 85 million in TASE IPO.
Big-Tech 50 R&D aims to build a portfolio of the 50 biggest private tech companies in Israel, by purchasing existing shares from the company’s current shareholders. Read more
Round B | What to expect when you’re expecting: The CEO edition.
Flying Pigs CEO Shaul Olmert compares doing a product version update to visiting the doctor to see your baby’s ultrasound. Read more
Appointments | Six Intel-Israel executives are moving up the corporate ladder. The six appointees are moving across various departments, signaling there’s room to grow at Israel’s largest employer. Read more
Israel’s Payoneer to go public on Nasdaq at $3.3 billion valuation.
The company announced a SPAC agreement with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp, to invest hundreds of millions in secondary options. Read more
Report: Israel sits comfortably among Scaleup Nations, known for their resiliency in tough times. According to a report by Wakefield Research on behalf of Insight Partners, it’s the scaleups – not the startups – that require our attention this year. Read more
REE heading to Nasdaq via SPAC at $3.1 billion valuation. The merger with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp features a $300 million private investment in public equity. Read more
Israeli team behind Amimon chipset wins Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement. “I have won many academic awards, but there is no doubt the Oscar is the most well-known prize I’ve ever won,” says TAU professor Meir Feder. Read more
Leadspace concludes a challenging year with a $46 million investment from JVP. The company said it has put its internal conflicts behind it, appoints new CEO and chairman of the board. Read more
Can Israel’s V-Bot help other countries catch up with the country’s vaccine drive? Israel’s vaccination rollout has been an example for the world – now’s the time to send its robots overseas. Read more
Intel-Israel’s sales leaped but workforce remains stagnant at 2019 figures. Last year the company’s sales jumped 21% but their workforce has remained similar to 2019 figures. “Success isn’t measured in workforce numbers,” says CEO Yaniv Garty. Read more
Israeli tech execs launching $100 million Nasdaq SPAC. Moringa Acquisition is led by former executives from SimilarWeb and Stratasys and is aiming to acquire a mid-size Israel-related technology company. Read more
Granulate raises $30 million for improving computing infrastructure networks. Israeli startup improves the performance of organizations’ computing infrastructure and reduces computing costs, round to be used to double the team. Read more
HR Post Covid | “The Covid-19 crisis has proved an outstanding opportunity for Team8’s portfolio companies to recruit strong talents.” It’s one thing to operate HR services for a startup – how about HR for a whole portfolio of them? Read more
Opinion | Tapping into an ocean of innovation: The economic interest for developing a new ecosystem on oceanic technologies. “The development of ocean technologies is doubly important for us – ecologically and economically,” explains Or Haviv, Partner and Head of Ventures at Arieli Capital. Read more
CLEW Medical receives FDA approval for AI-based tech to support adult ICU patient assessment. The device, CLEWICU, is the first-ever cleared device for predicting patient deterioration based on hemodynamic instability. Read more
Israel’s Evinced raises $17 million in series A round led by M12 and BGV. Company aims to improve digital accessibility while following compliance with regulation requirements, lowering costs, and shrinking exposure to legal liabilities. Round to be used to double workforce. Read more
New survey debunks myth of early stage investment drought, Israeli VCs say too much money available. According to a report by early-stage venture capital firm Ground Up Ventures, 37 of the country’s leading funds they surveyed made 145 investments at the seed stage in 2020, rising from 112 in 2019, with the average check size at $1.77 million, a jump of 20%. Read more
Opinion | The secret to entrepreneurial success rests in kindness. ROI with a difference: being kind is just as important in our business lives as it is in our personal lives. Read more
