Latest / Israel Tech Daily / A2Z Cust2Mate closes its Hedia deal, Silentium files for a New York IPO, and Link11 sues Reblaze's sellers

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A2Z Cust2Mate closes its Hedia deal, Silentium files for a New York IPO, and Link11 sues Reblaze's sellers · Israel Tech Daily

• 0:00
  Noa: A Nasdaq-listed smart cart company has just bought one of Israel's oldest in-store advertising firms. A2Z Cust2Mate says it has completed its acquisition of Hedia, a business with about $20 million in annual revenue.
• 0:13
  Eli: And a noise-cancelling company from Nes Ziona wants to list in New York, in one of the quietest IPO markets in years.
• 0:26
  Noa: Good morning, it's Thursday, the eighth of October. I'm Noa.
• 0:30
  Eli: And I'm Eli.
• 0:31
  Noa: Today: A2Z closes its Hedia deal, Silentium files for an IPO, a German buyer takes Reblaze's former owners to court, and Google settles two Israeli privacy class actions.
• 0:43
  Noa: A2Z first. The company says it paid about $8.4 million in cash at closing, and issued 833,333 restricted shares to Hedia's sellers. The shares are locked up for as long as 36 months.
• 0:59
  Eli: Most of that cash is borrowed. According to Pulse 2.0 and Stock Titan, about $7 million will come from a term loan from a commercial bank. The sellers can also earn up to about $6.7 million more if Hedia hits targets in 2027 and 2028.
• 1:15
  Noa: Hedia was founded in 1988. It sells and runs advertising inside physical stores, from digital signage to electronic shelf labels, and its customers include Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Nike and Henkel.
• 1:29
  Eli: The logic, as A2Z tells it, is that it has the technology, smart carts with screens and shopper data, while Hedia brings the advertisers and the sales team. A2Z estimates Hedia would have added about $2.3 million a year in adjusted EBITDA.
• 1:45
  Noa: Meron Gal stays on as chief executive, and founder Ofer Gal remains chairman.
• 1:50
  Eli: Next, a rare Israeli IPO filing. Globes reports that Silentium, based in Nes Ziona, has filed a prospectus to raise about $15 million on NYSE American, at a valuation that could reach about $44 million.
• 2:05
  Noa: Silentium makes acoustic software that reduces unwanted noise inside the car. It works directly with carmakers, and says its technology is already in 1.8 million vehicles.
• 2:17
  Eli: The numbers are small. Revenue in the first half of 2026 was $1.5 million, down 44 percent, and the loss grew to $2.7 million. Since it started in 1997, the company has built up an accumulated deficit of $80.3 million, and the prospectus carries a going concern warning.
• 2:37
  Noa: And the timing is hard. Globes notes there were only 30 IPOs on Wall Street in the third quarter. Silentium has 36 employees, and ThinkEquity is the underwriter.
• 2:48
  Eli: Globes says the money would go to winning more carmakers as customers, to research and development, and to expanding into related markets.
• 2:56
  Eli: Now to court. TheMarker reports that Link11, a German cybersecurity company, is suing the former shareholders of Israeli startup Reblaze, which it bought in January 2024 for $18.5 million.
• 3:10
  Noa: Link11 alleges misrepresentation, concealment of material information and false statements, which it says it discovered only after the deal closed. It claims about $9 million in damages, in the Tel Aviv District Court.
• 3:24
  Eli: According to TheMarker, $16.5 million of the price has been paid so far, and Link11 wants to be released from paying the remaining roughly $2 million. The sellers call the claim baseless. None of the allegations has been tested in court.
• 3:39
  Noa: Google has settled two Israeli class actions over location tracking. CTech reports the Tel Aviv District Court approved the settlements on Tuesday. Google will pay about NIS 8.3 million, roughly $2.6 million, into the Class Action Fund, for privacy projects.
• 3:56
  Eli: The suits, filed in 2017 and 2022, alleged that Google kept tracking users after they had switched off location services or Location History. Google denied it, and the settlement includes no admission of liability. It also has to send users emails and show a banner explaining how it collects location data.
• 4:16
  Noa: A Google spokesperson told CTech the cases concern features that are no longer relevant.
• 4:21
  Eli: One more. CTech counts at least 20 Israeli-founded startups now working on security for AI agents, the software that acts on its own inside company systems. Seventeen have disclosed funding, about $900 million between them.
• 4:36
  Noa: CTech frames the problem this way. Security teams need to know which agents are running inside the company, what identities and permissions they use, and whether an action was taken by a person, or by an AI working through that person's account.
• 4:50
  Eli: Among the biggest, Zenity raised $125 million in a Series C in August, and Onyx Security has raised $148 million in total. Palo Alto Networks' Nikesh Arora says about 40 companies are being funded in the field, and that Palo Alto has the cash to buy the ones that win.
• 5:09
  Eli: Now the quick round-up.
• 5:10
  Noa: Square Peg has raised more than $1 billion across two new funds, Forbes Australia reports. The firm has invested in Israel since it started, and has had an office in Tel Aviv since 2014. It also profited when Nvidia bought Israeli startup Deci.
• 5:26
  Eli: Dror Davidoff, founder and chief executive of Aqua Security, joined Team8 last month as a managing partner, TheMarker has learned. The appointment has not been officially announced.
• 5:37
  Noa: Oracle is cutting another 70 jobs in Ireland, but CTech says its Israeli operation, believed to employ 400 to 500 people, has 33 open roles, many tied to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
• 5:50
  Eli: Globes warns that messages posing as Google security alerts are spreading among Israeli users, claiming a login attempt from Iran and urging people to call a support number. Some of the numbers start with 1-809, which can carry international call charges.
• 6:07
  Noa: And Quantum Machines will hold its conference in Chicago from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-eighth of October, overlapping election day in Israel. Calcalist says the company will keep Israeli staff attending to single digits, because it planned the event long before the election date was set.
• 6:23
  Noa: What to watch: Silentium's pricing. It is aiming for six to eight dollars a share under the ticker SIAI, and with so few IPOs on Wall Street, the result will show whether there is room for a small Israeli tech listing right now.
• 6:37
  Eli: Follow Israel Tech Daily wherever you get your podcasts, and read more at startuptofollow.com.
• 6:43
  Noa: See you tomorrow morning.