Israel Active

An in depth feature in the Wall Street Journal on the current status of Israeli entrepreneurship in the USA, UK and Europe.

Here is an example of how three Israeli companies got the funding they needed to boost their chances of becoming a roaring success. They include mobile security company Zimperium and Clarisite with its unique EyeView customer support tool.

The annual Go4Europe conference brings 1000 Israelis and Europeans together to present Israeli technologies to the European market, promote investment and establish strategic alliances in Europe. Since 2005, 88 Israeli companies have gone public in Europe – more than in the USA.

Low-cost airline easyJet has started a twice-weekly service between Ben Gurion and Manchester, England on Mondays and Thursdays. It also starts its twice-daily flights on Mondays and Thursdays between Tel Aviv and Luton, adding to the current daily flights between those two cities.

Drip irrigation pioneer Netafim (worth $900 million) is now European-owned. Also, US giant Citigroup has bought Ness Technologies (building Barclays Israeli R&D centre) for $307 million. Finally Advasense’s image technology was too good for US company Pixim to resist. Click highlighted words for info. Israel’s economy still on the up. The latest report from the Bank of Israel shows that growth is continuing.

Merrill Lynch raised its 2012 GDP growth forecast for Israel from 2.7% to 2.9%, citing recent improvement in the global economy and resilience of the domestic economy in the first half of the year.

Exports between the two countries was $36.9 billion in 2011 – up from the 2007 pre-economic crisis high of $33.8 billion. Israel is one of America’s top 25 largest export markets (top 10 by capita). The two countries held a high-level economic policy meeting in Washington.

144 Israeli high-tech companies raised $488 million from Israeli and foreign venture capital funds in the third quarter of 2012; 8% more that $453 million raised in the preceding quarter.

This neat application shows dynamically the location of thousands of Israel’s innovative companies.

When Israelis say you have “chutzpah”, they mean you know what you want and will go for it. They mean you have great tenacity and will do what it takes to achieve goals that others can’t even dream of. It’s what makes Israelis so strong at entrepreneurship.