Eyeblaster and 10 Israel-related Headlines, Week of March 7, 2010
Filed under: Advertising, Cleantech, Company Briefs, VC, Web2.0
During the week of March 7, 2010, SolarEdge was named a Top 10 energy innovator by Fast Company. Digital advertising company Eyeblaster filed for a $115 million IPO and Apple rejected an app for the iPhone that detects radiation from the phone. For these stories and more, see this week’s 10 Israel-related headlines below.
Cleantech
1. Fast names SolarEdge top 10 innovator
Investment
3. Todacell scores $1 million
4. Battery Ventures raises 1st new fund since ’07
5. Eyeblaster Files for $115 Million IPO
Information Technology
6. Voltaire brings InfiniBand switch to the masses
7. Redbeacon Fine Tunes Service, Goes Social, Continues To Be Awesome
Miscellaneous
8. App Detects iPhone Radiation; Apple Nukes
9. Survey: More women than ever hold managerial posts
10. ‘High-tech managers prefer to work with their army buddies’
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
Storage and 9 Israel-related Headlines, Week of January 3, 2010
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Data Storage, Environment, Information Technology, Internet Security, Mergers and Acquisitions, Uncategorized, VC
During the week of January 3, 2010, Dot Hill bought storage company Cloverleaf for $12.5 million. China’s Sanhua invested in Israeli solar firm, HelioFocus and new vulnerabilities were discovered in Twitter and Google Calendar. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 9 Israel-related headlines.
Cleantech
1. Are Energy Advances in Israel in Parallel With Those Abroad?
2. China’s Sanhua invests in Israeli solar firm
Investments
3. Dot Hill confirms storage virtualization acquisition
4. Clean tech gets big piece of venture-capital funding
Information Technology
5. 3D sensor co PrimeSense attracts Vegas attention
6. Vulnerabilities Discovered In Twitter, Google Calendar
Miscellaneous
7. Researcher: Computers in schools do not improve students’ results
8. One third of high-tech incubator companies succeeded
9. Animating the Na’vi with an Israeli swagger
5 min and 8 Israel-related Headlines, Week of December 27, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Industry pulse, Uncategorized, VC, Web2.0
During the week of December 27, 2009, Israel’s airport security method was looked upon as a better solution to the current system used at airports in the States. Viewfinity announced that it had raised $8.6 million in funding and 5min was selected Best Startup at the TechAviv Peer Awards. For these stories and more, see this week’s 8 headlines below.
Cleantech
1. Shimon Tal: Facts and Personal Opinions on Water from Israel’s Former Water Commissioner
2. Sunshine year for cleantech
Investment
3. Viewfinity raises $8.6 million in Series B round of funding
4. Can Public-Funded Entrepreneurship Work? A Q&A With the Author of Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Information Technology
5. 5min Wins Top Spot in TechAviv’s Peer Awards
6. Web content under the microscope
Miscellaneous
7. What Israel can teach us about security
8. Israel set to become major golf destination
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
Axxana and 11 Israel-related Headlines, Week of November 15, 2009
Filed under: CRM, Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, Uncategorized, VC, cloud computing
During the week of November 15, 2009, data storage and protection company, Axxana announced it had raised $9 million. Gil Schwed discussed the future of Check Point and Tufin Technologies is expanding from security into network management. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 11 headlines, check below.
Cleantech
1. Israel water tech thrives in weakened economy
3. After boom and bust, global solar energy market ready to mature, analyst says
Investments and M&A
4. Motorola acquiring Israeli company
6. ClickSoftware closes AiPoint asset acquisition
Information Technology
7. Check Point looks to ‘consolidation’
8. Tufin Expands from Security into Network Management
9. Trojan Hacked Secret Data of Syrian Nuclear Reactor
Miscellaneous
10. The future of Israeli high-tech: Jewish brains aren’t enough
11. Israel top patent producer in Western world
Face.com and 11 Israel-related Headlines, Week of November 8, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, SaaS, VC, cloud computing
During the week of November 8, 2009, Motorola made its first Israeli acquisition by buying Bitband. Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) invested in XtremIO and Navajo Systems and Face.com went live with its facial-recognition tagger on Facebook. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 11 headlines, check below.
Cleantech
1. Jewish Israelis and Jewish Americans Look to US-Israel Cooperation To Break Oil Dependence
2. Deep sea aquaculture startup prepares for harvest
Investments and Economy
3. High-tech drives huge leap in exports
4. JVP and Giza Announce A-Round Investment in Early-Stage Startup XtremIO
5. Motorola in first Israeli acquisition: Bitband
Information Technology and Web 2.0
6. Facebook Facial-Recognition Tagger Goes Live
7. Windows 7 could hasten touch-screen computers (N-trig)
8. JVP Media Studio Invests Seed Round in Navajo Systems
Miscellaneous
9. Your cell phone can save you from a Dead Sea flash flood
10. The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America
11. Israel’s lively start-up culture keeps economy thriving
Jerusalem responds to the energy challenge
Filed under: Cleantech, Environment, Industry pulse, VC, security
A few weeks ago Maurice Picow of Green Prophet posted about the Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge (JREC) conference in San Francisco. The conference, which was organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and took place this Sunday, brought together Jewish leaders in the clean tech and environmental fields to discuss ending oil-dependency for Israeli national security and the importance of future cleantech projects between the US and Israel.
The conference included a Jerusalem satellite event in which Isaac Berzin, the Director of the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy and one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People of 2008, spoke about his vision for alternative liquid fuel, specifically algae. Berzin made the point that Israel will be more secure when countries such as China and India turn to alternative fuels and stop buying oil from Iran which funds terrorism.
Berzin’s keynote (which can be viewed above) was followed by a diverse panel that discussed viable alternative energy solutions to oil and the own challenges they hold from the political, environmental and health perspectives. In addition, the panel discussed the importance of US-Israel partnerships for funding start-ups.
Making up the panel were Berzin; Hezi Kugler, Israeli Clean Energy Alliance; Astorre Modena, General Partner at Terra Venture Partners; Dr. Gal Loft, Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security; Richard Laster, Professor of Environmental Law at Hebrew University. The discussion was moderated by Z’ev Gross, Head of Infrastructure Resources Management Division in the Ministry of National Infrastructures.
Perhaps the most interesting discussion of the evening took place during the Q&A session at the end when suggestions for Israel going green were passionately discussed among audience members and panelists. When it comes to how to get more Israelis to embrace alternative energy and the use of money to get people to become energy efficient, several members of the audience disagreed with the panelists and explained that a carbon tax like the one France recently implemented is the only viable option.
Start-up Nation and 10 Israel-related Headlines, Week of November 1, 2009
Filed under: Cleantech, Company Briefs, Environment, Information Technology, Mergers and Acquisitions, SaaS, VC, Video, Web2.0, cloud computing
During the week of November 1, 2009, financial software company, Finjan was acquired by M86. The Cleantech Group ranked Israel number 5 in its list of top10 cleantech countries of 2009 and Start-up Nation, Saul Singer and Dan Senor’s analysis of Israel’s economic success, was released (headlines below video).
Cleantech
1. The top 10 cleantech countries of 2009
2. The 2010 Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Conference Looks To Carbon-Free Energy
3. Israeli firms aim to plug world’s water leaks
Investment
4. M86 Security Buys Finjan
6. Local VCs cut investment in start-ups
Information Technology
7. How Cloud Computing Has Transformed Small Business Software (SAManage)
8. Global from Day One: MoodBase knows what the web is feeling
Miscellaneous
9. Israeli film ‘Ajami’ wins at Montpellier festival
Share/Subscribe to II2
