Israel Innovation 2.0

Earlier this week, Intrinsyc, a mobile and embedded software solutions provider, announced that it signed a Soleus license agreement with a large Original Design Manufacturers (ODM) of computers and consumer electronics devices to use the Soleus software platform to create a handheld barcode-reading payment device, and a mobile phone capable of delivering location-based services (LBS).

According to a description of Soleus,

“Soleus is a comprehensive mobile software platform, with a telephony stack and a large applications portfolio, which enables mobile and portable device makers to develop and deploy an array of mobile devices quickly. Built on Windows Embedded CE, the flexible Soleus software platform allows numerous feature-set variations to meet the requirements to develop multiple handheld and handset designs.”

Intrinsyc’s Soleus deal comes after several announcements by the company last month and in October regarding deals for its Israel-originated Destinator software. One of the announcements was that Intrinsyc signed an agreement with an OEM to license its Destinator  for touch-screen handset and another was that it released a version of the Destinator navigation product for Symbian smartphones and had a distribution agreement with SatNav Technologies for them in India. 

According to a description of Destinator,

“Destinator navigation software sets new standards for driver safety, ease-of-use, rich content and user interface customization. The software delivers world-class turn-by-turn navigation with market-leading safety features for personal navigation devices (PNDs), personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones, while also providing cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and PC connectivity. Destinator is an ideal software solution for in-vehicle and pedestrian-oriented navigation and content browsing.”

Under the touch-screen handset agreement, Destinator software will be integrated to provide a complete navigation solution for a GPS-enabled Windows Mobile handset that is being developed for Asia and Latin America specific Asian and Latin American markets. Additionally, the devices will come pre-loaded with country-specific maps and language support.

In the SatNav deal, SatNav, a GPS technology provider, will distribute the Destinator program for Symbian smartphones. Destinator software will offer Symbian users a feature rich onboard navigation application that combines location with a series of value-added features such as text message location tagging and auto re-routing based on traffic information.  The deal marks Destinator’s now being available on all the major mobile device operating systems. 

Destinator software was originally developed by the Israeli company Destinator Technologies. In July 2008 the company was acquired by Intrinsyc and remains in Israel now under the Intrinsyc name. 

Company Facts

Founded in 2001.

Intrinsyc Software Ltd. (Destinator division) based in Herziliyya, Israel.

Yuval Pecht, Director, PND Product Management.

Products: Destinator and Soleus.

Website: www.intrinsyc.com.

Official numbers aren’t out yet, but it looks like Metacafe, an Israeli user-generated content (UGC) video-sharing site focused on short film that receives over 30 million unique viewers each month, will end 2008 ranked 119 in traffic on Alexa.com. Although in the past year Metacafe introduced new features such as the Metacafe Music Channel, community-based metadate tagging monitoring and editing and personalized creativity toolkits from PlyMedia, it seems that its biggest innovation will be its services helping users get out their videos in in relation to current events, such as Israel’s current operation in Gaza.

Often compared to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the Daily Motion for being a user-generated video content provider, Metacafe has positioned itself as the leading exclusively short-film sharing site and is the only video site that requires new content submissions to be approved by members of its community before it is posted to the site and where program creators of the most popular content get paid.

It’s the site’s relevant recent content from anywhere that’s probably going to increase hits and the amount of new program creators in the next few days or weeks though. In a politically-charged article about the “UGC photo agency” start up, Demotix, Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK states that the Demotix is picking up traction for its user-generated pictures from what’s been happening in Gaza because it is newsworthy. If that is the case, Metacafe should also see an increase of hits, as well as embedding by other new media outlets, as it’s another broadcast channel for what’s going on in Israel and Gaza.

Along with the increased traffic, Metacafe will also face competition from Demotix, which has plans to add the ability for users to upload videos in the near future and “[shares] 50 percent of the revenue from each sale with the person who contributed the content.”

Applying  Butcher’s idea of  these sites being citizen journalism, here are examples of how Metacafe has been a news source the past few days by users on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in reaction to Israel’s operation in Gaza.

Protests to Gaza operation

Precision of Israeli attacks to avoid or reduce casualties

Despite reports that thousands of IT workers in Israel will lose their jobs in the coming months, Israeli companies seemed unfazed by economic woes during the week of December 21, 2008 which saw a lot of investment and M&A activity. Several deals were also made, including Mobileye landing a $150 million contract for its on-board Driving Assistance Systems and cleantech incubators from Israel and California signing a water deal. For these stories and the rest of the 12 headlines from the past week, check below.

Cleantech

1. Clean Tech Incubators from Israel and California Sign Water Deal

2. Algae in the Air: 5 Startups Turning Algae Into Jet Fuel

Investments and M&A

3. Scopus Video Networks acquired by Harmonic for $86 million

4. Runcom Technologies Ltd. to Invest in IXI Mobile, Inc.

5. Provigent Continues to Accelerate Growth — Secures $10 Million in Fifth-Round Funding

Information Technology

6. Business Transaction Management in the News (Correlsense)

7. Nokia to sell security business to Check Point

8. Imperva Achieves Compliance with Key US and Canadian Government IT Security Standard

Miscellaneous

9. Research group IDC predicts thousands of high-tech layoffs

10. Ran Harnevo, CEO and Co-Founder of 5min.com

11. Mobileye awarded $150m contract

12. 2tweet: Broadcast Instant Media Galleries To Twitter Via Email

In early November, Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar, a professional services firm under the interational Deloitte brand in Israel, released its annual list of Israel’s top 50 fastest growing technology companies for 2008 based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. Sixteen software companies ranging from security to finance to storage made the list. Below is the top 10 software companies on the list (all in the top 30) and a little more about them. Will you be using any of these companies’s technologies in 2009? 

GigaSpaces Technologies

GigaSpaces Technologies was founded in 2000 and offers an alternative to traditional application-servers for Java and .Net environments. Its eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) allows businesses and developers to easily scale and improve performance at low cost while leveraging virtual environments such as clouds and grids. Its customers include DowJones, Virgin Mobile, Bank Leumi and Webster.

Commtouch Software

Founded in 1991, Commtouch develops software to protect e-mail by offering spam and Zero-Hour™ virus outbreak protection. Its anti-spam solutions feature its Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology and have been licensed by over 80 security and messaging vendors and providers including Aladdin, Check Point, Fujitsu and LG N-Sys

Red Bend software

Red Bend Software is considered to be a market leader in Mobile Software Management and Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) update solutions. Founded in 1999,  Red Bend Software offers solutions that give phone users more control over what software components they want on their phones while also increasing the data service revenues of phone carriers. The main solutions include firmware updates, software component updates and data management.

El Far Electronics Systems 2000

Founded in 1986, El Far is the longest-established software company on the list and the lone defense company. El Far provides defense security systems offering integrated software for site management and decision making support. Its Integer software can be used for  managing anything from access control systems to fire alarms to infra red sensors.

InfoGin

InfoGin was founded in 2000 by Eran Wyler after he foresaw the “need for surfing the real Internet on any mobile device.” Over the years, InfoGin has become a leader in “Web-to-mobile content adaptation, enabling mobile users to access any Web site they desire, optimized to their mobile device.” The company’s Internet Mobile Platform (IMP) technology is currently being implemented by several major companies, including Virgin Mobile (UK) and MapQuest.

Actimize

Around since 1999 and a NICE Systems Ltd. company since 2007, Actimize  is a transactional risk management software company offering solutions in anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, and brokerage compliance. Its technology includes the Risk Case Manager, Visual Modeler and Analytics Server.

Modelity Technologies Inc.

Established in 2000, Modelity Technologies offers a financial modeling and portfolio analytics platform for financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, to stay competitive and improve their performance.  Its products include Modelity/Advisor, Modelity/Funds and Modelity/Structures. 

FibroLAN

Since 1996, FibroLAN has developed integrated fiber-optic broadband access systems that allow organizations in the corporate and carrier markets that are dispersed over metropolitan areas access to the Internet and their Intranets at fast speeds. Its MA and MetroStar technologies both provide the benefit of low-cost remote management. MetroStar has been used by Telstra and the Los Angeles MTA.

Discretix Technologies

Discretix was founded in 2000 and is the largest single company in the world dedicated to embedded security. Focusing on consumer electronics products that are portable, such as mobile phones and mp3 players, Discretix offers additional security solutions for them that manufacturers can’t provide due to limited resources. Its main products, CryptoCell and CryptoFlash are deployed by major manufacturers such as SonyEricsson, Motorola, Samsung and SanDisk.

Exanet 

Founded in 2000, Exanet is a data storage solutions company offering enterprise companies the latest processing technology that is scalable in capacity and performance, with low cost of ownership. Its product, ExaStore 2008 holds the world record for storage performance and its customers include BBC, Stanford University, and the National Library of France.  

The most read posts on Israel Innovation 2.0 in 2008 reflect the overall hot areas of technology in 2008 which included cleantech, CRM, data storage and casual gaming. They also provide a glimpse into what can be expected in these areas in 2009. 

On the enterprise level, acquistions of Israeli companies by IBM in 2008 were part of growing trends in cloud computing and data storage that show little sign of slowing in 2009. Contributing to the need for cloud computing and better data storage solutions, will be the CRM and marketing automation solutions offered by companies, such as XMPie, which, resulting from everything from the economy to technological advances to the rise in listening to customers, are leading the way for easier cross-media dynamic publishing  in an increasingly digital world in 2009. 

In cleantech, along with the electric car and wind power continuing to gain momentum will be water technology in 2009. While Oberon Media, among other casual gaming companies, was forced to cut jobs in 2008 despite growth, given the poor economy and the history of success for inexpensive entertainment when the economy is down, the casual gaming market is expected to still thrive in 2009.

Without further ado, the top 10 Israel Innovation 2.0 blogposts of 2008 are:

1. XMPie unveils new products

2. Coming Soon: ooVoo.com video conference chatrooms

3. First online TV-PC network: RayV?

4. Coming soon: Your next game console innovated by Israeli sensor technology

5. Rumors of IBM being in talks to purchase Diligent Technologies Corp.

6. Company in Focus: Walla Communications Ltd.

7. Company in Focus: XIV

8. Company in Focus: Oberon Media

9. Company in Focus: Precise

10. Water Technology and Israel: Invest now

The week of of December 14, 2008 was filled with news from the Madoff scandal, including reports that the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology lost $72 million. Israel’s clean technology continued to draw interest from different states in the United States and reports were releases that U.S. investors are still seeking to invest in Israeli companies. A partnership between IBM and Samsung led to the development of a software reuse technology and WorkLight announced that it partnered with NetVibes to develop new secure widget technologies for the enterprise. For these stories and more, check below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of December 14, 2008.

Cleantech

1. State of Georgia looks to Israel for solutions to energy and water challenges

2. MRI, Israeli firm will create renewable energy technology center

Investments and Economy

3. US investors seek out Israeli high-tech opportunities

4. Peres calls for tax breaks for growth industries

5. Government Gives Boost to Hi-Tech

Information Technology

6. IBM Israel and Samsung develop software reuse technology

7. BitBand Introduces Leading-Edge Solid-State Video Server Line Based on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Hardware

8. WorkLight® and Netvibes Pair Up To Develop New Secure Widget Technologies for the Enterprise

9. Aternity Reports 2008 Milestones, Signals Industry-Wide Embrace Of Next-Generation Application Performance Management

Miscellaneous

10. Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura (TV Week interview)

11. Terrorism spurs interest in Israeli tech

12. American Technion Society takes $72 million hit in Madoff scheme

13. USA Hockey to form Intelligym (Applied Cognitive Engineering Ltd.)

Bonus: Angel investor and Web 2.0 icon, Jeff Pulver hosted his famous real time social-networking breakfast twice in Israel this past week. The first one he hosted was in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, December 16th, which brought together over 400 people in Israel’s hi-tech industry. The second one was the following day, when Pulver hosted his first social networking breakfast in Jerusalem. The picture below is from the Jerusalem event. Pulver is in the center wearing a  Hawaiian shirt.

Actimize, a transactional risk management software company under NICE Systems, announced last week that it has embedded IBM’s InfoSphere Global Name Recognition (GNR) technology within the Actimize enterprise risk management platform “to enhance its analytical capabilities.”

According to the announcement,

GNR is an enterprise tool designed to help organizations understand, analyze and process multi-cultural names to provide name processing and matching capabilities for mission critical and corporate wide applications… [that] will help Actimize’s sophisticated analytical models focus more closely on the names of different customers, citizens, criminals and other individuals by examining and comparing them to different known names of good and bad entities.

Actimize’s risk management platform will mainly function by analyzing name order, multiple titles or prefixes, cultural spelling variations, possible transposition errors. Upon identifying a match when a transaction is made, the Actimize solution is able to then determine whether to approve, block or forward it.

Company Facts

Founded in 1999.

Headquartered in New York. R&D in Petach Tikva, Israel.

David Sosna, Co-Founder and CEO.

David Govrin, Co-Founder & General Manager, Israel.

Boaz Pe’er, Co-Founder & CTO.

Technology: Actimize risk management platform.

Website: www.actimize.com.

During the week of December 7, 2008 there was a lot of activity in the cleantech sector. Better Place made a few announcements, including its latest deal in Japan and the Technion-Israel Insitute of Technology in Haifa announced that engineers there invented a road surface that generates electricity as cars drive over it. In the IT sector, Actimize, a risk management software company and NICE Systems company,  expanded its partnership with IBM and ActionBase, a provider of Human Process Management Solutions (HPMS), announced its partnership with BackFlip Software to provide instant connectivity to mobile customers.  For these and the rest of this week’s 16 Israel-related headlines, check out the list below.

Cleantech

1. Better Place Goes to Japan

2. Nine clean technology predictions for 2009

3. A group of Israeli engineers have invented a road surface that generates electricity as cars drive over it

Information Technology

4. Actimize Expands IBM Partnership; Embeds Technology to Fight Fraud and Financial Crime

5. BitTorrent and Oversi Collaborate to Deliver Optimal P2P Solution for ISPs in Today’s Financial Downturn

6. N-trig to uses ARC IP in touch screen technologies

7. IBM Research and Samsung Electronics to Boost Automation in Consumer Electronics Industry

8. SaaS and CRM: 30 Percent Penetration by 2012

9. SpeedBit Announces the All New DAP 9

10. ActionBase Utilizes BackFlip Software for Instant Connectivity to Mobile Devices

Telecom

11. Micronet Awarded SIIRD Grant to Develop a New Hybrid Fix-Portable 7′ Color Mobile Data Terminal

12. Chat with your friends without Internet connection

Miscellaneous

13. Birthright guarantees funding through March

14. ‘Social’ life in Jerusalem

15. No Auto Crash for Israel’s Mobileye

16. Israel and Japan Partnering in $1.8 Million Research Programs

Bonus

This past week I came across an interview with the CEO of Check Point that Robert Scoble posted on his Fast Company channel back in May 2008. The interview, which was conducted by Scoble and other tech bloggers, covers what the information security software company does, how it started and why it’s needed, among other things.

The week of November 30, 2008 showed that (some) companies are still being funded, information security is still important and why Israelis are good at sales. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 16 Israel-related technology headlines.

Cleantech
1. “Israel’s Cleantech Predicted to Reach Legendary Status” by Minnesota Environmental Expert

2. Oree Raises $4M for Flexible LEDs

Investments and Economy
3. San Jose chipmaker gets $52M

4. Israel’s silicon valley seeks NIS 500 million state investment

5. US and Israel cooperate on new Beersheva tech park

6. The Tumult Reaches Israel’s Markets

Information Technology
7. Trusteer offers up malware search tool

8. Spartan Stores Deploys Retalix Dock Scheduling Solution

9. Organised e-crime demands pro-active defences

10. Commtouch in Top 50 Fastest Growing EMEA Technology Companies

Mobile
11. Mobile start-ups thrive in Israel

12. Facebook Messaging on Over One Billion Devices (Emoze)

Miscellaneous
13. Shalom, Christmas Shoppers: Israelis Sell Cosmetics, Toys at the Mall

14. Indo-Israeli trade ties the real target

15. Iran executes IT expert who spied for Israel

16. Don’t Want To Use Pre-Installed Microsoft Windows? Sue Dell

**The following relates to the enterprise but is not directly related to technology companies or people in Israel.**

Every so often I like to share my thoughts on Facebook’s future and where I think it is going in regards to the enterprise and in general. My biggest prediction in the past has been that in the race to gather the world’s information, Facebook and Google are at opposite ends of the information spectrum when it comes to social and computerized gathering and are bound to clash at some point. In light of Facebook’s recent failed attempt to buy Twitter, here are three things Facebook is likely to do or should do in the future based on this recent and other not so recent news.

1. Enhanced human-powered search, via Twitter-style comments and features
As mentioned, the inspiration for this post is that in recent days there has been talk of Facebook’s failed attempt to purchase the social networking/micro-blogging site Twitter in exchange for stock options. The exact plans Facebook had for integrating Twitter, which is primarily used by business and technology professionals to communicate with one another and who commonly share links to relevant information on the Web, may be unknown, but it is safe to assume that Facebook would have somehow integrated the rest of the technology into its status feature (which currently only enables users to comment on them). Twitter’s appeal is that being a site that relies on user interactions and content, it is the ultimate way to share information and help people find useful information on the Internet.

Regardless of the failed deal, it seems that Facebook will continue to develop Twitter-like technology on its own and roll it out as soon as it can. As it already has the status feature, and comment feature, its first focus will probably be to add a way to search your own past statuses as well as those of your friends.

2. Enterprise-friendly collaboration. Goodbye GMail.
Ever since companies started creating networks on Facebook, I’ve been waiting for Facebook to announce its creation or plans for creating a special platform for enterprises. The platform could serve as a low cost intranet system for companies and allow for better collaboration and communication among employees within such companies. If Facebook changed its messaging system into a full email application it would already have the other communication means, such as chat and video chat apps available to make collaboration easier and possibly a little more fun.

Also, if Facebook wanted to take GMail straight on, it could partner with Microsoft (who it partners with for search results and advertising) and develop an online version of MS Office that it could offer on its enterprise platform for collaboration. Of course, back in October 2008, co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein left the company with the desire to build an online “enterprise productivity suite” that will from the outside (using Facebook Connect) complement the non-work-related social aspect of Facebook.

3. Calendar
Who doesn’t like Facebook’s events feature? It’s easy to create, access and share. Most important though is the access. Unlike Google Calendar or other calendar applications, the events are integrated throughout Facebook making it easy to access from the search bar or when you’re on the homepage after signing in to see what upcoming events there are for that day and the next few. While it is great the way it is, Facebook Events can still be improved to act as a full personal planner by making it possible to synchronize non-Facebook events with Facebook as well. Perhaps one way this could be done is with an “Share to Facebook Events” widget that could be placed on other websites.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.