Israel Active

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.

DHL has just made its biggest Middle East investment – opening an $80 million automated processing center in Israel. It can ship 20,000 packages every hour – vital, due to the growth in Israel’s economy since the beginning of the pandemic.

Israel has awarded a total of NIS 8.6 million to six agro-tech startups engaged in ensuring the regular supply of fresh food (food security). They are , , Tosaf Compounds, ALTA drones, and .

Philippine Airlines is to launch a direct route to Israel in April and has already started selling tickets. Initially, it will operate two weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Manila. The expected flight time is about 11 and a half hours on the Airbus A350 aircraft.

US giant Nvidia, which acquired Israel’s Mellanox in 2020 for $7 billion, is to establish a new Israel-based design and engineering group. Its aim is to develop the next-gen Nvidia CPUs for powering the revolution in AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and virtual world simulations.

Israel’s Albo (see previously) has now partnered with Israel’s Taranis to help farmers in the US, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, and Australia prove they are CO2 “sinks” and can receive carbon credits. Another partner is Tembo Climate of Mauritius, which works with Sub-Saharan farmers.

Israel’s ChickP has doubled its annual production of concentrated allergen-free, non-GMO chickpea protein isolate. It has also opened a new R&D center, appointed Liat Lachish Levy as CEO, and raised $8 million of funds. It now plans to expand its marketing into the US, Europe, and Asia.