Israel seems to have been the country with the single biggest foreign contingent at TC50 with no less than 6 7 of the 50 companies presenting on stage. Some more Israeli startups could be found in the demo pit, the exhibition space and just walking around the venue floor shopping for investors, customers and partners.
Here is a round-up of the 6 Israeli companies that presented on stage:
Registered Investment Advisors (RIA’s) typically provide advice to individuals with assets of $500K and above on average. The alternative to individuals with less assets are mutual funds which lack in transparencies (what your money is invested in) and individual attention (you get to talk to customer service reps, not the fund manager). Personalria wants to change all this by bringing the same high-end advice and investment transparency “rich folks” get to “ordinary folks” with much fewer assets to invest, say $10K.
The Personalria platform requires buy-in from both users and RIA’s. Users are required to open a brokerage trading account at Ameritrade or eTrade, for example, in order to use the Personalria service. RIA’s will need to create profiles describing their education, experience, etc.
The big question is whether the company can pull off the chicken-and-the-egg challenge, meaning, getting a critical mass of users and RIA’s that make it worthwhile for each group to join. The judges on the panel also noted the challenges the company will face in customer acquisition and the density of competition, both offline and online such as Cake Financial (a company that launched at last year’s TC40).
AlfaBetic has developed a propriety language translation engine based on statistical machine translation and human QA to translate English to Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.
The service is initially being targeted at bloggers which can provide AlfaBetic an RSS feed that will then be translated and consequently monetized globally. Their engine will do most of the work, but human intervention is used to edit and proof every piece of content. The engine employs domain language templates such as technology, sports and finance. These are improved over time through machine learning and as a result of the human QA.
The company’s planned business model requires it to provide the translated content to portals and then the selling of ads against it. This will be “non-intelligent” targeting, i.e. basic demographics, sponsorship, etc.
Panel judges Om Malik & Tim O’Riley were asked whether they would use the service and indicated they would not use a translation model. Instead they would opt for a full-blown localized operation such as fr.techcrunch.com.
The story of Tweegee begins in Israel where the company is active as Tipo.co.il, a kids community site with 800K monthly uniques (out of a total population of 1.2M kids aged 8-14).
TechCrunch50 marks the company’s launch of its American play—Tweegee.com—a social network aimed at being MySpace for kids aged 8-14. Positioned as a destination site, TweeGee is intended to offer tweens a safe environment to express themselves and interact with others in their age group.
The site offers email with a feature called WordUp, a patent pending application which works in a very similar manner to T9, but attuned to the 8-14 age group with relevant blacklisted words and such. Kids can also use a calendar app, build avatars, play multiplayer games and create their Zones which are websites built on Flash and HTML.
One of the big challenges the company will face is an issue panel judge Ron Conway raised and that is how to get gain a share of the time kids are already spending online in places such as ClubPenguin. Curiously, the company is adamant about not widgetizing its offering.
Next week the company will launch a Russian version called Tvidi.ru , the result of a partnership with Russian Media company RBC which paid $6M for 50% of the license. A Turkish version is in the works.
MytTopia wants to reduce the headaches and costs associated with developing games for mobile phones by allowing developers to write code once and have it immediately ported to all available smartphones and mobile operating systems.
The company’s solution—similar to that of Mo’Minis—is a Rich Content Authoring Environment called RUGS which utilizes a customized Eclipse-based IDE. Developers can use this environment to develop any number of mobile game applications without any platform-specific knowledge such as Symbian, PlamOS, or iPhone SDK. The application designer works independently of the programmer to design the app skin & layout—the code remains the same.
MyTopia claims that a single cross-platform game developed on RUGS required one developer four weeks at a cost of $50K, while it would cost $1M using current development methods.
MyTopia is also running a game destination site called MyTopia Online which was considered a distraction by the panel of judges.
Think of devunity’s collaborative coding platform as Google Docs for code. The key pain point it is trying to solve is providing developers the ability to interact with fellow developers in real time, thereby creating a “healthier” development process which would theoretically reduce dev costs.
devunity’s fully functioning code editor currently supports Python, PHP, ASP, Javascripts, CSS, and HTML. It also sports built-in integrated APIs such as BOSS, Google Apps Engine, Digg, Flickr, Facebook, etc. The code is completely exportable, meaning, devunity does not lock you in to having them host the app.
There’s also no need to worry about versioning issues such as waiting for other developers to check-in code—devunity does all of this in real time. It also allows the developers to create discussions right on top of the code and gain additional visibility by way of a mini feed which is automatically created for each project.
The company is aiming for a two pronged business model approach. The first is a service play where developers would pay for usage based on a subscription model. The second is a white label approach where companies can form their own devunity environment. An interesting example for the latter would be to allow an outside development firm to use devunity in order to work and interact along side an in-house dev team.

plaYce believes there’s a gap between high-end and casual games, where the former is expensive and might not give you the bang for your buck you expect, and the latter being free but flat in game graphic quality.
plaYce is attempting to bridge this gap through a propriety graphics rendering technology that requires no-download yet still delivers high graphics quality and fast frame rate, right within the browser. While still restricted to IE—it requires a DirectX plugin—the company claims the technology will be applicable on other browsers and is optimized for low-end computers. It is also able to recreate dense scenarios streamed over slow web connections.
The company has no intent to develop the games itself, rather it sees itself as both platform and publisher. It intends to lure independent game developers by offering them what it calls “Game Infrastructure as a Service” which would include everything from the game infrastructure to user acquisition.
The major challenge for plaYce will be to find 2-3 killer games that will bring the critical mass of users necessary to attract game developers to the platform.
For more information on plaYce, see John Biggs’ post, here.
DemoPit Companies:
Founded by Nir Ofir, a co-founder at BlogTV, iamnews is taking a crowed-sourced approach to the newsroom. Once news tasks are created, reporters from around can contribute into them. This can include pure textual content, photos and videos. The platform handles the entire process, from task creation to management of the contributions. With the newspaper business continuing to struggle, a solution such as iamnews can help them deliver quicker news more cheaply. (Iamnews was voted the best DemoPit company, and became the last TC50 finalist to present onstage).
ConTrust provides a real-time UGC moderation platform able to identify content threats including profanity, pornography, racism and brand abuse. It is then able to block these threats according to a set of pre-defined customized levels. The company also claims their platform protects against traditional security threats such as spam, phishing, and malware.
Joongel considers itself a platform for the creation of web-based toolbars. These are toolbar “strips” in the header area of a web page that require neither download nor installation. Site publishers can use Joongel to offer a search engine aggregator or a vertical search engine for travel, video, cooking, etc. The motivation for publishers is mainly through monetization via affiliation and ad rev-share.
Update: A prominent angel investor walking the TC50 DemoPit has expressed interest in investing in the company.
Exhibitor Companies:

2Pad is a web service that integrates with your email service—currently limited to Windows Live, AOL, Gmail, MobileME and IMAP service providers—in order to mine it for pictures and videos. 2Pad then automatically tags them with the email’s subject, sender, recipient—all of which are then available as filters. The service is very similar to xoopit with the major difference being that 2Pad does not require an installation.
Delver has developed a search engine designed to uncover knowledge and information that exists in users’ social graphs. Delver is packaging themselves as both a destination site and a white label solution for intra social network search.
Payoneer provides a payment solution for web-business that utilizes MasterCard debit cards to facilitate the actual payment at the end point. While similar in concept to PayPal, Payoneer sees itself more of a complement than competition in the sense that it can bring its expertise in international payments into the PayPal ecosystem—an area PayPal is generally considered as lacking.
The company recently closed an $8M Series B round from Greylock and Carmel Ventures.
Wix offers a webtop publishing platform for the creation of Flash-based websites, social network profiles, comments and more. (Disclosure: I advised the company in the past).





That’s awesome! Israel has always been a center for engineering innovation.
yeah they’re innovative..but that doesnt mean innovation is always for good. They have innovated a million ways to kill and delete Palestine from existence
Oh shut up already. This post is about how Israel is so unbelievably technologically advanced despite having only 6 million people and being around as a country for only 60 years. Last time I checked, Palestinians are still around and bombing, which means they’re far from being deleted from existence. Go troll somewhere else.
Palestinian Arabs still innovating ways to suicide bomb themselves. How lucky they are still Arabs and not Jews !!!!! (-:
Way to go guys, always a pleasure
personally, I predict a bright future for devunity, personalRIA and Joongel
and will keep an eye on ‘em
Olivia and I explain why this is.
Yeah and did you count the number of companies from Eastern Europe? Way higher. Or the ones from the good ol USA — way higher?
Why does Israel need special treatment…not sure.
Let innovation succeed regardless of religion.
Google Fanboy- Its not religion its nationality. They do not mention religion.
Israel has 5 million people so the numbers are impressive. East-europe is not a single country let alone its population size.
Let’s save the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist comments for the KKK conference next month. Thanks douche-bag.
Let them first start-up their land and living in a settled place not in another one’s place and stop spreading corruption in this holy land..Everyone that supports them is a partner in all the corruption that is spread because of them..Just wanted to provide the fair point
I’ll invest in a startup that blocks Palestinians from trolling on the Internet. They just don’t stop. Talk about a jealous people, wow.
A Fairy Man, you sounds as the Israeli invented you. You help them to explain who are the Arabs are. Thanks.
@FanBoy: Why does Israel need special treatment? 11.5% of presenting companies are from a single, small, country. How many countries can claim a higher number? It can’t be more than 9…
It can’t be more than 7 actually, and I’m sure it’s less. I’m also quite sure that Eastern Europe won’t be there, till it gets statehood, at least.
Israelis, and I say this lovingly as one, love two things– hype and “get rich quick”.
Web 2.0 is the ultimate in “get rich quick” as you don’t need an actual functioning business- just an investor and a concept.
TechCrunch50 is the ultimate in hype. Put the two together, and you have an environment that attracts Israelis like bees to honey.
There are several real Israeli tech companies that are actually doing incredibly innovative things and have a real business plan. You won’t see those ones at TC.
Harold,
you mention “several real Israeli tech companies that are actually doing incredibly innovative things and have a real business plan”.
Can you please give their names?
“Israelis, and I say this lovingly as one, love two things– hype and “get rich quick”.”
Than speak for your self.
FYI: People who love to work with tech and websites can turn it into a business. It’s impressive that there are a lot of Israeli companies there — it shows how technologically up there Israel is, and able Israel is to be a major player in the tech and Web 2.0 arena.
To call an entire nation greedy is irresponsible. To call these websites uninnovative is ignorant.
Sure, there are lots of other Israeli tech companies out there, but are they at TC50? TechCrunch is mostly about interactive websites. If a company you know is out of that field, it’s probably not for TechCrunch. And you probably won’t see it on TechCrunch either.
That’s great. Loving the innovation.
there’s even more development in israel IT hardware . anyone know what the VC funding ratio of europe vs. israel is?
you missed a few more. that was actually 9 companies
http://ouriel.typepad.com/mybl.....i-sta.html
and you’ve missed one too Mr. Ohayon, ekko.TV is also a promising Israeli start up that participated in the Demopit this year.
Cellogic was in the DemoPit- http://www.techcrunch50.com/20.....demopit=19
Based in Israel, backed by Yossi Vardi too.
You forgot one Israeli company in the demo fit. Cellogic launced Flyscreen which puts dynamic content on the phones sleep screen when its powered down. A really simple idea that makes accesing mobile content very easy!
It’s built into their culture and customs to be empowered by their predecessors. Some of the smartest people on earth are Jewish. Congrats!
I can go on about the history of the Jewish people and how the forces of society might have “conspired” etc etc etc … yeah sure … whatever ….
Nice showing guys. Regardless of where you all are from, keep up the good work.
Israel have some real talented developers
but many unfair, radical and stupid people…Israelis think themselves as God’s chosen people, but they are now in the Holy Land because nobody wanted them in their country…Most jews are unloyal..
Find this man, follow him to his mosque, and don’t let up until his last days. A Fair Man = a dangerous man.
Oh, come on
enough with this Racism
Israelis and Jews are just like others, just with horns.
A Fairy Man, Your IslamoFascists Mullahs don’t provide your sutisfaction?
God chose the Jews to give us his bible. At least the Muslims say it too.
I think the high number of Israeli companies shows that Israel is really improving in the overall quality of web startups. Not it’s time for the next phase: Creating winners and market leaders.
http://coheda.typepad.com/isra.....b-sce.html
TechCrunch is all about a circle of “friends” that are “helping each other out”.
In the Yammer discussion the David Sacks + Peter Thiel “PayPal mafia” and its advertising on TC is mentioned correctly as the main reason for Yammer winning the competition.
Regarding the Israeli companies at TC50 there seems to be a similar phenomenon: Yossi Vardi was a TC50 judge, and at the same time he has his VC capital in at least 5 of the 7 Israeli companies mentioned. Some would call that “normal Middle-East corruption”, but since it’s happening at TC50, lets call it “the new payola”.
Get me right: I don’t say these companies are bad, and I certainly won’t deny that Israel provides an environment for certain types of innovation these days, but I will say that the “networking” involving TC and Yardi (and Thiel, Sacks and Yammer) smells bad to me. It makes the “payola” that Arrington and Calacanis called out at DEMO a better selection criterion than the unclear process at TC50.
fair man - this site seems to be run by people of a certain persuasion hence the need for this type of article to tell us how great they are and overlook the many not so great things they do
yeah i agree. techcrunch really shouldnt focus on the technological side of israel. they should post political posts and take sides in the middle-eastern conflict. yup, that sounds like a good idea for a tech blog.
Well said.
What a bunch of asinine comments by folks who have little understanding of the situation in the middle east and have probably never been to the region or have never spent time with Israelis to get a feel of the culture and people behind the headlines.
@3lance - Israel has, throughout the years, developed a wealth of engineering and innovation. Some of the things you use on a daily basis, the intel pentium (Intel’s dev labs in israel) and modern mobile phone technology (Motorola’s dev labs in israel), were all developed in Israel. Stating points about Israel’s work in the development and engineering field has nothing to do with “overlooking” the situation in the middle east - on the contrary, it’s amazing that a country with only 7 million people under constant threat are pushing themselves forward, a situation which most people have difficulty understanding and are very quick to judge based on what they hear or see on TV.
@BeFair
“God chose the Jews to give us his bible.”
And Jews killed Jesus, to proof that they don’t need it.
Come on everyone, if you guys need to fight then go somewhere else. This place is for tech only.
BeFair is what you’d call a troll.
He’s pretending to be a Jew and is calling himself superior just to get everyone else to say “what an asshole. I hate Jews”.
Or he could really be Jewish, but just a big idiot.
Besides the fact, this is a tech site. Israel is a country, not a religion. Technology has nothing to do with religion. Only an idiot would bring up religion in a post about Israeli technology.
That were Romans not Jews you need to learn some hystory as well
Replace the word “Israel” with, lets say, “France” in the whole post and you get 3 responses like “Cool..”, “Congrats” etc. instead of 37 with keywords like “corruptuion”, “unfair”, “unloyal”.
Classic.
@Ghaus
Jesus was a Jew himself- isn’t it funny that the entire Christian religion is based on worshiping a Jew?
this discussion is definitely not belonging to this site. pls, the pro & anti israelis, take your fight to another place.
I worked with a number of Israeli companies and been there a few times, it seems like the entire Tel Aviv area (I haven’t been to other parts of the country) is a big Silicone Valley. I am not at all surprised by the success of they’re Hi tech industry, I’ve never seen a place with so many talented people and so many Software\Hardware companies. I think every third car you see on the road in central tel Aviv has an Software company sticker on it, I was told a leased car is one of the benefits there if you work for an IT company.
The interesting part is that this same nation is only 20% of the population it was 70 years ago!
the rest 80% where killed murdered by the Germans which where at that time the most technological nation!
That is a win for them to be right here!