October 23rd 2018 — Israel America Tech List
Tuesday Tech Update
It’s Autumn! Israel is celebrating daylight savings time this Sunday, the US is a week behind. Keep that in mind for your scheduled calls next week. We’ve got health tech, investments, and a ton of deal news.
But first, watch the kickstarter video from Silo, an Israeli company with a device for your kitchen that keeps your food fresh and connects with Alexa to keep track of it. Pretty cool concept if they can deliver. They hit their $80k goal in 24 hours and have raised almost $400k on the site.
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Stay In the Know
A Jolt for Career Health: An Israeli startup called Jolt with an interesting model has raised money (see below) to expand to the UK to build training centers there. They use a ‘fitness room” model where subscribing to their service gives access to their lessons. They call it a ‘school for your career’ and you basically go to a room with other people and receive a lesson from an expert via video. Seems like it’s taking the online education model and trying to bring it into the real world, all except for the teachers. Unclear if it is a pre-recorded lesson or live. My suspicion is the former. Courses on their website include topics such as negotiation, Instagram marketing, and how to choose a co-founder. Seems that much of the benefits they’re touting come from the connections created with the other students in the “Jolt Room”. Kind of like an Eat With except without the high-quality meal. Would you pay for this?
Accelerating Health: Sanara Ventures, an Israel-based healthcare-focused accelerator and incubator backed by Teva Pharmaceutical and the healthcare business of Philips has announced a $2 million startup competition.Two winning Israel-based companies will be chosen from among the early stage applicants, one in the domain of medical devices and one in the domain of digital health and health IT. They will receive a $1 million Seed investment each, and office space. Applications opened on October 10 and close on November 9. I would link you to the application portal but I can’t for the life of me figure out where it is. Good job Sanara! Source
Investing in Health…Insurance: Eos Venture Partners, a UK/US venture fund, is expanding to Israel and plans to invest tens of millions of dollars out of their $100 million fund in early-stage insurtech startups. They hired an Israel-based investment partner, and seem to tend to lead in both seed and series A rounds. Here’s their website and the partner in Israel is Osnat Segev-Harel. Source
In Other News
Preventative Predictive Health: Clew, an Israeli company with an analytics platform for predicting life-threatening complications in intensive care, is currently in the final stages of raising $20 million and has signed an agreement with Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Clew was founded by CEO Gal Salomon, a former partner at Pitango Venture Capital. Companies typicall make this sort of announcement in order to attract the rest of the financing they need, so any investors on the Israel America Tech List looking for a deal in this space should get in touch. Here’s their website. Job of the Week Sisense, an Israeli company that just raised $80 million last month, is hiring 50 employees for its UK office. They have a business analytics software making it easier to reveal business insights from complex data sources. They have sizable client growth in the UK with clients such as Flight Centre, SDL, Motorola UK, and Rolls Royce Digital. They have dozens of other job openings in Israel and New York. Check their careers page and LinkedIn and message me for UK opportunities should it be of interest.
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
Cognata, an Israeli autonomous simulation startup, raised $18.5 million. Scale Venture Partners led, and was joined by Global IoT Technology Ventures and return backers Emerge, Maniv Mobility and Airbus Ventures. Axios
VayaVision, an Israeli provider of raw data fusion and perception systems for autonomous vehicles, raised $8 million in seed funding from Viola Ventures, Mizmaa Ventures, OurCrowd, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and LG Electronics. www.vayavision.com via Axios
Gamida Cell, an Israel-based developer of stem cell therapy products, set IPO terms to 3.6 million shares at $13-$15. It would have a fully-diluted market value of $300 million, were it to price in the middle, and plans to trade on the Nasdaq (GMDA) with BMO as lead underwriter. Shareholders include Novartis (21.6% stake), Clal Biotechnology Industries (18.6%), Shavit Capital (12.9%), Israel HealthCare Ventures (11.8%) and VMS Investment Group. www.gamida-cell.com via Axios
Therapix Biosciences, an Israel-based developer of cannabis-based drugs is being acquired by Canadian company FSD Pharma. The acquisition price is $48 million in FSD Pharma shares, a premium of 211% on Therapix Biosciences’ share price. FSD Pharma is traded on the OTC market in New York and on the alternative Canadian stock exchange CSE. Globes
LogicBio Therapeutics, an Israeli-US company developing genetic treatments for rare diseases, raised $70 million in its IPO on Nasdaq. The company will trade under the symbol LOGC and ended its first day of trading with a market cap of around $238 million. Globes
Temasek is acquiring Israeli cybersecurity startup Sygnia. No financial details were disclosed but sources close to the deal say it is for about $250 million. Tel Aviv-based Sygnia provides high-end consulting and incident response support for organizations worldwide. Globes
Workiz, an Israeli field service market platform developer, has raised a $2 million seed financing round by Aleph VC. Globes
FundGuard, an Israeli cloud-based investment funds company, has raised a $4 million financing round led by Blumberg Capital and LionBird. Globes
WhiteSource, an Israeli open source security management company has announced a $35 million financing round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation by existing investors 83North and M12 — Microsoft Ventures. Globes
Equinom, an Israeli plant-based protein company, has raised $4 million in a financing round from Roquette and Fortissimo Capital. Globes
IntraPosition, an Israeli startup bringing indoor geo-location technology to retailers, has closed a $1.5 million financing round led by Terra VP together with European angel investors, managed by Champel Capital. Globes
Jolt, an Israeli high-tech training company, has raised a $7 million Series A led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from Pico Partners and previous investor Hillsven Capital. Globes
Kindite, an Israeli cloud security company, has raised $4 million in a seed round led by RDC, with the participation of CE Ventures. Globes
Trisol Medical, an Israeli company developing an innovative heart valve implanted by catheterization, has completed a $2.7 million financing round from US, Israeli, and Chinese investors. Globes
Valid Network, an Israeli blockchain cybersecurity startup has raised $2 million in a seed round led by investment firm Jerusalem Venture Partner. Calcalist
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