CTech’s Weekly Roundup of Israeli Tech News
WeWork strikes a delicate religious balance with Jerusalem site; Mueller investigation of Russian oligarch sinks Israeli predictive analytics company
09:5621.12.18
WeWork strikes a delicate religious balance with Jerusalem site. Shared real estate company WeWork launched its first Jerusalem location just two weeks ago and had already managed to dodge a bullet in the form of wide-ranging protests from the city’s large community of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Read more
Mueller investigation of Russian oligarch sinks Israeli predictive analytics company. Tel Aviv-based Fifth Dimension has recently fired all of its employees. The company is chaired by Benny Gantz, the Israeli military’s former Chief of Staff. Read more
Can more Israelis join the country’s tech boom? two reports draw conflicting conclusions. Jewish, non-Orthodox men take up 74.1% of the country’s tech jobs. Two-thirds of the tech companies that participated in a survey reported having zero Arab employees. Read more
Airbnb contests claims of settlements ban reversal. Airbnb released a statement Monday calling reports saying it reversed the ban “inaccurate.” Read more
Work hard, play on your own time. Some Israeli startups choose to separate leisure from work, forgoing the gaming and recreation rooms associated with tech culture. Read more
Scrapped London skyscraper set to dominate Tel Aviv skyline. A tower ditched mid-construction in London in the 2008 economic downturn is now being resurrected in Tel Aviv in a midst of an unprecedented tech boom in the city. Read more
The gender wage gap is bigger in Israel. Women in Israel earned 69% of the average male monthly salary in 2017. The global average gender wage gap in 2018 stands at 19%. Read more
Facebook temporarily blocks Netanyahu’s son for hate speech. The social network temporarily banned the son of the Israeli Prime Minister following three anti-Palestinian posts, prompting him to take to Twitter and accuse Facebook of operating asa "thought police.” Read more
Whatsapp used for child pornography, online safety company warns. Israel-based AntiToxin has identified more than 1300 videos and photographs of minors involved in sexual acts on WhatsApp groups. Read more
Jerusalem. Photo: Shutterstock
M&A and IPO
Verint to pay $65 million for Cloud company ForeSee. Read more
Xenon Ventures buys Israeli cloud company Xplenty. Read more
Particle analyzer company PML sold following liquidation. Read more
Startup funding
Cloud security startup Avanan raises $25 million. Read more
Self diagnosis startup K Health raises $25 million. Read more
Personal assistant robot developer Temi raises $21 million. Read more
Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan back fintech startup AccessFintech. Read more
Online support network startup Wisdo raised $11 million. Read more
Cloud company Cloudify raises $7 million. Read more
