CTech's Weekly Roundup of Israeli Tech News

A rundown of Israeli spy firms and surveillance outfits. A small cluster of Israeli firms with close ties to the country’s intelligence agencies have been recently dragged into the spotlight, sometimes unwillingly. Read more  

Interview | Yuri Milner sets his sights (much) higher. Since 2015, venture capitalist Yuri Milner has invested $200 million in space-related projects. He traces the new found passion to his childhood. Read more 

Long hidden ties are made public as Israeli officials descend on Gulf States. For years held under the radar, relations between Israel, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE have suddenly become an official matter, with no less than four official state visits in October alone. The Israeli anthem was played for the first time in Abu Dhabi. Read more

Gaza ceasefire shakes up Israel’s government. Protesting the ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned Wednesday calling for general elections. Read more  

High ambition, low in funding startup plans to build competitively priced flying car. Israel-based NFT plans to start testing a drone model of the car by October 2019. Read more

Imperva’s $2.1 billion acquisition was two years in the making. A recent SEC filing by Imperva reveals new details on the company's acquisition by investment firm Thoma Bravo. Read more

Israel-based Vintage raises a $290 million fund of funds. The venture firm has $1.8 billion in assets under management. Read more

Video | This startup makes drones that drive stakes into the ground. Israel-based Civdrone develops a device that turns commercially available drones into land surveying, measuring, and marking machines for construction sites. Watch the video

Historic photos predating Israel set free by Wikimedia. 28,000 public domain photos taken from Israeli archives are now available through the open content company’s online platform. Read more

M&As and IPOs

Vitec Group buys Amimon in $55 million cash deal. Read more

Israeli cybersecurity company ForeScout buys SecurityMatters. Read more

Crypto-mining outfit Bitfarms files a preliminary prospectus in Ontario. Read more

Startup Funding Rounds

Insurance startup Hippo raises $70 million. Read more

Intel leads a $75 million investment in Israeli AI chip company Habana Labs. Read more

Direct-to-shape printing company Velox raises $32 million. Read more  

Nasdaq Ventures backs cybersecurity startup founded by former Mossad director. Read more

Korean auto parts maker Sungwoo Hitech backs autonomous car safety startup AdaSky. Read more

Sleep disorder treatment company Nyxoah raises 15 million euros. Read more

Home network cybersecurity startup SAM raises $12 million. Read more

Data protection and compliance startup Cognigo raises $8.5 million. Read more

Anti-ransomware startup Votiro raises $8 million. Read more

Encrypted data collaboration startup Duality raises $4 million. Read more

Israeli debugging startup OzCode raises $3.5 million. Read more

Car sensor startup Guardian Optical raises $2.5 million. Read more