Israel Active

Tel Aviv is the third best place in the world for technology business, according to a new report by property consultants Savills. The scores were measured according to five metrics: business environment, tech environment, quality of life, talent pool and property affordability.

Israeli exports to China have risen from $1 billion in 2010 to over $3 billion last year. Half are electronic components, chemicals, or medical products. But the biggest rise was IT services.

In 2014, trade between Japan and Israel rose by 9.3% to $1.75 billion and there has been a recent surge in Japanese investments in Israel in a variety of hi-tech fields. (Writer Ohad Cohen heads Israel’s foreign commercial service, with 40 trade offices operating in more than 50 countries.)

UK telecom giant Talk Talk has selected LiveEngage from Israel’s LivePerson to deliver its new chat service for customers requiring fast, on-line, real-time assistance.

The Wall St Journal features a story about an Israeli startup that switched its main product when its co-founder built a new mobile application in eight weeks.

Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, founded nine new companies in 2014 on the basis of technology originating at the university.

More Israeli companies had new listings on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 than from any country outside of the UK itself. Two (Matomy Media and Barak Capital) floated on the main market and seven more on the AIM secondary market.

The percentage of unemployed Israelis aged 15 and over in the workforce fell to 5.6% in January, from 5.7% in December. The unemployed rate between ages 25-64 fell to 4.8% in a growing workforce. More people are now employed in full time jobs.

SolarEdge, founded by five veterans of the IDF 8200 Intelligence Corps, has applied for a NASDAQ listing that will value the company at around $500 million. SolarEdge’s technology maximizes the energy collected by solar panels and has been installed in 73 countries.

Israeli startup Exit Valley has launched a “crowdfunding” investment platform. It allows private individuals to invest as little as NIS 1000 in a startup company. If the startup fails to reach its target funding within a fixed time period, all monies are returned to the individuals.