KitLocate is a
startup company
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...
headquartered in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, delivering location-based technology solutions for
smartphones. Focused on geo-tracking and mobile search results dependent on location, KitLocate's platform delivers low-power
geolocation
Geopositioning, also known as geotracking, geolocalization, geolocating, geolocation, or geoposition fixing, is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object.
Geopositioning yields a set of geographic coordinates ...
technology for mobile devices.
History
KitLocate was founded in 2011 by Omri Moran, Yoav Cafri and Ron Miller. In November 2012, the founders joined the 7th wave of
‘The Junction’, the collaborative startups accelerator program, backed by
Genesis Partners
Genesis Partners is an Israeli venture capital firm, founded in 1996 by Eddy Shalev and Eyal Kishon.
Overview
Genesis Partners investment strategy is focused on early-stage Israeli innovation-driven technology companies. The company invests in c ...
; they then launched a pilot product for Pango and procured their first customer:
Isracard
Isracard ( he, ישראכרט) is an State of Israel, Israeli company that is made up of four different companies: Isracard LTD, Europay LTD, Aminit LTD and American Express Israel, which offers financial services – including credit card issu ...
.
After working with The Junction, KitLocate joined a four-month accelerator program: Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Program in Herzlyia and as a direct result, were acquired by
Yandex
Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...
(YNDX: NASDAQ) on March 18, 2014.
KitLocate team members joined the Yandex mobile search team located at KitLocate's offices, which is earmarked to become the new Yandex
R&D facility in ‘
Silicon Wadi
Silicon Wadi ( he, סִילִיקוֹן וְאֵדֵי, ) is a region in Israel that serves as one of the global centres for advanced technology. It spans the Israeli coastal plain, and is cited as among the reasons why the country has ...
’ in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
.
Omri Moran performs the role of GM for Yandex Israel R&D.
Awards and recognition
In 2012, KitLocate won the first ever Israel Advanced Technology Industries and
MasterCard Israel Technology Award.
[{{Cite web, url = http://www.haaretz.com/business/start-up-kitlocate-wins-technology-award-1.491383, title = Start-up KitLocate wins technology award, date = January 2, 2013, accessdate = , website = Ha'aretz, publisher = , last = Orpaz, first = Inbal] With prize money of $25,000, KitLocate was accepted into ‘The Junction' Acceleration program.
References
2011 establishments in Israel
Software companies of Israel