Israel Active

European call center Webhelp is establishing a Tel Aviv office this year and is recruiting 500 local employees. Webhelp currently employs more than 95,000 employees in over 50 countries.

Israel is to establish a joint hi-tech investment fund with the United Arab Emirates. The binational industrial R&D fund will support requests for joint activities between Israeli and Emirati companies. Israel and the UAE will each allocate NIS 15 million per year to the fund over ten years.

New immigrants (Olim) are currently eligible for income-tax deductions for up to three and a half years. A new bill going through the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) will add NIS 223 per month to the amount that Olim can earn before tax and extend its validity to four and a half years.

Israel’s Amdocs reported record revenue totaling $1.1 billion in the last quarter of 2021, 11% higher than Q4 2020. It has also given its 29,000 employees a flexible vacation model that means they can take an unlimited number of vacation days.

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.