VC Cafe turned seven! in this post I cover the journey of starting VC Cafe, the highs and downs along the way, and the path I followed to evolve it from a news reporting blog to a site that provides founders with practical advice.
As 2012 comes to an end, I thought I'd put together a 'best of' list of VC Cafe's stories throughout the year. It seems like 2012 was the year of throwing spaghetti on the wall by founders and investors alike, in the hopes that some of it would stick. It was nevertheless, an extremely productive year, packed with content and news.
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Cities Summit Tel Aviv, in a session moderated by Mr Yossi Vardi. The topic was the "Innovative code" of cities. My talk focused on London and its ability to become a startup center in Europe. In a nutshell, London has all the components it needs to succeed.
Globes ranked the top 10 Israeli startups for 2012, and social marketplace Fiverr has taken the top spot. Fiverr has not only created a new marketplace, but also established a whole category, which attracted quite a lot of copycats (make Purple cows people!). Some of these include: Smalljob, 20s, and Gigim as well as Fourerr, Sixerr, and Eighterr...
Reports on the drop of local VC financing in Israel don't tell the whole story. The latest IVC report reveals that in 2011, 546 Israeli high-tech companies raised $2.14 billion in VC funding, representing a 70% increase compared to the $1.26 billion raised in 2010 and almost double from the $1.12 billion raised in 2009.
The latest IVC Online report is out and it offers interesting color on the funding of Israeli startups. According to the report, 137 startups raised $522 million in Q3 of 2011, up 53% from the equivalent period in 2010, but down 8% from the $549 million raised in Q2 2011.
As silicon valley veterans who are experienced working with startups Gil Ben Artzi, a former Yahoo exec, and Shuly Galili, founder of the CICC and organizer of the Israel web/mobile/cleantech tours, spotted the gap and launched Upwest Labs, a new accelerator for Israeli startups in Silicon Valley.
Safebit has launched a Chrome extension preview version which received positive reviews, and is now operating in Alpha mode. According to the founders, on the first 24 hours of operation, over 725 unique users paid with Safebit.
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.
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.
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