Winners and Losers of the Week: 4,000 Jewish and Arab Teens for Participating in Unistream’s Annual Startup Competition

This week’s winners are:

4,000 Jewish and Arab teens for participating in Unistream’s annual startup competition. Unistream, an Israeli nonprofit, operates a multi-year after school program aiming to impart underprivileged teens with entrepreneurship and leadership skills. The outstanding business award for twelfth-grade students was handed to Genie, a group from southern Israeli town Ashkelon, who developed a smart device that identifies when a diaper needs changing. Read more

 

Unistream CEO Batsheva Moshe. Photo: Orel Cohen

Home insurer Hippo for raising $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. The round, bringing Hippo’s total funding to date to $209 million, was led by San Francisco-based Bond Capital. Existing investors Comcast Ventures and Miami-headquartered home construction company Lennar Corp. also participated in the round. Read more

This week’s loser is:

Israeli defense contractor IAI for laying off hundreds of employees. A previous agreement with the workers’ union, which expires in August, saw the state-owned company lay off 830 people and cut pay by 4%. Read more

This week’s data point: 6,000

Google is planning to play a meaningful role in the “lives” of 6,000 Israeli startups in the next three years. Today, there are nearly 7,000 startups active in Israel and, according to Matthew John Brittin, the company’s president of business and operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Afrika, Google just wants to inspire all these startups and give them the confidence to recognize opportunities. Read more

This week’s top deals:

Retail analytics company Trax raises $100 million. Read more

Travel booking startup TravelPerk raises $60 million. Read more

Website building company Wix to expand operations to Japan. Read more

Consumer lending startup Blender raises $22 million in debt financing, equity. Read more

Business management startup VCita raises $15 million. Read more

Alternative energy company EWP raises $13.6 million on Nordic IPO. Read more

Flight and hotel booking startup Smartair raises $6 million. Read more

Railway cybersecurity startup Cervello raises $4.5 million. Read more

Volvo backs Israeli road traffic injuries analysis startup MDgo. Read more