Israel Active

Some 333,500 tourists visited Israel in Oct 2022, the greatest number recorded since Feb 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic began, with its associated travel restrictions. In 2022, some 649,300 visitors arrived from the USA – the most popular origin.

UK retail giant Tesco has announced the opening of three autonomous stores based on the technology developed by Israeli computer vision startup Trigo (see previously). The first, on Chiswell Street London, has just opened and will shortly be joined by others in Fulham and Birmingham.

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Israeli reduced sugar fruit juice startup Better Juice (see previously) has launched its first full-capacity manufacturing plant in Israel. The Ness Ziona factory can produce 250 million liters of juice (with 80% less sugar) per year.

Israel’s Teridion (see previously) has been working with Deutsche Telekom since January, to help build a product that will connect DT’s customers via the cloud. DT has just invested $25 million in Teridion.

US real estate giant Durst has just invested in Israel’s Skyline Robotics (see previously). We soon should see Skyline’s Ozmo robots cleaning the windows of the 104-story One World Trade Center - the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere - and other skyscrapers in New York City.

Early 2023, El Al is to launch three nonstop flights a week between Tel Aviv and Dublin. They’ll connect Israel’s and Ireland’s high-tech sectors and encourage Christian pilgrimage to Israel. Many Israeli high-tech workers work at Dublin-based multinationals, serving Europe and the Middle East.

Just a month after its discovery of natural gas at its Hermes exploration well (see previously), Energean plc has discovered some 13 billion cubic meters at its Zeus-1 well off Israel’s coast. Energean also confirmed the presence of an additional 3.75 bcm at its Athena site.

Total trade in goods and services between the UK and Israel was £6.1 billion for the year to June 2022, an increase of 33.1% from the same period last year. Imports included £845 million of Israeli medicines and pharma products, to help counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to US-based consultants Sage Intacct, Israel has the most cloud computing startups per capita in the world – 8.4 per million Israelis. Over $2 billion has been invested into Israel-based cloud startups since 2017.