A July 11 networking event in Peachtree Corners highlighted nine Israeli firms developing and testing technology in Georgia, from newcomers proving the viability of smart-city devices to a decade-old brand emails against cyber attacks.
Among the investors now firmly rooted in the state are IronScales, which helps companies detect and evade phishing scams.
Now headquartered in Atlanta 10 years after its founding in Tel Aviv, the company has raised more than than $95 million in venture capital.
Another familiar face was Alpha Omega, A Nazareth-based company that has long had its U.S. operations in Alpharetta. Alpha Omega’s devices monitor brainwaves to guide surgeries and research, providing what a founder said in one of many Global Atlanta stories on the company is “like a GPS for the brain.”
Other investors with longstanding presence in Georgia include Cyber 2.0, which made waves when offering a $100,000 reward for a hacker challenge that no one has yet succeeded in claiming, and Rebillia, a subscription billing platform with offices on Holcomb Bridge Road.
Other firms don’t have headquarters here but are making use the “living laboratory” provided by Curiosity Lab in Peachtree Corners, where the event was held.
Juganu, which embeds 5G cells, sensors, AI-powered cameras and Wi-Fi devices into streetlights to improve cities’ connectivity and data collection, has outfitted the poles in the Curiosity Lab parking lot with its tech, while Intuition Robotics, which makes the Elli-Q AI-powered robotic device aimed at empowering aging adults, has a presence just across the street.
Other firms presenting included ITsimple, which helps local governments, law enforcement agencies and emergency responders more easily communicate with their communities, and Tachles, a venture capital firm with offices in Tel Aviv, Prague and Atlanta whose five portfolio companies hail from Israel. Robin Bienfait, a former Blackberry and Samsung executive serving as founder and CEO of Atlanta Tech Park, is one of the VC fund’s partners.
The presentations came as Israel is coming off its worst year for venture capital funding in a decade, with a 74 percent drop to $1.5 billion. Investors held back in 2023, first due in part to proposed judicial reforms, and then to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people and touched off the ongoing war in Gaza.
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