Israel Active

China’s Weibo has led a $3.5 million funding round in social media startup Y-Platform, founded by Israel’s Raz and Ami Gal Or. Y-Platform’s social media accounts depict the daily lives of foreigners in China. It has 70 million subscribers on Weibo, Bilbili, Tiktok, and WeChat.

The Israeli wine industry in the Judean Hills grows literally from strength to strength . For example, Gush Etzion winery produces 100,000 bottles a year and the Judean Hills Quartet is a group of 4 boutique wineries producing top quality, award-winning wines.

Israel’s Adam Neumann was ousted last year from the WeWork co-working multi-billion-dollar company he founded. In December he returned to Israel and is still here 3 months later.  What is he doing?  This interview with his Mum is a real “eye-opener”.

Israel’s Catalyst Investments is hosting a virtual conference in early April to match investors with med-tech and biotech companies fighting the novel coronavirus. Managing Partner Edouard Cukierman believes that funding can help Israeli startups develop a breakthrough solution.

Israel’s Checkmarx is to be acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $1.15 billion. It is the largest-ever acquisition of an application security company. Checkmarx’s testing finds security flaws in major technology platforms, including Google and Samsung.

Israeli mobile X-ray startup NanoX has signed an agreement with the Gateway Group for Gateway to distribute NanoX devices across Australia, New Zealand and Norway.  It has also signed an agreement with USARAD, to deploy 3,000 NanoX systems in the US.

Israeli cybersecurity startup Deep Instinct’s success continues. It has raised another $43 million to help grow its sales and marketing team in New York, and its R&D team in Israel. There are now 10 million HP computers pre-installed with Deep Instinct’s AI security technology.

IKEA plans to open a 6th Israeli store, at Moshav Eshtaol - north of Beit Shemesh. The 25,000 square meter store will have 400 employees and serve the Jerusalem region.

Israel’s family-owned boutique gelato chain, Anita, plans to open its first New York City branch. The 1,076-square-foot branch in 2nd Ave will offer 150 flavors ranging from dairy to seasonal fruit-based sorbet to sugar-free and vegan varieties, served from huge glass vitrines.

Israel’s Mellanox is in the process of being taken over by Nvidia . But this hasn’t stopped it growing.  After record-level recent profits it has now acquired Irish network intelligence startup Titan IC Systems.