Israel Active

Israeli streaming company Vonetize's may be the first 2016 launch on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company's service is called Smart VOD (Video On Demand) and is a similar service to Netflix.

Hagihon - Jerusalem’s water company - has been awarded a key role on the 4-year European Union project to improve governance and social awareness of water environmental challenges. It involves setting up a Digital Social Platform to share details of water scarcity, security, quality and water consumption-related issues.

Last week there was good news about seven Israeli cybersecurity companies - the first six are their first mentions in my newsletter. LightCyber won awards in both SC Magazine and CRN Magazine; SafeBreach launched its continual testing platform; Fireglass raised $20 million of funds for its critical systems solution; ImVision raised $4 million for its anomaly detection technology; Nubo raised $7 million to expand its Cloud-based mobile protection; and ForeScout became a billion-dollar value company. Finally, Elbit’s CYBERBIT unit exposed the workings and solution for Dridex - the most dangerous virus in existence.

Thousands of products were displayed to over 100,000 visitors at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Both winners in the “Last Gadget Standing” category were Israeli. The VUZE Camera from HumanEyes was the Live Audience winner and SteamCC’s Ripple Maker was the on-line winner

Israeli start-up IoTBox has developed a hi-tech sensor tracking system for super-fast elimination of rodent infection at food processing sites. It utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT) and predictive analytics to calculate the travel pattern of the vermin and identify where pest control needs to be applied.

A third of the smart TVs sold in the world today contain Adaptive Video Acceleration (AVA) - an essential piece of technology made by Israeli start-up Giraffic. Both Samsung and LG use Giraffic’s AVA to stream content, uninterrupted by network glitches and slowdowns.

Israeli startup MyState shows the availability of a contact before dialing by displaying if the person is on a call, offline, on vibrate or silent, has no Internet connection, is in a different time-zone, or their battery is running low, or charging. MyState has just raised $6.5 million of funds.

Israel’s mPrest provides monitoring and control software for the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling organizations to connect any sensor at any time. mPrest also developed the brains for the Iron Dome missile defense system. mPrest has just raised $20 million of funds for international expansion.

Israeli startup Seebo makes it easier for companies to develop smart products. Seebo provides them with end-to-end tools and technology that connect the products to the Internet of Things (IoT). Seebo has just raised $8.5 million of funds.

Real estate magnate and publisher Mortimer Zuckerman has announced a 20-year, $100 million scholarship program to pay for American graduate students in the sciences to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in Israel. It will allow leading US and Israeli academics to work together on cutting-edge research.