Israel Active

Israelis invented the first instant messaging system ICQ.  Now the Israeli startup Music Messenger allows friends to send music to each other.  Recent investors include some major players and celebrities from the music industry, some who have never before worked with an Israeli company.

Frost & Sullivan have awarded their prestigious Global Technology Innovation Leader Award to Israel’s Windward.  The award reflects Windward's unique technology, which is bringing cutting edge innovation to one of the last 'wild west' frontiers: ships navigating the world's oceans.

Ben Gurion University’s Dr. Natalie Elia and Dr. Eyal Arbely were awarded a European Horizon 2020 ERC Starting Grant for their project, “Quantitative Nanoscale Visualization of Macromolecular Complexes in Live Cells using Genetic Code Expansion and High-Resolution Imaging”.  (Don’t ask!)

(Thanks to Michelle) Teradata – the US giant data analytics company, has bought Appoxee - an Israeli startup aimed at publishers and developers that want to send out messages to increase user engagement in their apps.  Appoxee will become Teradata’s research and development center.

Johnson and Johnson, together with Takeda and OrbiMed have launched FutuRx in Rehovot’s Weizmann Science Park.  Its first start-up is Hepy Biosciences, which is developing a tumor enzyme inhibitor. The second, XoNovo, is developing a treatment that targets a protein implicated in Alzheimer’s.

Delegates at Kinneret College’s first water conference learnt about the work of its BSc graduates in Water Industry Engineering.  One breakthrough project is the extension of a wastewater system under Israel’s main Tel Aviv highway, undertaken without disrupting traffic.

The Blavatnik Family Foundation has set up a new multi-million pound investment fund for Israeli scientists to pursue post-doctorate research at Cambridge University.  Three Israeli scientists are now furthering their research in engineering, genetics and physics at Cambridge.

Following on the heels of “Dogiz”, “Oggii”, “Pawly”, “Swifto”, “KelevLand” and “DogTV”, we now have “Wooof” – a made-in-Israel app, providing a platform for dog owners to get together online, “trading” photos, recording dog walking routes and even alerting when a dog inspector is in the area.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Israeli startup BrightWay Vision has developed “BrightEye” – a unique night-vision system that gives drivers a clear, panoramic view of the road.  The system uses active-gated imaging to project images up to 250 meters ahead (5 times further than headlights) onto the driver’s screen.

It can cost up to $4,000 for a survey to check whether a solar panel on your roof could generate sufficient solar energy to justify installation.  Israel’s SolView uses Google Earth and its automated rooftop scanning technology to do that instantly.