Israel Active

Israel’s Ministry of Education has approved an enrichment program called Entrepreneurship for Kids (EFK). Developed by Israeli serial entrepreneur Galit Zamler, EFK is a fun way to introduce children of all ages to entrepreneurial skills, while finding and fostering their personal strengths.

Israeli companies are benefiting from the increasing demand in Asia for financial technology. Israeli exhibitors at the Hong Kong FinTech Week conference included AU10TIX , and ThetaRay .

US cybersecurity giant Symantec Corp has made its third Israeli cybersecurity acquisition in a year, adding Javelin Networks to its recent purchases of Israel’s Skycure ($275 million) and Fireglass ($250 million). Javelin now plans to double the size of its R&D center in Tel Aviv.

Israeli startup Sweet Inn uses “TravelTech” to offer its clientele an innovative and hassle-free vacation experience. It offers guests airport transfer, grocery and breakfast delivery, a personal chef, romantic surprises, housekeeping, wifi hotspots and more.

UK image products giant Vitec Group has acquired its Israeli chipmaker supplier Amimon in a $55 million cash deal. Vitec’s CEO said, “Amimon is the technology of choice for wireless equipment used in the cine market” and Vitec will integrate the company into its creative solutions division.

In contrast to recent big takeovers of Israeli companies, Israeli cybersecurity company ForeScout has just bought US-Netherlands security company SecurityMatters for $113 million.  SecurityMatters provides extended enterprise operational technology (OT) network protection.

Hyundai Motors has made a strategic investment in Israeli computer vision deep learning startup allegro.ai that will allow more rapid deployment of Artificial Intelligent technology in many business areas and improve the quality of Hyundai’s products.

Israel’s Krausz Industries have been connecting and repairing water pipes for about 90 years with millions of installations globally. Krausz has just been acquired by Atlanta’s Mueller Water Products for $140 million.

I’ve reported previously on co-working office space company WeWork, co-founded by Israel’s Adam Neumann. WeWork has just received a $3 billion investment from SoftBank which takes the value of WeWork to a massive $42 billion (up from $20 billion in June).

October 2018 was the best month ever for Israeli tourism, with close to half a million people entering the country. It was a 14% increase on Oct 2017 and the total number of visitors for the ten months of 2018 is 15% higher than for the same period last year.