CTech's Weekly Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Israeli surveillance company contests claims its technology played a role in Khashoggi's murder. Khashoggi was not targeted by NSO products and technologies, the company’s co-founder and CEO said in an interview published Friday. Read more

Salesforce in preliminary talks to acquire workforce management software company Clicksoftware. The deal discussed values Israeli Clicksoftware at around $1.5 billion, one person familiar with the matter said. Read more

Intel considering Apple’s Johny Srouji for CEO, Axios reports. A former IBM and Intel executive, Srouji, originally from Israel, joined Apple in 2008 as the company’s chip chief, leading a strategy that has seen the company expand its chip design and manufacturing prowess. Read more

Shortage in AI experts now seen as a national problem in Israel. Artificial intelligence has been one of the leading growth sectors in Israeli tech in 2018, but the country is lagging behind global leaders, according to a new report. Read more

Facebook gearing up for Israeli elections, and for the politics behind it. In October, Facebook’s government and politics outreach manager, Sean Evins, met with the chairman of Israel’s parliamentary elections committee. Read more

U.S. officials wary of Chinese involvement in Israeli infrastructure projects and tech sector. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette warned Israeli officials that the U.S. may limit intelligence sharing with the Jewish State if no steps are taken to regulate foreign investments. Read more

2018 saw a drop in the number of Israeli tech companies acquired. Three of the four largest deals included in the list aggregated by IVC and Meitar for 2018 concern publicly traded companies, one involves an Israeli subsidiary of an American corporation that was sold as part of a larger deal, and two of the buyers were hedge funds. Read more

Israel and Japan in talks to enter a free trade agreement. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Sekō met Tuesday with his Israeli counterpart. Read more

Honda Motor exec partners with Israeli entrepreneur to develop autonomous forklift. Honda’s Hiroshi Otsuka signed a partnership with Israeli entrepreneur Ran Poliakine during a Japan-Israel business forum in Jerusalem Tuesday. Read more

Defense contractor Rafael nearly doubles bid on Israeli drone maker Aeronautics. Rafael and businessman Avihai Stolero offered to acquire Aeronautics at a valuation of $231 million, nearly twice as high as their $116.6 million bid rejected by the drone maker in August. Read more

M&As and IPOs

 

Medical device company Brainsway wants to raise $30 million on Nasdaq. Read more

Playtika completes acquisition of mobile gaming outfit Supertreat. Read more

DoubleVerify acquires content classification startup Leiki. Read more

CheckPoint acquires web app security startup ForceNock. Read more

Medical research company Genae acquires Israeli company MedicSense. Read more

Struggling InSight Biopharmaceuticals acquired by Hong Kong’s Gencor Pacific. Read more

Startup funding

Amazon, Samsung, Avery Dennison, back battery-free sensor startup Wiliot. Read more

Siemens backs on-demand delivery startup Bringg. Read more

Tree Intelligence startup raises $15 million. Read more

Qualcomm Ventures, Lightspeed back computer vision startup AnyVision. Read more

Autonomous vehicle safety startup Fortellix raises $14 million. Read more

Telehealth startup Tyto Care raises $9 million. Read more

Workforce analytics startup Linear B raises $1.6 million. Read more