Israel Active

Foreign exchange platform CurrencyTransfer has announced that it will be extending its services to holders of Israeli shekels. The UK firm has just opened new offices in Tel Aviv and offers rates within 0.5% of market rates with no fees or charges. Banks vary between 2-5% of market rates.

Six joint US-Israeli projects received a total of $5.1 million from the 2015 Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Energy program. Israeli companies involved are 3GSolar, Ayyeka, Haogenplast, Pentalum, Solaris-Synergy and Yissum. See video of US Secretary of Energy.

Now you can purchase, on NASDAQ, units of the ITEQ ETF, a new Exchange Traded Fund that exclusively hold shares of public Israeli and Israel-linked technology companies by tracking the TASE-BlueStar Israel Global Technology Index (TA-BIGITech).

Internet giant Amazon has chosen Israeli-developed Payoneer to expand cross-border payment options to sellers from 24 countries.

Israel’s Salt of the Earth has launched Umamix , its new sodium reduction ingredient for hamburgers and processed meat at Fi Europe, Paris. Umamix is derived from tomato, shiitake mushroom, kombu seaweed and pure Red Sea salt.

Israeli flavors and specialty fine ingredients company Frutarom Industries has acquired 75% of Polish savory flavor solutions company AMCO Sp for $20.7 million. Frutarom then purchased China’s flavor developer Inventive for $17 million.

Israeli biotech Lipogen is building a new phospholipids Research & Development center in Haifa in response to a 50% jump in sales of brain and stress health solutions in 2015.

Energy company Direct Energy (a subsidiary of UK’s Centrica) has paid $60 million for Israeli startup Panoramic Power, which uses sensors and software to monitor the energy use of businesses.

Financial giant Citi has hailed the success of its Israel Innovation Lab - an accelerator program which since 2013 has helped 43 Israeli startups. The lab was responsible for developing the mobile version of Citi Velocity – the bank’s trading platform for institutional clients.

Israeli startup Trendit grabs data from mobile phone signals to build real-time information about pedestrian traffic. The information will become increasingly useful to service developers in “Smart” cities. Trendit wants to raise £3m from listing on the London Stock Exchange.