As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. See the March 2011 edition after the jump. Check the archive for previous editions.
You have to sit by the side of the river a very long time before a roast duck will fly into your mouth" Guy Kawasaki.
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Following Wix's $40 million announcement yesterday - growth capital seems to be the name of the game in Israel this week. Adap.tv, the video advertising company started by Shopping.com's founder and former CTO Amir Ashkenazi, has announced a $20 million series C
With six first investment deals Evergreen Venture Partners was the most active VC fund in Israel in 2010, according to the latest IVC Research Center report. The second place was shared by Battery Ventures Israel and Pontifax, with five investments each.
The Gifts Project is a social ecommerce platform enabling group gifting. Its CEO, Ron Gura, was a mentor at Seedcamp Tel Aviv 2011, an early-stage micro seed investment and mentoring programme. Startup Intelligence recently interviewed him for VC Cafe.
Wix, the Israel-based flash website platform, has announced a D round of $40 million. The new investors in the round are Insight Venture Partners and DAG ventures who joined previous investors Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners that also participated in the round.
Tokbox raised $12 million after going through a significant pivot. The company essentially stopped developing its consumer facing product, and instead focused on Open Tok, its video chat API, as its core business. We had a chance to conduct a short interview with Ian Small, CEO of TokBox to find out the pivot decision was made.
Israeli startup headlines for March including new fundraising rounds, product launches, M&A deals, cleantech headlines and Israeli venture capital news, curated by VC Cafe, the home of Israeli startup news since 2005.
Facebook surprised with its first acquisition in Israel today, with the announcement that it is buying Israeli startup Snaptu (previously known as Moblica) for an estimated $60-70 million. Founded in 2007 by Ron Makavy, Micha Berdichevsky, and Barak Naveh, Snaptu raised a total of $9 million in three rounds
Wibbitz provides web developers with a plug-in which automatically transforms static web content into an interactive video. The company was one of the five winners at Seedcamp Tel Aviv 2011, an early-stage micro seed investment and mentoring programme. Startup Intelligence caught up with co-founders Zohar Dayan (CEO) and Yotam Cohen (VP Business Development) to find out more.
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