Lopes Lara grew up in Brazil and was accepted to the Bolshoi Theater School there, where she studied under an intense training regimen of up to 13 hours per day. According to reports, the atmosphere was exceptionally competitive, with sabotage attempts between dancers. After completing her studies in 2013, she danced for 9 months in Austria but chose to abandon her professional career and move to MIT, where she began a new path.

At MIT, Lopes Lara met Mansour, who became her partner. During the summer, she worked as an intern with Ray Dalio at Bridgewater, with Ken Griffin at Citadel Securities, and later at Five Rings Capital in New York – the place where, during a nighttime walk from work to the interns' apartments, the idea for the prediction platform was born.

In 2019, they presented the idea to Y Combinator, and in 2020, Kalshi became the first prediction platform to receive federal approval from the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). Just before the US presidential election in 2024, the company won a legal battle that allowed it to offer legal contracts on election outcomes for the first time – a precedent-setting move in the field.

Lopes Lara confirmed her attendance after Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli invited her through a mutual acquaintance, her pastor, Rob McCoy. The Annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, which gathers many of Israel's most passionate supporters from around the world, was set to include her this year, as she frequently fought for Israel's reputation on campuses and in media interviews.

In the election itself, Kalshi users bet more than $500 million and, according to reports, successfully predicted President Donald Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Mansour explained in one of the interviews she gave, "This is actually the best mechanism to know who's really going to win. We let the market speak instead of commentators, pollsters, or interested parties."

Growing fast, overtaking competitors, and reaching CNN's screen

Today, Kalshi presents itself as "the world's largest prediction markets company." The company's valuation is $11 billion. Lopes Lara and Mansour each hold approximately 12%, equivalent to about $1.3 billion.

Alongside business expansion, CNN recently signed an agreement that will bring real-time prediction data from Kalshi markets to the network's television, digital, and streaming broadcasts. According to publications, CNN will display a live ticker of market forecasts and allow reporters to use them during political, cultural coverage, and even weather forecasts. In doing so, Lopes Lara displaced pop star Taylor Swift, who held the title of the world's youngest self-made female billionaire.

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A new initiative aims to provide special mentoring for Slovenian startup companies looking to gain a foothold in Israel.

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Last week, the Slovenian Embassy in Israel, together with public business development organization Spirit Slovenia and the Slovene Enterprise Fund, announced the launch of a new accelerator in Israel, to be managed by Arieli Capital's ETC.

The program seeks to connect selected Slovenian startups with Israeli high-tech companies, leading industry organizations, international corporations, investors, and academic institutions.

The accelerator program, which is funded by the Slovenian government, is scheduled to run in Tel Aviv from Feb. 13-April 11, and an open call for Slovenian startups is already underway, with applications accepted until mid-January, 2022.

Slovenian startups from a variety of sectors, including healthcare, fintech, foodtech, and more, are expected to take part.

"We are excited to launch the Slovenia-Israel accelerator, which will reinforce the economic and social collaboration between the growing ecosystems of both countries. The accelerator offers Slovenian startups a unique opportunity to work in the heart of one of the world's primary high-tech hubs, the startup nation of Israel," said Or Haviv, partner and head of global innovation at Arieli Capital.

"We are confident that this strategic partnership will help to advance the Slovenian startups to the forefront of the global high-tech scene," he added.

Haviv said that many countries were increasingly interested in becoming part of Israel's startup scene. "Israel became a compelling example of a tech ecosystem producing world leading innovation. Many countries would like to learn how to build a similar model," he stressed.

Slovenian Ambassador to Israel Andreja Purkart Martinez said, "Israel and Slovenia share a lot in common."

According to Martinez, "The Slovenian economy is growing fast thanks to excellent human capital, government backed investments and cutting edge research and academic institutions. We are certain that collaborating with Israel will help Slovenia's entrepreneurial and startup industry thrive and help our talented startups expand to international markets."

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Israel's high-tech sector experienced a record year in 2021 as startups raised $25.4 billion from January to November, while 33 companies reached unicorn status with valuations of $1 billion or more, according to a report published Monday by Start-Up Nation Central (SNC).

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Compared to $10.8 billion raised in 2020, this year's figure represents a 136% increase.

"Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Israeli tech ecosystem is stronger than ever," said Avi Hasson, CEO of SNC.

"In a world where digital has become the default, Israel is a world-class source of solutions to global challenges."

Funding in Israeli startups and companies was 71% more than the global average, as shown by data compiled by the research firm Pitchbook.

"This… raises the question of whether Israel has made the transition from being the Start-Up Nation to the Scale-Up Nation," Hasson said.

Hasson also pointed out that Israeli companies were dealing with a shortage of qualified employees, with tens of thousands of high tech jobs unfilled. According to Hasson, SNC was extending a had to Israeli tech firms by launching training programs for high-tech workers and helping connect Israeli entrepreneurs to governments, corporations, and investors.

The three largest sectors in terms of funding were fintech, enterprise IT and data infrastructure, and security technologies, the SNC report said.

Israel also saw 33 privately-held technology companies join the billion-dollar club in 2021, bringing the total number of unicorns (companies valued at $1 billion or more) in the country to 53.

The new unicorns include biotech firm Immunai; robotics startup Fabric; cybersecurity startup Wiz; fintech firm Melio; and music app maker JoyTunes.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The US Treasury Department said on Sunday it will partner with Israel to combat ransomware, with the two countries launching a joint task force to address cybersecurity.

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The task force will develop a memorandum of understanding supporting information sharing related to the financial sector, including cybersecurity regulations and threat intelligence, the US Treasury Department said.

The announcement follows a virtual meeting on ransomware held at the White House in October with the European Union and more than 30 countries, including Israel.

Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo asked then for international cooperation to address the abuse of virtual currency and disrupt the ransomware business model.

Adeyemo met with Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Director-General of the National Cyber Directorate Yigal Unna, Central Bank Governor Amir Yaron, as well as local fintech and cybersecurity entrepreneurs in Israel on Sunday to establish a bilateral partnership, the department said in a statement.

The partnership follows measures taken to combat a surge in ransomware that has struck several big US companies, including an attack on the largest fuel pipeline in the United States that crippled fuel delivery for several days. A broader US-Israeli task force was also launched on Sunday to "support fintech innovation that features robust cybersecurity protections and that can advance compliance with international standards on anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and countering the financing of proliferation."

These technical exchanges, according to the US Treasury, "will examine how cyber analytics firms, as well as fintech and regtech innovators, are developing new ways to mitigate illicit finance risk and to enhance public sector analytical and enforcement activities."

In that spirit, the US Treasury also said it will participate in the CyberTech Global Tel Aviv conference in Israel in January 2022.

"Harnessing both the power of international cooperation and of technology innovation will position us to support economic competitiveness, prosperity, and to combat global threats including ransomware," said Adeyemo.

"As the global economy recovers and ransomware and other illicit finance threats present a grave challenge to Israel and the United States, increased information exchanges, joint work, and collaboration on policy, regulation, and enforcement are critical to our economic and national security objectives," he added.

A US Treasury Department report in October found that the rise of digital currencies and a decline in the use of the dollar by US adversaries mean that the US needs to take a more multilateral approach to sanctions policy.

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Earlier this month, the US Justice Department charged a Ukraine national and a Russian in one of the worst ransomware attacks against American targets.

Less than two weeks ago, the US blacklisted NSO Group – the maker of Pegasus spyware – and another Israeli company for developing spyware, banning it from receiving exports from American companies.

NSO said at the time it was dismayed "given that our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime."

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Israel's fintech sector experienced a record-breaking first half of 2021 in terms of venture capital investments, the Start-Up Nation Central nonprofit reported Tuesday.

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According to a data gathered from Start-Up Nation Central Finder, Israeli companies raised $2.3 billion in the first half, representing a staggering 260% increase over H1 2020 funding, and even surpassing the 2020 full-year total of $1.8 billion by 28%

Based on Start-Up Nation Finder insights, investments in fintech made up 19% of the total funding in Israeli innovation technology companies during H1, which amounted to $12.2 billion.

Investors' interest in Israeli fintech was also expressed in the number of the sector's funding rounds. With a total of 68 rounds halfway through the year, 2021 is already nearing the 2020 total of 74. A breakdown according to round type, shows an increase in the number of seed rounds (26 in H1 2021, compared to 18 in all of 2020) and also in the number of C+ rounds (15 in H1 2021, compared to 13 in all of 2020). This indicates that while fintech is a mature sector, new startups are continuing to emerge. When it comes to mega-rounds (investments of more than $100 million) 2021 has already seen seven companies raise nine-figure sums, compared to only five throughout all of 2020.

The first half of 2021 also indicated very strong exit momentum in the Israeli fintech sector, with seven acquisitions, one IPO, and one completed SPAC, compared to eight acquisitions and one IPO throughout all of 2020. The rise in exists can be linked to the US Federal Reserve's monetary policies, which promoted cash influx to financial markets, leading to a surge in public capital market activity.

Payment solutions are fintech's hottest ticket

Over the last two years, 70% of Israeli fintech funding was funneled into three prominent subsectors: payments, anti-fraud and insurtech. This trend has continued in 2021, with payments retaining the top spot, comprising 35% of fintech funding in H1. The demand for online payments skyrocketed during restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Companies like multi-currency mobile wallet Rapyd ($300 million Series D), eCommerce fraud prevention company Forter ($300 million Series F) and supplier payment platform Melio ($110 million Series D) were well-positioned to benefit from the shift in habits and are expected to continue to grow going forward. The first half of 2021 also saw investment growth in enterprise solutions. This new demand was largely spurred by the pandemic-induced rush for corporate innovation which created an opportunity to modernize legacy processes.

According to Start-Up Nation Central fintech analyst Nicole Krieger,"2021 has been encouraging for the Israeli fintech sector so far, with a record number of large late-stage funding rounds, notable exits, and emerging early-stage companies.

"COVID-19 drivers aside, Israeli fintech companies have grown rapidly and globally, building commercial partnerships and contributing significant technology to payments and enterprises. Tech innovation significantly upgraded legacy financial services processes. The sector now stands poised for a new era, we see a digital age emerging and are watching digital currency evolution enter a new digital age, it seems the stage could be set for subsequent fintech evolution such as the adoption of digital currencies," Krieger said.

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The Technion–Israel Institute of Technology was ranked No. 1 in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe and 15th in the world on a list published this week by CSRankings, the leading metrics-based ranking of top computer-science institutions around the world.

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In the subfield of machine learning, the Technion ranked 11th worldwide. The data used to compile the rankings is from 2016 to 2021.

An innovation for the Technion's prowess is the Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems research center, which aggregates all AI-related activities.

Currently, 46 Technion researchers are engaged in core AI research areas with more than 100 researchers in AI-related fields: health and medicine, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, industrial robotics, cybersecurity, natural language processing, FinTech, human-machine interaction, and others.

The MLIS is co-directed by two leading AI researchers: Professor Shie Mannor of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor Assaf Schuster of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science.

The center aims to establish Technion as a top-five university in the field of AI worldwide; pool resources and recruit researchers and students from Technion departments to advance and conduct joint research in the field; connect Technion researchers with relevant parties in the industry, especially tech companies and other organizations that generate Big Data; and establish close research collaboration with other prominent research institutes in the AI field in Israel and the world.

In May 2021, the Technion entered a long-term collaboration with American software giant PTC, under which the company will transfer its Haifa research campus to the Technion, to advance joint research in AI and manufacturing technology.

PTC joins several other organizations that collaborate with the Technion in these fields, including the technological universities of Lausanne (Switzerland), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Munich (Germany), and the Paris Polytechnique (France) in Europe, as well as Cornell Tech, home of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Waterloo University, and Carnegie Mellon University, which operates the largest center for AI and robotics in the United States.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Meron Capital announced today the closing of Meron II, its second $50 million fund to invest in early-stage deep-technology software startups led by Israeli entrepreneurs. The new fund will target 18-20 pre-seed and seed investments in startups that are building software-based solutions for enterprise, cybersecurity, digital health, fintech, DevOps and more.

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Meron Capital launched its inaugural fund in 2017 and has invested in 16 startups to date. Four have already made successful exits: AIOps startup Loom Systems was acquired by ServiceNow; API integration platform Reshuffle was acquired by Twitter; digital health company Clear Genetics was purchased by Invitae; and IoT startup Axonize was acquired by Planon.

In addition, 10 more have so far raised further financing with startups Immunai, Solugen and Armory alone disclosing combined investments in excess of $300 million to date.

"We see ourselves as a startup investing in startups – we are creative, scrappy and move fast," said Liron Azrielant, Managing Partner at Meron. "We share the same spirit as our founders and that's why we founded our own firm and chose to face the challenges of being an emergent in a market of incumbents."

Azrielant, who served in the IDF's elite technological Unit 8200 and then earned a BA in math and physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then went on to MIT, where she was the youngest-ever applicant accepted to the school's LGO dual-degree program, where she completed an MBA as well as an MA in computer science and electrical engineering.

She started her career as a software engineer but then moved over to the business side as a consultant, advisor and then investor at Bain, PwC and finally, Blumberg Capital. After leaving Blumberg In 2017, she and Daniel Roditi launched Meron Capital. Azrielant also manages the Young Venture Capital Forum, an education non-profit connecting over 250 young VC professionals from all firms in Israel.

Roditi was born and raised in Switzerland and started his career in finance and banking before joining a commodity trading software startup as one of the first employees. He came to Israel in 2015 to pursue an MBA at Tel Aviv University, and joined Blumberg Capital as part of their Tel Aviv-based investment team. He and Azrielant left together to build Meron Capital. At 29, he is the youngest venture capitalist in Israel to found his own fund.

In the current Israeli climate of record-breaking fundraising and exits, the Meron Capital team works with talented founders, helping them ideate their early conceptions and build out their teams.

"We don't necessarily expect our founders to be in a position yet to sell us on their idea. We will take a bet on their team, and work with them to crystallize their idea and help them approach customers, prospective employees, and later stage VC firms," explained Roditi.

What are Azrielant and Roditi looking for in startup founders? "Our typical founders are either tech superstars or an established expert in their space," says Azrielant, while Roditi adds, "The most important quality is tremendous resilience and fortitude. You have to be able to push back against negative or distracting feedback but at the same time, be perceptive and pick up on subtle criticism by experts who might be sugarcoating their true thoughts."

Meron II has already invested in four companies: LendAI, operating in the market of mortgage lending, where Meron was joined by Israel's third-largest bank; Sorbet, the first PTO clearinghouse, in a deal they closed together with Viola; Firmbase, a fintech startup in which top angels have invested; and Laminar, the first data protection platform for cloud-native applications, where they invested alongside TLV Partners and Insight Partners.

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A year into the global COVID pandemic, January 2021 turned out to be a blockbuster year for the Israeli startup scene, with Israeli startups raising a record $1.44 billion, the NGO Start-Up Nation Central reports.

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According to SNC, six start-ups raised more than $100 million each (mega rounds) during the month, totaling 73% of the amount raised Israeli firms in January. Furthermore, the mega-rounds in January 2021 alone equaled nearly 30% of the total number of mega-rounds in the entire year of 2020 (21 total).

The companies that completed the six mega-rounds announced during January 2021 are Rapyd Financial Network (Fintech), which raised  $300 million in a D Round; Drivenets (Network Infrastructure), which raised $208 million in a B Round; OwnBackup (Enterprise solutions), which raised $167.5 million in a D Round; digital health company K Health ($132 million in an E Round); E-Commerce firm Resident Home ($130 million in a B Round); and Fintech firm Melio ($110 million in a D Round).

This marks the highest number of both mega-round and general investments made during a single month in Israeli start-ups. To compared, there were three mega-rounds in January 2020, none in January 2019 or January 2018. The mega-rounds in January were led by US investors.

The analysis by SNC concluded that the January 2021 data reflected "investor confidence in Israel's innovation ecosystem curing the COVID-19 pandemic."

Director of Research at Startup Nation Central Meir Valman observed that "The record level of fundraising in recent months is driven by two effects. One is the increasing maturity of the Israeli tech ecosystem, when rapidly growing startups are able to raise much larger rounds. The other is the effect of COVID-19 on Israeli companies, which pivot rapidly to address the challenges of the pandemic, but that will also stay relevant long after it is gone."

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