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 February 1, 2009, SemantiNet released a Beta version of its FireFox add-on, Headup to the public and Shai Agassi talked electric cars at TED. Commtouch partnered with MailChannels and promising Israeli startups presented their technologies at the TechAviv meetup in Herziliyya. For these stories and more, check  below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of February 1, 2009. 

Cleantech

1. Israeli startup grabs $5M for distributed solar thermal

2. Shai Agassi talks electric cars at TED

3. I’m Twittering Over Water In Jerusalem

Investment and Economy

4. Local hi-tech companies raise 27% less venture capital

5. Billions flow between Israel, Silicon Valley

6. Some Amazing New Startups (TechAviv)

Information Technology

7. New technology synopsizes video surveillance

8. MailChannels And CommTouch To Bring Premium Spam Filtering To Parrallels Plesk Panel

9. New technology synopsizes video surveillance

10. SemantiNet Announces headup Semantic Web Plugin for Firefox is Immediately Available as Public Beta

Miscellaneous

11. Why I’m heading back to the US

12.  Wanted: Work

13. An Improved Economic Outlook and Low Interest Rates Are Increasing the IT Spending In Israel states New Report

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

In early November, Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar, a professional services firm under the interational Deloitte brand in Israel, released its annual list of Israel’s top 50 fastest growing technology companies for 2008 based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. Sixteen software companies ranging from security to finance to storage made the list. Below is the top 10 software companies on the list (all in the top 30) and a little more about them. Will you be using any of these companies’s technologies in 2009? 

GigaSpaces Technologies

GigaSpaces Technologies was founded in 2000 and offers an alternative to traditional application-servers for Java and .Net environments. Its eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) allows businesses and developers to easily scale and improve performance at low cost while leveraging virtual environments such as clouds and grids. Its customers include DowJones, Virgin Mobile, Bank Leumi and Webster.

Commtouch Software

Founded in 1991, Commtouch develops software to protect e-mail by offering spam and Zero-Hour™ virus outbreak protection. Its anti-spam solutions feature its Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology and have been licensed by over 80 security and messaging vendors and providers including Aladdin, Check Point, Fujitsu and LG N-Sys

Red Bend software

Red Bend Software is considered to be a market leader in Mobile Software Management and Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) update solutions. Founded in 1999,  Red Bend Software offers solutions that give phone users more control over what software components they want on their phones while also increasing the data service revenues of phone carriers. The main solutions include firmware updates, software component updates and data management.

El Far Electronics Systems 2000

Founded in 1986, El Far is the longest-established software company on the list and the lone defense company. El Far provides defense security systems offering integrated software for site management and decision making support. Its Integer software can be used for  managing anything from access control systems to fire alarms to infra red sensors.

InfoGin

InfoGin was founded in 2000 by Eran Wyler after he foresaw the “need for surfing the real Internet on any mobile device.” Over the years, InfoGin has become a leader in “Web-to-mobile content adaptation, enabling mobile users to access any Web site they desire, optimized to their mobile device.” The company’s Internet Mobile Platform (IMP) technology is currently being implemented by several major companies, including Virgin Mobile (UK) and MapQuest.

Actimize

Around since 1999 and a NICE Systems Ltd. company since 2007, Actimize  is a transactional risk management software company offering solutions in anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, and brokerage compliance. Its technology includes the Risk Case Manager, Visual Modeler and Analytics Server.

Modelity Technologies Inc.

Established in 2000, Modelity Technologies offers a financial modeling and portfolio analytics platform for financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, to stay competitive and improve their performance.  Its products include Modelity/Advisor, Modelity/Funds and Modelity/Structures. 

FibroLAN

Since 1996, FibroLAN has developed integrated fiber-optic broadband access systems that allow organizations in the corporate and carrier markets that are dispersed over metropolitan areas access to the Internet and their Intranets at fast speeds. Its MA and MetroStar technologies both provide the benefit of low-cost remote management. MetroStar has been used by Telstra and the Los Angeles MTA.

Discretix Technologies

Discretix was founded in 2000 and is the largest single company in the world dedicated to embedded security. Focusing on consumer electronics products that are portable, such as mobile phones and mp3 players, Discretix offers additional security solutions for them that manufacturers can’t provide due to limited resources. Its main products, CryptoCell and CryptoFlash are deployed by major manufacturers such as SonyEricsson, Motorola, Samsung and SanDisk.

Exanet 

Founded in 2000, Exanet is a data storage solutions company offering enterprise companies the latest processing technology that is scalable in capacity and performance, with low cost of ownership. Its product, ExaStore 2008 holds the world record for storage performance and its customers include BBC, Stanford University, and the National Library of France.  

The week of November 30, 2008 showed that (some) companies are still being funded, information security is still important and why Israelis are good at sales. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 16 Israel-related technology headlines.

Cleantech
1. “Israel’s Cleantech Predicted to Reach Legendary Status” by Minnesota Environmental Expert

2. Oree Raises $4M for Flexible LEDs

Investments and Economy
3. San Jose chipmaker gets $52M

4. Israel’s silicon valley seeks NIS 500 million state investment

5. US and Israel cooperate on new Beersheva tech park

6. The Tumult Reaches Israel’s Markets

Information Technology
7. Trusteer offers up malware search tool

8. Spartan Stores Deploys Retalix Dock Scheduling Solution

9. Organised e-crime demands pro-active defences

10. Commtouch in Top 50 Fastest Growing EMEA Technology Companies

Mobile
11. Mobile start-ups thrive in Israel

12. Facebook Messaging on Over One Billion Devices (Emoze)

Miscellaneous
13. Shalom, Christmas Shoppers: Israelis Sell Cosmetics, Toys at the Mall

14. Indo-Israeli trade ties the real target

15. Iran executes IT expert who spied for Israel

16. Don’t Want To Use Pre-Installed Microsoft Windows? Sue Dell

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.

Commtouch, an information security company based in Israel, announced yesterday the release of its Q3 Email Threats Trends Report and the report’s emphasis on the latest threat of spammers hiding their reputations. According to Amir Lev, CTO of Commtouch,

“The growing trend is for spammers to adopt the good reputation built up by other sites and senders in order to bypass reputation-based email filters. They accomplish this in a number of ways, including stealing legitimate email senders’ credentials, or compromising email account enrollment processes and automatically registering thousands of free email accounts.”

Other highlights of the report include:

- “Spam levels throughout the third quarter averaged 77%, as in the previous quarter, ranging from a low of 61% to a peak of 94% of all email

- Over half of zombies/bots change their IP address daily

- Malware masqueraded as legitimate newsletters such as CNN Daily Top 10 or IE7 Browser updates

- New spam tactics during the quarter included: links to Flash (.swf) files, ASCII art spam, and hidden Bayesian poisoning text combined with HTML tricks.”

Commtouch’s main product is its Zero-Hour software based on the company’s Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology that searches for recurring patterns and indicates spam that way. Other Israeli security companies besides Commtouch include, Check Point, PineApp, Sentrigo and Aladdin, among many others.

Commtouch was featured in depth on Israel Innovation 2.0 in October 2007 and has increasingly become a significant Israeli company to watch in IT.

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation20 (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.

Recently, Aladdin Knowledge Systems,
an information security company specializing in authentication, software
DRM and content security, announced that West Coast Labs awarded the Aladdin eSafe with Checkmark Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification.

According to Aladdin’s website, Aladdin eSafe

protects against Web-based malware and zero-day threats through an in-line, wire-speed secure Web gateway featuring powerful anti-spyware, application level controls, and URL filtering. eSafe also controls spam and inspects SMTP and POP3 traffic though a proactive email security gateway.

West Coast Labs, an independent test facility for information security products and services, included in its report some of the highlights of the test including:

Virtual Appliance performed exceptionally well in all aspects of testing during the course of the anti-spam and URL filtering, and so the solution has been awarded the Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification. — Overall, the solution performed extremely well, achieving a 99 percent cumulative [spam] detection rate. — Thanks to the wide range of settings available, the administrator can fine-tune [eSafe] Virtual Appliance to a high degree.

Israel is a hotbed for innovative information security. Other Israeli security companies besides Aladdin include, Check Point, PineApp, Sentrigo and Commtouch, among many others.

Company Facts
Founded in 1985.

Headquarters in Petach Tikva, Israel.

Yanki Margalit, Co-Founder and CEO.

Dany Margalit, Co-Founder & Director.

Tsion Gonen, Vice President eSafe.

Products: HASP, eToken, eSafe.

Website: www.aladdin.com.

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.

First, it was IBM, now it’s Microsoft. Globes is reporting that Microsoft is in talks to purchase its THIRD Israeli tech company this year. As the year isn’t even half way over yet, there is no doubt, that more major corporations will likewise invest in Israeli tech companies and that maybe, they too, will make multiple purchases. On the Israeli company side, Zoran, announced that it purchased Let it Wave and solar energy company, Tigo raised $6 million for Smarter Solar. Information security companies, Commtouch and PineApp had a big week,as did Trustware. As usual, these aren’t the only Israeli companies that made the headlines last week – check below for links to all of this week’s 15 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of June 1st, 2008.

Cleantech
Israel cleantech start-ups show their wares

Tigo Raises $6M for Smarter Solar

Israeli start-up firms invest in ‘clean tech’

Information Technology
Ceedo’s CSO Dror Gill to Present at SYS-CON’s Virtualization Conference & Expo, June 23-24, in New York City

Microsoft may buy automated data correction company Zoomix

Microsoft, other firms take aim at Enterprise 2.0 market with new tools (WorkLight)

Information Security
3Com Selects Commtouch GlobalView Mail Reputation Service as Anti-Spam Filter Service

PineApp’s Mail-SeCure Selected by Geotest to Secure Email and Aggressively Block Spam

Trustware Releases New Version of Desktop Security Software, Enhancing Consumer Privacy Protection

Telecommunications
IPextreme Brings ColdFire Architecture to the FPGA Masses

Endace and Voltaire Collaborate to Bring Passive Monitoring to InfiniBand

Wavion Introduces Self-Backhaul Wi-Fi – Optimal Service With No Alignments

Startup markets WiMax basestation chip

Miscellaneous
Over one-third of Israelis are over qualified for their jobs

Zoran shares rise on Let It Wave buy, upgrade

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.

Israel Innovation 2.0′s weekly Israel-related technology headlines are back by popular demand. What happened during the past week of March 30, 2008? There wasn’t any news about any major investments and M&A (in Israel), but there sure was plenty of news about Israeli solar companies signing deals, Telecom announcing partnerships and Information Security… securing. This past week, it was revealed that sustainable energy stocks are lead by solar, Motorola unveiled a new Israeli-developed device and IncrediMail reported record revenues that increased 72% in 2007. To find out more about these stories and what the rest of this week’s 21 Israel-related technology headlines are, check out the list
below.

Cleantech
US Army fund seeks Israeli water tech

Solar Leads Sustainable Energy Stocks

Luz II signs deal with California energy giant

Solel to add solar facilities in Spain

‘Green our lever to move Israel from 2nd to 1st World’

In Israel
Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May

Economy added over 100,000 new jobs in 2007

Incubators in north and south excel

Telecom
Is you is or is you ain’t WiMAX

Motorola unveils new Israeli developed device

Metalink Unveils Operating Expense Reduction Plan

InfoGin and Comverse in technology partnership

Motive and Red Bend Help Operators Overcome Barriers to Mobile and
Converged Service Delivery


Information Security

Safend Provides New Data Leakage Prevention Offerings with Latest Release

Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum Sets Course for the Future

Commtouch CEO to Present at America’s
Growth Capital Information Security Conference at RSA

Miscellaneous

Elron Highlights AqWise and Galil Medical Developments

IncrediMail Reports Record Revenues, Increasing 72% in 2007

N-trig Hires New Vice President of Research, Development and Engineering

XFONE Completes Acquisition of Story Telecom, Inc.

Olive Software Announces Availability of ActiveMagazine 3.0,
Next-Generation Digital Magazine

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.