Rapid API, led by Andreessen Horowitz, the VC that is widely regarded as number one in the venture space is going places – it’s a start-up that has developed a marketplace through which developers can easily discover, test, and start using publicly available application programming interfaces (APIs)
TechCrunch summarises this story pretty well:
‘The company is interesting for numerous reasons — not least of them its founder, Iddo Gino, is an 18-year-old who was a high school senior in Haifa, Israel last year when he was “discovered,” so to speak.
It happened at a local hackathon, where Gino caught the attention of Dov Moran.
The renowned Israeli angel investor provided Gino with some early mentorship, as well as $250,000 in seed money that Gino — who studied briefly at the public research institute Technion – used to move to the U.S. in January.’
However Gino is representative of a bigger trend in Israel – young entrepreneurship which I would argue comes from innovative high schooling and compulsory army service.
In the early 1990s Avishai Abrahami found himself, as required for most Israelis when they graduate from high school, enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces. But Abrahami had been assigned to a division he wasn’t allowed to speak of, not even to his parents–a crack cybersecurity and intelligence team known as Unit 8200.
He was given an assignment that seemed right out of Mission: Impossible. Break into the computers of a country that remained in a state of hostility with Israel. The task contained several hurdles: First, figure out how to get into those computers; second, how to crack the encryption; and finally, the monumental challenge, how to access the “enormous amount” of computing power necessary to decrypt the data.
So here’s what Abrahami did once he thought he could breach the targeted computers: He broke into the computers of two other hostile countries and hijacked their processing power to suck out the data held by the first target. A masterwork of spycraft–and a primitive precursor to cloud computing–done without leaving his chair in Tel Aviv.
And that’s the Israeli that co founded wix, currently one of the world leading cloud based web development platforms.
Talent, Ambition, Success. Not an easy combination to master but I’d argue that in Israel – this combination is taught early in life and whilst not everyone can learn these skills, if you do – you’re bound to fly.
News:
RapidAPI, a Tel Aviv-based API marketplace, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with participation from FundersClub, SV Angel and Green Bay Advisors.
Feelter, a Tel Aviv-based retail review company, has raised $2 million in Series A funding. Will Graylin, founder of LoopPay, led the round.
Articles to read:
In the past 10 months of 2016 144 M&A deals in Israel have equalled to over US$15.8 billion.
http://legalmarketing.co.il/blog/2016-ma-trends-report/
The Future of Cyber Insurance and Cyber Technology: An Interview with Munich Re’s Head of Cyber, Daljitt Barn
https://medium.com/@SOSaTLV/the-future-of-cyber-insurance-and-cyber-technology-an-interview-with-munich-res-head-of-cyber-e5fcd892e5d2#.qxpje8mw3
11 Early-Stage Israeli B2B Software Companies To Watch
https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/israeli-b2b-software-startups/
Events that took place in Israel this week:
Israel’s largest tech and innovation event, Geektime Techfest, kicked off in Tel Aviv on Sunday, with the advertised aim of “fertilizing the tech ecosystem in the start-up nation.”
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Tech/Israels-premier-startup-showcase-festival-draws-international-investors-473288
Events to book:
TechCrunch London
https://techcrunch.com/event-info/disrupt-london-2016/
Written by Julia Bayer our Israel Correspondent
