Israel Active

Strauss Coffee has bought out Russia's Le Café and Instanta and now has the third largest market in Russia. Even before the acquisition, Strauss Coffee was the world's fourth largest coffee company, and has 6,250 employees.

If you are worth several million dollars and have $10,000 to invest, you may be interested in OurCrowd. Israeli entrepreneur Jon Medved has founded an exclusive club to fund and grow Israeli start-ups into big successful companies. (Hmmm… I could also do with a few bucks!)

TechWeekEurope traveled to the sunny city on the shores of the Mediterranean sea, to see first-hand how the Israeli government and venture capitalists work together to keep the country’s technology sector relevant.

Finnair, the national airline of Finland, will start flights from Helsinki to Tel Aviv from June 7. The flights will run twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, and are likely to have a great impact on increasing tourism to Israel from Finland during the summer months.

Israel's Ambassador to Kenya, Gil Haskel, says they are working to restore direct flights between Tel Aviv and Nairobi before the end of the year. Flights were suspended 10 years ago due to security lapses at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Resumption will boost tourist trade between the two countries.

Israeli translation company Babylon has seen its revenue double to $121 million thanks to moving from a paid-for service to a free service with advertising. Net profit has tripled. Babylon intends to list on NASDAQ during 2013.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Siano is to integrate entertainment systems powered with its Multimedia Broadcasting receiver chipset into cars built by BYD - China’s foremost independent automobile manufacturer.

At the end of January, nine of the most promising, early stage start-ups from Israel in the medical devices and life sciences arenas will arrive to the U.S. for an intensive road-show to meet with potential investors. They visit New York, Boston, Chicago, Silicon Valley and San Diego.

(Thanks to Michael H) Some months I featured Israel’s Intucell, when AT&T used its technology to prevent cell-phone overload. Well Cisco couldn’t resist it and have just bought the Ra’anana-based company for $475 million. I bet that set the phones ringing!

As Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Tu Bishvat – the New Year for Trees, agriculturalists around Israel are celebrating the increasing global success of one of Israel’s most fruitful trees. Israel supplies 50% of the world’s demand for Medjool dates.