Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of September 13, 2009, Better Place and Renault announced that the first electric vehicles will arrive in Israel in 2011. Perfecto Mobile, now known as Nexperience, raised $7 million and Commtouch released a report about a sharp increase in the amount of new viruses. For these stories and more, check out this week’s 10 Israel-related headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Cleantech: Selfishness Sells

2. Renault electric vehicle to roll into Israel in 2011

Investment and Economy
3. Israel teaches the world a lesson in economics

4. Exclusive: Startup Perfecto Mobile Raises $7M for Device-testing Service

Information Technology
5. How Intel turned failure into success

6. Chi-X Chooses IBM for High-Speed Messaging

7. Yodlee Fights Online Payment Fraud Using Actimize, a NICE Company, Real-Time Analytics Technology

8. All is not well with virus protection

Miscellaneous
9. Is Your Cell Phone Melting Your Brain? Not Yet.

10. U2, Coldplay coming to Israel

During the week of April 12, 2009, talk continued about the pros and cons of Shai Agassi’s electric car plans and Check Point announced its purchase of Nokia’s security appliance business. In addition, business transaction management (BTM) company, OpTier was named a 2009 Hot Company by Network Products Guide and frogs might hold the answer to the effects of alcohol during development. For these headlines and more, check below for this week’s 11 Israel-related headlines.

Cleantech

Batteries Not Included

Saving energy – one step at a time

Going On A Water Cequesta

Investments, M&A and the Economy

Check Point Software Technologies acquires security appliance business of Nokia

Int’l credit crunch shifts Israeli business focus in China

Information Technology

PeerTV Announces MX 3.0 Content Management Tool

Red Bend Software ‘Continues to Dominate’ in Firmware Over-the-Air Updates, According to New Ovum Study

OpTier Named a 2009 Hot Company by Network Products Guide

Miscellaneous

Israel turns to robotics to boost students’ interest in high-tech industry

Israeli companies make Forbes’ list

Frogs Reveal Clues About The Effects Of Alcohol During Development

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.

During the week of January 11, 2009, the war in Gaza escalated and news about Israeli tech companies continued. The biggest news of the week was that multi-touch technology company, N-Trig raised $24 million in its latest round of funding, the majority coming from Microsoft. Better Place announced its partnership to bring electric cars to Canada while Aladdin agreed to be acquired after months of talks with Vector Capital. Other information security companies, Trusteer and Commtouch also made headlines with important security threat findings. For links to these stories and more, check out the complete 12 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 11, 2009 below. 

Cleantech

1. Better Place Partners with Ontario to Bring ‘Car 2.0’ Electric Car Infrastructure to Canada

2. Eilat to host major international energy conference

Investments and M&A

3. Information security provider Aladdin is to be acquired by Vector Capital for $160 million

4. Microsoft leads $24m round for touch screen co N-trig

Information Technology

5. Phishing attack uses pop-up message on bank sites

6. Shunra Software Joins Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partners Program 

7. IDV Solutions and Eternix Announce Technology Integration for Innovative Geospatial Solutions for the Defense & Intelligence Industry

8. RiT Technologies launches Paladin environment and security management suite

9. User Generated Content Sites Breeding Ground for New Internet Security Threats Says Commtouch Trend Report 

N-Trig

10. N-trig Secures $24 Million of New Funding to Fuel Hands-on computing™ Growth in Global PC Market

11. Microsoft Betting Big on ‘Touch’

12. CyberLink and N-Trig Introduce Next-Generation Multi-Touch Enabled Applications at CES

During the week of December 7, 2008 there was a lot of activity in the cleantech sector. Better Place made a few announcements, including its latest deal in Japan and the Technion-Israel Insitute of Technology in Haifa announced that engineers there invented a road surface that generates electricity as cars drive over it. In the IT sector, Actimize, a risk management software company and NICE Systems company,  expanded its partnership with IBM and ActionBase, a provider of Human Process Management Solutions (HPMS), announced its partnership with BackFlip Software to provide instant connectivity to mobile customers.  For these and the rest of this week’s 16 Israel-related headlines, check out the list below.

Cleantech

1. Better Place Goes to Japan

2. Nine clean technology predictions for 2009

3. A group of Israeli engineers have invented a road surface that generates electricity as cars drive over it

Information Technology

4. Actimize Expands IBM Partnership; Embeds Technology to Fight Fraud and Financial Crime

5. BitTorrent and Oversi Collaborate to Deliver Optimal P2P Solution for ISPs in Today’s Financial Downturn

6. N-trig to uses ARC IP in touch screen technologies

7. IBM Research and Samsung Electronics to Boost Automation in Consumer Electronics Industry

8. SaaS and CRM: 30 Percent Penetration by 2012

9. SpeedBit Announces the All New DAP 9

10. ActionBase Utilizes BackFlip Software for Instant Connectivity to Mobile Devices

Telecom

11. Micronet Awarded SIIRD Grant to Develop a New Hybrid Fix-Portable 7′ Color Mobile Data Terminal

12. Chat with your friends without Internet connection

Miscellaneous

13. Birthright guarantees funding through March

14. ‘Social’ life in Jerusalem

15. No Auto Crash for Israel’s Mobileye

16. Israel and Japan Partnering in $1.8 Million Research Programs

Bonus

This past week I came across an interview with the CEO of Check Point that Robert Scoble posted on his Fast Company channel back in May 2008. The interview, which was conducted by Scoble and other tech bloggers, covers what the information security software company does, how it started and why it’s needed, among other things.

Most news from the week of November 23, 2008 was dwarfed by the terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai, India. The Israel-related technology headlines that did make it through included skepticism for Shai Agassi’s electric car company, Better Place, Magic Software’s new platform application and Israel’s latest Web 2.0 entrant, wePapers.com. For these headlines and more, check out this week’s 12 below.

Featured during the week of November 16, 2008 were news of Michigan’s governor signing a water technology partnership agreement with Israel and news that Israel’s current drought is the worst its been in over 100 years. Security firm, Finjan announced that it raised $22 million and AOMi partnered with Cordys. Contradicting stories on the state of the Israel’s hi-tech sector from the Jerusalem Post and BusinessWeek also made the headlines. For these stories and more check out the headlines below.

Cleantech and Environment
1. Israel Facing Worst Water Crisis in More Than 100 Years

2. Mich. governor signs water technologies agreement

3. A Better Place In The San Francisco Bay Area

Investments and deals
4. AOMi Partners with Cordys to Enhance SaaS Business Model

5. ColdSpark Integrates Commtouch Messaging Security Suite into Mail Platform for Large Enterprises

6. Security firm Finjan raises $22 million

7. Boxee Raised $4M today

8. Taboola Funded for Video Recommendation Engine

Information Technology
9. Voltaire Powers World’s Largest Windows Supercomputer

10. HP and N-trig Deliver Innovative Hands-On Computing

11. WorkLight Helps Retail Banks Gain Edge by Embracing Secure Web 2.0

Miscellaneous
12. MSN Israel reborn

13. Infima Tech Introduces JPACK Compression Solution

14. Hard Times Hit Israel’s Tech Sector

15. US to lower Israeli airport’s safety ranking

16. Despite the tough times, Israel’s high-tech sector thrives

About the author:Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member,zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.

During the week of October 19, 2008, startups in Israel and abroad continued to be warned to cut costs and be careful. Better Place (formerly known as Project Better Place) inked a deal with Australia and Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was rumored to abandon her efforts to build a new coalition government that would lead to her become Israel’s next prime minister. For links to these stories in full and the rest of the 16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of October 19, 2008, check below.

Cleantech
1. Better Place to charge up Australia

2. Sunday Solar to power Israeli kibbutzim

3. While we wait for plug-in hybrids, electric cars bridge the gap

4. Funding becoming harder to get for green startups

Economy
5. Harris: Start-ups adapting to lean times

6. Not a merry Christmas ahead

7. Venture Capital Financing Slows Amid Economic Downturn

Information Technology
8. Tufin Technologies Adds Support for Fortinet With Release of SecureTrack 4.4

9. Contrust cleans up the social media mess

10. XMPie Releases One-to-One Print Marketing Solution

11. GlobalLogic Enters Israeli Software Product Development Market With Acquisition of InterObject

12. Oracle’s new acquisition includes Israeli R&D center

Miscellaneous
13. Minnesota eyes Israel markets

14. Explaining Israel’s high-tech success: Another view

15. Israeli Party Leader to Move for Elections

16. “Within ten years, everything will be cellular”

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.