Israel Active

Intel Israel’s 13,000 employees have just received huge bonuses as recognition of their contribution to Intel Corporation’s best-ever year. Despite (or because of) the pandemic, the global demand for technical products increased Intel’s revenue by 8% in 2020 to $78 billion.

American Airlines has announced a 6th May start date for its direct flights between New York JFK and TLV Ben Gurion airports. Tickets went on sale on 25th Jan. American has also announced direct flights from Dallas, Texas and Tel Aviv starting in September.

Israel Natural Gas Lines Ltd. is to lay a new subsea pipeline to export Israeli natural gas to Egypt. The $228 million route will send as much as 7 billion cubic meters of gas annually to Egypt. Gas is expected to begin flowing down the pipeline by April 2023 at the latest.

Israel’s Liquidity Capital and Dubai’s Vault Investments have formed a joint Venture Debt Investment fund with more than $100 million based in Dubai. It will finance tech companies across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe to create new growth in the region.

Israel has been able to survive the Covid pandemic better than most OECD countries due to its hi-tech exports. Despite high unemployment, Israel’s hi-tech companies have attracted record levels of investment by both the government and global markets.

The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation is funding 8 joint US-Israeli projects a total of $7.45 million. They include lighter airline seats, smart pollination, medical micro-optics, CAD inspection, remote skin scanning and epilepsy laser treatment.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Israel’s JoyTunes (reported previously) has been downloaded some 10 million times. Its app Simply Piano is listed as one of Apple’s ‘Editor’s Choice’ in its App Store and voted Best App in Google Play.

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Swiss-based Infront, provider of business services to sport organizations FIFA, UEFA, FIBA etc., has opened an innovation laboratory in Israel. Infront Lab is partnering Israeli companies WSC Sports, Minute.ly, and Videocites and says it will invest at least $1 million in Israel.

Israeli-founded K Health (reported previously) has become popular during the Covid pandemic when people could not reach their doctors. K Health managed to solve 90% of problems remotely. K Health has just raised $132 million, valuing the company at $1.4 billion and becomes another Unicorn.