Israel Active

Israel’s Elbit has signed a $500 million contract with the US Air Force. Elbit will supply products, including cockpit displays, for Boeing's T-X advanced pilot training system, selected by the United States Air Force to replace its old training system.

Healthcare-focused VC fund Triventures has partnered Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to launch a $40 million seed-stage fund that will focus on digital health and med-tech startups. Triventures ARC’s first investment is Tel Aviv-based Lynx.MD, developer of a secure medical data platform.

I reported previously on Israel’s Metaflow and its Lumen respiratory metabolism tracking device that helps users reach fitness goals. Its runaway crowdfunding success achieved sales of 11,000 devices worth $2.3 million. Metaflow has just raised another $8.5 million.

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).