UBQ raises $70 million to develop advanced materials from waste. The Israeli startup converts residual household waste diverted from landfills or incineration, including all organics, into an advanced thermoplastic material that is both climate-positive and highly recyclable. Read more
Palo Alto Networks to expand Israel center by 250 employees. Palo Alto’s Israeli R&D center is its second largest outside of its California headquarters, employing around 1,000 people. Read more
Unity price hike: What it means for game developers and investors. The company faced immediate backlash from the gaming community following the announcement. “It will be really hard for game developers to target and monetize players,” said Eze Vidra, Managing Partner at Remagine Ventures. Read more
Port raises $18 million for open internal developer portal. Port’s developer portal allows users to define their own data models of the software catalog and unify metadata that exists in silos all over the tech-stack. Read more
The era of tech premiumization is here. Spotify is considering making their once-free lyrics display a paid premium feature, the latest in a wave of “premiumization” by tech giants in an effort to increase revenues. Read more
floLIVE raises $47 million for hyperlocal global cellular data network. The Israeli startup’s network spans across all continents and offers localized connectivity in a streamlined manner. Read more
SQream nets $45 million Series C to unleash the full potential of GPUs. By utilizing the massive and parallel processing capabilities of GPUs, SQream’s solution allows companies to process extremely large and complex datasets faster, more cost-efficiently, and with a smaller carbon footprint. Read more
Cyber insurtech unicorn At-Bay lays off almost 10% of workforce. At-Bay, which raised a $205 million Series D in 2021 at a valuation of $1.35 billion, is parting ways with 27 employees. Read more
Zenity raises $16.5 million Series A to enhance low-code/no-code security. The Israeli startup’s platform allows organizations leveraging low-code/no-code platforms to promote development in a secure and compliant way while mitigating the risks. Read more
Prisma Photonics secures $20 million Series C to monitor critical infrastructure through optical fibers. The Israeli startup’s optical fiber sensing technology offers power transmission operators improved ways to manage their grids. Read more
“The GenAI hype is real. It is not the metaverse.” Noam Fine and Yossi Marouani have just founded their fourth company – this time looking to tap into Generative AI. Read more
Scala Biodesign exits stealth with $5.5 million in Seed to engineer future proteins. By fusing physics-based modeling, AI, and biological data analysis, Scala helps companies develop new medicines and foods faster and cheaper than before. Read more
$300 million Teva bet: Will Norway’s wealth fund and ION regret investing in the pharma giant? ION, which manages investments for the Norwegian wealth fund, began a buying spree of Teva shares at the beginning of the year. Read more
Founders on Sofas | Navigating the founder-spouse dynamic: The importance of keeping your better half in the loop. While startup founders chase their dreams, families and marriages often take the hardest hit and pay the price of this adventure. The key to startup success begins at home, so if your spouse isn’t part of your startup journey day-to-day, here are a few ideas to include them. Read more
Shchackim is here to bring high-tech education to Israel’s periphery. The organization offers programs for young people to learn high-tech skills and courses for workforces that need to navigate the growing presence of AI. Read more
Fortissimo Capital in negotiations to acquire Gett at $200 million valuation. Swedish fund VNV Global currently controls Gett, which has raised $900 million to date. Read more
Tel Aviv real estate market hit hardest by tech slowdown. Two recent reports by real estate companies Natam and Inter Israel indicate that the market is correcting downwards with the trend particularly noticeable in the business center of Tel Aviv. Read more
Hedge wars: New SEC restrictions make giant US funds see red. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published new rules that will require private investment funds, which manage $26 trillion, to be more transparent “in order to improve efficiency and competition in the market. Read more
Boarding Pass | SimpleClosure removes the taboo around closing down a business. The company has raised a total of $1.5 million to help organizations shutter their doors in a safe and easy way. Read more
Cyber Directorate investigates blocking of opposition MKs from WhatsApp. According to the Cyber Directorate, as of now all members of the Knesset, including Opposition Head Yair Lapid, have access again to the application. As far as is known, this is not a case of device hacking. Read more
Vesttoo report claims co-founders “directly involved in creating fake documents and forging identities.” The insurtech’s board filed its first interim report with the bankruptcy court and confirmed the source of Letter of Credit allegations. “This is a biased and fundamentally flawed investigation, which targeted the company’s founders from the beginning,” Bertele said. Read more
Tenable confirms $265 million acquisition of cyber startup Ermetic. The Israeli startup, which has raised a total of $100 million to date, has developed a fully integrated cloud-native application protection platform and also provides cloud infrastructure entitlement management. Read more
How healthy due diligence can save investors from the next Joonko or Vesttoo. As more companies get exposed as fraudulent, CTech hears from experts in the field about how to spot potentially troubling companies. Read more
After sealing first deal in Israel, Jared Kushner sets sights on Phoenix Agencies. Phoenix Holdings is trying to bring in a partner to Phoenix Agencies, valued at more than a billion dollars. Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is in advanced negotiations to purchase a quarter of the company. Read more
Hospital hackers publish private patient info. The group of hackers behind last month’s attack that shut down the computer systems at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak released a huge data file that includes patient IDs and phone numbers along with sensitive medical information. A gag order was issued on the details of the investigation. Read more
Check Point acquiring cyber startup Atmosec in second purchase in less than a month. The move comes after Check Point acquired Israel’s Perimeter 81 for $490 million last month. Read more
Pitango HealthTech announces first closing of new $175 million fund. The new fund has already made several investments, including in QuantHealth.ai, an AI company focused on clinical trial simulations to accelerate and de-risk drug development, and Nevia Bio, a FemTech company developing an AI-based biomarker platform for early detection of women’s health diseases. Read more
Ibex Medical raises $55 million Series C for AI-powered cancer diagnostics. The Israeli startup’s platform provides health systems and diagnostic laboratories with an integrated solution for cancer diagnosis and biomarker scoring, capable of detecting more than 100 different cancer and non-cancer pathologies. Read more
Jared Kushner’s Saudi-backed firm investing $150 million in Israel’s Shlomo Group. This is the first investment in Israel for the Miami-based Affinity Partners that is sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. “We are bullish on the long-term growth prospects of Israel and the broader new Middle East,” said Kushner. Read more
Power failure: Why did SolarEdge’s value plummet by $11 billion in a year? The renewable energy company, the first Israeli company to enter the S&P 500 index, traded at its peak with a value of $20 billion. Since the beginning of the year, however, the stock has fallen by 43% while the S&P 500 has risen by 18%. Read more
Tenable set to acquire cyber startup Ermetic for up to $350 million. The Israeli startup, which has raised a total of $100 million to date, has developed a platform that detects and prevents security threats within complex AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure environments. Read more
Tower and Intel sign $300 million foundry deal three weeks after cancellation of $5.4 billion merger. The Israeli chipmaker will acquire and own equipment and other fixed assets to be installed at Intel’s New Mexico factory after receiving $375 million in compensation following the cancellation of the acquisition. Read more
Cyber startup Upwind nets $50 million to protect cloud applications. The Israeli company, founded by Amiram Shachar and his founding partners from Spot.io, which was sold to NetApp for $450 million, took its total funding to $80 million in less than a year. Read more
ThetaRay raises $57 million for AI-powered global payments solutions. The Israeli startup’s cloud-based transaction monitoring and screening solution uses AI technology to monitor financial transactions and allow the flow of funds across the world by establishing trusted transactions. Read more
Harmonya raises $20 million Series A to assist retailers with AI-powered product data. The Israeli startup provides a product data enrichment, categorization, and insights platform for retailers and brands. Read more
Vesttoo CEO breaks silence in message to employees: “We were entirely unaware of any document falsification.” “We were targeted, tried, accused, and swiftly condemned even before the investigation commenced,” Bertele wrote in a long message sent directly to current and former employees on Monday. Read more
Nexar cuts 14% of team in third round of layoffs. The AI computer vision company laid off another 17 employees and has reduced its headcount by over 30% in the last 10 months. Read more
Weight loss pill success sparks stock surge at Epitomee Medical. The company, which has not yet published the full results of its study, plans to seek FDA approval via the 510(k) pathway. Read more
Japanese investment in Israel fell by 20% in first half of 2023. Despite the drop, Japanese investment accounted for 17% of all foreign funding in Israel, an increase compared with 12.8% last year. Read more
America’s Great Lakes region remains untapped potential for Israelis. Chicago can act as a central point for Israelis looking to work with U.S. states surrounding Lake Michigan. Read more
Spark of genius: Kibbutzim’s quest for profit and planet-saving sustainability. Kibbutzim strike gold with energy storage investments, reaping profits and greening the grid. Read more
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