Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of June 28, 2009, news surfaced that Toyota is mulling investing in Israeli hi-tech companies that can help make its cars cleaner, while it seems that clean technology investments are increasing again. Indicating that virtualization is still a hot investment, Neebula, which develops management tools for virtual computer environments and was founded earlier this year, raised $5 million. In security, Israeli researchers have created a deep zoom application for videos making idenitifcation in them easier. For these stories and more, see this week’s 12 Israel-related headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Toyota considering Israeli high-tech investments

2. No More Crying Over Spilt Milk With AfiMilk

3. Israeli researchers desalinating sewage for agricultural use

Investment
4. Clean Technology Investment Rebounds

5. Why Israeli Stocks and Currency Should Outperform Now

Information Technology
6. Israeli Experts Create Deep Zoom Tool for Videos

7. Touch in Windows 7: Just for show?

8. Cyber-security looms large for ATC

9. Virtualization co Neebula raises $5 million

Miscellaneous
10. Young Jewish leaders gather for global summit

11. Netanya aims to be Middle East’s Ibiza

12. LIFE in Israel in 1948 – Part 1

The week of August 3, 2008 was a good one for Israeli companies announcing funds raised. Israeli-Chinese social networking company, Koolanoo raised $25 million, and Confidela, software-as-a-service document security and control company that’s still in stealth mode raised $5 million in second-round funding. Water management companies, Tahal and Environmental Energy Resources Ltd. (EER) made headlines with their projects while VoIP company, JaJah made headlines with its new translation services. For Information Technology news and more, check below for the complete 17 Israeil-related technology headlines from the week of August 3, 2008.

Cleantech
Tahal obtains financing for €41m Ghana water project

UK to use Israeli waste-disposal technology

M&A and Investments
Koolanoo Group raises $25M

WAN optimization co Expand raises $10m

Confidela raises $5MM, completes second round of financing led by seasoned entrepreneur, Shlomo Kramer and Gemini Israel Funds

YouLicense.com Secures Funding From Ofer Media and Logia Group

Carl Zeiss SMT to Acquire Israeli Start-Up Pixer Technology

Telecommunications
Micronet to expand its presence in the North American Mobile Resource Management Market

Jacada Signs Material Contract with New Telecommunications Customer in North America

New Translation Services Come to MS Office and JaJah

Information Technology
Shunra Software Joins the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program

PineApp’s Mail-SeCure Provides North Florida Women’s Care with Unparalleled Spam Blocking and Secure Email Communications

ClickSoftware Products Excel in the Preliminaries, Now Ready for Prime Time During 2008 Beijing Olympics

Crescendo Scales to Meet Web Applications’ Need for Speed

Miscellaneous
Applied Materials Promotes Gilad Almogy to Senior Vice President

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi

N-trig Announces Availability of Multi-touch Gestures Software Development Kit

During the week of July 13, 2008, SAP announced its plans to open an R&D center in Israel, following in the footsteps of corporations such as Microsoft, IBM and Intel. Microsoft’s purchase of data management company, Zoomix was officially announced and Magic Software signed a deal with Blat-Lapidot, a leading Salesforce.com Partner. Shopflick raised $7 million in funding while it was announced that Israeli startups, combined, raised over  $1 billion in the first half of 2008 (the highest since 2001). What happened in cleantech this past week? Not much in relation to Israeli companies. There were however other headlines. For those and the previous stories, check below for the full list of the 17 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of July 17, 2008.

M&A and Partnerships
Magic Software Signs up Blat-Lapidot – a Leading Salesforce.com Partner

Mobile location tech co Destinator bought by Intinsync

Nextlink to develop technology with Israeli partner through $1M grant

Alvarion, Ceragon and ECI in Danish WiMAX project

Microsoft Bolsters Data Management With Zoomix Purchase

Investments
Israeli start-ups raise over $1 billion

Israel to invest NIS 400m in alternative energy

Leon Recanati invests in Whitewater

Shopflick Closes $7 Million in Funding Led by Panorama Capital and Venrock

More investment for Israeli start-ups

Information Technology
SAP to open R&D center in Israel

Bill Gates, Microsoft Endorse PNMSoft Business Process Management BPM Software

Slovak Telekom Expands its Relationship with Amdocs

Tech Watch: Major US utility selects NICE Systems

Miscellaneous
The Economic Impact of Global Warming is Beginning to Show: IDE Starts Marketing Snowmakers for the Global Ski Industry

Tech budget cut, but engineers lacking

Playtech, Paramount Pictures Deal Announced

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.

The week of December 16, 2007, was filled with new headlines related to the future of nanotechnology in Israel and abroad. Cleantech received its usual attention about investments, plans and government initiatives, and internationally, speculation of a recession in the U.S. and inflation continued. Check out these headlines and the rest of this week’s 29 Israel-related technology headlines below.

Cleantech:
Israel And The US Partner For Clean Energy

World Bank mulls financing Negev solar project

Evogene and Ormat subsidiary receive biodiesel grant

Ben-Eliezer offers plan to promote renewable energy

Israel Cleantech Ventures invests in Citrine Renewable Energy

Solar Market to reach $40 Billion in 5 Years

Investments and M&A:
Value of Israeli VC exits rises 30% in 2007

Don’t believe them: Brokers will tell you TASE stocks are a bargain. Here’s why they aren’t.

Noise control co Silentium raises $1.8m

Plenus invests $2.5m in Logia Content Development

Radcom raises $2.5m in PIPE offering

American VC funds favor Israel, China

CopperGate to be the 1st Israeli start-up to list on NASDAQ in 2008

Nanotechnology:
Israeli Nanotechnology companies have doubled since 2005

Yissum gives birth to biotechnology start up Nanolymf

Nanotechnology Companies Planning to Sell Shares

International:
South American trade block signs trade pact with Israel

Jim Rogers: US is in recession, the administration is lying

Your Taxes: Korea welcomes Israelis

Global Agenda: It’s back

China Less Willing to Be America’s Piggy Bank

Telecommunications:
Ericsson to equip Partner Communications with advanced 3G equipment

Breakthrough deal for Alvarion

Why The Internet Needs to Become a National Priority for Israel

Miscellaneous:
IBM Unveils Semantic Search For Corporate E-mail

Plexiglas-like DVD to hold 1TB of data

Meeting of the minds

Israeli women: Harassment vs. high-tech

The 1st Human Operating System

The week of December 9, 2007, was good for Israel’s cleantech sector with the announcements of the Oasis Investment Fund being a new VC fund investing in the Negev and the creation of a new energy tower by Technion researchers that could provide enough energy for entire regions. Also, HP announced its plans to buy NUR Macroprinters and Wall Street Journalist Technology Columnist, Walt Mossberg admitted his surprise at how technologically advanced Israel has become. Israelis abandonment of the U.S. dollar for rent and other purposes continued to prevail. Check out these and the rest of this week’s 26 Israel-related technology headlines below.

Cleantech:
Hebrew U. tech transfer co focuses on cleantech projects

New proposals for competitive energy market

Energy Tower: Power for 15 Earths?

Oasis Investment Fund — new VC investing in the Negev

MK tries to advance major environmental law reform

Investments and M&A:
HP to buy Israel’s NUR Macroprinters

Wound management co Polyheal raises $1m

OptimalTest raises $16m.

Chief Scientist to fund 8 new companies

Tactical UAV co Bluebird Aero Systems raises $7m

International:
India next goal for free-trade agreement

Yahoo! to start Internet Program for Technology Investors

Clyde Prestowitz: Israel should join the EU

Walt Mossberg: I’m amazed how Israel has changed

UN adopts Israeli-sponsored resolution on “Agricultural Technology for Development”

Telecommunications:
Breaking News: Kwiry launches viral platform, connects offline world with online

WiMAX Woes Weaken Alvarion

012 Smile.Communications: Competition in Israeli Telecom

Miscellaneous:
Social networks in Israel?

Aternity to collaborate with Oracle

Oracle and Israel’s Chief Scientist form joint venture with Aternity

Dan Dankner: Israel can be an investor’s paradise

Israelis start to abandon dollar linkage

ISRAEL – N-trig makes an online presentation of DuoSense next generation technology

New 3D Camera Makes a Hand a Joystick

Hi-tech output slides for fourth straight quarter

This week’s edition of “Company Briefs” is inspired by BloggingStocks’ Zack Miller’s post, “Two Stocks to buy before Tuesday’s Annapolis peace conference,” and JobMob’s Jacob Share’s post, “67 Lists of Life Tips.” When you’re finished with these 23 headlines, you can also check out Eze Vidra’s VC Cafe post, “Bitesize: A Low Calorie News Dose.”

During the week of November 26th, the usual media attention allotted to Israeli technology was dwarfed by the attention the Annapolis peace summit received. Here’s 23 headlines of news stories related to the Israeli high-tech sector that you may have missed that can a significant impact on the Israeli industry, including investment, in the near future.

Cleantech:

By 2020, fuel oil and diesel won’t be used in Israel

Transforming the air we breathe into the water we drink

New proposals for competitive energy market

Ben-Eliezer commits to 10% clean energy by 2020
Ampal, Clal to develop wind projects

Investments, expansions and M&A:

Ness Tech in expansion mode in India

Diagnostic co Quantomix bought by El-Mul

InSightec raises further $30 million

Jerusalem Global to raise new VC find

RBC prepares shopping list of Israeli high-tech

Taiwanese invest in Israeli sensor startup

Skin treatment co HealOr raises $8 million

Ness Technologies buys Hungarian firm

Everything else:

Voltaire ranked as fastest-growing tech company by Deloitte

Israel pushing hard on nanotechnology R&D

UK and Israel have fastest growing tech firms in EMEA

Israeli firm enables voice, video messages

HP Israel wins Pele-Phone contract

Glide Mobile brings advanced online mobile computing to Israel

Israel, Korea to fund more R&D

Over 209,000 Israelis are Facebook members

Global industry:

New method for making diesel fuel uses vegetable oils

Google’s next frontier: renewable energy