Venture Capital

Journeys - a new gaming startup, close to finish the first round of finance

One of Double-Fusion co-founders (Guy Bendov) is setting up a new company - Journeys. They cliam they are closing the first finance round, from VCs. Journeys will be a casual gaming platform - about books, movies, games and social networks.

Read more here (TheMarker hebrew)

Pitango closes 150M$ out of 300M$ for fifth fund

Pitango is opening it's fifth fund, and it already closed 150M$ out of the planned 300M$. Pitango invests in Life Science, communication, IT and Internet.

Read more here (Globes, hebrew) 

Pudding raises 3.5M$

Pudding raises 3.5M$ from Opus Capital, BRM, and some private investors. The company has a product related to internet shopping, but is remaining secretive for the time being.

Read more here (Globes, hebrew)

Hingi raises 3.4M$

Hingi raised 3.4M$ from Opus capital and other VCs. Hingi allows people to get information through their cellular phone with a minimum amount of clicks. Their first application allows you to see what song is currently playing in the radio, and purchase it. Hingi was one of the 10 companies in TWS 2007.

Read more here (Globes, hebrew)

Benchmark capital invests 8M$ in Power-Challenge

Israeli Benchmark Capital VC invests 8M$ in Power Challenge. Power Challenge is both a developer and a supplier of on line sport and mass-multi-player games. Players are able to create communities based on the games - which are all free, with advertisements. 

YL Ventures - a new VC in Israel

There's a new VC in Israel - YL Venture. YL is a small (30M$) venture capital fund, which will focus on technology-based companies (whose technology can be protected by patents) in the fields of Internet, Media and Mobile. They are aiming at modest exits, and want to invest between 0.5M$ to 2.5M$ in each company.

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)

 

Jajah raises 15M$ from Intel capital and other strategic investors

Intel capital (And other strategic investors) have invested 15M$ in Jajah. In addition, Intel will help distribute Jajah's application with OEMs and clients. Jajah allows users to place cheap or no-cost calls over regular phone lines.

The deals include also: China-based social networking site 51.com; China-based microelectronics company Phoenix Microelectronics; Israel-based application management software company Aternity; Israel-based portable computing environment company Ceedo; and New York City-based online education network Tutor.com.

Pitango and Greylock invest 6M$ in british site mySupermarket.co.uk

Israeli VCs Pitango and Greylock invest 6M$ in british mySupermarket.co.uk web site. MySupermarket allows people to shop in retail stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Ocado.

Read more here (Globes, hebrew) 

LGiLab invests 1 Million USD in Timeless cities

LGiLab invests 1 million USD in Timeless cities, which aims to create 3D virtual words.

Read more here (TheMarker, hebrew)

LGiLab, Glenrock and others invest in Outbrain

LGiLab, Glenrock fund and others invest in outbrain, a company formed by Yaron Galai and Uri Lahav. Outbrain will give users a platform to rate new blog posts (using the RSS reader). Outbrain will allow users to view posts with high ranking.

Ouriel Ohayon, the lab's General Manager, tells us the sum quoted in TheMarker is incorrect. The lab invests up to 1 million USD, this investment was funded jointly with other investors. More information in Ouriel's blog.