Israel High Tech Scene Week In Review Mar 28 – Apr 3
Tel Aviv at sunset, Israel
New Startups
Israeli Startup Offers Cloud Based Customer Knowledge Platforms (JBN)
The company just raised $52 million in new funding. Zoomin Software offers companies a platform through which they can organize all of their information into one place. This makes it easier for their customers to access all the pertinent information which they most need from tech manuals to general data. The company has raised $52 million in a Series C round led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, with participation from returning investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and Viola Growth.
ClimaCell Weather Intelligence Co Rebrands As Tomorrow.Io (JBN)
And the company is going into space. Israel’s startup ClimaCell, which offers the world’s only weather intelligence platform, is changing its name from ClimaCell to Tomorrow.io. The company has also announced raising $77 million in a new funding round led by Stonecourt Capital and joined by Highline Capital. This brings its funding raised to date to more than $185 million.
Israeli Fintech Startup Capitolis Offers SaaS Platform (JBN)
The company just raised $90 million. Capitolis, an Israeli Fintech firm, offers a software as a service (SaaS) platform that drives financial resource optimization for capital markets. The company just closed a $90 million Series C funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (“a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backs transformational companies and bold entrepreneurs disrupting their industries with next-generation technology. The company has raised $170 million to date.
Israel’s Airwayz Uses AI-Based Systems For Drone Flights (JBN)
The company participated in drone delivery flight tests held in Hadera. Airwayz, an Israeli startup, offers software-based AI that allows any drone of any type to be part of an autonomous drone fleet and perform multiple tasks in a variety of fields. Just connect your drones to Airwayz, boasts the company, and you can start managing them smartly and effectively.
Israeli Startup Spiral Offers New Banking App For Charitable Donations
Spiral, a new Israeli fintech startup, will offer the offer a new form of banking app with a twist: the Spiral app will be for making charitable donations. The company has raised $14 million in a funding round led by Team8.
Audioburst Platform Brings Podcasts To Any App (JBN)
Israeli startup Audioburst offers an audio search and delivery platform. The company has now launched its Platform for Apps, the world’s first podcast feed for mobile apps. The app provides recurring revenue for the thousands of app developers looking to increase app monetization, while also offering consumers personalized, up-to-the-minute audio content within their favorite apps.
Rivery raises $16 million series A to expand SaaS DataOps platform
The Israeli startup is the latest company to ride the shift to the cloud and plans to use the money to scale its solution, including data ingestion, orchestration, and transformation capabilities.
Israel’s Aura Air presents its air purification technology to 10 African ambassadors (Calcalist)
The presentation took place during a meetup focused on Covid-19 battling methods. Israeli indoor-air management system company Aura Air presented 10 ambassadors of African countries with its indoor air purification and disinfection systems that fight bacteria and viruses, among them Covid-19. The presentation took place in a meetup hosted by Aura Air that focused on methods that can be implemented to tackle the spread of the virus which has raged across the world for more than a year.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Israel’s Applitools Acquired By Thoma Bravo For $300 Million (JBN)
Applitools boasts that it delivers a “Next Generation Test Automation Platform.” Applitools, an Israeli firm which provides visual test automation software, has been acquired by Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sector. While the price was not disclosed, Globes reports that people close to the deal revealed that tit was $300 million.
Elbit Systems Acquires BAE Systems Rokar For $31 Million (JBN)
Elbit has also made deals with German police. Israel’s Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT and TASE: ESLT) (“Elbit Systems”) ha acquired BAE Systems Rokar International Ltd. (“Rokar”) from BAE Systems, Inc., the U.S. headquartered subsidiary of BAE Systems plc (LON: BA) for approximately $31 million net of any cash in Rokar. Located in Jerusalem, Israel, Rokar specializes in the development, manufacture, integration, and support of high-end GPS receivers and guidance systems for advanced defense applications.
IPO Talk and Unicorns
Next Insurance Hits $4 Billion Valuation (JBN)
It only recently acquired another insurance company. Israel’s Next Insurance, a digital insurtech company in the field of small business insurance, has reached a valuation of $4 billion. This makes Next Insurance Israel’s biggest unicorn, by far. The company hit this milestone after bringing in $250 million in a new funding round led by FinTLV Ventures and Battery Ventures with participation from CapitalG, Group 11, Zeev Ventures, Founders Circle and G Squared.
Kaltura Delays IPO Over Low Demand (JBN)
Could this be an ominous sign for other planned IPOs? Israeli Video Startup Kaltura expected to make a whopping splash in the market with a $2 billion NASDAQ IPO. Well not anymore. The company has been forced to suspend its plans for an IPO, according to multiple reports, due to what is being called low interest in its stock offering, at least at its asking price. But why is this the case? How could a company like Kaltura have gotten it so wrong having only recently doubled its IPO expectations?
Investments
Investors drawn to Israeli housing by more than tax cut (Globes)
For the first time since 2016, more investors are buying than selling Israeli homes, and not only because of lower purchase tax. Israel’s real estate market has moved up a gear.
US VC Merlin Ventures forms Israeli cyber fund (Globes)
Merlin TLV, managed by Shay Michels, plans to invest $50 million in Israeli cybersecurity companies over 3-4 years. US venture capital firm Merlin Ventures has set up a dedicated fund for investment in Israel called Merlin TLV, “Globes” has learned. The new fund will invest $50 million in Israeli cybersecurity startups over the next 3-4 years.
Israeli startups raised record $2.8b in March (Globes)
In a stunning month for startup capital raising, Israeli tech startups doubled the record set in January. Israeli startups raised a record $2.8 billion in March 2021, according to press releases from the companies and their investors. The figure may be more as some companies prefer to remain in stealth and sometimes do not publicize the investments they have received. The stunning figure for startup capital raising in March nearly doubled the previous monthly record of $1.44 billion, set in January.
Read more about: Airwayz, AudioBurst, Elbit systems, high tech, KALTURA, Next Insurance, Tomorrow.io
