Israel Active

Israel's Mekorot National Water Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Kazakhstan for a program to develop the country's water resources. Geographic constraints are causing a water shortage in Kazakhstan.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s DSIT Solutions has received an order for its Underwater Security System to protect am unnamed European Nuclear Power facility.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Cosmetics giant Clinique has launched a new skin-care product formulated from a species of algae grown in Israel. Clinique’s new “Smart Custom-Repair Serum” has 37 patents and took 5 years of research and development. Feedback appreciated.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) To encourage more seed stage investment, Israel’s finance and economy ministries have proposed simpler criteria for tax incentives, such as deducting the amount invested from taxes owed. The plan will come into effect in 2015 if approved by the socio-economic cabinet.

In the most successful Initial Public Offering in Israeli history, driving assistance technology company Mobileye raised $1.023 billion on the New York Stock Exchange. Then on the first day of trading, MobilEye’s share price rose 48%, valuing the Israeli company at $7.86 billion.

The BDS thugs will not like this. Israel is the 4th most attractive country for foreign direct investment. Recent $multi-million deals include Gamida Cell (by Novartis), Simbionix (by 3D Systems), ClarityRay (by Yahoo), Lamina (by China’s Catalyst CEL) and VidMind (by Russia’s Trellas).

OurCrowd, the leading equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors, announced that it has successfully raised a total of $60 million, in its 16 months of existence, for its 46 portfolio Israeli companies.

Founded in 1964 to protect and commercialize the Hebrew University’s intellectual property, Yissum has registered over 8,500 patents covering 2,450 inventions; licensed out 750 technologies and spun-off 90 companies. Its products generate over $2 billion in annual sales.

Israel’s Orbotech has received orders worth $55 million for inspection, testing and repair equipment at Nanjing CEC Panda LCD Technology Co., Ltd. - a China Electronics Corp. company.

An upbeat summary by Yoram Ettinger of recent Israeli economic news.