Israel Innovation 2.0 » Israeli Websites

2009: Sarah Lacy and the Israeli Web Revisited

Lisa Damast — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:21:57 +0000

Nine months ago there was talk and speculation that Israel’s Web sector was done and not likely to recover. Mainly expressed by TechCrunch editor-at-large Sarah Lacy after her visit to Israel in March, at the time she wrote about her disappointment with Israeli Web startups except for MyHeritage and a few others. Her piece caused an uproar among Israelis on Twitter and in the blogosphere, including on Israel Innovation 2.0.

At the time Lacy wasn’t completely off. It had been a while since an Israeli Web startup had a big exit or received a large investment or a lot of media attention. Combining this with the poor economy and the rise of Israel’s cleantech sector (which continues to grow), it seemed that Israeli innovation in the Web space had peaked when Shopping.com was purchased by eBay in 2005.

By September of this year though it became clear that 2009 was actually the resurrection of Israel’s Web industry and that Israeli entrepreneurs did not lose their mojo as Lacy had suggested they did. At TechCrunch50 in San Francisco Israeli startups Trollim, Red Beacon and AnyClip received the three top prizes for their promising technologies. A few weeks later in October, it was revealed that Answers.com, perhaps the most memorable Israeli site to have survived the dot.com bust and to thrive, was the 13th most visited Website in September.

In addition to these sites, the second half of 2009 saw the rise of another part of Israel’s Web industry, Facebook and mobile applications. In November the Facebook facial-recognition application Face.com went live and in December the community-generated traffic tracking mobile application Waze started to make headway in the U.S. market, among other regions.

While most of these companies still need to prove themselves (with growth, revenue and exits…) it is clear that there is a new drive among Israeli Web entrepreneurs and Israel’s Web industry is reemerging. 2010 will be an interesting year to see what happens to these startups and if the newfound mojo will reverse the investment decline of recent years in the sector.

Editor’s note: This was originally posted on TechAviv.com.

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14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 29, 2009

Lisa Damast — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:05:35 +0000

The week of March 29, 2009 was one of the busiest weeks of the year for Israel’s Web industry, with conferences and events happening everyday. Three bigg events were TheMarker’s COM.Vention on Sunday and Jeff Pulver’s Tel Aviv breakfast and Techonomy on Tuesday. While these events showcased Israel’s most promising Web startups, there was buzz about Israeli companies starting to bypass the US market and target the market in China. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 13 Israel-related headlines, see below.

Cleantech
Israel’s Aora Solar To Begin Clean Energy Production

Leviathan looks to wind energy device sales

Global VC Funding of Clean Tech Plunges

Investments and M&A
Building A Bridge Between Israel & China

Israeli Entrepreneurs: Know What Game You Are Playing

The tycoons’ companies don’t create jobs

Information Technology
AICC member Unisfair Launches Channel Program to Capitalize on Growth of Virtual Events

Savvy entrepreneurs tapping risk (CTERA)

XMPie and NowDocs Introduce XMPie-enabled NowPrint 7.0

SaaS’ Testuff Nabs 2,000th Customer

The curious case of face.com

Miscellaneous
Techonomy 2009: Great Startups And Amazing Event

MyHeritage: Avoiding the MetaCafe Curse

Impressions of TheMarker’s COM.vention from a new immigrant (Israel Innovation 2.0 coverage from guest blogger Jessica Korman)

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Israeli companies to watch at SXSW Interactive

Lisa Damast — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:50:25 +0000

The annual South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference kicks off in Austin, Texas tomorrow and will run through Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be at the conference, which celebrates emerging technology, some of the days and will, of course, be paying close attention to any Israeli representation there, specifically by, ooVoo, which will be exhibiting there.

ooVoo is a video chat and communication service that offers everything from high-resolution video and video conversation recording to telephony and video and instant messaging. The company will be presenting its new API for video application developers at SXSWi.

In addition to ooVoo, I will be keeping a lookout for Ouriel Ohayon, the VC and former editor of TechCrunch France, who recently launched the Topify application for Twitter with Arik Fraimovich. Topify replaces the current text of the email that Twitter sends out notifying you when someone follows you with an email that includes in addition to the person’s name and Twitter link, their profile information and an option to follow them back directly from within the email.

Will you be at SXSWi? If so, let’s meet up! Send me an email at lisa@israelinnovation20.com or post it in the comments below.

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Green Innovation: Green Any Site (GAS)

Lisa Damast — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:43:14 +0000

I recently helped co-organize Jerusalem Twestival ‘09 which raised money for Charity: Water, an organization that provides villages in Africa with clean water. The Jerusalem event was one of over 180 “twestivals” on the same day worldwide and featured booths with different clean technology and water technology companies and organizations along with musical performances.

One of the organizations at the festival was Green Any Site (GAS). Green Any Site takes advantage of affiliate sales programs, such as the one offered by Amazon.com, by offering a “Green This” bookmarklet that people can add to their browser and click on before adding an item to their shopping cart. After following the directions they can then continue to go about the regular purchasing process. At the end of the month Amazon.com and/or other similar sites send a percentage of each sale made to Green Any Site which then donates all of the proceeds to a charity or charities decided upon by bookmarklet users.

During the festival, Tal Ater, the founder and creator of GAS, showed me how it works. Here is the video:

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13 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 15, 2009

Lisa Damast — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:31:45 +0000

During the week of February 15, 2009, Greylock Israel was revealed to be the most active Israeli venture capital fund in 2008. The Internet was abuzz with both Hulu’s plan to discontinue distributing its content via Boxee and Microsoft’s intention to further its Xbox technology by buying 3DV, a motion and depth sensor company that has technology that can turn a 2D gaming experience into a more interactive 3D one without having to use a controller. In the cleantech sector, news broke that Arison Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Housing and Construction Holding Co. Ltd. plans to build the largest private solar thermal power plant in the Negev. For these stories and more, check below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 15, 2009.

Cleantech
1. Lab-on-a-Chip the Latest Weapon Against Pollution

2. Arison plans private solar thermal power plant in Negev

Investments and M&A
3. 3DV buy could give Xbox a stronger punch

4. Greylock Israel the most active Israeli venture capital fund of 2008

Information Technology
5. LG Electronics Selects Intrinsyc to Provide Software for Navigation and Location-Based Services

6. NSC Announces Multimedia Search Server for Enterprise Applications

7. Mellanox Builds Bridges for Data Center Connectivity

Telecom/Mobile
8. iSkoot Kalaida(TM) Platform Brings New Capability to Consumer Handsets

9. WeFi Joins Forces With free-hotspot.com To Expand Global Wi-Fi Network

Miscellaneous
10. Inshore in Nazareth

11. Hulu Withdraws its Content from TV.com, Boxee

12. C-nario, TruMedia integrate audience measurement with digital signage software

13. Rapid Manufacturing Goes Hollywood

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More thoughts on TechAviv: VC and Angel funding alternatives

Lisa Damast — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:55:35 +0000

Since I attended TechAviv two weeks ago, in which nearly half the startups there were early stage and pre-seed, I have been thinking a lot about the discussions on getting funded that took place there and earlier that day at Eze Vidra’s VC Cafe breakfast and in general.

It has been clear for several months now that VCs are being more conservative in choosing companies to fund and that those that do get funding, are generally receiving less than they would have in good times. Additionally, somewhere along the way in the past few years, VCs have become more concerned with the capital aspect of what they do which has led them to invest in fewer “ventures.” They are taking less risks, such as by not investing in ideas, and are looking more for “ventures” that have already proven themselves a little – in many cases, by already becoming profitable or developing the technology. Whether this is good or bad, it’s just the way it is.

Since an angel investor panel, which included Yossi Vardi, at TechCrunch50 in September 2008 discussed what the decrease in VC funding would mean for them, I have constantly heralded angel investments as an alternative to VC funding and one that would still thrive… then the stock market and economy crashed. While that was already a few months ago, The New York Times had an article earlier this month titled, Angels Flee From Tech Start-Ups, about how bad it has really been and is for them.

So, hypothetically removing VCs and Angels from the startup funding equation, what other sources of funding are there in Israel? For more established startups, close to nothing.

For small startups and individuals though, here is a list of nine alternative funding programs:

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16 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 8, 2009

Lisa Damast — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 17:01:14 +0000

Two big deals were announced during the week of February 8, 2009. Solar energy company BrightSource inked the largest solar energy deal ever that will help power Southern California, while Web 2.0 news and blog recommendation engine, Outbrain raised an impressive $12 million. Google Israel announced that it will be restructuring and Dell introduced the Latitude XT2 Multitouch Tablet, its latest laptop to use N-Trig’s multitouch technology. For these stories and more, check out this week’s 16 Israel-related headlines below.

Cleantech
1. BrightSource Inks 1.3GW SoCal Edison Deal

2. Lamar Testing Solar-Powered Digital Billboards

3. Crisis Bodes Well For Electric Cars

4. Israeli Solar Company AORA Raises $5 Million

Investments
5. Israel’s Pontis gets $19.65 mln in equity financing

6. Outbrain, the news story recommendation service, gets $12M

Information Technology
7. Dell Intros Latitude XT2 Multitouch Tablet

8. Google Israel restructures

9. Startup Neocleus building bare-metal desktop hypervisor

10. Industry’s Only Clientless Endpoint Security Management Solution

11. Acronova’s Entry Level DVD-R Duplication System Now Shipped with TrusCont Copy Protection System

Telecom/Mobile
12. Modu unveil modular cellphone jackets, promise big MWC launch news

13. Apps the new battlefield for mobile industry (Nexperience)

14. Having Text? Cell Phone Users Are Cheating on Their Partners

Miscellaneous
15. How Social Media War Was Waged in Gaza-Israel Conflict

16. ‘Waltz with Bashir’ named WGA’s ‘best documentary’

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Thoughts on TechAviv and Outbrain’s recent $12 million B round

Lisa Damast — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:12:26 +0000

After watching some of the livestream of the TechAviv founder-investor’s meetup in Herziliyya last month and posting about it, I had the opportunity to attend the monthly meetup last Thursday and listen in person to Israeli startups, SundaySky, FlyScreen and HYPick present their technologies.

After SundaySky co-founder Yaniv Axen spoke about the company’s impressive dynamic video production technology, Gilad de Vries of Carmel Ventures, which recently led SundaySky’s $8 million A round, talked about what he looks for when considering funding a company. It can be assumed that de Vries and his colleagues applied these same things when Carmel Ventures agreed to lead news and blog recommendation engine, Outbrain’s $12 million B round that was announced this week.

Here is a video of de Vries’ presentation at TechAviv last week.

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19 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 25, 2009 (HYPick Bonus)

Lisa Damast — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:11:18 +0000

Cleantech and Environment

1. ‘Israel has no plan for water economy past 2010′

2. Better Place Raises Financing for Denmark Electric Car Project

3. BrightView Secures $6 Million From Israel Cleantech Ventures and Hasso Plattner Ventures

Investments, M&A and Economy

4. Number of laid-off Israelis set new high in December

5. SAP cuts likely to reach Israel

6. MyThings Acquires ViewScore

Information Technology

7. Safend Achieves Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 2 for Sensitive Data Protection and Reaches Key Stage in FIPS 140-2 Certification Process

8. Waterfall Security Solutions to Attend the 2009 DistribuTECH Conference

9. Cordys Award-Winning Process Factory(TM) Now Available as Community Platform Free of Charge

10. IBM to expand Israeli XIV production facilities

11. How flash is changing storage (Axxana)

12. SIMCom Licenses Red Bend Software’s vCurrent(R) Mobile for Remote Software Management of M2M Wireless Devices

Web 2.0

13. Peer39 matches online content to advertiser’s message

14. Time to Headup

15. Interview : HYPick – hype a topic

16. Email: 2Pad Grabs Media Attachments from Your Webmail Accounts

17. MocoSpace a Global Top 10 Social Network on Mobile

Miscellaneous

18. Mobile TV chip co Siano wins major Chinese deal

19. Free Internet-Calling Services for Cellphones (Fring)

Bonus: HYPick.com

If you want to know what the hype is– the real hype and not just what people vote on by clicking–check out HYPick.com. Founded by Oren Todoros, HYPick is the anti-Digg-type site that determines the top content based on user comments and views and not ranking, like Digg. Todoros recently sat down with Ezra Butler of LuckyStartups to discuss HYPick. See what the hype is for yourself with this video.

You can add to Israel’s technology hype, by joining in on Israel Innovation 2.0 HYPick.com discussions, such as this one.

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Tough times in the Wadi

Lisa Damast — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:02:24 +0000

Though 2008 was clearly a tough year for companies and venture capital funds in Israel and worldwide, several announcements this week have given a better picture of the extent of its impact on Israel’s Silicon Wadi.

Globes reported this past week that Aviv Venture Capital raised $52 million for its Aviv II Fund last month but had originally set out to raise $100 million. It was also announced that social search technology startup, Delver, will be ceasing its operations in the next 30 days unless it raises necessary funds or gets sold.

In addition to these, research on venture capital funding in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the Israel Venture Capital Research Center shows how the global recession affected fundraising in Israel overall. According to a Jerusalem Post article on the research, in the fourth quarter, 109 Israeli hi-tech companies raised $394m. which was 34% below the $600m. raised in the previous quarter and 22% below the $503m. raised in the fourth quarter of 2007.

It’s not just on the funding side. Nortel’s recent bankruptcy filing has raised questions about what toll it will have on Israeli companies that were financially intertwined with it through business contracts and partnerships. Israeli companies expected to take a hit include AudioCodes and TTI and possibly Radvision and Alveron.

Things might continue to be gloomy and hard in 2009, but it won’t be the end of innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel. The layoffs that have been a result of the economic crisis are producing a new crop of entrepreneurs and startups that will have better skills to succeed in the long term using less money should they survive the downturn.

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