Israel High Tech Scene and Other Business Stories January 29 – Feb 3

Tel Aviv at sunset, Israel Startup Israel

New Startups / VC Funding
Sentra Raises $53 Million for Cyber Security
Sentra, an Israeli cybersecurity startup offering Data Security Built for the Cloud (DSPM) services, completed a $30 million Series A funding round led by Standard Investments with participation from Munich Re Ventures (MRV), Moore Strategic Ventures, Xerox Ventures, and INT3, as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Zeev Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $53 million to date.

Founded in 2021 by Asaf Kochan, the former Commander of the IDF’s elite cybersecurity Unit 8200, Yoav Regev, who led Unit 8200’s Cyber Department under Kochan, Ron Reiter, and Yair Cohan, Sentra boasts that its DSPM solution enables organizations to gain full visibility and control of data while… Read More Here

NT-Tao Raises $22 Million for Nuclear Fusion
NT-Tao, an Israeli startup developing nuclear fusion as an alternative energy, raised $22 million in a Series A round of funding led by Delek US – a Fortune 500 downstream energy company – and NextGear Ventures, with additional participation from Honda, OurCrowd and the Grantham Foundation, the lead investor in the company’s seed round. The latest investment round brings NT-Tao’s total funding to $28M.

Israel has always been at the forefront of the development of alternative energies. With little if any natural resources of its own, Israel has been using solar energy since the country’s birth. And today it is a world leader… Read More Here

BridgeWise Raises $13 Million for AI-Powered Equity Research
BridgeWise, an Israeli startup that offers a platform for generative AI-powered equity research, has raised $13 million in a Seed round led by Group 11, with participation from L4VB (Venture Fund of the Brazilian Stock Exchange), Mangrove VC, and additional private investors. The company has also changed its name from Deshe Analytics to BridgeWise.

Foundedin 2019 by CEO Gabriel Diamant, brothers Dor CBO and Or COO Eligula, and Mor Hazan, VP of Product, BridgeWise aims… Read More Here

Guardz Raises $10 Million for Cybersecurity
Guardz, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, has come out of stealth with a $10 million Seed funding led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from iAngels, GKFF Ventures, and Cyverse Capital. It is interesting that a cybersecurity firm would describe itself as coming out of “stealth.” But what is certainly in no way extraordinary is that yet another such firm has come out of Israel Startup Nation.

So, at least some companies are still able to bring in the money in these tough times. The worldwide financial crisis has forced companies everywhere to make cutbacks, even Meta-Facebook. And it has been harder for…. Read More Here

Gem Security and Addressable Make Small Raises
Two Israeli startups just held small seed fundraises. Gem Security, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, raised $11 million in Seed funding led by Team8 and Addressable, an Israeli startup that offers an end-to-end solution for Web3 marketing, raised $7.5 million in a Seed round led… Read More Here

Science
Tel Aviv University Establishes 1st Satellite Observatory for Quantum Optical Communication
The Center for Quantum Science and Technology at Tel Aviv University (TAU) has built the first ground station in Israel for tracking, sensing, hyperspectral imaging, and optical and quantum communication with satellites in orbit around the Earth. The university says that this is among the most advanced in the world.

The US Department of Energy explains that quantum networks use the quantum properties of photons to encode information. For instance… Read More Here

People with Autism Experience Pain At A Higher Intensity
A new study conducted by Israeli researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Technion determined that people on the autism spectrum experience pain at a higher intensity than the general population and are less adaptable to the sensation. The researchers said this finding is contrary to the prevalent belief that people with autism are supposedly “indifferent to pain.”

Autism is better understood these days. People now tend to know what it means when someone is described as being “on the spectrum.” There have also been a number of television shows that provide the general public… Read More Here

Mergers and Acquisitions
OpenWeb Buys Jeeng for $100 Million
OpenWeb, an Israeli startup and a unicorn that develops an audience relationship platform, acquired the proprietary audience management platform Jeeng for $100 million.OpenWeb hit unicorn status last October when the company raised $170 million in a Series F funding round that left the company with a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Founded in 2012 by CEO Nadav Shoval and originally called Spot.IM, COO Roee Goldberg and Ishay Green, OpenWeb helps publishers gain independence from traditional social media by “fueling millions of high-quality conversations” across thousands of communities with more than one hundred million monthly… Read More Here

Canada’s Plusgrade Acquires Israel’s UpStay
Plusgrade, a Canadian firm that provides ancillary revenue solutions for the global travel industry, acquired UpStay, an Israeli startup that provides upgrades and ancillary revenue solutions for the hospitality industry. UpStay serves hundreds of hotels in 17 countries by enabling hoteliers to drive higher ancillary revenue through multiple value-added revenue streams delivered to their guests.

Investopedia explains that ancillary revenue is the revenue generated from goods or services that differ from or enhance the main services or product lines of a company. Ancillary income is defined as the revenue generated… Read More Here

Other Business Stories
Bank of Israel Releases Plan for Israel’s Economic Growth
The Bank of Israel (BOI) on Monday presented Israeli government ministers with its strategic program the bank says will accelerate economic growth in Israel. Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Amir Yaron handed the recommendations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Economy and Industry, and a series of other ministers.

The new program comes at a time when Israel’s economy and its currency are under threat from a loss of international confidence due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s proposed controversial judicial reform plan. Even Goldman Sachs has predicted that the Shekel could… Read More Here

Goldman Sachs Issues Warning That Judicial Reforms Could Sink Shekel
None other than the famed financial firm Goldman Sachs has come out and stated that the judicial reforms proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could harm Israel’s economy and cause the Shekel to drop in value. The assessment came as part of a report issued by Goldman Sachs’ economics research department. And it also came just after Israel’s own major firm Papaya Global announced that it was divesting its funds from Israeli Banks because of the judicial reform plan.

This constitutes yet another blow to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aspirations to effect a complete overhaul of Israel’s judicial system, including new restrictions on the authority of the nation’s attorney general and a new law that would allow an absolute majority of at least 61 votes in the Knesset… Read More Here

Viola Group Also Calls For Restraint in Proposed Israeli Judicial Reform Plan
The major Israeli venture Capital firm Viola Group has come out and expressed the firm’s concerns about Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s proposed judicial reforms. Papaya Global, a fintech unicorn that offers a cloud based platform for companies to handle their payrolls, even went so far as to divest itself from Israeli banks in protest over the proposed reforms.

Founded in 2000, Viola calls itself Israel’s leading technology-focused investment group with over $4.5 billion in assets under management. The fund has backed over 100 technology companies to date and stands with a number of unicorns, such as immunai, Redis, Lightricks, and many of Israel’s leading… Read More Here