Participated · Equity · May 2018

Sckipio Technologies, led by CEO David Baum, is a Ramat Gan, Israel-based provider of Gfast chipsets and develops standards-compliant Gfast modems used to enable ultra-broadband access and mobile backhaul. The company partners with more than 30 companies globally on Gfast and is one of the contributors to the ITU-T standard. It raised $10M in a funding round led by MegaChips, bringing total funding to date to $50M. The round included participation from Intel Capital, Pitango Venture Partners, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures, Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, CIRTech Fund and Axess Ventures. Sckipio intends to use the funds for the global rollout of Gfast with tier-1 service providers. Sckipio is a fabless semiconductor company that develops standards-compliant G.fast modems to enable ultra-broadband access and mobile backhaul. The company says it partners with more than 30 companies globally and is a leading contributor to the ITU‑T G.fast standard. Sckipio has delivered several industry firsts, including a 16-port Distribution Point Unit, running UHDTV across G.fast, demonstrating SDN over G.fast with AT&T, and delivering 1Gbps at 300 meters. The company intends to increase technology investments to accelerate innovations in the broadband access market following the new investment. Financially, this financing represents Sckipio’s third round of funding; previously it raised $27 million from Amiti Ventures, Aviv Ventures, Genesis Partners, Gemini Israel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital. Sckipio was founded in 2012 and is based in Ramat Gan, Israel. Sckipio Technologies develops G.fast modem chipsets and bundles them with software to deliver ultra-broadband over existing copper using Fiber-to-the-distribution-point (FTTdp) architectures. The company provides complete G.fast solutions for access and mobile backhaul based on the ITU G.fast G.9700 and G.9701 standards, to which it is a leading contributor. Sckipio says it intends to extend its leadership in the G.fast market and to scale production to meet rising demand. Management states the additional capital will help the company move faster, enhance its product offering, and provide working capital to scale production. The market for G.fast is cited as expected to reach $2.9B by 2020, underscoring commercial opportunity. Sckipio is backed by venture investors and operates out of Ramat Gan, Israel.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2014

Flayvr is a mobile app that automatically organizes smartphone photos and videos into albums using contextual signals (social, behavioral, user-generated, geolocation, computer vision and time). Available on iOS and Android, the app analyzes metadata and visual content, then presents animated album thumbnails and one-tap sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, WhatsApp, iMessage and email. Launched in 2012 and led by CEO Ron Levy and CTO Adi Ashkenazi, Flayvr has reached 2 million smartphone users and has processed 1 billion photos. Financially, the company recently raised $2 million and had previously secured $450,000 from Israeli angel investors. With the new funding Flayvr plans to double its team to 10, expand operations in the U.S., and extend its platform into the cloud. The company also intends to bring the product to additional platforms to begin generating revenue, though it declined to provide specific monetization details. Flayvr automatically groups photos and videos into collections, titles them (by date and city when geo-tagged), and offers one-click sharing as an HTML5 webpage to social networks or via email/text. The app integrates with the device camera roll and calendar to create collections on install and is a free iTunes download at launch. The company said an Android version will arrive in a few months. Flayvr may add editing capabilities and social features in the future, including the ability to follow others on the service. Co-founder and CEO Ron Levy said he built the service to solve his own camera-roll management problems. Financially, Flayvr closed a $450,000 seed round from Israeli angel investors.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2011

Valens develops HDBaseT technology for the audiovisual and automotive markets. Its HDBaseT Automotive chip technology enables in-vehicle connectivity by converging audio and video, Ethernet, USB, controls, PCIe, and power over a single cable. HDBaseT is used by audio/video component manufacturers. Led by CEO and co-founder Dror Jerushalmi, Valens is advancing audio/visual chipset technology into the automotive world. The company raised $63M to accelerate development of its portfolio for the autonomous vehicle sector and to address the ongoing requirements of its automotive partners. Valens is based in Hod HaSharon, Israel. Valens develops semiconductor products for the distribution of ultra‑high‑definition multimedia content, with a focus on long‑reach connectivity over a single cable. Its HDBaseT automotive technology, introduced in 2016, targets connected‑car challenges by enabling infotainment and ADAS bandwidth and wiring needs. The company was established in 2006 by Dror Jerushalmi and is based in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Valens recently secured additional equity financing to accelerate product development and time to market. Management says the funds will be used to develop additional products to meet market demand and to support customers with design and development projects. As part of the financing, a new investor representative will join the board. Valens Semiconductor is a fabless company that supplies semiconductor products for distributing uncompressed high-definition multimedia and invented the HDBaseT technology. Its HDBaseT technology enables long-reach connectivity of devices over a single 100m/328ft standard CAT5e/6 LAN cable. The company develops HDBaseT chipsets and says it will use the funding to accelerate development of follow-on generations of its chipset, enabling further integration and cost reduction. Valens expects these improvements to facilitate growth in multimedia transmission and data communication for consumer electronics. Founded in 2006 and privately held, Valens has offices in Israel, Japan, Hong Kong, and the USA, with local representatives in Korea, Taiwan, and China. The recent financing provides additional capital to support product development and market expansion.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2010

Minicom Digital Signage is a Jerusalem-based vendor of media distribution solutions for the digital signage and digital out-of-home (DooH) marketplace. The company spun out from Minicom Advanced Systems, a developer of KVM remote access, extension and management solutions. MDS's core product is a media distribution platform for digital signage networks. The company raised $6m to finance its operations independently. The funding will enable MDS to broaden its platform from new offices in Jerusalem’s JVP Media Quarter; it also operates offices in the UK, Switzerland and the US. Management says it plans to explore inorganic growth options and accelerate its product roadmap toward establishing MDS as a full-scale enabling platform in the digital signage market.