Sequoia, Index, Andreessen, Samsung Just Backed These Israeli Startups
AI
- Samsung Venture Investment has invested in AudioBurst, an audio search company, and will integrate the startup’s tech into Samsung’s (many) devices. It’s a ‘sound’ move from Samsung, who is seeing Amazon’s Echo devices, with Alexa inside, dominating the smart speaker market. Audioburst could also help Samsung compete against the Google voice assistant.
Samsung is investing in Israel's AudioBurst. (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
Digital-health
- Nucleai emerged from the stealth mode and announced $5M Seed (!) round, which is huge as the Seed average for Israeli Digital Health companies in the past 10 years was $1.27M The company was founded by vets from an elite satellite imagery military intelligence unit (Unit 9900). This long-range, military-grade aerial surveillance technology is now being used for cancer scans. The company develops machine vision algorithms for computerized analysis of biopsies. It's actually not limited to just cancer: Anything that can be detected in a biopsy, which makes Nucleai an important company. The round was led by Vertex Ventures and Grove Venture,s with participation by strategic private investors. A super interesting and important company.
- Blood analysis co PixCell Medical, that develops a “lab-on-a-cartridge” device called HemoScreen, has been awarded a €2.5M ($3M) grant by the European commission. HomeScreen can analyze 20 standard blood count parameters in five minutes, something that traditionally can take over 24 hours, or even days.
Fintech
- Capitolis, which makes technology for capital markets players like investment and merchant banks, announced a combined $29M Seed and A Round from big name investors Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Capitolis was found in early 2017 by Gil Mandelzis, the founder of Sequoia-backed trade processing and risk management platform Traiana (acquired by ICAP), Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Igor Teleshevsky, formerly Executive VP and Head of Technology at Traiana. Sequoia and Index don’t invest lightly, and major investment banks don’t adopt new technology unless it promises to give them an edge over the market. Keep an eye on Capitolis and its impact in the money markets.
- Social trading and investment platform eToro raised $100M in a Round E. eToro enables investors to see, follow and automatically copy the actions of other investors in real time. The company, which says it has 7 million registered users in over 140 countries, has raised almost $173M in financing. Among its investor, famous Israeli Angel Investor Guy Gamzu, Spark Capital and Israeli private equity BRM Group.
Cyber
- Behavioral biometric authentication and threat detection company BioCatch has raised $30M, led by Maverick Ventures with participation from American Express Ventures, NexStar Partners, Kreos Capital, CreditEase, OurCrowd, JANVEST Capital and other existing investors. BioCatch develops technology like keystroke identification to secure user logins. Online fraud and trusted online commerce is vital in an all-digital world.
- Cloud security startup Luminate Security, emerged from stealth and announced $14M in combined A Round and Seed funding. The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners and Aleph Venture Capital along with Microsoft’s ScaleUp program. The company was founded in 2017 by former Check Point employees and develops the first universal platform for access to corporate applications in hybrid clouds.
Software
- Open-source API marketplace RapidAPI raised $9M in a Round A. Andreessen Horowitz is an investor. In 2017 RapiAPI acquired US-based Mashape API Marketplace. Besides having Dov Moran, a top Israeli tech entrepreneur and investor on its board, RapidAPI is important because, as Techcrunch notes: “API’s are becoming essential, and fast-growing, building block of the tech world.” RapidAPI’s directory includes APIs from Slack, Microsoft, Google Translate, Spotify, ProductHunt and others.
">Every month, Start-Up Nation Central’s channel on Forbes will highlight a handful of startups that have recently raised funding (see February's post), and that we think are important to keep an eye on.
This could be because:
- Their technology is breakthrough and could disrupt important markets
- They have an innovative business model or product/service with big market potential
- They have big/important founders/CEOs/board directors
- Their investors are strategic [big names in VC/Corporate VC]
- All or some of the above together
March has been quite a month in Israeli tech startup financing: Real-Time blood count technology, military-grade cancer scans, audio trading risk platform for investment banks, behavioral biometric authentication, and API’s for everyone. Let's take a look at the important examples:
AI
- Samsung Venture Investment has invested in AudioBurst, an audio search company, and will integrate the startup’s tech into Samsung’s (many) devices. It’s a ‘sound’ move from Samsung, who is seeing Amazon’s Echo devices, with Alexa inside, dominating the smart speaker market. Audioburst could also help Samsung compete against the Google voice assistant.
Samsung is investing in Israel's AudioBurst. (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
Digital-health
- Nucleai emerged from the stealth mode and announced $5M Seed (!) round, which is huge as the Seed average for Israeli Digital Health companies in the past 10 years was $1.27M The company was founded by vets from an elite satellite imagery military intelligence unit (Unit 9900). This long-range, military-grade aerial surveillance technology is now being used for cancer scans. The company develops machine vision algorithms for computerized analysis of biopsies. It's actually not limited to just cancer: Anything that can be detected in a biopsy, which makes Nucleai an important company. The round was led by Vertex Ventures and Grove Venture,s with participation by strategic private investors. A super interesting and important company.
- Blood analysis co PixCell Medical, that develops a “lab-on-a-cartridge” device called HemoScreen, has been awarded a €2.5M ($3M) grant by the European commission. HomeScreen can analyze 20 standard blood count parameters in five minutes, something that traditionally can take over 24 hours, or even days.
Fintech
- Capitolis, which makes technology for capital markets players like investment and merchant banks, announced a combined $29M Seed and A Round from big name investors Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Capitolis was found in early 2017 by Gil Mandelzis, the founder of Sequoia-backed trade processing and risk management platform Traiana (acquired by ICAP), Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters and Igor Teleshevsky, formerly Executive VP and Head of Technology at Traiana. Sequoia and Index don’t invest lightly, and major investment banks don’t adopt new technology unless it promises to give them an edge over the market. Keep an eye on Capitolis and its impact in the money markets.
- Social trading and investment platform eToro raised $100M in a Round E. eToro enables investors to see, follow and automatically copy the actions of other investors in real time. The company, which says it has 7 million registered users in over 140 countries, has raised almost $173M in financing. Among its investor, famous Israeli Angel Investor Guy Gamzu, Spark Capital and Israeli private equity BRM Group.
Cyber
- Behavioral biometric authentication and threat detection company BioCatch has raised $30M, led by Maverick Ventures with participation from American Express Ventures, NexStar Partners, Kreos Capital, CreditEase, OurCrowd, JANVEST Capital and other existing investors. BioCatch develops technology like keystroke identification to secure user logins. Online fraud and trusted online commerce is vital in an all-digital world.
- Cloud security startup Luminate Security, emerged from stealth and announced $14M in combined A Round and Seed funding. The round was led by U.S. Venture Partners and Aleph Venture Capital along with Microsoft’s ScaleUp program. The company was founded in 2017 by former Check Point employees and develops the first universal platform for access to corporate applications in hybrid clouds.
Software
- Open-source API marketplace RapidAPI raised $9M in a Round A. Andreessen Horowitz is an investor. In 2017 RapiAPI acquired US-based Mashape API Marketplace. Besides having Dov Moran, a top Israeli tech entrepreneur and investor on its board, RapidAPI is important because, as Techcrunch notes: “API’s are becoming essential, and fast-growing, building block of the tech world.” RapidAPI’s directory includes APIs from Slack, Microsoft, Google Translate, Spotify, ProductHunt and others.
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