Helping freelancers, analyzing your intestinal bacteria, and more

A new offering solves the biggest freelancing challenge for entrepreneurs in the US, getting clients and generating income.

By ARIEL SHAPIRA
Updated: JULY 5, 2017 07:36
Money (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Money
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A new offering solves the biggest freelancing challenge for entrepreneurs in the US, while growing opportunity for professional freelancers everywhere. Fiverr, the marketplace for creative and digital services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, introduced Fiverr Pro on June 27. It’s the newest high-end initiative of Fiverr’s global marketplace of talent.
The new offering blends the efficiency and simplicity of Fiverr’s one-click order, e-commerce marketplace with hand-picked, professional talent to meet the needs of every entrepreneur and small business. As part of Fiverr’s larger goal to grow its professional freelance community and dominate the digital freelance ecosystem, the industry leader has announced the acquisition of Veed.me, a high-end video and animation marketplace featuring professional freelancers working with clients such as Facebook, Google and Slack. The terms of the deal are not public.
“The Fiverr marketplace has always solved the biggest pain point freelancers have: getting clients and generating income,” said Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr. “As our marketplace has evolved, we’ve recognized the growing demand from entrepreneurs for bigger and more complex projects that sometimes need highly professional freelancers with years of experience. Through Fiverr Pro, we’re bringing professional freelancers an easy way to get work, while adding the highend, trusted and talent entrepreneurs are struggling to tap into.
Bringing a high quality, vertical player like Veed.me into the fold is yet another step in moving upmarket and creating the biggest horizontal freelance marketplace.” Founded in 2012 by Yoav Hornung, Oren Hod and Nuriel Zuaretz, Veed.me has become a quality resource for connecting both large and small brands with a global community of over 3,500 professional videographers.
“Fiverr is a company we’ve always looked up to,” said Yoav Hornung, CEO of Veed.me. “We share a vision of providing high-end services through an accessible and collaborative marketplace, and when the opportunity arose to combine forces, we knew it was an ideal match for Veed.me’s community of creative people and clients.”
DayTwo
Israeli start-up DayTwo has completed a $12 million financing round from Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest medical devices company, and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. cofounder Marius Nacht, who founded DayTwo and increased his investment in it.
This is the Series A round for DayTwo, which has raised a total of $17m. since it was founded.
Knowledgeable sources said that Nacht took part in a Weizmann Institute of Science study, after entrepreneur Dov Moran recommended it to him. During the course of the study, Nacht discovered that he was pre-diabetic. Had he not been tested during the trial and changed his nutritional habits accordingly, he probably would have become a diabetic within a few years.
DayTwo provides its customers with personalized nutritional recommendations through a smartphone, based on mapping and analyzing a person’s intestinal microbiome, for the purpose of maintaining balanced blood sugar levels and leading a healthier life.
DayTwo’s technology is based on groundbreaking research at the Weizmann Institute.
The study discovered the same types of food can cause different sugar responses in the blood of different people, and that the composition of intestinal bacteria, which is unique to each person, contributes to the differing response.
Among other things, the study revealed that food that causes a balanced blood sugar response in one person is liable to cause a rise in the blood sugar levels of another person. In certain cases, foods that we regard as healthy are not recommended, and vice versa.
The company recently launched a partners program that enables dietitians, nutritionists, and clinics dealing in personalized nutrition to benefit from this breakthrough technology and provide personalized service based on an analysis of their customers’ intestinal bacteria.
Information taken from globes.co.il.
MindCET
MindCET, the technological arm of the Center for Educational Technology (CET), has announced the founding of a fund for investment in edu-tech in cooperation with the UK government. The fund, called TaskForce, will initially invest $250,000 in each of four to six ventures annually.
In the next stage, the fund is likely to grow to $30m. Taking part in the venture on the UK side are the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) and UK Israel Tech Hub, the innovation center of the UK Embassy in Israel.
The main investor in the venture will be the Arie Capital fund, a UK fund specializing in Israeli technological investment, joined by the Beracha Foundation, an Israeli philanthropic organization; CET itself; Indian educational technology company Educorp Technologies; a Japanese company; and an undisclosed Chinese investor.
Standing behind the venture is UK film producer and director Lord David Puttnam, who produced Midnight Express and Chariots of Fire, and who is now dedicating his life to promoting education in the UK. He will also be the fund’s CEO.
TaskForce’s importance for Israeli start-ups is invaluable. There is currently a real lack of seed investment in companies that focus on education, as well as a lack of knowledge in regulation needed to adapt Israeli products for schools abroad.
TaskForce’s first cycle, which was described as “more than just another accelerator,” will open this September and will include eight Israeli and British start-ups, which will receive consulting services for investments, pilots, assistance with regulation in the two countries, and strengthening the innovative aspects of their products.
Participants in the launching of the fund included Ronald Reed, founder of SXSW-edu, the world’s largest and most highly regarded technology festival; Matt Keller, a senior director of XPRIZE, which supports educational ventures; Beracha Foundation director Dr. Tali Yariv; and BESA director Patrick Hayes.
Translated from Hebrew by Hannah Hochner.