Israel Active

An interesting article on Israeli agricultural technology, plus 4 Israeli “AgTech” companies developing creative solutions for sustainable agriculture. , , and will feature at Israel’s 19th annual Agritech International Agricultural Exhibition & Conference on April 27.

Israel’s Green Road Technologies sells systems for monitoring real-time driving data, using a smartphone or its own hardware installed in vehicles. The systems raise awareness of safety, save fuel, reduce insurance premiums, motoring costs and accidents. Green Road has just raised $26 million of finance.

Israel’s Skycure offers two main products, a free app that secures mobile devices for consumers and software that keeps companies safe from external mobile devices. Skycure has just raised $8 million of funding.

Israeli start-up E2C (Easy to Connect) has developed an interface for smartphones that make them easier for seniors to use. A large display menu, longer response times, vibrating keys, voice activation, simple navigation and a one-click response all make life much easier for the technically-challenged.

I featured Israel’s Wi-Charge in , and it was recently demonstrated in San Francisco. The infra-red laser transmitters are in 2016 and cost $50 - $100.

The Weizmann Institute of Science has the distinction of having the top percentage of grants awarded to it by the European Research Council’s 7th Framework Program. Between 2007 and 2013, it had 35 percent of its grants proposals accepted, totaling nearly 150 million Euros.

Lockheed Martin and Israel’s Ministry of Education are to build a program in the Israeli education system to increase the number of Israeli teachers in computer science and cyber security. Lockheed Martin will also sponsor a nationwide high-school cyber security competition.  

I featured the Augmented Reality (AR) ski goggles from Israel’s RideOn in February, but this article includes a video that shows you what you see when you wear them.

MUV Interactive (featured in this newsletter in ) was one of Israel’s innovative technology companies starring at the recent AIPAC Conference in Washington. MUV’s $200 “Bird” sits on your finger to control and design interactive presentations, just by pointing. Shipping starts in a few months.

Israeli startup Keewee uses natural language processing, machine learning and social graphs to provide you with relevant stories. Over 60 brands and publishers use its service, including the New York Times. It has just raised $9.1 million of funds, including from the NYT and Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt.