Israel Innovation 2.0

Inside Israeli Technology

sni-2

During the week of January 10, 2010, CA acquired Israel-based Service Level Management (SLM) software company Oblicore and mobile TV chip maker Siano announced that it raised $24M. Israeli researchers announced that they cracked the encryption of 3G GSM networks. Find out more about these headlines and the rest of this week’s 11 headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Arad Technologies wins lucrative water metering deal in India

2. Climate Change and Clean Tech in Israel

3. Israeli businesses seek Texas partners in green technology

Investments
4. CA Confirms Oblicore Acquisition

5. Mobile TV chip maker Siano raises $24M

6. Amobee to buy UK’s RingRing Media

Information Technology
7. Will cable and satellite TV soon be outdated?

8. Researchers use PC to crack encryption for next-gen GSM networks

Miscellaneous
9. Israel rushes to Haiti’s aid

10. The First ELSE: A Mobile Phone from The Future (Videos)

11. The Tel Aviv Cluster

eilatgreen

COP15 may be behind us, but the discussion on what the next steps should be is going strong. Members of the Israeli media and Israeli cleantech experts are are no  exception and are still analyzing the conference and what Israel, both the government and its 200+ cleantech companies, should take from it in its ongoing efforts to move away from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Those steps should become more clear next month when the third annual Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference & Exhibition takes place in Eilat. According to Green Prophet, during the conference, the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Authority, which is sponsoring the event, will unveil,

“a model for solving the world’s energy shortages that it hopes will be adopted by governments worldwide… The model will be composed of a number of factors, including raising renewable awareness and education, combined with research and development, commercialization of technology, energy conservation, and the production of energy from renewable resources.”

The conference, being held from February 16-18, will be keynoted by former governor George E. Pataki and New York Congressman Steve Israel. Other speakers will include Dr. Hermann Scheer of the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE), and German Parliamentarian; Israel Knesset members Dr. Uzi Landau of the Minister of National Infrastructures and Prof. Daniel Herskovitz of the Minister of Science and Technology, as well as Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Robert J. Aumann.

In December Eilat-Eilot was selected for inclusion in the European Commission’s ECO4B initiative, led by the Enterprise Europe Network. Over 2,000 people are expected to attend this year’s conference.

sni-2

During the week of January 3, 2010, Dot Hill bought storage company Cloverleaf for $12.5 million. China’s Sanhua invested in Israeli solar firm, HelioFocus and new vulnerabilities were discovered in Twitter and Google Calendar. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 9 Israel-related headlines.

Cleantech
1. Are Energy Advances in Israel in Parallel With Those Abroad?

2. China’s Sanhua invests in Israeli solar firm

Investments
3. Dot Hill confirms storage virtualization acquisition

4. Clean tech gets big piece of venture-capital funding

Information Technology
5. 3D sensor co PrimeSense attracts Vegas attention

6. Vulnerabilities Discovered In Twitter, Google Calendar

Miscellaneous
7. Researcher: Computers in schools do not improve students’ results

8. One third of high-tech incubator companies succeeded

9. Animating the Na’vi with an Israeli swagger

sni-2

During the week of December 27, 2009, Israel’s airport security method was looked upon as a better solution to the current system used at airports in the States. Viewfinity announced that it had raised $8.6 million in funding and 5min was selected Best Startup at the TechAviv Peer Awards. For these stories and more, see this week’s 8 headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Shimon Tal: Facts and Personal Opinions on Water from Israel’s Former Water Commissioner

2. Sunshine year for cleantech

Investment
3. Viewfinity raises $8.6 million in Series B round of funding

4. Can Public-Funded Entrepreneurship Work? A Q&A With the Author of Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Information Technology
5. 5min Wins Top Spot in TechAviv’s Peer Awards

6. Web content under the microscope

Miscellaneous
7. What Israel can teach us about security

8. Israel set to become major golf destination

sni-2

During the week of December 20, 2009, O2 confirmed that it is buying Israel-based Internet phone company, Jajah. Facial recognition security company C-True announced that Brinks is its latest customer and oil was found in Israel. For these stories and more, check out this week’s headlines below.

Cleantech
1. Michigan Looks to Israel to Rev Up Automotive Battery Business

2. SunPower and SolarPower Ltd. Dedicate 50-Kilowatt Solar Power System for HP in Israel

Investments and Economy
3. O2: Yes, we’re acquiring Internet phone company Jajah

4. Israel May Beat Growth and Deficit Estimates, Steinitz Says

Information Technology
5. Israeli company to beta cost-reducing content delivery technology

6. C-TRUE Provide Face Recognition Security Solutions to Brinks

7. All Quiet in the Data Center

8. Israel’s fastest growing software companies of 2009

9. Web Host Datapipe Teams with Applicure for Website Security

10. 2009: Sarah Lacy and the Israeli Web Revisited

Miscellaneous
11. Tourism Ministry presents three-year plan

12. Amazon’s Kindle has copyright protection hacked

13. Oil well with potential found in Israel

Nine months ago there was talk and speculation that Israel’s Web sector was done and not likely to recover. Mainly expressed by TechCrunch editor-at-large Sarah Lacy after her visit to Israel in March, at the time she wrote about her disappointment with Israeli Web startups except for MyHeritage and a few others. Her piece caused an uproar among Israelis on Twitter and in the blogosphere, including on Israel Innovation 2.0.

At the time Lacy wasn’t completely off. It had been a while since an Israeli Web startup had a big exit or received a large investment or a lot of media attention. Combining this with the poor economy and the rise of Israel’s cleantech sector (which continues to grow), it seemed that Israeli innovation in the Web space had peaked when Shopping.com was purchased by eBay in 2005.

By September of this year though it became clear that 2009 was actually the resurrection of Israel’s Web industry and that Israeli entrepreneurs did not lose their mojo as Lacy had suggested they did. At TechCrunch50 in San Francisco Israeli startups Trollim, Red Beacon and AnyClip received the three top prizes for their promising technologies. A few weeks later in October, it was revealed that Answers.com, perhaps the most memorable Israeli site to have survived the dot.com bust and to thrive, was the 13th most visited Website in September.

In addition to these sites, the second half of 2009 saw the rise of another part of Israel’s Web industry, Facebook and mobile applications. In November the Facebook facial-recognition application Face.com went live and in December the community-generated traffic tracking mobile application Waze started to make headway in the U.S. market, among other regions.

While most of these companies still need to prove themselves (with growth, revenue and exits…) it is clear that there is a new drive among Israeli Web entrepreneurs and Israel’s Web industry is reemerging. 2010 will be an interesting year to see what happens to these startups and if the newfound mojo will reverse the investment decline of recent years in the sector.

Editor’s note: This was originally posted on TechAviv.com.

Last month Deloitte Brightman Almagor Zohar, a professional services firm under the interational Deloitte brand in Israel, released its annual list of Israel’s top 50 fastest growing technology companies for 2009 based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. Fifteen software companies ranging from security to finance to storage made the list. Below is the top 10 software companies on the list and a little more about them. Will you be using any of these companies’s technologies in 2010?

Red Bend software

redbend_logoRed Bend Software is considered to be a market leader in Mobile Software Management and Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) update solutions. Founded in 1999, Red Bend Software offers solutions that give phone users more control over what software components they want on their phones while also increasing the data service revenues of phone carriers. The main solutions include firmware updates, software component updates and data management.

Imperva

imperva_logo1Imperva is an application data security company that was founded in 2002 by Amichai Shulman and Check Point Software co-founder Shlomo Kramer. The company was named to Red Herring’s Top 100 in 2007 and grew by more than 80% in 2008.  Its success during the recession has been attributed to its software helping customers cut costs. Imperva’s products include the SecureSphere Data Security Suite, SecureSphere Web Application Firewall and Database Activity Monitoring.

InfoGin

infogin_logoInfoGin was founded in 2000 by Eran Wyler after he foresaw the “need for surfing the real Internet on any mobile device.” Over the years, InfoGin has become a leader in “Web-to-mobile content adaptation, enabling mobile users to access any Web site they desire, optimized to their mobile device.” The company’s Internet Mobile Platform (IMP) technology is currently being implemented by several major companies, including Virgin Mobile (UK) and MapQuest.

Safend

Israeli data protection company, Safend offers products for data encryption and port and device control. Founded in 2003, Safend in 2009 was also named to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection. The company also rounded out its suite adding Safend Inspector and Discoverer to Safend Reporter, Safend Encryptor and Safend Protector.

PineApp

pineapp_logoPineApp is an e-mail and content systems security provider. Founded in 2002 by Gabriel Mizrahi and headquartered in Israel, PineApp’s products enhances email security by protecting against email-based spam and virus attacks. Its products include Mail-SeCure, Surf-SeCure and Secure SoHo. Earlier this month the company introduced two new products to its line, Mail-Encryption and Archive-SeCure.

Commtouch Software

commtouch_logoFounded in 1991, Commtouch develops software to protect e-mail by offering spam and Zero-Hour™ virus outbreak protection. Its anti-spam solutions feature its Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology and have been licensed by over 80 security and messaging vendors and providers including Aladdin, Check Point, Fujitsu and LG N-Sys.

Zend

Zend offers products and services for developing, deploying, and managing business-critical PHP applications. The company was founded by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Surask and its customers include McAfee, UPI and IBM. In September 2009, Zend along with its partners, IBM and Microsoft, announced a new initiative for PHP developers who are working on cloud-focused apps. Its products include Zend Server, Zend Platform and Zend Core.

IDIT I.D.I. Technologies

IDIT Technologies was founded in 1998 and offers SOA-based software solutions for the insurance industry. In July 2009 Forrester Research named the company among the hot insurance tech companies to watch in 2009, mainly for its multi-language and currency support innovations. The IDIT software suite addresses the specific end-to-end needs of general insurance for the insurance and financial markets including Business Intelligence, Workflow Management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). IDIT’s R&D center is headed by Lilia Waserman and its customers include Alfa Insurance and RAC Insurance.

PNMSoft

PNMSoft is a Business Process Management (BPM) and workflow software provider. Founded in 1996, PNMSoft provides customers, such as Amdocs, Microsoft and Philips, with solutions to better manage content and businesses from start to finish. PNMSoft’s poducts include SEQUENCE BPM workflow software based on Microsoft’s Windows Workflow Foundation platform. The company currently has an R&D center currently in Israel and was a Microsoft 2009 SOA and Business Process Partner of the Year Finalist.

VIZrt

VIZrt offers content production tools for the digital media industry. It was founded in 2000 and some of its clients include Fox, CBS and The Globe and Mail. Along with its products Viz Content Pilot and Viz Artist, VIZrt also offers mobile solutions. In 2008, Vizrt acquired Escenic.

sni-2

During the week of December 13, 2009, Clarizen raised $8 million while virtual head generator Gizmoz merged with Daz 3D. Cloudshare came out of stealth and Morgan Stanley came out with a report that the mobile web will overtake the desktop in five years which is promising for Israeli companies in the mobile space. Check below for these stories and the rest of this week’s 9 headlines.

Cleantech
1. Israel plunges into water technology

2. Israeli Renewable Energy – Why Israel, Why Now?

Investment and M&A
3. My Virtual Head Would Look Great On Your Virtual Body! Gizmoz Merges With Daz 3D

4. Clarizen raises $8M in 3rd round

Information Technology
5. CloudShare Comes Out of Stealth Mode: A Talk with Kevin Epstein

6. Kenshoo Branches Out with New Local Search Management Platform

Miscellaneous
7. Vringo Ringtones Startup From Israel Vies With News Corp. Unit

8. Spymaster sees Israel as world cyberwar leader

9. Morgan Stanley: Mobile web to overtake desktop in five years

sni-2

During the week of December 6, 2009, Israeli President Shimon Peres launched his own YouTube channel to encourage peaceful dialogue and announced that he will be going to the Copenhagen climate conference representing Israel. Information security company, Promisec thrived during the recession and Israel as a startup nation was looked at in a different light. For these stories and more, check below for this week’s 11 headlines.

Cleantech
1. Israeli Cleantech Heats Up

2. Peres to represent Israel at Copenhagen climate negotiations

Investments
3. BIRD to invest $4.2m. in six new projects

4. Playtech buys GTS

Information Technology
5. Harris: Pageonce shows you don’t need to be big to be global

6. Information security co Promisec shines in dark times: Internet threats can overwhelm regular antivirus solutions

7. How to sift through Twitter’s noise? MyTweetSense, FriendBinder give it a go

8. Cyber hacking could be a thing of the past

Miscellaneous
9. Peres gets viral, dives into social media with presidential YouTube channel

10. Home cooking

11. Fail Factors – Why Startups Die: The Israeli Illusion

Amobee Media Systems and Innovid have been named Technology Pioneers 2010 by the World Economic Forum. The two startups along with 24 others, including Twitter and Amiando, were identified for developing new technology that can “change and improve the way business and society operate.”

Here’s a little more about the startups:

amobeelogoLed by CEO Zohar Levkovitz and Gary Schofield, Amobee has developed advertising server technology for mobile operators that dynamically “inserts relevant ads into different mobile entertainment and communication channels” that users can interact with.

innovidlogoFounded in 2006 by Tal Chalozin and CEO Zvika Netter, Innovid provides publishers and advertisers with the ability to monetize online video by integrating brand advertising into relevant video content. Innovids technology enables advertisers “to insert 3D objects into videos post-production” that blend into the rest of the video but still attracts the user to click and interact with it.

As Technology Pioneers, Amobee and Innovid will have access to the World Economic Forum’s elite network of members and can attend the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, among other events.

Editor’s note: This was originally posted on TechAviv.com.