Israel Active

Credit Suisse is injecting $250 million into Israeli life-sciences Venture Capital fund aMoonII. The fund invests in mid- to late-stage life science companies in the field of digital health and bio-techs that operate in Israel, the US and Europe.

Israel’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in March - a new record. Exports of services in Feb 2018 totaled $4.2 billion - 6.9% higher than January. Exports of services by the high-tech sector totaled $2.2 billion in February - 7.3% more than in January.

Israeli flavors and fine products company Frutarom has been taking over similar businesses all over the world for several years .  However, it has now been swallowed up by the mighty US Flavors & Fragrances Inc (IFF) for a whopping $7.1 billion – the second largest Israeli exit ever.

Although it hasn’t confirmed its Israeli operations, Amazon has assembled a temporary modular office for 300 workers in Haifa’s MATAM business park while a 12,000 sqm building is being built nearby. It has also leased space in Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Sarona Tower and is hiring Hebrew translators.

Hungarian airline Wizz Air is to operate a new route from Sibiu in Romania to Tel Aviv starting July 14. Wizz Air already operates direct flights to Israel from Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Craiova, and Iasi.  79,000 tourists visited Israel from Romania in 2017.

I’ve reported previously on Israel’s BriefCam and its innovative video content analytics platform. BriefCam has just been bought by Japanese giant Canon Inc. to help it expand its video technology and solutions to global customers and partners.

181 Israeli startups raised $1.52 billion in the first quarter of 2018 – 50% more than in the first quarter of 2017.  The upward trend continued in April.

Israel welcomed 949,000 tourists in the first 3 months of 2018 – up 29% on the same quarter of 2017. March’s year-on-year increase was 34%, with the biggest increases from Poland (136%), Sweden (90%), Spain (68%), Germany (55%) and France (49%).

I reported previously on Israel’s Innoviz and its LiDAR (Light detection and ranging) sensors for autonomous vehicles. Now BMW is to employ Innoviz sensors in its upcoming autonomous vehicle production platforms. BMW aims to launch self-driving cars by 2021.

Hainan Airlines is to begin a direct route to Tel Aviv from the Chinese city of Guangzhou. The airline already flies direct from Tel Aviv to both Beijing and Shanghai. In its first year of operation Hainan flew over 76,000 passengers between Tel Aviv and Beijing.