Israel Active

I reported previously on the consortium of Israel’s OurCrowd, Tnuva and Tempo, plus US Finistere Ventures building a food-tech hub in Kiryat Shmona. The “Fresh Start” incubator hub has now been launched. It plans eventually to invest NIS 1 billion in over 40 advanced technology startups.

Companies are now rewarding successful employees with free trips to Jerusalem – Israel’s capital. They include some 5,000 employees of California’s World System Builder and 3,300 employees of Mexico’s Omnilife.

I continually emphasize that I don’t include politics in this newsletter. So, I was very pleased to see entrepreneur and OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved on CNN explaining how the Israeli tech sector is unaffected by the country’s current political uncertainty.

Another rare positive article on Israel from the UK’s Financial Times. It says the Israeli shekel ranks as the best performing currency, thanks to Israel’s perceived status as an emerging markets’ safe-haven and improved economic fundamentals.

A rare positive article on Israel in the Economist magazine. It gives reasons for Israeli successful innovation and entrepreneurism, including a “can do” attitude, risk taking, tolerating and overcoming failure, “disruption” (revolutionary out of the box ideas), ambition and mentoring.

Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport in August saw a record 2.8 million passengers - over 2% higher than August 2018.  July’s 2.4 million passengers was 10% more than July 2018. Meanwhile, passenger traffic between Israel and China is up over 23% this year compared to 2018.

The Pitchbook Research Institute ranks the top 50 undergraduate programs globally that produce the most VC-backed entrepreneurs. Its latest list has Tel Aviv University (8), Technion Institute (14), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (34), and Ben-Gurion University (49).

Israeli genealogy company MyHeritage has acquired Utah-based River Road Bio (RRB). This means MyHeritage inherits RRB’s SNPedia website and its Promethease DNA report analyser. SNPedia explains the effects of variations in DNA.

I reported previously on Israel’s Fieldin and its technology that reduces use of pesticides on crops. Fieldin now monitors over 1 million dunams of crops in California alone and has just raised $12 million of funds for R&D and to expand its sales and client management teams.

I reported previously on Israel’s Cheetah Medical and its systems for monitoring patients in hospital. Cheetah’s systems are now used in 400 hospitals in 30 countries.  Cheetah’s fast growth has caught the eye of Baxter International which has acquired Cheetah for at least $190 million.