Israel Science Technology News

Bandwidth Management Solutions provider Allot Communications has acquired mobile video optimization solution provider Ortiva Wireless. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ortiva will contribute between $3-5 million in revenues for the second half of 2012.

Ortiva offers advanced commercial solutions for proactive management of mobile video, allowing service providers to dramatically improve control, quality, and efficiency of rich media content delivery. The incorporation of Ortiva's technology within Allot Service Gateway will allow mobile service providers to effectively manage the ever-increasing volume of video traffic on their networks.

"This acquisition is an important building block in our Service Gateway vision," said Rami Hadar, Allot's President and CEO. "By purchasing Ortiva, we will own an innovative video optimization solution, one of the major value-adds that our customers are seeking today. As video becomes an ever-increasing challenge for mobile networks, this acquisition will allow Allot to offer a robust and tightly integrated video optimization service within Allot Service Gateway."

Ortiva was founded in 2004 by Dr. Sujit Dey, the company Chief Technologist. Based in La Jolla, California, Ortiva has raised $30 million in total capital from leading investors include: Intel Capital, Comcast Ventures, Artiman Ventures, Mission Ventures, and Avalon Ventures 

Allot providers service optimization and revenue generation solutions for fixed and mobile data networks worldwide. Allot’s rich portfolio of solutions transforms broadband pipes into smart networks that can rapidly and efficiently deploy value added Internet services for both the network and the subscriber. Allot is traded on Nasdaq (ALLT) with a market capitalization of $835 million. 

BlogAds – Digestive Aid Supplement | Cycling Safety App for iPhone & Android | Immune System Supporters for Kids

Mobile Web site creation platform provider DudaMobile has raised $6 million in second funding round from Pitango Venture Capital. Previously, DudaMobile received funding from several angel investors, including its board chairman Oren Zeev, StubHub founder Jeff Fluhr and Audible.com CEO, Don Katz.

DudaMobile is a free, web-based platform that turns current Web sites into mobile friendly and optimized sites. Since the beginning of 2012 more than 100,000 new mobile Web sites have been built each month using the its platform, bringing the total mobile site build with DudaMobile solution to 1.4 million since it launched in 2010.

“This is a pivotal time in the mobile movement with more and more people using their mobile devices to browse the web,” said Itay Sadan, DudaMobile CEO. “The Series B funding gives DudaMobile the opportunity to augment its do-it-yourself platform and lead more businesses into the mobile future.”

The Duda mobile website hosting platform includes a variety of mobile features and enhancements designed specifically for small businesses including: one-click conversion to mobile; auto-syncing between a standard site and mobile site; compatibility with all major smartphones; click-to-call; maps & directions, and mobile site analytics.

Duda's hosted technology platform is already licensed by AT&T, Webs.com, Logoworks by HP, Yahoo and other leading companies.

DudaMobile was founded in 2009 by Sadan and Amir Glatt, CTO at DudaMobile. The two co-founders worked together at SAP in Israel and California. The company headquarters are located in Palo Alto, California, with a development center in Israel.

BlogAds – Healthy Snacks for Kids | Mobile Medical Care Services | Professional Weather Forecasting

Cisco will acquire video software and content security solutions provider NDS Group approximately $5 billion. This is the highest price ever paid for an Israeli company, and the biggest Cisco acquisition since 2005 when it bought Scientific-Atlanta for $6.9 billion. 

Acquiring NDS will broaden Cisco's opportunities in the service provider market, expanding its reach into emerging markets, such as China and India, where NDS has an established customer footprint.

The acquisition of NDS will complement and accelerate the delivery of Videoscape, Cisco's comprehensive platform that enables service providers and media companies to deliver next-generation entertainment experiences.

"Our strategy has always been driven by customer need and on capturing market transitions. Our acquisition of NDS fits squarely into this strategy, enabling content and service providers to deliver new video solutions that leverage the cloud and drive new monetization opportunities and service differentiation," said John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco.

"This is a transformational opportunity for not only NDS and Cisco, but also our service provider customers and their consumers. Together we make the connected vision a reality," said Dave Habiger, CEO, NDS.

Upon completion of the transaction, NDS's global operations, including sites in UK, Israel, France, India and China, and its approximately 5,000 employees will join the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group (SPVTG), led by Senior Vice President and General Manager Jesper Andersen. 

Dr. Abe Peled, NDS Executive Chairman, will be named Senior Vice President and Chief Strategist for Cisco's Video & Collaboration Group

NDS Group creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 90 of the world's leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their business.

European private equity firm Permira Advisers and Rupert Murdoch's global media company News Corp. are owning approximately 51% and 49% of NDS, respectively.

BlogAds – Food Supplements for Children | Wireless Health Care Solutions | Weather Predictions Application

Business communications systems supplier Avaya will acquire unified visual communications solutions provider RADVISION, for approximately $230 million in cash. RADVISION will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avaya.

Through this acquisition, Avaya will provide customers a highly integrated and interoperable suite of cost-effective, easy to use, high-definition video collaboration products, with the ability to plug and play multiple mobile devices including Apple iPad and Google Android.

"We believe this transaction will leverage a highly-skilled, incredibly talented and experienced workforce ready to deliver video to enterprise customers," said Kevin Kennedy, president and CEO, Avaya. With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, anytime, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully-integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition."

Founded in 1992, RADVISION is a provider of products and technologies for unified visual communications over IP and 3G networks. These products enable customers and partners to deploy unified communication networks and services, and develop video network equipment and device solutions. RADVISION international headquarters and R&D center are located in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Avaya is a privately held global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, data solutions and related services.

BlogAds – Healthy Supplements for Kids | Disaster Management Services | Weather Predictions Report

Asia's leading communications group SingTel has acquired mobile advertising solutions provider Amobee for $321 million. The acquisition strengthens SingTel’s capabilities in the fast-growing mobile advertising and marketing industry.

Amobee offers comprehensive, end-to-end mobile advertising solutions and services for advertisers, publishers and operators. SingTel will partner Amobee to build an independent company with Amobee's management team, that will remain in active control of the company.

“The mobile advertising market is nascent and has significant potential for mobile operators, who are able to provide differentiated solutions across smartphones and feature phones, giving brands a better return on their marketing spend. We want to capture that growth in developed and emerging markets, starting with this acquisition," said Allen Lew, CEO at SingTel new unit, Group Digital L!fe. 

SingTel already has advanced geo-localisation capabilities, as well as the means to empower customers to receive only relevant and customised offers and promotions catering to their needs and preferences while protecting their privacy. Amobee complements these capabilities with a strong technical platform that serves ads, banner as well as video ads.

"SingTel and Amobee have a shared a vision of the future of mobile marketing and by leveraging each other's strengths, we will be able to advance the industry on a global scale at a faster pace," said Trevor Healy, Amobee CEO.

Amobee was founded in 2005 by Zohar Levkovitz, vice chairman of Amobee board of directors. The company enjoys financial backing from leading venture capital fund such as, Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Globespan as well as strategic investments like, Motorola, Cisco, Vodafone and Telefónica.

Amobee is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with a Research and Development center in Herzliya, Israel.

SingTel (Singapore Telecommunications) provides a portfolio of services including voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms as well as infocomm technology and pay TV.

The comapny has presence in Asia and Africa with 434 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. SingTel is the largest listed company on the Singapore Exchange with a market capitalisation of more than $41 billion.

BlogAds – Weather Forecasts Services | Mobile Gesture Motion Control | Security Training Consulting Services

Application Delivery Networking solutions provider F5 Networks has acquire Traffix Systems, a provider of 4G Diameter signaling products for telecommunications service providers. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The Diameter protocol developed by Traffix has gained industry-wide acceptance by the 3GPP and GSMA as the standard for network signaling in all 4G/LTE networks.  The company boasts nearly 100 global deployments and is profitable.

"Leading industry experts and service providers recognize the need for converged and unified IP solutions across carriers' control, data, and application planes, which scale, secure, and optimize 3G, 4G/LTE, and IMS traffic," said John McAdam, President and CEO of F5 Networks. "The result is a dramatic reduction of complexity and costs, making service provider networks more agile. With this move, F5 continues to execute on the company's vision of delivering an adaptable architecture to enable its customers to create a smart, converged carrier IP infrastructure."

Mobile data traffic is increasing at an enormous rate, driving many mobile operators to switch from a 3G network to all-internet protocol (IP) network, such as LTE, to manage the high volume of traffic and provide a high quality customer experience. The Diameter protocol plays a vital role in the management of 4G LTE and IMS networks and 3G charging and policy deployments. Diameter control via routing, load balancing and gateway solutions are critical to effectively building and monetizing networks by enabling them to offer advanced 4G services. 

"Bringing together F5's superior expertise in IP for applications and data with Traffix's industry leadership in Diameter and signaling for the control plane, F5 has the unique depth and breadth to make the transition from 3G to 4G and IMS much simpler, cost effective, and non-disruptive for carriers," said Ben Volkow, CEO of Traffix Systems.

Traffix Systems was founded in 2005 by Volkow and Gil Shafran who serves as vice president for research and development. In November 2011 the company has secured $7 million in first financing round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Traffic investors also include StageOne Ventures, and Shaked Ventures.

Traffix is headquartered in Hod Hasharon, Israel and has offices in New Jersey, US and London, UK. 

F5 Networks provides application delivery networking technology that optimizes the delivery of network-based applications, and the security, performance, and availability of servers, data storage devices, and other network resources. The Americam company is trading on the Nasdaq with a market cap of $10 billion.

BlogAds – Nutrition Supplements for Children | Gesture Control Technology | Weather Forecasting Services

Content delivery services provider Akamai Technologies has acquired Web and mobile acceleration services provider Cotendo, for a net cash payment of approximately $268 million. The combined technology and teams of the two companies expected to help accelerate pace of innovation in cloud and mobile optimization.

As a developer of cloud-based acceleration technologies, Cotendo offers single-platform software that uses highly efficient unified proxy delivery and intelligent server software—rather than a massive CDN infrastructure—to drive optimized content delivery.

"As we look to accelerate growth across the dynamic landscapes of cloud and mobile optimization, we are excited to be joining forces with Cotendo," said Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai.  "Cotendo's technology, partnerships and people are a strong complement to Akamai.  Together, we believe there is tremendous opportunity for our combined technologies as enterprises embrace the move to the cloud and seek solutions for an increasingly mobile world." 

"By combining our innovative technology and employees with Akamai, we expect our customers and partners will gain access to a comprehensive, global platform and wider portfolio of leading-edge services supported by some of the most experienced providers in the industry," said Ronni Zehavi, CEO and co-founder of Cotendo.

Contendo was founded in 2008 by Zehavi, David Drai (CTO) and Udi Trugman (VP R&D). The istraeli startup is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with a technology center in Netanya, Israel.  Cotendo currently has approximately 100 employees, with over 50 based in Israel.

In July 2010 Cotendo has raised $12 million from Tenaya Capital, Sequoia and Benchmark Capital. And in June 2011 the comapny has completed a $17 million funding round from Citrix Systems, Juniper Networks, Sequoia, Benchmark and Tenaya.

BlogAds – Nutrition Supplements for Kids | Gesture Recognition Technology | Airport Security Training

Cyber-Ark Software, a global information security provider for protecting and managing privileged accounts and sessions, critical applications and sensitive information, has raised $40 million investment round form Goldman Sachs and Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP). 

The transaction includes the purchase of shares from existing shareholders, as well as the provision of growth capital for the company. Following the round, Cyber-Ark's main shareholders will include JVP, Goldman Sachs, Vertex Venture Capital and Cabaret-ArbaOne. As part of the round, JVP’s Founder and Chairman Erel Margalit will be nominated Chairman of the Company and David Campbell, a Vice President in the Merchant Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, will join the Board.

Cyber-Ark's solutions enable its customers to proactively protect their organizations against insider threats and advanced external threats. The company will use the proceeds to further accelerate growth, while capitalizing on its position as a market leader in Privileged Identity Management, one of the fastest growing segments within the $4 billion identity and access management market. 

“We were attracted to Cyber-Ark’s leading technology solutions in the large and fast growing market of securing corporate cyber assets,” noted Campbell. “Cyber-Ark has significant customer traction with some of the world’s largest enterprises and a history of producing cutting edge security software. The Company’s top class management team has a strong track record of demonstrating consistent and profitable growth.”

Cyber-Ark specializes in protecting and managing privileged users, sessions, applications and sensitive information to improve compliance, productivity and protect organizations against insider threats and advanced external threats. In recent years, Cyber-Ark has experienced significant customer growth, expanding to nearly 1000 enterprise customers worldwide, including 8 of the Top 10 global banks and more than 35 percent of the Fortune 100 companies.

Cyber-Ark was founded in 1999 by Udi Mokady, President and CEO at Cyber-Ark, and Alon N. Cohen, outgoing Chairman of the comapny. Headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, US, Cyber-Ark has sales offices in UK, Singapore and R&D center in Petach-Tikva, Israel.

BlogAds – Gesture Control Software Solution | Vitamin C Supplements for Kids | Airport Security Training

Wireless chipset solutions provider DSP Group has acquired BoneTone Communications, a provider of innovative chip solutions that redefine audio quality and voice intelligibility in mobile devices and headsets, for approximately $10 million.

DSP Group's acquisition of BoneTone comes two years after the companies entered into a strategic partnership. Toward the end of 2009, DSP Group acquired an equity stake in BoneTone.

The acquisition provides DSP Group with diversification and cutting-edge technology in the promising and fast-growing mobile device market. BoneTone's products are expected to generate revenues already in 2012.

BoneTone leverages unique signal-processing technologies that transform inaudible voice calls into clear and comprehensive conversations, and redefines the music-listening experience in mobile devices. BoneTone offers two groundbreaking chips: HDClear, a chip that completely removes background noise for far end users. And HDMobileSurround, which enables mobile phone, tablet and PC users, through the use of an advanced small form-factor headset, to enjoy home theater-quality sound on the go while gaming or watching movies.

"The acquisition of BoneTone enables us to differentiate and expand our product portfolio, as well as strengthen our leadership in converged communications," said Ofer Elyakim, CEO of DSP Group. "By leveraging our product development abilities, marketing infrastructure and broad customer base, we expect BoneTone's innovative solutions to generate growth in several areas. BoneTone's focus on the mobile phone industry further opens the door to an expanding market with long-term growth potential."

BoneTone is a provider of innovative IC solutions that redefine audio quality and voice intelligibility in mobile devices and headsets. BoneTone was founded in September 2007 by Dr. Arie Heiman, BoneTone Chairman & CEO. The company is located in Rosh Ha’ayin, Israel.

DSP Group is delivering system solutions that combine semiconductors and software with reference designs. The company enables consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers to cost-effectively develop new revenue-generating applications with fast time to market.

BlogAds – Gesture Motion Tracking | Vitamin C Supplement for Children | Cultural Heritage Education Programme

NICE Systems has acquired service and sales performance management solutions provider Merced Systems, for approximately $150 million.

Additionally, NICE will pay Merced up to $20 million in cash subject to Merced meeting certain performance targets. The deal will add approximately $55 million to NICE revenues in 2012.

Merced's performance management solutions have been selected by companies worldwide including: Bell Canada, British Gas, Coca Cola, Dell, Delta Airlines, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Available in on-premise, SaaS and hosted models, Merced's solutions will be offered both as standalone and as a tightly integrated component of the NICE suite. Integrating Merced and NICE capabilities creates a closed-loop performance management solution. Adding capabilities such as real-time interaction analytics and real-time customer feedback to traditional data sources will deliver more accurate performance measurement and insights. 

"The acquisition of Merced constitutes an important and strategic addition to our offering of enterprise-wide customer interaction solutions. Expanding our portfolio with the market leading performance management solutions will enable both NICE and Merced customers to enjoy an enhanced offering with rich functionality," said Zeevi Bregman, President and CEO of NICE.

Merced was founded in in 2001 by Matt Glickman, CEO of Merced, and Mark Selcow, the company President. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and London, with major customers in more than 20 countries worldwide. 

NICE provides intent-based solutions that capture and analyze interactions and transactions, realize intent, and extract and leverage insights to deliver impact in real time.

BlogAds – Active Weather Stations | Supplements to Improve Brain Development | Airport Security Training

Microsoft has acquired the video content search company VideoSurf to enhance video discovery capabilities for Xbox LIVe, by increasing the speed and relevance of the search results.

VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that "sees" frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE.

"VideoSurf's content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform," said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE." 

The acquisition of VideoSurf will also make it easier for world-leading TV and entertainment providers to take full advantage of advanced features such as voice search enabled by Kinect for Xbox 360. With Kinect, users will be able to easily search and discover content across multiple entertainment providers within Xbox LIVE and then interact with and enjoy content in extraordinary ways using voice search powered by Bing on the Xbox 360.

Founded in 2006 by Lior Delgo, CEO at VideoSurf; Professor Achi Brandt, Chief Scientist; Dr. Eitan Sharon, CTO;, and Shai Deljo, COO. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, CA, US.

BlogAds –Airport Security Training Services | Dietary Supplements for Children | Gesture Recognition Software

Information security solutions provider Imperva has raised $90 million in a new initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYCE). The closing reflects company value of $400 million.

Imperva is a leader of a new category of data security solutions for high-value business data in the data center. Its SecureSphere Data Security Suite is a broad solution designed to prioritize and mitigate risks to high-value business data, protect against hackers and malicious insiders and address and streamline regulatory compliance. 

The shares are expected to begin trading today on the NYCE under the symbol "IMPV." Imperva announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 5,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $18 per share. 

Imperva is offering 4,750,000 shares of common stock and selling stockholders are offering 250,000 shares of common stock. In addition, Imperva has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 750,000 additional shares of common stock at the initial public offering price. J.P. Morgan Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. RBC Capital Markets, Lazard Capital Markets and Pacific Crest Securities are acting as co-managers.

Imperva generated revenue of $55.4 million in 2010, an increase of 41% over the $39.3 million in revenue we generated in 2009, and we reduced our net loss attributable to our stockholders to $12.0 million in 2010 from $12.3 million in 2009.

Imperva was founded in 2002 by Shlomo Kramer President and CEO at Imperva, and Amichai Shulman, CTO of Imperva. Prior to founding Imperva, Kramer co-founded Check Point Software Technologies in 1993. Prior to Imperva, Shulman was founder and CTO of Edvice Security Services.

The company Headquarters are located in Redwood Shores, CA, United States, with a Research and Development (R&D) center in Tel Aviv, Israel.

BlogAds – Web Anti Scraping | Social Network Marketing for Hotel Industry | Airport Security Management

SolarEdge Technologies, a provider of end-to-end solar power optimization and PV monitoring solutions, has closed a $37 million round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP).

Existing investors - Opus Capital, Walden International, Genesis Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GE, also participated in this round.

The funding will enable the company to accelerate its global expansion and production plans as well as strengthen its balance sheet. 

SolarEdge is poised for tremendous growth as more customers and business partners realize the benefits provided by the technology," said Dror Nahumi, partner at NVP. "Today's funding round will be used to capitalize on this potential, fuel the company's growth worldwide and establish SolarEdge products and technology as a quality standard for reliable and efficient solar energy systems."

"The solar industry is transitioning toward advanced power harvesting solutions. We see SolarEdge as the clear market leader in this high-growth segment given its compelling advantages over existing approaches," said Kevin Skillern, a managing director and leader of Venture Capital at GE Energy Financial Services.

SolarEdge provides end-to-end distributed solar power harvesting and PV monitoring solutions, allowing maximum energy production for a faster return on investment. The company was founded in 2009 by Guy Sella, the company CEO and Chairman. SolarEdge located in Hod Hasharon, Israel.

BlogAds – Web Anti Scraping | Social Media Marketing for Hotels | Educational Toolkit for Cultural Heritage Learning

video-infrastructure products provider Qwilt has raised $24 million in two rounds of funding from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Crescent Point Group and other investors, including Rob Glaser, the founder and former CEO of RealNetworks.

Qwilt boosts network performance to deliver more movies and TV shows. The company helps Internet-service providers more efficiently deliver high-quality video to their customers - meaning more consumers can see video from sources like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon. The company is now testing its products with five global carriers.

"The explosion of Internet video viewed through all types of Web-enabled devices, from smartphones to iPads, calls for new technology to help the consumer get the best possible viewing experience, and to help carriers and service providers optimize their networks for that," said Alon Maor, Qwilt's CEO. "The recent rise of bandwidth-usage caps shows how difficult and costly it is for carriers to deliver sophisticated video services today. Their networks are simply not architected for it. Qwilt offers a win-win-win solution for carriers, content providers and, most important, users."

Video now represents about 40% of all Internet traffic, and is projected to quadruple by 2015, when video is expected to make up more than two-thirds of all online activity. Streaming videos from the Netflix service alone make up 30% of Internet traffic during peak evening hours today.

"So much of the buzz about Internet video today is on the consumer side, around the incredible growth of services like Netflix and Hulu, which are feeding shows and movies to users on PCs and smartphones," said Tom Dyal, partner at Redpoint Ventures who is a member of Qwilt's board. "But few people are talking about the enormous strain all this new content is putting on Internet providers - the companies forced to carry all this video through their overburdened pipes." 

Qwilt develops video technology that helps carriers identify, monitor, store and deliver high-quality, Internet video through one cost-effective platform. Qwilt's solutions enable carriers to better monetize Internet video and let consumers see the online entertainment they want in the highest possible quality.

Qwilt was founded in 2010 by Maor, with Giora Yaron (a serial entrepreneur who was chairman of Mercury Interactive, acquired by HP), Yuval Shahar (former CEO of P-Cube, acquired by Cisco), and Dan Sahar (formerly with Juniper Networks). Qwilt is headquartered in in Redwood Shores, California, and has sales offices in Europe.

BlogAds – Aviation Security Training Services | Anti Scraping Software | Social Media Marketing for Hotels

Ethernet wireless backhaul solution provider Siklu has closed $19 million second investment round led by Qualcomm and Amiti Ventures. All existing investors: DFJ- Tamir Fishman Ventures, Evergreen Venture Partners and Argonaut Private Equity, joined this round.

Siklu will use the new funding to further extend its leadership to picocell backhaul products for 4G/LTE and beyond, and to expand its marketing and sales activities to the US and Indian markets.

"Backhaul has become an important consideration for operators as they continue to expand their high-speed 3G networks and plan their 4G strategies," said Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President of Qualcomm Ventures. "Siklu has taken a creative approach to this challenge with its miniature picocell architecture, giving operators a cost-effective means to bolster their backhaul capacity."

Siklu delivers scalable and flexible carrier-grade millimeter wave Gigabit Ethernet radio solutions. These advanced architecture solutions offer price-performance value for mobile backhaul, Carrier Ethernet business services, enterprise, and vertical applications in developed and emerging markets.

"Data explosion, driven by growth of smart phones and tablets, necessitates need for cost-effective and reliable carriage of data. Siklu's innovative design provides a simple and reliable solution while dramatically reducing cost," said Anil Khatod, Managing Director of Argonaut, and former Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer and President, Optical & Internet Solutions of Nortel Networks.

Siklu was founded in 2008 by Izik Kirshenbaum, Chairman & President at Siklu, and Yigal Leiba, the company CTO. Siklu is a Delaware company with its R&D and Operation center based in Petach Tikva, Israel.

BlogAds – Executive Coaching & Training | Web Content Scraping Protection | Social Media Optimization for Hotels

Personal finance security startup BillGuard has secured $10 million in second-round financing led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors.

The round also included existing venture capital funds and angels investors including: Bessemer Venture Partners, IA Ventures, SV Angel, Founder Collective, Social Leverage and Yaron Galai and Joe Lonsdale.

BillGuard alerts consumers about hidden charges, billing errors, misleading subscriptions, scams and fraud on their credit cards. The coampny developed self-learning, big-data mining algorithm that harness the collective knowledge of millions of consumers reporting billing complaints online and in their electronic statements.

Launched in May 2011, BillGuard's free consumer web service scans user's credit and debit card activity daily and alerts them to hidden charges, billing errors, misleading subscriptions, scams and fraud. In its first four months, the new service has saved its users nearly half a million dollars in hidden charges, billing errors, misleading subscriptions, scams and fraud. The company projects that consumers lose tens of billions of dollars annually to such charges. Phone bill protection, a top requested feature, is also in the works.

Founded in April of 2010 by Yaron Samid and Raphael Ouzan, BillGuard is privately held with offices in New York and Israel. The funding will be used to accelerate growth and support marketing, business development, sales and R&D expansion.

BlogAds – Screen Scraping Protection | Marketing Tool for Hotels Booking | Probiotics Gummy Bear for Children

Application security testing solution provider Checkmarx has completed a new round of funding raising capital from customer and collaboration relationship management (CRM) services provider salesforce.com and private equity investor Ofer Hi-Tech.

Checkmarx source code analysis technologies enables customers to track throughout their Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) whether their application code is following internal or external compliance requirements or is in accordance with the developing and hosting platform guidelines.

The funds will be used by the company to bolster product development as well as sales and marketing efforts to promote the Checkmarx cloud-based source code scanning service.

"Secure coding and application quality have become essential disciplines in today's threat-filled and performance-hungry environment," said Emmanuel Benzaquen, Checkmarx CEO. "We are strongly committed to our platform partners' proactive strategy to provide secure coding and quality practices to the entire cloud. This is fully in line with our goal of bringing our customers to the promised land of unbreachable applications."

Checkmarx supports leading programming languages and framework such as C#, Java, C/C++, VB6 and PHP, as well as platform languages and frameworks such as salesforce.com's Apex and VisualForce. Checkmark's CxCloud generic cloud-based code scanning service is available to any developer or enterprise.

Checkmarx was founded in 2006 by Maty Siman, the company CTO. The company is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, with an office in New York, USA.

BlogAds – Healthy Food Supplements for Kids | Disaster Management Services | Weather Predictions App

Enterprise software monitoring solution provider Aternity has closed a fourth round of financing raising $13 million from a group of investors led by Investor Growth Capital (IGC).

The round also included significant follow-on participation by all existing investors including: Vertex Venture Capital, Genesis Partners, Intel Capital, and Clal Industries and Investments.

Aternity’s Frontline Performance Intelligence (FPI) platform provides comprehensive application, physical and virtual desktop monitoring coverage, advanced, real-time analytics, and massive scalability in order to dramatically reduce business disruptions, increase user productivity and deliver optimization of enterprises’ support resources.

The company released in September version 5.0 of its FPI platform. Equipped with comprehensive application and desktop coverage, advanced, real-time analytics, and massive scalability, the Aternity FPI Platform v5.0 dramatically reduces business disruptions, increases user productivity, and delivers breakthrough optimization of enterprises’ support resources.

Aternity was founded in October 2004 by Eden Shohat, Amir Eldad, Orit Kislev-Kapon, and Amnon Yacoby, the current Chairman of Aternity. The company headquarters are located in Westborough, MA, US, and its R&D center is based in Hod Hasharon, Israel.

BlogAds – Content Scraping Protection | Social Media Strategy for Hotels | Medical Safety System

Web site testing solution provider Amadesa has secured a second funding round of $7.4 million led by Gemini Israel Funds and Carmel Ventures. Amadesa will use the funding to aggressively expand sales and marketing efforts and further extend its industry-leading enterprise solution suite.

Amadesa provides a single platform for website testing and relevancy targeting solutions to enhance conversion rate optimization and engagement activity.

The company expert professional services and robust analytics offer clients step-by-step guidance for optimized resource management, implementation, strategic planning and meaningful analysis, making it easy to understand website visitors and maximize conversions and revenues.

"Since introducing the first fully integrated website conversion optimization software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite, we've continued to be at the forefront of offering the most innovative and powerful solutions to online marketers who have aggressive business goals," said Avi Kedmi, Amadesa CEO.

Amadesa provides complete website testing and relevancy targeting solutions to help marketers in e-commerce and e-business companies, to increase conversions and revenue, enhance visitor experiences, and elevate marketing return on investment (ROI). Amadesa's client list includes such diverse organizations as Shoebuy.com, Progressive, Mary Kay, and General Mills.

Amadesa was founded in 2005 by Kedmi, Avihai Ozana, and Nathaniel Zenou. In 2008, Amadesa has raised $5.4 million in first funding round from Carmel Ventures. The company based in Evanston, Illinois, US, with an R&D center in in Ramat-Gan, Israel. 

BlogAds – Hypertension Solutions | Vitamin C Supplements for Children | Social Media Marketing for Hotels

Intel has acquired mobile navigation and location-based services provider Telmap, in order to provide mobile local search, mapping and navigation services, as part of its AppUp services.

Telmap will allow Intel to provide AppUp developers with differentiated location capabilities in the form of a standard set of location-based APIs and software that developers can easily integrate into their AppUp apps. Intel AppUp Service enables server manufacturers, software vendors, and service providers to offer businesses key advantages of cloud computing with applications and data running on their own premises.

Telmap provides white label, hosted and managed mobile location-based services to mobile operators, and its mobile location companion is available on more than 700 devices, on all major operating systems, including: Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, Symbian and more.

Telmap existing user base grow in 2011 to over five million, including users from mobile operators like Orange FT Group, Vodafone, Vodacom, SFR, Telefonica-O2, MTS, SingTel, and OPTUS.

Telmap was founded in 2000 by Michael Pechatniko and currently managed by Oren Nissim. Telmap headquarter is located in Hertzlyia, Israel. The company will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel. 

BlogAds – Social Media for Hospitality Industry | Test Management Software | Weather Forecasting Tool