Israel Active

A group of Israeli techies has founded the Hula Valley - Community of Entrepreneurs in the Eastern Galilee. Playing on the (Silicon) Valley name, they want investors, tech firms and entrepreneurs to move to northern Israel, which they say is full of untapped opportunities and talent.

Israeli tech and recruitment companies use innovative ways to attract hi-tech talent. Intel has comedy nights for candidates and issues raffle tickets with prizes of drones, computers and processors. Lightricks distributed thousands of coasters in popular bars. SQLink even holds singles events.

I reported previously on the smart road technology of Israeli startup Velerann. Its platform is now being used by Highways England and by Transurban in the US and Australia. It is also working with Bosch, Jaguar and Land Rover.

I reported previously on Israel’s Innoviz and its all-seeing LiDAR sensors. Innoviz has just launched new offices in the US, China, Japan, and Germany plus a new Israeli HQ. In June, Innoviz partnered with China’s HiRain Technologies to sell to Chinese automakers.

Israeli solar systems company SolarEdge Technologies is buying Italian industrial machinery company SMRE.  SMRE manufactures integrated powertrain technology and electronics for electric vehicles. It is part of SolarEdge’s plans to expand into electric vehicles.

Two of the four founders of multi-billion-dollar Elastic are Israel’s Shay Banon and Uri Boness. They founded their Elasticsearch open source search and analytics engine in the Netherlands and then moved its HQ to the USA.  It now operates in 35 countries and is opening an Israeli subsidiary.

The Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) foundation announced it is investing $6 million into seven joint clean-energy projects between Israeli and American companies and another $7.3 million into eight joint innovation projects.

I reported previously on Israel’s NowForce and its life-saving mobile apps for emergency response. NowForce has just been acquired by US business intelligence and cybersecurity company Verint Systems.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has acquired Israeli cloud computing start-up CloudEndure for around $200-$250 million. Amazon stated, “this acquisition expands our ability to deliver innovative and flexible migration, backup, and disaster recovery solutions."

Via Transportation’s Israeli founders came up with their start-up idea in an Israeli mini bus taxi van. They now operate their ride-sharing service in 11 countries and are confident they can succeed on Israel’s roads. Passengers request a ride and Via’s algorithms calculate the best route for each van.