Israel Active

Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Japanese electronics giant NEC are founding AlphaC - a new incubator for early stage cyber startups. Ten early stage ventures will join an intensive three-month program, receiving access to TAU resources, workspace, business contacts and mentors.

Israel-based venture capital firm Pontifax raised another fund of $240 million – its fifth such fund. Excess demand for the fund saw it closed within two months, and Pontifax is expected to invest most of the money raised in the life-sciences industry.

At December’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conference in Sri Lanka, Israel signed new air transport agreements with the U.K., Switzerland, Chile, South Africa, Vietnam, Canada, Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Uganda and Jordan. These will increase direct flights to Israel.

I reported previously that United Airlines increased their direct service between Tel Aviv and San Francisco to a daily schedule.  Now El Al have announced they are to launch a 3-times-a-week direct service between the two leading technology hubs later this year.

Israel’s tallest building - the 238m Azrieli Sarona tower in Tel Aviv - is near completion, but already on two of its top 61 floors Israel’s Teddy Sagi Group has launched Labs - its shared office venture. Labs will have offices, meeting rooms, shared workspaces, a convention hall, studio, projection room, lounge and a gym.

Israel’s Powermat has partnered with Regus Israel, supplying wireless charging services to Israeli co-working offices. Regus is the world's largest provider of flexible workspace solutions. Regus has 15 co-working locations in Israel, mostly in Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

Israel-based Boom25 offers a unique opportunity for UK shoppers who purchase from any of the 600 retailers affiliated to Boom25’s website. Every 25th purchaser gets their purchase money back.  Its an alternative to accumulating points.

I wrote previously about Israel’s SuperMeat which is developing lab-produced meat from animal cells. SuperMeat has just raised $3 million and plans to bring its “clean chicken” products to market within three years, at a price similar to current conventional chicken products.

I reported previously in 2014 that Forbes predicted that Israel’s Kaltura was most likely to be “one of the next billion-dollar exits” thanks to its wide-ranging video solutions platform. Well guess what - Kaltura is planning a 2018 launch on NASDAQ, at a value of $1 billion.

Israel has broken all previous records for incoming tourism, and are set to end 2017 with 3.6 million tourists - half a million more than the previous record. It includes a 20% increase over the 120,000 Christian pilgrims who visited in Dec 2016.