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The Ormita Commerce Network is inaugurating its activity in Israel. It is the world’s largest private multilateral reciprocal trading company, with no cash exchange – only goods.

The company currently operates in 54 countries and connects between 220,000 companies. Its turnover in 2012 totaled some $3.4 billion.

The company checks what each customer requires and has to offer.

For example, the company created a barter agreement between the Pakistan government, which supplied excess oranges, and China, which supplied in exchange agricultural machinery worth $120 million.

Ormita charges a 7% commission on the sale.

Source: Ynetnews.com

The social network could be eyeing a purchase of the company known for its social navigation app, says business Web site Calcalist.

Facebook may be aiming to spend anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion to acquire Waze, an Israel-based company that offers a social GPS app for drivers.

Talks reportedly kicked off six months ago, according to Israeli business site Calcalist, which says that due diligence is currently underway, meaning the two companies are checking each other out before signing on the dotted line. The two also have signed a term sheet, or an agreement in principle on the sale, according to Calcalist.

An agreement sounds like it could be close. However, sources close to Waze told the Times of Israel that a deal is not necessarily imminent. The two companies haven’t yet signed a memorandum of understanding, nor has Facebook apparently called any banks to finance the purchase.

Available for the iPhone, Android phones, and Windows Phone, Waze is a free mobile app that helps drivers wend their way through traffic via live maps, traffic updates, and turn-by-turn navigation. The social aspect comes into play as fellow Waze users can actually help ease your commute.

Any traffic jams or other obstacles faced by nearby Waze users automatically appear on the Waze map on your device. Other Waze drivers can also send out alerts of slow or hazardous traffic conditions to help you avoid them. Waze now counts around 45 million users. In March, 1.5 million people downloaded the mobile app, according to Calcalist.

Waze updated its app in October 2012 to allow users to sign in through Facebook to look up links near their destination and send messages to their friends.

Source: CNET.com

There’s something about Soccer (and as a Brit, by that I mean Football, pulease…) that seems to have captured investors’ imagination of late.

A case in point: FTBpro, a large fan-generated content platform has now secured $5.8 million from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures to fund global expansion. The site currently has 20 million monthly page views, over 1,000 contributing fan writers, covering all major leagues worldwide and publishes content and tools in a variety of languages. And they are not the only one. The move comes just after ‘The Football App‘ raised its first institutional funding with a €10m Series A from a syndicate led by Earlybird Venture Capital in Berlin. The Football App has become a pretty dominant mobile football app amongst European fans.

On FTBpro, fans can publish and interact with each other and FTBpro’s editors. The site features match predictions, videos, imagery slideshows, team line-ups and player rankings amongst others.

Based out of London with R&D is in Tel Aviv, FTBpro’s business model is advertising and brand sponsorships. It works on Android or iOS and the competition includes sports UGC players Bleacher Report (US), which was acquired by Time Warner Sports.

For its part, The Football App has 3.5m monthly and up to 1.5m daily active users, says it is putting on a 100,000 users a day across 155 markets and with high retention rates. They will use the funds to grow internationally.

More to come in this space I dares say as ‘second screen’ app take off.

Source: Infoxicate.me

Part of Indian conglomerate to be lead investor in planned $20 million fund at Tel Aviv University’s technology transfer company Ramot, says it sees university as its Israeli R&D center

Tata Industries will invest $5 million in a new Tel Aviv University (TAU) technology fund, saying it saw the university as its Israeli research and development center.

Tata, part of Indian conglomerate Tata Group, will be the lead investor in a planned $20 million fund at TAU’s technology transfer company Ramot aimed at commercializing their research.

“For Tata, we … see innovation and R&D as an area of focus and a source of competitive advantage going forward,” Rameshwar Jamwal, executive director at Tata Industries, told reporters last week.

Jamwal said it was Tata’s first major investment in Israel and that it would likely invest further.

“This is our attempt to scout Israeli technology more deeply,” he said. “This allows us over a period of time to show our commitment to Israel but we are interested in doing more.”

Tata will work with TAU’s scientists to help steer them towards applying commercial uses for their research.

“It’s someone to test your ideas and say what’s a mistake,” said Shlomo Nimrodi, Ramot’s chief executive. “Tata knows the market better.”

He noted that TAU invests $150 million a year in R&D. Among Ramot’s big successes is flash memory, which was licensed by an Israeli company before it was sold to Sandisk, which still pays millions of dollars of royalties to the university.

Nimrodi said the new fund will invest in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, cleantech, food security, the environment, engineering and software.

He noted that in some cases, Tata will get the right of first opportunity in a particular research project.

Many large global companies have R&D facilities in Israel, including Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Google, HP and Yahoo.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Startup company Dynamic Yield secures $2 million in Series A funding from number of interesting investors

Israeli startup company Dynamic Yield has announced it has secured $2 million in Series A funding from a number of interesting investors, including the New York Times company, which publishes newspapers like the New York Times and Boston Globe.

Other investors are the Innovation Endeavors venture capital fund, owned by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, which is highly active in Israel and has already invested in several Israeli companies such as Soluto, BillGuard and Any.DO; and the Bessemer Venture Partners, whose activity in Israel is headed by Adam Fisher.

Dynamic Yield, which was founded in 2012 and is based in Tel Aviv, plans to expand following the financing round and open an office in New York.

The company has developed a real-time audience personalization software that increases revenue yield and key engagement metrics for online publishers and e-commerce websites.

The company’s founder and CEO is Liad Agmon, who formerly headed the Onigma company which was sold to McAfee, and Delver which was sold to Sears.

Another founder is Omri Mendellevich, who served as an engineer in the Israel Air Force and worked in Symantec and other startup companies.

Source: Ynetnews.com

Wall Street Journal reports rise in chickpea spread sales in America, led by Sabra Dipping Co. – joint venture of PepsiCo and Israel’s Strauss Group

Hummus is “moving up” in the United States, along with the leading manufacturer of the chickpea spread, Sabra Dipping Co., a joint venture of Pepsico and Israel’s Strauss Group, the Wall Street Journal says.

A report titled “Hummus is conquering America,” defines the popular Middle Eastern food as a chickpea dip which is low in fat and high in protein, and is earning a growing following among Americans seeking more-healthful snacks.

According to the WSJ, market-research firm Information Resources Inc. reported that sales of “refrigerated flavored spreads” – a segment dominated by hummus – totaled $530 million at US food retailers in 2012, up 11% from a year earlier and a 25% jump over 2010.

Sabra’s hummus sales were estimated at about $315 million last year, and the company wants to cultivate a commercial crop in Virginia to reduce its dependence on the legume’s main US growing region – the Pacific Northwest – and to identify new chickpea varieties for its dips and spreads.

For Sabra, which makes hummus at a plant near Richmond, Va., a secondary source of supplies could help protect the company if a chickpea shortage occurred because of crop failures in Washington or Idaho, the WSJ says. Sourcing chickpeas locally also would lower its shipping costs.

Continue reading via Ynetnews.com

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