Israel Active

On 21 Jan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed on the inaugural flight to open the new Ramon International Airport 10 miles north of Eilat in southern Israel. Ramon is set to handle 2 million passengers a year in 2020, rising to 4.2 million by 2030.

Israel has been named as one of 16 global “innovation champions” by leading American trade organization Consumer Technology Association (CTA). The CTA rankings evaluate countries based on 14 categories, including freedom, broadband, entrepreneurship and resiliency.

The 2018 record $6.4 billion investment in Israeli hi-tech companies included $1.89 billion for Artificial Intelligence, $1.2 billion into Life Sciences and $1.08 billion into Cybersecurity. Significantly, the fourth quarter was the strongest with $1.82 billion investments in Israeli-linked companies.

Israel’s $110 billion global exports in 2018 broke all-time records. The 8% increase from 2017 included $16 billion to the EU, $11 billion to the USA and $10 billion to Asia.  High-tech services increased by 14 percent to a record ‎‎$51 billion.

150 top Japanese businesspeople visited Israel recently – the largest ever. They signed six deals covering cybersecurity, digital health and automotive industries. Israeli entrepreneur Ran Poliakine and Honda also announced a partnership to bring AI and digitalization to the production line.

Israeli tech firms raised a total of $6.47 billion in 623 deals in 2018 - the highest dollar amount since 2013. In the IVC Research Center report, 100 firms raised $4.1 billion of the total.

Calcalist has organized the WeTech Berlin 2019 Conference (Feb 18 – 19) focusing on innovation, tech and business ties between Germany and Israel. It will include meetings between Israeli entrepreneurs and top European executives & Venture Capitalists.

RwandAir - the national airline of Rwanda – is launching a new direct route from Rwanda’s capital Kigali, to Tel Aviv. Rwanda’s Ambassador Joseph Rotabana tweeted “Honoured to have signed the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) with the Israeli Min. of Transportation, Hon. Yisrael Katz”

Israel’s Council of Higher Education has awarded a NIS 6 million grant to Ben-Gurion University for the establishment of Yazamut 360°​, an interdisciplinary center for entrepreneurship. It will serve as a regional center of excellence for students, researchers, local entrepreneurs and the IDF.

Israeli-founded global investment platform OurCrowd showcased seven of its Israeli startup portfolio at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  A further seven of its startups showcased independently.