Our prayers this week go to the families of the 41 victims who died in the Carmel fire this holiday…
ClickFox Secures $18 Million in Series C Funding from Morgan Stanley
ClickFox, the Israeli-American startup developing optimization software for customer service centers, announced it has raised $18 million in financing from a syndicate led by Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP). ClickFox claims it is already profitable and that the proceeds of this round will be used to expand its sales and marketing efforts globally. Founded in 2000, Clickfox was started by Tal Cohen and Nissim Harel. The company has raised $46 million to date. [source]
JVP’s Qlik stock generate $112 million
Erel Margalit says the exit proves it is possible to get healthy returns even in the downturn. Israel’s Jerusalem Venture Partners sold part of its stake in Qlik Technologies Inc. for $112 million in a transaction that returned almost 40 times the Jerusalem-based venture capital fund’s initial investment. JVP initially invested less than $10 million in Qlik in 2005. The business intelligence software company raised $112 million in a first public offering in July on the Nasdaq Stock Market. JVP holds a 14.5 percent stake in Qlik after the sale. [source]
Navajo Systems Offers ‘virtual Private SaaS’ for Salesforce.com
With a new service called Virtual Private SaaS, Israeli startup Navajo Systems is targeting Salesforce.com customers who face regulatory hurdles involving data privacy and cloud computing. The service works by encrypting any data considered sensitive before it is transmitted to the Salesforce.com system.While residing there, the data is “completely unreadable (and therefore meaningless)”, according to a Navajo document. “Database theft, accidental leaks, law enforcement subpoenas to the SaaS provider and even identity theft all become harmless, and regulatory compliance is ensured.” [source]
Voice biometrics co Persay sold for $10-20 million to an undisclosed buyer
Voice biometrics company Persay has been sold. Two laconic notices to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) by shareholders Teuza – A Fairchild Technology Venture and Shrem Fudim Technologies did not disclose the name of the buyer or the size of the deal, but mentioned how much they would get for their holding in the company.Persay’s Free-Speech system enables biometric voice recognition. [sources 1 & 2]
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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