The LinkedIn IPO this week may have opened the gates for an Israeli market thirsty for exits, but in the meanwhile, VC funding in Israel continues with business as usual. Below are three recent founding rounds in Israeli venture-backed companies.
1) Onavo Mobile raised $3 million in its first round led by Sequoia Capital and Magma Venture Partners. The company’s technology aims to reduce mobile data costs by compressing data consumption and to help users understand how to use their devices. The company launched its first app for the iPhone and iPad last month, available for free for a limited time. Onavo’s strength is in apps that have high data consumption and are used while roaming abroad such as email, maps, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Co-founded by Guy Rosen (CEO) and Roi Tiger (CTO),
Below is a video demonstrating Onavo’s technology:
2) Kaminario raises $15 million led by GlobeSpan and included existing investors Sequoia and Pitango. Caminaro develops storage solutions in SSD drives. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Boston, MA with R&D offices in Israel. In July last year, Kaminario debuted its flagship product, the K2 high performance storage. The proceeds of this round will be be dedicated to expand the product line and increase marketing and sales. Co-founders Dani Golan and Ofer Dubovi are industry veterans in Israel.
3) VideoSurf raised $16 million in a C round led by Pitango. The company has developed serious video technology that enables the user to search frame by frame. VideoSurf was started by Lior Delgo, the formrer founder of FareChase (sold to Yahoo in 2004 in subsequently closed in 2008) accompanied by a very strong suit of Phd co-founders. This is primarily a technology play that aims to improve video search according to the actual content of the video, versus the textual metadata around it. VideoSurf raised $21 million to date according toCrunchbase.
The video below demonstrates VideoSurf’s technology at a glance:
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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