Israel Active

Melanie Holly Pasch of Israel’s Gloat was interviewed on ILTV about how Gloat uses Artificial Intelligence to connect skilled workers to personalized job opportunities.

I reported previously that Latin America’s largest airline, LATAM, planned direct flights from Brazil to Tel Aviv. The inaugural LATAM flight, originating in Santiago, Chile, then flew direct from Sao Paulo to Tel Aviv. Scheduled services operate Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

15 Israeli entrepreneurs and educators attended the Global Education Summit in Beijing. Chinese families demand quality education, making China the largest education market in the world. Lack of quality teachers drives Chinese investments in self-study or remote-study platforms.

Ambassador Yoram Ettinger has highlighted some positive economic indicators in his latest report. They include two multi-billion-dollar acquisitions of Israeli companies; record venture capital investments; and endorsements from HP, South Korea, China and the Economist.

Israeli startups have raised $5.7 billion in the 11 months to end Nov. This easily exceeds the $5.24 billion raised in the whole of 2017 (the previous record).

Intel Corporation will receive a $185 million grant from the Israeli government in exchange for a massive expansion of its production operations. Overall, Intel will spend an estimated $5 billion on the project, including an upgrade for its Kiryat Gat plant in southern Israel.

UK aviation giant Virgin Atlantic plans to launch a route to Tel Aviv next September. It also won the contract to transport British Eurovision fans on a special flight to Israel in May 2019. Earlier in Dec, Israeli-born Shai Weiss was named as Virgin Atlantic’s new CEO.

Israel’s Composite State of the economy index increased by another 0.3% in November.  There were significant increases in imports of inputs, also in industrial production, in retail trade and in October’s services revenue.

Swedish retail giant IKEA currently has mega stores at Netanya, Rishon Lezion, Kiriyat Ata (near Haifa) and Beersheva .  It now plans to open a fifth - in the small community of Eshtaol, near Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. The new branch is set to open in early 2020.

KPMG Fintech has chosen Israel’s Binah.ai as a technology partner, supplying its out-of-the-box, data science-based use cases to predict trends, FX rates, profits, risks etc. KPMG Global Fintech comprises professionals in more than 45 hubs around the world. (KPMG at Israeli conference.)