Tel Aviv based start-up

myThings’ personalized retargeting advertising technology allows e-commerce websites to present to web-surfers who’ve visited the website and left without making a purchase an advertisement generated automatically based on actions comitted on the retail website. According to company spokespeople, they are increasing by 100% the rate of return vistis, most of which end with a transaction. This technology is an advanced form of Retargeting, in which web users who visit an e-commerce website and did not purchase anything are exposed to advertisement by that website while surfing other websites.

According to the leading reaserch and tracking firm Comscore, this technology achieves much better results than other form of targeted advertising, contextual advertising or behavioral targeting advertisement. Additionally, myThings does not make use of users private detials for its focused advertising, but is based on statiscal analysis of annoynoums information which represents user activity at the e-commerce website.

myThings already counts among its clients such firms as: Orange, Price Minister, Karen Millen, Etam, PIXMania and more.

The prevailing presence of Deutsche Telecom in the digital media market hides a great potential for future co-operation with myThings. Websites owned by Deutsche Telecom see over 27 million unique visits a month, and the group is ranked at number one in exposure to web surfers in Germany, as stated by web-ranking firm AGOF. Among the companies owned by Deutsche Telecom is Interactive-Media, the leading German firm for marketing quality digital media.

Frank Bechar, a senior executive at Deutsche Telecom, said: “What impressed us with myThings is the company’s technology, which leads to a significat rise in the number of transactions made by users of e-commerce websites who previously visited without making a transaction. The company works in the focused advertising market, which is quickly growing in Europe. We were also very much impressed with the company’s crew.”

Benny Arbel, CEO of myThings, said: “We see T-Ventures joining our investor group as a vote of confidence and trust in our technology and business model. Purchase oriented focused advertising is driving the growth of the electronic commerce market. myThings’ technology allows marketers online to address web users in a way which focuses on their purchase intents, and thus improves the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The money raised in our latest round will be used for support in research activity and development in order to increase sales in the European sales and marketing market.”

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Israeli start-up

The company provides a platfrom for turning numerical data, statistical information or still pictures – the type of data we are used to consume on the internet – into light video clips, the kind which intigrate the raw material into fixed template in order to create a richer presentation.

The current fund-raising round was spearheaded by the venture capital fund Norwest Venture Partners, Carmel Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners, which have previously invested in the company, also joined in the current round. Following the investment, Dror Nahumi, a partner in Norwest Venture Partners, will join SundaySky’s board of directors.

SundaySky’s product may be of interest to e-commerce websites – who wish to expose in an interesting manner as much of the products out of the near infinite stock which they can sell; dating sites and social networks – which contain thousands upon thousands of photos and information about their respective users, which can then be integrated into an interactive film that will be used to get to know the user better; and even news sites – which could now present a sort of filmed edition, updated in real-time, of all the latest news stories, or the ones most read, and even add to the film relevant visual details which appear in related stories. Naturally, these automated videos based on existing content allow websites to integrate video adevertisements into these films and create an additional advertising income.

According to company spokesmen, the dynamic integration into the clients’ website involves merely updating a few lines of code, as all data analysis and movie making work, according to the chosen template and business logic, is done via a SaaS on SundaySky’s servers. SundaySky’s movie-producing product only needs to receive the relevant data feed from the website’s database, content managing system, or even a static web page, and is then able to produce a video based on this data, which is updated in real time and appears on the web page.

Click here to view a film produced by SundaySky for History.Com

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Remember

Well, StartUpMania recently found that Actimize’s founders, David Govrin and David Sosna, are planning on throwing the financial service world into another revolution with their new start-up: Personetics.

If you believe in the couple, have a background in Java, BI and natural language analysis and want to work in Tel Aviv (or even New York) – the two are looking for employees.

And which venture capital will take the chance on the burgeoning company? It seems that the two’s relationship with Carmel Ventures has heated since the giant exit they’ve organized for the Hertzlia-based investment firm, and who’s going to pass up and second round with two entrepreneurs who’ve proven themselves? It seems Avi Zeevi will not pass up this next adventure.

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

StartUpMania has just found that

The company, founded in 2008, provides a SaaS solution for the planning, managing and tracking of marketing campaigns across social networks and employs roughly 15 employees in its Tel Aviv offices. It was founded by Eran Gilad, Yaniv Ben-Arie, Asad Shtekler and Niv Singer, and among its board of directors are Yaniv Golan, on of the two founders of the start-up Yedda which was sold to AOL.

According to Gilad, who serves as the company’s CEO, tracx is already showing profits, and possesses about twenty significant clients, mostly consisting of publicity and media marketing offices which run social campaigns on the web for their clients. “In Israel we work with McCan Ericson and their Israeli clients as well as with Refresh. At the same time, we develop our activity against our American clients,” says Gilad. “Our product provides the advertising office with End to End platforms for planning and managing the activity of commercial displays on social networks. Today we already work with Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and other leading blogging and forum platforms.”

Gilad tells that the company provides the advertising office a complete solution for managing each marketing process they may need online, from product launch to online tracking of social discourse around a specific brand or products, textual analysis of the comments made on the brand, identifying key players in the social networks related to the brand and even the ability to identify the elusive ROI, the cost vs. gain ratio that the client receives as a result of the marketing he funds on the social network.

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

It seems that the photo identification application field is about to reach its boiling point, with Google announcing back to back purchases of start-ups which develop photo identification algorithms or locating graphics with similar parameters to other graphics. Google’s latest purchase was

StartUpMania has just found out that the round of venture capital investments is set to reach Israel’s shores, and the first to enjoy it are Israeli start-up SuperFish, founded by Adi Pinhas and Michael Chertok. The start-up is set to enjoy investments from the DFJ fund and Xenia.

It should be noted that photo analysis is a popular field in Israeli software circles, as well as Israeli start-ups such as PicItUp, who already work with Shopping.com and other companies which offer a wider range of photo analysis tools for social networks or cellular devices, such as Face.Com.

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Israeli start-up

CommuniTake, founded in 2009, developed a platform for remote support on cellular phones, which allows the tech support representative to provide service and operate the phone as if the device is in his or her hands. This way, problems can be diagnoses easily and quickly, problems can be effectively solved and the phone’s owner can be conveniently guided in the event of malfunctions. Recently, the company has signed a few deals with communications and service providers in Israel and abroad and is taking part in several market trials in an effort for incorporation into a few other providers.

According to company spokespeople, the fund raising round is still in effect and the company is in contact with several other bodies with intention to expand the round. This is in order to support the increased marketing activity following the large amounts of attention the company is receiving from leading international cellular providers.

Ronen Sason, CEO of CommuniTake, said that “these days, we are seeing the smart phone revolution taking place, with more and more people purchasing sophisticated phones. Alongside that, phone owners are having a hard time making use of the full potential of their new purchases. Our system allows tech support representatives in the cellular networks and large companies to provide advanced solutions, firmware updates and guides to users efficiently, personally and in a focused manner.”

According to Dubi Lachovitz, CEO of Plus Ventures, “Plus Ventures focuses on locating and investing in a new, innovative enterprises in the internet and cellualr fields with a real potential to become market leaders. CommuniTake fits into this strategy as the technology it developed places it primed to make a break into the global market.”

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Kfar Saba based

eXelate was founded in 2006 by Meir Zohar, former founder and CEO of Oridian, who is eXelate’s current CEO, and Elad Efraim, eXelate’s VP of Technologies. eXelate’s development manager is Shlomi Aflalo. The company constructed a trading arena for the exchange of focused information about web surfers and their content consumption habits (aka Behavioral Targeting Data), and even provides an array of tools for analysis of customer’s behaviour on different websites. If you are interested in checking out the type of data eXelate’s, its clients and partners are interested in, take a look at the following link.

Using eXelate’s arena, known as eXelate eXchange, and its data analysis tools, advertisers and advertisement networks can greatly focus their products towards a specific audience. At the same time, eXelate allows websites, who sell data regarding their users to the advertisers, to control the information distribution focusing on a specific audience sect and develop another income channel.

According to company spokesmen, among the eXelate eXchange users are about 50 advertisement networks and leading media purchasers as well as dozens of leading websites, which provide focused information on roughly 150 million unique users in the U.S. The company specializes in providing information over income-generating channels such as B2B, auto, tourism, finance, shopping and more.

Zohar said that “since launching the exchange, eXelate has led the efforts to offer websites and the focused advertisement purchasers the best possible solutions for focused information, without compromising web user privacy.

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Start-up

The 3D models produced by Solido’s products are essential in today’s R&D procedures. According to a report by consulting firm Gartner, 3D printers will become commonplace hardware in businesses and even in private homes. Gartner assesses that “by 2011 the number of 3D printers in private homes will grow by 100% in comparison to 2006. The technology allows users to send a 3D model to the printer, who produces the model. This technology allows manufacturers to produce models of a product design and forgoes the need to hire the services of model builders.”

Pete Basiler, Gartner research manager, said in an interview to BusinessWeek that “following the steep decrease in 3D printer costs, nearly any company can afford such a printer, the result being an increase in usage.”

Solido’s technology allows to quickly, easily and automatically create plastic 3D models. The models are constructed out of a stiff PVC-based plastic, which laminated and flexible. The boards are produced very accurately and are strong and durable, which is why they are adequate for all design stages – from concept to construction and functional tests. The production process doesn’t use any chemical products, which makes it very green and environment-friendly. The models can be put through many mechanical processes, drilling and painting and will not suffer wear and tear or fade over time.

Yuval Cohen, partner and founder of Fortissimo, said: “Solido offers an advanced and unique solution, both in price and quality fitting for the office environment. 3D Printers will soon become an inseparable part of product design, and will become standard equipment on any engineer’s or designer’s desk and become an integral part of technical education in various educational facilities.”

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

Netanya-based Start-Up SiSense, which develops Business Intellignece soultions, has completed a first fund-raising round totalling at $4 million from Genesis Partners, Opus Capital and private investor Eli Farkash.

SiSense was founded by Elad Israeli, Eldad Farkash (who acts as CTO and VP of Research and Development) and three others. With the completion of the fund-raising round, Gary Gannot of Genesis, Dan Avida of Opus and Eli Farkash will join the company’s board.

SiSense has developed a BI product which can be purchased online, allows quick implementation – within hours without any need for BI expertese – while using standard PC hardware.

Gannot, a partner at Genesis Partners, said that “complex BI solutions do not provide an answer to the dynamics which characterize today’s organizations. SiSense provides a solution that allows organizations to deal with the growing scopes of the data in their business and the increasing demands of data analysis. SiSense is bringing good news to the market, and Gensis is happy for the oppurtunity to invest in such an innovating company.”

Translated by Itai Rosenbaum

The

AdsMarket was founded in 2007 by Ofer Druker, who serves as group CEO, Adi Orzel, who acts as CEO of daughter-company Extend and second to CEO, and Kfir Moyal which acts as director. It employs about 140 workers, 120 of which work in Israel. According to a declaration made, the company should complete 2010 with an $80 million sales cycle, as opposed to $60 million in 2009, $36 million in 2008 and $7 million in 2007. It operates mainly in the European market and recently stepped into the American market.

According to Osnat Ronen, “the Viola Group has marked the internet advertising and media field as one which is interesting for investments, due to the high growth it has shown in the last couple of years and the unique global position Israel has acquired in that field.”

“The Viola Group has chosen to invest in AdsMarket becuase of the growth potential it sees in the company and its ability to keep strengthening its leading position in the fields and markets in which it operates, while being profitable. This is mostly due to its professional, dynamic and experienced team leading the company, which has brought it to its impressive accomplishments and will continue to march it forward.

According to Ilan Shiloach, “We have found, in the Viola Group, experienced partners that will lead, together with us, the company and help us achieve our future goals. Viola’s investment in AdsMarket will support the company’s continued growth, and will act as a base for entry to new markets, chiefly the American one, through expanding our marketing array and recruiting new employees.”

Translated by Itai Rosembaum