Robert Daniel
Read on to find out more about recent hires and other moves in the venture community over the past four weeks, including hires at Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark and Forerunner, among others. … Andreessen Horowitz named Kathryn Haun its first female general partner. Haun is a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted cybercrimes. She also is a lecturer at […]
The San Francisco Bay Area has Silicon Valley, Israel has Silicon Wadi and New York has Silicon Alley. So if you’re a mile up and you want to bring Israeli tech startups local, why not Silicon Mountain? That’s the view of Gili Elkin, one of two general partners at Denver-based Israel-Colorado Innovation Fund. The recently […]
Vintage Investment Partners, the Herzliya Pituach, Israel-based venture firm, closed its 10th fund on $215 million, 23 percent above its $175 million target. Vintage X, which is VIP’s fourth secondary fund, will buy LP positions in Israeli and European venture and growth-equity funds as well as U.S. venture funds.
Redwood City, California-based AltspaceVR, the social platform for virtual reality, said in a blog post that it would shut down on Aug. 3. “It looked like we had a deal for our next round of funding, and it fell through,” the blog post says. “Some combination of this deal falling through and the general slowness of VR market growth made most of our investors reluctant to fund us further.” The company was founded in 2013 and raised $15.7 million, the website says. AltspaceVR's backers included Tencent, Dolby Family Ventures, Raine Ventures, Lux Capital, Western Technology Investments, Maven Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures and Comcast Ventures.
Voiceitt, the Ramat Gan, Israel-based developer of translation technology for people with speech disabilities, closed $2 million of funding. Investors include Cahn Capital, Amit Technion, the venture unit of the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, Quake Capital Partners, Dreamit Ventures, Buffalo Angels and a number of individuals. The company, formally Technologies of Voice Interface Ltd, was founded in 2012 by CEO Danny Weissberg and Chief Technology Officer Stas Tiomkin.
Carmera, the Brooklyn, New York-based startup developing a street-level mapping and intelligence platform for autonomous vehicles, closed $6.4 million in venture funding, according to a blog post. The Series A round was led by Matrix Partners, with Resolute Ventures, Notation Capital and other funds and angels participating. Matrix’s Hardi Meybaum joins Carmera’s board.
Israel’s high-tech companies raised a total of $1.03 billion in Q1 2017, an 8 percent decline from the year-earlier period and a 4 percent drop from Q4 2016, according to a report from IVC Research Center, the trade group and law firm Zysman, Aharoni, Gayer & Co. The report also noted that the first-quarter financings were made in 155 deals, which is down 11 percent from a year earlier.
Copia Agro & Food, a Tel Aviv fund focused on agriculture and food products, is raising $50 million for investment in Israeli technologies addressing issues including climate change and food shortages. Managing the fund will be Ohad Zuckerman, former CEO of Zeraim Gedera and Eyal Cohen, managing partner at Copia.
Gamida Cell, a Jerusalem-based developer of cellular and immune therapies that treat cancer and genetic diseases, has named Dr. Julian Adams as chairman of its board of directors. Adams, who succeeds Ruben Krupik as Gamida's chairman, is president of R&D at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Gamida is backed by investment firms including Israel Healthcare Ventures, Denali Ventures and Auriga Ventures.
Missouri and Israel signed a co-investment agreement, designed to develop projects and create jobs. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Israel Chief Scientist Avi Hasson said in a Nov. 17 joint statement that the accord creates a framework through which for-profit companies in the state and nation can develop and commercialize technologies in aerospace and defense, cybersecurity, biotechnology and agriculture.