Israel Active

The Haifa municipality and the Ministry of Environmental Protection is to launch a pilot program for shared vehicles. It includes operation of an electric car rental service for users to collect a vehicle at a one location and return it at any of the charging stations scattered around the city.

Israeli DIY website development company Wix.com is to market a new platform that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ensure the website completely meets the requirements of the builder.  Wix ADI asks the user what he/she needs and then uses its algorithms to build the website in minutes.

Israel’s Biobee has sent Russia 500 million predatory insects as natural, non-toxic methods to get rid of agricultural pests.  BioBee also sent Russian farmers its home-grown bumblebees for pollination, without which there is no horticulture.

Israeli startups won three of the four top prizes at the Asia Smartphone Apps Competition in Hong Kong.  Tekoia’s universal remote, won the grand prize for the event, and also the advertising and marketing category. Castle Builders won the games and edutainment category, and Bazz, came in second in the creative lifestyle category.

Israeli video-messaging startup Glide is now working on a new project for smartwatches that it plans to unveil later this summer.

Israel’s Slidely enables businesses and individuals to make a video with licensed music for a price as low as $20.  Slidely has now joined forces with Getty Images, providing access to Getty’s library of nearly two million stock video clips.  Slidely has over 100 million registered users.

The first of two Gulfstream G550 business jets for the Italian Air Force has arrived at Israel Aerospace Industries’ facilities, to be reconfigured into an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.

Susan Lurie and Edna Pesis from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture are advising the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP) on maintaining the post-harvest quality of Indian fruit and vegetables. Techniques include “hot water brushing”, waxing and permeable packaging.

The Israeli innovation pavilion at the Innovative City Conference in Nice included Aquarius Spectrum (leak detection), ElectRoad, Elencon (efficient air-con), GreenQ (truck sensors), Sowillo (solar panels) and TruckNet (reduces number of empty trucks).

Israel’s IronScales has developed IronTrap which company Google mail and Gmail users can use to eliminate phishing spam.  When an authorized employee highlights a suspicious email, IronTrap will analyze it, disable it and remove it from every mailbox on the company’s network.