PrimeSense, the Israeli technology company behind Microsoft Kinect's magic, has raised a $50 million round from French investment bank Lazard Group, based on a valuation of 300 million USD, reports TheMarker
# 80 schools in New York are testing Time to Know's computer-based curriculum in the class room as part of a $7.2 million project - http://goo.gl/TAFp
# Fabless semiconductor company Provigent is named the most promising startup in Israel by Globes and E&Y - The company had $25 million revenue in 2009 and expects $40 million in sales this year
SecondMarket, the marketplace for alternative investments such as company options and private company stock trading, announced yesterday that it has launched operations in Israel. This could mean big bucks for Israeli entrepreneurs, as they will be able to sell stock and options to interested investors before exiting the company. SecondMarket's effort in Israel will be led by Ranan Lachman (VP), who was previously at Oppenheimer & Co, one of the largest underwriters for Israeli startups, where he was involved in fundraising and IPOing numerous Israeli private companies.
Back in March, Andreessen Horowitz and Fenwick & West, LLP published a series of documents that would help structure early stage investments in startups. The documents have since been used in many deals already according to the site, SeriesSeed.
Today, seed funding in Israel got a little boost with the launch of the first Israeli Super Angel Seed Fund (or a so-called "Micro Venture Capital Fund") with $25 million in funding, Started by Avi Domoshevizki, Sani Sanilevich, Ofer Arieli and Saeed Amidi.
A cool little project by Lukaz Kostka @ljdk tags startups on a map using the CrunchBase API and CloudMade Maps.
Have you heard of "Wine Funds"? Today you can invest in fine wines through offshore funds based on the principle is that fine wines come in limited supply and increase in price in short bursts based on scoring or trends, rather than linearly over time. As the quantity of these wines is quickly reduced, price increases.
Israeli startup Oversi has announced a series C round of $4.9 million investment round led by Carmel ventures and joined by Cisco, Smac partners and StageOne ventures. Oversi offers a multi-service platform for over-the-top (OTT) content, including Internet video, peer-to-peer (P2P) and other media applications.
PeerTV, a veteran Israeli startup company which enables Content Providers, ISPs and Operators to deliver OTT (Over-the-Top) TV services, has filed for IPO in the London AIM market today
For the fourth consecutive year, TWS is taking place in Tel Aviv today with an impressive line up of judges, including silicon valley's most prominent angel Ron Conway and his partner David Lee (which recently got media attention for 'angelgate'), Saul Klein of Index Ventures and Seedacmp and Yair Goldfinger, founder of ICQ and Dotomi and angel investor in Israeli startups. If you're reading this on Monday the 18th, tune in to the live stream of the conference at http://www.twsconf.com/
Weekly Firgun Newsletter
Join founders and investors reading the weekly Firgun newsletter by Eze Vidra.