Israel Active

Swiss biotech giant Roche and Israeli Venture Capital fund aMoon are to launch an early-stage investment program named “StarFinder Digital Innovation Lab.” It will support 3 Israeli Life Science startups for 3 years with annual investments, mentoring, contacts and offices.

Non-profit Ogen (reported previously) is to distribute loans backed by state guarantees, as part of a push to help businesses struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. The guarantees enable Ogen to raise additional lending funds from philanthropy, impact investors, and institutional investors.

The Israeli government’s Innovation Authority (IIA) is setting up a fund dedicated for programs that retrain unemployed workers for R&D positions in the high-tech industry. The fund consists of NIS 7 million up to end 2020 and NIS 20 million for 2021 and prioritizes underrepresented Israelis.

It may only be temporary, but Israel’s reserves of foreign currency soared by a record $10 billion in July to a record $157 billion.

Israel’s Rise.ai has been selected by Google to help businesses offer digital gift cards via their listing on Google My Business (GMB). It will help small and medium businesses to survive and even thrive during the Covid-19 crisis. Digital tools and e-commerce have proved essential during the pandemic.

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Israel’s Approve has developed technology that fully supports the enterprise procurement process, from the initial purchase request to the final payment to the supplier. The product helps finance and purchasing departments save processing time, effort and costs of purchasing.

Israeli-founded Gett (reported previously) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with UK ride-sharing company Ola Cabs. Gett’s business clients can now receive service from Ola’s 2 million drivers in 250 cities around the world.

Israel’s Teva has joined with Iceland’s Alvotech to commercialize five biosimilar product candidates in the US. Biosimilars are slightly different versions of already approved treatments. They are not the same as “generics” but require less testing than the original and are much cheaper.

Israel’s Gilat Satellite Networks has won a cellular backhaul project for Kcell, Kazakhstan's largest Mobile Network Operator. Gilat will provide connectivity starting with hundreds of rural villages as part of the “Digital Kazakhstan” government program.