Israeli security companies attracting VC investment

ZICHRON YAACOV, Israel — Israeli exports of homeland security equipment have grown at an annul rate of 22 percent since 2002, reaching $300 million in 2005. As a result, Israeli security start-up companies are attracting larger sums of international venture capital.

Scent Detection Technologies (SDT) recently completed a Series A $5 million round of financing from Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital. Its $2.5 million seed capital came from state-owned Israel Military Industries.

The company has developed a low-cost trace detection sensor and mobile hand-held sniffing devices. The first product, the Mini-Nose explosives trace detector, will launch the second quarter of 2006. Mini-Nose is a portable, highly sensitive, non-invasive trace and particle detector for aviation security, military, police, border-control, mass transit, prisons, and ports.

Biometrics security company IDesia, has raised $3 million in investment capital from French based Partech International. The firm expects to accelerate the development of IDesia's biometric identification technology, which leverages the body's natural Bio-Dynamic Signature (BDS).

IDesia's BDS technology is based on unique electro-bio signatures that can be used to accurately individuals. Unlike biometric technologies that use pictures or static bio-signals for identification, BDS relies on electro-biometric dynamic signals acquired by touching a small conductive or metal surface.

Another company, Jerusalem-based Camero Technologies, has developed a system using FCC compliant micro-power Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) signals to see through any type of wall, including steel-enforced concrete walls. Camero has received $6.6 million from Jerusalem Global Ventures, and Motorola Ventures, the venture capital arm of Motorola Inc.

The ultra-wideband (UWB) technology produces high-resolution, 3-D pictures of the space behind a wall from a distance of up to 20 meters. The device calculates the distance and orientation of moving or inanimate objects on the other side in real time.

The image is displayed to the user in an intuitive way and can be presented in a real-time mode or still mode.