According to IVC research center in Tel Aviv, in the first three-quarters of 2018 corporates made 157 investments in Israeli startups— up 30 percent from historical annual levels in 2013–2015 — which accounted for 18% of total capital raised in that period.
“If this trend continues, we will have seen a record level of corporate investment at the end of 2018,” IVC reports.
The largest investment in an Israeli company during the month of November 2018 was $75 million for Tel Aviv-based startup Habana Labs, in a Series B round led by Intel Capital with participation from WRV Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and others. Founded in 2016, Habana is in the emerging AI processor space.
Next in line was Hod HaSharon-based Valens, developer of HDBaseT technology for the audiovisual and automotive markets, which raised $63 million from Linse Capital and Oppenheimer Asset Management.
Jerusalem-based Lightricks announced a $60 million Series B funding round led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Claltech. The company designs and develops content creation tools, including portrait-editing brand Facetune and the Enlight Creativity Suite. Lightricks apps have about 100 million downloads worldwide and nearly 1 million subscribers.
Direct-to-shape printing company Velox of Rosh HaAyin raised $32 million in a round led by JAL Ventures and O.R.T. Technologies with the participation of Altana and Evonik Industries.
Samanage, an IT service software company with offices in the US, UK and Netanya, raised $30 million in Series D funding from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Marker, Viola Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.
Software management startup SysAid Technologies of Airport City raised $30 million from IGP. SysAid’s IT service management software, used by 10,000 customers, integrates multiple help-desk performance tools into a single service desk.
OpenLegacy, maker of API integration and management software, raised $30 million from Silverhorn Investment Advisors, O.G. Tech Ventures, CommerzVentures, RDC, and BNP Paribas bank with Cathay Innovation. OpenLegacy has offices in Petah Tikva, Virginia, Switzerland and Mexico.
XM Cyber of Herzliya — a multinational cybersecurity startup cofounded by former Mossad Director Tamir Pardo — raised a $22 million Series A round led by Nasdaq Ventures with the participation of Macquarie Capital, Our Innovation Fund and UST Global.
Tel Aviv-headquartered precision agriculture company Taranis closed a $20 million Series B round led by Viola Ventures, with participation from Finistere Ventures, Vertex Ventures, OurCrowd, Eyal Gura , Gal Yarden, Nutrien, Cavallo Ventures and Sumitomo Corporation Europe. Taranis has subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil and the US.
Olympus invested $20 million in Israeli medical device company Medi-Tateof Or Akiva to further development of Medi-Tate’s medical devices to relieve symptoms of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), or prostate enlargement. Olympus will gain exclusive rights to market Medi-Tate’s product.
Korean car-parts maker Sungwoo Hitech invested $20 million in autonomous car safety startup AdaSky of Yokne’am.
Belgium-based Nyxoah raised €15 million ($17.1 million) from Cochlear Limited of Australia and shareholders to further develop its medical device for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. The company has a development center in Tel Aviv.
Overwolf of Tel Aviv raised $16 million from Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital and other investors to develop a platform that enables third-party developers to create modifications to PC games sold in Overwolf’s app store.
PolyPid of Petah Tikva, a portfolio company of Xenia Venture Capital, raised $15 million to further develop its encapsulating drug-delivery technology to treat post-surgical infections.
Securitize, which offers services to help companies create blockchain-based security tokens, raised $12.75 million in a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Global Brain, Ripple’s Xpring fund and Coinbase Ventures. Securitize has offices in the United States, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and a development center in WeWork Jaffa.
Ford Motor Company invested $12.5 million in its Israeli subsidiary SAIPS Algorithmic Solutions, which develops computer-vision and machine learning algorithms for automated vehicles.
Tel Aviv’s SAM Seamless Network, which makes an intuitive security system for the home IoT network, completed a $12 million Series A round led by Intel Capital with participation from NightDragon, ADT and Blumberg Capital. The company’s technology is used by Israel’s largest telecommunications operator and is being piloted in Europe and North America.
Chinese generic drugmaker Zhejiang Jingxin Pharmaceutical invested $10 million in Mapi Pharma of Ness Ziona, which has an R&D center in China.
Tel Aviv- and New York-based Aquant Technologies raised $10 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, World Trade Ventures, SilverTech Ventures and Angular Ventures. Aquant makes AI insight software that helps factories avoid machinery downtime.
Cognigo of Tel Aviv, developer of an AI-driven enterprise platform for data protection and compliance, raised $8.5 million in a Series A round led by OurCrowd with Prosegur and State of Mind Ventures.
Herzliya-based fintech startup CreditPlace raised $8 million from OM2 Ventures. Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity company Votiro https://www.votiro.com also raised $8 million, from Senetas Corporation. Votiro also has offices in Singapore, Australia and New York.
Cybersecurity startup Alcide of Tel Aviv raised $7 million in a Series A round of financing for expansion abroad. The round was led by new investor CE Ventures, with participation from previous investors Intel Capital and ELRON Electronic Industries Design.
Tel Aviv-based quantum computing startup Quantum Machines raised $5.5 million in a seed round from TLV Partners and Battery Ventures.
Israel’s Team8 cybersecurity launchpad invested $5.3 million in seed money in new identity-based cloud security startup Portshift of Tel Aviv.
Naver Corporation of Korea invested $5 million in Dynamic Yield of Tel Aviv, which uses machine-learning algorithms to help marketers tailor their website to match individual consumers according to their behavioral patterns. This investment was part of a Series D round that has now raised a total of $38 million.
London-based Sharegain, with R&D in Netanya, raised $5 million from investors including Blumberg Capital, Target Global and Rhodium. Sharegain offers a marketplace where the holders of stocks and other securities can loan their assets to investors.
WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann invested $5 million in Herzliya-based medical cannabis company InterCure (Canndoc Pharma), chaired by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. This sum added to a $12 million round completed in October.
Tel Aviv-based Raycatch raised $4.5 million in Series B financing from Royal DSM and the BayWa Group. Raycatch offers an AI diagnostic tool for solar energy optimization.
Bonobo of Tel Aviv and New York, a conversational AI startup focused on online customer interactions, completed a $4.4 million seed round led by G20 and Capri Ventures.
Duality Technologies of Israel and Massachusetts raised $4 million in funding led by Team8. Duality launched a new secure data collaboration platform.
OzCode completed a $3.5 million funding round led by Rafael Development Corporation with participation of TPY Capital. Herzliya-based OzCode is developing a debugging and code analysis platform for the Microsoft Azure cloud environment.
A $3.2 million seed round was raised by Tel Aviv-based NoTraffic from Lool Ventures, NextGear Ventures and North First Ventures. NoTraffic’s plug-and-play sensor and AI system for real-time traffic management is being piloted in California.
Hotelmize of Tel Aviv reportedly raised $3.2 million in a round led by Australian VC Investible. Hotelmize is a big data-based automated profit optimization solution for the hotel booking industry.
Tel Aviv-based Guardian Optical Technologies received an additional investment of $2.5 million from Union Ventures, B&E Equities and other private investors as part of a pre-B round totaling $5.6 million. The company’s in-cabin sensor for automobiles provides 2D, 3D and motion analysis to protect drivers and passengers and automatically adjust interior settings.
Tel Aviv-based Darillium raised $2 million in seed money from Hanaco Ventures and JANVEST Capital Partners. Darillium’s Galaxy AI platform optimizes workload deployment, performance and cost.
Underwater vision startup SEAERRA received $100,000 from the Haifa Economic Corporation as part of HEC’s $1 million investment in the Carmel Innovation Fund for startups established through the University of Haifa’s commercialization and business arm, Carmel Ltd.
Hyundai CRADLE, Hyundai Motor Company’s venture arm, made an unspecified strategic investment in allegro.ai of Ramat Gan, which specializes in deep learning-based computer vision for autonomous vehicles, drones, security, logistics and other applications.
Another unspecified investment was won by Tel Aviv’s KidneyCure from Aurum Ventures and Direct Insurance Financial Investments. KidneyCure is developing a cell-therapy technology for treating advanced chronic kidney disease.
(via Israel21c)
[Photo: Yaniv Morozovsky / WikiCommons ]