Israel Active

In addition to its recent massive contracts with and , Israel’s Elbit Systems also recently won a contract with the Swiss Army; with the Netherlands (, ) and , Romania (), UK army () and also with .

Israel’s Mesh Payments (reported previously) has developed a solution to replace business credit card transactions with an entirely card-less platform. Mesh issues virtual cards for both online and offline payments, linking with mobile wallets e.g., Apple Pay, Google Wallet etc.

Israel’s Leadspace has developed a Customer Data Platform (CDP) that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help businesses manage their customers. Its clients include Salesforce, American Express, and Zoom. It has just raised $46 million of funds including from Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP).

The skies could be open again soon. Starting in June, American Airlines will operate a 12-hour non-stop service, 3 times a week, from Miami to Tel Aviv. It follows the May start of its New York to Tel Aviv service and (later in September), its Dallas to Tel Aviv route (both reported previously).

Israel’s Big-Tech 50 R&D Partnership has launched on the TASE, raising NIS 85 million to build a portfolio of the 50 largest private Israeli tech companies. In two years, the portfolio will hold NIS 1 billion worth of shares, resembling an index, and will allow investment in those companies.

This article by newsletter supporter Zev Stub describes Israel as the Scale-Up Nation. Relatively few Israeli startups exit in takeover events, but rather expand to become billion-dollar “Unicorns” (nine new ones in the last three months). Another 80 Israeli companies are publicly traded in the US.

Caja Robotics (reported previously) is another Israeli company that learned how to adapt to the new normal during the coronavirus pandemic. It used video in recruitment and communications but despite its robotics systems, Caja focused on the human aspects of employee relations.

A recent survey by US-Israel Ground Up Ventures debunks reports that there is a drought of funds for new Israeli startups. 37 of Israel’s leading venture funds they surveyed made 145 investments at the seed stage in 2020 (rising from 112 in 2019). The average investment also rose - by 20%.

In 2020 Japanese firms invested some $1.1 billion in Israel – 20% higher than in 2019. (In 2015 it was just £87 million.) Japan now accounts for more than 11% of all foreign investment in Israeli high-tech (compared to under 2% in 2016). Mitsubishi and Sumitomo were the largest investors.

Almost every month Israel hits a new record for its reserves of foreign currency deposits. In Jan 2021 they rose by another six billion dollars to almost $180 billion. The Bank of Israel is selling Shekels to encourage exports, but the value of the shekel keeps rising due to global confidence in the Israeli economy.