Israel Innovation 2.0

Inside Israeli Technology

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of September 19, 2010, it was revealed that interactive video ad company and 2010 Technology Pioneer Innovid raised $4 million. SaaS company, Panaya raised $6 million from an SAP co-founder after it was sold and Fring continues to challenge VoIP giant Skype, this time with $0.01 per minute VoIP calls. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Large Golan wind farm to be national infrastructure priority

2. Ormat Technologies Secures US Funds For Geothermal Plants

Investment and Economy
3. Video: Interactive Video Ad Firm Innovid Raises $4 Million from Deutsche Telekom

4. Poju Zabludowicz cashes in on software house Panaya with NIS 20 million profit

5. Vardi: High tech not connected to economy

Information Technology
6. Iran Says Nuclear Plant Unaffected by Virus as Industrial Computers Struck

7. Israeli Startup Fring Challenges Skype With $0.01 Per Minute VoIP Calls

Miscellaneous
8. Non drip tomatoes from Israel

9. Israel’s Amobee makes list of world’s most valuable startups

israel-technology-headlines

During the past week, IBM Israel and the Government of Lithuania announced a research partnership between the two that will include nanotechnology, cleantech and more. HP and IBM are vying to acquire Israel’s Radware, while it was revealed that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is studying Israel’s hi-tech industry and the factors contributing to its success. For these stories and more see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Ormat and Solar Millennium to Participate in the Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Plant Tender

2. Ness wins water management system deal

3. PM pushes NIS 4b. alternative energy R&D drive

Investment and R&D
4. Government of Lithuania and IBM [Israel] announce research partnership

5. Google purchases Israeli startup Quiksee

6. HP, IBM in tug-of-war to acquire Radware

Information Technology
7. Hosted service promises to protect corporate documents on smartphones (Confidela)

Miscellaneous
8. Russian president studying how to emulate Israel’s hi-tech success

9. Israel’s PicScout: Where Risk-taking and Entrepreneurial Drive Are Part of the DNA

israel-technology-headlines

In the past week, it was revealed that Israel’s economy is expected to grow 4.1% in 2010 and that exports increased. Siemens is looking to invest in Israeli companies and Google unveiled Google Instant, enabling search results to appear instantly as users type out their search. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. TAU claims it can ‘bioremediate’ remaining BP oil

Investment and Economy
2. Training Israel’s Ethiopians for a hi-tech future

3. Israeli Economy to Grow 4.1% in 2010 as Exports Increase, Government Says

4. Siemens considers investing in Israel

5. Google buying second Israeli startup: Quiksee

Information Technology
6. Google Instant based on Israeli development

Miscellaneous
7. Israeli women – among the hardest workers in the world

8. How big should a startup advisory board be? [Video]

The Jerusalem Business Networking Forum had its monthly meetup earlier this week. Titled “Making Great Start-ups”, the discussion was led by Teddy Nehmad of C-Capital who gave tips on creating a good business that’s attractive to investors and also discussed issues the venture capital industry is currently dealing with. In the clip above Nehmad discusses what the average size of a startup advisory board should be.

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of August 29, 2010, water monitoring TaKaDu was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011, along with Foursquare and SecondMarket among others. OpTier will likely go public in 2011 and PrimeSense’s contribution to Kinect is just the beginning of motion- and voice-sensing technology in the home. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Leviathan’s Small Wind Turbine (SWT) First to Connect to Israeli Grid

2. EV Batteries Plummet in Price: Down to $400 a kwH

3. TaKaDu Named World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011

Investment
4. OpTier looks to Nasdaq IPO in 2011

Information Technology
5. Kinect’s Israeli partner sees a remoteless world

Miscellaneous
6. Innovative Israel Failing To Grow High-Tech Start-Ups

7. Wikipedia: A New Battleground in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

8. Israeli Teens Swipe Wristbands to Update Facebook Status

9. Registration begins for Hebrew Web addresses

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of August 8, 2010, it was revealed that SupersonicAds, an internet company that has developed a virtual goods monetization platform, has raised $2 million. The round was led by former Skype CEO Michael van Swaaij. Qoof launched a platform-independent video advertising app and OpTier launched the first educational business transaction management portal. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Ernst & Young: Israeli Government Must Pick Up CleanTech Glove

2. Is Desalination The Answer

Investment
3. Clean Tech Dominates Q2 Funding at $130M

4. Former Skype CEO leads $2M investment in online games offer firm SupersonicAds

Information Technology
5. Qoof Launches Platform-Independent In-Video Advertising App Technology

6. OpTier Launches First Educational Business Transaction Management Portal

Miscellaneous
7. Israel aims to be space superpower

8. Exclusive: PM set to okay space R&D program

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of August 1, 2010, DroidSecurity revealed that its Android security app has been downloaded by 2.5 million users. Ad targeting company eXelate announced it raised $15 million and Israel’s first tidal plant was completed in Jaffa. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Israel’s First Tidal Power Plant Completed In Jaffa

2. Israeli-Palestinian team for clean water

3. As It Shrinks, the Dead Sea Nourishes Promises of an Economic Bloom

Investment
4. eXelate Secures $15M; Educates Consumers On Ad Targeting

5. ScaleMP Experiences Record Growth in Q2

Information Technology
6. Dapper Dives Into The Display DR Dream

7. DroidSecurity Hits 2.5M Milestone

Miscellaneous
8. Business Strategy, Israeli female entrepreneurs and Facebook IPO rumors

Facebook Logo When TheFacebook.com launched in the spring semester of my freshman year of college it immediately became all the rage on campus. It was a new way for us to keep in touch with friends from class, the dorms and various clubs and was great for organizing groups and sending messages related to classwork.

It was a closed system open to only a few universities and made us feel special to be part of its exclusiveness. Facebook had a clean design and few features and didn’t seem like a startup that had its sights set high.

Six-and-a-half years later, Facebook is a platform that is open to everyone, has over 500 million active users and is estimated to be worth over $24 billion.

The latest rumors are about when the company will go public, which will probably be in 2012, after the company has acquired more users and CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg gains more experience.

While it is impressive that Zuckerberg, who is only 26, has been able to grow the company over the years, it is even more impressive that he was able to do so during its most critical early stages without having a business strategy.

Facebook’s success despite its lacking a strategy, along with the successes and failures of other startups, was part of a discussion that took place last night when 40-plus Israeli female entrepreneurs met to discuss how startups can avoid strategic mistakes in the early stages. The event was the latest one organized by Yazamiyot, a business networking forum for Israeli female entrepreneurs, and was led by Yair Snir, a lecturer at the joint MBA program of the Wharton School of Business and the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC).

Yazamiyot Female Entrepreneurs

Yazamiyot members discuss business strategy.

Snir went through the different steps that go into a good strategy (summed up as “Where do we want to get to and how do we want to get there”) and gave examples of successful companies ranging from McDonald’s to Lego. He concluded his presentation by stating that no strategy can guarantee success, to which a stunned participant asked if there’s any conclusive evidence out there for finding out what works.

The answer given last night was no, but one only has to look at Facebook to see that the answer should be yes. In a way. Although the business strategy lays out the long-term plans of a company it is not a one-time thing that you figure out and then lock away in some file cabinet never to return to. As with the rest of the business plan, it is dynamic and needs to be constantly updated based on changes in the industry and market trends. It is a guide to follow but not to the “T”.

To support this, when asked in an interview last year what advice he had for entrepreneurs, Bob Rosenschein, the founder and CEO of Answers.com, responded that entrepreneurs should be flexible. By being flexible, Rosenschein has been able to keep Answers.com afloat through the hard times and to grow it into the successful Top 20 website that it is today.

In the case of Facebook, by morphing over the years and staying attuned to what users want, it has been able to grow at a phenomenal rate.

Even though there is no way to guarantee success from the onset, by constantly doing research and being flexible, entrepreneurs can better ensure the success of their companies.

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of July 25, 2010, web security firm Commtouch acquired Authentium’s antivirus unit. The sale is likely to be the first of several Commtouch will make in the upcoming months and next few years. Israel’s VoIP site ooVoo is gaining ground on rival and market leader Skype and issues Israel’s government and tech industry need to discuss continue to be brought to light. For these stories and the rest of this week’s headlines, see below.

Cleantech
1. Green hi-rise to hit Tel Aviv

2. 8 Ways Israel and China Intersect in Clean Energy

Investment and Economy
3. Israel tries to lure major banks to expand its R&D

4. IBM buys Storwize for $140 million

Information Technology
5. ooVoo vs. Skype: Tech firm gaining ground on larger rival

6. AT&T, Amdocs launch Israel innovation center

7. Commtouch Security Platform Boosted by Acquisition

Miscellaneous
8. Start-Down: Israeli Start-ups in crisis

9. ‘Sniffing’ Technology Helps Disabled Move, Communicate

israel-technology-headlines

During the week of July 18, 2010, Amdocs and AT&T launched a new development center. Israeli scientists claim that they can increase computer memory capabilities using protein from poplar trees and the Jerusalem Post implemented SemantiNet’s Headup application on its website. The app lets visitors discover new content and enables the Jerusalem Post to automatically generate a comprehensive web resource on Israel and the Middle East. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. 4 Israeli Car Technologies Volkswagen Should Buy

2. The History of Clean Tech Business Between Texas and Israel

Investment and Economy
3. Ten Takeaways from Deloitte’s 2010 Israel VC Indicator Survey

4. Colo. accords with Israel could generate jobs

Information Technology
5. Amdocs, AT&T launch Israel center

6. Red Hat SPICE protocol advances but release could be a year away

7. Israeli Scientists Increase Computer Memory Capabilities

8. What SemantiNet’s Headup application means for the JPost and other publishers

Miscellaneous
9. The real pillars of the Israeli economy

10. The Hummus Manifesto – Part 1

11. The Hummus Manifesto – Part 2