Israel Active

I reported previously about Israel’s Implisit which analyzes a company’s incoming emails to forecast potential deals.  Implisit itself has now done its biggest ever deal, being bought for tens of millions of dollars by the US giant Salesforce, which already owns two other Israeli startups.

As predicted a delegation of more than 50 business professionals came to Israel for New Zealand’s inaugural Innovation Mission.  The executives represented telecommunications, utilities, agriculture, government, finance, education and training.

May saw Israel’s reserves of foreign currency deposits increase by another $779 million from their level at the end of April to 96.463 billion - a new all-time record.  The natural gas fund increased to $9.6 billion.

Rating agency Fitch upgraded Israel's credit rating outlook to "positive" from “stable” for its foreign currency debt, while retaining its A rating. Israel's credit rating is likely to be upgraded shortly.  Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon hailed the vote of confidence in the Israeli economy.

Israel’s SodaStream has launched its new home beer system, the Beer Bar. It produces a 4.5% alcohol beer called Blondie using sparkling water and a unique beer concentrate.  A one-liter Blondie bottle yields approximately three liters of beer.

Ohio’s Treasury office is purchasing $50 million worth of Israel bonds.  It represents the largest single government purchase of Israel bonds in Ohio’s history following purchases of $47.8 million in 2014 and of $42 million in 2013. 

Grupo Modelo SA, Mexico, producers of Corona beer and part of the AB INBEV Group, the largest beer producer in the world, chose Israel’s ZIM as Carrier of the Year in their annual award Ceremony in Mexico City.

Microsoft has launched a new Venture Capital fund named Microsoft Accelerator.  The fund focuses on Cloud startups and effectively separates Microsoft’s investment arm from its startup incubator program.

Despite global layoffs, IT giant Intel is still investing in Israel.  It just announced that it is to create a financial technology innovation lab in association with The Floor - a fintech hub based at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Some of its focus will be on blockchain, IoT and biometrics.

It sounds like something out of “Arabian Nights” but in reality China’s on-line retail giant Alibaba is investing in Israeli startup Twiggle, which is developing next generation e-commerce search technologies.  The funds will grow the company’s R&D team in Israel and drive global expansion plans.