After surveying high-tech insiders in Israel including investors, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists “Globes” has ranked the country’s top 10 most promising startups. Previous winners of the award include Mellanox, Outbrain, Fiverr, and GetTaxi.
1. The company recognized as the most promising start of 2015 is StoreDot, which has raised $76 million from leading investors like Roman Abramovich, Samsung Ventures, and Singulariteam. While the Israeli startup originally garnered significant buzz in the past two years for its development of a solution to charge cell phones in half a minute, it recently turned its focus to the automotive world.
CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf founded the company with Prof. Simon Litsyn formerly the chief scientist at Sandisk and Prof. Gil Rosenman. The most recent investment in StoreDot $18 million was part of a wider $50 million round of funding destined for their automotive division.
2. SimilarWeb, founded in 2007 by Or Offer and Nir Cohen, is an information technology company monitoring and analyzing online traffic. SimilarWeb makes its basic data available for free, while charging companies and institutions for access to detailed analsis. “We are a B2B company with a SaaS product. It provides us a perspective and we can predict that we are going to double or triple our revenue every year, “said CEO Offer, adding, “There is no privacy concern because we are not providing data on our users, only on their visits to sites and applications. It’s aggregate and anonymous. We don’t know who you are specifically.”
3. Windward was founded by two Israeli Navy veterans who wanted to provide institutions and businesses with accurate information about the ships traveling the high seas. “It is important that people understand that shipping is not niche. Ship transport influences a wide variety of sectors which affect all of us. We are making the waters more accessible,” said CEO Ami Daniel. Windward’s original platform handled 1,600 data sources; today they integrate 100 million sources into their maritime data software, Windward Mind.
4. Playbuzz, an online content publishing platform from Shaul Olmert son of former PM Ehud Olmert was never meant to go viral. “We had no intention of creation a content destination with a strong following, we were just trying to showcase our product to let investors see how it worked. Today we are both a B2B company which allows partners and brands to create viral polls and surveys and we run our site on a B2C model,” said the Playbuzz CEO.
5. Fundbox, a FinTech startup founded two years ago by Eyal Shinar, Yuval Ariav, Tomer Michaeli, has been refusing buyout offers worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Fundbox helps small business and freelancers by optimizing their cash flow management.
The company has raised an additional $50 million in equity funding after closing a $40 million Series B funding round in March 2015.
“Fundbox is pioneering new ground with its advanced underwriting platform and machine learning capabilities that put small business owners in control of their cash flow by offering simple, one-click financing of outstanding invoices. Fundbox also recently launched its second product, Credit-as-a-Service, which allows a third-party to embed Fundbox functionality directly into the workflow of its application," said CEO Shinar.
6. Zerto, a Herzliya-based specializing in disaster recovery software, has impressive aspirations. “Zerto’s goal is to reach a billion dollar in annual revenue,” said CEO Ziv Kedem, “I can’t say if it’ll happen in 2019 or 2020, but our aim is to build a company that lasts. We are not for sale.” Zerto has raised $60 million from investors including North 83, Battery Ventures, RTP, USVP, and Harmony Ventures. It employs 260 workers in the company’s Herzliya and Boston headquarters, as well as offices in 15 other countries.
7. AppsFlyer offers mobile developers the ability to track and analyze user data by implementing an SDK (software developepment kit) into their applications. According to CEO Oren Kaniel, “the SDK has been installed more than 10 billion times. Every 9 out of 10 smartphones in the market have at least one app with our SDK.” AppsFlyer works with some 1,200 advertising networks including Facebook and Google.
8. Yotpo, a startup turning customer reviews into marketing content, was founded four years ago by Tomer Tagrin and Omri Cohen. “We built a platform that helps businesses create content from their own clients,” said CEO Tagrin. “It started from product reviews, then we expanded to business and brand reviews. Today we deal in what is called ‘social Q&A’ an engine that allows consumers to ask questions and seek recommendations among themselves.” Yotpo currently serves more than 120,000 businesses across the world, including GoPro, Sears, and Staples. “By 2016, we will be generating more reviews per month than Yelp,” claimed Tagrin.
9. Zebra Medical Vision founded by Elad Benjamin, Eyal Gura, and Eyal Toledano hopes to help doctors by providing a platform to better analyze and integrate medical imaging insights. “We work in radiology,” said CEO Benjamin, “the radiologist’s job is to diagnose the image, but he needs more efficient tools to avoid making mistakes.” Zebra uses artificial intelligence and image processing to help medical professional make better informed decisions for their patients.
10. Breezometer, an air quality startup, offers a free app to with recommendations based on real time conditions in specific areas. “According to the OECD, more than 7 million people a year die from diseases related to air pollution. Every intelligent city is dealing with this,” said CMO Ziv Lautman. The app is unique because of its simplicity by using a smartphone’s location, the user receives instant analysis of the air quality, as well as recommendations for activities or warnings against them.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 15, 2015
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015