Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of April 26, 2009, Israel celebrated its 61st annniversary while its first solar farm powering a small community was inaugurated. ETV Motors raised $12 million in funds and N-Trig announced its latest advancement in multi touch. Sadly, also during the week of April 26th, Israel’s hi-tech industry lost one of its beloved leaders and pioneers, Nahum Sharfman in tragic plane crash in Greece.  Sharfman was the founder of the security company CommTouch and the price comparison site, Shopping.com. For these stories and more, check out this week’s 12 Israel-related headlines below. 

Cleantech

1. Israel Inaugurates Unique Solar Farm

2. Solar Thermal: Which Technology Is Best?

3. ETV Motors Revs Up $12M

Investments

4. Venture capital investment in Israeli high-tech companies lowest in three years, report

5. Where did all that R&D go?

Information Technology

6. Intel bolsters cooperation with Israeli companies

7. N-Trig launching software to enable more versatile multi-touch displays

8. Start-up Axxana ties disaster recovery gear to EMC software

9. Will XP Mode Be Tough Sell For Small Businesses?

Miscellaneous

10. Israel celebrates 61st Independence Day

11. Can Israeli technology stop swine flu?

12. Plane crash kills high-tech leader

As budgets get tighter and software-as-a-service (SaaS) matures, there is an increasing amount of interest among small and medium-sized businesses and now the eneterprise to use SaaS solutions.

In an article by Kevin White about online project management software that appeared on CBRonline.com earlier this week, White mentions that in addition to companies turning to SaaS solutions for managing projects because of the low price point, another benefit is that SaaS is “inherently collaborative since it allows any user of an application to access information anytime from anywhere.”

The company that he focuses on that is proving this theory right is Israel-based Clarizen. Clarizen, a project management software company, has enjoyed popularity in the past few months because it allows contributors to edit at the same time and for the changes to be visible immediately to anyone involved on the project. In addition it covers all the aspects of managing a project, from assigning tasks to budget tracking.

Clarizen has also received a lot of positive attention as a significantly cheaper alternative to other enterprise collaboration solutions ($25 a month per user vs. $125,000 entry point). Though it currently faces steep competition from other free or low cost solutions such as Google Docs and Basecamp, Clarizen is expected to roll out new enterprise features in the upcoming months that will set it apart.

The most shocking headline from the week of March 8, 2009 was that Delver, the social search engine that was placed on deadpool watch about a month ago was bought by Sears Holding Co. Such purchases could become more common this year as it was also reported during the week that it is expected that Israeli VC funds will face a steep drop in 2009. For these stories and the rest of the 12 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 8, 2009, check below.

Cleantech

1. Israeli company turns traffic into energy source

2. Israeli cleantech cos seek piece of $6b US stimulus pie

3. How to Make Electricity From Wasted Energy

Investments and Partnerships

4. Sears Holdings Corp. acquires Delver.com, an Israel-based social search engine company

5. Content delivery network Cotendo raises $7 million for “next-gen” services

6. Israeli VC funds to face steep drop in ’09

7. C-nario, Vizrt announce strategic digital signage partnership

Information Technology

8. Innovations: What’s in a box?

9. SaaS sneaks by project management’s big barrier

10. ‘Security market is dynamic, any time‘

11. How IBM’s sprucing up its ‘social’ side

Miscellaneous

12. Israel is disproportionately important to Google

The annual South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference kicks off in Austin, Texas tomorrow and will run through Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be at the conference, which celebrates emerging technology, some of the days and will, of course, be paying close attention to any Israeli representation there, specifically by, ooVoo, which will be exhibiting there. 

ooVoo is a video chat and communication service that offers everything from high-resolution video and video conversation recording to telephony and video and instant messaging. The company will be presenting its new API for video application developers at SXSWi.  

In addition to ooVoo, I will be keeping a lookout for Ouriel Ohayon, the VC and former editor of TechCrunch France, who recently launched the Topify application for Twitter with Arik Fraimovich. Topify replaces the current text of the email that Twitter sends out notifying you when someone follows you with an email that includes in addition to the person’s name and Twitter link, their profile information and an option to follow them back directly from within the email. 

Will you be at SXSWi? If so, let’s meet up! Send me an email at lisa@israelinnovation20.com or post it in the comments below.

News from Israel’s cleantech industry during the week of March 1, 2009 showed that it will continue to grow throughout the recession and that substantial progress is starting to be made, such as with Aora receiving a license for its solar thermal plant on Kibbutz Samar. In contrast, IT companies Comverse and SAP Israel announced layoffs this past week, however, several companies, including ComAbility and Kenshoo, raised funds and new partnerships were announced. For more details on these and the rest of the 14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 1, 2009, check below.

Cleantech

1. Cleantech faces wave of growth, not layoffs

2. IQwind a Red Herring Top 100 Global Company

3. Aora Gets License for Solar Thermal Plant

Investments and Economy

4. Comverse to fire hundreds – many in Israel

5. Sequoia Capital leads Second round of financing for AICC Member Kenshoo Ltd.

6. Israeli technology company ComAbility secures a further $4m in venture funding 

7. Onset Technology lands $3M venture round

Information Technology

8. SAP, IBM to Showcase Tech for Cloud Mobility 

9. Ness Technologies Uses WorkLight to Secure Social Media

10. A New Advertising Tool That’s Truly Cool

11. Triond: A Writing Opportunity Worth Investigating

12. Actimize, a NICE Company, Positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Magic Quadrant for Web Fraud Detection

Miscellaneous

13. A tourism crisis hits the Middle East

14. Keeping your mind sharp with Israel’s CogniFit

This week has been filled with news about both more layoffs and funding. While the layoffs are more overwhelming than the investment deals, the most positive news thus far has not been about the investments made but about the investments that might be made in 2009. Globes has reported that the Chinese electronics company, Hisense, is actively looking into R&D possibilities in Israel in 2009. 

Hisense is currently a large domestic consumer electronics manufacturer in China and plans to expand into a global technology company. In an effort to make that happen, the company sent a delegation to Israel last week to look into “acquiring, investing in, and collaborating with, Israeli technology companies.” Companies the delegation met with included Siano Mobile Silicon Ltd., modu Ltd., Discretix Ltd., and Red Bend Software Ltd. 

According to the Globes article, Hisense expects Israeli technology to help the company achieve it’s short- and long-term goals for becoming a global technology force, which include finding technologies to integrate into its products as soon as possible as well as technologies that can improve Hisense’s products after more development.

The week of February 22, 2009, was a fairly quiet one for Israel’s technology and business sectors… but there was still plenty that happened. News about Microsoft’s interests in purchasing 3DV Systems, a motion-sensing company, continued, as did layoff announcements. Tufin Technologies announced the general availability of its SecureChange Workflow software and IT Structures, an on-demand virtual enterprise software evaluation service, demonstrated its technology during VMworld Europe last week. For these stories and more, check out the rest of this week’s 13 Israel-related headlines below. 

Cleantech
1. DOE & Israel Update Energy Cooperation Agreement 

2. Ancient Jordanian wells radioactive, study finds

Investments, Economy and M&A
3. Stormy day for high-tech as layoffs, pay cuts announced 

4. Microsoft Set to Bring 3D Motion Control to Xbox & PC Games

5. Venture capital investments rise in China, India, and Israel 

6. A viable economy

Information Technology
7. Tufin Technologies Announces General Availability of SecureChange(TM) Workflow

8. Red Hat Targets VMware, Microsoft With Virtualization Line (Qumranet)

9. IT Structures Emerges to Take Center Stage at VMworld Europe

Miscellaneous
10. Financial crisis gives universities a chance to reverse brain drain

11. The Mobile Industry Meets Hollywood

12. Israeli ‘Spiderman’ attacks commuters

13. Nanotech activity in Israel jumps 150%

Last week the Internet was abuzz with Microsoft’s intentions to buy Israeli motion and depth sensor company, 3DV Systems. Microsoft’s offer of $35 million is below the $38.6 million invested in the company and seems to come out of desperation on the part of Kleiner Perkins. If the deal goes through, Microsoft will integrate the technology into its Xbox gaming system, making the need for any type of controller unnecessary and posing the biggest threat to Nintendo Wii yet. 

A little over a year ago in January 2008, 3DV stole the spotlight at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with its new release at the time, the ZCam. The camera, which detects motion and depth, was on display for conference attendees to try out and drew a lot of good feedback. After reading about 3DV’s performance and its competitor, another Israeli company, Prime Sense’s presence at CES 2008, I predicted in a post about them that they could take gaming to the next level, including one of them becoming the next big gaming console.

Though that certainly doesn’t look like it will be the case for 3DV as an independent entity, should the deal go through with Microsoft and it is succesfully integrated into the Xbox, it looks like it will take gaming to the next level.  This story will be interesting to watch as it develops and long after.

Disclosure: The following is partially a recap of Twestival Jerusalem ’09, an event that I helped organize.

In a recent post about Green Any Site, I mentioned that Jerusalem took part in a worldwide effort to raise money for Charity: Water in Africa. The event, a Twestival (short for Twitter festival), raised over NIS 2000 in Jerusalem for Charity: Water, which will use this money and the money raised from the over 200 other Twestivals around the world (over $250,000 USD) to build wells that will provide clean water to villages in Africa and India.

As Israel is a leader in water technology and several of the co-organizers’ organizations, including Jewish Climate Initiative, Green Any Site, PresenTense and GreenProphet are connected to cleantech in some way, Twestival Jerusalem took on an additional component of educating attendees on clean technology and water technology from Israel.

Some Israeli water technology companies that stand out when addressing water needs, in Africa and elsewhere, include Desalitech, AqWise and Netafim. Here is what each company is doing:

Desalitech:  Desalitech has created a reverse osmosis water treatment technology that can lower desalinated water prices to a level that will make water affordable to developed and developing areas. It’s desalination technology offers reductions of up to 50% in the installation costs of desalination plants and in desalination energy consumption as well as a reduction in maintanence and operating expenses. It’s surface and ground water reclamation technology is currently bringing clean water to villages in Africa and abroad.

AqWise: Aqwise is an innovator in developing and implementing wastewater treatment technologies that can be used in municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewater treatement plants. Its AGAR^® Process can be used for both organic carbon and nutrient removal. At the heart of the process are little plastic biomass carriers that filter and treat the water in a similar manner to the way rocks filter water.

Netafim: Netafim has been around since 1965 and is one of Israel’s first innovators in the agriculture sector. Aside from greenhouse and bio-energy solutions, it provides irrigation solutions and products that enable customers to get the most from their crops (both in quality and yields) while using as minimal an amount as possible of valuable resources, such as water.

I recently helped co-organize Jerusalem Twestival ’09 which raised money for Charity: Water, an organization that provides villages in Africa with clean water. The Jerusalem event was one of over 180 “twestivals” on the same day worldwide and featured booths with different clean technology and water technology companies and organizations along with musical performances.

One of the organizations at the festival was Green Any Site (GAS). Green Any Site takes advantage of affiliate sales programs, such as the one offered by Amazon.com, by offering a “Green This” bookmarklet that people can add to their browser and click on before adding an item to their shopping cart. After following the directions they can then continue to go about the regular purchasing process. At the end of the month Amazon.com and/or other similar sites send a percentage of each sale made to Green Any Site which then donates all of the proceeds to a charity or charities decided upon by bookmarklet users.

During the festival, Tal Ater, the founder and creator of GAS, showed me how it works. Here is the video: