Israel Active

Israel-based Pangea has won a contract to supply technology to the Electoral Commission of Jamaica to support the establishment and maintenance of a biometric voter registry. Jamaica has four million voters and Pangea will help eliminate the risk of voter fraud.

Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life-Hillel is a partner in the planning and funding of Israel Tiger Trek, which is focused on Israeli entrepreneurs based in New York. It has led to startups like chef app WoodSpoon, and urban sharing platform TULU (see previously).

The large number Unicorns (private companies valued at $1 billion+) is making it difficult to identify promising stable ventures. A new term “Centaur” should be used to designate those Unicorns with an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of at least $100 million. There are 25 Israeli ones.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has slashed its predictions for global economic growth due to the Ukraine situation and the Covid-19 pandemic. But the OECD expects that Israel will maintain a healthy 4.8% growth in 2022, compared to 3% in the OECD.

Israel's sovereign wealth fund will start operating on June 1st, now that taxes on profits from natural gas and other resources have passed the 1-billion-shekel minimum. Profits from the fund will be allocated for Israel’s social, economic, and educational purposes.

Saudi Arabia has lifted its ban on Israelis entering the country on Israeli passports. Dozens of Israeli hi-tech businesspeople have since visited Riyad and Neom and have concluded two multimillion-dollar desert agriculture deals, in addition to a medical equipment contract.

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Israel’s Fundbox (see previously) is partnering with Visa to strengthen its digital payments platform. The first result of the partnership is the launch of the Fundbox Flex Visa Debit Card, which will help small business customers better manage their cash outflows.

Finnish delivery giant Wolt has opened its first Israeli grocery store in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Customers can order any of its 3,000 products on-line and pay NIS 16 for delivery or free pick-up at the store. Wolt already delivers for 2,500+ businesses to 28 Israel cities.

Wayra, the innovation arm of Spanish telecom giant Telefónica has made its first investment in Israel, by funding Upword, an AI tool that creates a summary of a much longer document. The company is also offering to provide capital and test facilities to other Israeli startups.