Israel High Tech Scene March 23 – March 29

Tel Aviv at sunset, Israel Startup Israel

Israel High Tech Scene March 23 – March 29

New Startups / VC Funding
73% Drop In VC Capital Fund Raising For Startup Nation 2023
Israel Startup Nation saw a massive 73% drop in VC capital fundraising for the year 2023, compared to 2022, marking the lowest levels since 2015. This is according to a new report issued by IVC Research, Gornizky, KPMG Israel and the Israel Innovation Authority. Clearly, the bad news is directly related to Israel’s Iron Swords War against Hamas terrorists in Gaza that was sparked by the barbaric Hamas massacre of more than 12,000 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023.

Also, only 21 Israeli VC funds succeeded in raising a mere $1.52 billion in total in 2023. This marked a 66% drop in the number of funds. Three VC funds accounted for 51% of the total capital, raising over $200m each: Qumra Capital IV, TLV… Read More Here

Israeli Startup Euno Offers ‘Dynamic Governance’ Solutions
Euno is a new Israeli startup that offers a data model governance platform the company says is a “dynamic governance solution for data teams at large and scale-up.” Euno just came out of stealth with a $6.25 million raise led by 10D.

Data governance is an ongoing process that needs to be adapted to the specific needs of an organization. As your data landscape evolves, so too should your data governance practices… Read More Here

Israeli Startup Coro Protects SMEs from Hacking
Coro, an Israeli cybersecurity startup, secured $100 million in a series D funding round led by One Peak. This comes almost a year after the company raised $75 million. Coro has now raised a total of $255 million in the last 24 months.

Coro offers a cybersecurity platform purpose-built for small… Read More Here

Israeli Startup NeuReality Raises $20 Million for Data Center Acceleration
NeuReality, an Israeli startup specializing in hardware and software solutions to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) in data centers, raised $20 million in new funds from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Varana Capital, Cleveland Avenue, XT Hi-Tech and OurCrowd. NeuReality has now raised $70 million to date.

The company focuses on the inference stage of AI, which involves applying trained AI models to new data for tasks like image recognition or language… Read More Here

Israel’s FundGuard Offers An AI-Powered SaaS Multi-Asset Class Investment Management System
FundGuard, an Israeli fintech startup that offers an AI-powered SaaS multi-asset class investment management and asset servicing enterprise platform established by veterans of the Israeli military’s cyber defense unit, raised $100 million in a Series C round of funding. The company has now raised over $150 million to date.

A multi-asset class investment is an investment approach that combines different asset classes into a single portfolio. These asset classes can include stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and cash equivalents. The goal of a multi-asset class… Read More Here

IPOs and Unicorns
Israeli Unicorn BigID Offers Cloud Security Solutions
BigID is moving Israel Startup Nation forward as the war in Gaza continues. The Israeli unicorn, which offers data security solutions for the cloud, held a $60 million raise led by Riverwood Capital with participation by Silver Lake Waterman and Advent. BigID has now raised a total of $320 million in funding to date.

Cloud data security refers to the practices and technologies used to protect information stored in the cloud. It encompasses safeguarding data at rest (stored in the cloud), in transit (moving between the cloud and your devices), and in use (being accessed or processed). As enterprises increase their adoption… Read More Here

Science/Culture
Israeli Scientists Say Ocean Fish Disappearing Due To Climate Change
Israeli researchers have found yet another disastrous consequence related to climate change: fish species that move rapidly toward the poles in order to escape rising sea temperatures caused by global warming are disappearing. The worst news is there is no way known to reverse the damage.

An international study led by researchers from Tel Aviv University found a decline in the abundance of such marine fish species. The researchers explain that many animal species are currently moving toward cooler regions as a result of global… Read More Here

Israeli Scientists Show Deforestation and Climate Change Damaging Animal World
Israeli scientists have some more bad news about the problems the world is facing due to climate change. Researchers from Tel Aviv University, working with the University of Colorado have found that the combination of the climate crisis and continued deforestation around the world may result in significant damage to the animal world.

The new study states that the combination of global warming and extreme heat events, alongside the continued expansion of deforestation in the… Read More Here

Why Did Ancient Man Stay In The Same Areas?
Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University have uncovered the mystery surrounding extensive Paleolithic stone quarrying and tool-making sites. They say this answers the question of why did Homo erectus repeatedly revisit the very same locations for hundreds of thousands of years? The answer, they said, lies in the migration routes of elephants, which they hunted and dismembered using flint tools crafted at these quarrying sites.

Homo erectus, nicknamed “upright man,” was an extinct species… Read More Here

Israeli Kid Finds 1,600 Hundred Year Old Roman Lamp
A 16-year-old Israeli boy made a remarkable archeological find. He discovered a “unique” 1,600-year-old lamp in the “Scorpions Ascent” located in Israel’s Negev desert. The lamp is thought to have been used by Roman soldiers who guarded a fort on the Scorpions Ascent along what was once an important ancient trade route over which copper, and possibly gold, were transported. Interestingly, an identical lamp was discovered in the same spot 90 years ago.

The lamp was found by Yonatan Frankel, a pupil from the Tamar High School in Hod Hasharon, who was with his class on an annual field trip along the Scorpions Ascent in southern Israel. When his class stopped for lunch next to… Read More Here

Mergers and Acquisitions  
Israeli Unicorn Redis Buys Israeli Startup Speedb
Israeli UnRedis, an Israeli unicorn, bought out fellow Israeli startup Speedb, which offers customers a data engine service. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in Israel in 2011, Redis makes apps faster by creating a data foundation for a real-time world. It is the driving force behind Open-Source Redis, the world’s most loved in-memory database, and commercial provider of Redis Enterprise, a real time data platformicorn Redis Buys Israeli Startup Speedb… Read More Here

Qualcomm Drops Planned Acquisition of Israel’s Autotalks
Qualcomm, an American multinational corporation, has dropped its bid to acquire Israel’s Autotalks, an Israeli startup that develops V2X solutions for use in smart cars. The deal, which was first announced in May 2023, was scuttled due to regulatory concerns expressed by the European Union. The EU said it needed to make sure that the acquisition of Autotalks complied with its antitrust laws.

Qualcomm is an American firm, but it operates in Europe and so the company needs European approval for any such deal. At issue here was the V2X technology… Read More Here

Other Business Stories
Bill Ackman Tells People to Invest In TASE
Bill Ackman, the billionaire activist investor who runs Pershing Square Capital, is high on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, singing its praises. Ackman and his wife Neri Oxman acquired a 5% stake in the exchange in January. And Bill Ackman has placed 37% of Pershing’s more than $10 billion of assets in just two companies: Alphabet (19%), the parent company of Google and Chipotle Mexican Grill (18%).

That’s right! Bill Ackman puts as much faith in a fast food chain as he does in Google… Read More Here

Amnon Shashua’s One Zero Is Losing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
One Zero, the new Israeli digital bank – Israel’s first – established by Israeli businessman Amnon Shashua previously called The First Digital Bank, is losing money big time. Globes reported that the firm has lost a total of 800 million Shekels ($220 million) to date. The firm lost more than 500 million Shekels over 2022 and 2023: $98 million in 2023 and $72 million in 2002 at the current exchange rates.

This is despite the fact that in January it was revealed that OneZero planned to… Read More Here