Israel Active

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.

Israel’s First Digital Bank (FDB), Israel’s first new bank in over 40 years has just raised $120 million in funds. It is currently operating in pilot mode, offering banking services to its 200 employees and their families. The on-line-only bank has some 60,000 people on its waiting list.

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Israel’s Noname Security (see previously) has just raised $135 million in funds at a $1 billion valuation.  Its customers include some of the world’s five largest firms, and it is actively working with 20% of the Fortune 500.

Israeli data analytics platform SQream (see previously) has acquired Israel’s no-code cloud data platform Panoply (see previously) for an estimated $60-70 million. SQream will now be able to expand its cloud offering, allowing customers to generate insights from any data environment.

Israel’s 1E Therapeutics has raised a record $120 million for an Israeli startup in the medical sector. Not much is known about 1E Therapeutics, but it is believed to be active in medicine development. It employs dozens of scientists working on an unspecified project.

Israel’s Pixellot has been included in the top 50 sports businesses in terms of innovation, according to the STA Group’s latest POWER List rankings. Pixellot was also named one of the top brands revolutionizing the sports broadcasting and OTT (Over the Top broadcast platform) industries.