Israel Active

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Israel’s rate of unemployment fell to 4.1% in December from 4.6% in November, as the economy continued to recover from the Covid crisis.  There was a continuing rise in the number of job vacancies, with salaries also on the rise.

Israeli startups raised a total of $2.1 billion in Jan 2020. And the UAE has just confirmed it is to invest $10 billion in Israeli companies. It includes the ADG (Abu Dhabi Growth) Fund which plans to invest $200 million in Israeli companies each year for 10 years.

Israeli cybersecurity firms raised a record $8.8b in 2021, eclipsing the $2.9 billion raised in 2020. Meanwhile, Israeli Export Institute estimated Israeli cybersecurity exports at $11 billion in 2021. Israel’s cyber directorate stated that a third of all cybersecurity unicorns in the world was now Israeli.

Israel’s Trigo Vision (see previously) has launched a pilot of its checkout-free shopping technology with Wakefern Food Corp, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States. Shoppers will be able to fill their carts with groceries and then just walk out of the New Jersey store.

Tel Aviv has given approval for the construction of the Spiral Tower (see and previously). The 91-floor 350-meter-high skyscraper will be Israel’s 2nd tallest. Its 150,000 sq meters of space is equal to the combined total of the three existing towers on the site of Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Mall.

Israeli cybersecurity giant has bought Israel’s for $60 million. Check Point will use Spectral’s security tools to extend its cloud solution, Check Point CloudGuard. Meanwhile Israeli-founded is acquiring Israel’s for $80 million.

Two puns for the price of one, as Israel’s Rapyd (see previously) has completed the acquisition of Hong Kong-based NEAT, a cross-border trade-enabling platform for SMBs (Small/Medium Businesses) and startups. It will help expand Rapyd’s Fintech-as-a-Service business.

Lane Bess is the new chairperson of Israeli cybersecurity Sepio (see previously). Together with his son Cameron, they are the only parent/child duo to go to space, having taken an 11-minute flight aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin ship in December.

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Israeli venture capital firm Viola has just published its report “Israel Tech Ecosystem 2021: Breaking Records in a Record-Breaking Year”. It highlights that the $8.1 billion of funding in startups in the last 3 months of 2021 was the highest investment quarter of all time.