WatchDox acquired for $100M, 19 Israeli startups named Red Herring winners, & Israel’s drip irrigation pioneer

Startup Roundup

Blackberry buys Israeli-based startup, WatchDox, for an estimated $100M

BlackBerry, the Canadian company whose eponymous devices once dominated the smartphone market, announced it was acquiring the Israeli-U.S. startup WatchDox for approximately $100 million in a bid to further bolster its security credentials. The WatchDox software, which is being used by some of the world’s largest federal agencies, private equity firms and a slew of major Hollywood studios, gives clients full visibility and control over how their files are edited, copied, printed or forwarded. Learn more.

Technology Corner

19 Israeli startups among Red Herring Europe Top 100 winners

Since 1996, leading tech news magazine Red Herring annually reviews thousands of candidates for each of its three Top 100 awards (Asia, Europe and the Americas) and is widely recognized as one of the industry’s more prestigious awards. This year, Israel had a strong showing with 19 companies named winners in the Top 100 Europe category. Out of those, six are members of OurCrowd's portfolio (and some are current investment opportunities).
See the full list.

Trending Israeli Entrepreneurs

Israel’s drip irrigation pioneer says his tech feeds a billion people

As the world’s population grows, governments around the world are questioning how the billions of new mouths will be fed. The answer, according to Israeli inventor Rafi Mehudar, is right under their feet – in the drip irrigation technology he perfected for water tech firm Netafim. Now found in farms around the world, Netafim’s irrigation and watering technology is already helping feed hundreds of millions, and, according to Mehudar, “it’s the only technology that has been proven to significantly increase the supply of food. We are already saving large parts of humanity from starving, and this is just the beginning." Meet Rafi.

Jerusalem named top emerging tech hub

Jerusalem tops a new list on emerging tech hubs from across the globe. The Entrepreneur Magazine website chose Israel’s capital as the place to find “a flourishing center for biomed, cleantech, Internet/mobile startups, accelerators, investors and supporting service providers.” According to the report, Jerusalem, Stockholm, Santa Monica, Buenos Aires and Pune are the five places outside of Silicon Valley for tech startups to launch and thrive. Learn more.

How Intel became Israel’s best tech friend

For Intel, the country’s largest single tech employer, a strong relationship with Israel was always in the cards – or rather, in the chips. Although few remember now, nearly fifty years on it was an Israeli engineer working for Intel in California, Dov Frohman, who in 1972 paved the way for computing as we know it when he invented the EPROM, the ultra-violet light, erasable, read-only memory chip that eventually led to the creation of flash memory. Learn more.

Startup Roundup

Blackberry buys Israeli-based startup, WatchDox, for an estimated $100M

OurCrowd & Portfolio Companies in the News

Want to learn more about investing in startups?