Israel Active

El Al has launched Taxipool - a free smartphone service that allows passengers of any airline to share taxis when they reach their destination, including in Israel. Passengers register and are matched with others on the same flight and then directed by text or email to a secure anonymous chatroom.

TAP (Transportes Aéreos Portugueses) Air Portugal has launched a direct daily flight service from Tel Aviv to Lisbon.

Seven Haredi startups (Camdoc, YieldsApp, Ideeza, Emerj, Menivim, TakeOver and LiST).will take part in Calcalist’s New York conference on April 10-12. They are all members of an accelerator program run by non-profit KamaTech, working to integrate Israel's ultra-Orthodox population into its tech industry.

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.