Governor Perdue Announces Two Additional Business Agreements Between Georgia and Israel

ClickFox to expand in Israel, Veritas Venture to Invest in Atlanta Start-up

TEL AVIV , ISRAEL – Governor Sonny Perdue made two more business announcements today, further cementing the strong relationship between the state of Georgia and Israel .

Atlanta-based ClickFox, the premier provider of customer behavior intelligence software that models and analyzes customers' step-by-step actions in self-service environments, announced the opening of a major research center in Kfar Saba , Israel .

“ClickFox is an Israeli-Georgia success story.  This home grown technology company has seen extensive growth, and I am pleased that it will expand into Israel , strengthening Georgia 's business community roots in the region,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.

ClickFox timed the opening of its Israeli facility to coincide with Georgia Technology and Trade Mission to Israel .  Tal Cohen, president and co-founder of ClickFox, is a delegate on the mission, which is being led this week by Governor Perdue.

“We are very excited that our recent growth has enabled us to expand our operations to take advantage of the excellent technology talent pool in Israel .  This move helps us to accelerate our research and development plans, which will allow us to proactively meet and exceed the requirements of our rapidly growing customer base,” said Cohen.

ClickFox, a software company founded by Georgia Tech researchers, has patented technology that enables companies to transform existing customer data into true, objective insight by showing customers' step-by-step behavior within self-service systems, such as voice and speech-enabled IVRs, web, kiosks and CRM applications.  ClickFox translates interactions from multiple service touch points into an intuitive, visual map, revealing quickly and easily what customers actually do and why, so that companies can align customer needs to their business objectives.

Governor Perdue also announced that Isreal-based Veritas Venture Partners, which has an office in Alpharetta, has agreed to invest in Asankya, a company that is commercializing innovative network technology developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Joining Veritas in the investment were the Seraph Group, an Atlanta-based venture fund, and Steve W. Chaddick, a Georgia Tech alumnus and co-founder of CIENA.

“We are delighted to have funds like Veritas, which is based in Israel , making investments in start-ups created in Georgia .  This is another indication of the strength of our state's research institutions and provides further momentum for Georgia 's growing reputation as a high-tech region,” said Governor Perdue.

“Asankya is a great example of how Georgia is fostering truly breakthrough technology – invented by Georgia Tech faculty, funded by Georgia grants, commercialized by Georgia Tech's VentureLab, and incubated by the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC),” said Laurence Olivier, Atlanta-based partner of Veritas Venture Partners, who is attending the trade mission as a delegate from Georgia .  “And now, it has attracted money and expertise from Israel to help grow the business.”

Asankya's patent-pending technology allows network devices to concurrently use multiple paths in a wide-area network (WAN), which enables a new area of networking known as “grid networking.”

“Grid networking does for networks what grid computing does for computers,” explained Scott Ryan, co-founder and CEO of the company.  “At the finest granularity, we are able to dynamically monitor and use network paths – even if they are available only for a split second.”

Today marked the second full day of the Georgia Technology and Trade Mission to Israel .  The announcements were made at a dinner hosted by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones.  In addition to the dinner with the Ambassador, Governor Perdue today visited the Agricultural Research Organization and Institute of Veterinary Science at the Volcani Center in Beit Dagan.  The Governor also today had meetings with several Israeli government officials, including the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Israel trade mission is Governor Perdue's eighth mission since January 2003, and his first to the Middle East .  He has a full week of business and diplomatic meetings scheduled, including a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday.