CTech’s Wednesday Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Philips headquarters

Emails of over 92 million users stolen from genealogy company MyHeritage. Israel-headquartered MyHeritage enables users to create family trees by searching through historical documents such as census, immigration, marriage and burial records in 42 languages. In 2016, the company also launched a genetic testing service that provides both DNA matching and ancestry and ethnicity estimates. The security breach was discovered by the company on Monday after an independent security researcher contacted MyHeritage's chief information security officer and revealed he had found a file containing email addresses and hashed passwords on a private outside server. Read more

Tel Aviv approves plan to build Israel’s tallest building. The 100-floor, 120,000-square-meter tower is set to be constructed near the city’s biggest train station. Read more

Israeli lawmakers want to tie Dead Sea mining rights to its rehabilitation. Minerals extracted from the Dead Sea net Israel hundreds of millions of shekels a year, but the body of water is receding at an annual rate of 1.2 meters (3.3 feet), causing multiple sinkholes in the area and collapsing buildings and roads. Read more

Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors announces new fund and new partner. Innovation Endeavors III has raised $333 million from 69 investors to invest in “visionary founders, transformational technology.” Read more

Following pressure from Palestinians, Argentina cancels friendly soccer match With Israel. The game, originally scheduled to take place Saturday, sparked controversy when it was moved to Jerusalem. Read more

HiRain Technologies partners with Innoviz to market low-cost LiDARs in China. Israel-based Innoviz develops a small-size LiDAR that will be used in future autonomous cars by BMW. Through the partnership, Innoviz’s LiDAR products will be offered as part of HiRain’s extensive offering in China. Innoviz CEO Omer Keilaf told Calcalist Wednesday that the company intends to launch an office in China, and later a manufacturing facility. Read more

World Bank backs Palestinian tech with $16 million in grants. The funding will be used to streamline business registration in the West Bank and to support investors eyeing Palestinian startups. Read more

Desilu Studios asks for extension on Vonetize acquisition deal. In March, the U.S. film studio that produced classic television show “Star Trek” agreed to buy a controlling stake in Israeli Video Streaming Company Vonetize. Read more

Real estate fintech startup Obligo raises $5 million. Obligo offers real estate renters deposit-free leasing alternative based on open banking technology. Read more

Cyber startup DocAuthority raises $10 million. DocAuthority develops AI-based data identification platform that detects unprotected documents. Read more