The front page at TechCrunch looks as if it was taken out of VC Cafe today. Out of the eight posts displayed on the home page, four are related to Israel. If you scroll back one page, you’ll see another one – not bad for a tiny country in the middle east.
Here’s a quick recap:
1. Yossi Vardi invests in Tel Aviv Based startup AllofMe – the Israeli company is developing a timeline generator for digital assets. It puts your emails photos, documents and videos on a time scale, thus allowing you to keep track of your media while giving it a new perspective. Next time some one asks you “what did you do on your birthday?” AllofMe should help you answer the question. Addy Feuerstein is the Founder – the company was founded in May of 2007 and has 8 employees. (via TechCruch, Haaretz, Orli)
2. Yet another investment by Yossi Vardi – this time it’s an Israel/New York City based startup called SeeToo, a web-based application that allows individuals to invite friends and family to watch home videos with them in real time in a chat room. It’s a bit similar to Meebo Rooms and soon-to-be-covered by VC Cafe, Ekko TV. TechCrunch is giving away 500 invites – try to get yours here. Yoav Ilan, head of marketing and biz dev gave the demo to TechCrunch. Yoav– Can I also get a demo and some invites? (via TechCrunch)
3. Google Israel acting Evil – According to Globes Online, Google initially stated that “disclosing the blogger’s identity violated rulings on the balance between freedom of expression and a person’s right to his reputation” – BUT Google finally caved in and provided the IP address of an “anonymous” blogger to an Israeli court voluntarily as part of a defamation case against a politician. Not that I support protecting a criminal, but it’s important to note: G wasn’t forced to give the data – they volunteered it. (via Globes, Techchrunch)
4. Roi Carthy posted an interesting review of eToro – a visual Forex (Foreign Exchange) Trading platform that simplifies trading by allowing users to trade money in a game-like setting. The parent company is Israel-based Tradonomi Ltd – It is incorporated in Limasol – most likely for taxing purposes, with offices in Tel Aviv. Trandonomi is led by Ceo and co-founder Jonathan (Yoni) Assia. was founded in 2006 and has 30 employees. Most recently, eToro released an affiliate platform called eToro Partners. (via PR Web, Techcrunch and Linked in).
5. Bonus: scroll one page back and see an article on Israel’s SuTree, an online index and library for free video lessons, tutorials, lectures and how-to’s from all over the web. SuTree got a serious facelift and a content collaboration agreement with Israel based 5min.
VC Cafe covers early stage companies, innovative technologies, and venture capital news with a spotlight on Israel. There’s a bunch of new features and ideas on the way in December, as the VC Cafe celebrates two years!
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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