Winners of the best venture-backed competition

Last Month, Red Herring and the Israel Venture Association co-sponsored a competition in Israel, limited to early stage companies with revenues of up to $10 million in 2006 supported by venture funds associated with the IVA.

Three Israeli startups received first prizes as the best young companies in their respective sectors.

And the winners are:






Software Category: Safend Inc.
Main Idea: Safend develops software to prevent data leaks in the organization, especially from authorized users.

• Founded: 2003
• CEO: Gil Sever
• Employees: 50
  
• Capital Raised: Safend has raised $9.65 Million in 2 rounds.
• Key Investors: Intel Capital, Walden Israel and Elron Electronics.
  

Communications Category: Unipier
Main Idea: A merger between Cash-U and Niragongo created Unipier, the developer of IPM - Intelligent Policy Management software that enables wireless providers to create, integrate and manage services fast.

• Founded: 2000
• CEO: Gabby Levy
• Employees: 60
• Capital Raised: Unipier has raised $43 Million in 4 rounds
• Key Investors: Greylock Partners, Intel Capital, Carmel Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital
  
  

Life Sciences Category: G.I. View
Main Idea: G.I. View has developed Aer-O-Scope, a new colonoscopy device that consists of a disposable camera embedded in a balloon that propels itself through the colon, providing a 360 degree view.

• Founded: 2003
• CEO: Dr. Benad Goldwasser
• Capital Raised: $29 Million in 4 rounds
• Key Investors: Israel Healthcare Ventures, Delta Ventures, Zielgler Meditech Medical Partners

See the rest of the finalists here.

Reuters buys Israeli start-up ClearForest

ClearForest has developed text analysis solutions for business intelligence applications.

Globes and Haaretz reported that Reuters Group has acquired Israeli text analysis technology developer ClearForest Ltd. for about $25 million. The companies announced the deal today, before trading began on Nasdaq.

ClearForest was founded in 1998 by chairman and chief scientist Dr. Ronen Feldman and CTO Dr Yonatan Aumann . Aumann is the son of Nobel Prize for Economics Laureate Prof. Israel Aumann.

ClearForest, developed technology to analyse, read and understand large amounts of content originating from diverse documents. Reuters is one of the clients for its technology, which tags content by the principles of artificial intelligence. Other prominent clients include: DowJones, Boing and the FBI.

ClearForest has 31 employees and led by Barak Pridor. Headquartered in Boston, the company has a development center in Or Yehuda, Israel. Under the acquisition agreement, the company will operate under Reuters Search and Strategy Division, headed by Gary Campbell.

Its Israeli shareholders include Greylock Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Walden Israel, Plenus, and Kadima Hi-tech. Foreign investors include ABS Ventures, Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Venture Capital, HarbourVest and JPMorgan.

Source: Globes