Here is this week’s roundup of the Israel high tech scene.
Israel high tech company Earnix announced that it completed a $13.5 million financing round with Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Vintage Investment Partners, both long-time investors, and Israel Growth Partners (IGP), a new investor.
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The company said that the funding will be used to accelerate Earnix’s growth strategy, which includes a combination of geographic expansion, deeper penetration into the banking vertical, and investment in new products. The company states that it is ready to commercialize its next generation analytics platform, which embraces predictive analytics, deep machine learning and big data technologies.
Earnix integrated customer analytics software helps financial services companies to achieve “optimal business performance through data science and predictive analytics.” Earnix combines predictive modeling and optimization with real-time connectivity to core operational systems, bringing the power of analytic-driven decisions to every customer interaction.
Outside of Israel high tech scene there is also its burgeoning offshore gas development. This has attracted American Christian owned businesses who wish to invest in the Holy Land. Zion Oil & Gas has announced a One-Time Only 60-day extension of its Simplified Unit Program. The company states that its vision is to find oil and/or natural gas in Israel. This vision, according to Zion’s Founder and Chairman, John Brown, is Biblically inspired.
“Zion’s (Nasdaq: ZN) vision is to help ensure Israel’s political and economic independence by finding and producing oil or natural gas onshore in Israel. “Our excitement continues to build regarding our upcoming deep (~15,000 foot) well! We are currently completing construction of our drill site in northeast Israel and will be moving the rig to the site in a few weeks in anticipation of spudding the well this spring,” said Victor G. Carrillo, Zion’s CEO.
Last week Zion extended its purchase deadline 60 days to March 31, 2017, for those wanting to participate in this limited opportunity. All other aspects will remain the same: $10 per Unit will purchase 7 shares of stock and 7 warrants. The warrants will be exercizable for $1 for one share of stock for three years from May 1, 2017 to May 1, 2020.
The Company’s Megiddo-Jezreel License grants Zion Oil & Gas the exclusive right to explore in an area of approximately 99,000 acres that appears to possess the key geologic ingredients of an active petroleum system with significant exploration potential.
Kitov Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: KTOV; TASE: KTOV), announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a Notice of Allowance to the Company related to claims expanding the patent coverage for its lead drug candidate, KIT-302, to include oral dosage compositions containing both amlodipine and celecoxib.
The medications are used for treating osteoarthritis.
“This Notice of Allowance should result in the issuance of an additional patent, which is expected to further strengthen Kitov’s proprietary position and long-term U.S. market exclusivity for our lead compound, KIT-302, creating a higher barrier to entry for potential competitors. We plan to continue to evaluate and grow intellectual property rights of our amlodipine/celecoxib combination platform,” stated Kitov CEO, Isaac Israel.
Mr. Israel further noted, “The preparation of our New Drug Application (NDA) for KIT-302 to be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is continuing and is expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2017, as scheduled.”
Israel high tech company Clarity Capital, a Tel Aviv based global asset manager, has expanded to offer global private debt opportunities. Given near-zero interest rates and very low bond yields, Clarity Capital announced that it is focusing on attractive private debt opportunities from around the globe to replace traditional fixed income investments. These solutions include both niche private loan opportunities and a diversified multi-manager fund of private debt strategies.
“In a zero interest-rate environment, Clarity Capital continues to seek out higher-yielding niche alternative investments,” said Amir Leybovitch (CEO, Clarity Capital).
Israel’s SafeCharge (LSE: SCH), a leader in advanced payment technologies, has been selected by Bet Entertainment Technologies to provide a range of advanced online payment services for its Portuguese market-leader operation (bet.pt). Powered by software provider SBTech and regulated by the SRIJ, Bet Entertainment Technologies provides online sports and casino betting for the Portuguese market. The deposit and withdrawal journey for Portuguese players is enriched with access to localisation capabilities such as language, currency and local payment methods.
SafeCharge’s Personalized Cashier, a customized deposit and withdrawal solution, is directly integrated into SBTech’s Sportbook and iGaming platform. The Personalized Cashier solution provides the ability to make deposits and withdrawals seamlessly with unique localisation capabilities such as diversification of global and local
alternative payment methods, specifically preferred payment method Multibanco, multiple currencies and languages.
“Bet Entertainment is an exciting, forward-looking company just starting out on its online journey. Using our payments services its players will benefit from maximum flexibility in terms of deposits and withdrawals along with a compelling user experience, total transparency and unparalleled security. We’re confident this will not just support but accelerate Bet Entertainment’s online growth,” said Yuval Ziv, COO, SafeCharge. “The integration with SBTech also means that anyone else using this leading platform can also reap the benefits of our award-winning technology.”
And finally in Israel high tech failure news, IC Power Ltd., a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Idan Ofer’s Kenon Holdings Ltd., was forced to withdraw its plans for an IPO in New York. The company had hoped to raise $400 million for a $1.6 billion valuation.
“In light of current market conditions, we believe that our proposed IPO is not in the best interests of our company and our shareholder at this time, and accordingly, we have decided to withdraw our IPO,” said Javier Garcia-Burgos, Chief Executive Officer of IC Power.
