Israel Active

The Mayors of Montreal and Toronto brought an economic delegation of 120 entrepreneurs, business people and representatives of institutional and community organizations, to visit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva, as well as Ramallah and Bethlehem.

OurCrowd, the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platform, will host the 2017 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit in Jerusalem on 16 Feb.  5,000 delegates from 60 countries are expected, promising to make it the world’s largest equity crowdfunding event and the biggest investor event in the Startup Nation.

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.