Angels

FaceFu, which allows the creation of location-based social networks, has got an investment from Shuki Glaser. The Marker reports that the investment is in the range of a few hundred-thousand dollars.

TheMarker reports that Teddy Sagi (from Playtech, a company that manages online casinos) is set to become a leading Web angel in Israel, and intends to invest more and more in startups. The first company he invested in is ReImage, which provides computer-fixing services through an automated web service.

Virtual Tweens has raised 1M$, led by Gemini partners and private investors. Virtal Tweens runs an educational virtual world for kids, called Ekoloko.

Via TheMarker (Hebrew)

Israeli Startup, Sense-Of-Fashion raised 260K$ (from Jeff Pulver and other private investors). The company has a web site (already live with revenue) that is a trading platform for fashion.

Via Globes (Hebrew)

I was invited to lecture at ISEMI about raising funds from private investors.
In order for my lecture to be relevant and up-to-date I've decided to check the current situation regarding this issue.

I've approached a few serious angel investors who were willing to share their views. 
As I suspected, it is not easy at all to get funding these days.
Out of 7 investor I contacted only 3 declare they still invest. 
The estimate is that there is a drop of 50-90% in private investments.

I'll try to summarize what I've learnt from these discussions.

The dark side:

EyeView, who's into making videos to improve conversions in sites, just raised money from LGILab and Gigi Levi (from 888.com).

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)

Modular Patterns is a new startup (the founders are the ones behind Joongel). They have raised 100K$ seed from Yossi Vardi. They want to do something with collaborative-web apps, but we do not know more.

Read more here (Globes, hebrew)

Websplanet raised 0.5M$ in second round (8M$ valuation) from private investors, most of money from Yigal Ahuvi (the Partam fund?). Websplanet already raised 2M$ before. Websplanet allows users to create web sites without any programming.

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)

PicApp announced it had raised 3.2M$ from Carmel Ventures and Leni Reckanati. PicApp allow bloggers and publishers to use free pictures in exchange for ads. PicApp is a 'spin-off' from PicScout.

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)

SemantiNet just announced a 3.4M$ round. SemantiNet is working on a browser plug-in that will deliver relevant content to the user, based on the site he's surfing.

Investors in this round include Yossi Vardi, Jeff Pulver, Giza and others.

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)