CTech’s Weekly Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Tactics of Israeli Psy-Group, Black Cube revealed in Canadian court battle. Two Israeli intelligence gathering firms, Psy-Group and Black Cube, have been at the center of several exposes in recent months. The former pitched a social media manipulation campaign to the Trump campaign in 2016, according to the New York Times. The latter sent its employees to secretly find damaging information on two former Obama White House aides involved in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, the New Yorker magazine reported. Now, both firms are being sued in Canada in an unrelated case that sheds lights on the firms’ cloak and dagger tactics. Read more

In frenzied Israeli coworking market, smaller competitors drop out. The number of coworking sites in the country is expected to double in 2019, but competition takes its toll. Read more  

Gett raises $80 million at a $1.4-billion valuation. Gett, an Israel-based developer of a taxi-hailing app, announced Thursday an $80-million funding round from Volkswagen and other previous investors in a deal that takes the company’s valuation to $1.4 billion. The investment of cash brings Gett’s total equity funding to about $700 million. Read more

U.S. real estate moguls flock to Israel to issue bonds. In April, American businessman Larry Silverstein visited Israel to meet with investors ahead of raising almost $190 million in bonds on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Ten years ago, the notion of Tel Aviv financiers lending money to a businessman like Mr. Silverstein would have seemed far-fetched, but international and especially American companies looking to raise funds through an issuance of bonds on the Tel Aviv exchange have become more commonplace in recent years. The reason? The local interest rates. Read more  

Emails of over 92 million users stolen from genealogy company MyHeritage. Israel-headquartered MyHeritage enables users to create family trees by searching through historical documents such as census, immigration, marriage and burial records in 42 languages. In 2016, the company also launched a genetic testing service that provides both DNA matching and ancestry and ethnicity estimates. The security breach was discovered by the company on Monday after an independent security researcher contacted MyHeritage's chief information security officer and revealed he had found a file containing email addresses and hashed passwords on a private outside server. Read more 

Philips to buy Israel's cardiac imaging systems company EDP for 250 million euros. EPD develops an electromagnetic cardiac imaging and navigation system for minimally invasive catheter-based procedures. Amsterdam-headquartered Philips will use the acquisition to increase its presence in the cardiac arrhythmia treatment market. Read more

Israeli Supreme Court invalidates litigation clause in Facebook’s user agreement. Facebook requires users to agree that any lawsuits brought against the company will be litigated in California. The court sided with a legal opinion submitted by Israel’s attorney general’s office, which argued that mandatory adjudication in California is an unfair condition in the agreement signed by users of Facebook in Israel. Read more

Zebra Medical raises $30 million, unveils new research. Israel-based Zebra Medical uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for the automated analysis of radiological scans such as X-ray, CT, and MRI. The company received a CE Mark (EU approval) for seven of its products to date, and its technology is also approved for use in some Latin American and Asian countries. Read more

Artificial intelligence chipmaker Hailo raises $12.5 million. Hailo develops chips capable of processing artificial intelligence applications on edge devices installed in autonomous vehicles, drones, internet of things (IoT) devices and smart home appliances. Read more 

Online lender BlueVine raises $60 million. Last month, the Israeli company received a $200 million credit line from Credit Suisse. To date, BlueVine received $128 million in investments and an additional $500 million in credit lines. Read more 

Following pressure from Palestinians, Argentina cancels friendly soccer match With Israel. The game, originally scheduled to take place Saturday, sparked controversy when it was moved to Jerusalem. Read more

Tel Aviv approves plan to build Israel’s tallest building. The 100-floor, 120,000-square-meter tower is set to be constructed near the city’s biggest train station. Read more