15 Israeli Internet companies are heading to Silicon Valley tomorrow for the second Israel Web Tour. The goal of the tour is to present their products to the world's top Internet companies, venture capitalists, private investors, strategic partners, and entrepreneurs. This is a critical stage for the start-ups, which will determine whether they will raise enough capital to continue development, or go into suspended animation until money can be raised from other sources.
The 15 start-ups were chosen from 90 candidates. The Israel Web Tour is organized by the California Israel Chamber of Commerce
Qoof Ltd. is an Internet video commerce company that aims to take YouTube one step further. Qoof's video commerce platform is the convergence of the online Internet shopping world with Internet video, helping an infinite number of companies cost-effectively sell more products and services and reach new customers by harnessing the scalability, decentralization and power of syndicated Internet video. Large companies with an Internet presence can use Qoof's technology to make online video advertisements, which will replace the banner and be surrounded by information regarding the product, which can be purchased with a single click on the hotspot.
Qoof also provides a second distribution channel based on social networking. A surfer can recommend the products to friends in exchange for a commission if the friend makes the purchase.
Beit Shemesh-based Qoof was founded by CEO Richard Kligman in March 2007. It has raised $550,000 to date from private investors, and is now in the midst of a $1.8 million financing round, or which it has already raised half. The company expects to close the round in a few days.
Qoof COO Hillel Scheinfeld said, "Qoof provides a platform and solution that exploits both the Internet video world and the online marketplace in order to help the meteoric growth of the Internet video market for commercial purposes as well as entertainment."
AllofMe Ltd., founded in May 2007, has nine employees. Investors include Yossi Vardi and Shlomo Nehama, and the company is about to raise capital from private investors. The company is a one-step website for aggregating and managing personal digital assets (virtually any digital file, such as pictures, videos, Internet pages, or email messages). The assets appear online on a Timeline, zoomable from century to a day in a life.
Other participants in the tour are Journeys Ltd., NuConomy Inc., Click Tale, BlogTV Ltd., Sportlingo Ltd., PicScout Inc., Velingo Ltd., 8Hands Ltd., Delver Ltd., PageOnce Ltd., Erayo Ltd., PLYmedia Inc., and 5min Ltd.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 3, 2008
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