Israel Active

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.

As reported previously Israeli startup Wiliot’s innovative sensor uses radio waves to power IoT devices without batteries or electrical wiring.  Wiliot has just raised $20 million in funds from PepsiCo, Verizon and others.

US business magazine Fast Company named at least 14 Israeli companies in its list of 434 “Most innovative firms in 2020”. The magazine wrote that the companies “lead their fields and are transforming the world.”. Israel’s Healthy.io appeared in the overall top 50 “for diagnosing with smartphones.”

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has selected five Israeli startups for a pilot program. They are , HereO, (search for “HereO Israel”) , SoftRide and TIBA Parking Systems. SBB will invest up to $200,000 in testing their technologies.

Over the past two decades, Israeli winemakers have earned a reputation for producing some of the world’s best wines. At the International Kosher Wine Festival in Tel Aviv, Israeli vintners and their fans enjoyed a truly awe-inspiring display of wines from Samaria to the Golan.

Israeli startup Model9 Ltd. has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Intel Capital, the venture arm of chipmaker Intel. Model9 develops a cloud-based service to backup, restore, archive, and encrypt mainframe data sets and files to private or public cloud storage.

Israeli startup Nayax develops cashless payment systems for unattended machines. It has just taken over Israeli startup Modularity and its credit card payment clearing technologies for Android devices. Modularity also allows businesses to offer clients cash withdrawal services.

As reported previously, payments giant VISA partnered with Israel’s ChargeAfter – provider of software for flexible point-of-sale credit options. VISA has just expanded the partnership, giving ChargeAfter access to 16,000 issuing banks, acquirers and merchants.

Armin Laschet, minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, has opened an Economy, Science, Education, Youth and Culture office in Tel Aviv. Laschet is known as a staunch supporter of the Jewish state.

Jason Greenblatt, former Assistant to the President of the United States, and Special Representative for International Negotiations, will join Israeli Crowdfunding investing platform OurCrowd as a partner with responsibility for building ties with the Middle East region.