Monthly Archives: November 2019

Soccer stars arrive.

Terrorist rockets and threats didn’t deter the Polish soccer team from playing their Euro 2020 qualification match in Israel last week. The were rewarded with a victory.  And then the Argentinian national team (including Lionel Messi) played an international friendly … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Entertainment & Sport | Leave a comment

Things to do in Israel in December

December 2019 in Israel offers a great selection of events and festivals for all tastes, ranging from major cultural festivals to folk music festivals, and from comedy tours, to concerts. https://www.touristisrael.com/things-to-do-in-israel-in-december/

Posted in Culture, Entertainment & Sport | Leave a comment

New Israeli stamps

New Israeli stamps issued in November feature Israeli-invented board games Rummikub and Taki, Ethiopian-Israeli Jews’ Sigd festival and Weizmann Institute’s 70th anniversary. https://jr.co.il/stamps/index-2019.html

Posted in Culture, Entertainment & Sport | Leave a comment

Digitizing 120,000 books

The “People of the Book” are aptly named. The National Library of Israel is working with Google to digitize 120,000 books from its extensive collection of Jewish texts and upload them to the internet for public use. 20,000 rare and … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Entertainment & Sport | Leave a comment

Third quarter growth exceeds forecasts

Israel’s GDP grew at 4.1% in the third quarter of 2019, far in excess of the market’s 2.6-2.8% expectations, according to an initial estimate published by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The unexpected result indicates that economic growth is stronger … Continue reading

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment

Helping banks prevent fraud

As reported previously, (see here) Israel’s BioCatch is used to prevent fraud by top UK bank Nat West and seven tier-one banks in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. This WSJ article reveals that the Royal Bank of Scotland also uses … Continue reading

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment

One of Israel’s biggest cheerleaders

Excellent bio and interview of Jon Medved – Founder and CEO of Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd. He reveals that Israel is almost neck and neck with China in terms of an absolute number of AI (Artificial Intelligent) startups. https://www.redherring.com/asia/ai-goes-beyond-algorithmic-brilliance-ourcrowd-ceo-jon-medved/

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment

Frog becomes a Prince

Israel’s Netanya-based software startup JFrog has been reported (here) several times, but not when it raised $165 million last year. That transaction valued the company at $1 billion to award it the financial term “Unicorn”. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3772476,00.html

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment

ECI Telecom exits for around $455 million

US-based Ribbon Communications is to acquire Israel-based telecommunications equipment supplier ECI Telecom for $324 million in cash plus shares worth another $130 million. ECI was founded in 1961. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3773770,00.html

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment

A million new potential crowdfunding customers

Israeli venture capital crowdfunding platform OurCrowd is partnering with US investment bank Stifel Financial Corp.  OurCrowd will offer crowdfunding opportunities to Stifel’s one million clients. Stifel will provide investment services to OurCrowd portfolio companies. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-us-investment-bank-stifel-invests-in-ourcrowd-1001304038

Posted in Economy & Business | Leave a comment