Israel Active

On June 22, Air Canada celebrated their first direct flight from Montreal-Trudeau airport to Tel Aviv. The service operates twice weekly until mid-October. Just four days earlier, on Jun 18, Air Transit celebrated their first direct flight on the same route.

I reported previously on Algatechnologies which makes the anti-oxidant, AstaPure®, and other products from microalgae grown in Israel’s Arava desert. AlgaTech has just opened a New York City-based subsidiary to increase sales of its products to the North American market.

Israeli fruits and flavors company Frutarom has made another acquisition – its seventh in the current year.  This time it’s an Israel company – Turpaz, buying a controlling 51% for NIS 54 million. Turpaz develops, produces and markets fragrance solutions. It recently opened a center in New Jersey, USA.

Two Brazilian women are making a documentary about female entrepreneurs. After visiting 20 countries, they arrived in Jerusalem. At a meeting at the Tower of David Museum, local entrepreneurs expressed hope that the film would inspire young Jerusalem women to enter the business world.

Daimler’s Mercedes Benz Vans has invested $50 million and enlisted Israeli-founded startup Via Transportation to enter Europe’s ride-sharing market – initially in London. Passengers wanting to travel in the same direction will use Via’s mobile app to share a single Daimler van.

German life-science giant Merck is founding a technological innovation laboratory in Yavne, called PMatX that will function as an incubator for Israeli startups. Its investments will total €20 million and will focus on next-generation electronics.

Israeli startup ZIPY simplifies the online shopping experience by consolidating shipping prices, carriers, taxes, etc. It enables shipping purchases from eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress and dealextreme to Israel, Romania and Russia. All communications are in your local language.

Israel’s StageOne Ventures has announced the closure of its third venture capital fund, with $110 million in committed capital to invest in 15-18 Israeli startups. StageOne focuses on deep-technology endeavors in B2B software and next-generation IT infrastructure.

The two most innovative nations, Switzerland and Israel, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to deepen cooperation in the financial services industry.

August saw another record level for Israel’s Foreign currency deposits.  The new level is just over $111 billion - up nearly a billion dollars from the end of July’s level.