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Israel plans to spend NIS 100 million over five years on a national institute for hydrogen production and storage. It has also established a pilot hydrogen filling station in northern Israel and will open the first commercial hydrogen filling station for trucks next year in the Haifa Bay area.

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Israel’s is acquiring Israel’s for combining 5,000 employees.

Israeli non-profit Bikurim develops and delivers technology tools that family-run small businesses in Judea and Samaria need to grow. It subsidizes the cost of web design, helps fund marketing materials, and promotes businesses through an online directory.

Israel’s VAST Data (see previously) has opened a new center in the city of Haifa, an addition to its main development center in Tel Aviv. It seeks to recruit graduates from the North of Israel, so the new facility is located close to Haifa University.

The Kitchen (see previously), established in 2015, is Israel’s first FoodTech incubator. It now has 22 portfolio companies cooking up innovations to feed the world more efficiently, sustainably, and securely. Israel’s agri-tech knowhow is making breakthroughs on a global scale.

Tel Aviv University’s Venture Capital arm has raised another $50m (see first fund in 2018) to invest in early-stage Israeli startups. It plans to invest up to $1 million in 15-25 companies founded by Israeli entrepreneurs. All the investors from 2018 have reinvested in the new fund.

Israel is upgrading its tax-benefit program to attract Israeli high-tech workers currently living abroad, to help resolve Israel’s workforce shortage. They will pay no taxes for two years on passive income and capital gains earned outside Israel. They can also deduct expenses incurred in returning.

The rate of unemployment in Israel in the second half of November 2021 fell to 4.3% from 4.7% in the first half of November. Many of the 143,000+ job vacancies are for software developers and computer engineers.

Investments, takeovers, and stock market offerings have netted over $107 billion for Israeli tech companies so far in 2021 - over 3 times that in 2020.