(TECH) Minicom Digital Signage Raises $6 Million From JVP & Aviv Ventures

"Minicom Digital Signage (MDS), a vendor of media distribution solutions for the Digital Signage and Digital out of Home (DooH) marketplace, had raised $6 million in a new financial round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) and joined by Aviv Ventures.

MDS' advanced multimedia platforms enable the transmission of customized rich-media messages in real-time from media players to multiple digital displays located hundreds of meters/feet away. MDS' technology is currently deployed on over 400,000 screens worldwide, and facilitates the distribution of content to consumers in retail, education, finance, transportation, and hospitality environments.

"This investment is the natural next step in MDS' lifecycle. The support of our investors positions us to explore inorganic growth options and to drive the acceleration of our product roadmap towards the establishment of MDS as a full scale enabling platform in the digital signage market," said MDS' CEO, Ronni Guggenheim.

MDS was spinout in 2009 from Minicom Advanced Systems, a developer of KVM remote access, extension and management solutions designed to expedite and simplify IT services. MDS headquarters in Jerusalem, Israel, with offices in the UK, Switzerland, and the US." (source)

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(TECH) Fabless Semiconductor Company Lucid Raises $8 Million From Rho Ventures, Giza & Genesis

"Fabless semiconductor company LucidLogix Technologies (Lucid) has raised $8 million in funding from current investors Rho Ventures, Giza Venture Capital and Genesis Partners, bringing total capitalization to $40 million.

Lucid has developed a real-time distributed processing engine (system-on-a-chip) that allows efficient load-balancing of multi-GPU environments using any GPU vendor. Lucid HYDRA 200 real time distributed processing engine use in consumer gaming and professional PC devices.

The HYDRA 200 Chip already integrated into Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors and with the Intel P55 Chipset. In addition, the world-leading graphics card and mainboard manufacturer, MSI, has announced a technology partnership with LucidLogix to deliver a more advanced gaming experience.

“The confidence level of our investors has come from our ability to successfully launch and deliver our second generation HYDRA 200 product to mass production, which is already on motherboards from one of the top three manufacturers in the world, MSI, and with more partners in the pipeline,” said Moshe Steiner, Lucid CEO. “The additional investment will enable the company to expand to international markets and boost sales.”

“Lucid is making the natural transition from a research and development startup to a silicon-product company,” said Offir Remez, Lucid co-founder and President. “We are working with leading strategic partners in the PC market during this critical time to deliver on our promises and grow the company, therefore the ongoing support by our investors is extremely valuable.”

Lucid is a fabless SoC provider, headquartered in Kfar Netter, Israel with sales and marketing in Santa Clara, California. Lucid’s innovations are protected by more than 60 patents and patents pending." (source)

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(TECH) Mobile Application Network Provider Snaptu Secures Funding From Sequoia Capital

"Mobile application network provider Snaptu, Formerly known as Moblica, has secured funding from leading global venture capital fund Sequoia Capital.

Snaptu is bringing popular social media, news, and sports sources like ESPN, Accuweather, Associated Newspapers, BBC, Reuters, Facebook, and Twitter, to more than 2,000 mobile devices via its unique mobile application infrastructure. The application works on virtually any phone and has been downloaded to over 4 million phones worldwide.

"We're excited by Snaptu's technology and vision and look forward to working with them to fulfill it," said Sequoia Capital partner Gili Raanan. "We see huge value for consumers and mobile operators in Snaptu's unique approach to bringing mobile applications to virtually any phone."

"With Snaptu, millions of people around the world can now use their existing phones to access their most popular Internet sites and enjoy a user experience comparable to the latest smartphones,” said Snaptu CEO Ran Makavy. “Sequoia supports our strategy of using the Snaptu application infrastructure to bring the full capability of the mobile web to virtually any phone, anywhere."

Snaptu offers online service providers, media companies and content owners a fast track into the world of mobile Internet. By enabling an easy and rapid deployment of any online service as a full-featured mobile application, in order to reach to every Internet-enabled mobile device.

Snaptu was founded in August 2007 by Lior Tal, the company VP Business Development. The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with offices in London, UK." (source)

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(TECH) Online Ad Verification Solution Provider DoubleVerify Raises $10 Million

"Online ad verification solution provider DoubleVerify has closed a $10 million in a second financing round led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and with the participation of existing investors. In May 2009 DoubleVerify had closed a $3.5 million first investment round led by Blumberg Capital, with participation of First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures and private investors.

DoubleVerify provides a technology solution that delivers transparency and accountability for agencies, marketers, publishers and ad networks running online ad campaigns. The company currently verifies over 25 billion impressions per month.

Studies that DoubleVerify had conducted on behalf of several leading U.S. brand advertisers had shown non-compliance and waste between the media plan and actual ad delivery averaging at 20% of advertising budgets. These non-compliance situations range from ads that are delivered to the wrong audience on the website or at the wrong time. According to DoubleVerify's estimations, media delivery non-compliance costs online advertisers over $3 billion annually and may exceed $10 billion within 5 years.

“We feel fortunate to experience such rapid growth in the past year, and this funding will help us continue expanding quickly and innovating for our customers,” says Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify. “The increased demand for verification and our leadership position in the space has allowed us to attract top-tier venture capital firms such as IVP."

DoubleVerify was founded in February 2008 by Netzer and Alex Liverant, the company CTO. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel." (source)

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(TECH) Driving Safety Technology Provider GreenRoad Secured $10 Million From Al Gore Fund

"Driving safety technology provider GreenRoad has secured $10 million in financing from Generation, an investment management fund co-founded in 2004 by Al Gore and David Blood.

On May 2009, GreenRoad has raised $15 million from DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Virgin Green Fund, and Amadeus Capital and Balderton Capital.

The new funding round aim to accelerate the deployment of its GreenRoad 360 service among existing and new customers. GreenRoad 360, its proprietary technology-based service, provides drivers and fleet managers with real-time, comprehensive and preventative feedback, analysis, reporting and coaching on drivers’ abilities, maneuvers and patterns.

GreenRoad provides the industry’s first driving behavior improvement service with real-time in-vehicle feedback and comprehensive visibility into those maneuvers which most impact safe driving, fuel efficiency and emissions.

GreenRoad (formally DriveDiagnostics) was founded in 2003 by Hod Fleishman, the Chief of Safety of GreenRoad, and Ofer Raz, the company CTO. The company is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, with sales offices throughout the U.S. and UK and an R&D Center in Israel." (source)

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(TECH) TuneWiki Gets Funding From Motorola, Docomo & TeliaSonera

"Social media music player provider TuneWiki completed a second round of financing, which was led by Motorola Ventures, Motorola's strategic investment arm. Other participants in the investment round include DOCOMO Capital, the corporate venture arm of NTT DOCOMO, Intellect Capital Ventures, a venture fund controlled by Nordic operator TeliaSonera, HillsVen Capital, Novel TMT, and Benchmark Israel.

The investment will help TuneWiki develop new products and expand its current offerings for mobile and Web platforms. Using its patented technology for timed and subtitled music lyrics, TuneWiki plans to launch a mobile game and significantly upgrade the TuneWiki social media player features.

"Music is rapidly emerging as a key feature for smartphones, and TuneWiki is changing the experience of listening to music from a solitary experience to a social one," said Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures. "We believe that TuneWiki has developed an innovative interactive social media player that can dramatically change the way people will listen to and interact with music."

"With TuneWiki's ability to translate and subtitle lyrics in more than 40 languages, we were looking for strategic partners to help us expand into new markets," said Rani Cohen, CEO of TuneWiki. "Japan is one of the most advanced markets in the world for Karaoke applications and we believe that with the help of DOCOMO Capital, we can introduce lyrics to the majority of cell phone owners in Japan."

TuneWiki developed a social media music player with the largest legally-licensed lyrics database in the world. TuneWiki is enhancing the mobile music experience by combining subtitled lyrics with music and music videos, lyrics translations into over 45 languages, real-time mapping, geographical charting and social networking.

Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands and has offices in Los Angeles, California; Bellbrook, Ohio; and Tel Aviv, Israel." (source)

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(TECH) Social Network Analysis Solution Provider 'Pursway' Raises $6 Million From Battery Ventures

"Social network analysis solution provider Pursway raised a $6 million in a first investment round from Battery Ventures. The new funds will support the company's growth in the U.S. and Europe, as it plan to open new offices in the Boston area and in London.

The Pursway solution enables companies to identify the influencers and followers for each product or offer within their customer database. They can then create campaigns that utilize this information in a measurable fashion that can be tied to success metrics. Leading mobile network operators including Vodafone and Orange, are already working with the Pursway's solution.

"It is well-documented that most buying decisions are made as a result of recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues," said Elery Pfeffer, Pursway's Co-founder and CEO. "Our solution enables companies to close the gap between how they market their products and services and the way consumers really make their buying decision. Working with some of the leading global retail, financial, and telecommunication companies worldwide, the results show 5-10 times improvement in marketing ROI in as short as 3 months."

Pursway Influencer Marketing solution enables companies to identify the millions of influencers using only data that already exists in their customer database, without infringing on the privacy of online conversations. Pursway works closely with chief marketing officers and heads of customer relationship management (CRM) to establish best practices that amplify the viral effect through campaigns and customer experiences that motivates influencers to spread the word and become evangelists for a company's products and services.

Pursway (previously known as Datanetis) was founded in June 2008 by Pfeffer, Guy Gildor, current company CTO, and Ran Shaul, EVP Customer Solutions at Pursway. The company is headquartered in Herzeliya, Israel, with offices in Waltham, Massachusetts, US and London, UK." (source)

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