Israel Active

Budget airline EasyJet is starting a new route connecting Tel Aviv and Toulouse from 29th Oct. The twice-weekly service is easyJet’s sixth destination from Tel Aviv to France and its 18th to Europe.

For the first time in 20 years, Israelis will be able to fly non-stop to the 115 islands of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Thanks to the fuel- and cost-efficient engines on its new Airbus A320neo planes, Air Seychelles will begin the six-hour, 20-minute service on 27th Nov.

The US-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) foundation is to invest another $8.2 million in 9 new joint R&D projects . Israeli startups (seven new to this newsletter) include 3PLW, Igentify, IAI, MyndYou, Netafim, Novelsat, Shamaym, Snappers and WizeCare.

Israel’s reserves of foreign currency hit another record level at the end of June of over $ 120 billion.

The New York-Israel Business Alliance has reported that the economic benefit to New York of its 500 Israeli companies is over $33 billion. They employ almost 25,000 New Yorkers. In addition, Israel’s SOSA and JVP are at the forefront of NYC’s cybersecurity initiative.

Cyber Intelligence, a subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit Systems, is to provide the Dutch National Police with a cyber intelligence system. It is part of Elbit’s Intelligence 360 suite, scalable and fits other custom requirements of the Dutch National Police.

McDonald’s Israel is launching a pilot of its “Big Vegan” burger at several branches in Tel Aviv – “the vegan capital of the world”. The hamburger is made of wheat and soybeans.

Israeli-founded TripActions has developed a business travel management service aimed at saving companies, money on their employees’ work-related trips. It has just raised $250 million of funds, valuing the company at a massive $4 billion and putting it in the world’s top 60.

Multinational consumer electronics and software company Nintendo has chosen the Dizengoff Center, Tel Aviv for its second retail store. Its first retail store opened in Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2005. Headquartered in Japan, Nintendo generated about $10 billion in net sales in 2018.

Ratings agency Moody’s and Israel cybersecurity experts Team8 are setting up a joint venture that aims to become a global standard for evaluating how vulnerable companies are to cyberattacks. It will help companies assess takeover targets and price cybersecurity insurance.