Israel Active

. The recent $196.5 million funding round in US-Israeli cyber startup Snyk (see previously) was led by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of a Gulf country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.

The Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit (Jan 19-21) in Austin Texas is celebrating “Israel. Together”. It also marks Israel’s 75th Birthday, and will host the Israel America Business Playground, bringing together Israeli and American business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators.

Jerusalem is set to extend fast train services to and from Tel Aviv into the capital with plans to deliver two more stations in central Jerusalem. They will extend the link from Jerusalem’s Navon station firstly to King George Street and then finally on to the Khan Theater.

The Israel Innovation Authority is investing NIS 150 million in three new tech consortiums. Integrated silicon photonics (4 companies already selected), metamaterials and meta-surfaces (8 companies), and black soldier fly farming for animal feeds and breaking down organic waste.

Israir Airlines will start operating five flights a week from Israel to Istanbul starting this Monday, after 15 years in which Israeli airlines did not fly to Turkiye. Istanbul is one of the most attractive destinations among Israelis who enjoy the short flight, hotels, entertainment, and shops.  

Home-building in Israel jumped by 15.6% between Oct 2021 and Sep 2022, with over 70,000 housing starts recorded – the highest for four years. 50,000 apartments were completed in the same period, up 4% on the previous year.

As reported previously, a new Free Trade Agreement with (South) Korea came into effect on 5th Dec 2022. This article lists many of the benefits for Israeli imports and exports.

Israel’s Orca Security (see previously) has been chosen as Amazon Web Services’ global security partner of the year for 2022 in recognition of its contribution to the web giant’s cloud computing platform and its customers.

French water company CAPI is employing Israel’s Kando (see previously) to implement smart wastewater data management for 22 municipalities serving 100,000+ customers in south-east France.

Israel’s Wasteless (see previously) is rolling out its dynamic pricing systems across 70 Hoogvliet stores in the Netherlands. The Wasteless algorithm will automatically update prices on the shelf, within Hoogvliet’s store operations app, and at the checkout.