Israel Active

I’ve reported previously on Israeli sensor company Anagog. Now Skoda, Volkswagen’s Czech subsidiary, is investing $1.5 million in Anagog. Porsche (Skoda’s sister company) and Daimler are already invested in Anagog.

German airline Lufthansa is starting twice-weekly flights from Munich and Frankfurt, in Germany, to Eilat, Ovda Airport, in Southern Israel, starting from 28 Oct 2018. They will be the first flights to Eilat by Lufthansa.

Up to 100,000 passengers are estimated to pass through Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport during the busiest days of July and August, according to Israel’s Ministry of Transportation. The expected total of 5.3 million summer passengers represents a 15% increase on the same period last year.

Korea’s Hyundai Motor and Israel’s Autotalks are partnering to develop the next generation V2X chipset for connected cars.  V2X (Vehicle to external systems) technology improves vehicle and road safety, mobility and is vital for autonomous driving.

I reported previously that Israel’s Cognata had built a 3D Artificial Intelligent (AI) simulation platform to test autonomous cars.  Now German car maker Audi AG is partnering with Cognata to integrate the simulator at all stages of development and production of its vehicles.

Chinese tech giant Baidu is adding Mobileye as a technology provider to its Apollo autonomous driving platform. Mobileye’s Israeli-developed Responsibility Sensitive Safety model - a set of rules for how cars minimize the chance of an accident - will be integrated into Apollo.

The fifth largest commercial bank in the US – U.S. Bank – has selected DECISION Manager from Israel’s Sapiens International to help service its mortgage customers. U.S. Bancorp has 74,000 employees and will use DECISION within its Home Mortgage group.

I reported previously that Israeli co-working real estate company Mindspace had opened business in a sixth country (the Netherlands). It didn’t take long for Mindspace to move into a seventh country – it has just leased 3 offices in Bucharest, Romania.

I reported previously about multinational bank Barclays and its financial startup accelerator. Barclays has just initiated the 3rd cycle of its RISE program, now mentoring 10 startups from Israel and overseas.

I reported previously on Israeli startup Tevva Motors and its UK-based electric trucks that use Israeli submarine technology. Auto component giant Bharat Forge has just invested $13 million in the company, aiming to bring the concept to India.