Tel Aviv at sunset, Israel Startup Israel
Israel High Tech Scene September 16 – September 22
New Startups / VC Funding
HiBob Raises $150 Million for HR Services
HiBob, an Israeli startup and a unicorn that offers a human resources management technology platform, raised $150 million in new funding led by Farallon Capital, Alpha Wave Global, and existing investors. The latest raise gave the company a $2.7 billion valuation.
Hibob already hit unicorn status in August 2022 with another $150 million raise. At that time the firm had a $2.4 billion valuation… Read More Here
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Legit Security Raises $40 Million
Legit Security, an Israeli cyber security startup with an enterprise SaaS solution for securing an organization’s software supply chain, raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding led by CRV with participation from existing investors.
Legit Security came out of stealth about a year and a half ago with a $30 million Series A fundraising round.
Founded in September 2020 by CEO Roni Fuchs, CTO Liav Caspi, and VP of Research and Development Lior Barak. The company has gathered a team of security experts from the renowned Israeli Defense Forces Unit 8200… Read More Here
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Qbiq, Cydome and Briya Make Small Raises
Three Israel Startup Nation firms just made small raises. Briya, an Israeli medtech startup offering an end-to-end healthcare data exchange platform, completed an $11.5 million Series A round of financing, led by Team8, bringing the company’s total funding to $17 million to date. Qbiq, an Israeli startup that offers a visualization platform using GenAI for real estate space planning, raised $10 million in a Seed round of funding. And Cydome, an Israeli startup that develops maritime cybersecurity solutions, raised $8 million Series A round led by U.S.-based 2.0 Ventures.
Founded in 2019, Cydome’s team consists of maritime and cyber security professionals, ex-naval officers, Big Data, Data Privacy and Cyber Security experts… Read More Here
Salvador Secures $2.2 Million for a 30-Second Recovery from Cyber Attack
Israeli startup Salvador Technologies, a 30-second recovery from Cyber Attack for Critical Assets and Operational Technologies (OT), won a $2.2 million funding grant.
The Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation brought this capital boost. BIRD bolsters collaborative industrial R&D projects between Israeli and American firms.
Salvador Technologies partners with US-based cybersecurity newcomer… Read More Here
Dronery Moves Israeli UAV/Drone Development Forward
Dronery, an Israeli startup that develops drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) was central to the third test of UAV/Drone taxi tech in the country being carried out by the Israel National Drone Initiative (INDI). Last week its drone flew over Jerusalem as part of a test conducted at Hadassah Hospital.
INDI is a 60 million Shekel ($16 million) two-year government-led pilot project.
Israel Startup Nation is moving forward in the field of Drone… Read More Here
IPOS and Unicorns
Israel’s Cato Networks Hits $3 Billion Valuation With $238 Million Raise
Cato Networks, an Israeli startup and unicorn that provides the world’s first Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform, is now worth more than $3 billion. The new valuation came after the firm raised $238 million in equity investment, bringing total funding to $773 million to date.
It was just last November that Cato Networks became a member of the super elite club of companies known as Centaurs, having annual recurring revenue of $100 million… Read More Here
Mergers and Acquisitions
Talon Cyber Security Could Be Bought By Palo Alto Networks for $600 Million
Palo Alto Networks, an American cyber security firm, is looking to buy Israeli startup Talon Cyber Security which develops cloud infrastructure-based cyber security technology. Cacalist reported that the companies are in talks for a deal that could be worth $600 million.
Talon Cyber Security has raised $126 million to date, including a $100 million Series A in August 2022… Read More Here
America’s CrowdStrike Buying Israel’s Bionic.AI For $350 Million
Bionic.Ai, an Israeli startup that offers a platform to help organizations operate and protect applications, is set to be bought out by the American cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike. While the details of the deal have not yet been revealed, Calcalist reported that it could be for as much as $350 million.
Bionic has raised $83 million to date, including $65 million in a Series B funding round in March 2022… Read More Here
Other Business Stories
Saudi Arabia Wants Nukes, Crown Prince Says Talks with Israel Still Ongoing
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – the country’s effective leader – denied reports that talks over normalization of ties with Israel had been suspended. In an interview with Fox News “Special Report with Bret Baier” he also warned of the danger posed by a possible nuclear powered Iran, saying if Iran gets nukes Saudi Arabia will need them too.
On the threat of a nuclear Iran, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Saudi Arabia is, “concerned of any country getting a nuclear weapon,” adding that if Iran becomes a nuclear power then his country will seek to have nuclear weapons… Read More Here
The IDF Unveils New Merkava Barak Tank
The IDF has introduced the latest iteration of its vaunted Mekava (chariot) tank. The Merkava 4 has been in operation for twenty years now, but instead of calling the new tank the Merkava 5 it has been dubbed the “Merkava Barak” (Barak is Hebrew for lightening).
Developed jointly by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Armored Vehicles Directorate and the IDF’s Ground Forces and Armored Corps, the Merkava Barak is being rolled out on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. In that war, it was the IDF’s armored brigades… Read More Here
IATI Reports Big Drop in Investments in Israel Startup Nation’s Life Sciences Firms
The Israeli Association for Advanced Industries (IATI), the umbrella organization of the high-tech and life sciences industries in Israel, says that all is not well in Israel Startup Nation as it published Monday an update to its report on Israel’s life sciences industry for the first half of 2023. The report indicates a significant decrease in investments in these types of Israeli companies, yet their number did not decrease from 2022.
IATI pointed out that the downward trend actually began in late 2022. This was probably due to the world financial crisis caused… Read More Here
Vesttoo Founders Ordered To Fork over $30 Million amid Fraud Scandal
Two of the founders of Vesttoo, an Israeli insurtech startup, Yaniv Bertele and Alon Lifshitz were ordered by a Tel Aviv court to hand over about $30 million of the funds that the company seeks to recoup from the duo. The firm had filed court motions in an attempt to get back more than $200 million from Bertele and Lifshitz it says the two earned illegitimately, as well as another $65 million from former Vesttoo execs Udi Ginati and Josh Rurka.
The news comes just a few weeks after Vesttoo co-founders CEO Yaniv Bertele and Chief Financial Officer Alon Lifshitz were both fired by the company’s board of directors in the wake of the fraud scandal… Read More Here
