12 Israeli start-ups have been short-listed for the upcoming Israel Venture Association (IVA) competition, at the annual IVA Conference held in cooperation with "Globes." The winner will automatically go forward to the annual DEMO conference, Europe's launch venue for new products, technologies and companies which will take place in Germany in October. This year's IVA event will adopt a different format that will require all the start-ups competing to update their presentations.

In previous years, the judges selected the winner on the basis of their assessment of its business plans. This year, competitors will be required to make a six-minute presentation containing an overview of the company's activity and its developments. The winner will go forward to the DEMO event in Germany.

The IVA event is being held for the sixth consecutive year, with participating companies from fields such as telecommunications, software, Internet, and life sciences. According to IVA president Yifat Adoram, the association preferred to collaborate with DEMO Europe rather than the US, since companies may not compete a region in which they have already launched products in their respective markets. "The likelihood of finding companies that have not yet made a launch in the US is slim," says Adoram. "In addition, the companies have venture capital backing which means that their exposure to the US is almost immediate. That's why we preferred Europe."

Following are the 12 Israeli start-ups presenting at the IVA conference at the David Intercontinental Hotel on May 18-19.

PetNovations Ltd.

Investors: Moshe Mizrahy, Israel Healthcare Ventures

Funds raised (approximate): $3-4

Entrepreneurs often talk of the need for a market for their brilliant technology, and sometimes markets like these can be found in unusual places. PetNovations, founded in 2005, went for the pet product market. The company's first product is an automatic self-flushing cat box, to solve a problem that cat owners find singularly irritating. The firm estimates its worldwide market at $3 billion. PetNovations had $6 million sales in 2007, and has plans to launch additional products addressing issues such as flea control, and drug delivery.

Modu Ltd.

Investors: Dov Moran, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Funds, and SanDisk Corporation (Nasdaq:SNDK).

Funding raised: $50 million (currently raising a further $70 million).

Given the media blitz to which it has been subjected, Modu is probably one company that will have little need of a presentation. When Dov Moran dreamed about Modu, all he wanted, so he claims, was a phone that he could use in any situation - whether it is sitting at the office or engaging in sports activity. The solution was the development of a modular mobile handset that each user can adapt to suit his specific activity. While working on the dream, Moran found time to sell msystems to SanDisk for $1.6 billion. Modu is developing a miniaturized handset compatible with various operating environments that enable it to be connected to digital consumer products, computer devices, or telephony interfaces.

WorkLight Inc.

Investors: Genesis Partners, Index Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, and Shlomo Kramer.

Funding raised: $17 million.

Shahar Kaminitz wondered why he couldn't work on business applications with the same ease as he could on Web 2.0 applications. The result was the founding three years ago, together with Yuval Tarsi, of WorkLight. The company provides secure software solutions that enable employees at large companies to use Web 2.0 tools for business purposes in the work environment.

Red Bend Software Inc.

Investors (include): Carmel Ventures, Coral Capital Management, Greylock Partners, Israel Infinity Venture Capital, Pitango Venture Capital, and Poalim Ventures.

Funds raised: $36 million.

Sometimes, companies also get a second opportunity. This is the case with Red Bend, which came 10th in "Globes" most promising start-up rankings for 2007-2008. Red Bend, founded in 1999, developed software for remote web-based updates for network operators. On realizing that the era of broadband had arrived, the company moved on to a newer field - firmware over the air updates for mobile handsets.

Techtium Ltd.

Investors (include): Pitango Venture Capital, Poalim Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital, Energizer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ENR), Arie Ovadia, Yaakov Shachar, Guy Gamzu, and Dan Waysman.

Funds raised: $25 million.

Techtium is attempting to tackle one of the most bothersome issues in the era of laptop computers devices - the battery. According to company founders Guy Weinstein and Dror Manor, mobile devices really could be just that only when power supply can be controlled, an option not yet available. The company's solution is a chip that can manage battery life, and also provide users with a back-up power source. Techtium is also working on joint developments with battery giant Energizer, which invested $5 million in it two years ago.

Gizmoz Inc.

Investors (include): DoCoMo Capital Inc., Benchmark Capital, Columbia Capital, and the Lieberman family of Australia.

Funds raised: $16.5 million.

Gizmoz has traditionally focused exclusively on applications for network-based character-based visual expression. The company, which was founded by CEO Eyal Gever, is now developing user content creation applications for use on Web 2.0 sites. A year ago, it unveiled its sexy online service - the creation of 3D animated characters for cellular and online messaging.

WeFi Inc.

Investors: Yossi Vardi, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pitango, and Gemini.

Funds raised: $7.5 million.

The world of wireless communications is still relatively new, and much remains to be explored. This was the motivation for the founding of WeFi by the brothers Shimon and Tamir Shertzer, Arnon Kohavi, and Dr. Yossi Vardi. The company provides integrated software for WiFi connectivity management between mobile telecommunications and computing devices. The software automatically detects and qualifies all WiFi access points within range and connects to the best Internet connection. It also allows users to see where their friends are connected.

Delver Ltd.

Investors: Carmel Ventures.

Funds raised: $2.2 million.

Search engines is one field where there doesn't seem to appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel, so the occasional emergence of reworked formulas should come as no surprise. Such is Delver, which is offering a new model of Internet search engine. The company, which was founded in 2007 by Liad Agmon (who sold Onigma to security software giant McAfee a year and a half ago), Avital Yachin, and Sagi Davidovich, simply uses social networks to better understand users, by prioritizing users' search engine results based on the social networks they have joined.

BroadLight Inc.

Investors (includes): Benchmark, Azure Capital Partners, Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), Delta Fund, Israel Seed Partners, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Siemens Venture Capital GmbH, and Tellabs.

Funds raised: $55 million.

Optical communications was just one big dream at the end of 1990s. Only a few companies survived the bursting of the bubble a few years later. One of them is BroadLight, founded in 2000, which develops chips and integrated control devices for communications on urban Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks. The company, which is managed by Raanan Gewirtzman, supplies its semiconductor solutions to optical communications equipment vendors, who support end-to-end broadband communications. The broadband solutions also also support video streaming to the end user.

ID-U Biometrics Ltd. (Incubated from Misgav Venture Accelerator).

Investors: Trendlines Israel

Funds raised: $100,000

Biometric identification solutions are said to be the latest hit in the homeland security market. The biometric market was estimated to be worth $3 billion in 2007. ID-U, which was founded in 2004, develops biometric signature solutions based on behavioral, physical, and psychological responses to external stimuli. Since each person responds to stimuli in his own way, ID-U's system cannot be fooled and it offers a high level of accuracy.

Diagnostic Technologies Ltd. (DTL).

Investors (includes): Teuza - A Fairchild Technology Venture Ltd. (TASE:TUZA), Uzia Galil, Shore Capital Group (through the Puma II Fund), Giora Meyuhas, Joseph Shallant, and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

Funds raised: $6 million.

DTL, which was founded in 1994, has developed a method which can detect and diagnose a high risk pregnancy through a simple blood test. The company claims the tests' results enable doctors to provide preventative treatment and even predict the disease.

Enzymotec Ltd.

Investors: Naiot Venture Accelerator and the Chief Scientist, Galam Ltd. (owned by Kibbutz Ma'anit), Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation), Ofer Hi Tech Ltd., Millenium Materials Technology Fund, and private investors.

Funds raised: $10 million.

Enzymotec has successfully combined research on food additives with biotechnology research. The company, which came fourth in the "Globes" most promising start-up rankings for 2007-2008, was founded in 1998, and produces smart food additives using biotechnological methods and in compliance with biotechnological product standards. Enzymotec markets its products as food additives, and also for clinical use through doctors and pharmacies. It has been selling its products in the US for the last five years and is profitable, with revenue totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 12, 2008

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