Israel Active

A new natural gas reservoir has recently been discovered at the Athena exploration well off Israel’s coast. It will provide another 58 billion cubic meters of natural gas, giving another significant boost to Israel’s rapidly developing energy industry.

Israeli NGO Terra is partnering the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) to rehabilitate Israel’s wetlands by re-wilding many of its fishponds. It has major environmental and business benefits, creating a nature-based, carbon removal credit project, saving wild fowl and financing kibbutzim.

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Israel’s has acquired Israel’s for .

Israel’s CyberArk (see previously) is so big (valued at $4 billion) that it can afford to launch its own cybersecurity investment fund. CyberArk Ventures is to invest $30 million in early-stage cyber startups and already has funded , and .

Israel’s YL Ventures has just launched a $400 million fund – YLV V, bringing its total capital under management to $800 million. The new fund is the largest cybersecurity-focused Seed stage fund ever raised. Of YLV’s 25 startups since 2007, 11 have exited and 13 are still active.

Israel’s Wilk (formerly Biomilk – see previously) has received a US patent for its animal-free cultured milk and cell-based infant formula. The processes are based on a decade of proprietary research by Dr. Nurit Argov-Argaman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Some American Jewish tech workers won’t ever return to their US office. Instead, thanks to the new flexible policy that many firms have employed because of Covid-19, they’ve moved to Israel. Even a Facebook Vice President is among those taking the plunge.

Yeruham and its first woman mayor (see previously) are keen to put the once neglected Negev town on the hospitality map. One of the initiatives is Culinary Queens in which non-profit Atid BaMidbar (Future of the desert) empowers women to run home-based food businesses.

The Amir Center in Jerusalem’s King George St, dubbed “the ugliest building in the city”, is set for demolition later this year. Innovative when built in 1961, the prize-winning design integrated prefabricated building parts, allowing an entire floor to be finished in a day.