Project Better Place, telecommunications and speculation about the current state and future of Israel’s hi-tech industry highlight the technology news related to Israel during the week of July 20, 2008. Both the UK and some fuel companies are mulling joining the electric car company, while telecom company, Amimon announced that it will be working with major electronics corporations to establish a WHDI standard for Wireless HDTV connections. Although, news about Israel’s hi-tech industry’s “brain drain,” isn’t new, news about the impact of the strength of the Israeli Shekel vs. the U.S. dollar, the latest crisis are. Companies that created R&D centers in Israel for the benefits of an educated work force that would require less money than their U.S. and Western European equivalents are now freezing their Israeli employees’ incomes and outsourcing to Eastern European countries where it is still cheaper. For more on these stories and the rest of this week’s 23 Israel-related technology headlines, check the list below.

Cleantech
Fuel cos may join Better Place

UK may join Project Better Place

M&A and Investments
New VC fund seeks TV, movie investments

Breach Security raises $6m

Road safety technology co GreenRoad raises $3m

Agro-biotech start-up Kiima raises $8m

Summary of Israeli High-Tech Company Capital Raising Q2 / H1 2008

Information Technology
SISENSE
Upgrades its Business Intelligence Software With a New Release to
Support Analysis and Charting on top of CSV, EXCEL 2007, Access 2007
FILES; Beta Available for Free

Company Uncovered: Commtouch

Reimagining computer repair

Internet/Web 2.0
Google as a start-up?

PredictAd Leverages Israeli Partnerships for Global Growth (Israel Media Tour)

American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Announces First U.S.-Israel Web 2.0 Business Exchange: “Empowering the Connected Enterprise”

Telecommunications
Cellcom markets mobile music

Israeli co to launch cellphone-based people finder

Mobixell pioneers technology for cellphone ads

modu selected by AlwaysOn as the Top Mobile Company of AO Global 250

Electronics Heavyweights Work Together on WHDI Technology

Next-Gen Cellphones To Have Israeli Ring

Miscellaneous
Venture IPO drought worst in 30 years

Israel Turns to Outsourcing as the Shekel Soars

Israel neglects its oil fields

Infrastructures Ministry to launch alternative energy center

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.

Compared to previous weeks, the week of June 8th was lacking a little in the major headlines coming from Israel. Perhaps the biggest story from the past week was Intel’s announcement that it will be closing its Yokne’am R&D center as part of its overall refocus. Most employees will be relocated to the company’s Haifa center instead. Also, recent headlines on the Internet show much skepticism of a mass-produced, main stream electric car in the near future, indirectly (and directly) giving a blow to Project Better Place. Other headlines included Metacafe’s downsizing, Continuity Software offering new features in its disaster recovery and data protection software and 800 members of Israel’s hi-tech community (including yours truly) coming together at Mashable’s MashBash Tel Aviv. Alas, check out these stories and the rest of this week’s 12 Israel-related technology headlines through the links below:

Cleantech
Japanese firms cast doubt on electric car

‘Israeli technology may offer cheap solar power’

Pics: Solar Thermal Demo Plant Rises in Israeli Desert

Israeli expertise to shape global water standards

Information Technology
Yokne’am R&D center victim of Intel’s refocus

Consultancy co Comsec wins information security contract

Business intelligence co HighView completes IAI project

Startup Continuity Software Now Checks Virtualization DR

Miscellaneous
Metacafe downsizes

Israeli company develops radar system that sees through walls

Mobile broadcaster Flixwagon hitches to iPhone

MashBash Tel Aviv – The Official Jewneric.com Report

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.

What newsworthy events came from Israel in May? Enough for a special May headline sum up. The biggest stories of the month, of course, were the Presidential Conference, Project Better Place’s unveiling its electric car prototype and VMware’s acquisition of B-hive Networks. Other exciting news that received less international coverage, but are also noteworthy, included the Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech Conference and that OpTier, a business service management software provider, is currently raising funds to make an acquisition. For these stories and the rest of the major headlines from May 2008 check out the 30 Israel-related technology headlines below:

Israel at 60
Israel Presidential Conference

Yahoo’s Susan Decker: Content is king

Remarks by President Bush, President Peres of Israel and Prime Minister Olmert of Israel

Israel at 60: 10 historic quotes and 1 joke

Google co-founder lauds Israeli innovation in tech, environment

Cleantech
Project Better Place presents electric car prototype

Techwatch: Solel closes second major contract

N-trig and Its Supply Chain Go “Green” to Help Protect the Environment

Information Technology
Shunra Software Announces New Chief Technology Officer as Company Expands Application Performance and Analysis Portfolio

Voltaire and LSI to Cross-Certify InfiniBand Storage Products

Sicap and Red Bend Sign Agreement for Interoperable Device Management

Aternity Named as 2008 American Business Awards Finalist

XMPie Steps Up Web-Enabled Automation with Enhanced uStore

Information Security
Commtouch and Scalix Collaboration Brings Real Time Messaging
Security to Linux-based E-mail Servers

Zones to Resell Applicure Web Application Firewall Technology

Check Point Pushes Virtualized Browser Protection

Info Security Products Guide Names Safend Winner of the 2008 Best
Deployment Scenario Awards

Investments and M&A
Wanaka closes first fund at $50 million

Lightspeed Venture Partners Closes $800 Million Fund VIII

BTM co OpTier raising funds for acquisition

VMware to Acquire B-hive Networks to Further Enhance Virtualization Platform With Application Performance Management

Telecommunications
MobileMax in cellular-to-VoIP deal

modu in talks on handset launch

Israeli company aims to speed up the Internet

Miscellaneous
Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech
Conference 2008 Hits the Road

Touchwall: Microsoft’s Inexpensive Wall-Based Multi-Touch Interface

High Tech Puts Israel in the Black

Israel’s Garage Geeks Gather to Hear Google’s Brin

Aniboom and I-play Partner to Create Animated Series Based on Popular
Casual Games for Distribution Across Mobile, Online and Television
Platforms

Copenda’s New Features Ease Communication
Across Social Networking and Dating Sites

(Picture of me at the 2008 Presidential Conference playing with a modu – one of the world’s smallest cell phones. Thanks Oren for taking this! Get to know Oren and modu better by checking out the modu blog.)

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 May 4, 2008, Israel turned 60 and a few technology companies announced that they will be featured “Enterprises of Tomorrow” during the Israeli Presidential Conference Facing Tomorrow taking place on May 13 to May 15, 2008. The Conference has been organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres and, as the title implies, will focus on the future.

Twenty-seven dignitaries including President Bush and former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, will be on hand for the event, as will several tech luminaries, including Google Co-founder, Sergey Brin; and Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Yossi Vardi, perhaps Israel’s greatest entrepreneur, is the Director of Science and Technology Track for the Conference and will lead one of the panels.

In anticipation for the Conference, which I will be attending on May 15th, this post as well as others to come this week will be in relation to the Conference, Israel’s 60th and technology, and the 60 “Enterprises of Tomorrow.” To get started, here are 10 headlines, mainly from the past week of May 4, 2008, that relate to some of Israel’s “Enterprises of Tomorrow.”

modu at the Presidential Conference

STMicroelectronics and Mobileye Deliver Second-Generation System-on-Chip for Vision-Based Driver Assistance Systems

AqWise Launches the Next Generation Remote N’ Control(TM) Solution for
Total Nitrogen Removal and Introduces Its AGAR® Process at IFAT 2008

Israel Cleantech Ventures closes $75m debut fund

Project Better Place debuts electric car

Comsys Selected as ‘Enterprise of Tomorrow’
to Feature at Israeli Presidential Conference

Updated fring version for iPhone (pre-release v. 0.9785)

Israel startup developing software system to identify terrorists

Camero Launches Handheld “Through-Wall Vision” Product

C-true Imaging – “Your Face is your key”

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.

This past week didn’t see any new Israel-related IBM announcements. It did, however, see questions raised about the real potential of Project Better Place’s electric cars and the release of the latest version of Unisfair’s Virtual Events. Along the way, Red Bend Software raised $10 million and SanDisk announced a new 4-gigabyte USB flash drive that uses user-driven data management company, BeInSync. Check Point and Tel-Aviv University announced their plans to establish a new academic research institute for the study of information security. To find out more about these stories and what the rest of this week’s
17 Israel-related technology headlines are, check out the list
below.

Cleantech
SunHopes – Balloon Based Solar Energy

Who’s Driving the Hydrogen Highway?

Tel Aviv University displays its cleantech potential [VIDEO]

M&A and Investments
Mobile software management provider Red Bend secured $10 million

The Golden Age of Israeli Startups: Mergers and Acquisitions (Part III)

VC survey: Money still flowing to green and biotech

Israel venture capital is nervous about US trends

Web Hosting and Management Services Group, TriZetto, to be Acquired by Apax

Information Technology
A Four-Gigabyte Thumb Drive With Two Safety Nets

Mellanox Announces ConnectX 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN on Motherboard
Design Wins Across Supermicro’s Server
Products

Gizmox widens Microsoft collaboration

Unisfair Releases Version 2.0 of Virtual Events

Check Point and Tel-Aviv University to Establish a New Academic
Research Institute for the Study of Information Security

Miscellaneous
Startup aims to replace NOR flash in mobile devices

SanDisk R&D boss discusses memory card business

Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech
Conference 2008 Hits the Road

PineApp Named ‘Product of the Year’
Finalist for AeA High-Tech Innovation Awards

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.

Can this week’s edition of Israeli technology news top the excitement over the news of IBM’s acquisition of XIV in last week’s edition? Well, let’s see. This past week a ‘green tax’ was presented to the Israeli government and the Israeli companies chosen to participate in the 2008 Israel Web Tour 2.0 were announced. Reports on the employment in Israel’s Hi-Tech sector last year showed that it continues to grow and the trend of Israeli investments in Poland is becoming ever-more common. You can find the links to these stories and this week’s full 20 Israel-related technology headlines below.

Cleantech:
Bar-On presents ‘green tax’ to gov’t

Rosy outlook for green

2007 energy tech VC totals: First look (Project Better Place)

Investments and M&A:
Ampal signs MoU to invest millions of dollars in sugarcane ethanol production

Israeli investors, businesses are flocking to Poland

IBM to more than double Israeli investments

Telecom:
Ericsson to supply mobile TV solution to Cellcom Israel

WiMax Networks Draw International Interest

International:
Will Foreign Stocks Start to Disappoint?

Internet to outperform broader market in 2008: Piper Jaffray, Needham

Israel Web Tour 2.0 – The Companies

Storage Projects Rise in Importance

Information Technology:
RIT Technologies to Demonstrate Full Suite of Intelligent Infrastructure Management & Structured Cabling Solutions at BICSI 2008

Spam at 96 percent peak level of all email, Commtouch announces

LIVE BLOGGING – IDC Press Conference Media and IT Trends 2007 – 2008

Miscellaneous:
Israeli expert in P2P Oversi wins important contract with True Internet

Interview with Pointer Telocation’s Chairman

Silicon Wadi 2.0

Israel: Tech Workers Wanted

The eyes in the sky are a boon to sports fans

News
Last week, Gemini Israel Funds made the news as one of several investors who contributed to the new Israeli solar-energy start up that raised $9 million in funding, XJet, Ltd (see my post). For Gemini Israel Funds, the investment marks the second cleantech start up that it has added to its portfolio since August and signifies a new importance the company is putting on the future of cleantech.

Company Overview

Gemini Israel Funds was the first Israeli VC fund to be established from the Israeli government’s Yozma program in 1993 after Israel high-tech and VC pioneer, Ed Mlavsky, agreed to manage the fund. According to Gemini’s website, over the years, Gemini has focused on seed and early fund investments in areas of Communications such as Wireless Technologies, Enterprise Software, Internet, Consumer Electronics and Semiconductors, investing in companies such as RADLive, WeFi, Inc, IXI Mobile Inc, Adap.TV, Triana Inc, and OpTier Inc. Gemini has offices in Israel and Silicon Valley and manages funds totaling $550 million.

Analysis: Sun only beginning to shine on investing in Israel’s cleantech sector

While cleantech still isn’t a top priority for Gemini (it currently only has two cleantech companies in its portfolio), its recent cleantech investments have placed Gemini as a serious leader in cleantech venture capital community in Israel — an area that is picking up steam with the coverage that companies such as XJet, Ltd and Project Better Place have been getting lately and the latest news that Al Gore has become a partner in the VC firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byerswill (KPCB) and will help the company find and invest in start-ups globally (including Israel).

Despite any potential future interest by KPCB, as more Israeli and international VC firms become active in Israel cleantech in the future, Gemini is poised to be little affected given its approach and its founding partner and Chairman, Ed Mlavsky.

According to a company self-description, “Gemini’s key contributions include an ability to make daring investment decisions and the capability to utilize past operational experience in assisting portfolio companies.” The firm’s willingness and ability to make “daring investment decisions,” is a direct influence of Mlavsky.

Since his days at Tyco in the 1960s, Mlavsky has always embraced new technologies and has taken risks with them. While at Tyco (which he co-founded) he initiated the development and commercialization of a “novel photovoltaic technology” that he later oversaw as Executive Vice President of joint-venture Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation. Risks such as that led Tyco to become the $40 billion company that it is today (and Gemini to have $550 million in funds). As such, it can be assumed that his attitude is what has sparked Gemini’s early entrance into cleantech. Additionally, his experience (and solar-energy expertise) fulfills Gemini’s “capability to utilize past operational experience in assisting portfolio companies” in cleantech, which, presumably, also gives the company a bit of a one up in the experience department over other Israeli VC firms entering cleantech.

However, although the cleantech industry is poised for great success, it is still a fledgling area and requires many obstacles to be lifted before any company will become a major global player and give Gemini and other VC firms the returns that they expect. Analysts predict that since this is a new area, big payoffs and mature cleantech startups aren’t likely for several years.

This may take even longer as it is very unlikely that in the near future any cleantech start-up will be able to expand its market-share significantly in major markets such as the United States and China due to a lack of government incentives and payoffs in the former, and lax regulations in the latter. As both governments become increasingly pressured to make these changes, though, and even more opportunities open up, Gemini’s business acumen should ensure that its cleantech companies will meet its expectations and eventually provide it with a nice ROI.

Additional Resources
Adap.tv
Overview of Gemini
Opportunities in Television
OpTier

Company Blogs
Ed Mlavsky: GOLB
Tali Aben
Daniel Cohen
Sagi Rubin
Ouriel Ohayon

The latest Israeli start-up to enter the cleatntech boom is XJet Ltd. The Globes is reporting that the company, currently operating in stealth mode, has raised $9 million from Gemini Israel Funds, Swiss investment fund Good Energies, Taiwanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer Spirox and private investors. The company will focus on solar cell cost efficiency to help reduce costs and improve production.

It will be interesting to see which companies XJet, Ltd, will work with, specifically how many of them will be Israeli companies and how many projects will be done in Israel. While Israel still has a high dependency on fossil fuels for energy, a day when Israel is no longer reliant on it seems more conceivable lately with solar advancements such as this, Shai Agassi’s Project Better Place and other recent cleantech advancements.

What are some economic benefits of using solar energy in Israel? According to an article on RenewableEnergyAccess.com a Greenpeace report presented to Israel’s Ministry of Infrastructure in 2005 estimated that solar power stations in Israel could provide:
- a profit of NIS 810 million annually
- 5,000 new jobs
- and, solidify Israel’s position as a world leader in the export of renewable technology to help combat climate change.