CTech’s Wednesday Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Rise in number of Israeli startups slowing down. 396 Israeli startups shut down in 2016, the highest number in six years, according to a new report by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The Bureau also recorded 625 startups founded in Israel in 2016, the lowest number of new startups recorded since 2011. Read more

At Swiss pharma company, women’s health gets personal. Ferring Pharmaceuticals recently launched a personalized fertility treatment that supports its hormone therapy with a dosage calculation app. A growing awareness to differences in the way different patients react to the same treatment leads pharma to put more resources into researching personalized drugs, Ferring's executive vice president and chief science officer Per Falk said in an interview with Calcalist. Read more 

 

 

StoreDot raising $400 million for U.S. factory, says CEO. On Tuesday, StoreDot announced a $20 million investment from BP Ventures, the venture capital arm of multinational oil and gas company BP. Now the company is seeking to raise $400 million to fund the set up of a U.S. manufacturing facility for its automotive quick-charging batteries, CEO and Co-Founder Doron Myersdorf said in an interview with Calcalist. Read more

Lava impact on Hawaii’s Puna power plant is imminent. The plant, owned by NYSE-listed geothermal energy producer Ormat, supplies 25% of the Hawaiian island’s electricity. The natural disaster, which started in the beginning of May, has caused extensive damages to properties and open spaces throughout the island, forcing circa 2,000 inhabitants to evacuate, so far. Read more

EA acquires Israeli cloud gaming assets, personnel of GameFly. Electronic Arts acquired the cloud gaming technology and associated personnel of an Israeli subsidiary of GameFly, the company announced. GameFly acquired Israel-based cloud gaming company Playcast Media Systems in 2015. Read more

Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi invests in automotive venture fund Maniv Mobility. Maniv Mobility portfolio companies include car computer vision and automation technologies developer Nexar, low-cost light detection and ranging camera system startup Oryx Vision, and car data collection and monetization company Otonomo Technologies. Read more

IT automation company Indeni raises $14 million. Indeni operates a crowd-sourced automation platform offering automation scripts for IT functions. Read more

Israeli university launches $1 million venture fund. The Ben Gurion University of the Negev, a university located in Israeli desert town Be’er Sheva, will invest in technologies developed and conceived by its students and graduates. Read more

El Al’s new direct service to San Francisco delayed by six months. Israel’s national carrier had already begun selling tickets for the direct service, which was set to begin operation in November. Read more

Still under probe in Israel, dronemaker struggles to make deal deadline. Israeli dronemaker Aeronautics announced a deal to buy U.S. company Chassis Plans in September, but the deal was jeopardized when Aeronautics came under police investigation. Now the company says it can make the May 31 deadline. Read more