Israel Active

The Israel Innovation Authority has allocated $50 million for setting up innovation incubators to encourage local entrepreneurship in Israel’s rural areas. The incubators in Israel’s periphery will provide workspace, support from academic institutes, mentors and links to investors and clients.

Israel’s reserves of foreign currency increased by half a billion dollars during April to another new record of $118.7 billion.

The European Investment Bank, as part of Horizon 2020, is offering credit enhancement services and financing under favorable terms to Israel companies. The agreement was initiated by Israel’s Peninsula Growth Fund to assist medium-sized Israeli companies.

The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for March increased by nearly 0.3 percent. Highlights were Goods exports, Goods imports and Industrial production.

Greek energy producer Energean has discovered a new significant natural gas reserve off Israel’s coast. Preliminary estimates of the latest discovery in the Karish North exploration field is 28 to 42 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas.

I’ve reported previously on Israel’s StoreDot which develops fast-charging batteries for phones, computers and vehicles. It is now partnering with Japan’s Nissan Chemical Industries to improve the technology and bring it to mass production

Via Transportation, in partnership with Israeli public transportation company Dan, has launched “Bubble”, its new on-demand 10-seater shuttle van service in Tel Aviv. Passengers order rides through a designated app that automatically devises a route to best suit the needs of all passengers.

I reported previously on Skoda’s love affair with Israel including (in December) that it was working with five Israeli startups. Now Skoda’s Digilab has teamed up with 13 Israeli startups focusing on big data, AI, cybersecurity and vehicle sensors.

I reported previously when Israel’s Hype Sports Foundation encouraged new apps for the 2016 Olympics. With 40,000 members, HYPE Sports Innovation is the largest, global ecosystem in sports innovation. HYPE has just launched an accelerator for Blockchain tech startups.

Israeli IT cloud services and software company Samanage has been acquired by US IT management company SolarWinds Worldwide - service providers to more than 300,000 companies and organization. It is SolarWinds first Israeli acquisition. Samanage’s 2,000 customers include IKEA and 3M.