Israel Active

New immigrants and returning residents may be eligible for grants up to NIS 43,000 and other benefits if they open up a new business in Jerusalem.  The Israeli government aims to encourage new businesses in Jerusalem and reinforce existing enterprises.

French Tech met the Start-up Nation at Innovatech 2017 in Paris. The conference focused on food tech, life sciences, auto tech and cybersecurity. It was attended by 250 leaders from the French hi-tech industry, along with 15 Israeli companies and directors of Israeli venture capital funds.

US Venture Capital fund Finistere Ventures, which specializes in agricultural technology, is expanding its activities in Israel. It “sees Israel as a center of excellence in ag-tech” and has appointed two executives to invest in Israeli innovations for the agricultural and food value market.

MindCET, the technological arm of the Center for Educational Technology (CET), has announced the founding of a fund for investment in edu-tech in cooperation with the UK government. The fund, called TaskForce, will initially invest $250,000 in each of 4-6 ventures annually.

The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for May 2017 increased by 0.3 percent.  There were significant increases in Industrial Production, manufacturing inputs and revenues for trade and services.  Previous figures for February, March and April were also revised upwards.

Israel’s 2016 revenue totaled 321.1 billion shekels ($88.02 billion), higher than the Government’s 2016 target of 312.3 billion shekels ($85.61 billion). Also, the Finance Ministry set itself a deficit goal for 2016 of 2.9%, whereas the actual deficit was only 2.1%.

Government and opposition parties have jointly agreed to the raising of the allowance for disabled Israelis from the current NIS 2,500 to NIS 4,000 in three stages.  Housing assistance will also be raised, from NIS 770 to NIS 1,000.

Dani Gadayev, co-founder and CEO of Israeli start-up TopGuides, describes the company’s online platform to connect tourists with tour guides, eliminating the need to pay commission to an agency.  

Israel’s Bank Leumi and Ping An, China’s largest insurance group, agreed to promote and integrate Israeli hi-tech companies into the Chinese market.  The agreement was signed as part of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to China.

The Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange has applied to establish a technology innovation center, to be called Diamond Tech. Its aim is to nurture Israeli and foreign startups in the early stages of the development of technology to be used primarily in the diamond sector.