News Briefs

November 30, 2017 | An Israeli resolution focused on using agriculture technology for sustainable development was approved this week at United Nations Second Committee, also known as the Economic and Financial Committee, by 141 countries and co-sponsored by 117 of them. It was the highest number of co-sponsors to date for any Israeli resolution, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The only country to vote against the initiative was Syria; the rest of the Arab bloc — 34 countries — abstained. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said “Israel is proud to work with our friends around the world in promoting cutting-edge solutions to some of the world’s oldest agricultural challenges. This is an issue that should bring all of us together.”

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November 30, 2017 | Israeli-founded social traffic and navigation platform Waze has launched a new feature for motorcyclists. The navigation mode is available for Android and iOS users. Waze now has motorcycle drive times and is optimized to include roads that are optimal for both cars and motorcycles. Drivers can now receive recommendations based on data from those riding motorcycles. This will include time estimations and route suggestions (including narrow roads specifically for motorcyclists.) Waze has also introduced new features that include a new voice command that allows users to start hands-free control by saying the phrase “Ok Waze.” This mode is available for English-speaking users in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, and New Zealand. A third feature introduced by Waze is a carpool mode suggesting navigation options for carpool lanes. This feature is only available in the US and Canada. Waze was bought by Google in 2013 for approximately $1 billion. It was founded by Amir Shinar, Uri Levine, and Ehud Shabtai in 2008.

 

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November 30, 2017 | Florida Governor Rick Scott is expected to arrive in Israel on Friday on a trade mission with a delegation of businesspeople and education leaders of approximately 70 people. According to a release from the governor’s office this week cited by Florida media, the mission will include economic development meetings with Israeli business leaders, a recognition of Israel’s national carrier El Al’s recently launched direct flights from Miami to Tel Aviv, which the governor’s office said will continue to support tourism and economic development in Florida, and the “signings of multiple agreements between Florida and Israeli universities and economic development organizations to support continued partnerships, research opportunities and job creation.” The delegation will also honor the Florida-Israel Memorandum of Understanding Agreement between Space Florida and Israel, established after the governor’s previous trade mission to Israel in 2011. The MOU promotes research, development, and aerospace and technology projects. Scott said in a statement by his office that “working with international partners like Israel is critical to strengthening Florida as a global destination for trade and to ensuring that our economy will continue to grow for years to come.”

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November 30, 2017 | Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is in talks to buy Israel-based QR code startup Visualead LTD for an undisclosed amount, Israeli business daily Calcalist reports. Citing a person familiar with the talks, Calcalist said the deal in the works is worth tens of millions of dollars. In 2015, Visualead raised $5 million in a Series B round led by Alibaba. Visualead, founded in 2012, is a “software company focused on the research, development and enablement of IOT technologies using Visual QR Code.” In October this year, Alibaba said it would be opening seven R&D centers around the world over the next three years including one in Israel.

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November 29, 2017 | Israeli social community and engagement startup Spot.IM has raised $25 million in a Series C funding round. The round was led by New York-based venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners with contribution from existing investors Altair VC, a Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm, and Norma Investments, a company that represents Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. In total, the company has raised $37 million. Spot.IM says it will use the money to double the size of its team in New York and expand further throughout the world. Spot.IM is a social engagement platform for the online publishing industry, collaborating with publishers to create social communities and comment platforms directly on publisher websites. The goal is to compete with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Spot.IM was founded in 2012 with headquarters in New York City and additional offices in Tel Aviv.

 

 

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November 29, 2017 | NFX, a seed and series A venture firm, has raised $150 million for a venture capital fund to invest in a select group of early-stage startups across all sectors in Silicon Valley and Israel, including artificial intelligence, biotech, blockchain, fintech, robotics, and more. Globes reported that the company will consider all startups that “have the potential in them to develop network effects and thus defensibility.”The company’s partners are Israeli Gigi Levy-Weiss, an angel investor and former CEO of 888 Holding, and Americans James Currier and Pete Flint. According to a published report in Globes, the venture firm will invest $250,000 on a rolling basis to early startups along with six months of structured support. For seed and early A startups, NFX will invest from $500,000 to $5 million and work with them through an exit. NFX was founded in June 2015 and is currently based in San Francisco.

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November 29, 2017 | Three Israeli researchers have won a top science award and a $100,000 prize each. The 2018 Blavatnik Awards, a signature program of the Blavatnik Family Foundation administered by the New York Academy of Sciences and were awarded in Israel for the first time, in collaboration with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. They were given to Dr. Oded Rechavi, a senior lecturer at the Department of Neurobiology at Tel Aviv University, for his “groundbreaking work uncover[ing] novel mechanisms of inheritance” for traits and diseases; Dr. Charles Diesendruck, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Technion’s Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, whose work “shows exceptional promise in the growing field of ‘mechanochemistry,’ where mechanical force is used to drive chemical reactions or changes; and Professor Anat Levin, an associate professor at the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion for her “ground-breaking contributions to the emerging field of computational photography.” The winners were announced by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in a press release. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are handed to promising young scientists and engineers under the age of 42 and were first established in 2007. The Israeli scientists will be honored at a formal ceremony in Jerusalem on February 4, 2018.

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November 29, 2017 | ORIX Investment and Management fund and Japanese pharmaceutical company MitsubishiTanabe Pharma are looking for investment opportunities in Israel. The two companies met with the Israel Minister of Economy Eli Cohen, who outlined various opportunities for investing in the Israeli market and emphasized the opportunity to develop strategic cooperation. ORIX, a huge Japanese conglomerate, has already acquired a 22 percent stake in geothermal energy business Ormat for $627 million. It is currently traded at a value of $21 billion on the Japanese stock exchange and has a diversified investment portfolio of companies in the fields of energy, transportation, infrastructure, and real estate in 36 countries. Japanese pharmaceutical company MitsubishiTanabe Pharma recently acquired Israeli pharma company NeuroDerm for $1.1 billion. This acquisition is the largest deal to date between an Israeli company and a Japanese company.

 

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November 29, 2017 | General Motors President Dan Ammann made a visit to Israel this month, which was not revealed to the public, according to a report in Globes. The visit centered on GM’s R&D center in Herziliya, with a look at the development the location’s advanced technologies. It comes after an acceleration in General Motors activity dealing with autonomous and electric vehicles, much of which takes place in Israel. Sources in the automotive industry tell Globes that the Herzliya center will likely help with GM R&D activity in artificial intelligence in the next few years. Amman came to Israel with a large group of senior executives. He has been GM president for the past three years and is responsible for GM business worldwide. General Motors has over $140 billion in annual revenue and almost 200 employees.

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November 28, 2017 | A 14-member delegation from the Philippines, led by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB), conducted a road show in Israel from November 6 – 13 to push trade and investments between the two countries. The group was compromised of 11 companies in food, electronics, IT, and trading sectors. The business trip was led by Assistant Secretary Rafaelita M. Aldaba of the Dept. of Trade’s Industry Development and Trade Policy Group (IDTPG). Participants met with the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce and the Haifa Chamber of Commerce for business presentations and also had business-to-business meetings organized by the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce. The group also visited Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Filipino / Asian stores in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce President Dror Atari said the event is a milestone in improving the bilateral trade relationship between Israel and the Philippines.

 

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November 28, 2017 | Ten Israeli startups were selected to participate in an accelerator program in Beijing, China led by the Israeli Ministry of Economy in cooperation with China’s largest private equity fund, the Chinese Shengjing Group, and the business community DayDayUp. The Israel–China Accelerator is a six-month program where the startups receive “in-depth training regarding the Chinese market and business matchmaking services toward potential investors, customers and strategic partners, as well as work space in Beijing,” the ministry and the Chinese groups said in a joint statement.  The 10 chosen Israeli startups are: the Tel-Aviv based Anzu which offers an “immersive-first advertising platform focused on VR/AR environments”; Social Internet, based in Ramat Gan, which provides “technology-enabled services helping enterprises handle their Influencer Relationship Management (IRM)”; the Ramat Gan-based biotech company TechsoMed which developed “ultrasound based real-time monitoring systems for thermal ablation procedures”; the financial services firm I know first which gives daily market forecasts based on predictive algorithms; the Ceasarea-based company TapReason, a “platform that optimizes business processes for mobile apps”; Modcon which focuses on process analyzers; Gencell, a Petah Tikva-based “provider of power backup solutions”; Personalics, which does “smart advertising and predictive customer behavior; Pom Vom, which developed the PaparazMe app for “automatic, real-time photo exchange”; and Watteam, founded by Israeli cycling enthusiasts who developed an “affordable power meter that works on any bike.”

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November 28, 2017 | WeWork, the urban coworking space company founded by Israeli-born Adam Neumann, will acquire the New York-based social networking platform Meetup, according to a report in Crunchbase. According to Crunchbase, Meetup CEO and co-founder Scott Heiferman told his team in an internal meeting that took place at Meetup headquarters. He mentioned an alleged $30 million figure, but no word yet on whether this is an acquisition price or a reference to an expected investment. WeWork confirmed the acquisition on Tuesday, November 28, but said Meetup would remain a standalone company for now, according to Mashable. Meetup is a social networking service allowing users to organize meetings offline related to shared interests and passions. Founded in New York City in 2010, WeWork is expanding rapidly with 150,000 members across 171 locations in 18 countries. The startup has invested in various projects and is worth at least $10 billion.

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November 28, 2017 | The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology was ranked first worldwide in preparing students for a “digital revolution” and teaching them digital skills, in a recent survey published in Times Higher Education. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and University College London both took second place. In the overall survey, which ranked 150 universities in 33 countries “based on the perceptions of both national and international companies about the employability of their graduates,” the Technion came in at 113, up nine points from last year with the 122nd spot. The first spot went to California Institute of Technology, followed by Harvard University in second place and Columbia University in third. Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said the Technion rank for digital skills is “a badge of honor.” Lavie said that “in recent years, Technion has placed considerable emphasis on training its students to meet the changing needs of the digital revolution. As a result, Technion’s interdisciplinary research is expanding and advancing by leaps and bounds, in a process integrating life sciences and engineering.”

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November 28, 2017 | Shares dropped for Israel’s three largest shopping mall companies after news hit that Amazon planned to open a shipping center for the Israeli market, according to a report in Calcalist. On Sunday, Azrieli Group reported a 4.4 percent drop, while Melisron Ltd. went down 6.1 percent, and BIG Shopping Centers went down 4.8 percent. According to the report, investors are pessimistic about the incoming distribution center because it is a threat to the local industry, but retail executive have mixed feelings. BIG Shopping Centers CEO Eitan Ben-Zeev says any advantage that Amazon may have from local shipping and distribution will be offset by increased taxes from authorities on company sales. Still, online retailers have tax exemptions including the advantage that shipments less than $75 will not have a value-added tax (VAT) of 17 percent. Also, custom taxes are not required for orders of less than $500. It is unclear whether Amazon will face these tax exemptions.

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November 28, 2017 | Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings, the investment and holdings firm of Japanese insurance company Sompo Japan Nipponkoa set up a center in Tel Aviv earlier this month. According to Reuters, the insurance giant is looking for investments in startups developing fintech and cybersecurity, including artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT.) It also seeks companies for strategic cooperation, the company told Reuters. Sompo is the first Japanese insurance company to open a fintech center in Israel. It also already has centers in Tokyo and Silicon Valley. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa provides property and casualty insurance products in Japan and throughout the world.

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