Israel Active

Tel Aviv-based startup Comprendi won a $250,000 award at the Twitter #Promote Ads API Challenge in San Francisco. Comprendi’s technology enables advertisers to change ads in real time based on factors such as sports results, the weather and trending topics.  

An agreement to promote startups, the first of its kind, has been signed between the Oslo International Hub and its Tel Aviv equivalent, Impact HUB Tel Aviv. Israeli-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce and the Norwegian-Israeli Chamber of Commerce are also parties to the agreement.

When eBay bought Israel’s Corrigon last week for $30 million, it acquired its advanced image identification algorithms. These allow web users to home in on an image and find it elsewhere (e.g. to buy a product or protect copyright) even if the images have been colored, cropped or modified.

Community-based non-profit “Made in Jerusalem” puts on end-of-month “happy hours”, uniting entrepreneurs, job seekers, funders and hi-tech supporters. The October event featured Glide, CareNav, uChange, MatchLynx, Talklet and Leadlike. Later, a Tech &Torah session took place.

Ambassador Yoram Ettinger writes that Israeli hi-tech companies raised $1.19 billion during Q3 2016, the second highest quarterly amount in ten years. In the first nine months of 2016, Israeli hi-tech companies raised $4 billion, 27% higher than the same period in 2015.

Israel exported 60,000 tons of avocados in 2015. Demand is even higher this year and 70% of this year’s 100,000-ton yield is earmarked for export, shipped in refrigerated containers to reach Europe in 4-5 days. Varieties include Ettinger, Pinkerton, Hass, Fuerte, Reed, Galil, Lavi and Moti.

Israeli crop protection company Adama Agricultural Solutions is to be sold by its Chinese owner ChemChina to a firm it controls. The new owner, Hubei Sanonda, is paying about 18.6 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) for Adama, which has 4% of the Chinese agrochemical market.

Ambassador Ettinger also reports the acquisitions of Israeli companies EndoChoice for $210 million, BlazeMeter for $100 million, FireLayers for $55 million and Corrigon for $30 million.

The Bank of Israel’s Companies Survey for the third quarter of 2016 indicates that, further to the previous quarter, the business sector grew rapidly. The positive picture is reflected in all the large industries - manufacturing, services, trade, transport and communications.

Business Insider has rounded up the 15 highest ranked countries in the world for innovation, based on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report on the state of the world’s economies.  Based on this, tiny Israel is ranked second in the world!