August 28th 2018 — Israel America Tech List
I left Israel to escape the August heat….but somehow it’s 95 (35) degrees in Philly. Either way it’s a perfect day for the Israel America Tech List. We’ve got mapping Israeli startups in NYC, crowdfunding weed businesses, and lots of job opportunities this week.
But first, an ode to the great Jewish playwright, Neil Simon, who passed away this week. His play ‘Brighton Beach Memoirs’ was one of my favorites — about an adolescent teen growing up in a Jewish home in Brooklyn. Here’s a clip from the movie based on the play.
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Guy Franklin, the GM of Sosa’s NYC co-working space, founded something called Israeli Mapped in NY. Not sure what founded means here or what this initiative does, but it seems useful to anyone looking to connect with Israeli startups that have set up shop in the big apple. So far on his map are 317 startups, 7 investors, 3 co-working spaces (Sosa included), and 4 accelerators. He definitely missed a few investors but it’s a good start. See the map here.
Innocan, a startup making medicines treating skin diseases using cannabis, raised $800,000 via 500 investors(!) on the Pipebiz crowdfunding platform. This new method entitled “offering coordinator”, was introduced late 2017 by the Israel Securities Authority. Before, investors had to be qualified investors with ~ $2 million in liquid assets or annual income of ~$350,000. Also there was a maximum of 35 investors allowed in the transaction. Now these rules have been lifted. The minimum investment is ~$300 and there is no maximum number of investors or any required qualifications. Only rule is it must be coordinated through an authorized crowdfunding platform. Source
Frankly, this is pretty wild. Feels a lot like going (micro-)public without any restrictions or filing requirements. Seems like an exciting avenue for startups to raise cash, especially for consumer-focused startups that might benefit from the exposure to dozens of everyday stakeholders. Hopefully this doesn’t get polluted, possibly by those who extorted people around the world in the recently diminshed Binary Options heyday stemming from Israel. Only time will tell…
Opportunities
Alpha Tau Medical, an Israeli oncology company in the “clinical stage”that uses an alpha radiation technique called Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy, has not-so-quietly leaked that it is closing an investment of “tens-of-millions of dollars”. They’ve raised $25 million to date, were founded by two Tel Aviv University professors, and have announced they’ve been approved by the Massachusetts Radiation Control Program. Source
This smells like a not-so-subtle effort to round out some remaining financing on an investment raise. If it’s to raise an anchor investor, it might be considered ill-advised but if putting the finishing touches on something that’s already mostly subscribed, well we’ve seen worse. Could be a good opportunity for all of the life-sciences investors reading this to possibly get a bargain or in on something about to close. Email me to connect to them.
Tiptali Solutions, a payment automation startup with clients such as Amazon, GoDaddy, and Twitter, says it will double its engineering and R&D workforce in Israel from 50 to 100 in the next 18 months. They raised a $30 million Series C in February. They also have a ton of positions open in the US mostly related to sales and business development. Take a look at their careers page and feel free to ask me for an intro. SourceJob of the Week ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based blockchain venture studio, with a $50 million fund created to back companies developing applications on Ethereum and founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, is expanding its presence to Israel and is looking to hire a few key early positions including a community manager, a technical trainer, and a consultant and business development lead. They will definitely be hiring more and they have a general application that is a good way to get a foot in the door as well. That said, I know someone involved in this expansion initiative and would be happy to refer directly. Send me an email.
If you have a job or other opportunity of some kind, let me know and I will happily include it in future emails!Tech Deals
Petrofac (LSE: PFC) agreed to sell its 20% stake in the North Sea’s Greater Stella Area assets to Ithaca Energy, owned by Israel-listed Delek Group, for upwards of $292 million. Axios
ColorChip, an Israeli company supplying high bandwidth electro-optic components for data centers, is to be acquired by an Sanan Optoelectronics, a Shanghai-listed LED and radio chip component producer, for $300 million. Globes & Calcalist
InnoCan Pharma, an Israeli startup developing cannabis-based drugs for treating skin diseases, announced the completion of a NIS 3 million ($800,000) crowd-financing round. Globes
Game of Whales, a Tel Aviv-based gaming monetization startup, has acquired Hong Kong-based app performance monitoring company Appstatics. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Calcalist
Naver Corporation, the Korean search engine compnay, is investing an undisclosed amount into PlaySight Interactive, a developer of smart-court technology enabling players and coaches to use multi-angle video and analytics to improve on-court performance. Calcalist
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