Israel Active

Bollywood star and Indian fashion icon Sonam Kapoor appeared on the cover of the June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar Bride, India with the Old City of Jerusalem in the background. It was one of many initiatives of Israel’s Tourism Ministry to woo Asian visitors to Israel.

The America-Israel Friendship League honored four Israeli businesswomen during the 10th annual Israel Day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). They were Tzameret Fuerst of Circ MedTech, Karen Haruvi of Teva, fashion designer Noa Raviv and Liat Mordechay Hertanu of 24me. =  

US entrepreneur Warren Buffett hosted an evening with 43 US investors, each buying at least $1 million in Israeli bonds.  Buffett bought $5 million himself, saying, “If you are looking for brains, energy and dynamism in the Middle East, Israel is the only place you need to go.”

Low-cost airline, Germania will launch direct flights from Nuremberg to Tel Aviv in Nov 2017, supplementing its routes from Hamburg and Dusseldorf. The Nuremberg service will operate twice a week, every Monday and Thursday.

I reported previously that Israel’s Valtech Cardio was to be bought by US-based HeartWare International for over $900 million. Although the deal fell through , now Valtech is to be acquired by US medical giant Edwards LifeSciences for a staged payment of $990 million.

Conexx, a private, not-for-profit organization, helps US firms identify innovations and R&D opportunities in Israel, as well as help Israelis establish a successful presence in South Eastern USA. A Connex delegation came to Jerusalem to meet some of its start-up community.

A group called Israel IoT Innovations – i3 Equity Partners (“i3”) has been set up to invest $20 million in Israeli startups developing IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. The consortium includes Microsoft, China’s HNA, India’s Tata, GE, Qualcomm, Tel Aviv University and Pitango.

18 deals, worth $1.7 billion, in the third quarter of 2016 raised private equity investment in Israeli companies in the nine months of 2016 to $3.26 billion. This is more than the $3.22 billion for the whole of 2015. The 2016 figure includes BC Partners’ $1.4 billion July buy-out of Keter plastics.

Germany’s Daimler (which includes car manufacturer Mercedes Benz) is to open a Research & Development center in Tel Aviv which will focus on car mobility and information services.

Meir Brand, CEO of Google Israel since 2005, has been promoted to Vice President of the company.  Google, one of the world’s largest technology companies, purchased Israel’s GPS app Waze in 2013 and has a large R&D center in Israel. Brand’s responsibilities include the entire Middle East, Africa, Russia, Turkey, and Greece.