The VC funding news from Israel are piling up on my inbox. Is it because there are more worthy companies for investment all of a sudden, or are VCs driven by the need to deploy some of their capital before the end of the calendar year? Fred Wilson warns that it is starting to feel like a bubble again, with VCs writing $5 and $10 million dollar checks with very little due diligence, sometimes showing up to a first meeting with a term sheet…
Israeli startup headlines for Nov 15, 2010
Funding news
Two year-old TaKaDu, a SaaS product for water utility companies to monitor water infrastructure, has raised an undisclosed second round of funding led by Emerald Technology ventures and joined by existing investors Giza Venture Capital and Gemini Israel Funds [Zdnet]
Celeno Communications
, an Israel-based provider of semiconductors for multimedia WiFi home networking applications, this morning announced that it has secured a $12 million funding round, which included a strategic investment by international cable operator Liberty Global. The company’s previous backers, including Cisco, Greylock Partners, Miven Venture Partners, and Pitango Venture Capital, also participated in the round [Techcrunch]
Superfish, an Israeli startup developing image-based search engine, has annouced a third round of $3.4 million from current backers Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures, Individuals’ Venture Fund and Xenia Venture Capital. Superfish’s first prototype, Window Shopper, launched in April, after several years of being in stealth. The Firefox and Internet Explorer browser add-on allows users to search for images instead of text to find a broad range of similar products across thousands of sites simultaneously. [venturebeat]
RealMatch, a revolutionary Ad Network for e-recruiting, today announced it closed a $4.7 million Series B financing round led by Carmel Ventures with follow-on investment from existing investors Baytech Ventures (Germany). The investment will be used to expand sales and marketing activities in the US. As part of the round, Marcel Legrand, a former SVP in Monster.com has joined the company as CEO. Additionally, Ronen Nir, partner at Carmel Ventures, joined RealMatch’s board of directors. Realmatch was started in 2007 by Gal Almog. [Source]
Headway Medical, an Israeli medical devices startup developing solutions for management and treatment of chronic head and neck pain, has raised €2 million (euro) from the Dutch company Enraf-Nonius. Headway is using the funding to develop robotic physiotherapy equipment. [Calcalist Hebrew]
Other venture capital links
Gov’t lends high tech a fiscal hand – To encourage investment in seed-stage high-tech companies, the bill proposes that an individual who invests in a company that is primarily engaged in R&D, will receive the cost of the investment as an expense against any future source of income (including income from a salary or business) spread over three years. In effect, this means that the state is a partner in 45% of the individual investor’s risk.
Middle Eastern Promises -Blessed with nine blue-sky months and nearly nine miles of aquamarine coastline, Tel Aviv feels like a Middle Eastern Miami—all white-washed architecture, boogie-boarding beach bums and palm-lined boulevards stretching to the sea.
(Old but good) Paul Graham’s Hackers guide to investors (2007) – The world of investors is a foreign one to most hackers—partly because investors are so unlike hackers, and partly because they tend to operate in secret. I’ve been dealing with this world for many years, both as a founder and an investor, and I still don’t fully understand it.
$100M Russian-Israeli Nanotech Fund – About 2 months ago (on Sept 15th 2010) the Russian Nanotechnologies Corporation (RUSNANO) announced a tender to select a managing company to establish a Russian-Israeli investment fund worth $100 million.
Dear Entrepreneur, Are You Happy? – great article by Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball: “I wanted to know if highly successful professionals are happy. Here are four takeaways I gleaned from the entrepreneurs: 1. Take more risks — sooner…”
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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