Bitesize Monday: Recap of Israeli startup investments and product launches

June 2011 kicked off with the completion of HTIA, Israel’s high tech association conference, where more than 90 (!) startups have exhibited.  May has been a busy month for Israeli startups with great exposure in Techrunch disrupt in New York, funding rounds and debate about the future of the Israeli venture capital funds. Below are the headlines.

Israeli startups launches and VC rounds

• Drippler has announced a million NIS angel round from private investors in the Israeli high tech scene. Dripler provides users with news, gossip, videos and rumors on the gadgets their own, essentially associating a user with a gadget to enable targeted advertising.  it was started in 2010 by Matan Talmi, Dotan Galron and Ronen Jacobi – 3 alumni of the 8200 unit, IDF’s elite technology unit, and the birthplace of many Israeli startup founders.
• Ouriel Ohayon’s Appsfire raises $3.6 million in its first round, led by French VC fund Idinvest. Appsfire has reportedly reached 2 million
• Conduit’s aquisition of Wibiya confirmed for $45 million. Wibiya has created innovative tools for publishers in the form of an on-screen toolbar with no download required. The company grew to have a global reach of 200 million users in a year’s time, through partnerships with large online publishers.
• Personetics Secures $6.5M Funding from Carmel Ventures and Sequoia Capital – Personetics‘ mission is to help financial institutions respond to a major shift in the consumers’ behavior – the channels that they use, and the user experience they expect. The company has developed Personetics Digital Banker™, a self-service technology that uses customer profiles and automated intelligence to drive customer centric processes across multiple channels, including: Web, mobile and text banking.
• Can Ineze Really Make Finding the Right Product Easy? –Ineze collects product information wherever it can get it, and breaks it down into chunks that can be more easily compared, contrasted and updated.
• Do@ Bridges The Divide Between Search And Mobile Apps
• Simplee Makes Your Medical Bills Understandable
• Social TV Startup BeeTV Raises $1.5 Million, Releases iPad App
• BillGuard Will Track Hidden Fees And Billing Errors On Credit Card Bills

New products/innovation

• Sniffing out disease -A nano ‘nose’ developed by Israeli Prof. Hossam Haick can detect and classify cancer, kidney disease and other serious ailments just by analyzing breath samples
• A human touch for computer-generated voices – Israel’s Vivotext develops the world’s first artificial text-to-speech system that actually sounds like a real person is talking.

VC News

• Glilot Capital, a new Israeli VC fund started by alumni of IDF’s 8200 technology unit, is raising $30 million to invest in security projects. According to a recent report by ASDReports.com, the global expenditure on cyber attacks protection will reach $12.5 billion dollar this year.
• VCs in Israel refute Zeev Holtzman’s claim that Israeli VC is on the verge of collapse. Benchmark Capital’s Michael Eisenberg posts open letter to Zeev Holtzman says that while the industry is changing, we are in the middle of great transformation
• Bessemer’s Adam Fisher answers on Quora explains what is happening is a proverbial “changing of the guard.”
• JVP is raising a NIS 250 million fund dedicated to late-stage technology investments in Israel.