A trustee takes over at OpenWeb, HiBob's revenue climbs 44%, and the state owes defense firms NIS 17 billion

Noa OpenWeb, once valued at one and a half billion dollars, now has a court-appointed trustee overseeing the company.

Eli And the court filings put its debts at about a hundred and seventy-seven million shekels.

Noa Good morning, it's Monday, the fifth of October. I'm Noa.

Eli And I'm Eli. Today: a trustee for OpenWeb, what HiBob's British filing reveals, the money Israel's defense companies are waiting for, and a forty percent jump for Qtrex Quantum.

Noa We start with OpenWeb. Last week we told you a Tel Aviv court had put a temporary receiver over its Israeli assets, at its lender's request. Now, CTech reports, the Tel Aviv District Court has appointed a temporary trustee for the company itself.

Eli The trustee is lawyer Ehud Gindes. Judge Hagai Brenner said the company's financial position justified the step, but stressed it is not a ruling on OpenWeb's dispute with its main lender, Mars Growth Capital.

Noa What do the filings say it owes?

Eli About a hundred and seventy-seven and a half million shekels at the end of August, roughly $58 million. About sixty-two million shekels of that is secured debt, and about ninety-nine million is owed to general creditors and suppliers. Mars, which gave a credit line of up to $30 million, says it is owed about $20 million.

Noa And OpenWeb's account of how it got here?

Eli The company says its cash crisis deepened after Microsoft, a key customer, ended the relationship, delayed payments and demanded money back over what it called irregular traffic. OpenWeb rejects those allegations. CTech adds that a settlement with Mars, including an immediate payment of $5 million, was negotiated but never signed.

Noa Quite a fall. CTech notes the company, founded as Spot I M in 2012, raised more than $390 million and was valued at one and a half billion in 2022.

Noa Next, a rare look inside a private Israeli company. HiBob, which makes HR software, is registered in Britain, so it has to file annual accounts there. TheMarker read the twenty twenty-five report, posted last week.

Eli According to TheMarker, HiBob's revenue reached $237 million last year, up forty-four percent. That is strong growth at that size. But the paper says losses grew along with it.

Noa So is a public listing close?

Eli Not by TheMarker's reading. It says the losses leave HiBob far from an I P O by today's Wall Street standards, and its headline makes the wider point: in the A I era, even forty percent growth may not be enough to impress investors.

Noa Now defense tech. Calcalist reports that the Defense Ministry's unpaid bills to Israel's three biggest defense companies, Rafael, Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems, add up to more than seventeen billion shekels.

Eli The industry wants long, multi-year orders. A senior executive told Calcalist that mass production needs them, to buy robots and machinery, hire and train workers, and stock raw materials, while the whole world competes for the same components.

Noa Some of that production is already moving. Calcalist says Elbit has started making air-to-ground bombs under a ministry program called Blue and White, which has already absorbed several billion shekels. But officials expect any independence in munitions to take years, and to be only partial.

Eli And the budget itself is stuck. The ministry and the army want another forty billion shekels for this year. Calcalist says only fifteen billion has cleared the Knesset Finance Committee, and a multi-year increase of about four hundred billion is left for the next government.

Noa Meanwhile exports are at a record. Calcalist puts twenty twenty-five defense exports at $19.2 billion, thirty-six percent of it to Europe. Industry sources expect Europe to keep buying air defense, but they see more risk in products like drones, which buyers can get elsewhere.

Noa One more. Shares of Qtrex Quantum jumped about forty percent on Friday on Nasdaq, after a fifteen percent gain on Thursday, Globes reports.

Eli Until this spring it was Inspira Technologies, a biomedical company. Now, under the same chief executive, Dagi Ben-Noon, it makes the cryogenic connections and cooling parts that quantum processors need.

Noa The company says its product was tested by one of the quantum computing industry's leading companies, which it didn't name, and that the two are entering a binding agreement. It expects more deals this quarter.

Eli Globes notes trading volume was twenty-six times the average. Even after the jump, the company is worth about $61 million, less than it was right after the name change in May.

Noa Now the quick round-up.

Eli The Australian outlet Deepcut reports that a woman protected by a family violence order was allegedly contacted by the man named in it, after her basketball game in Ballarat was livestreamed by cameras from the Israeli company Pixellot. Pixellot did not respond to Deepcut's questions.

Noa In Toronto, the Toronto Sun says mayoral candidate Brad Bradford's campaign is defending its Victory App, campaign software whose Israeli origins have drawn criticism. His team denies it writes A I posts for supporters.

Eli Simon Leviev, the convicted fraudster known as the Tinder Swindler, told Fox News, in an interview run by the New York Post, that he will soon release a dating app called Safe Love, which he says will stop romance scams.

Noa And on Friday we told you Mattel's Ynon Kreiz will be co-CEO of the merged Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Forward now reports the combined company will simply be called Skydance.

Eli What to watch: OpenWeb's trustee has ten days to file a first report with the court, including recommendations on the company's options.

Noa That report should show whether OpenWeb is headed for a rescue plan, a sale, or something harder.

Noa That's Israel Tech Daily. If this was useful, follow the show wherever you're listening, and read our startup profiles at Startup to Follow dot com.

Eli See you tomorrow morning.