Israel Active

Israel’s “everything at 5-shekels” coffee shops are about to take Russia by storm.  Moscow’s first Cofix charges just 50 rubles for any menu item. The average price for a cup of coffee in Russia is 200 rubles (245 rubles at Starbucks). Cofix plans to open 1000 Russian shops.

Samsung Global Innovation Center has opened a “NEXT” branch in Tel Aviv to invest in Israeli early-stage technologies and software developers. The South Korean conglomerate has set up similar offices in South Korea, San Francisco and New York in order to stay ahead of competition.

Chinese IT corporation Neusoft and Israeli-Chinese private equity fund Infinity Group are jointly to set up a $250 million fund to invest in Israeli medical technologies over the next three years. They will also provide access to Chinese clients and the Chinese equivalent of the US FDA.

Visitors to Israel from India and China rises by 10-13% each year. But Israel’s Tourism Ministry wants more than double the 40,000 Indians and 47,000 Chinese by 2018. Its $1.6 million campaign in India portrays Israel’s uniqueness, culture, lifestyle and haven for vegetarians.

In just a two-week period, the following Israeli startups raised a total of $217 million.  WSC Sports ($12m); Datorama ($32m – see above); Cato Networks ($30m); Claroty ($32m); CTERA ($25m); Applause ($35m); Optimove ($20m); Totango ($8m); Tipalti ($14m); Zeekit ($9m); Unfortunately, there isn’t sufficient space here for more details of what these startups do.

100 Israeli companies attended the GoforIsrael 2016 conference in Shanghai, China. Matching Israeli R&D with Chinese manufacturing was seen as a win-win scenario. It was the first time in its 16 years that the conference was held outside of Israel.

Top executives from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other multinational companies recently gave their reasons for choosing Israel for their Research & Development centers. They included the Israelis’ creativity, talent, problem-solving, chutzpah, and “magic”.

The Bank of Israel has a new website, Har Hakesef2, which lets you search for lost bank accounts and pension funds.  Enter your Teudat Zehut number, and then fill in the date that it was issued and a few other identifying questions. You can do the same for relatives that have passed away.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has spent NIS 11 million upgrading the ports of Haifa and Acre and has inaugurated a new mini-cruise liner service between them.  The service leaves Acre at 10am and 3pm, returning from Haifa at 11am and 4pm.  The ship can carry up to 200 passengers.

Israeli startup Dreame allows you to commission your own work of art from a professional artist, based on a personal story (real, imaginary or a dream) or photo that you submit.  You select from Dreame’s network of 500 artists across 60 countries who e-mails you the JPG image within 10 days.