Winners and Losers of the Week

Selection of this week's winners and losers by CTech's Editor

Elihay Vidal | 09:46, 17.05.19

This week’s winners are:

Monday.com, for raising $250-300 million at a $2 billion valuation. The Tel Aviv-based team management and productivity SaaS developer is in the process of raising a new round at a company valuation of $2 billion. The company reported $50 million in annual revenues in 2018 and forecasts it will surpass $100 million in annual revenues in 2019. Plus, it came in 12 on our list of promising startups. Read more

Zebra Medical, for nabbing an FDA Approval for world's first AI chest X-ray triage. Medical analytics company Zebra Medical announced earlier this week it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its automated chest x-ray triage product. Zebra Medical’s algorithm uses deep learning technology to analyze chest x-ray images in order to detect and prioritize lung trauma. Read more

WekaIO, for raising $31.7 million from investors such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and HP. The San Jose and Tel Aviv-based startup develops scalable file storage for data-heavy applications.Read more

Israeli blockchain entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg, for mediating his way out of a fraud lawsuit. According to court documents filed Thursday, the NIS 17 million (approximately $4.7 million) lawsuit filed against Hogeg and his crypto company Stox in January was dropped. Hogeg agreed to pay the plaintiff, Chinese citizen Zhewen Hu, $50,000 to cover trial costs. Read more

This week’s losers are:

Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, for, well, more than one reason. After facing lawsuits in the U.S. that could end up costing it hundreds of millions of dollars, Teva lost this week its status as the largest company in terms of market capitalization on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Read about how Teva lost its reign over the TASE:

Read about how Teva and 19 of its rivals fixed U.S. drug prices:

Read about how Teva’s shady legal past still weighs heavy on its future:

NSO, for getting into hot water with WhatsApp. And with Amnesty International. According to a report by the Financial Times, instant messaging mobile app WhatsApp recently discovered that attackers used a vulnerability in the app's voice call function to infect mobile devices with spyware developed by Israeli company NSO Group. Also this week, human rights organization Amnesty International took legal action against NSO, alleging its spyware was used in attempted surveillance of an Amnesty staff member.

Gambling company 888, for laying off 45 Israeli employees. As part of a reorganization and a cost-cutting plan, 888 is letting go 45 employees from its 300-person Israeli research and development team. Read more

This week’s data point: 7,150

7,150 is the total number of apartments in Tel Aviv that are rented regularly for short term visitors through Airbnb, amounting to 3.4% of all the city’s apartments, according to a new report. Tel Aviv’s vacation rental to housing ratio is seven times higher than that of New York, where just 0.5% of the apartments are offered exclusively to tourists through Airbnb. Read more