Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of June 6, 2010, Tigo Energy announced it raised $10 million to expand international sales and manufacturing capabilities. Check Point acquired Liquid Machines and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz debuted at the annual High-Tech Industry Association Conference an extensive plan to help Israel’s high-tech sector. For these stories and more, see this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Ormat Set to Release Alaska’s Geothermal Energy Potential

2. Businesses ink deal with Israeli incubator

3. Tigo Energy Closes $10 Million Round

Investments
4. Check Point buys Liquid Machines

5. Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Plans New Index For High-Tech Startups CEO

6. Steinitz unveils broad plan to help Israeli high-tech

Information Technology
7. Trusteer’s week of wins

8. Motion-activated controls come to Android

Miscellaneous
9. New center for Internet study at Haifa U

10. The Next Big Things

11. Microsoft’s Hopes Lay in Israel (h/t Joel Katz)

During the week of April 4, 2010, Israeli startup Qlipso announced it bought the assets of video web site Veoh Networks. Israeli biofuel company HCL CleanTech is set to open its U.S. headquarters in North Carolina and Autodesk is looking to expand its R&D operations in Israel. For these stories and more, check out this week’s 10 Israel-related headlines below as well as a video of Qlipso’s presentation at Twiistup 7 this past February.

Cleantech
1. HCL CleanTech, an Israeli biofuel company to open U.S. headquarters in Triangle area

2. Test Driving The Better Place Electric Car

Investments and Economy
3. Our economic success story

4. Start-up Qlipso buys Web video service Veoh

5. US giant Autodesk looks to Israeli R&D

Information Technology
6. Doe Run Shortens Downtime With iSolve Virtual Knowledge Manager

7. 3 promising Israeli Startups to look for on MS ThinkNext 2010

Miscellaneous
8. Israel Aid Pays U.S. Dividends That Exceed Cost: Steve Rothman

9. AOL Finally Finds Someone To Buy ICQ (In Russia Or China)

10. Nouriel Roubini – The Economist Who Foresaw the Global Financial Crisis

During the week of January 17, 2010, Israeli mobile ad tech company Mobixell announced that it bought Internet firm 724 Solutions. A new report indicated that most Israeli hi-tech companies are planning to hire this year and the Google breach from mainland China was further analyzed. For these stories and the rest of this week’s 10 headlines, see below.

Cleantech
1. Sunday Solar to Build Large Solar Array on “Damaged” Negev Land

Investment and Economy
2. Mobixell buys Web firm 724 Solutions

3. Israel’s PowerSines seeks IPO abroad in H1

4. Most high-tech companies plan to hire people this year

Information Technology
5. Google vs. China: The Tip of the Cyberwar

6. Never Mind the Valley: Here’s Israel

7. Women in Technology: Rony Ross, Panorama Software (Interview)

Miscellaneous
8. Want an MBA from an entrepreneurial hot spot? Look to Israel.

9. ‘Ajami’ on short list for Oscar nomination

10. Tuition-Free University Gains a Following

During the week of December 20, 2009, O2 confirmed that it is buying Israel-based Internet phone company, Jajah. Facial recognition security company C-True announced that Brinks is its latest customer and oil was found in Israel. For these stories and more, check out this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Michigan Looks to Israel to Rev Up Automotive Battery Business

2. SunPower and SolarPower Ltd. Dedicate 50-Kilowatt Solar Power System for HP in Israel

Investments and Economy
3. O2: Yes, we’re acquiring Internet phone company Jajah

4. Israel May Beat Growth and Deficit Estimates, Steinitz Says

Information Technology
5. Israeli company to beta cost-reducing content delivery technology

6. C-TRUE Provide Face Recognition Security Solutions to Brinks

7. All Quiet in the Data Center

8. Israel’s fastest growing software companies of 2009

9. Web Host Datapipe Teams with Applicure for Website Security

10. 2009: Sarah Lacy and the Israeli Web Revisited

Miscellaneous
11. Tourism Ministry presents three-year plan

12. Amazon’s Kindle has copyright protection hacked

13. Oil well with potential found in Israel

Despite the economic downturn, Israel’s startup scene is as strong and vibrant as ever. Just as the innovation hasn’t stopped, neither has the need for outside funding to develop these exciting technologies. Several conferences and forums have been organized in the past few weeks to maximize the access of Israeli startups to the funding they need. One that hasn’t happened yet, but will on June 4th in LA, is the The Israel Conference.

Considered the first of its kind, The Israel Conference will have more than $20 billion in capital represented when it brings together over 50 Israel-facing companies to showcase Israeli excellence in technology and products and to expand business and investment opportunities between Israel and California. 

Presenters and panelists include Yossi Vardi (“the Father of Israeli Hi-Tech”), Erel Margalit (founder of Jerusalem Venture Partners, a venture capital fund) and Jeff Pulver (social media guru and VoIP pioneer) . The presentations will cover a wide range of topics from a look at VCs and the CEOs they back (why they were funded and the results today) to green tehcnology (how innovation in that field is helping the earth and changing our lives) and sales opportunities in a slow economy (where the money is, what the current market is like and how Israeli companies are maintaining a competitive edge). 

Some of Israel’s overall edge and Caifrornia’s role in it can be attributed to the following:

• Israel has over 8,000 patents from a population of just 7 million. 
• Within the past 15 years, major companies have risen that were developed in Israel and have their corporate office in California with job creation in the hundreds of thousands, world-wide. A number of these are Fortune 500 today with corporate offices in California such as Check Point, Zoran, and Amdocs.
• Israel has the largest number of scientists in the world per capita at 145/10,000 compared to the US with 85/10,000.
• In 2008, over $2B in capital was invested over 480 Israeli high-tech companies, an increase of 18% over prior year with 50% coming from funds outside of Israel, mostly from the US.
• Over the past 3 years, Israeli firms raised $2.3Billion in IPOs on exchanges around the world while over $18B was spent on acquisitions of Israeli High Tech companies.

The conference will also feature a presentation by Bob Rosenschein, the CEO and Founder of Answers.com, one of the Top 20 fastest growing Websites. I recently had the chance to interview  Rosenschein and will post about that next in this series.

The 12th annual Israel Journey took place yesterday in Tel Aviv. Organized by Ernst & Young and Globes, the conference provided VCs, investors, entrepreneurs and others in the industry with an update on the current economy and what is likely still to come during the different sessions.

Pessimism and optimism were discouraged throughout the event and realism was preached – a reality that the keynote speaker, Harry S. Dent explained would be grim not for 2009, but for the time period after that. Dent, a renowned economist and writer, illustrated through his trademark heavy use of charts how the best indicators for what will happen to the economy in the next few years and over a much longer period of time comes from lifecycle spending charts and the birth index, among others. While it provides some comfort to understand why there is a slowdown and that things will eventually pick up, the time frame that Dent gave, 2020-2020, extends the period longer than expected and marks 2010-2012 as likely to resemble a depression.

After the darkness of a depression and the 2010s in general though, Dent showed charts on innovation predictions and predicted that if Israel, which has been an innovation hotbed in recent years and has a positive population growth chart, plays its cards right, it can come out of a worldwide economic downturn ahead of the other developing countries. While A LOT needs to happen and not to happen for that to be a
reality, Israel’s innovation and leadership in such areas as robotics,
nanotech and cleantech, makes it a relatively strong possibility.

Whether or not Dent’s forecasts turn out to be true, it’s almost certain that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel for many of Israel’s innovative companies, even if Israel won’t come out on top.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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.

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.