iAngels Israeli Deal Digest - May 2018

Welcome to the iAngels Monthly Deal Digest, a summary of movements in the Israeli startup market.

This May we tracked 24 announced deals totaling $183 million, in addition to a massive $200 million asset-backed credit loan raised by BlueVine. It was also a good month for iAngels portfolio companies with indeni and Lending Express raising new financing rounds and new iAngels investments in Spacemesh, a company developing a new and improved blockchain operating system for smart contracts.

On the exit front, we tracked 4 deals totaling $492 million, including the acquisition of Loop Commerce by Synchrony, for an estimated $250 million and the acquisition of Velostera by Google for an estimated $150M.

Read on for the full scoop!

May 2018 Investment Highlights

Seed Rounds

Vulcan Cyber, a company that promises to eliminate the vulnerability remediation gap that unnecessarily exposes enterprises to cyber risks, has raised a $4 million seed round led by YL Ventures with participation from other well-known cybersecurity investors including Giora Yaron and Mickey Boodaei.
Spacemesh, a company developing a new and improved “blockmesh operating system” has raised a $3 million seed round from BRM Group, iAngels, Alignment, and Bancor.
Quarterback, a sports fan engagement platform, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures and with the participation of Crest Capital Ventures, Deep Space Ventures, UpWest Labs, and other angel investors.
Future Meat Technologies, a developer of a cost-efficient, non-GMO meat produced directly from animal cells, has announced a $2.2 million seed investment round co-led by Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods is a Fortune 100 company, and one of the world’s largest food producers.
Carats.io, an Israeli blockchain startup working with the diamond industry, has raised $1.6 million in a funding round led by Net Capital Ventures.
Perceptive.AI, a developer of a machine learning based system that helps companies predict which customers are likely to churn, has raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by Meron Capital, with participation from Los Angeles based Scopus Ventures.
ZenCity, a developer of a platform that uses AI to analyze data from hundreds of thousands of public interactions to provide an accurate citizen pulse on how they are viewing their city, has won Microsoft AI competition and will get a $1 million investment from M12, Microsoft’s newly branded investment arm, with participation from Madrona Venture Group, Notion and Vertex Ventures.
VoiceItt, a developer of speech recognition technology designed to understand non-standard and dysarthric speech, has also participated in the Microsoft AI competition, and won the “AI for good” category. The company will receive a $500k investment.
CardiacSense, a developer of a watch that detects heart disorders (Arrhythmia), has raised $500k from an undisclosed foreign investment group.

Series A Rounds

Pixoneye, a data analytics startup that uses on-device software to analyze a user’s smartphone pictures to predict his or her interests, in order to allow retailers to send tailored advertisements, has raised $8 million in a Series A round from UK venture capital fund Octopus Ventures.
MUGO, an application for “Live Share” technology that allows listeners to sync to the same point in a song, even when listening from different sources has closed a strategic partnership and a $7 million investment deal with Mexico’s TV Azteca, one of the world’s two largest television producers of Spanish language contant.
Lending Express, an AI Powered Online Lending Marketplace for Businesses has raised a $2.7 million investment round led by Entrée Capital and iAngels, among other investors.
Regulus Cyber, a developer of end-to-end solutions for autonomous cars, robots, and drones, has come out of stealth and announced a $6.3 million Series A financing round from Sierra Ventures, Canaan Partners Israel, the Technion and F2 Capital.
Genoox, a genomic analysis startup that’s geared toward doctors, clinicians and researchers that hopes to lower the cost of getting data from gene sequencing, has closed a $6 million funding round led by Triventures, a healthcare-focused venture firm.
BrainQ, a startup that aims to help stroke victims and those with spinal cord injuries treat their injuries with the help of a personalized electromagnetic treatment protocol, has raised a $5.3 million funding round from Qure Ventures, OurCrowd.com, Norma Investments, IT-Farm and a number of angel investors, including Valtech Cardio founder and CEO Amir Gross.
Uniper-care, an Artificial Intelligence Aging at Home Platform for Older Adults has Raised a $2.4 million financing round from Fusion LA, Mediterranean Towers Ventures, and Lagziel family.

Series B Rounds

SafeBreach, a company providing comprehensive Breach and Attack Simulation platform has closed a $15 million financing round led by Draper Nexus with participation from PayPal and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and HPE Pathfinder.
Tailor Brands, a startup that automates parts of the branding and marketing process for small businesses, has closed a $15.5 million Series B round led by Pitango Venture Capital Growth Fund and British Armat Group, with participation from Disruptive Technologies and Mangrove Capital Partners.
Namogoo, a company that identifies and solves the problem of online Journey Hijacking, that costs online businesses millions in stolen revenue each year, has closed a $15 million Series B round led by Hanaco Venture Capital.
Indeni, a company providing network monitoring and automation solutions has raised $14 million in a financing round led by RTP, including State of Mind Ventures, Caremi Partners, and existing investor Sequoia Capital and iAngels.
Nanit, a developer of a smart baby sleep monitor has closed a $14 million Series B financing round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) with participation from existing investors Upfront Ventures RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital and Vaal Investment Partners.
Magos, a company that designs and manufactures state-of-the-art staring radars for perimeter detection and Protection/Security has raised a $1 million financing round from Tyco, one of the largest defense and security integrator in the world.
Rootility, a root focused plant breeding company, has closed a $10 million series C financing round led by ADM Capital’s Cibus Fund and with the participation of existing investors GreenSoil Investments and Middleland Capital.

Growth/Miscellaneous Rounds

StoreDot, a company that develops fast-charging batteries for mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, as well as for electric vehicles, has raised a $20 million investment from BP PLC, as a part of a larger $400 million funding round. The company is planning to use the funds for setting up a U.S. facility for the manufacturing of its automotive quick-charging batteries.
Minute Media, a sports global media publishing platform, has closed a $17 million Series F funding round that includes new investors Goldman Sachs, La Maison, Vintage Investment Partners, Remagine Ventures and Kreos Capital, and its existing investors Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, Gemini Israel Ventures, and others.
Sckipio Technologies, a developer of Gfast chipset, has closed a $10 million financing round led by semiconductor company MegaChips, with participation from Intel Capital, Pitango Venture Partners, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures, Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, CIRTech Fund and Axess Ventures.

M&A and IPOs

Loop Commerce, a developer of a solution that enables users who receive a gift bought from an online retailer to personalize aspects like size or color, was acquired for an estimated $250 million by Synchrony. NYSE-listed, Synchrony is a financial services company operating in the retail, health, auto, travel and home industries.
Google has acquired the cloud migration company Velostrata. This acquisition is expected to help Google cloud customers to quickly migrate virtual machine-based workloads like large databases, enterprise applications, DevOps, and large batch processing to and from the cloud. The company has raised $31.5 million to date from investors including Norwest Venture Partners and 83 North.
The Japanese digital imaging products giant Canon has acquired BriefCam, a video synopsis and machine learning solutions company, for an estimated $90 million.
Optimove, makers of the Science-first Relationship Marketing Hub, has acquired DynamicMail business from PowerInbox, a leader in email real-time personalization and dynamic subscriber engagement, for an estimated $2 million.

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Best,
Avi