StartupIsrael News:
Zango layed off 75 employees, 20 of which are in Israel
Submitted by ron on June 23, 2008 - 12:20Zango (a merge between Hotbar and 180 Solutions) layed off 75 employees, 20 of which are in Israel. This is about a third of their workforce.
They have recently launched a new ad-supported toolbar, which allows access to their casual games.
Labpixies raised 1M$ from angel investors
Submitted by ron on June 16, 2008 - 11:28Techcrunch has a nice piece on Labpixies - he loves their widgets (and I have to admit that they look good!). They have just raised 1M$ from angel investors in Israel.
Metacafe fired 7 employees (10% of their workforce)
Submitted by ron on June 12, 2008 - 17:38Metacafe fired 7 employees, which is a little less than 10% of their workforce (which is 80 in Israel plus 15 in the US).
StarNet interactive bought by IAC for 'a few million dollars'
Submitted by ron on May 22, 2008 - 08:48Another Yossi Vardi backed Exit - StarNet interactive (who operates GirlSense.com) has been purchased by IAC for a 'few milliion dollars'. Total investment in StarNet has been 2.7M$.
TripTouch releases the 'Travel Widget'
Submitted by ron on May 20, 2008 - 09:26
TripTouch has released their Travel Widget. The widget, that can be installed in iGoogle and Netvibes (and also be embedded in web pages and blogs) includes all of TripTouch's content and services - travel guide, accommodation, restaurants, events, activities, travelers and utilities. The widget automatically finds the user's location.
Widget Maker Musestorm Raises $1M from Elron
Submitted by ron on May 18, 2008 - 10:55MuseStorm calls itself a Web 2.0 aggregator. It aggregates data from web APIs and RSS feeds and distributes it via widgets to Blogs, web sites, and mobile devices. Users include The Washington Post, Pageflakes and CBS.
The company makes money by selling its analytics. You can get Musestorm analytics free for 60 days and will then have to pay $4/month per feed for web widgets and the same price for Desktop widgets. The analytics engine will track impressions and clickthroughs for widgets located on web as well as user desktop.
Event: MIT Forum- Internet Workshop
Submitted by gil on May 4, 2008 - 13:12The event will take place in May 6th, 10:00 , Room 405, Recanati Building, Tel Aviv University .
Main topics: Traffic and Advertising, Arbitrage and Content, Business Models, Company Presentations.
Speakers:
Yaron Galai, Founder & CEO, Quigo, Outbrain
Avichay Nissenbaum, Founder & CEO, Yedda
Alon Atsmon, Founder & CEO , Picitup
Saar Wilf, Co-Founder & CEO, FraudSciences
Oren Rosen, Founder, GStock
Sounds really interesting, and there's a chance for 1-2 startups to be invited to present their business idea to the event participants, and receive feedback from the speakers. (For details on this option please call Yuval Rotstein, on 03.6405608).
Jinni raises 1M$ from Startup Factory
Submitted by ron on May 1, 2008 - 15:23Jinni raised their first seed investment - 1M$ from Startup Factory. Jinni develops a personalized recommendation engine for movies and TV shows, and also allows users to "consume" the content via the TV or the computer (not sure what that means really).
Libox (Erez Philosoph's stealth startup) raised over 1M$
Submitted by ron on April 9, 2008 - 18:15Libox, a stealth "consumer-product" startup has raised over 1M$ from Evergreen, Partam and Eilon Tirosh.
Kenshoo raises a "few million dollars" from Arts Alliance
Submitted by ron on April 9, 2008 - 09:24Kenshoo just raised a few million dollars from european VC Arts Alliance. Kenshoo developed a system that manages advertisement campaigns over several networks at the same time.