Catch Media and 10 Israel-related Headlines, Week of February 14, 2010
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mobile Web, VC, Web2.0, cloud computing
(Catch Media interview from 2007)
During the week of February 14, 2010, the Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference took place and included the announcement of potential plans for joint solar energy projects between Israel, Egypt and Jordan. News broke that Google is in early talks to acquire Israel’s Catch Media to better compete with iTunes and Tawkon announced its solution for avoiding radiation from mobile phones. For these stories and more, check out this week’s Israel-related technology headlines below.
Cleantech
1. Israel’s Solar Industry Aims to Regain its Edge
2. Israel, Egypt Considering Joint Solar Energy Project in Sinai
Investment and M&A
3. Google Wants To Buy Catch Media To Make Android Better
4. JVP’s Erel Margalit Tells Startups: “We Do Early Stage Now!”
Information Technology
5. Augmented Reality Gets a Major Face.com Lift
6. Tawkon enables mobile users to avoid mobile phone radiation without affecting phone usage
7. Comverse enables visual voicemail services on Sony Ericsson handsets for Norway’s NetCom
Miscellaneous
8. Unleavened Media: 10 Israeli mobile companies to watch in 2010
9. IPad Launch Has Halo Effect On Apple Products, Laptops
10. Aniboom and Sesame Street Partner on Animation Contest
Mobixell and 10 Israel-related headlines, Week of January 17, 2010
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Information Technology, Internet Security, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Web, Web2.0
During the week of January 17, 2010, Israeli mobile ad tech company Mobixell announced that it bought Internet firm 724 Solutions. A new report indicated that most Israeli hi-tech companies are planning to hire this year and the Google breach from mainland China was further analyzed. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 10 headlines, see below.
Cleantech
1. Sunday Solar to Build Large Solar Array on “Damaged” Negev Land
Investment and Economy
2. Mobixell buys Web firm 724 Solutions
3. Israel’s PowerSines seeks IPO abroad in H1
4. Most high-tech companies plan to hire people this year
Information Technology
5. Google vs. China: The Tip of the Cyberwar
6. Never Mind the Valley: Here’s Israel
7. Women in Technology: Rony Ross, Panorama Software (Interview)
Miscellaneous
8. Want an MBA from an entrepreneurial hot spot? Look to Israel.
9. ‘Ajami’ on short list for Oscar nomination
10. Tuition-Free University Gains a Following
GSM encryption and 11 Israel-related Headlines, Week of January 10, 2010
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Web, Web2.0
During the week of January 10, 2010, CA acquired Israel-based Service Level Management (SLM) software company Oblicore and mobile TV chip maker Siano announced that it raised $24M. Israeli researchers announced that they cracked the encryption of 3G GSM networks. Find out more about these headlines and the rest of this week’s 11 headlines below.
Cleantech
1. Arad Technologies wins lucrative water metering deal in India
2. Climate Change and Clean Tech in Israel
3. Israeli businesses seek Texas partners in green technology
Investments
4. CA Confirms Oblicore Acquisition
5. Mobile TV chip maker Siano raises $24M
6. Amobee to buy UK’s RingRing Media
Information Technology
7. Will cable and satellite TV soon be outdated?
8. Researchers use PC to crack encryption for next-gen GSM networks
Miscellaneous
9. Israel rushes to Haiti’s aid
10. The First ELSE: A Mobile Phone from The Future (Videos)
2009: Sarah Lacy and the Israeli Web Revisited
Filed under: Industry pulse, Israeli Websites, Mobile Web, VC, Web2.0
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.
Mobile Web and 9 Israel-related Headlines, Week of December 13, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Web, SaaS, VC, Web2.0
During the week of December 13, 2009, Clarizen raised $8 million while virtual head generator Gizmoz merged with Daz 3D. Cloudshare came out of stealth and Morgan Stanley came out with a report that the mobile web will overtake the desktop in five years which is promising for Israeli companies in the mobile space. Check below for these stories and the rest of this week’s 9 headlines.
Cleantech
1. Israel plunges into water technology
2. Israeli Renewable Energy – Why Israel, Why Now?
Investment and M&A
3. My Virtual Head Would Look Great On Your Virtual Body! Gizmoz Merges With Daz 3D
4. Clarizen raises $8M in 3rd round
Information Technology
5. CloudShare Comes Out of Stealth Mode: A Talk with Kevin Epstein
6. Kenshoo Branches Out with New Local Search Management Platform
Miscellaneous
7. Vringo Ringtones Startup From Israel Vies With News Corp. Unit
8. Spymaster sees Israel as world cyberwar leader
9. Morgan Stanley: Mobile web to overtake desktop in five years
Smartphone security trends in 2010
Filed under: Data Storage, Internet Security, Mobile Web, Uncategorized, data security
Using their own independent studies, VeriSign and Israel-based Discertix both recently released the smartphone security trends they expect to see in 2010.
According to VeriSign CTO, Kenneth Silva, who recently spoke in Seoul about the likely mobile device threats in 2010,
“An attack on the mobile device operating system will affect the phone contacts, mobile banking log-ins and passwords and any other valuable information stored on the device”
Smartphone sales are expected to beat PC sales for the first time in 2011.
The opportunities for cyber criminals to penetrate mobile devices are the results of:
- More phone applications needing updates which can pose an opening for phishing scams
- An increase in jail broken phones, which compromises the operating system as an example.
Silva explains that these vulnerabilities can lead to “deliberate Denial of Service attacks, extortion, and corporate espionage as threats for 2010″ and has as such become a national priority for several countries including Israel, the U.S. and the U.K
Research by Discretix, an embedded security solutions company, indicates that smartphones already make up 25% of the market and might reach 40% market share in the next 5 years.
In addition to finding the same threats posed by applications and an open OS that VeriSign did, Discretix has also listed:
- Some of the new OSs (e.g. Android) are open source, missing the traditional safeguards and closed environment of other real time operating systems
- Also the devices are multi-use with massive storage capacity, moving data and applications freely between the enterprise and the home
Despite the seriousness of these threats, a survey conducted by security software firm Trend Micro that was released in August 2009 indicated that 44% of mobile phone users considered Web surfing on a smartphone to be “as safe, if not safer, than doing so on their PC” and “only 23 percent of smartphone owners use security software already installed on their smartphones.”
Discretix was one of the fastest growing Israeli companies in 2008 and 2009 according to Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar and will deliver Open Mobile Alliance DRM capabilities to HTC Windows Mobile and Google Android handsets.
iPhone and 10 Israel-related headlines from the week of June 14, 2009
Filed under: Breaking News, Cleantech, Information Technology, Mobile Web, New Ideas, Uncategorized, Web2.0, cloud computing
During the week of June 14, 2009, Israel was named a developed market which will be effective in 2010 and its economy was hit less hard due to the high tech industry. While the protests, demonstrations and online activity heated up in Iran, Israel’s Fring announced that its software was being used by several protesters and helping their cause. Inside Israel, the biggest news was that the iPhone from Apple will finally be coming to Israel officially. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 10 Israel-related headlines check below.
Cleantech
1. The Next Solar Frontier: Distributed Inverter Architecture
Investments
3. Israeli exports hit less thanks to high tech
4. Israel Named Developed Market at MSCI, Korea Isn’t
Information Technology
5. Storage Startup Axxana Announces the Availability of the Phoenix System
7. Iranian protesters using Israeli software
8. Blue Coat ProxyClient Software Gains OESISOK Certification
Miscellaneous
9. Israeli carriers line up to sell iPhone
10. Coca Cola Israel develops new flavor
12 Israel-related headlines from the week of May 17, 2009
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Information Technology, Mobile Web, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0, cloud computing
During the week of May 17, 2009, news focused on a California cleantech investors mission to Israel that was deemed successful and Israeli companies trying to build a global profile for themselves. In mobile and video technology, Waze announced its technology, which offers real-time traffic reports based on user input, and Yaniv Axen of SundaySky was interviewed. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 12 headlines, check below.
Cleantech
1. UN Climate Talks: Cleantech IP Battle of the Year?
2. Will the Electric Car Make the World a Better Place?
Investment
3. Israeli Companies Seek Global Profile
4. China’s 4 trillion Yuan stimulus package: Israeli opportunities
5. IVA 2009 – Business as Usual?
Information Technology and Web 2.0
6. Waze: The traffic of the crowds
7. B.O.S. to provide large-scale wastemanagement solution
8. Yaniv Axen, Co-Founder of SundaySky
9. AcCells Named a Mobile Innovation Grand Prix Nominee
10. Innovating Video Conferencing In Israel
Miscellaneous
11. Photo: Sandstorm Strikes Israel
12. Viva Tel Aviv!
Thoughts on TechAviv and Outbrain’s recent $12 million B round
Filed under: Advertising, Industry pulse, Israeli Websites, Mobile Web, VC, Video, Web2.0
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.
19 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 25, 2009 (HYPick Bonus)
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Data Storage, Environment, IT management, Information Technology, Israeli Websites, Mobile Web, Telecomunications, VC, Video, Web2.0, cloud computing, data security
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
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)
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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