Israel Tech Startups and Innovations: Weekly Roundup October 26 – November 1, 2024
New Startups / VC Funding
Israeli Startup Vensica Medical Launches Needle-Free Bladder Treatment Device for Overactive Bladder Patients
Vensica Medical is an Israeli medtech startup that offers a type of needle-free tech to inject meds into a person’s bladder for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB). The firm raised $11 million in funding led by Israel Biotech Fund (IBF).
The investment will fund the company’s upcoming Phase 2 clinical trials across the United States and Europe for its treatment of… Read More Here
Israel’s Verax AI Launches Enterprise Platform for Production AI Monitoring and Management
Israel’s Verax AI LVerax AI is an Israeli startup and a developer of enterprise-grade software solutions that provide visibility and control of AI in production. The firm raised $7.6 million in seed funding led by TQ Ventures with participation from Concept Ventures, Cardumen Capital, Seedcamp, InMotion Ventures, and XTX Ventures.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized various industries, leading to the development of numerous innovative products. ChatGPT and aunches Enterprise Platform for Production AI Monitoring and Management… Read More Here
DoorLoop Raises Funding at $500M Valuation: Israeli Property Management Software Startup Gains Momentum
DoorLoop is an Israeli startup that offers a property management platform. According to Calcalist, the firm hit a $500 million valuation after raising $100 million in a Series B round of investment from the American investment fund JMI Equity. DoorLoop has now raised a total of $130 million.
Founded in 2019 by CEO Ori Tamuz, CMO David Bitton, and CTO Itay Gardi, DoorLoop is a property management software… Read More Here
Noma Launches AI Security Platform to Protect Enterprise Machine Learning Data Pipeline
New Israeli startup Noma launched its application security platform for securing the entire Data and AI Lifecycle. The company raised $32 million in a Series A round of funding led by Ballistic Ventures, less than a year after a previously undisclosed seed round led by Glilot Capital Partners.
“The Data & AI Lifecycle is significantly different from the software development lifecycle. It comes with a whole new supply chain, as well as unique open source components and runtime artifacts that traditional… Read More Here
Israeli AI Research Platform Decart Launches to Accelerate Enterprise Machine Learning Development
Israeli startup Decart offers an efficiency-focused AI research lab. The firm came out of stealth with a $21 million Seed Round of funding led by Sequoia Capital and the release of its Oasis platform.
Decart says Oasis is the first playable, real-time, open-world AI model — it’s an interactive video game, but generated end-to-end by a transformer on a frame-by-frame basis. Oasis takes in user keyboard… Read More Here
Israeli Startup MIND Launches AI-Powered Data Loss Prevention Platform to Revolutionize Enterprise Data Security
MIND, a new Israeli startup that just came out of stealth, calls itself the upcoming leader in data loss prevention (DLP), and boasts a breakthrough platform to enable organizations to protect their most sensitive data. MIND raised $11 million in seed round funding led by YL Ventures with participation from… Read More Here
Zenity: AI-Powered Security Platform Protects No-Code/Low-Code Development
Zenity is an Israeli cybersecurity startup that developed a platform for securing low-code/no-code development and uses AI copilot systems. The firm raised $38 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Third Point Ventures and DTCP, pushing the total capital the company has raised to over $55 million to date. It follows the recent strategic investment by Microsoft’s venture arm M12, with strong support from existing investors Intel Capital…Read More Here
Politics
US Military Aid to Israel Hits Record $22 Billion Since Gaza War, Brown Study Finds
According to Brown University’s Watson Institute, U.S. military support to Israel has exceeded $22 billion since October 2023, covering weapons, equipment, and naval deployments. As the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, Israel has special permission to spend these funds on its own defense industry – a privilege unique among aid recipients.
U.S. military support for Israel and related regional operations… Read More Here
IDF Suspends New Recruit Call-Up Following Israeli Strike on Iran
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) canceled the call-up of new recruits scheduled for today, Sunday, because of security concerns. The IDF’s Meitav Unit, which is responsible for handling the induction of new recruits, said that due to a “security situation assessment,” it decided to delay the call-ups of the new recruits. However, no reason was given for the delay.
The decision to delay the new call… Read More Here
Israel conducted a 3-hour, 3-wave attack on Iran with 100 Fighter Jets flying 3,200 miles
Around 2:00 AM tonight, six explosions were heard in Iran’s capital city, Tehran and Raj. Half an hour later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that they were “accurately attacking military targets in Iran.” According to foreign reports, the Air Force attacked about 20 targets, including air defense systems, missile and UAV production facilities, and launch sites.
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and… Read More Here
IPOs and Unicorns
Israeli Cybersecurity Unicorn Armis Reaches $4.2 Billion Valuation After Latest Funding Round
Armis, an Israeli cyber exposure management and security company and a unicorn, just hit a $4.2 billion valuation. The new valuation came after the firm raised $200 million in a Series D round of investment led by top-tier investors General Catalyst and Alkeon Capital, along with existing investors Brookfield Technology Partners and… Read More Here
Melio Valuation Drops to $2 Billion: Israeli Fintech Unicorn’s Worth Cut 50%
Melio is an Israeli fintech unicorn that just saw its valuation cut in half, from $4 billion to $2 billion. The drop in valuation came after Melio raised $150 million in a Series E funding round led by strategic US investor Fiserv.
Less than one year ago, Melio was considered for acquisition by software services provider Bill Holdings for $1.95 billion in a cash-and-stock deal. The firm’s drop in value was related to the worldwide financial crunch that… Read More Here
Science/Culture
Tel Aviv Scientists Discover New Cancer-Fighting Mechanism That Destroys Treatment-Resistant Tumors – by Coincidence
In what they say was a discovery by coincidence, Tel Aviv University researchers uncovered a critical cancer evasion strategy, enabling the immune system to be harnessed against previously resistant tumors. The breakthrough was led by Prof. Carmit Levy, Prof. Yaron Carmi, and PhD student Avishai Maliah from TAU’s Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences. The paper was published in the… Read More Here
PTSD in Families: Research Shows Link Between Parent-Child Trauma and Maternal Regulation, BGU Study Finds
A research group led by Prof. Naama Atzaba-Poria, head of the Duet Center at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, examined the connection between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in parents and children and the mother’s regulatory function. A successful regulatory function is characterized by the ability to delay reactions and reorganize according to a changing reality. For example, if a child startles in a panic because of a loud noise from a passing plane, and the mother notices and explains the cause to the child… Read More Here
Ancient Urban Settlement Discovered in Israel: Archaeologists Uncover 7,000-Year-Old City Origins
A significant archaeological site, uncovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in preparation for the expansion of Jerusalem’s western industrial zone, is shedding light on the Judean Lowlands’ Early Bronze Age settlement network. The site, dubbed “Brosh” (Cypress Tree), is being developed by the Shamir Engineering Group and the Bet Shemesh Economic Development Company.
Near Beit Shemesh a public building… Read More Here
Other Business Stories
US Marines Test Iron Dome: First Live-Fire Exercise With Israeli Air Defense System
The U.S. Marines completed their first live-fire training with an air defense system integrating Israel’s Iron Dome Interceptor. The system is based on an American radar and command-and-control center, combined with the Iron Dome (Tamir) interceptor and a mobile launcher developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon as a… Read More Here
Israel’s Iron Beam Laser Defense System Secures $500M Contract: New Air Defense Technology
The Israel Ministry of Defense signed a landmark deal worth over $500 million to expand serial production of Israel’s first domestically developed laser interception system, the Iron Beam, with lead developers Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems.
Iron Beam is a ground-based high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets… Read More Here
Palantir CEO Alex Karp Faces Nordic Investment Loss After Israel Stance
Storebrand Asset Management, a leading asset manager in the Nordic region, sold its holdings in Palantir Technologies, a data mining software firm that was co-founded by Alex Karp, over his support for Israel. Storebrand said in a statement that the firm “excluded Palantir Technologies Inc. from our investments due (to) its sales of products and services to Israel for use in occupied Palestinian territories.”
Palantir Technologies’ software lets our… Read More Here
