IBM Global Entrepreneur, the computer giant's entrepreneurship outreach arm is looking for the smartest early stage startups around the globe that will help solve tomorrow's problems. The next event on the list is taking place in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 21st. While registrations are now 30 companies have passed the initial screening process and were selected to present in front of a panel of judges this month.
The World Economic Forum has published the Technology Pioneers report for 2012. The report showcases 25 innovative young companies that were selected as they are well positioned to address some of the world’s challenges, in a broad range of fields. Amongst the award winners is DoubleVerify, an Israeli startup providing advertising verification services.
A big spread on Israeli startups and Venture Capital by Tobias Buck was published in the FT this morning , showcases what made Israel the startup nation, and what are the challenges ahead.
Marc Benioff, CEO of SalesForce gives a very energetic (almost evangelical) keynote speech on collaboration, and creating an employee social network, in front of 45,000 attendees.
Innovid, a video advertising startup, has raised $9.5 million round led by Sequoia Capital with Genesis Partners and T-Ventures (Deutsche Telecom) participating in the round. As part of the funding round, Sequoia partner Gili Raanan will join Innovid’s Board of Directors.
Ad verification startup DoubleVerify has raised a fourth round of $33 million from private equity fund JMI Equity and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). According to Ynet, the deal values DoubleVerify at $200 million. JMI knows quite a bit about display advertising, having bought DoubleClick before its $3.1 billion acquisition by Google.
Three months ago, Bjoern Herrmann and 21 year old Max Marmer decided to put some hard data to the test, by benchmarking 3,200 statrups on 25 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in their very buzzed Startup Genome Report. They didn't stop at just writing reports, and have put together a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley, called Blackbox.
Bloomberg, New York Times, CNN, USA Today... these are just a subset of Taboola's customers. Israeli startup Taboola has announced a $9 million series B round led by Crescent Point Group, with participation by Evergreen Venture Partners.
SalesForce.com, a pioneer in SaaS technology has made its first acquisition in Israel, with its decision to buy Navajo Systems for $30 million, says Globes. Following the acquisition, SalesForce will open its first R&D center in Israel.
Wanova, the Israeli corporate cloud services provider, has announced the completion of its round B financing totaling $10 million. The round was led entirely by previous backers: the Israeli offices of Greylock Partners and Carmel Ventures, as well as US fund Opus Capital.
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