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15 Israel-related headlines from the week March 22, 2009 (Sarah Lacy TechCrunch Edition)

2009/03/29 3 comments

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During the week of March 22, 2009, it was announced that Israel will share its farming technology with Kenya and more details of the government’s water technology initiative, NEWTech were given. The sale of Aladdin Knowledge to Vector Capital was completed with the news that Aladdin and SafeNet were under common management and information security company, Tufin, added new features to its firewall management platform. Facebook became even more stalkerish with a new photo facial recoginition and tagging application by Israel-based Face.com and SEO guru, Barry Schwartz shared what he found Israeli SEMs are looking for. These stories are only some of the main ones that made it into the media last week. For links to these and the rest of the stories from the week of March 22, 2009, check below. 

Cleantech and Environment

1. Israel NEWTech, A Government Initiative To Promote And Grow Israeli Water Technology And Innovation

2. Israel to share farming technology with Kenya

Investment and M&A

3. Value of Israeli high-tech M&A fell 19 percent in 2008

4. Funded: GoViral, BriefCam, Extreme Reach (BriefCam)

5. SafeNet, Aladdin Knowledge Under Common Mgmt

Information Technology

6. HP to Provide Compaq My Bhasha with its Desktops

7. New Cyber-Ark controller clocks all super-user activity

8. SkillIQ is set to Revolutionize the Human Resources World

9. Dell Certifies Aternity as ISV Partner

10. Tufin adds white lists to firewall management platform

Miscellaneous

11. Israel’s Explay helps you see the big picture

12. First Look: Photo Finder facial recognition app for Facebook

13. Drops in the bucket

14. Partnerships between Florida, Israel are key

15. What Israeli SEMs Want

Bonus: TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacy in Israel and reactions. 

Sarah Lacy, August 2008

Sarah Lacy, August 2008

Last week Twitter and the Web erupted when the newest member of the TechCrunch team, Sarah Lacy, posted that Israeli entrepreneurs lost their mojo and that investing in Israel was overhyped. Here are are just some of the responses to Lacy’s post as well as her post and its follow up. 

Now that China Is the New Israel…What’s Israel? (TC)

What’s behind Sarah Lacy trash talking the Israeli VC scene

Israel is the new Israel (Israel Innovation 2.0 response)

Israel Hype Cycle

Sarah Lacy, David Li and the Wrong Side of Historical Performance

Risk Aversion And The Perils Of Selling Too Early (Israeli Startups, Part II) (TC)

Twitter responses

Twitter responds

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Israel is the new Israel (Alternatively, if TechCrunch is the go-to online tech publication, will TreeHugger be the new TechCrunch?)

2009/03/25 4 comments

Sarah Lacy over at TechCrunch posted today that Israeli entrepreneurs post-bubble have lost their mojo and VC funding has reflected that. There has been a lot of reaction to her post in the comments section and off the site, but it is really much more complex and wide-ranging than a post on TechCrunch or even here on Israel Innovation 2.0 can handle. I think that Sarah is both right and, of course, wrong.  

She is right that the crop of Israeli IT and Web startups are disappointing when compared to Check Point and ICQ from the 1990s. There have been many theories, denials and other responses of the lack of companies of this caliber in the past few years and I have to say, when researching these different companies, there definitely is a difference. 

The theories for this that I believe and have often mentioned (sorry to anyone familiar with those posts) are the ones Daniel Cohen of Gemini Israel Funds wrote about in an article on Venture Beat back in the fall of 2007: “Entrepreneurs want to retire with $3-$4M, Impatience of investors, ‘Think small’ mentality and The lack of $1bn experience.” Add to these reasons the brain drain of top engineers and entrepreneurs and relocating the company outside of Israel and Lacy has a very good point. 

Fortunately though, Lacy’s post on TechCrunch was only fulfilling a certain agenda and only relevant for the IT and Web 2.0 sectors which TechCrunch covers. No matter what happens with Israeli IT companies in the future (and I believe Israeli SaaS and security companies, such as Clarizen, Imperva and Trusteer all have a lot of potential), Israel is almost guaranteed to be the main player beyond this in the next tech revolution, clean technology. 

A lot of VC funding has gone into cleantech companies in wastewater management, solar energy and wind energy that won’t mature and really show its worth for another few years. In addition, there is a noticeable trend over the past year of people from Israel’s IT sector considering and heading into cleantech.

So, where does China fit into cleantech? I haven’t researched it to say, but on the Israel end I know that China, along with several other Asian countries, countries in Africa and Australia have all expressed interest in Israel’s innovations especially to deal with water conservation management and solar energy. If in relation to Lacy’s article, China is getting more investments in IT (the greatest tech sector in the past) in comparison to Israel but not in relation to cleantech (the likely greatest tech sector in the future), the answer to Lacy’s question about “If China is the new Israel..” would really be that Israel is the new Israel.

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Celebration of Ada Lovelace Day: 6 women who have contributed to Israel’s hi-tech industry

2009/03/24 4 comments

In celebration of Ada Lovelace, the first female programmer, today is Ada Lovelace Day. To honor her contributions in science and technology and inspire others to follow her path, thousands of bloggers, including myself, have pledged to blog about specific women in science and technology or about women in science and technology in general on this day to help raise the profile of women in technology.

For this, I have decided to provide the biographies of six of the many women who are shaping Israel’s technology industry who I think are amazing. Please note that these women are far from the only ones who have contributed and/or are contributing in Israel and that there are many others just as inspiring:

Orna Berry: Orna Berry has been an active member of and contributor to Israel’s science and technology industries for three decades and has significantly helped shape Israel’s venture capital and industry landscapes. After playing the role of entrepreneur by co-founding ORNET Data Communication Technologies Ltd. in 1993 and then successfully selling it to Siemens AG in 1995, Berry joined Gemini Israel Funds as a Partner in 2000, where she has helped startups, such as Prime Sense and Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd., get off the ground and establish themselves.

In addition to working with companies individually as a venture capitalist, Berry has represented and still represents the Israeli venture capital community as Chairperson of the Israel Venture Association (IVA). She has also helped form government policy that positively impacted industrial research and development when she was Chief Scientist and Director of the Industrial R&D Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Government of Israel from 1997 to 2000.

Bina Rezinovsky: Rezinovsky has been in the news the past week for resigning from Cisco Israel. According to Ha’aretz, during Rezinovsky’s tenure “Cisco Israel grew at a 20% annual rate and made a number of Israeli acquisitions. The local branch finished 2007 with $500 million in revenues and won most of the large communications equipment tenders in the country. Rezinovsky won Cisco Europe’s management prize in 2006.” 

Ruth Alon: After working in various positions at Memorex and Unisys in the U.S., Alon founded and then headed the Internet service provider (ISP), Netvision in 1994. It has since become the largest ISP in Israel. Alon currently serves on the Advisory Board of Landmark Ventures and the Board of Directors of the “Technion – Israel Institute of Technology” and the Technion’s Executive & Academic Development Committees.

Miriam Schwab: Though probably best known for helping to popularize the content management system (CMS), WordPress in Israel and being an expert on blogging, Miriam Schwab is one of the most inspiring women on Israel’s technology scene right now for several other reasons as well.

Aside from founding and heading the successful marketing company, Illuminea, playing an important part in promoting Israel abroad and helping non-profits in Jerusalem understand social media to better thrive, Schwab is also the founder of the website BizzyWomen.com.

Founded in the summer of 2008, Bizzy Women is meant to be a one-stop site for busy women with the most useful information on topics in finance, entrepreneurship and parenting among others (disclosure: I have contributed articles to the site before).

Orli Yakuel: Orli Yakuel is a leading voice on Web 2.0 applications in Israel and abroad. She is the co-founder of Go2Web20.net, a directory of Web 2.0 applications, and editor of the Go2web20 blog, her personal blog about Web 2.0 technology.

Shari Arison: Best known for inheriting the fortune her father left from founding Carnival Cruises Lines, Shari Arison has been an active philanthropist over the years and has, most recently, taken a specific interest in clean technology and water conservation solutions. In 2006, Arison founded Miya, a company with the mission to reduce water loss and better manage urban water systems. To date, Arison has invested $100 million in Miya and impressively recruited water technology maven, Booky Oren to head the operation. The company was launched publicly in late 2008.

What woman in Israel’s tech scene do you admire? Whether someone on this list or not, share it in the comments below!

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14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 15, 2009

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During the week of March 15, 2009, Google fully integrated adCore into Froogle offering a more complete SEO and shopper technology package. Information security companies, Imperva and Trusteer were busy rolling out new features and collaborating on a new anti-malware tool, respectively. Meanwhile, David Pogue of the New York Times wrote about Shai Agassi’s electric car vision and scientists announced the creation of a new device that enables plants to send text alerts to the mobile deviice of farmers notifying them when they need water and thus preventing excess watering. For these stories and much more, check out this week’s 14 Israel-related headlines below. 

Cleantech

1. The Orange Tree is Texting — Again

2. Electric Cars for All! (No, Really This Time)

Investments and Economy

3. Russians in Israel to talk nanotech

4. Commex Tech Raises $3.5 Million

5. Israeli business delegation visits Vietnam

6. Israel’s technology entrepreneurs switch from growth to survival

Information Technology

7. NDS at CCBN 2009: Delivering the Best Security and Enabling New Entertainment Revenues for Chinese Pay-TV Operator

8. Froogle Submission Is Now Available Within adCore

9. Apache Corporation Selects Aternity for End User Experience Management

10. Imperva upgrades database activity analysis too

11. DNSstuff Partners With Trusteer On Malware-Prevention Tool

Miscellaneous

12. Cisco Israel head resigns

13. Japanese Sea Coral Can Change Sex In Order to Survive Global Warming

14. Omek Interactive to launch 3-D camera for gesture-controlled games

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Software-as-a-service “comes of age” with Clarizen

2009/03/21 3 comments

clarizen-logo-medium-invAs budgets get tighter and software-as-a-service (SaaS) matures, there is an increasing amount of interest among small and medium-sized businesses and now the eneterprise to use SaaS solutions.

In an article by Kevin White about online project management software that appeared on CBRonline.com earlier this week, White mentions that in addition to companies turning to SaaS solutions for managing projects because of the low price point, another benefit is that SaaS is “inherently collaborative since it allows any user of an application to access information anytime from anywhere.”

The company that he focuses on that is proving this theory right is Israel-based Clarizen. Clarizen, a project management software company, has enjoyed popularity in the past few months because it allows contributors to edit at the same time and for the changes to be visible immediately to anyone involved on the project. In addition it covers all the aspects of managing a project, from assigning tasks to budget tracking.

Clarizen has also received a lot of positive attention as a significantly cheaper alternative to other enterprise collaboration solutions ($25 a month per user vs. $125,000 entry point). Though it currently faces steep competition from other free or low cost solutions such as Google Docs and Basecamp, Clarizen is expected to roll out new enterprise features in the upcoming months that will set it apart.

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12 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 8, 2009

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The most shocking headline from the week of March 8, 2009 was that Delver, the social search engine that was placed on deadpool watch about a month ago was bought by Sears Holding Co. Such purchases could become more common this year as it was also reported during the week that it is expected that Israeli VC funds will face a steep drop in 2009. For these stories and the rest of the 12 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 8, 2009, check below.

Cleantech

1. Israeli company turns traffic into energy source

2. Israeli cleantech cos seek piece of $6b US stimulus pie

3. How to Make Electricity From Wasted Energy

Investments and Partnerships

4. Sears Holdings Corp. acquires Delver.com, an Israel-based social search engine company

5. Content delivery network Cotendo raises $7 million for “next-gen” services

6. Israeli VC funds to face steep drop in ’09

7. C-nario, Vizrt announce strategic digital signage partnership

Information Technology

8. Innovations: What’s in a box?

9. SaaS sneaks by project management’s big barrier

10. ‘Security market is dynamic, any time‘

11. How IBM’s sprucing up its ‘social’ side

Miscellaneous

12. Israel is disproportionately important to Google

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Israeli companies to watch at SXSW Interactive

The annual South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference kicks off in Austin, Texas tomorrow and will run through Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be at the conference, which celebrates emerging technology, some of the days and will, of course, be paying close attention to any Israeli representation there, specifically by, ooVoo, which will be exhibiting there. 

oovoologoooVoo is a video chat and communication service that offers everything from high-resolution video and video conversation recording to telephony and video and instant messaging. The company will be presenting its new API for video application developers at SXSWi.  

In addition to ooVoo, I will be keeping a lookout for Ouriel Ohayon, the VC and former editor of TechCrunch France, who recently launched the Topify application for Twitter with Arik Fraimovich. Topify replaces the current text of the email that Twitter sends out notifying you when someone follows you with an email that includes in addition to the person’s name and Twitter link, their profile information and an option to follow them back directly from within the email. 

Will you be at SXSWi? If so, let’s meet up! Send me an email at lisa@israelinnovation20.com or post it in the comments below.

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14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 1, 2009

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News from Israel’s cleantech industry during the week of March 1, 2009 showed that it will continue to grow throughout the recession and that substantial progress is starting to be made, such as with Aora receiving a license for its solar thermal plant on Kibbutz Samar. In contrast, IT companies Comverse and SAP Israel announced layoffs this past week, however, several companies, including ComAbility and Kenshoo, raised funds and new partnerships were announced. For more details on these and the rest of the 14 Israel-related headlines from the week of March 1, 2009, check below.

Cleantech

1. Cleantech faces wave of growth, not layoffs

2. IQwind a Red Herring Top 100 Global Company

3. Aora Gets License for Solar Thermal Plant

Investments and Economy

4. Comverse to fire hundreds – many in Israel

5. Sequoia Capital leads Second round of financing for AICC Member Kenshoo Ltd.

6. Israeli technology company ComAbility secures a further $4m in venture funding 

7. Onset Technology lands $3M venture round

Information Technology

8. SAP, IBM to Showcase Tech for Cloud Mobility 

9. Ness Technologies Uses WorkLight to Secure Social Media

10. A New Advertising Tool That’s Truly Cool

11. Triond: A Writing Opportunity Worth Investigating

12. Actimize, a NICE Company, Positioned in Leaders Quadrant of Magic Quadrant for Web Fraud Detection

Miscellaneous

13. A tourism crisis hits the Middle East

14. Keeping your mind sharp with Israel’s CogniFit

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Hisense looks to Israel for R&D and more

hisensedrmThis week has been filled with news about both more layoffs and funding. While the layoffs are more overwhelming than the investment deals, the most positive news thus far has not been about the investments made but about the investments that might be made in 2009. Globes has reported that the Chinese electronics company, Hisense, is actively looking into R&D possibilities in Israel in 2009. 

Hisense is currently a large domestic consumer electronics manufacturer in China and plans to expand into a global technology company. In an effort to make that happen, the company sent a delegation to Israel last week to look into “acquiring, investing in, and collaborating with, Israeli technology companies.” Companies the delegation met with included Siano Mobile Silicon Ltd., modu Ltd., Discretix Ltd., and Red Bend Software Ltd. 

According to the Globes article, Hisense expects Israeli technology to help the company achieve it’s short- and long-term goals for becoming a global technology force, which include finding technologies to integrate into its products as soon as possible as well as technologies that can improve Hisense’s products after more development.

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Check Point sees growth despite economic downturn

checkpointlogoJeff Neal at Optionetics.com posted yesterday that information security solutions provider, Check Point Software Technologies is continuing to experience growth, including in the United States and Europe, despite the economic downturn.

According to Neal,  

“Check Point has solid fundamentals with great return on equity and a healthy cash flow. The latest earnings showed total revenues at $217.6 million, compared to $206.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Net income was $86.5 million compared to $87.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company also indicated that their share repurchase program bought approximately 3.4 million shares at a total cost of $66.7 million and that they continued to experience good performance from all geographies, including the United States and Europe.”

While other companies, such as SAP Israel and Amdocs have been announcing layoffs, even back in October, Check Point was confident about its sales growth. At the time, which was after Check Point reported third-quarter results that beat estimates, Gil Shwed, the CEO, explained that security was still a sector that companies were investing in,

“We see projects being cancelled but we also see projects being initiated. Clients are buying. It’s not that the world has stopped but they are cutting costs.”

For the most part, Shwed seems to be right. Earlier this week, the UK edition of SC Magazine posted on its website, the SC Top 30: Information security overview 2009. According to the overview, which is based on an interview with Eric Domage, manager, western European security research and consulting at IDC, 

“The European security market will see growth – but at a reduced rate – and activity will not start to pick up until well into 2010.”

It goes on to mention that security software is in decline and most growth is in managed security services providers (MSSPs), which more comapnies are shifting to. Though, according to Domage, activity isn’t expected to really pick up until after 2010,

“the pressures on both customers and suppliers are likely to intensify during 2009 and on into 2010. Security chiefs are going to have to look hard at cost control and justify their spending requirements.” 

Meeting these requirements, Check Point Endpoint Security protects PCs and eliminates the need to deploy and manage multiple agents, reducing total cost of ownership and appealing to security officers. Check Point’s Endpoint Security provides end-to-end security solutions, from a firewall to anticirus protections to program control and full disk encryption. 

Check Point isn’t the only Israeli security company offering cost-saving solutions that is experiencing growth during the economic downturn, Imperva, an application data security company, had a breakout year in 2008.

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