Israeli start up runs out of sugar

It seems like the number of Israeli Internet startups just keeps growing, but some don't make it. The Israeli startup Raw Sugar is one that evidently didn't.

RawSugar can mosts easily be described as a del.icio.us competitor. Its purpose was to develop online systems to save and disseminate lists of favorite sites. But in recent months it has gradually let all its workers go, apparently because it ran out of resources.

The founders say they are in the process of selling the company or part of its technological assets.

Founded in 2004, Raw Sugar failed to obtain venture backing, relying solely on its founders' resources, and some funding from private investors.

Raw Sugar also offered a search engine for site owners, based on tags collected by surfers. The engine enabled search by gradually limiting the field, through choosing tags.
Meanwhile the company's website remains up and running, and usable. But the founders say its demise is a matter of months.

Sources: Haaretz, Tech Crunch

Gates: Israeli human capital unique

Microsoft founder Bill Gates features on a new movie to encourage investments in Israel, in which the world's richest person testifies to the wealth of human capital found in the country.

"The quality of education is the key to the uniqueness of Israel," Gates says on the video, which will be distributed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor through its economic attaches around the world.

The ministry launched the movie at a weekend conference of trade representatives, making it available in four different languages including English, Chinese, French and Spanish. The video includes testimonials from the heads of a number multinationals with investments in Israel including Intel, HP, Cisco, General Electric and others.

Source: JPost

Israel Venture Capital: High-tech M&As totaled $10.58b in 2006

• Israeli High-Tech M&As valued at $10.58 billion;
• $693 million raised in Israeli IPOs

This amounts to a third of the total figure for 2000-2005.

The figure does not include Berkshire Hathaway's acquisition of Iscar Ltd. early this year.

IVC Online says the largest deal this year was Hewlett Packard Co. acquisition of Mercury Interactive Corp.’s for $4.5 billion. Other major deals were SanDisk Corporation’s (Nasdaq:SNDK) acquisition of msystems for $1.55 billion, and VeriFone Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: PAY; TASE: PAY) acquisition of Lipman Electronics Engineering for $793 million.

To view the complete report at IVC Online

Diagnosing The World's Biggest Killer

TopSpin Medical, an Israeli start-up, is an emerging growth company with a local Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device for detecting heart disease.

Source: Globes Online

Coronary heart disease is the number one killer in the western world. According to the American Heart Association, more than 7 million TopSpin Medical, is currently completing the development of a novel diagnostic tool that will image vulnerable plaque more clearly than any other existing technique. They have engineered the ability of performing local magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a miniature hand-held scanner.

The inventor of the medical breakthrough is Erez Golan, a physicist who served as a cardiovascular imaging group leader at Medinol. The TopSpin technology is protected by 15 patents.

Initial clinical trials are proving the efficacy of the system. IHTIR met with Eyal Kolka, the company's chief financial officer at the headquarters located in Lod, half an hour's drive from of Tel-Aviv. "We expect to enter the market either at the end of 2006 or at the outset of 2007", Kalka noted.

The company's activities are being financed from previous fund raising. $20 million was raised initially from private investors and several of Israel's venture capital companies. "Johnson & Johnson, has expressed its faith in us by investing in three separate rounds of investment," Kalka pointed out.

The company has an additional product in the pipeline. Its prostate MRI is an office-based system with a hand-held MRI probe that provides high imaging resolution of prostate cancer. The market is substantial with 1.5 million procedures carried out annually in the US.

The 2007 US / Israel Venture Summit

On March 20th, more than 300 venture capitalists, private investors, corporate VCs, investment bankers, entrepreneurs and potential strategic partners will get together at Newark, NJ for the annual US/ Israel Venture Summit.

Up to 40 Israeli companies seeking initial rounds of funding will be selected to present and exhibit their investment opportunities to a leading audience of investors.
If you are seeking funding and would like to be showcased, email a 1-2 page executive summary to Joe Benjamin at iwant2present@youngstartup.com.

I have attended this event last year. Whether you’re an investor actively seeking new deals in Israel, or an emerging company seeking funding, don't miss this event.

Cramer likes VeriFone

CNBC's Jim Cramer, on his "Mad Money" TV show, spoke highly of VeriFone, a company that makes point-of-sale electronic payment devices - the credit- and debit-card-swiping machines found at checkout counters that people use to make purchases. He described it as an example of an opportunity for investors continuing to profit from holiday sales, even after other holiday oriented shares complete their run-up.

Source: Haaretz Online

VeriFone has risen 2.4% over the past four days, following a two month run-up of about 33% that began with its purchase of Israeli firm Lipman Electronic Engineering.
Cramer explained that VeriFone is "by far the market leader in this game," with a hold on 34% of worldwide POS sales.

In addition, the company has a big upgrade cycle coming in the U.S., and the terminals will need to be replaced. Cramer noted that VeriFone's customers make most of their money during the
holidays, and they should be willing to shell out money to upgrade their machines now.

"The bottom line is that the stock is cheap and should be bought", he said.

Fitch changes Israel's outlook to Positive

Fitch: Israel's net external creditor position, high per capita income exceed those of many higher-rated countries.

Source: Globes

External solvency indicators have continued to improve and strong inward and outward investment reflect Israel's growing integration with the world economy. Last but not least, Israel's public debt ratio has declined and over the time horizon of the rating Outlook should fall below its previous low in 2000."

Betocracy - Harness the Power of Prediction Markets

Betocracy will allow you to create your own market bids and predict the outcome of events such as the 2008 elections or year end bonuses.

Decision markets, otherwise known as prediction markets, idea futures or simply bets, are gaining visibility as an important forecasting tool.

Theoretically, the bets themselves can serve as a decision-making tool for CEOs and decision makers as long as the there are enough ongoing bets. The concept is based on the theory of prediction markets created by Servan-Schreiber, Wolfers, Pennock and Galebach.

Betocracy (Bet + Democracy) was created by Israeli entrepreneur Yaron Koren with the goal of aggregating the opinions of groups by letting visitors bid points (rather than cash) on future events.

Create your own prediction market anonymously and for free - no programming knowledge is required. Most recent markets created include the Democratic Nomination in 2008 and Second Life Stock exchange predictions.

BioPetrol transforms sewage sludge into fuel

Sewage sludge is the last place where you'd expect to find something valuable. But the brains behind Israeli startup BioPetrol say it is exactly the place where it is possible to find gasoline and natural gas.

Source: Israel21c

The company has developed a method of extracting oil out of sewage sludge, and converting it into various petroleum products. "Sludge is a huge environmental problem all over the world and we have a good actual solution for it," says Hillel Lerman, BioPetrol's business development director.

The US produces 5.3 million metric tons of sewage sludge each year (dry weight, not including the water that carries it). According to the GreenLeft website, about 16% of sewage sludge is incinerated, and the ashes are buried in landfills; 38% of sludge is landfilled directly; 36% is spread onto farmland or forest land or otherwise mixed into soils; and 10% is handled in other ways (piled on the land and abandoned, for example).

BioPetrol's technology provides a solution for recycling sewage sludge via a thermo-chemical process called pyrolisis. This recovers the hydrocarbons in the sludge, producing oil, gas and char products. In addition the process also extracts valuable chemicals that can be used as chemical feedstock.

Changing The Present - A Marketplace for Philanthropy

ChangingThePresent.org claims that it will transform nonprofits the way that malls tranformed shopping.

The website offers a marketplace for philanthropy. You prbably heard about this new trend in the media. People are discovering that the best way to show you care for someone isn't giving them something they don't need, but rather in doing something to make the world a better place, in their name. Instead of getting another fruitcake, toaster or ugly sweater that you don't need, this holiday season your gifts can make a difference.

Using ChangingThePresent.org you can browse by cause to find over a thousand donation opportunities or search by name to find hundreds of nonprofits, and see their offerings.

I liked the "Hall of Shame" - a page that reveals the ridiculous gifts people spend money on and the ability to create a Wish list of the causes that are close to your heart.

The only "catch" is the transaction fee that is deducted by the operating company:

ImportantGifts deducts only a small transaction fee of three percent and
thirty cents per donation item. These Transaction Fees cover ImportantGifts,
Inc.'s merchant expenses to credit card companies or other financial
institutions for processing the Website donation, and certain other
processing,
overhead and administrative costs.

Still, the site is nicely done and I recommend checking it out. Who knows? maybe instead of spending on another gadget we can bring some good to the world.

Israeli lie detector to be added to Skype

KishKish lie detector will be an add-on for Skype. The Israeli development detects the stress level of the person you are talking with over Skype™ by scanning the level of anxiety of the person on the other side of the line.

Kishkish is a wholly owned subdiary of BATM Advanced Communications (LSE: BVC), a designer and producer of broadband data and telecoms systems.

According to the site, this is how the system works:

The first 10 seconds are used to calibrate the system, to the general stress
level of the speaker. Afterwards, you will see 4 indicators about the stress
level of the speaker.

In essence, The lie detector analyzes audio streams over a Skype call in real time and shows the stress levels of the other person during the conversation.

Other Skype enhancements designed by Kishkush include:

• KishKish SAM™ , an answering machine for Skype users,
• KishKish Mobile™, yet another way to recieve your Skype calls away from your PC
• KishKish SMS™, allows a GSM mobile phone users to send Skype™ instant messages to any Skype user.

I can think of many uses to this technology. I'll be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments.

2007 Tech Pioneers

When I read that technorati won the 2007 Tech Pioneers award, I had to find out more about it. The companies were nominated by the world's leading venture capital and technology companies and the final selection was made by a panel of leadeing experts appointed by the World Ecoonomic Forum .

From the site:

The companies products include microscopic pill cameras, bio sensors that
localize landmines and implantable medical devices for the treatment of brain
tumors.

To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the
development of life-changing technology innovation and have potential for
long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate
visionary leadership, show the signs of being a long-standing market leader –
and its technology must be proven.

You can review the complete list of winners here.
Winners in the Information Technology category include: comScore Networks , Thing Magic and more...