Israel Active

Approval has been given for the building of a 105-meter high building in downtown Jerusalem. The “Freedom Pyramid” will house a hotel, apartments and businesses. Its architect is Daniel Libeskind, who designed the Berlin Jewish Museum and NYC’s World Trade Center Memorial.

Israeli start-up Ecoppia was selected to Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe List. Red Herring selects start-ups they predict will “grow at an explosive rate”. Also, solar industry publication PV Magazine ranked Ecoppia 15th in their list of “50 Array-Changing Technologies.”

A high-level Israeli trade delegation is in Japan discussing expanding business relations between the two countries. They cover medical treatments and equipment, agro-biotech, diagnostics and health IT.

In order to exploit the full potential of the offshore natural gas reserves of each country, Cyprus and Israel have agreed to expand cooperation, including pipeline and grid sharing as a means of reaching the European market.

Germany’s Merck will acquire cCAM Biotherapeutics, the Israeli developer of cancer immunotherapies, for an estimated $600 million. cCAM is developing CM-24, for the treatment of melanoma and certain lung, bladder, gastric, colorectal and ovarian cancers.

A new free-trade agreement between Canada and Israel expands market access opportunities for agricultural, fish and seafood products through the reduction or elimination of tariffs on a large number of products. It will further strengthen Canada’s bilateral relationship with Israel.  

Israeli startup Mifold wanted to raise $40,000 on Indigogo to help fund the rollout of its innovative tiny car booster seat for children. It reached the target in just 3 hours of starting the campaign and with 20 days remaining, has had pledges for over $270,000.

Britain’s trade with Israel reached a record high of £5.1billion last year after doubling during the last decade. Some of the reasons for this are the innovative Israeli products, UK-Israeli partnerships, and the quality and all-year-round availability of Israeli produce.

Over 70 people from Tel Aviv, Modi’in, Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem as well as throughout Gush Etzion, came to network at Hub Etzion in the new Gush Etzion Industrial Park. The hub is due to open on Oct 15 and be the regional center for start-ups, entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists.

I reported on Israeli disaster recovery scheduling startup ClickSoftware previously . It has just been acquired by US Francisco Partners for $438 million (45% above its NASDAQ average value) and becomes a private company again.