GasnGo signs US deal

November 23rd, 2010 by Don Davis

by Yuval Azulai

Israeli automated vehicle identification (AVI) products for fuel delivery developer GasnGo Ltd. is breaking into the US market. After year-long negotiations, the company has signed an exclusive cooepraiton agreement with OPW for the sale of GasnGo’s products in North America. Energy sources estimate the deal at $5 million in the first year, and at tens of millions of dollars over the next five years, the period of the contract. GasnGo is a unit of Petratech International Ltd. Its chairman and principle shareholder is Mordechai Ben-Shach and its CEO is Sagi Cohen. The company’s AVI systems, which OPW will begin to market shortly, can be easily installed into vehicles, and their data encryption prevents fraud at vehicle fleets. A year ago, GasnGo signed a similar exclusive agreement with a company in Mexico. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000602955&fid=1725

Personalized ads co myThings raises $6m

November 23rd, 2010 by Don Davis

by Batya Feldman

Personalized ads solutions developer myThings Ltd. has raised $6 million in its third financing round, led by Deutsche Telekom AG venture capital arm T-Venture. Current investors Accel Partners, Carmel Ventures, Dotcorp Asset Management, and GP Bullhound also participated. myThings CEO Benny Arbel and Udi Zaidman founded the company five years ago to develop technology for the personalized advertising market. Both men are serial entrepreneurs of internet ventures. myThings’ technology enables online retailers and marketers to place personalized ads tailored to internet users’ search habits. The company only uses non-personally identifiable information to perform its retargeting service. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000603181&fid=1725

Cellphone games co Mo’Minis raises $3m

November 23rd, 2010 by Don Davis

by Tzahi Hoffman

Cellphone games platform developer Mo’Minis Ltd. has raised $3 million in its third financing round from Mitsui Ventures, the venture capital arm of Japanese giant Mitsui & Co. Ltd., BRM Capital, and other current investors. Mo’Minis raised $1.9 million prior to the present round. Mo’Minis has developed a platform for casual games on mobile telephones. The platform helps games developers create content that is automatically supported by a large number of handsets, as well as saving development time and conversion of games between telephones. When development of a game is completed, Mo’Minis participates in its commercialization via the company’s distribution network. Mo’Minis CTO Tzach Hadar, VP community & content Eyal Rabinovich, and VP R&D Zvi Rabinovich founded the company. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000602948&fid=1725

Israeli motion-sensing device shakes up the gaming industry

November 18th, 2010 by Don Davis

by SHARON WROBEL

Computer giant Microsoft announced this week that within 10 days of a November 4 launch date, it has sold 1 million units worldwide of its cutting-edge, hands-free Kinect gaming device. But less known is that at the heart of the successful release is PrimeSense, a five-year-old Tel Aviv-based start-up company, responsible for the revolutionary 3D motion-sensing camera inside the Kinect. And, in no small part thanks to PrimeSense, the game console is on track to hit 5 million in sales by the end of the year. Behind PrimeSense’s technology are sensors that enable control of appliances without external devices. In a broader vision of the technology, the idea is that a person sitting on a living room sofa and facing a TV is able to command the screen with a flick of the wrist. In effect, this means that the mouse, touch pad and remote control will become obsolete, as Prime- Sense’s system tracks the user’s hand motions in the air and reacts. PrimeSense, which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, has raised nearly $30 million from venture capital firms Gemini Capital, Genesis Venture Capital and Canaan Partners. Within five years of its founding, Prime- Sense has expanded its workforce to 130 with offices in North America, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/InternetAndTechnology/Article.aspx?id=195968