iAngels Israeli Deal Digest – April 2018
Welcome to the iAngels Monthly Deal Digest, a summary of movements in the Israeli startup market.
This April we tracked 27 announced deals totaling $384 million, and six exits totaling in $476 million.
Cybersecurity was the leading sector this month both in funding and in exits, with Armis, an IOT security raising $30M; ObserveIT, a solution to identify and eliminate insider threats raising $16M; empow, a SIEM platform raising $10M; and SecuredTouch, a behavioral biometrics solution raising $8M. On the M&A side, we saw the acquisition of Secdo by Palo Alto network for $100M, the acquisition of Fortscale by RSA for $25M and the acquisition of 25% of Kela by the private equity firm Vector capital.
Read on for the full scoop!
April 2018 Investment Highlights
Seed Rounds
- iChannel.io, a cloud-based broadcasting software that allows users to create linear broadcasting channels, has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Israel-based venture capital firms Plus Ventures and 2B Angels.
Series A Rounds
- Ayala Pharmaceuticals, a company founded last year to develop two cancer treatment candidates of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has raised $17 million in a Series A financing round led by the Israel Biotech Fund and with the participation of aMoon and Harel Insurance & Finance.
- Genie Enterprise Ltd., a food technology company that develops and markets smart ovens that cook healthy and affordable meals in 2-3 minutes, has closed its Series A financing round, of $10 million.
- SecuredTouch, a mobile security startup developing behavior-based identification solutions has closed an $8 million financing round led by German financing company Arvato Financial Solutions with the participation of RDC, Rafael, and other investors.
- Nutrino, a provider of nutrition-related data services and analytics technology has closed an $8 million Series A financing round from Pereg Ventures, Nielsen Ventures and Gandyr Group joining existing investors – including the New York Angels group, which led the company’s seed round.
- Allegro.ai, a deep learning and computer vision platform, has raised $7 million in a Series A financing round led by Mizmaa Ventures and with the participation of Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and Dynamic Loop Capital.
- Epistema, a developer of a structured debate platform for enterprises supported by automated data checks and artificial intelligence, has raised $6 million from investors Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management, Slac, and additional investors.
- Watteam Ltd., a startup developing a muscle meter for cyclists, has raised $5 million from Eyal Shahar.
- GetPackage, a company offering immediate delivery services based on the principle of sharing economy, has raised $2 million from Mayer Group, importers of Volvo and Honda vehicles, and Bar Marketing and Distribution Holding Company.
- Reach, a developer of a platform for remote management of transactions and face-to-face meetings has raised a $3.5 million A round led by US venture capital fund NFX, a fund managed by founding partner Gigi Levy-Weiss.
Series B Rounds
- Armis, a developer of a platform that allows enterprises to see and control compromised and unmanaged devices and rogue networks, has raised $30 million in a Series B financing round led by Red Dot Capital Partners and Bain Capital Ventures and with the participation of previous investors Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital.
- Guesty, an end-to-end property management platform has raised $19.75 million in a Series B financing round led by TLV Partners with existing investors Magma VC and Buran VC.
- ObserveIT, a provider of “Insider Threat Management” solution to more than 1,700 customers across 87 countries, has announced the initial close of $16 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures.
- Kidbox, a clothing-in-a-box startup aimed at a slightly younger crowd than StitchFix, has raised $15.3 million in Series B funding led by Canvas Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Firstime Ventures and HDS Capital, as well as new strategic partners Fred Langhammer, former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
- LawGeex, a developer of an AI-powered legal contract platform has closed a $12 million Series B financing round led by Aleph venture capital fund with the participation of previous investors including Lool Ventures.
- GamEffective, a company that uses gamification and real-time feedback to transform productivity, engagement and learning in the modern workplace, has raised a Series B round of $11 million led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) together with new investor La Maison, and existing investors 2B Angels, CE Ventures, Lipman, Chomski, Yaniv Tal, Eshbol and others.
- empow, an orchestration platform that uses AI and machine learning analytics to classify cyber threats and alerts, has raised $10 million in a Series B financing round from new investor Ascent Venture Partners and previous investors.
- NovellusDx, a functional genomics and cancer profiling company, has closed a $6 million financing round with the participation of Helsinn Investment Fund S.A. SICAR, part of Helsinn Group, a leading cancer care company, Bio Capital Impact Fund, and Windham Venture Partners.
- Alice, a flight search engine, has raised a $1.5 million financing round from Talma Travel and Tours Ltd., owned by Erez Shmul. Talma Travel and Tours were also the main investor in the company’s previous round in November 2016, and it has now raised its stake in it.
Growth/Miscellaneous Rounds
- V-Wave Ltd., which has developed a proprietary, minimally invasive implanted interatrial shunt device for treating patients with severe symptomatic heart failure (HF), has closed a Series C financing of $70 million led by Deerfield Management along with participation from new investors – healthcare funds Endeavour Vision, Quark Venture and Aperture Venture Partners.
- Applitools, a company transforming the visual testing of applications, and an iAngels portfolio company has closed a $31 million Series C funding round led by OpenView and with participation from its existing investors Sierra Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, iAngels, and La Maison.
- Formlabs, a developer of high resolution, low-cost 3D printers for designers, engineers, and other creators, has closed a $30 million Series C funding led by Tyche Partners. It’s a rare success story in the world of desktop 3D printing, where most of the company’s competitors failed to weather the industry’s own hype bubble.
- Global-e, a company that enables retailers to provide a localized e-commerce offering in more than 200 destinations worldwide, has raised a $20 million financing round led by Red Dot Capital Partners.
- OwnBackup, a company that helps customers protect critical cloud data, has closed a $15.5 million financing round co-led by new investor Vertex Ventures and existing investor Insight Venture Partners. Existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Oryzn Capital and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the round.
- PlaySight Interactive, a company connecting the next generation of athletes on its global sports SmartCourt platform, gas closed has extended its Series C financing round to $21 million with $10 million in new investments from SoftBank Ventures Korea, a SoftBank Group early stage venture capital arm based and CE Ventures from Hong Kong.
- ScyllaDB, a company that develops and supports a NoSQL database, has closed a $10 million Series C funding round led by TLV Partners. Previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, and Western Digital also participated in the round.
- Cheetah Medical, a company developing noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring device, has raised a $7 million financing round from undisclosed investors.
M&A and IPOs
- SteadyMed, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of drug product candidates to treat orphan and high-value diseases with unmet parenteral delivery needs, was acquired by United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR), a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of PAH and other orphan diseases, for a reported $216 million.
- Secdo, an end-to-end platform for advanced threat management, was acquired by Palo Alto Networks for a reported $100 million.
- The private equity firm Vector Capital acquired a 25% stake in cybersecurity company KELA Group, a provider of an automated technology for monitoring the dark web, for a reported $50 million. The company stated that it has been profitable since its establishment and has never raised external capital.the group announced Sunday.
- Visionsense, a developer of a minimally invasive stereoscope camera that enables 3D visualization of difficult areas, was acquired by medical device maker Medtronic PLC for a reported $75 million.
- Fortscale, a machine learning-based User & Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), was acquired by US network and security company RSA for a reported $25 million.
- US footwear and clothing giant NIKE Inc. (NYSE: NKE) has acquired Israeli computer vision company Invertex Ltd., for a reported $10 million, to strengthen its digital technology platforms.
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Best,
Avi