UST Invests in Israel’s aiOla to Advance Voice-Led AI Workflows for Frontline Industries

Amir Haramaty, President and Co-founder, aiOla

UST, a leading AI and technology transformation solutions company, has strengthened its presence at the intersection of human-AI interaction with its recent investment in aiOla. Israel-based aiOla is a deep tech voice and conversational AI lab that has built a voice-agentic AI platform that powers workflow agents, converting frontline speech into structured, auditable workflows. The deal follows a successful collaboration initiated and incubated by UST’s open-innovation arm, UST Spark.

With this strategic investment, UST expands its growing technology advantage in next-generation AI solutions. With expertise in frontline intensive verticals such as healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing, and automotive, UST and aiOla are strongly positioned to transform the frontline worker experience in these industries through AI and natural voice-to-system execution. This partnership strengthens aiOla’s ability to bring innovation to market and scale voice-agentic automation in mission-critical settings across a variety of verticals.

So far, enterprises have primarily found success integrating AI into back-office processes. But this has resulted in the collection of more valuable frontline data has lagged because it remains stuck behind unconnected keyboards, clipboards, and fragmented apps. Natural and agentic voice processing efficiently captures this critical frontline data, resulting in superior demand forecasting and richer insights while also reducing costs associated with traditional manual data capture methods.

aiOla is a leader in this emerging field, and its platform turns shorthand data captured through spoken inputs into structured, auditable information. With aiOla, frontline workers can interact with their own systems through voice input in any environment, overcoming background noise, accents, and jargon to work faster, reduce manual errors, and seamlessly capture critical information. This replaces keystrokes with agentic, voice-led workflows that capture triple the data, three times faster. UST invested in aiOla because it is the only voice-to-workflow platform purpose-built for enterprise operations, scaling in jargon-heavy, industry-specific environments, while also adapting to each site’s terminology and enforcing consistent processes across locations.

Because UST is a key strategic partner for Fortune 500 enterprises, the company is well positioned to streamline the rollout of this innovative technology to clients, allowing them to benefit from a holistic approach to products and platforms that support complex work processes.

Manu Gopinath, President, UST

"At UST, we envision enterprise transformation enabled by AI as the next major leap for business. By integrating advanced voice and conversational AI technologies with our platforms and solutions, we empower frontline workers with seamless, intuitive experiences—automating data capture, accelerating workflows, and optimizing operational efficiency at scale. These capabilities are redefining how work gets done in the field, bringing actionable intelligence and measurable outcomes directly to those who deliver value every day. Our investment in aiOla, aligned with UST’s proven technology ecosystem, reinforces our commitment to delivering the powerful tools enterprises need to transform services, drive innovation, and set new standards for operational excellence,” said Manu Gopinath, President, UST.

“UST is the ideal partner to help bring aiOla’s voice-agentic workflows into the heart of the enterprise. Together, we’re enabling organizations in critical industries like pharmaceuticals and manufacturing to replace manual, error-prone processes with seamless, voice-driven workflows that give teams real-time access to data and processes, unlocking a more efficient and agile way of working at scale,” said Amir Haramaty, President and Co-founder, aiOla.

UST and aiOla did not disclose the investment value.

Israel Launches ~$2 Mn Initiative to Recruit 200 AI Experts for Israeli Startups

Israel has launched a $1.96 million (NIS 7 Mn) initiative to recruit 200 AI experts for Israeli startups. This initiative is part of Israel's National AI Program and aims to address the global shortage of AI professionals. The program will target highly skilled talent, including foreign professionals, returning Israeli citizens, and individuals eligible under the Law of Return.

Organizations like Nish Hitech, which works with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Gvahim in partnership with The Jewish Agency, and ScienceAbroad in collaboration with Nefesh B’Nefesh will manage the recruitment, placement, and integration processes.

Israel, which ranks among the top 10 ecosystems for AI, has earmarked NIS 7 million ($1.96 million) to bring in at least 200 foreign experts over the next three years to help the country keep pace with the fast development and adoption of AI models around the globe.

It's a significant step towards bolstering Israel's position as a global leader in AI innovation.

Israel's initiative to recruit AI experts has garnered attention from various organizations and authorities. The Israel Innovation Authority, which is leading the initiative, has highlighted the critical need to expand Israel's AI talent pool to maintain its leadership in the field. The program is part of a broader strategy to address the shortage of skilled AI professionals in the country.

Several organizations are involved in managing the recruitment, placement, and integration processes. These include Nish Hitech, Gvahim in partnership with The Jewish Agency, and ScienceAbroad in collaboration with Nefesh B’Nefesh. The initiative aims to attract top-tier talent from around the world, including foreign professionals, returning Israeli citizens, and individuals eligible under the Law of Return.

The Israel Innovation Authority has also launched a tender worth NIS 10 million to attract foreign AI experts with advanced degrees and substantial industry experience. This move is designed to enhance the capabilities of Israeli high-tech companies and ensure long-term growth and innovation in the sector.

Microsoft Veterans-founded Zenity Comes Out of Stealth with $5Mn as the Only Company to Secure Low Code/No Code Applications

Zenity Team

Microsoft and IDF unit 8200 veterans established the only company to secure Low-Code/No-Code applications. “Zenity enables governance and security principles, accelerating citizen development growth,” said Ben Kliger, co-founder and CEO of Zenity.

Zenity, the only governance and cybersecurity platform for Low-Code/No-Code applications, exited stealth mode with a $5 million seed funding round, led by Vertex Ventures and UpWest, and backed by top executives such as the former CISO of Google, Gerhard Eschelbeck, and former CIO of SuccessFactors, Tom Fisher. With Zenity, businesses can promote citizen development and adopt Low-Code/No-Code platforms while avoiding critical data exfiltration or disruption to business continuity.

Today’s digital revolution is powered by platforms that democratize application development and enable rapid quality deliverables. Traditionally, IT and development teams developed applications. Now, teams utilize Low-Code/No-Code platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft Power Platform, and others to develop applications in minutes. With this new employee independence, CIOs, CISOs, and relevant stakeholders are looking to ensure that business units and citizen developers are free to improve productivity without compromising security. Without governance and security practices, organizations are unintentionally vulnerable to exfiltrating sensitive data or exposing the organization to breaches and ransomware attacks.

Ben Kliger, co-founder and CEO of Zenity (Left) & Michael Bargury, co-founder and CTO of Zenity (Right)

"Companies are heavily adopting Low-Code/No-Code, without realizing the risks it employs nor their part in the shared responsibility model,” said Zenity co-founder & CEO Ben Kliger. “We empower CIOs and CISOs to seamlessly govern their Low-Code/No-Code applications and prevent unintentional data leaks, disturbance to business continuity, compliance risks or malicious breaches.”

To provide governance and security for such applications, teams must assess the business logic, security configuration, permissions model, and data flows. Already working with Fortune 500 companies using their platform, Zenity continuously scans every application component identifying security policy violations. This can include vulnerabilities, such as risky 3rd-party components and exfiltration and manipulation threats, including supply chain attacks.

“The challenge is mitigating the risks and security threats associated with Low-Code/No-Code solutions without disturbing the business,” said Tom Fisher, Zenity advisor and former CIO of Oracle, Qualcomm, CTO of eBay. “Zenity provides the perfect combination of governance and security tools with a pro-business approach that helps business developers build with confidence.”

Ben Kliger and Michael Bargury worked at Microsoft on the Azure and cloud security teams. Michael Bargury, co-founder and CTO of the company, said, “Low-code brings huge ROIs to Fortune 500 companies by democratizing application development and aligning development with the business. However, it also bypasses existing security approaches, making it easy to store sensitive CRM data on personal accounts, share credentials, and execute arbitrary code, allowing attackers to remain hidden while maintaining full control”

These funds will allow them to expand R&D, product, marketing operation, and customer acquisition activities while allowing businesses to experience unprecedented growth, made available by today’s digital revolution.

Coralogix Raises $55 Million in Series-c Funding to Expand Its Footprint in India

Eyes strategic 5-year growth plan for India market assisting companies with data storage capabilities and compliance with data privacy laws

• Plans to expand market footprint in India offering best-in-class localized support infrastructure to global enterprises
• Aims to address high demand for leading stateful streaming analytics platform
• Upgrades AWS cloud server-stack to offer efficient services to India-based companies

India — JULY 29, 2021 — Israel-based leading provider of machine learning powered log analytics and monitoring solutions, Coralogix today announced it has raised $55 million in a Series C funding round led by Greenfield Partners, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $96 million. The company aims to pursue its strategic 5-year growth plan for the India market, whilst assisting companies with regional server support, data storage capabilities and compliance with the country’s data privacy laws.

The latest round of funding also saw participation from Red Dot Capital Partners, StageOne Ventures, Eyal Ofer’s - O.G. Tech, Janvest Capital Partners, Maor ventures, and 2B Angels.

Previously in October 2020, the company had raised $25 million in Series B funding round co-led by Red Dot Capital Partners and O.G. Tech VC (backed by Eyal Ofer).

Coralogix in its previous funding round had announced a strategic expansion into India with a commitment to invest over $30 million in the upcoming 5 years. The company is currently pursuing its investment goals for the Indian market. Besides, the company is also aggressively expanding its onsite team in the country to provide comprehensive sales and customer success support to India-based companies.

As part of its expansion plans for India, Coralogix has set up a new Amazon Web Services (AWS) Mumbai region offering superior server support and data storage capabilities to its India-based customers. The company has scaled it’s servers by over 1000% with localized data processing reaching a rate of 100 billion events a day, offering efficient services to some of the biggest tech companies across the country. The company is also eyeing to aggressively expand its market footprint across India offering best-in-class localized support infrastructure to global enterprises.

Ariel Assaraf, CEO, Coralogix said “India is a significant market for Coralogix packed with huge opportunities. India’s data privacy laws mandating data localisation is a big stride in the current era of digital revolution across businesses and administration. We aim to assist companies comply with the country’s data privacy laws whilst offering best in class localized support infrastructure.”

“Data is the new oil, however the exponential growth of data is preventing companies from leveraging its full potential. We address this challenge through our stateful streaming analytics technology, which enables our users to decide how their data goes through our processing pipelines, enabling storage-free insights" he further added.

The latest round of funding comes on the heels of a momentous year for Coralogix. In the last quarter, Coralogix experienced 250% YoY growth and more than doubled its paying customer base to over 2000. The company will use the new capital to extend their platform beyond observability towards a comprehensive storage-free data solution.

“The dramatic shift in digital transformation is generating an explosion of data, which until now has forced enterprises to decide between cost and coverage,” said Shay Grinfeld, Managing Partner at Greenfield Partners. “Coralogix’s real-time streaming analytics pipeline employs proprietary algorithms to break this tradeoff and generate significant cost savings. Coralogix has built a customer roster that comprises some of the largest and most innovative companies in the world. We’re thrilled to partner with Ariel and the Coralogix team on their journey to reinvent the future of data observability.”

Yoni Farin, Coralogix CTO, adds, “Our mission is to make raw data obsolete. This round of funding will help us further our storage-free vision, supporting the exponential nature of software.”

India’s data centre industry is expected to grow to 1,007 MW by 2023 from its existing capacity of 447 MW according to a report released by global real-estate and investment firm JLL.

ABOUT CORALOGIX

Coralogix is the leading stateful streaming platform for modern engineering teams. Thousands of global-leading companies including 10 of the Fortune 100 companies, use Coralogix to power their businesses. For more information, please visit https://coralogix.com/.

Walmart Acquiring Israel-based Zeekit that Offers Virtual Fitting Room for Fashion Brands

Retail giant Walmart Inc. will acquire Israeli-based startup, Zeekit, which provides the virtual fitting room for fashion brands.

Female-founded Zeekit has developed the first dynamic virtual fitting room, giving every person the chance to see themselves in any item of clothing found on-line. Based on real-time image processing technology, Zeekit uses its patented technology to map a person's image into thousands of segments.

Denise Incandela, Walmart's executive vice president of apparel and private brands, announced about the acquisition in a blog post, "Virtual try-on is a game-changer and solves what has historically been one of the most difficult things to replicate online: understanding fit and how an item will actually look on you.Zeekit will help us deliver an inclusive, immersive and personalized experience for our diverse customer base."

Walmart Executive VP further said --

Given its scalability, we believe Zeekit's technology can also be used to create other fashion experiences, including the ability to build the world's largest virtual closet and mix and match clothing seamlessly," Incandela said. "These exciting technologies add a social element to the digital experience, allowing our customers to bring their unique personalities and preferences to shopping

Terms and financials were not announced or when Zeekit will be available on Walmart.com. To use Zeekit, customers upload a picture of themselves or use a representative model to virtually try on clothes.

Founded by dynamic trio -- Yael Vizel, Nir Appleboim and Alon Kristal, this had the revolutionary idea to take their extensive experience in developing real-time image processing technologies, computer vision, deep learning and artificial intelligence for military purposes and implement it in the world of fashion.

Post acquisition, the company's founding executives will join Walmart.

Leading Israeli AI Company Dataloop Partners with Indian Angel Investors to Strengthen Regional Presence

Dataloop, a leading platform for Artificial Intelligence (AI) data management and annotation, today announced that eight leading angels from India, led by Saket Agarwal of Onnivation have joined the existing investors in the company’s latest founding round. With participation from Umang Bedi, Virendra Gupta, Bikram Singh Bedi, Gaurav Gupta, Salil Musale and Saket Agarwal, the investment will help to enable the expansion of Dataloop’s presence in India and further reinforces a larger trend of cooperation between Israel and India in the technology sector. To date Dataloop has raised $16 million in funding following the completion of an $11 million Series A round.

 
As the global AI market approaches $190 billion in value by 2025, India has seen its own AI sector grow rapidly . But despite AI’s breakneck growth, 96% of companies still struggle with proper data labeling when they attempt to implement AI. Dataloop plans to address this gap with its robust data management solutions designed specifically to solve this challenge.
 
Dataloop helps enterprises that are developing AI in India and across the globe with their customizable SaaS platform that weaves together human and machine intelligence to train and label unstructured data. The company’s advanced platform feeds ‘real-time’ data back to human counterparts while simultaneously streamlining the workflow with automated annotation tools.
 
With Dataloop, organizations operating in a range of verticals – including retail, agriculture, and autonomous vehicles – can successfully deploy AI in production and focus on their core business. The pandemic has further fueled this growth making it a critical investment. “The data annotation industry is rapidly growing in India and we are extremely excited to be expanding Dataloop’s presence here,” said Eran Shlomo, CEO of Dataloop. “Israel and India have developed a strong partnership and we look forward to working together and the opportunities it will bring to the Indian market.”
 
“Onnivation has been spearheading the growth of India-Israel technology partnerships with over 15 Israeli deep tech companies that are solving challenges for India's largest and most influential corporates and tech unicorns. We are fortunate to have backed Eran and the Dataloop team and thrilled to join their quest on transforming the Computer Vision and AI industry,” said Saket Agarwal, Founder and Managing Partner of Onnivation. “Strategic investments like Dataloop will help accelerate innovation and technology exchanges between the two countries, helping us strengthen the digital India agenda,” added Saket. “It’s a great day for Dataloop and a great day for the India-Israel friendship!"

Israel-based Coralogix Raises $25 Mn in funding; To Strengthen Presence in India

• Funding to strengthen Coralogix's local presence in India
• Company launches real-time analytics engine that eliminates high storage costs 

Israel-based Coralogix, provider of leading ML-powered log analytics and monitoring solution, today announced it has raised a $25 million Series B funding round, bringing the company's total amount raised to $41.2 million. New investors such as Red Dot Capital Partners and O.G. Tech VC (backed by Eyal Ofer) co-led the round with participation from existing investors Aleph VC, StageOne Ventures, Janvest Capital Partners, and 2B Angels. Barak Salomon of Red Dot Capital partners and Roy Oron of O.G. Tech Partners will join the board of directors. 

Coralogix, today also announced the launch of its real-time analytics solution. The announcement comes on the heels of Coralogix’s recent expansion into India. The company recently established its office and operations in the region and provides local customers with local Amazon Web Services (AWS) regional server support and data storage capabilities. The funding and new analytics solution will help further establish Coralogix's local presence and help better support its local customers.

Over the last few years, companies have had to forgo observability due to prohibitive costs,” said Ariel Assaraf, CEO and co-founder, Coralogix. “As a result, monitoring and log management has become increasingly difficult, not to mention it has forced companies to compromise on stability and security. By creating a real-time pipeline that analyzes and queries logs using the Elasticsearch syntax, and powering it with our ML engine, our customers can benefit from all the great visualization and alerting capabilities Elasticsearch offers without its limitations and massive storage costs."

Already thousands of Coralogix customers, including leading India-based companies such as BookMyShow, Postman, Jupiter Money and CRED, are seeing cost savings of up to 70 percent.

“We’ve integrated the Coralogix webhooks with our Kubernetes deployments to automatically tag new versions as they’re deployed,” Pranav Kapoor, DevOps Lead, BookMyShow. “I love that I can archive logs to an S3 bucket for later retrieval without affecting the daily quota” he added.

The newly launched analytics solution, challenges the cost model of observability by allowing customers to pay according to data priority instead of solely on volume. By re-engineering the Elasticsearch engine, Coralogix is able to offer queries, alerts, and its ML capabilities without the use of storage.

"Coralogix gives us a highly customizable SIEM solution that addresses the very specific needs of our FinTech environment," said Jayesh Sidhwani, Vice President of Engineering, Jupiter Money.

“As an organization that caters to 10 million users, Coralogix has scaled to meet our accelerated growth seamlessly and has demonstrated extreme focus on their customers' needs,” said Shamasis Bhattacharya, Chief Software Architect, Postman.

ABOUT CORALOGIX

Coralogix is a Log Analytics platform that empowers teams to autonomously manage and analyze data in cloud applications. The platform's machine learning engine enables users to improve their stability, and accelerate their version delivery without paying for the noise their systems generate. Thousands of global-leading companies including Masterclass, Monday.com, BookMyShow, Postman, and PayU use Coralogix to power their businesses. For more information, please visit https://coralogix.com/

Israel's Coralogix Expands India Operations; Plans to Invest over $30 Mn in the Next 5 Yrs

Coralogix expands its India operations with a new AWS Mumbai region to help companies comply with the upcoming security law in 2021

Israel based Coralogix, provider of leading ML-powered log analytics and monitoring solution, today announced a strategic expansion into India to provide its customers with its first local Amazon Web Services (AWS) regional server support and data storage capabilities. By localizing data, Coralogix will help customers meet compliance requirements for India’s new data privacy laws and dramatically improve service performance. Coralogix is also rolling out an onsite team to provide comprehensive sales and customer success support to India-based companies.

“With today’s strategic move, we are proactively addressing new Indian data privacy laws scheduled to take effect in 2021 by providing Coralogix customers with a solution well ahead of most of our competitors,” said Ariel Assaraf, CEO and co-Founder, Coralogix. “When the new laws are enacted, we anticipate a profound sense of urgency for companies who fall under domestic compliance rules to store their data locally and avoid being penalized for non-compliance.”

Cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology companies that collect user data will be most notably affected by these new laws and stand to benefit from today’s expansion announcement. Several regional brands operating within these industries have already signed on as Coralogix customers including Postman, Jupiter Money, BookMyShow and more.

“Coralogix gives us a highly customizable SIEM solution that addresses the very specific needs of our FinTech environment,” said Jayesh Sidhwani, Vice President-Engineering, Jupiter Money.

“Our lives got easier - within minutes we started seeing results on the dashboard,” said Pranav Kapoor, DevOps Lead, BookMyShow. “We’ve integrated the Coralogix webhooks with our Kubernetes deployments to automatically tag new versions as they’re deployed. I love that I can archive logs to an S3 bucket for later retrieval.”

“We grew to 10 million users and Coralogix has grown along with us,” said Shamsis

Bhattacharya, Chief Software Architect, Postman. “We’ve worked closely together to get the workflows we need as an organization to ensure that the product we deliver meets the quality and value requirements.”

Coralogix’s team worked closely with their counterparts at Amazon when launching the expansion.

ABOUT CORALOGIX

Coralogix is a log analytics platform that empowers DevOps teams to autonomously manage and analyze log data in cloud applications. The platform's machine learning engine enables users to reach faster time to market, avoid customer attrition and accelerate their version delivery without compromising quality or stability. Over 1000 global-leading companies including Payoneer, BookMyShow, and PayU use Coralogix to power their businesses.

Israel based Wireless Power Solution Firm Powermat Technologies Expands to India with New Office in Gurgaon

TEL-AVIV, Israel, and GURGAON, India, July 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Powermat Technologies today announced the expansion of the company's offices into Gurgaon, India. The new office will support the company's wide range of clients in all of India and will be spearheaded by Powermat's newly appointed Regional Vice President, industry veteran Mr. Raj Caprihan.

Located southwest of New Delhi in northern India, the new office will become an integral part of India's largest financial and technology hub. The high-standard innovation and business talent that exists in India's global technological ecosystem are among the company's primary draws to the region.

"Powermat recognizes the importance of being local. Our new presence in India will allow us to expand our global reach while being in-tune with both present and future technological challenges and requirements", said Elad Dubzinski, CEO at Powermat. "India has increasingly become one of the most dynamic growing markets for the global economy, and we are looking forward to exploring the opportunity to expand our presence in the region even further in the years to come."

The new office in Gurgaon reflects on Powermat's strategic focus on expanding its role as an industry leader in the region. The new Indian location will serve and support its clients in the fields of healthcare technology, automotive, industrial robotics, IoT, consumer electronics, and various 5G use cases.

We are thrilled to announce Powermat's new strategic office in Gurgaon and are looking forward to deepening our relationship with the local ecosystem", added Mr. Raj Caprihan, RVP at Powermat. "The enormous potential that the Indian market holds has become a key focus for the company, and I'm excited to be leading the expansion of Powermat's wireless charging technology into new and current global use cases."

About Powermat

Powermat Technologies is a global provider of wireless charging platforms and the creator of the largest wireless charging network in the world. Powermat's IP licensing program holds over 130 patent submissions and covers a wide variety of industry applications, including mobile, consumer electronics, automotive & transportation, medical, IoT, robotics and more. The company's inductive wireless charging technology has been adopted and fully integrated by global market leaders such as Samsung, LG, General Motors, Flex, Harman International, Kyocera, and more.

Visit Powermat: https://www.powermat.com/

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Israel based Wireless Power Solution Firm Powermat Technologies Expands to India with New Office in Gurgaon

Powermat Technologies today announced the expansion of the company's offices into Gurgaon, India. The new office will support the company's wide range of clients in all of India and will be spearheaded by Powermat's newly appointed Regional Vice President, industry veteran Mr. Raj Caprihan.

Located southwest of New Delhi in northern India, the new office will become an integral part of India's largest financial and technology hub. The high-standard innovation and business talent that exists in India's global technological ecosystem are among the company's primary draws to the region.

"Powermat recognizes the importance of being local. Our new presence in India will allow us to expand our global reach while being in-tune with both present and future technological challenges and requirements", said Elad Dubzinski, CEO at Powermat. "India has increasingly become one of the most dynamic growing markets for the global economy, and we are looking forward to exploring the opportunity to expand our presence in the region even further in the years to come."

The new office in Gurgaon reflects on Powermat's strategic focus on expanding its role as an industry leader in the region. The new Indian location will serve and support its clients in the fields of healthcare technology, automotive, industrial robotics, IoT, consumer electronics, and various 5G use cases.

We are thrilled to announce Powermat's new strategic office in Gurgaon and are looking forward to deepening our relationship with the local ecosystem", added Mr. Raj Caprihan, RVP at Powermat. "The enormous potential that the Indian market holds has become a key focus for the company, and I'm excited to be leading the expansion of Powermat's wireless charging technology into new and current global use cases."

About Powermat

Powermat Technologies is a global provider of wireless charging platforms and the creator of the largest wireless charging network in the world. Powermat's IP licensing program holds over 130 patent submissions and covers a wide variety of industry applications, including mobile, consumer electronics, automotive & transportation, medical, IoT, robotics and more. The company's inductive wireless charging technology has been adopted and fully integrated by global market leaders such as Samsung, LG, General Motors, Flex, Harman International, Kyocera, and more.

Visit Powermat: https://www.powermat.com/

Microsoft Acquires Israeli IoT Firm CyberX for Reportedly $165 Million

US tech giant Microsoft ha acquired Israel-based Internet of Things (IoT) security company CyberX to accelerate and secure customers' IoT deployments, announced Microsoft in a official blog post.

Financials of the deal are not being disclosed however according to TechCrunch sources it’s in the region of $165 million.

Post the acquisition, CyberX is integrated with Microsoft’s broad portfolio of IoT security offerings in threat protection that span users, endpoints, applications, data and more. CyberX will complement the existing Azure IoT security capabilities, and extends to existing devices including those used in industrial IoT, Operational Technology and infrastructure scenarios.

Founded in 2013, by Omer Schneider and Nir Giller, CyberX delivers the only IoT/OT cybersecurity platform built by blue-team experts with a track record of defending critical national infrastructure. Headquartered in Boston, CyberX has its development center in Herzliya, Israel.

CyberX's founders will join Microsoft and the platform will continue to be enhanced and supported by CyberX personnel. In addition, Microsoft is committed to the channel and will continue working with CyberX’s strategic reseller and technology partners worldwide. The CyberX platform will continue to be available in a hybrid model supporting both cloud-connected and air-gapped networks.

CyberX has been raised funding of about $48 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Flint Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, Inven Capital, and OurCrowd. CyberX claims to be the only cybersecurity company with a patent for M2M-aware behavioral analytics and machine learning technology.

Omer Schneider, co-founder and CEO of CyberX, said, "Nir and I founded CyberX with the goal of delivering a scalable solution that would be easy to deploy and reduce risk for enterprises worldwide. We’re thankful to our loyal customers and partners as well as to our dedicated employees whose innovation and hard work made it possible for us to reach this important milestone, and also to our investors for their ongoing support."

Source - Microsoft blog post and CyberX blog post

Intel Buys Israel's Urban Mobility Startup Moovit for $900 Mn

Intel said Monday that it has purchased Israeli urban mobility startup Moovit for USD 900 million.

The California-based chipmaker said the purchase buttresses its plan to become a “complete mobility provider." The acquisition deepens Intel's reach in Israel, where the company has spent billions buying other companies, and where it has a chip-making factory.

Founded in 2012 and based out of Tel Aviv, Israel, with approximately 200 employees, Moovit is a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform company best known for its mobile application that provides public transit and navigation data to simplify urban mobility in 3,100 cities around the world. The app experience will not change and the company will continue to serve users, customers and partners with the exceptional level of service, professionalism and dedication they’ve come to expect.

Post acquisition, Moovit will join the Mobileye business while retaining its brand and existing partnerships.

Intel Corp. paid USD 15 billion in 2017 to acquire Mobileye, an Israeli company at the forefront of autonomous vehicle technology. Since then, Mobileye revenues have more than doubled on the increased adoption of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) technology and the mobility firm has been a growth engine for Intel as the company transforms for a world where the exponential growth of data fuels demand for technology solutions that can process, move and store more data faster. Intel is investing and expanding to serve new data-rich market opportunities, including the fast-growing market for ADAS, data and MaaS technologies, which together represent an opportunity totaling more than $230 billion by 2030.

Moovit is known for its urban mobility application that offers travelers around the world the best multimodal trip planning by combining public transportation, bicycle and scooter services, ride-hailing, and car-sharing. The addition of Moovit brings Intel’s Mobileye closer to achieving its plan to become a complete mobility provider, including robotaxi services, which is forecast to be an estimated $160 billion opportunity by 2030.

Nir Erez , CEO and co-founder of Moovit, will be joining Mobileye’s executive team as an executive vice president. (Credit: Moovit)

That purchase created another major player in self-driving technology and strengthened predictions that autonomous cars will someday come in large numbers and change the way people get around.

Moovit will join the Mobileye team, accelerating its "ability to truly revolutionize transportation,” Intel said.

Using information from users and bus and train schedules, Moovit's app provides urban transit solutions, combining public transport schedules and options with taxis, bicycles, electric scooters and more, to provide a comprehensive picture of how best to travel.

"Combining the daily mobility habits and needs of millions of Moovit users with the state-of-the-art, safe, affordable and eco-friendly transportation enabled by self-driving vehicles, we will be able to make cities better places to live in,” said Nir Erez, Moovit's chief executive.

Moovit has more than 800 million users and services in 3,100 cities across 102 countries, according to Intel.

~ With Inputs from PTI

Israeli Startup Zebra and India's Apollo Hospital to Jointly Develop AI-based Medical Imaging

Zebra Medical Vision, an Israel-based startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help read medical scans, will collaborate with
HealthNet Global (HNG), a part of the Indian hospital network Apollo Hospitals Group, to deploy its technology across the country and jointly develop applications suitable for the Indian market, including screening for tuberculosis.

Both the companies have also received funding grant from India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F), which was announced in July 2017 to promote joint R&D projects for the $4.9 million project.

HNG and Zebra will co-develop an AI-based chest X-ray interpretation tool for Tuberculosis (TB) which can help doctors better screen for the disease. The collaboration will provide clinical validation, and evidence of the efficacy of radiology Al based tools in India.

The final developed project will be able to assist as a primary screening method for major diseases in large scale screenings. For example, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3.6 million people with TB are missed by health systems every year and do not receive adequate care. This is primarily because patients with TB may present with mild or no symptoms, particularly early on. Many affected people arrive at clinics too late with advanced disease or multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is difficult to treat and more likely to cause death. One of the key strategies to tackling TB is early diagnosis. Unfortunately, sputum testing is only 50% accurate and frequently misses the disease in its early stages. Both companies will focus on development of AI-based Chest X-ray interpretation tool for TB which can help address the gap.

Speaking of the initiative, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals said, "When it comes to health, the promise of AI to provide access and improve outcomes in very intriguing. There is a critical need to provide good healthcare access in remote and rural communities, and we believe this initiative will allow us the opportunity to make significant advances in this area. Apollo’s clinical and scientific depth and Zebra-Med’s expertise in AI complement each other perfectly. This project is part of our continuing endeavor to design new tools to improve healthcare access and deliver best outcomes to patients at lower cost."

Eyal Gura, Co-founder and CEO of Zebra, said, " We are excited to partner with the leading healthcare services provider in India and to help bring AI to India at such a scale. When we met the Indian team for the first time few years ago we found common ground and similar dream of scaling healthcare from millions to billions of patients. We are honored that the two governments have placed their trust in us and we are committed to utilize this opportunity to impact millions of lives."

Zebra Medical Vision was founded in 2014 by Eyal Toledano, Eyal Gura, and Elad Benjamin and funded by Khosla Ventures, Marc Benioff, Intermountain Investment Fund, OurCrowd Qure, Aurum, aMoon, Nvidia, J&J, and Dolby Ventures. 

To recall, last year in August Israel's Sasha Infrastructure had joined hands with BSE Institute, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading stock exchange BSE, to promote startups and entrepreneurs in the domain of water conservation and technology.

Source - Business Wire , Zebra Med Blog

India's Lenskart Invests USD 1 Mn in Israeli Startup

India's online eyewear retailer Lenskart has picked up a minority stake in Israeli startup 6over6 by investing about USD 1 million in the startup. This marks the firm’s second such bet on an overseas early stage technology company in less than four months.

Delhi-based Lenskart will use technology, developed by 6over6, that enable users to determine the power of their lenses fitted through a smartphone application.

Additionally, Lenskart will partner with 6over6 to co-develop and test the product before taking it to the market, the company said in a statement.

6over6 is the second strategic bet taken by Lenskart, and follows its $1 million investment in US-based 3D graphical modelling venture Ditto in September earlier this year.

6over6 allows consumers to determine the power of their lenses fitted in their eyeglasses through a smartphone application, replacing the traditional optometric tools in the process. The technology, according to Bansal, will begin its pilot testing phase from January next year.

Founded in 2010, Lenskart has been funded with close to USD 142 million by venture capitalists such as IDG Ventures, Unilazer Ventures, IFC, TPG Growth, TR Capital and Premji Invest.

The above development was first reported in Economic Times.

Nasscom Product Council, Accenture Plans To Collaborate With Israel Innovation Authority

Relation between India and Israel is at its peak after PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the nation known as the ‘hub of technology startups’. In the same line, to help startups to grow and nurture, the Nasscom Product Council and Accenture, an IT consulting major plans to collaborate with Israel Innovation Authority. This step is taken to help both the countries startups in joint product development, knowledge transfer and in the creation of hardware ecosystem.

This move comes after the Prime minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in July 2017. During his visit to the country, Prime Minister had promised collaboration in technology, defence, and security along with bilateral cooperation in entrepreneurship and cyber security.

According to ET report, the Nasscom Product Council's co chair Somdutta Singh and Avnish Sabharwal, MD, Accenture Ventures and Open Innovation, Accenture India plan to take the delegation of product council leaders, startups to Israel in the first week of September.

Commenting on the development, Somdutta Singh said, "We are working with startups in Israel and the collaboration between the two countries will benefit the world at large with new hardware innovation. This will also overcome the cultural challenges in workspaces in both the countries."

As per the Avnish Sabharwal, the collaboration will happen around artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, cybersecurity and in the areas of healthcare, pharmacy, agriculture among other industries.

"Every year, around 40 delegations go to Silicon Valley from India. We want the kind of traffic between Israel and India. We shall figure out MoUs with Israel Innovation Authority and other bodies there," said Sabharwal.

Sabharwal believes that with this collaboration they would be able to make the Israel-India corridor as strong as the Silicon Valley-India corridor and bring Israel based accelerators to India. Further Singh highlighted that for India to go ahead and change its image from an IT services nation, it’s important to frame policies better which will encourage the current product startup space.

Further, Singh highlighted that for India to go ahead and change its image from an IT services nation, it’s important to frame policies better which will encourage the current product startup space.

This is not the first time when such initiative is taken. Earlier in July 2017, Idein Ventures, a global private equity firm with its India offices in Hyderabad and Mumbai, had expanded to Israel.

In the same month, India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced that they are going to invest a whopping $ 25 million in Israel-based technology incubator, Jerusalem Innovation Incubator (JII).

A Small 7-Employees Israeli Startup Gets $20 Mn Funding From India

MindoLife, Israel-based startup has secured funding of $20 million from India’s SAR Group. The plans to utilise the freshly infused funds to supply it with the internet of things technology (IoT). The two companies are in a long-term strategic-cooperation agreement that sees integrating MindoLife’s IoT technology in SAR’s full line of products.

With just seven employees and no venture capital backers, the Israeli startup was founded in 2014 by RamYounes, Rami Khawaly, Yoav Rosenthal and Noam Levi. The four co-founders founded the firm at the Hybrid accelerator in the Galilee city of Nazareth and have funded it to date with money from the Israel Innovation Authority.

According to a media report, the startup would be supplying its Cyber-Things products to SAR to be integrated into the Indian company’s water bars and home-energy systems over the next three years.

Commenting on the development, Rami Younes, Co-founder, MindoLife told reporters, “We will be supplying our customers the network and the communications management between different devices with a fundamentally secure protocol.”

According to the Rami, one application will be for SAR home energy-storage devices, which will make use of MindoLife technology to better monitor the power loads and supply.

The contract comes less than two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic visit to Israel that included signing a series of high-tech accords.

Israel's OurCrowd Joins Hand With LetsVenture To Fund Startups

A global leader in equity crowdfunding, OurCrowd has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, India’s marketplace for startup funding.

As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

Commenting on the development, Shanti Mohan, Co-founder and CEO, LetsVenture said, “Having made startup funding easy, our vision is to make angel investing easy with a focus on portfolio management (startup reporting, portfolio diversification and exits). The partnership with OurCrowd aligns with our vision of offering our investors access to some of the best startups across geographies including Israel, along with giving LetsVenture portfolio companies access to global investors for their next round of funding. In this partnership with one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms globally, we do believe this is a win-win for both of us.”

OurCrowd and LetsVenture will be also be collaborating on an ‘India Fund’ to invest in Israeli, Indian and global startups. The investment into this fund would primarily be from family funds and HNWIs in India and OurCrowd’s global network of accredited investors.

Leveraging LetsVenture’s domestic network, OurCrowd will offer Indian corporates access to the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

“India is a critical growth market for our business with a huge number of very exciting startup investment opportunities in a range of sectors. Israel and India have a great joint heritage sharing many of the same entrepreneurial qualities that are the backbone of our economies. I am excited to be entering into this collaboration with LetsVenture, which I believe will deliver great value to our investors,” said Jon Medved, OurCrowd CEO.

In addition to this, LetsVenture will facilitate ‘Take to Market’ activities for OurCrowd’s portfolio companies to access the Indian market, the activities of which are under development by LetsVenture and are targeted to commence in 2018.

Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community of almost 20,000 investors from over 112 countries has invested over $450M into 120 portfolio companies and funds. OurCrowd already has thirteen exits to date, two IPO’s and eleven acquisitions.

India's Reliance Private Client To Help Indians Invest in Israeli Startups

Indian and Israeli relations are getting friendlier every year. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the year 1992, bilateral trade and economic relations progressed rapidly. According to Israel's Embassy of India website, from US$ 200 million in 1992 (comprising primarily of diamonds), merchandise trade diversified and reached USD 4.16 billion (excluding defence) in 2016. Further, Israel's trade with India constituted 3.3% of its total trade in 2016. And now, in order to better this percentage and the ties between the two countries, Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd has entered into a strategic collaboration with India’s Reliance Private Client, in which the Indian wealth management firm will be offering its clients the option of investing in the Israeli company’s funds and start-up portfolio.

Account to Elias Ghosalkar, Director of Corporate Development at OurCrowd, though Indian investors have been interested in the Israeli startup scene for quite sometime, they didn't have access to the right connections. With this collaboration, the company hopes to solve this problem.

The agreement between Israel's OurCrowd and India's Reliance Private Client will aim to build the former's presence in the Indian subcontinent. Once this aim is substantially conquered, the equity crowdfunding firm hopes that it will be possible for its portfolio companies to export their products to the Indian market. According to Ghosalkar, there are several more opportunities being explored with India and they are all currently at discussion stage.

According to data made available by OurCrowd, with a with total wealth approaching the $1 trillion mark, the Indian subcontinent is currently the fourth largest population of high net worth investors in the Asia-Pacific region. India is currently home to 2 per cent of the world's millionaires and 5 per cent of world's billionaires. Further, between the years 2015 and 2016, the South Asian country has seen a whopping 12 per cent increase in high net worth investors. This percentage is expected to grow at 150 per cent over the next decade. These statistics paint a rich picture about the investing power that Indians hold.

Speaking to Times Of Israel, Amrita Farmahan, Country Business Head at Reliance Private Client said, "In addition to providing viable investment opportunities in these important alternate assets, we will connect the Indian investors to the global startup ecosystem via OurCrowd." Reliance Private Client is a part of the Reliance Group, a private sector financial services company with over 250 million customers. Interestingly, while one firm of the group is rooting for Israeli startup ecosystem, another firm of the group, Reliance Capital had earlier in the year sold its share in Indian born Paytm to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial for a whopping amount of Rs 275 crores (Read Here).

The deal comes on the heals of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much awaited trip to Israel in July. In the past, the Indian PM and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin have hailed the ties between the two countries and called for increased security cooperation and deeper economic relations.

OurCrowd has locked in a similar deal with the National Australia Bank earlier this week wherein the bank will offer its clients the opportunity to invest via OurCrowd’s platform.

India's Reliance Private Client To Help Indians Invest in Israeli Startups

Indian and Israeli relations are getting friendlier every year. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the year 1992, bilateral trade and economic relations progressed rapidly. According to Israel's Embassy of India website, from US$ 200 million in 1992 (comprising primarily of diamonds), merchandise trade diversified and reached USD 4.16 billion (excluding defence) in 2016. Further, Israel's trade with India constituted 3.3% of its total trade in 2016. And now, in order to better this percentage and the ties between the two countries, Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd has entered into a strategic collaboration with India’s Reliance Private Client, in which the Indian wealth management firm will be offering its clients the option of investing in the Israeli company’s funds and start-up portfolio.

Account to Elias Ghosalkar, Director of Corporate Development at OurCrowd, though Indian investors have been interested in the Israeli startup scene for quite sometime, they didn't have access to the right connections. With this collaboration, the company hopes to solve this problem.

The agreement between Israel's OurCrowd and India's Reliance Private Client will aim to build the former's presence in the Indian subcontinent. Once this aim is substantially conquered, the equity crowdfunding firm hopes that it will be possible for its portfolio companies to export their products to the Indian market. According to Ghosalkar, there are several more opportunities being explored with India and they are all currently at discussion stage.

According to data made available by OurCrowd, with a with total wealth approaching the $1 trillion mark, the Indian subcontinent is currently the fourth largest population of high net worth investors in the Asia-Pacific region. India is currently home to 2 per cent of the world's millionaires and 5 per cent of world's billionaires. Further, between the years 2015 and 2016, the South Asian country has seen a whopping 12 per cent increase in high net worth investors. This percentage is expected to grow at 150 per cent over the next decade. These statistics paint a rich picture about the investing power that Indians hold.

Speaking to Times Of Israel, Amrita Farmahan, Country Business Head at Reliance Private Client said, "In addition to providing viable investment opportunities in these important alternate assets, we will connect the Indian investors to the global startup ecosystem via OurCrowd." Reliance Private Client is a part of the Reliance Group, a private sector financial services company with over 250 million customers. Interestingly, while one firm of the group is rooting for Israeli startup ecosystem, another firm of the group, Reliance Capital had earlier in the year sold its share in Indian born Paytm to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial for a whopping amount of Rs 275 crores (Read Here).

The deal comes on the heals of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much awaited trip to Israel in July. In the past, the Indian PM and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin have hailed the ties between the two countries and called for increased security cooperation and deeper economic relations.

OurCrowd has locked in a similar deal with the National Australia Bank earlier this week wherein the bank will offer its clients the opportunity to invest via OurCrowd’s platform.

India & Israel Partner To Strengthen Startup Ecosystem

Two 2's make a 4. This is exactly what India and Israel are gearing up to do for their respective startup industries. Recently India's NASSCOM delegation paid a visit to Israel to discuss about the prospects about strengthening the existing alliances between the two countries and seeking new partnerships.

According to an official statement issued by R Chandrashekhar, NASSCOM President, the key area of discussion during the visit was about forming new partnerships in the sector of innovation, Internet of Things (IoT) and security solutions.

Chandrashekhar strongly believes that there is huge potential if Indian companies partner with their Israeli counterparts and establish an association that is mutually beneficial. "We are looking at collaborative opportunities with innovative companies based out of Israel and possible partnerships that can scale up operations for companies on both sides," he said in a statement.

The Israeli startup industry is known for its strong ecosystem. It has an impressively innovative environment, a unique cultural characteristic and a highly supportive government.

The startup industry in Israel is doing pretty well for itself and is only second to the United States startup industry. Seeing the huge potential that the industry holds, the country has spent 4.2 percent of its GDP on R&D, which is the highest. Further, the country's technology sector is also doing its bit for the country and is contributing a huge 26 percent to its overall GDP.

Israel is home to a wide variety of early-stage startups and established companies ranging from data centers, internet solutions to IT security etc.

The Israeli government is known to granting nearly 80% of its funds to startups which are in their early-stage phase. "The agency running its incubator – which is also assessed by the government – provides about 15 per cent…It will be interesting to know how this model can be incorporated into the Indian startup ecosystem," said Chandrashekhar.

Israel currently considers India as a long-term strategic partner that can enable its companies in having a global reputation.

Talking about the association between both the countries, Chandrashekhar said, “Small tech companies make up the startup landscape of Israel, whose primary model is to develop a niche product and eventually get acquired. Typically scaling up is a challenge for these companies, but we in India don’t have that problem. Thus, the potential both countries offer for each other is tremendous."

India, on the other hand, is also currently scouting for opportunity of a joint R&D project for commercial products in various sectors like healthcare, technology transfer, agriculture, cyber security and engineering solutions.