Israel Active

I reported previously that Air India was commencing flights between Tel Aviv and Mumbai.  They have just announced a new service to New Delhi, commencing in May. Air travel between India and Israel increased by 22.8% in 2016 to 158,000 passengers.

Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida signed a bilateral investment treaty, in another move to strengthen diplomatic and trade ties between the two nations.

Venture capital investments in Israel last year bucked the downward trend elsewhere because (a) realistic values of Israeli companies; (b) Israel’s focus on frontier technologies; (c) the growth in Israel of late stage funding rounds; (d) a new influx of Asian capital.

Israel’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of Feb stood at $102 billion - an increase of $420 million from their level at the end of Jan, and another all-time record.

Israel's economy grew 4% in 2016, up from 2.5% in 2015. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics published revised figures, showing GDP growth in the fourth quarter was 6.5%.

I’ve reported previously on Israeli kids’ games publisher TabTable. In its six years, it has become one of the leading children's games companies in the Apple and Google apps stores with 1.2 billion downloads of its software.

Chinese investment fund Blueconomy Center has raised $150 million for investing in marine and environmental technologies in Israel. The fund aims to help Israeli companies expedite their entry into the Chinese market and is in advanced negotiations for investments in four Israeli companies.

Israeli startups raised nearly $700 million in 2017 to date - the same level as in 2016.  They include Kaminario (Flash storage - $75 million),  Appsflyer (mobile ad analytics - $56 million), SentinelOne (Cyber security - $70 million) and Transmit Security (Cyber security - $40 million).

Some 2000 delegates are expected at the Startup Festival and Startup Live Competition in Rishon LeZion on Mar 29. It features some 100 startups covering smart transportation, homeland security, financial, agriculture, food, fashion and wearable technology, drones, robotics, big data, Augmented/Virtual Reality and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) will found a Research & Development center in Israel for advanced auto technologies. The center will focus on data networks, car sharing, and smart automated propulsion.