Israel Active

Elbit, one of Israel’s largest companies, is acquiring the night vision business of American technology company Harris Corporation for $350 million. The night vision unit generates annual sales of $150 million to $160 million.

Israel’s OurCrowd has launched the OurCrowd Medtech Fund. The $50m fund will focus exclusively on investing in disruptive medical technologies and therapeutics with the potential to transform global healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

A new mall at the Dead Sea offers both Israelis and tourists products at prices less the Value Added Tax amount. The cost of the rebate will be footed by the developer of the mall.  Overseas tourists will be able to claim a double discount as they can still get a VAT rebate on many items.

Nvidia’a CEO Jensen Huang celebrated his company’s takeover of Israel’s Mellanox with an event at Tel Aviv port. He declared, "One of the things I've learned about Israeli companies is that everyone wants them.”

Involvement by Japanese companies in Israel have surged recently. In 2018 Japanese firms’ investments and acquisitions relating to Israeli startups and tech firms totaled some $791 million in 28 deals.

India’s Anthill Ventures is to open a startup accelerator in Tel Aviv. Anthill has recently raised $10 million to fund the accelerator and is looking to invest up to $1 million per company in Israeli startups with the potential of successfully entering Asian markets.

Israel’s reserves of foreign exchange at the end of March stood at a new all-time-record of just over $118 billion.

Israel’s Innovation Authority (IIA) has issued grants of up to NIS 1 million to the winners of its “Grand Challenges Israel” program.  Hargol, Senecio, OKO, Soapy Care, Jacob’s Well, Amaizz, Farmster, ZZappMalaria and Sharp Mentoring have all taken on humanitarian and health challenges.

Every year, the editorial team of Red Herring magazine / news service selects the 100 most promising tech and life-sciences companies for the United States, Europe and Asia.  18 Israeli companies made the Top 100 Europe list for 2019.

China has now bypassed the U.K. as Israel's second largest export market. $2.6 billion worth of electronic components were shipped from Israel to China over the past year – 80% more than in 2017. Intel exports most of its Israel-manufactured components to China.