I summarized the main points from this report, but I recommend reading the full article.

• On October 30, Israel will host a cleantech conference cosponsored by the Cleantech Venture Network, Ernst & Young, Morrison & Foerster, and Israel Cleantech Ventures, as part of the larger WATEC water technologies week event.

• Why is Israel is emerging as an important hub of cleantech innovation?

1. Background: Fueled by acute constraints in natural resources, Israel has spawned a number of successful water technology and alternative energy companies, including recognized names in drip irrigation (Netafim), desalination (IDE), geothermal energy (Ormat), fuel cells (Medis), and solar thermal energy (Solel/Luz).
2. Israel’s academic institutions in these areas have led to world class cleantech capabilities and more than 350 active cleantech companies in Israel today.
3. The Human Asset: The roots of this growing community of cleantech entrepreneurs can be traced to:
• established or “legacy” industrial companies active in energy, water, chemicals etc.,
• academic institutions with long histories as research leaders in energy and water sciences
• “crossover” initiatives or entrepreneurs moving into cleantech from traditional areas of Israeli technology leadership such as power electronics, semiconductors, and even biotech and agritech.
• founders or key members of some of the most recognized names in Israel’s high tech world (Checkpoint, Comverse, Chromatis, Scitex, and many others) now involved in launching cleantech companies.
• Israeli cleantech companies must overcome the same challenges faced by counterparts in other countries, including the challenge of penetrating often risk-averse customers in the energy and water markets, managing cash burn rates against long sales and adoption cycles, etc. However, Israeli companies do operate under some unique constraints, starting with their distance from and historical lack of familiarity with many of the key customers and channel partners for their products and technologies.
• Israel’s most important resource is its entrepreneurs – a seemingly inexhaustible supply of talented business people and technologists who excel at looking beyond traditional ways of solving market problems and inefficiencies.

That, coupled with the truly colossal demand for technologies to address the world’s insatiable need for clean, accessible energy, water and air, is what is already putting Israel on the map as a global cleantech player.

A problematic buyer
Zango has raised $40M from Spectrum Equity in 2004. It is notoriously known in the spyware business for its distribution of free games to MySpace users, that result in the installation of a spyware toolbar that requires user consent before the adware is installed. The toolbar belongs to Hotbar Inc., who is the was once the owner of Smart Shopper.

Zango states in its website that “Zango does not collect or share any information about you with anyone”, but the company is entangled in several court challenges from privacy groups on its marketing tactics and policies. Services like McAfee Site Advisor
confirm the suspicion in their reports. User reviews show Zango as enabler of spam, spyware and even phishing attempts. It was even banned by the state of Alaska:

EULA Qoute:Special Notice for Residents of the State of Alaska, USA:

The Zango Software may be prohibited by Alaska law. Therefore, by installing or Using the Zango Software, you represent and warrant that your computer is not located in the state of Alaska. To the extent that our systems are able to recognize that your computer is located in the state of Alaska, we will not enable you to install the Zango Software.

SmartShopper deserves props
SmartShopper developed a neat technology that enables comparison of multiple shopping and travel sites in real time through a browser install. When you go shop online, SmartShopper identifies the exact product or service you are looking for, and intelligently appears in a separate browser pane with relevant alternative offers (If you want to try the service, watch the Smartshopper demo and click here to download). It claims to have over 10M users.

SmartShopper was lead by Oren Dobronsky, who spun it off from Hotbar in 2005. The company is based in New York and Tel Aviv with a head count of 10.

Wix, currently in private beta, enables users to create flash-based websites without writing a single line of code or being a guru designer. Wix believes that the time has come to for everyone to produce great web content on their own – by providing an open platform to create flash sites.

The sites can then be published on Wix or anywhere on the web. To top it off, users can import content from sites like Youtube, Facebook, Flickr etc, and Wix transforms their creations into widgets published on social networks.

So far, there have been plenty of web page creators that enabled composing simple HTML page , including: Google Page Creator, Synthasite, Weebly and Jimdo, but Wix is the first one to introduce Flash. Today to change the looks or even a word in a flash component, the user needed a developer or a flash designer involved. Not anymore.

The Web-Top Revolution
According to its website, Wix compares the web today to the print industry before 1985. Back then, even the simplest printing job required an expert, they say. Web publishing is not different today. To build a media rich web site, content creators also need to contact an expert, be it an HTML programmer or a flash designer. Wix believes that it can lead the ‘web top revolution‘ by empowering users to create web sites, widgets, layout, slideshows, blogs and more.

The parent company is called WixPress and it is led by co-founder and CEO Giora (Gig) Kaplan, and co-founder Nadav Abrahami. Wixpress was founded on September of 2006 and has a team of 20based in Tel Aviv. The company raised an undisclosed seed round back in August.

digg_url =’http://digg.com/http://digg.com/design/Goodbye_HTML_Hello_Flash_Wix_com_Starts_The_Web_Top_Revolution’;

We’re in conference season here in San Francisco and the Web 2.0 Summit that ended last week was one of the big ones. Thursday concluded with a Launch Pad in which six companies presented their startup to a VC panel. Among the finalists stood up G.ho.st, an ambitious Israeli/Palestinian start up.

G.ho.st stands for Global Hosted Operating System (Web-based OS). The company wants to provide people with what it calls a free “virtual computer,” letting you log onto an account from any browser and perform standard computing tasks including email, online file management (3G of free storage powered by Zimbra) and office applications such as Zoho, meebo and Thinkfree. This virtual computer is also protected from the risks of a desktop computer: no crashes, security threats or storage limitations. See G.ho.st’s trailer and video introduction here.

G.ho.st launched back in April 2006 and raised $2M to date from an undisclosed investor. Their business model is risky: G.ho.st wants to get revenue as a mega affiliate, by taking a cut from transactions users make while surfing on G.ho.st. The judges commentary was mixed. On one hand, it’s a big idea that solves a real problem, but on the other, it’s unlikely that users will abandon their traditional computers and generate enough cash to sustain the company by shopping on a virtual machine.

Either way, G.ho.st aims high – both in the challenge it is trying to solve and in it’s unique structure. Based in Jerusalem and Ramallah (west bank), G.ho.st is led by CEO Zvi Schreiber, and COO Tareq Maayah.

As background, Gemini was founded in 1993 and has about $550M under management in four funds. It invests in approximately 35 tech companies in Communications & Wireless, Consumer Electronics, Enterprise Software, Internet and Semiconductors.

Gemini invests primarily in Israeli companies and entrepreneurs and its active portfolio includes adap.tv, conteXtream, esnips, IXI mobile and more. Most recently, Gemini sold Triana, a seller of automated post-trade processing services to ICAP for $248M in cash + $9M in ICAP shares.

Question: What are you looking for in a prospective company?

We are looking for companies that can become global market leaders, with several hundreds of $M in revenues. This requires first and foremost, a world class management team and founders. In addition, a very large market opportunity, the ability to build a strong and sustainable competitive edge (many time technological), have a sound business model, and very importantly (many times neglected…) a real need for your solution.

Question: Is there an entrepreneur that you see as a role model? Why?

Over the last years Israel has seen a new generation of entrepreneurs, which have the potential to bring the Israeli tech industry to a new level. One example is Dov Moran (Founder and CEO of M-systems, sold to Sandisk). These entrepreneurs have led companies from inception through to multi billion $ valuations. Now they have decided to start it all again, with new startups they believe can become even bigger. Dov is a role model since he is definitely not in it “for the money”. He genuinely wants to make an impact, and is aiming to “change the world” through technology.

TIP: Talia Aben from Gemini posted a few hiring tips from Dov here. His main parameters are:

1. IQ – Intellectual Abilities
2. EQ – Emotional development
3. AQ – Stamina

Question: What was your proudest moment as VC?

I think that my proudest moment is yet to come – when I achieve my first exit in a company I invest and work with throughout its lifetime… Being only 3 years in the industry, this has not yet arrived. Nonetheless, my proudest moments to date have been all those times where I was able to help entrepreneurs drive their companies ahead – such as introducing a portfolio company to their first client, helping bring a key team member on board, or even connecting an entrepreneur to an appropriate investor when we the company was out of our scope.
Question: What are the top services on the internet that you can’t do without?

• Netvibes – A great way to centralize my information
• Animoto – I think this represents the new generation of media creation. And being able to compile a personal video clip for friends in seconds is a lot of fun.
• Ning – This service enabled us to develop an Israeli network for Internet entrepreneurs, which has taken off with great success
• And of course two Israeli companies we’ve invested in, eSnips and Supportspace

Understanding the problem

In poor countries, banks and commercial money lenders generally charge interest rates of several hundred percent a year. As a result, borrowing money becomes a big risk and people tend to borrow for health emergencies rather than to finance a new business. In addition, access to banks in these developing countries is scarce, so earning interest from savings is often not an option.

What can you do to help?

Contributions- As we approach the holiday season, expand the present options. Sites such as Changing the present and Donors Choose (CTP was covered here in the past), suggest that your next gift to someone should be more meaningful than the J. Crew sweater you were about to buy for the holidays. Instead, they allow you to make a contribution to your charitable cause of choice. Check out CTP’s recently announced Facebook App.

Micro Lending – many of the new micro financing communities for developing countries will allow you to invest directly in someone’s business or cause.

• Kiva.org, has been described as “web 2.0 meets the Nobel Peace Prize”. Founded by a young couple following a trip to Africa, Kiva lets people loan money to an entrepreneur in the developing world using lists of relatively small loan requests (usually $2000 or less). One may wonder how these entrepreneurs in developing countries hear about these opportunities. Some of them never even heard of the internet, so Kiva partnered with local lenders affiliated with Mercy Corps.

• Interesting stats: Kiva has 131K members. Total value of all loans made through Kiva.org is about $13M. The average size of a loan is $641.

• Learn more about the organization on Kiva’s FAQ. See all business in need

  
  

• Unitus - “fights global poverty by using a venture capital model to increase access to microfinance”. Unitus finds poverty-focused and commercially sustainable microfinance institutions (MFIs) and then work with the partners to improve their processes so that they can grow incredibly quickly. There are about 10K MFIs worldwide of which 68, representing 39 countries, are members of the platform. In 2006 over 1M families transformed their lives with loans as small as one hundred dollars. See the intro video.
• Global Giving – “a marketplace of goodness”. Global Giving matches donors to doers by showcasing approximately 450 pre screened grassroots charity projects. Donations are tax deductible and guaranteed to be on the ground in less than 60 days.

Social entrepreneurship is not charity. It’s an investment – and judging by the success of these services, it has a positive ROI too.

So what’s a virtual TV Network (VTN)?

According to the stealth-mode start-up, RayV developed proprietary internet protocols forming a generic grid network, basically enabling anyone to broadcast live TV to an unlimited amount of concurrent viewers at zero cost.

In other words, the first Virtual TV Network is a secure, scalable and manageable distribution vehicle of live real-time media without the need for centralized network resources. Similar to free web TV service Joost, RayV is also requires a download. You can get the beta here.

What are the benefits for the consumer?
According to RayV’s website:

“Sure, we love the big networks – after all, they show us all the live Paris Hilton we can handle – and lots of other stuff too. We just want it at high quality on our TVs and on our PCs, anywhere in the world… and more…

We also want to watch live news channels from smaller, independent sources with correspondents around the world. We want channels of live performances from the newest bands at the University of Calcutta. And live coverage of rugby matches from England. And short-film channels from NYU Film School students. And coverage of local politics. And cooking channels for Vegans. And cooking channels for Carnivors.”

RayV is not the only one attempting to join MetaCafe and BlogTV on the list of successful Israeli Video startups. Several Israeli companies are working on IPTV solutions:

• TVdoTV – The next generation of web TV
• Koala Technogies -Developing innovative interactive systems
• And possibly boxee – still in super stealth mode

RayV was founded in January 2006 by Omer Luzzatti (CEO), Ron Zuckerman, and Oleg Levy. It has 15 employees and offices in both Tel Aviv and New York.

Source: Globes

Yaron was kind enough to answer 5 questions for VC Cafe. Without further ado, see the scoop below.

Question: In simple words, What is Outbrain?

• Yaron: Outbrain is a platform for ratings & recommendations of blog/RSS posts. In ways, it’s similar to Amazon’s “People who liked this also liked XYZ”, or Netflix ratings/recommendations, etc., just applied to blog content.

Question: What problem does Outbrain solve? How?

• Yaron: The problem we’re trying to solve is that of discovery of interesting content. The blogosphere is creating a ton of content everyday, yet there are no tools that help the readers find the most interesting content out there. In *search* mode, when I know what I’m looking for, this problem is solved by search engines. But in *discovery* mode, when I’m just looking for interesting content, there are no tools yet that help me do that.

  The best examples are the RSS aggregators – they’re great tools (I love Bloglines!), but at the same time they are completely broken because after subscribing to 10+ feeds I am completely swamped with a firehouse of content without any ability to find the good stuff.

Question: How long did it take to launch the product? What would you have done differently?

• Yaron: We’ve been working on this for about 1 year now. A lot of what we’ve done is behind the scenes and not visible… you’d be surprised how much effort it takes to create a solid ratings system that can correlate similar users and make recommendations based on that…

  One thing that I would have done differently is: We initially focused on providing individual users with a browser extension that embeds our functionality in their browser. That was a mistake, because we couldn’t get to a critical mass of data to make the product really useful (classic chicken&egg). We later decided to hold on the individual users and focus first on building a critical mass of data via blogger widgets and a free API we make available to RSS aggregators (like Bloglines). This has started proving itself with 4 RSS aggregators already embedding our API, and a few hundred bloggers signing up for our widget beta.

Question: Plans for growth? are you guys funded?

• Yaron:We’ve announced\na seed round earlier this year. You can read about it on my blog: http://www.webx0.com/2007/05/outbrain_gets_f.html
  1. We want to become the de-facto platform used for ratings of blog/RSS content. We think there is a ton of value for all players in this space to share data through a common platform. Otherwise no single player can will be able to accumulate enough meaningful data. For example – your posts may be consumed on your blog, but also via a variety of RSS aggregators, and email syndication, etc, etc. By aggregating the ratings from as many of these places where data might be consumed, we think we’ll be able to help everyone make much better reading recommendations.

  2. Our next phase will probably involve the introduction of some form of advertising based on the data we accumulate. We think there is a great opportunity to offer readers ads that are perfectly targeted to their interests based on how they rated various posts.

Question: What are the 5 services on the internet that you can’t do without?

• Yaron: Hmmmm –

1. Bloglines
2. Gmail/Gtalk/ Google Maps
3. Techmeme
4. Del.icio.us
5. Hopstop.com
6. Amazon

Outbrain was founded in Israel on June of 2006. It currently has 10 employees and it is located both in Israel and NY. Otbrain’s seed round was raised in May this year by LGiLab, GlenRock Israel, and Sigma PCM among others.

If you are blogger, you can download the voting widget here. For more information about Outbrain (including API) check out the company blog.