Israeli-European venture capital firm Cardumen Capital has raised $120M for its second Deep Tech Fund focused on early-stage Israeli startups. Up to now, Cardumen Capital has invested in 32 Israeli companies in AI, Cybersecurity, Big Data, and Information Communication Technologies (ICT). It said it will continue investing in pre-seed and seed Israeli software and hardware companies.
Cardumen Capital supports and works closely with entrepreneurs in anything from business development to fundraising. It’s portfolio of exceptional entrepreneurs has a strong co-investor base such us as SaaS cybersecurity platform DoControl (backed by Insight Partners and Crowdstrike), Big Data B2G platform IVIX (backed by Insight Partners and Citi Ventures) or NeuReality (backed by Samsung and SK Hynix).
“Israeli entrepreneurs rise to the occasion under adversity”, said Cardumen’s Co-Founder and General Partner, Gonzalo Martínez de Azagra. “It’s in tough times when great companies are built. Our commitment to Israeli tech is stronger than ever. As a team of Israelis and Europeans, heavily connected with the US and Asian markets, we are well-positioned to give our startups access to worldwide markets.”
Cardumen Capital is a Venture Capital firm with offices in Tel Aviv and Madrid. Chaired by Gil Gidron and founded in 2018 together with Gonzalo Martínez de Azagra and Igor de la Sota, the company invests in early-stage DeepTech companies. Cardumen Capital has more than $225M under management and a team of professionals with a solid track record and more than a decade of experience investing in tech companies worldwide.
One of its portfolio companies, Nagish, which uses AI to make communication accessible for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, has been lately certified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide telecommunication relay services. The certification makes Nagish one of the very few certified providers. Nagish provides speech-to-text and text-to-speech solutions via a real-time captioning engine that makes calls more accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing while keeping calls private and secure.
Coilcrafr, The US-based designer and manufacturer of high-performance magnetic components (including RF chip inductors, power magnetics and filters), has published a new eBook: The Fundamentals of RF Inductors. This eBook covers the fundamental of RF inductors – from the basic question of, “what is an inductor” up through specific applications and different types of RF inductors. It includes guides and technical articles on the major technologies and RF applications of inductors.
Following basic introduction about inductors, and how these components are used in electronic devices, the eBook includes a variety of technical articles that address topics such as solving RF isolation issues with RF inductors, what is a Conical Inductor and how to use it, understanding Inductors as RF Chokes, comparing the benefits of wirewound ferrite beads to traditional chip ferrite beads, and designing LC filters with Coilcraft reference designs and software.
Photo above: Erez Freibach Co-founder and CEO (left), and Nahshon Eadelson, Co-founder and CTO of ZutaCore
Despite the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, ZutaCore, locatedin the city of Sderot (2 miles from the Gaza strip), continued to operate and even resumed a fundraising round for the next generation of its groundbreaking datacenter’s cooling technology. Co-founder and CEO of ZutaCore, Erez Freibach, told Techtime that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) had already joined the capital raising, and also signed a distribution agreement. “A week and a half before the outbreak of war, Mitsubishi made the first investment of its commitment, and now we are preparing to complete additional fundraising in 2024.”
The company was founded in 2016 by Chief Technology Officer Nahshon Eadelson and by Erez Freibach based on an invention by Eadelson that optimized the use of dielectric liquid for cooling processors and servers. Its technology, HyperCool, has been certified for cooling both Intel and AMD processors. ZutaCore systems can be implemented in all data centers that operate these processors.
During Supercomputing (SC) conference in December 2023, ZutaCore demonstrated how it can handle very hot 1500 Watts processors, such as Dell’s 16G and Pegatron servers with 4th Generation Intel Xeon Processors and powerful SuperMicro Servers, being demonstrated by Boston Limited. Today, the company is in the process of receiving approval from one of the largest AI manufacturers in the world.
Security cameras recorded the attack
ZutaCore employs approximately 50 employees, including 40 in the R&D center operating from Sderot, and another 10 employees in its offices in California, Amsterdam and Taiwan. The staff in Israel are mostly residents of the Gaza envelope region such as Kfar Gaza, Be’eri, Sderot and the surrounding areas. Freibach, who was planning to celebrate his 60th birthday on October 7, discovered that the company’s offices and most of its employees were suddenly under attack. “Our office was hit by gunfire and our security cameras recorded the Hamas vehicles in the parking lot,” he said.
ZutaCore’s HyperCool dielectric cold plate cooling system
“For the first two weeks, we were not allowed to enter the building. After two weeks I joined a force of 12 fighters that cleared the area to make sure there were no terrorists. After the building was cleared, our team arrived and got back to work at the laboratories, yet heavy rocket barrages prevented a return to regular work. Half of our employees were evacuated from their homes and 10% of our employees were recruited into the military reserves, so we switched to working from home as we did during the Covid period.
“While our operations continued globally, only at the end of November did we return to full work in the offices in Israel. We have employees who survived the horrible attack and they were the first to return to work. The residents of the south are people with a special DNA. The company gives them an anchor of stability and hope. As early as the fourth day of the war, we initiated a weekly Zoom meeting with all our employees to share information, experiences, and expectations with each other and to discuss the issues related to work.”
How do investors and customers react to the situation?
“We received enormous support from them, including from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which issued a public statement of support for the company. We have been getting encouragement from all our investors and empathy and understanding from all of our customers. In the second week of the war, I went on a global journey around the world to physically meet all the customers and personally tell them that we were continuing to work and were fully committed to all the agreements signed with us. We received a great appreciation from them for our ability to function under these conditions. In fact, there were no order cancellations following the war.”
ZutaCore is at the core of one of the hottest markets in the industry today: cooling processors and servers in order to reduce the power consumption of data centers. This problem is getting worse every day due to the development of Cloud and Artificial Intelligence, which push the processors to reach very large capacities. For example, air cooling is suitable for use in processors working with powers of several tens of watts, while water cooling is suitable for processors with power of up to 600W. However, the industry currently requires power of up to 1500W which is driving the need for better, more sustainable cooling solutions. Freibach: “For every dollar they invest in processing, data centers spend another dollar on cooling.”
The vision: data centers without wasting energy
Eadelson has developed a unicque system based on a dielectric coolant which is safe to use and is attached to the processor through a cold plate that cools it directly. Through a special design of the cold plate, he was able to achieve a cooling efficiency that allows the liquid to boil at 34-35°C, thereby reducing the cost of cooling by 96%. ZutaCore condenses the liquid and produces hot water at a temperature of 70°C, which enables the reuse of energy. Today, there are many new markets looking to take advantage of this reuse of hot water such as homes, greenhouses, water desalination, electricity generation and more. According to Erez, “With ZutaCore technology, data centers can reach a state of almost zero energy waste.”
ZutaCore systems are backed by 20 patents, some of which are already registered and others in the pending process. The systems are produced through subcontractors in Israel. One of the goals of the capital raised is to prepare for a Global production infrastructure needed to support rapid growth. “Our solution is designed for the core of the data center’s activity, so it is impossible to be a small supplier. Our goal is to be a global leading manufacture in this field.”
The company is currently installing systems with large strategic partners, and expect to reach and sales of several hundred million dollars by 2027. ZutaCore has started a recruitment campaign, with the aim of increasing the number of employees by about 30% in the first phase during 2024. In the coming weeks, ZutaCore will start to recruit about 15 additional employees. Recently it has signed a cooperation agreement with ASUS for the integration of the ZutaCore cooling system in the servers of the Taiwanese company.
Photo above: Simulation of the future Fab38 in Kiryat Gat, Israel
Israel’s Government and Intel have reached an agreement to expand Intel’s Fab38 in Kiryat Gat, approximately 40 Km from Gaza, where it has an existing chip plant (Fab28). Intel Israel announced an expantion plan of $15 billion in Fab38 planned to be completed within 4-5 years. It will bring the total investment in this fab to $25 billion and enable it to produce advanced semiconductors based on Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography process.
The government of Israel will grant Intel with $3.2 billion worth of incentives. The new fab is expected to create thousands new jobs and to have a major role Intel’s global IDM 2.0 strategy. Intel Israel was founded in 1974 in Haifa, as Intel’s first development center outside the USA, and in 1981 the first factory outside the USA was established in Jerusalem. Today, Intel Israel is the largest private employer in the Israeli hi-tech sector with 11,700 direct employees plus additional 42,000 in indirect employment.
Along with its leading manufacturing facility In Kiryat Gat, Intel operates three development centers in Haifa, Petah Tikva and Jerusalem, focused mainly on the development of new Processors, Connectivity and Networking technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security solutions. During 2022 Intel Israel’s export totalled $8.7 billion representing 5.5% of the hi-tech exports from Israel.
In an interview with Fox Business last week, Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, talked about Intel’s employees during the current Israel-Hamas war. He said: “Many Intel employees in Israel died on October 7, some are being held hostage still in Gaza, and a great many are on reserve duty. But Israelis are the most resilient people on earth. They have not missed a single commitment despite the conflict. That’s why we believe so deeply in them.”
Photo above (left to right): Jeff Kupietzky, Jon Medved, Noam Kaiser and Liat Sverdlov
The digital investment platform, OurCrowd, announced the first close of its $50 million Israel Resilience Fund, with more than $13 million in capital commitments, and approved the first 8 investments from the fund. OurCrowd will waive all management fees and carried interest as a contribution to Israel’s current wartime emergency. The fund, which was first announced just 40 days ago, becomes one of the fastest-closing venture funds ever to go from conception to closure and to make actual investments.
Jon Medved, OurCrowd Founder and CEO, said, “Many venture-backed companies in Israel are already struggling due to the global venture slowdown and now face even more serious obstacles due to the war in Gaza. The Israel Resilience Fund will seek to create outsized returns for investors by taking advantage of discounted valuations in the current market, while supporting Israeli companies to survive the crisis and flourish in the long run.”
The Israel Resilience Fund aims to focus on 50+ startups directly affected by the crisis. It is managed by Jeff Kupietzky, a seasoned operator with over 15 years’ experience as a high-tech CEO in the US and Israel. Kupietzky recently sold his company Jeeng to OpenWeb for $100 million. Kupietzky is accompanied by expert investment partners including Noam Kaiser, a former Partner at Intel Capital, and investor at Gemini Israel Ventures and Offer Hi Tech; and Liat Sverdlov, a Partner with the OurCrowd Investments Team.
Eight startup companies were selected to receive investments this month. Recipients include:
BlueTree, which has developed proprietary technology to reduce sugar in natural beverages. The company was recently evacuated from its facility in Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanon border;
Carrar, experts in EV battery thermal management systems. The company was forced to relocate from its headquarters in Sderot near Gaza;
Edgybees, utilizing satellite and motion imagery to deliver actionable insights currently in use to save lives;
Verobotics, utilizing an autonomous robot for building exterior upkeep and proactive maintenance, whose key staff are serving in the reserves.
OurCrowd is a global investing platform that empowers institutions and individuals to invest in emerging technology companies at an early stage. Acclaimed by PitchBook as the most active venture investor in Israel every year since 2013, OurCrowd vets and selects companies across all sectors and stages, invests its own capital, and provides its global platform of over 225,000 registered members from 195 countries with unparalleled access and freedom to co-invest from as little as $10,000 in the companies of their choice.
Airwallex today shared data on the impact of a new generative AI tool that enhances the speed and efficacy of its “Know your Customer” (KYC) and onboarding processes. The new tool reduces ‘false positives’ by 50 percent on average, while boosting the number of customers that pass through the onboarding process without human intervention by 20 percent.1
“With generative AI, we’re honing our KYC tools to be much more accurate and context-aware,” said Jacob Dai, co-founder and chief technology officer at Airwallex. “We’re making it faster and easier for our customers to get up and running with Airwallex – often within minutes – while enhancing our ability to detect and prevent fraud on our platform. These enhancements translate directly to our customers – they can unlock the value of our platform more readily and accelerate their own global growth.”
The tool is attuned to nuances and sensitivities of various languages and cultures, a key feature for a company as globally distributed as Airwallex. “We work with businesses from incredibly diverse industries and cultural settings,” said Dai. “Having an intelligent AI co-pilot, trained on vast amounts of linguistic data, helps us navigate those intricacies more quickly and effectively.”
Addressing the KYC challenge with smarter AI tools
“KYC is that vital first step in our relationship with a customer,” said Dai. “We use a combination of intelligent technologies and human expertise to establish that new customers are who they say they are, that they’re being truthful about the nature of their business, and that their products or services are legal and in line with Airwallex’s acceptable use policies.”
Historically, Airwallex has used rules-based analytics and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to scan new customers’ websites. Those tools are very effective in identifying high-risk keywords, but also tend to generate a significant volume of false-positive alerts – which can slow down the KYC process unnecessarily.
“Generative AI helps Airwallex’s models to be much more sensitive to the context and meaning of keywords,” said Dai. “When scanning a customer’s website, the model can better distinguish between a retailer selling a ‘military-style’ jacket and a merchant selling prohibited military goods, or a ‘champagne-colored’ dress and actual champagne, or smartphone accessories versus actual smartphones being sold illegitimately.”
Airwallex’s AI Roadmap
Airwallex is building a series of features that enhance user experience through generative AI and NLP. “We know our customers want tailored services, immediate assistance, and intuitive access to their data,” said Dai. “Using generative AI and NLP, we can help our customers get answers quickly and effectively, whether it’s searching for a specific transaction in their history, or creating a detailed payout workflow with an automated chat function. There are many applications to explore, and we’re just getting started.” Airwallex expects to launch additional AI-powered functionalities in 2024.
CorrActions, an Israeli AI-based driver safety startup, has successfully closed its oversubscribed Series A round, raising $7.25 million. The funding round was led by Volvo Cars Tech Fund, which was joined by BlackBerry, alongside prominent venture capital firms Next Gear Ventures, Mobilitech Capital, Regah Ventures, OurCrowd, NextLeap Ventures, and Stone Ventures. The investment will be used to accelerate the adoption of CorrActions’ solution in production vehicles, which is already in process with multiple automakers.
CorrActions has developed AI-based software that detects abnormalities in the cognitive state of drivers and passengers. The software analyzes micro muscle movements that reflect brain activity, using existing human-motion sensors in vehicles such as the steering wheel, in-cabin radars, seats, and other devices. These movements can indicate various cognitive states, including driver intoxication, fatigue and distraction.
Automakers can benefit from CorrActions’ privacy-focused approach to driver monitoring. The software can be implemented in consumer vehicles through Over-the-Air (OTA) software updates, including through the BlackBerry IVY™ vehicle platform, and does not require or capture any Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to assess the driver’s cognitive state. This enables automakers to have privacy-focused driver monitoring capabilities without the need for additional sensors or cameras. These capabilities can reduce cost and supply chain complexity, while simplifying integration efforts to support faster deployment.”
CorrActions is engaged with multiple automakers to implement its solution in their vehicles, to improve driver and passenger safety and wellbeing. The solution allows fleets and telematics service providers to reduce insurance costs, improve delivery times, and increase driver safety.
CorrActions was founded in 2019 by Dr. Eldad Hochman, a neuropsychologist and scientist, and Zvi Ginosar, an experienced business executive. The company’s CEO, Ilan Reingold, is a former Chief Business Officer at Sony and General Manager at Broadcom.
“Our successful Series A funding round is a testament to the industry’s recognition of the potential of CorrActions’ AI-based brain activity monitoring technology,” stated Reingold.
“With the support of our strategic investors, including Volvo Cars and BlackBerry, we are poised to further drive the adoption of our solution in production vehicles. By detecting abnormalities in drivers’ and passengers’ cognitive states, we aim to significantly enhance road safety and revolutionize the driving experience.”
Anooj Shah, Senior Director, Investments & Strategy, BlackBerry, said: “BlackBerry is excited to partner with CorrActions and support their mission of safer roads with their privacy-first, driver safety technology. CorrActions’ machine learning algorithms are already pre-integrated into BlackBerry IVY™ to simplify in-vehicle deployment for automakers.”
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