Israel Active

The opening of trade offices in Peru and Chile increases Israel’s integration with the Pacific Alliance – a trade group that includes both countries, as well as Colombia and Mexico – bringing trade opportunities for Israeli firms in South America and beyond.

Ford Motor Co. has acquired Israel’s SAIPS to strengthen its expertise in artificial intelligence and enhance computer vision. It is part of Ford’s project to develop a fully autonomous vehicle and put it on the road by 2021. SAIPS tech collects visual data through sensors and translates it into usable data.

Ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies has recently finalized a $680 million acquisition of Otto Motors, an Israeli startup specializing in converting normal trucks into autonomous ones.  Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski will head Uber's self-driving division.

Israel’s Matomy Media Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.  It recently launched mtmy – a mobile advertising agency offering a fully-managed service. In two months, Matomy’s share price has risen almost 60%.

Israel’s Pontis (part of Amdocs) leverages real-time Big Data Analytics to provide a unified and contextual view of every customer to keep them happy and achieve company goals. Pontis has been ranked in the list of “100 Most Promising Big Data Solution Providers” by CIOReview.

Israel’s BillRun has implemented an advanced billing system worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for quad-play communication services at Monaco Telecom (MT). BillRun’s charging systems have also been implemented at Israel’s Pelephone and Golan telecom.

Israel’s Teva is spending another half-a-billion dollars to buy Allergan’s Anda, the 4th largest distributor of generic treatments in the U.S. Teva will acquire distribution centers in Olive Branch, MS; Weston, FL and Groveport, OH, with a total of over 650 employees.

Israel’s SoLoMoTo provides a digital platform to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) control their online trading. SoLoMoTo now has over 100,000 customers and is about to launch in the USA which has 30 million SMBs.

I reported on Israeli startup Zeek previously . Zeek’s app and website allows users to buy gift cards and vouchers at a discount and sell unwanted gift vouchers for cash. Zeek has since expanded to the U.K. and has just raised $9.5 million to help fund the move and further growth.

Fintech firms flourish in Israel due to strong overseas interest, innovation and local talent devoted to addressing the specific needs of this industry. Israel has approximately 430 fintech companies.  Six are highlighted in this article, with “I Know First” and “Leverate Ltd” new to this newsletter.