December 2018 didn’t see any mega investments for Israeli companies but over the course of the year Israeli tech companies raised a total of $6.47 billion across 623 funding deals, report Tel Aviv-based IVC Research Center and Israeli law firm Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer and Sullivan & Worcester. This is the highest sum raised in the past six years, according to the report.
Here we bring news of nearly 30 funding rounds reported during the month of December.
Optibus of Tel Aviv completed a $40 million funding round led by Insight Venture Partners, with the participation of Alibaba Group Holding as a strategic investor. Optibus makes software for fleet management and optimization in the public transit sector.
Chorus.ai raised $33 million in a Series B round led by Georgian Partners of Toronto. Chorus operates a conversation intelligence platform for sales teams, and has offices in Tel Aviv, San Francisco and Boston.
OpenLegacy raised $30 million from Silverhorn Investment Advisors, CommerzVentures, the VC unit of Commerzbank; C. Entrepreneurs, the VC created by BNP Paribas Cardif with Cathay Innovation; Leumi Partners; O.G. Tech Ventures; Prytek-GFS Group; and RDC (a joint venture between Elron and Rafael). OpenLegacy software automatically lets companies create digital services on top of older systems.
WhiteSwell of Shefayim and Palo Alto raised a $30 million Series B round from RA Capital Management and an InCube Ventures syndicate. The medical device maker is developing a minimally invasive catheter system for draining excess fluids from the lungs and other organs.
Cloud security startup Avanan raised $25 million in Series B funding from StageOne Ventures, Magma Venture Partners and Greenfield Partners. Avanan is headquartered in New York with an R&D center in Tel Aviv.
Sight Diagnostics raised $28 million from the issuance of private preferred stock. Sight uses AI to upgrade and hasten the procedure for complete blood count (CBC) test results right in the doctor’s office. Its malaria detection system is already in use on three continents.
K Health of Tel Aviv and New York raised $25 million in Series B funding from Mangrove Capital Partners and Comcast Ventures. K Health has built a personalized health information platform leveraging AI-driven health data accumulated in Israel over two decades.
QualiSystems completed a $22.5 million Series C round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) with participation from Dell Ventures, Kreos Capital, Evergreen Ventures, Gemini Israel Ventures, and ORR Partners. QualiSystems provides cloud automation solutions for information technology infrastructure. It has offices in the United States and Ganei Tikva.
Twine Solutions of Petah Tikva raised a reported $22 million to advance development of its digital on-demand thread dyeing system for the textile industry.
Temi, headquartered in New York City with R&D in Tel Aviv and a business and manufacturing location in China, closed a $21 million funding round from existing investor John Wu, Generali Investments S.p.A. of Italy and Hong Kong-based Ogawa. The company’s new mobile, personal AI robot can be controlled from any remote location in the world via an app.
AccessFintech closed a $17.5 million Series A round. Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase participated. With offices in the UK, US and Israel, AccessFintech has also joined JPMorgan’s In-Residence program for emerging financial technology companies looking to solve real-world industry problem.
TechSee Augmented Vision, headquartered in Tel Aviv with offices in Boston and Madrid, raised $16 million in a Series B round led by Scale Venture Partners with the participation of Planven Investments, OurCrowd, Comdata Group and Salesforce Ventures. TechSee’s video tech support service utilizes augmented reality, the customer’s smartphone camera, a chatbot, and live agents.
Newly launched ecommerce marketing solution provider SuperUp, headquartered in Ashdod, raised $15 million in seed money from an American private equity fund. SuperUp offers retailers a white label mobile shopping platform with new advertising capabilities to engage consumers, capture data and monetize traffic.
Wisdo, a startup that helps users build online support networks based on shared experiences – such as medical conditions or social struggles — officially launched in December with approximately $11 million in funding and 500,000 beta users.
Novartis International invested $10 million in Rehovot-based Ayala Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage company developing targeted therapies for genetically-defined cancers. The investment is part of a licensing option agreement between the two companies.
Guangzhou Sino-Israel Biotech Investment Fund invested $7 million in Nazareth-based Alpha Omega, which makes products for neurosurgery.
Cloudify of Herzliya, New York and San Jose raised $7 million from KPN Ventures, the investment arm of Dutch telecommunication company KPN BV, as well as from CreditEase Israel Innovation Fund, Claridge Israel, BRM Group, and VMware. Cloudify makes an open source model-driven cloud native orchestration platform.
Valerann of Tel Aviv raised $5 million in seed funding from Rio Ventures Holdings, 2B Angels and Telefonica SA. Valerann is developing a wireless, IoT road monitoring system https://www.israel21c.org/smart-road-stud-system-will-make-driving-safer/ to provide real-time, high-resolution information.
Netanya-headquartered HeraMED raised $4.3 million (6 million Australian dollars) in its IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange toward further development of connected pregnancy monitoring products for home and professional use. The company has regulatory approval to market its flagship device in Australia, the European Union and Israel, and intends to launch a cloud-based pilot with the Mayo Clinic.
Tel Aviv-based Ottopia Technologies raised $3 million in a seed round led by MizMaa Ventures. Ottopia is building an AI platform that enables remote humans to guide autonomous vehicles in a way that is safe, reliable, scalable and cyber-secure.
InnovoPro completed a $4.25 million funding round from investors including Swiss retailer Migros, Erel Margalit of Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Chinese foodtech venture firm Bits x Bites. Based in Rishpon, Innovopro is developing a chickpea-based protein product for the food industry.
Home Hero of Herzliya Pituah raised $4 million from Drorit Wertheim, Altair MMG fund, Mars Media investment fund, and other private investors. The startup developed a real-estate transaction platform that is so far functional in Israel.
Tel Aviv-based Soomla raised $2.6 million from JAL Ventures. Founded in 2012, the company offers a software platform allowing mobile app publishers who work with multiple ad-networks to receive the advertising revenue per user, cohort and traffic source.
Voca.ai of Tel Aviv raised $2.6 million from Lool Ventures, Flint Capital and other investors. Voca.ai offers virtual voice assistants for call centers using natural language and artificial intelligence technologies in order to lower costs.
New York-headquartered, Tel Aviv-based marketing strategy startup KonnecTo raised $1.5 million in seed funding from investors including StoreNext. KonnecTo offers companies behavioral research insights on consumers with their consent.
Agriculture technology startup CropX received $0.5 million from Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a governmental investment arm. The money will fund CropX’s crop yield optimization pilot in Ireland, set to launch in February. CropX has offices in the US, Australia and New Zealand, and a development center in Poleg, Israel.
Galilee-based ViAqua Therapeutics received an undisclosed investment from Singapore’s VisVires New Protein Master Fund to further develop its particle-based method for orally administering antiviral medication to shellfish on commercial farms.
(via Israel21c)
[Photo: Israel21c ]