October 9th 2018 — Israel America Tech List
Lots of activity happening as we rocket into the fourth quarter of 2018. Tons of deal news and an exciting job section, which has inspired me to point out something that might help any readers here looking for a tech company gig. Any time that you read here or elsewhere that a company has raised a new round of financing, it’s more than likely that that money is destined for hiring more people. It’s a good bet that any company you read below that has raised money is likely looking to hire, so keep this in mind as you continue to pursue your next opportunity.
But first, a video of a piece of art at Sothebys by the infamous Banksy which had a built in self-destructing shredding contraption and engaged right after the auction sale was completed. This is the type of genius ‘against-the-grain’ thinking that I love and that I believe is critical to an entrepreneurial spirit. Enjoy the silence of the stunned onlookers.
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Stay In the Know
Inventing the Future: Times 2018 collection of 50 companies “inventing the future” includes two Israeli companies, Lishtot and Aidoc. Lishtot is my ‘alma mater’ so to speak, as I spent more than a year and a half helping them with sales and business development. Great to see them thriving. Lishtot makes a patented consumer electronic device for detecting contaminants in your drinking water. Aidoc uses artificial intelligence to flag urgent issues in radiology scans even before the patient has left the CT machine. Click here to see the full list.
Keep an Eye Out: Gamida Cell, a maker of cell and immune therapy technologies, is seeking to raise some $69 million in a Nasdaq share offering to help finance a final-stage trial for a drug it hopes will help increase the success of bone marrow transplants in blood cancer patients. In a draft prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nasdaq exchange, the company said it is seeking to raise $69 million in an initial public offering of ordinary shares on the Nasdaq. Terms of the pricing of shares were not disclosed. Source
Mapping Digital Health: Vertex Ventures released this useful map of digital health startups in Israel. This is definitely a fantastic resource for anyone interested in connecting with / working at one of these groups.
In Other News
Chugging Along: Israeli startups raised nearly $500 million in September, according to press releases issued by companies that have completed financing rounds. The figure may be more as some companies prefer not to publicize the investments they have received. This sum can be added to the more than $3.1 billion that Israeli startups raised in the first half of 2018, according to IVC-ZAG. The country’s startups also raised an estimated $650 million in July and $300 million in August, bringing the amount raised by startups in the first nine months of 2018 to over $4.5 billion, well on course to beat last year’s record of $5.24 billion, according to IVC-ZAG. SourceJob of the Week Take a look below at tech deals and you’ll see that JFrog, the Netanya-based dev ops company, has raised $165 million. This is largely to hire 150 people in the next year.
JFrog transforms the way software is updated by offering an end-to-end, universal, highly-available software release platform for storing, securing, monitoring and distributing binaries for all technologies, including Docker, Go, Helm, Maven, npm, Nuget, PyPi, and more. This enables a continuous software release flow from code to production with zero downtime.
There are literally dozens of open positions in cities across the world including in Israel, California, Japan and France with likely many more to come. Check out the careers page and message me for intros.
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
Perforce, a Minneapolis-based portfolio company of Clearlake Capital, agreed to buy Perfecto, a Burlington, Mass.-based provider of automated mobile and web application test software. Perfecto had raised around $90 million from firms like TCV, FTV Capital, Carmel Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Vertex Venture Israel. www.perforce.com via Axios
Glassbox, an Israeli customer experience analytics platform, raised $25 million. Updata Partners led, and was joined by Ibex Investors and Gefen Capital. Axios
Perforce, a US software company, has acquired Israeli software quality assurance and testing company Perfecto for $200 million. Founded in 2006, Perfecto is a cloud-platform for DevOps teams to achieve continuous testing and accelerate delivery of web, mobile & IoT apps. The company has raised $90 million. Globes
PureSec, an Israeli serverless security company, announced the completion of a $7 million series A financing round led by Square Peg Capital and with participation from existing investors including TLV Partners and Entrée Capital. Square Peg Capital’s Dan Krasnostein will join PureSec’s board of directors. Globes
JFrog, an Israeli DevOps technology developer, has announced a $165 million Series D financing round led by Insight Venture Partners and with the participation of new investors Spark Capital and Geodesic Capital, as well as existing investors including Battery Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital and Vintage Investment Partners. Globes
Hysolate, an Israeli cybersecurity company, has closed $18 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Innovation Endeavors, and including NGP Capital. Amit Karp, partner at Bessemer Ventures, and Harpinder Singh, partner at Innovation Endeavors, have joined the company’s board. Globes
HEED Technology, an Israeli sports AI platform, announced a $35 million financing round led by SoftBank Group International. Globes
CTERA Networks, an Israeli secure enterprise file services company, has raised $30 million in a Series D financing round led by Red Dot Capital Partners, a Temasek Holdings backed growth fund, with the support of new investor Singtel Innov8 and with the participation of all existing shareholders: Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco, Venrock, Vintage Investment Partners and Viola Group. Globes
Papaya Global an Israeli payroll management startup announced the completion of a $3 million funding round led by New Era Ventures. Venture capitalist Sir Ronald Cohen also participated in the round. Calcalist
KZen Networks, an Israeli crypto wallet startup, has raised $4 million seed funding round led by investment banking firm Benson Oak, with participation from Elron Ventures, the investment arm of Tel Aviv-based Elron Electronic Industries, Samsung NEXT, the investment arm of Samsung, and New York-based investment firm FJ Labs. Calcalist
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