Author: Techtime

Valens Raises $60M to boost in-Vehicle networking

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Targeting the next generation of connected and highly digitized car, the developer of HDBaseT and co-founder of the HDBaseT Alliance, Valens from Hod Hasharon, Israel, announced it has secured an additional $60 million in capital. The round was led by Israel Growth Partners (IGP), and includes Delphi, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Goldman Sachs and MediaTek as new investors, in addition to Valens’ existing investors.

HDBaseT Automotive is a new networkink solution dedicated to the Automotive. It enables up to 6Gbs tunneling of audio, video, data, USB and more, with native networking capabilities over a single unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable for up to 15m (50ft), targeting the existing 100BASE-T1 comparable channel utilized today in the automotive sector. Beside high-bandwidth and a highly robust and EMC-resistant, this solution reduce the amount of copper cables in modern cars, and save up to 150 kg of the cables total weight.

Car app based on HDBaseT Automotive

“Valens is deeply committed to the automotive market, which represents a major growth area for the company,” said Dror Jerushalmi, Valens’ co-founder and CEO. “This financing round strengthens the ecosystem we are building to do so. Delphi, Samsung Electronics, who recently completed the acquisition of HARMAN International Industries and MediaTek, are leading players in the sector and value the potential of our solution for the advancement of the connected car,”

Valens introduced its HDBaseT Automotive technology in 2016 to address the challenges of the connected car, including the increasing amount of bandwidth and wiring necessary to cater to infotainment and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) needs. Recently HDBaseT Automotive was selected by Daimler as the technology of choice to guarantee high performance of advanced infotainment and telematics systems.

As part of this investment round, Moshe Lichtman, co-founder and General Partner of IGP will join Valens’ Board of Directors. We believe the Valens technology will be an important enabler in the era of connected and autonomous cars,” said Moshe Lichtman. Established in 2006, Valens HDBaseT Automotive enables up to 6Gbs tunneling of audio, video, data, USB and more, with native networking capabilities over a single unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable for up to 15m (50ft), targeting the existing 100BASE-T1 comparable channel utilized today in the automotive sector.

Avnet replaced mission… and colors

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Following it strategic turn, the global electronic components ditributor, Avnet (NYSE: AVT) introduced a new global branding campaign called “Reach Further”. The campaign launches this week with a cohesive marketing, digital and media strategy to introduce a new brand and visual identity. Avent has came to a conclusion that it has no access to the big comunity of quiet and disruptive startup companies, and devised a new way to reach them.

“Today, hundreds of thousands of design engineers from start-ups to leading technology OEMs utilize the company’s design and supply chain services and rely on its large volume, broad line distribution capabilities.”‘ Avnet said in the formal announcement. “In two simple words, Reach Further expresses how Avnet helps the smallest start-ups to the largest technology corporations move swiftly and seamlessly from idea to design and from prototype to production.”

A new green look

Reach Further strategy  was defined following a deep research on Avnet’s key stakeholder audiences. Avnet’s new logo replaces red with green to symbolize growth and possibility. The company launched a new website that has been designed to provide quick access to information through improved navigation and increased access to an expansive list of products and services. In addition, Avnet is introduced its “A-Frame,” a new graphic element.

The rebranding culminates several strategic business moves, including the recent acquisitions of Premier Farnell and Hackster.io that Avnet has made to reach further into the conception, design and prototyping processes; Stages where innovators can benefit most from an exposure to the hardware that will help them bring their products to market.

In addition, the launch of Avnet’s MakerSource.io online resource directory provides individuals and startups with access to a comprehensive ecosystem of the strategic and tactical resources needed to turn a pioneering new product vision into a marketable reality, while the Avnet Innovation Lab provides business consultation and funding for entrepreneurs developing technology, especially new inventions that advance the Internet of Things (IoT).

Avnet Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Sellers added: “Reach Further is our promise that Avnet and each of our employees will do whatever it takes to guide customers and partners toward their most ambitious goals. The new brand is an authentic expression of the character and values of the company. The Reach Further mantra reflects a solemn commitment Avnet is making to makers, inventors, entrepreneurs, design engineers and suppliers.”

Israel Secondary Fund, ISF II, Closed $100 Million Fund

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Israel Secondary Fund (ISF) has completed the closing of ISF II, a $100 million secondary fund. The investors in ISF II include Israeli and global institutional investors, family offices, and high net worth investors. Leading institutional investors in the fund include Halman Aldubi, Altshuler Shaham, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), IBI (TASE: IBI) and Union Bank of Israel (TASE: UNON). ISF II has already completed four investments from the new fund.

The industry needs a new type of Capital

ISFprovides liquidity to the private equity and venture capital market in Israel through purchasing interests in funds and direct holdings in private companies. It engages in a range of secondary transactions: acquiring limited partner (LP) positions in Israeli venture capital and private equity funds, acquiring direct minority holdings in private companies from investors, founders and other shareholders and structured deals, providing capital to existing venture capital and private equity funds.

Dror Glass, Managing Partner of ISF, said: “Over $30 billion have been invested in Israeli funds and technology companies in the last decade. A large portion of today’s companies stay private for longer periods, and build significant business activity before going public or being acquired. Therefore, there is a growing need by entrepreneurs and investors for liquidity in the years preceding an exit. ISF aims to become the preferred liquidity provider for entrepreneurs, executives and investors in Israel and to be a long-term financial partner for the companies and funds in which ISF invests.”

Behind companies like Waze, SolarEdge and Altair Semiconductor

ISF has raised ISF II following the success of their inaugural fund, ISF I, which was founded in 2009. ISF I held direct and indirect stakes in more than 100 private companies, and has already realized 35 exits. The direct and indirect exits include the acquisition of Waze Ltd. by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), the IPO of SolarEdge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) and the acquisition of SuperDimension by Covidien Ltd. (NYSE: COV). Other exits include the acquisition of PrimeSense Ltd. by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); the IPO of Enzymotec (NASDAQ: ENZY); the sale of WorkLight to IBM Inc. (NYSE: IBM); the sale of RedBend Software to Harman (NYSE: HAR) and the acquisition of Altair Semiconductor Ltd. by Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE).

ISF Team

Dror Glass, Nir Linchevski, and Shmuel Shilo manage the fund. Dror Glass, Managing Founding Partner of Israel Secondary Fund, has been active in the Israeli secondary market since 2001. Prior to ISF Dror served as a Managing Director at Orama Investments, member of the IDB Group, Investment Manager at Israel Corporation,  investment banker at Evergreen and the Executive Director of the Wharton-Recanati Program at Tel Aviv University. Nir Linchevski joined ISF in 2014, after founding and serving as a Partner at the private equity firm Shiraz Investments in 2007-2012 and as Chairman of Altshuler Shaham, an asset management firm with over $15 billion in assets. Prior to that, he served as Managing Director at VantagePoint Capital Partners, a U.S. Venture firm, and was a Partner in the Israeli venture capital firm Formula Ventures. Shmuel Shilo, a Co-Founder of ISF is one of the founders of the Israeli secondary market and served as Managing Partner of Harvest Secondary Fund (Israel’s first secondary fund), managing Harvest Fund I and Harvest Fund II in 1998-2005.

ISF website: http://www.israelsecondary.com/

Photo above: Israel Secondary Fund management team from left to right: Shmuel Shilo, Founding Partner; Dana Ben Yosef, CFO; Dror Glass, Founding Managing Partner; Nir Linchevski, Managing Partner; Josh Scher, Associate

Mobileye’s founder and CTO raised $41 million for OrCam

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Prof. Amnon Shashua

After he sold his company earlier this month for $15.3 billion, the founder of the autonomous driving Mobileye, Prof. Amnon Shashua, is ready to take off again with his innovative other startup company, OrCam.

In an interview to Reuters, Prof. Shashua revealed that OrCam has completed last month a $41 million investment funding round that gave the company value of $600 million. “Sales targets for 2017 are four times more than 2016,” Shashua told Reuters. “By the end of 2018 the profit of the company will be at such a level, that it’s good enough for an IPO.”

OrCam was jointly founded by CTO Professor Amnon Shashua and CEO Ziv Aviram, who are also the co-founders of Mobileye. OrCam developed a unique wearable device called MyEye, that harness the power of artificial vision by into a personal platform which improves the lives of individuals who are blind, visually impaired, have a reading disability or people with other conditions.

Artificial Vision for blinds

MyEye is an eye-glass mounted camera that reads text, identifies objects, and (previously stored) faces just by pointing. It’s small enough to fit into a pocket, clips on to a pair of eyeglasses, and speaks to the wearer through a discrete ear piece. The wearer can then read newspapers, books, signs, labels on consumer products, identify currency, and even read text on a computer or smartphone screen anytime and anywhere they wish.

MyEye comes equipped with facial recognition capabilities, allowing the wearer to identify friends and family who enter into the camera view. It can also read red or green signals at pedestrian crossings to assist them when out and about.

Intel-Mobileye strategy

Intel’s huge investment to gain Mobileye’s technology should bring it into the future market of autonmous driving. Intel will buils aroung Mobileye a global autonomous driving organization, which will consist of Mobileye and Intel’s Automated Driving Group. It will be headquartered in Israel and led by Prof. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye’s CoFounder, Chairman and CTO.

The organization will support both companies’ existing production programs and build upon relationships with automotive OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers and semiconductor partners to develop advanced driving assist, highly autonomous and fully autonomous driving programs.

IAI to supply full Border Protection to a South American country

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Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) was awarded a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to supply a suite of border protection systems in a South American country. The agreement includes land and ground systems, unmanned aerial systems, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance vehicles, as well as a variety of different radar, EO/IR and other sensors.

ELI-3302-ISRV

Phase one of the contract will be carried out by ELTA Systems Ltd., a Group and Subsidiary of IAI. It will include border protection systems for four separate border crossings characterized by different terrain. IAI will supply several BirdEye650D (photo above) Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems (STUAS). The STUAS family was designed for a variety of missions including intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), with range of up to 150 km and endurance of up to 15 hours. In addition, a number of mini-UAV BirdEye400 and HoverMast100 systems will be provided.

IAI will also supply a variety of sensors for all ranges: Persistent Ground & Coastal Surveillance Radars for border protection and a variety of other radars, electro-optics, ELI-3302 Granite ISRV vehicles, observation towers and a cyber-system for identification and early detection of various threats along the border. The information obtained from these various sensors is transferred in real-time to a C4I system at every border crossing.

This C4I system includes also data-fusion capabilities for complete control of the area. The data from all the border crossings is transmitted in parallel to the country’s central command. Gadi Shamni, VP Land Systems at IAI, said that IAI’s land systems activities are gaining momentum. “We now offer a range of solutions both at the strategic and tactical levels, for dealing with a wide variety of threats. The professional challenge in defending the four border crossings in question is considerable-this is a varying terrain without geographical contiguity and the different systems needed some adaptation so as to provide a comprehensive and holistic solution.”

Unitronics robotic parking is “Autonomous Cars ready”

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The emerging technology of autonomous driving will bring revolutionary changes in the ways we are driving, but now it appears that the autonomous driving will change the we are parking as well. Last week, Unitronics Inc. from Lod, Israel, announced it signed an agreement to build an automated parking facility in a building located in California, United States for approximately USD 9.3 million The Project is planned for completion within two years. Untill now, the company built and delivered automated solutions for a combined 1,400 cars in United States.

Automated parking is still a very premature market, but slowly taking ground. Automated parking designs can provide double or even triple the number of spaces that a conventional garage can accommodate while freeing up valuable rentable space, enabling high-density parking and eliminating the need for ramps. The state-of-the-art, high-density system maximizes parking spaces while minimizing environmental impact, using an array of horizontal and vertical conveyance devices and software designed to enable automated and efficient storage and retrieval of cars.

Haim Shani, CEO of Unitronics said that the company’s Autuomated Parking solutions are ready for the next revolution in the industry: “Our robotics technology and control systems were adapted to work with Autonomus Driving vehicles, to let them independent and automated self parking capabilities in our parking facilities”.

Elbit Awarded U.S. Navy Contract for the Helmet Display and Tracker System

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Elbit Systems of America won a contract for approximately $50 million by the U.S. Navy to provide Helmet Display and Tracker System (HDTS) with the Continuously Computed Impact Point (CCIP) algorithm for the MH-60S Seahawk helicopters. The work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and completed by June 2021. Elbit already received an initial order of approximately $14.2 million .

This award represents the Navy’s first production order for the line-of-sight helmet tracking system, and the integration of targeting symbology in the Armed Helicopter Weapon System (AHWS) for the MH-60S fleet. “Elbit Systems of America is strategically focused on delivering capabilities that aircrews can trust to increase mission effectiveness,” said Raanan Horowitz, president and chief executive officer of Elbit Systems of America. “The HDTS and CCIP give aircrews a decisive edge during critical missions.”

The advanced technology of the helmet and processor provides pilots and crews with line-of-sight tracking to improve interaction with the flight navigation system, enhance pilot and co-pilot situational awareness, and increase the accuracy of weapons delivery. The HDTS systems includes day/night helmet mounted displays that provide full color symbology. This allows pilots to keep “heads-up, eyes out” while also seeing key flight information. With the new systems, flight crews know exactly where the pilots are looking and where they are pointing the weapons.