Israel Active

The prestigious American investment bank Jefferies is setting up an Israeli branch due to the recent the sharp rise in local activity – the most since the 1980s. Jefferies is currently working on seven deals and expects, by September, to bring 20 private funds to Israel.

Israel’s $200+ million trade with the UAE in May represents a 130% increase on May 2021. Trade with Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Bahrain also leaped by huge percentages.

The UAE’s largest airline Emirates made its first scheduled passenger flight to the Jewish state. 335 passengers flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv on a Boeing 777 “Gamechanger,” which, according to Emirates, features the world’s only fully enclosed first-class private suites with virtual windows.

Israel’s Central Bottling Company (CBC - a.k.a. “Coca-Cola Israel”) has signed a 10-year agreement with Israel’s leading cultured milk production company Remilk.  CBC subsidiary Tara Dairy will use Remilk’s proteins to manufacture and market no-cow yogurts, cheeses etc.

The Bank of Israel has published the outline and main insights from its first technological experiment of the digital shekel project.  The BoI reported that it had established distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure on the cloud and applied a Quorum blockchain based on Ethereum open-source platform.

Just over three decades after the Madrid Peace Conference, the city hosted the first Madrid and The New Middle East Business Summit. It comprised some 200 business delegates, who came to promote investment and trade relations between the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Spain.

The Israeli government has approved the implementation of a NIS 3 billion program to promote innovation in climate-tech. Its 5-year plan aims to double the number of startups in this area to 100 and vastly expand the number of related venture capital funds.

Reichman University in Herzliya is setting up a venture capital fund that will invest mostly in startups founded by its graduates. Investors have already committed $30 million, to be allocated to pre-Seed and Seed investments in startups founded by students, even during their studies.

Tal Tauber Gottesdiner is the founder of HaShizra (The Stem), a community that empowers women in the Israeli wine, culinary and spirit industries. Over 260 women joined HaShizra in its first year and it now has over 900 members. HaShizra events are open to both women and men.

Japanese construction and mining giant Komatsu has signed a partnership agreement with Israeli AI construction safety startup INTSITE (see previously). INTSITE’s technology helps prevent accidents and improves efficiency by identifying anomalies and bottlenecks during mining work.