Archive for the ‘Israel’ Category
Written on July 7, 2008 – 9:34 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
My first claim to (Dutch) Internet fame was a self-shot movie of the Dutch Prime Minister arguing with the No. 1 TV journalist. I just happened to be standing next to them with my camera phone. Although the quality was crap, the movie ended up in the national news - which turned out to be the start of my blogging career. Right in time though, as an Israeli start-up called PhotoFree will make sure the web will see a decline in this kind of paparazzi-like content. A nifty device makes it possible to distort any digital photo taken within a certain distance.
PhotoFree has raised some $900,000 in a seed capital round, led by Israeli company Ofakim Hi-Tech Ventures (OHV) - owned by Capital Point - as well as private investors. The technology is being developed by entrepreneur and researcher Dr. Zeev Zalevsky from Bar Ilan University. He has proved that his idea can become reality, and turned it into a working process. “We’re only at the beginning of the road. This is an idea on paper that we are hoping to develop. We will have more to add at a later stage,” CEO Hila Goldman-Aslan told Haaretz.
Too bad for Perez Hilton and his colleagues…, as they will soon have to switch to the good ol’ analogue camera.
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Written on July 1, 2008 – 1:40 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Fring, the Mobile VOIP service from Israel, has launched fringAdd-ons, a handy feature that integrates services like Facebook and Orkut into the application. From now on, users can not just call and message each other for free, but also import their friends and updates from the social networks and email services like Gmail.
Users with a Symbian phone can simply download the add-ons from Fring.com, which will integrate the app. After giving your login credentials, the Fring add-on keeps syncing your mobile with the desired service. In the press release, Fring calls the add-ons the “next generation” of their application, and I think they’re right. As soon as more add-ons will be launched, Fring can become the standard app for connecting to your online social life.
Written on May 25, 2008 – 1:37 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Since everyone seems to be drowning in a flood of information, new start-ups emerge to throw us a lifebuoy. These entrepreneurs develop new ways for us to process information. The latest trend: converting text into speech.
The idea behind these kind of converters is that people can just walk away from the computer, but are still able to follow what’s happening on your favorite blog. So you can listen to the latest Next Web Blog posts while baking eggs or doing the dishes. A good time-saver, so several people have seized this opportunity to develop the next big thing. Here’s a short summary of the existing services. Please let me know if you have one to add.
When Boris and me crashed the parties of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last month, we bumped into the guys of Swiss start-up Dixero. Luca Mascaro and Dafne Gobbi have developed a service that transforms posts into audio by using different computer-generated voices. Shortly after I had published this post, Frederic Martin notified me that Dixero wasn’t the only text-to-speech service out there. He used French service Xfruits, which has a rich set of converting features including RSS to speech. Though it’s not just a European matter, as there’s also a San Francisco-based start-up transforming text into speech called Stitcher.
But a service from Israel takes the whole transforming thing to another level. Bnarrator uses actual human beings for the translating. It’s just a matter of installing a widget, which keeps Bnarrator up to date about new content. Then one of their narrators starts to read the post up loud. So instead of a metallic-sounding speech-robot, you’ll hear a friendly and natural voice telling you what your favorite blogger has written about. To turn it into a profitable business, Bnarrator first plays an advertisement. Yet they don’t keep it all the revenue, as 30 percent goes to the site owner and another 5 percent goes to charities for blind people. They don’t stop to amaze me.
Mashable has already installed the service and they now have 623 narrated posts. Like the service too? Anyone can sign up here. To sum it up: their service is as charming as the narrator in this video:
Written on May 20, 2008 – 8:00 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The idea of Robert Scoble wandering around in an African village, looking for another child to adopt with his lovely girlfriend Angelina Jolie might sound odd to you. But according to Picitup’s Celebrity Match it wouldn’t be all that surprising. This service finds your celebrity look-alike, and matched Scoble’s face with Brad Pitt. Oh and not just him, as our web celeb also looks like Danny deVito, Jim Carrey and John McCain. Scoble sure has universal looks.
Celebrity MatchUp is an initiative by the Israeli-based visual image search engine Picitup. Smart move, as celebrities always attract a huge crowd. Why do you think I’ve mentioned Jolie in the first place? They’ve got some bad coverage on TechCrunch, so a little media hype won’t hurt them. But why isn’t there a Facebook app? With services like these, adding a Facebook app is almost like 1 + 1 = 2.
Picitup allows you to specify image search by requesting similar images. You can also filter by color, landscapes, products and faces. Although the service linked Arrington’s face to Obama and McCain’s at the same time, the matches aren’t always that bad. For example, when I uploaded quite a manic picture of myself in which I jump around, Picitup matched me with the always-shouting and acting all ecstatic Asthon Kucther. I wonder when Demi More will drop by my house.
Written on May 17, 2008 – 12:21 pm
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
Sergey Brin at Garage Geeks
Thursday night Garage Geeks hosted Sergey Brin, founder of Google, who was nice enough to answer many of our questions about Google’s past, future, and his view of the Israeli startup scene.
Garage Geeks is a “physical & virtual space for multi-disciplinary creative people to meet, innovate and build non-commercial projects that would otherwise may not come to life.” Famous Israeli entrepreneur and investor Yossi Vardi hosted the event.
So many questions were answered actually that my camera’s battery died at a certain point so I apologize for this video not showing the full Q & A session (though it shows most of it). Thank you to Vardi and Garage Geeks for making this event happen. Here is the video from the event:
Online Videos by Veoh.com
Written on March 24, 2008 – 2:08 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Our Next Web Tipr in Israel, Yaniv Solnik, is a great guy. He sends us many tips and is generally very nice. Today however, he seems a bit angry. He’s talking about an Israeli company that is ‘bound to crash big time and make many investors loose their money’. What’s going on here?
Yaniv discusses Modu, a very ambitious venture that has developed a mobile phone that consists of one smart CPU and many totally different and good-looking covers - or jackets. So these three different-looking phones have the same CPU with all their personal and mobile info stored on it:
It’s an idea of the well known and successful entrepreneur Dov Moran. Before Modu, he was the founder, Chairman and CEO of msystems. A company that invented USB Flash Drive and FlashDisk amongst other things. From scratch, Moran build a 1 billion dollar company in 18 years. It was acquired by Sandisk for 1.6 billion dollars. So to say the least, Moran has an impressive track record.
That probably helped when he was looking for some funding. So far he has received investment funding from SanDisk, Genesis Capital, and Gemini Capital Fund Management totaling 20 million dollars. Moran hopes to secure another $100 million this year and he probably will. He’ll start selling his product in October with three service providers in Russia, Italy and Israel.
So the investors really fancy his phone-morphing idea. It doesn’t really surprise me, since it’s a trendy product that looks astonishing. And of course, the business model is also pretty simple: Moran expects consumers to keep buying new jackets. Yet isn’t the product launch five years too late? The mobile world is raving about new smart phones, the iPhone and the all-in-one Nokia N95. Why would people walk around with these little and cheap devices?
Dov Moran
Moreover, according to my loyal WebTipr, this is not the first time that an Israeli company is trying to pull this kind of mobile centric device. “A quick look at IXI Mobile, another Israeli venture that burned millions trying to do the exact same thing with a bluetooth centric device, gave up long time ago and is now focusing on a ’smartphone for kids’ named Ogo.”
While we are being very negative here, Mr. Moran himself thinks he’s working on a revolution. “It’s not like the top five companies where everybody makes devices similar to the others, we’re going to change the cellular market,” he said to Reuters. Guess I would say the same thing when I was in it for 5 million dollars.
[WebTipr: Yaniv Solnik, Israel]
Written on March 9, 2008 – 3:32 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf, Managing Partner of YL Ventures - an European and Israeli early stage technology venture capital fund - emailed me that they will announce tomorrow that YL Ventures is appointing Robert Goldberg as a Venture Partner. He is a Silicon Valley Internet and digital media veteran and now shifts his focus to Europe and Israel.
So I’ve emailed mr. Goldberg with the question: why Europe? Isn’t it more attractive for an American VC to focus on the 300 million English-speaking people market of the US? He replied, saying: “After spending considerable time investigating and experiencing the European market first hand and through Yoav, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a very interesting investment opportunity there for several reasons.”
“First and foremost there is a pool of passionate entrepreneurs with substantial technical talent. Second, similar to what happened in the US in the early part of this decade, Venture Funds grew larger and more risk adverse, largely abandoning their ability to invest smaller amounts of money in early stage companies. That trend has reversed itself in the US, but not in Europe. This leaves great entrepreneurs with early stage ideas fewer options. The opportunity is filling the excess demand with supply! Thirdly, although in many ways trends and ecosystems often develop first in the US, that can also lead to a kind of group think. I have found a different, often refreshing and more innovative approach to developing opportunities in the market place coming from European and Israeli companies.”
Of course, the European internet entrepreneurs who are reading this article now, wonder whether Robert Goldberg might be interested in their start-ups. Luckily Goldberg is kind enough to give you a profile: “We are focused on companies in the media, mobile and internet infrastructure space that have a passionate founder with domain expertise. These companies have business models that are capital efficient in that expenses can be kept in sync with market traction and revenues.”
Written on February 4, 2008 – 11:01 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
More than fifty Israeli start-ups will travel to Barcelona next week to present their products on the upcoming Mobile World Congress. Ok, it’s an impressing number yet not spectacular news. Though what surprised me is the way they cooperate at the conference. 
The companies have invested a total of 600,000 euros to build an Israeli lounge. Our WebTipr in Israel Yaniv Solnik emailed me why the start-ups are doing this: “They want to utilize the power of the togetherness in the Israeli mobile scene”.
The Israeli-get-together is organized by the Israel Mobile and Communications Association (IMA). On their site, they invite us all to show up at the lounge where ‘one of the world’s most innovative countries’ presents ‘the most creative companies’.
They want to utilize the power of the togetherness in the Israeli mobile scene
Sounds like the Israeli mobile scene is not afraid to invest in the image of their country. Smart move, especially since the image of the Israeli start-up culture is likely to get hurt by the rumors about Knocka’s problems to find funding. Knocka is an Internet television network that was started by the legendary founders of ICQ, who hyped their product to extreme proportions. Last week an article about Knocka employees leaving the company was published on the Israeli news site The Marker. If Israel’s to-watch start-up of 2008 is really going into a quiet death, an image boost for the country wouldn’t hurt.
Aside from the remark that it probably compensates the bad publicity around Knocka, it still might be a good idea to promote your country’s start-up culture. Could European countries learn from this campaign? If you’re able to hype your homeland, investors and users are likely get a positive association with any start-up coming from your country. Just like start-ups from the Valley have some sort of instant credibility. Nationalism 2.0 might actually work.
[WebTipr: Yaniv Solnik, Israel]
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