In 2010, Israel’s Internet sector came of age, mobile hit its stride, more capital began to flow into Israel, and several companies grew. Here is a video recap of some of the biggest headlines and stories from 2010.
Happy 2011!
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TechAviv, a global organization that brings together Israeli hi-tech founders and investors, held its final event for 2010 in Herzliyya last night. The event began with Michael Eisenberg of Benchmark Capital discussing his Hummus Manifesto – the problems facing Israeli success in the Internet industry and some solutions. Following the presentation, he and six other VCs took seats on stage and participated in an open discussion with the 200+ members in the audience on everything from grievances with VC funding and finding funding in general to problems with product design and solutions for all of these.
Here is a video of the VCs giving their predictions for 2011 at the end of the event:
The full panel was made up of Eisenberg, Scott Tobin of Battery Ventures, Adam Fisher of Bessemer, Noga Kap of BRM, Adi Pundak-Mintz of Gemini Israel Funds, Avi Zeevi of Carmel Ventures, and Yoram Snir of Greylock Partners.
Related articles:
microSteps wins Yazamiyot’s first startup competition
SecondMarket Offers Israeli Companies New Alternative to VC Funding
2009: Sarah Lacy and the Israeli Web Revisited
If you ever wonder what the most important networking website in Israel is for Israeli startups, it seems that Meetup.com might have more impact on a company’s success than LinkedIn or Facebook. Or at least in the initial stages of forming the startup. Without Meetup.com – which helps groups of people with common interests plan meetings - there might not be as many startups in Israel as there are right now and they might not be as successful or as promising as they are without the networking and fundraising opportunities that the different groups that have popped up on Meetup.com in recent years have offered them.
Almost certainly there wouldn’t have been the unique opportunity to create a networking group focused on encouraging and empowering female entrepreneurs and aspiring female entrepreneurs in Israel to succeed. There also almost certainly wouldn’t have been a new annual event that allows some of the most promising startups founded by females to present to a room full of venture capitalists and angel investors and to meet with them afterwards. Thanks to Meetup.com though, there’s Yazamiyot. And all this and more has become possible.
A year after Gemini Israel Funds Associate Einat Metzer started the group, Yazamiyot – which is the Hebrew plural for “female entrepreneurs” – has over 200 members and holds monthly meetups and additional activities to inspire female entrepreneurs, help them grow as business people, and give them opportunities such as today’s FundHer competition.
Ilana Jucha of Stat-Market
At least fifteen startups founded by women were in attendance at the event and five of them -Flakkes, Yubitech, Stat-Market, microSteps, and Brandsforce – presented. Aside from Yazamiyot members, the audience was primarily made up of investors who had the ability at the end of the presentations to vote for which company they liked the most.
The winner, microSteps is an educational technology company that currently provides the private school market, specifically preschools, with a web portal that manages all of the school’s communications it has with parents. One use of the portal is removing the need the need for those notes that used to be sent home with kids only to be thrown out without reading after they got crushed in the kids’ backpacks. Founded by Elanit Halevi-Yariv and Yael Goshen in 2007, the company currently has a presence in Atlanta and New York and over 50,000 registered users in 28 states across the US.
Here is a demo of microSteps solution:
The runners-up of the competition were Yubitech and Brandsforce. Founded in 2009 by Danny Weissberg and Nili Shohet, Yubitech mobilizes any enterprise application into an application that can run on any smart-phone in just a matter of days. Brandsforce, founded by Nili Goldberg-Levi, offers marketers and advertisers a social media recruitment solution that identifies relevant opinion leaders and recruits them to help promote a company’s brand and enhance brand engagement on social networks.
Here is a video of YubiTech’s solution:
Stat-Market was founded by Ilana Jucha and offers real-time analytical software that can predict customer behavior and help maximize customers’ lifetime value (LTV). Founded by Ruth Polachek in 2008, Flakkes bridges the gap between users and advertisers by enabling users to provide direct feedback on what they think of a company’s online ads. See the video below.
Related posts:
9 Israel-Based Female Tech Entrepreneurs on Twitter
Business Strategy, Israeli female entrepreneurs and Facebook IPO rumors
What is keeping women out of technology in Israel?
A recent study by Stax Inc, an independent global strategy consulting firm, has found that deals between Massachusetts and Israeli companies bring in $2.4 billion. The study looked at the contribution of close to 100 companies in Massachusetts that are founded by Israelis or offer products based on Israeli technology.
Some highlights of the study are:
- In total, the direct and indirect revenue impact on the Massachusetts economy was $7.8 billion.
- From an employment perspective, these businesses directly generated 5,920 jobs in Massachusetts.
- 50% of these businesses focus on information technology, 29% are in life sciences, and the remainder in other industries.
- Israeli entrepreneurs chose Massachusetts over other U.S. destinations to launch or grow their enterprises due to the deep talent pool of educated workers, the opportunity to be part of an industry cluster, world class universities and outstanding business infrastructure.
According to Ted Carr, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, “The Commonwealth is a natural destination for Israeli innovators and entrepreneurs, due to our common focus on the life sciences, technology, and clean tech industries, as well as our shared commitment to outstanding universities and highly-skilled workforces. The many Israeli companies that have successfully established in Massachusetts are evidence of the strong relationship that exists between our two regions. We look forward to the continued growth of this relationship in the future.”
The study also found that other states are pursuing linkages with Israeli businesses. A delegation from Oregon led by Governor Ted Kulongoski is expected in Israel later this month to scope out partnership opportunities. Many state efforts have been facilitated by their local chambers of commerce. The chambers of commerce, including the southeast region and Texas, actively promote and facilitate business between Israel and American companies. Some of the most successful events for increasing business have been The Israel Conference and the IsraelWeb Tour in California.
The Massachusetts study was partly commissioned by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. Israel’s Ministry of Finance should look at this and commission a full study of the contribution of Israel-related business to the American economy next.
Earlier today Deloitte Israel announced the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Israel based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. The 10 fastest growing companies overall were Pontis, Tufin Technologies, Kontera, Telmap, Safend, Algosec, Promisec, Imperva, cVidya, and SuperDimension.
Pontis, a telecom company that provides contextual marketing and selling, had a revenue growth rate of 5,500% while overall the Fast 50 companies had an average growth rate of 740%. 61% of the companies are in the software and Telecommunications/Networking sectors. Just as impressive as the 17 software companies listed, six Internet companies also made the list this year, making up 12% of the winners. The six is double last year’s amount (three) and triple the amount from the previous year (two).
The Internet companies on the list included Kontera, Answers.com, PicScout, Babylon, IncrediMail, and MediaMind Technologies (formerly EyeBlaster). The average growth of the sector is 762%. Along with the recent purchases of Dapper (by Yahoo!), 5min (by AOL), and QuickSee (by Google), it definitely seems that Israel’s Internet sector has come of age.
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Earlier today Seeking Alpha, a stock analysis and opinion website, announced the launch of the Investment Applications App Store, an investment app store that offers professional-level tools, for free and otherwise, for any type of investor.
Seeking Alpha's Investment Apps Store
According to the press release:
“Investing Apps are professional-grade tools to help the Seeking Alpha community discover, manage, track & analyze their investments.
The newly launched Investing Applications App Store is the first platform to focus solely on the needs of investors. As of today, there are 27 third-party Apps on the platform. Apps are all web-based (not mobile) and when added to a user’s account, become part of a Seeking Alpha user’s personalized experience across the Seeking Alpha site.”
Seeking Alpha isn’t just enhancing its site with the store though. According to Zack Miller, an investment advisor, the company has created a platform that is a potential game-changer for the investment content sites.
Seeking Alpha Trefis App
Some of the apps that are currently in the store include Interactive Models (an interactive, web-based financial modeling tool), Validea’s Free Guru Analysis App (a guru, think Warren Buffet, analysis app) and Trefis (a unique, easy-to-understand view of the products that drive a company’s stock).
Here’s a video from the company explaining how to use the new app store.
IDF treats Haitian girl
The Israel Defense Forces’s ongoing efforts to embrace the Internet continues. A few days before IDF representatives explained to 140Conf participants how the army used social media to update the public about its efforts in Haiti and to help save lives there, the army announced that it created and is using a website modeled after eBay for the purpose of selling and buying surplus equipment.
The new site, called The Arena, is the army’s new effort to keep better track of inventory while potentially saving itself millions of shekels on “duplicate and wasteful equipment”. It is also partially a response to the poor capabilities it had in moving around equipment and materials that soldiers needed during the Lebanon War in 2006.
According to Bloomberg, Brigadier-General Maran Prozenfer, financial adviser to the chief of staff, explained,
“Every unit in the Israel Defense Forces will be able to put up for sale any equipment that it doesn’t need, so that other units can see and bid on it.”
Prozenfer expects the new site to significantly reduce equipment costs, which according to him currently accounts for nearly 40 percent of the army’s NIS 50 billion shekel ($12.9 billion) annual budget.
Image via IDF Spokesperson Blog.
Yesterday Jeff Pulver’s second Tel Aviv 140conf took place. Conference speakers (“characters”) discussed how they’re using social media in real-time for different things from fashion and food to promoting Israel abroad. Speakers included Kfir Pravda, Yosi Taguri, Yoni Bloch and Answers.com CEO Bob Rosenschein.
Special thanks to Niv Calderon and Roniet Berci who took these photos and let me use some for this video. Check out more of their photos from the conference on Facebook.
The investment gap in Israel that has been left open by VCs in recent years is about to be partially filled with the recent launch of JANVEST.
JANVEST is an investment fund that pools together the money of angel investors in the United States and invests in Israeli startups with it. Founded by Danny Yatom, former Director of the Mossad, the fund seeks to fill the investment gap left by VC funds who have for the most part turned away from seed and early stage startups.
Unlike other companies currently investing in Israeli startups, JANVEST’s business model will enable a broader range of US investors to participate and help build deeper and stronger ties between US investors and the Israeli economy.
Starting out with a fund of $5 million, JANVEST plans to invest in 10 companies in six sectors: Information Technology, Alternative Energy, Software, Security, Internet and Telecommunications.
In an interview with Managing Partner Brian Rosenzweig, Rosenzweig explained that the first three things the company will look at in startups seeking funding are: the founders, the quality of the technology and market trends.
“We first invest in people. We look at the management team, the integrity of the founders, their track record, along with their vision and enthusiasm,” Rosenzweig said.
The company is currently raising its first round and will start investing in Israeli companies in the next few months. Along with Rosenzweig, JANVEST is lead by Managing Partner and CEO Felix Zilberstein and Managing Partner Gerry Sapir.
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High success rates for female tech entrepreneurs
Illuminate Ventures, an early stage VC fund outside of San Francisco, recently released a white paper on the performance of female entrepreneurs in tech in the U.S. The paper helps support previous research that shows higher success rates of ventures that are lead by women.
Some of Illuminate’s key findings include:
- Fewer Failures: Despite often being capital-constrained, women-owned businesses are more likely to survive the transition from raw start-up to established company than the average.
- Growing Influence in Tech: Women-owned or led firms are the fastest growing sector of new venture creation in the U.S., growing at five times the rate of all new firms between 1997 and 2006 – now representing nearly 50% of all privately held businesses.
- Expanded IP Contributions: From 1985 to 2005, the annual number of U.S. female-invented fractional software patents increased 45-fold – three times the average growth rate in that sector.
- Impact of Women Investors: Women now represent just over 15 percent of angel investors, but just 5%-7% of partner-level high-tech venture capital investors in the U.S. Firms with women investment partners are 70 percent more likely to lead an investment in a woman entrepreneur than those with only male partners.
Although these numbers are lower in Israel, efforts are continuing to be made to change that. Earlier today the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and Google hosted “TECHLEADERS: Becoming a person of influence” in Tel Aviv. The event was a workshop that focused on helping women build the skills they need to break through into positions of leadership.
Note: To view Illuminate’s other key findings or to get the full paper, click here.
Image via Sprengben [why not get a friend].
