It has been another supercharged week in the Start-up Nation, with a number of significant acquisitions, investments and IPOs.
Israeli companies have raised nearly $15 billion in the first seven-plus months of the year, far surpassing all previous records. Last year, Israeli companies raised $10.5b., which was an impressive record at the time.
Nanox Imaging, a publicly traded Israeli medical imaging company, said Tuesday it acquired Zebra Medical Vision, which provides deep-learning medical imaging analytics, for up to $200 million. The deal, which includes shares worth $100m. upfront, and up to another $100m. tied to milestones, will help both companies pursue their goals of leading the next generation of AI-enabled hardware and software devices for the medical-devices sector. Zebra was founded in 2014, and is based in Shefayim.
Nanox also said it entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire American teleradiology company USARAD and its affiliated company, Medical Diagnostics Web, for some $30m. in cash and shares. With these two acquisitions, Nanox will have a full end-to-end radiology solution marketed worldwide, it said.
OwnBackup, which provides cloud data backup solutions, said Tuesday it raised $240m. in a Series E round co-led by Alkeon Capital and B Capital Group. The company has cumulatively raised nearly $500m., resulting in a $2b. valuation increase in six months. OwnBackup also said it plans to expand its backup and recovery solutions across other cloud platforms later this year, beginning with Microsoft’s. The company currently has nearly 4,000 clients worldwide.
Skyline AI, a property-tech company, said Wednesday it was acquired by Chicago-based real estate and investment management firm JLL. No value for the deal was disclosed, but industry sources estimated it at around $100m. The company’s AI technology is designed to help commercial real estate gain a competitive advantage by identifying and analyzing real estate opportunities using large data sets. Skyline AI was founded in Tel Aviv in 2017, and was named one of the most innovative AI start-ups by the CB Insights Global AI 100 list.
Waycare, which provides traffic management systems for cities, was acquired by US-based Rekor Systems for $61m. Waycare was founded in 2016 in Tel Aviv, and uses AI to aggregate data from different sources to help government agencies with crash prediction, congestion detection, as well as incident management and identification. Rekor, whose shares are traded on the Nasdaq market, will integrate Waycare’s products into its existing product options for smart cities. Rekor’s shares climbed 5% following the news.
Global software giant Microsoft said it acquired Peer5, a Tel Aviv-based company that develops CDN (content delivery network) products that enable content providers to deliver video streams faster and more reliably. The technology will be used in the Microsoft Teams suite for its large-scale live video streaming, the company said. Peer5’s team will join Microsoft’s R&D team in Israel. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
CropX, a Tel Aviv-based maker of agricultural analytics solutions, said it acquired Dacom Farm Intelligence, a European crop optimization platform. CropX now offers the only comprehensive farm management platform with active irrigation technology, hardware-based soil data, fertilizer management and crop protection capabilities, the company said. The acquisition is CropX’s third since the beginning of 2020, and gives the company a new stronghold across Europe as it looks to expand its global footprint. A value for the deal was not provided, but industry sources estimate it at tens of millions of shekels.