insights

by Tzahi Hoffman

Mobile GPS navigation application developer Waze Inc. has raised $25 million in its second financing round from existing investors Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, and BlueRun Ventures. Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the round. Waze CTO Ehud Shabtai, president Uri Levine, and VP R&D Amir Shinar founded the company in 2008. The company raised $12 million in its first financing round. Waze’s smartphone navigation application can be downloaded to enable users to avoid traffic. The application can also tell the user how much time it will take to reach his destination, and whether there are traffic police along the route. A few days ago, Waze announced that it had reached 2.2 million users in all the countries where it operates. Waze’s executives call the company “the Wikipedia for drivers”. Its product is based on users’ content, which updates maps and warns of traffic congestion. The objective is to use the users’ updates and reports to enable a driver to find alternative routes to avoid traffic. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000606619&fid=1725

by Abigail Klein Leichman 

Thousands of entries poured in from entrepreneurs in 150 countries when General Electric announced its $200 million GE Ecomagination Challenge last July. Ten weeks later, judges announced five winners: Three from the United States and two from Israel. Each received $100,000, no strings attached, to develop their ideas for creating a smarter, cleaner, more efficient power grid and global energy transformation through open collaboration. The two Israeli awardees are GridON of Givatayim, whose “Keeper” fault-current limiter protects the electric grid from disruptions and power outages; and WinFlex of Kiryat Yam, whose wind turbine rotors made from light, flexible and inexpensive composite fabric, reduce installation costs by at least half. http://www.israel21c.org/201012068580/environment/israeli-companies-meet-the-ge-challenge