Israel Active

IBM’s Alpha Zone accelerator for start-ups has just held its first graduation ceremony.  The five startups had 24 weeks of access to IBM professionals to help them to “go global”.  One startup, EGM, has developed a smart meter that IBM will be selling around the world.

(Thanks to Michelle)  Startup East is the first Israeli – Asian accelerator aiming to connect startups in Israel and East Asia. In addition, it is launching a startup adventure Boot Camp program in Israel for Asian entrepreneurs, students and graduates.

(Thanks to Michelle) 11 startups graduated from the Microsoft Ventures cybersecurity and medical accelerator program in Herzliya.

Israel’s IDE Technologies is expanding throughout the USA by opening a new office in the State of Texas.  Regular newsletter readers may recall IDE’s desalination facility in San Diego.  

Dropbox has acquired Israel’s CloudOn, a startup that offers a service for creating and editing documents on mobile devices.  Dropbox will use CloudOn’s Herzliya office as a new hub in the Middle East.

(thanks to ) The Foreign Ministers of Israel and Canada have signed a Joint Declaration of Solidarity and Friendship that they said would increase collaboration on diplomacy and trade development.  

The founders of Chinese holdings giant Tencent and social network Renren are putting up cash for a new $102 million fund – the second to invest in Israeli startups.  The new fund will cover financial technology, the Internet of Things, mobile development, and robotics.

China’s largest private airline, Hainan, is to commence flights between Tel Aviv and Beijing.  Hainan will operate three return flights a week, on the days that El Al does not fly to Beijing.  The new service reflects increased business ties between China and Israel and a 76% rise in Chinese tourists since 2012.  

(Thanks to Israel21c) 17-year-old Iddo Gino heads RapidPay, a year-old company providing a mobile payment platform for customers without a credit card.  Iddo studies at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and hopes to obtain a degree in computer science at the Open University next year.

The Israeli Government’s 2014 deficit was NIS 29.9 billion (2.8% of GDP) compared to its budget of NIS 31.1 billion.  This is despite an unplanned NIS 7 billion cost of fighting Operation Protective Edge.