Israel Active

The Ministry of Housing plans to bring about 40,000 more foreign workers to Israel for jobs in the construction industry. Already some 1,200 Indian workers are in Israel, increasing to 10,000 by end June. Similar numbers will be employed from Georgia, Sri Lanka, and Azerbaijan.

In his announcement of an arms embargo on sales to Israel, Canada’s Foreign Minister forgot to mention that in the last decade, the Canadian Defense Ministry purchased Israeli weapon systems worth more than a billion dollars. (see also previously)

Israel’s OurCrowd has announced that commitment by investors to its Israel Resilience Fund had increased to $17 million, enabling it to increase funding to a current total of 34 startups. In addition, PwC Israel will provide business support to portfolio companies in the fund.

The tenth Europe Days conference in Tel Aviv (see previously) featured some 200 Israeli startups and entrepreneurs. All were hoping for investment from the 14 venture capital funds and 18 representatives of companies, authorities, and municipal bodies from Europe.

Israel’s NeuReality (see previously) has raised $20 million including from The European Innovation Council and Israel’s OurCrowd.

Egyptian-based PAPSS (the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System) has selected Israel’s Thetaray (see previously) as its anti-money laundering (AML) and screening partner.

Israel’s Minute Media has reached a 10-year licensing deal for digital and print rights to publish Sports Illustrated. The Israeli company will oversee all digital and print editorial operations across the SI portfolio.

US-based Gitlab is acquiring Israel’s cloud security startup for . Israeli-founded has Israel’s .

raised and achieved Unicorn status; raised ; raised ; raised ,

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Israel signed with Guatemala in 2022 (see previously) has just come into effect. Guatemala has the largest economy (GDP & population) in Central America. It joins seven Latin American countries that also have FTAs with Israel.