Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

The Technion – Israel’s Hard Drive

michal — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:41:10 +0000

The most ambitious project in the sphere of technology studies, and perhaps in all of higher education, in the world is being planned, and Israel’s leading technology institute, the Technion, is playing a major role in it.

Cornell and the Technion together won the prize in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s contest to create a new science school. According to the Technion,The Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute (TCII) is a joint venture of Technion and Cornell University, and will be a key component of the new Cornell NYC Tech campus, a unique high-tech graduate school to be established on Roosevelt Island in New York City. As conceived by Mayor Bloomberg, the goal of the entire NYC Tech campus – and the TCII within it – is to turn NYC into the high-tech capital of the world.Even though the sprawling Cornell NYC Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is still 25 years away, the New York Times recently reported that the first program is already up and running. Eight students enrolled in January in what is being called the beta class, a one-year master’s program in computer science.

Perhaps in light of this exciting project on the horizon in New York, the Times recently covered the Technion and tried to understand what is the “magic formula” which makes the Technion such a phenomenon:

“I can say without exaggeration that Israel could not have been built without the Technion,” says Yossi Vardi, who has founded or helped build more than 60 companies in Israel and has five degrees from the Technion. “There is a Technion graduate behind practically every highway, desalinization plant, new missile technology and start-up company in the country.”

This is not mere school spirit talking. According to Shlomo Maital, senior research fellow at the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, a fourth of the university’s 60,000 alumni who are of working age have, at one time or another, initiated a business, and a fourth are C.E.O.’s or vice presidents. The annual output of graduates in high-tech industries is estimated to be at least $21 billion. Among inventions from Technion research labs: the memory stick, drip irrigation, the Parkinson’s drug rasagiline, the iron dome air defense system and instant messaging.

What stand behind the success is being debated, it could be the fact that Israeli students come out of their military service, making them more mature, it could be the “Jewish Mother” effect, or simply excellence in education. Whatever it is, New York’s Bloomberg hopes that the Cornell NYC Tech will do for the city what the Technion has done for Haifa, and for Israel’s hi-tech industry as a whole.

For the full New York Times article click here.

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Company Tracks Your Online Behavior To Protect Your Privacy

daniel — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:07:46 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Company Tracks Your Online Behavior To Protect Your Privacy

There has been an increasing concern as to whether password-protection really protects our privacy. While many online companies, such as Facebook and Google, have introduced steps such as two-step verification to protect our personal information, these are still easy to bypass for experienced hackers. Although some companies have introduced biometrics such as face recognition and fingerprint identification as means of protecting items such as laptops, there’s no such solution for services accessed online. Thus, Israeli company BioCatch just might have a simple, yet secure solution. BioCatch's technology tracks our online behavior and analyzes it to see if it really is us or someone pretending to be us. It uses the idea that each person interacts with a computer slightly differently, whether it is the way we move our mouse pointer or the tiny differences in our reaction speed. To read more about BioCatch and it's features, click here. For more information about Israeli innovations, contact Daniel Blumenthal.

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

QIZs Help Stimulate Jordanian Exports to the United States

nitzan — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:06:12 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

QIZs Help Stimulate Jordanian Exports to the United States

In 2012, Jordan was the U.S.’s 73^rdlargest goods trading partner with $2.8 billion in bilateral trade in goods. Goods exports totaled $1.6 billion; Goods imports totaled $1.2 billion. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Jordan was $489 million in 2012.

In 2012, Jordan was the United States’ 79^th largest supplier of goods. U.S. goods imports from Jordan totaled $1.2 billion in 2012, up 9% ($1.1 billion) from 2011.

The top 5 imports categories (2-digit HS) for 2012 were: articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted ($653 million); articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted ($327 million); precious stones, diamonds, and jewelry ($63 million); pharmaceutical products ($25 million); and made-up textile articles, needlecraft sets, worn clothing and worn textile articles ($22.6 million).

U.S. imports of agricultural products from Jordan totaled $10.3 million in 2012. Leading categories include: preparations of vegetables, fruit and nuts ($3.2 million); tobacco ($2.8 million); miscellaneous edible preparations ($1.4 million); and coffee, tea, and spices ($.9 million).

Qualifying Industrial Zones:

The U.S.–Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA) helped lay the foundation to establish economic cooperation between Israel and two of its neighbors, Jordan and Egypt. In 1996, two years after the signing of the Israel–Jordan Peace Agreement and seventeen years after the signing of the Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty, the United States Congress established the Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) initiative in order to encourage regional economic integration and promote prosperity and stability in the Middle East.

The QIZ initiative was enacted as an amendment to the legislation implementing the U.S.–Israel FTA. Under the QIZ initiative, products manufactured in factories in designated geographic zones in Jordan and Egypt are granted duty free access to the United States, provided they meet the Israeli content requirement of the rules of origin.

In 1998, one year before the first Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) was established in Jordan, U.S. imports from Jordan were only $16.4 million. After the first QIZ was established in 1999 imports from Jordan nearly doubled to $31 million, but imports under QIZ program only reached $159,000. In absolute terms, U.S. imports from Jordanian QIZs peaked in 2006 when they reached $1 billion.

The percentage of U.S. imports from Jordan under the QIZ initiative has dramatically declined in recent years, from a high of about 90% in 2002 and 85% in 2004 to around 5% in 2012. Today the vast majority of imports now enter the U.S. duty-free under the U.S.-Jordan FTA rather than the QIZ program because in 2010 the FTA was fully implemented and Jordanian textiles were eligible for preferential treatment.

In 2012, U.S. imports from Jordan reached $1.2 billion, with 88% of imports ($1 billion) under the U.S.-Jordan FTA, no program was claimed for 7% of imports ($80 million), and imports under the QIZ accounted for nearly 5% of imports ($55 million).

Israel Commercial Mission, Embassy of Israel

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Hummus is winning America over

nitzan — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:19:13 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Hummus is winning America over

The Wall Street Journal reports that apparently "Hummus is conquering America"- Sabra Dipping Co., a joint venture of PepsiCo Inc. and Israel's Strauss Group Ltd., wants to cultivate a commercial crop in Virginia to reduce its dependence on the legume's main U.S. growing region—the Pacific Northwest—and to identify new chickpea varieties for its dips and spreads. Hummus is becoming very popular among Americans seeking more-healthful snacks. The chickpea dip is low in fat and high in protein. Sales of "refrigerated flavored spreads"—a segment dominated by hummus—totaled $530 million at U.S. food retailers last year, up 11% from a year earlier and a 25% jump over 2010, according to market-research firm Information Resources Inc. Read the full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323798104578453174022015956.html

Israel Commercial Mission, Embassy of Israel

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Buffett completes ownership of Iscar for $2 Billion

michal — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:14:57 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Buffett completes ownership of Iscar for $2 Billion

In another major vote of confidence on the part of one of the world’s most respected businessmen in the Israeli economy, Warren Buffett has completed his acquisition of Israeli tool-maker Iscar for $2 Billion. In 2006 Buffet purchased 80% of the company (his first acquisition outside the US) for $4 Billion. This last round will give Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway complete ownership of the company.

The Israeli media reported widely on the sale. Buffet is widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful and shrewdest businessmen, and his investment in Iscar is a large-scale vote of confidence in Israel’s industry and economy. Since his acquisition of 80% in 2006, the company’s value has doubled to $10 Billion, proving once again Buffet’s business acumen. The deal is reported to bring in to the Israeli government an estimated half a billion dollars.

Berkshire had high expectations for Iscar, and the company passed them, Buffett told TheMarker. Israel isn’t a place to look for oil, but there isn’t a better place to find talent, he stated, adding that Iscar’s team is one of the best in the world when it comes to brains, energy and commitment.

Globes interviewed Buffett following the announcement. Buffett is quoted in the interview as saying: ”Iscar will be worth more money as the years go by, because the business will be built further. The management will never be satisfied with where they are, and I love that about it. I’m never satisfied. I feel OK, but still, I look forward to tomorrow, and they do too.”

For the full Wall Street Journal article click here.

For the full Globes article click here.

For the full Haaretz-The Marker article click here.

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Appreciate Will Help You Find The Droid (App) You Were Looking For

daniel — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:50:49 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Appreciate Will Help You Find The Droid (App) You Were Looking For

An Israeli app discovery service, Appreciate, was launched recently on the Android app store to help users find the better-quality apps. The company was founded two years ago by CEO Amir Maor and CTO Yaron Segalov, both who have previous experience in the mobile industry and with big data.

Appreciate provides an unique way of determining app quality. Appreciate not only understands which apps are quality apps – a metric it understands by analyzing a variety of specific signals – it also matches those apps to a user’s unique personal tastes. Instead of determining an app's quality based on ratings or reviews, its looks for other indicators – like whether or not users have installed the app then rapidly uninstalled it, for example – a sure signal that it may have left something to be desired.

To read more about Appreciate and its features, click here. For more information about Israeli innovations, contact Daniel Blumenthal.

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Project Ray Builds A New Kind Of Smartphone For The Blind

daniel — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:37:52 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Project Ray Builds A New Kind Of Smartphone For The Blind

A new kind of smartphone for the blind people has been developed as a way to bridge the digital divide and raise the bar in accessibility for the blind and visually impaired. Boaz Zilberman, the founder of the Israeli startup company Project Ray, created a Android operating system designed for the blind. The phones were specially designed around a touch system that every blind person knows - the 12-key number pad. Every screen has the apps and commands arranged in a square. The phone reads the command when users simply move their fingers and executes the command when they lift the finger off. The first unlocked phones were recently released for the Israeli and European markets. In June, they'll be arriving in the U.S., available either unlocked or as part of a contract. To read more about Project Ray and its features, click here. For more information about Israeli innovations, contact Daniel Blumenthal.

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

“Israel Alley” at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC happening NOW. Solutions & pics inside! [UPDATED]

joshb — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:20:20 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

“Israel Alley” at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC happening NOW. Solutions & pics inside! [UPDATED]

***UPDATE! (May 1, 10:00)*** New companies added to the catalog below, and pics from last night's USI Innovation reception. ***UPDATE (April 30, 12:44)*** TechCrunch blog covers Israel Alley startup Glide. LINK ***UPDATE! (April 30, 12:00)*** TechCrunch blog covers Israel Alley startup Stylit. LINK ***UPDATE! (April 30, 11:00)*** Madison+Mountainview tech and business blog covers Israeli startups at Day 1 of TC Disrupt! LINK

SOLUTIONS AT A GLANCE The following are on display in Israel Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013. For information on how you can participate in this activity, or if you would like to schedule a meeting with a company, please contact Oded at the Israel Economic Mission in NYC. CLICK HERE for pics of ISRAEL ALLEY! [Updated] For Investors: To invest in any of these or other Israeli technology startups, you can do so by registering for our IEM Investors Network, powered by GUST. The companies:

Bizzabo is the ideal event networking app designed to help event organizers communicate with attendees while giving them the best social and networking experience. Since its launch in July 2012, more than 2,000 leading conferences from around the world chose Bizzabo as their official event app.

You know the story, you are working passionately on something important while listening to your music. You are almost sure someone is calling you, so you mute the volume…but apparently no one did! So you turn the volume back on, but now you’ve lost your train of thought. ClapTo is a solution for those non-stop false alarms! ClapTo is a tiny app that allows people to simply clap their hands to mute your music and get your attention. Once you’re ready, you can get back to work by the click of a button!

DeckDAQ has an innovative Facebook platform that enable fans to collect and trade Virtual Goods of their favorite brands. Our platform powers games with many brands including: Dilbert, Elvis, Garfield, AC Milan, AS Roma and many more coming this summer. We are looking for additional brands and strategic partners to help us expand. Offices in New York City and Tel Aviv, Israel. Contact: eric@deckdaq.com for more info.

eDealya allows marketers to spend their advertising budgets wisely bidding only for qualified audience that matches their marketing need. Mobile advertisers rely on the“spray and pray”method based on the lack of audience segmentation and targeting data. As a fragmented industry, mobile advertising relies on various players to provide optimization based on specific niches, but all result in low eCPMs for publishers and below average ROI for marketers. Advertisers and publishers leverage eDealya’s proprietary technology to build a comprehensive consumer profile on each individual device resulting in targeted audience segments for mobile campaigns. By leveraging our algorithms and extensive inventory, campaigns see an increased ROI.

Emaze has a vision to change the way people create presentations through a simple, fully automated process that generate powerful and engaging showcases. Emaze is a revolutionary new concept to turns ideas into stunning live stories. It is an HTML5 cross-platform cloud based web application, compatible with all computers, tablets and mobile devices. It enables users to create amazing presentations with little effort or expertise involved.

EXP is a patented futures marketplace for consumer products.

Glide is a video walkie talkie app that enables users to broadcast private video messages to friends. Messages are broadcast live the moment recording begins and simultaneously saved to the cloud for on-demand consumption.

Hostr lets people host live performances in their homes and share the cost with their friends. It connects musicians, artists, actors, writers and speakers with hosts and with audience for up-close personal and intimate experiences. It helps artists make a living and get discovered without any charges.

Platform Intalix connects single users in a very easy and convenient way. Intalix enables users to browse and interact with other single users that they don’t know through their mutual friend or directly. Intalix does it on all of the previously mentioned social networks: Facebook, Google+, VKONTAKTE, Orkut, Odnoklassniki and Instagram.

Keepy.me is a conversation starter for families. Initially, by helping parents storing their kid's offline work as a vehicle to engage family members who share, comment and forward short videos, we see it rapidly expanding to be the multi-generational communication center. Founded by Offir, a serial entrepreneur who was until recently a VP of Business Development for Getty's PicScout division. Keepy.me, is a venture that combines Offir's background and his love for children’s creativity. Keepy is currently bootstrapped to the point where it has a team in place, R&D in Israel, with marketing and product in NYC.

MultiDine is a servicing platform that lets you interact through touch, learns your taste and helps you discover your favorite dishes and restaurants, inside the restaurant and on your way to one. Changing the way restaurants communicate with their customers, the restaurant staff easily increases profits and customer retention. Requiring No Integration, MultiDine maintains the traditional dining experience and enhances it fit today’s tech-culture.

ProductStructure is like an Adserver – but for applications – dynamically providing websites with the specialized tools they need to attract and engage users. Our comprehensive front-end and back-end solution is implemented via a line of javascript and automatically serves the most effective versions of features such as login/registration, friends/followers, invitation and subscription to websites. Once in place, these features are self-optimizing so our customers can rest assured that they always have the best tools for their user while saving time and money in the process.

Proleafic transforms enterprise collaboration and business intelligence by revealing the evolving relationships between people, projects, data, and stakeholders – automatically, to enable employees to collaborate and find knowledge faster, while providing business intelligence insights to help managers and executives to analyze employees' activities and engagements level, and optimize their resource allocation strategies.

Stylit offers free online personalized styling services. Users fill out a fun questionnaire and receive weekly outfit recommendations that match their style preference, size and budget. We use professional stylists in combination with high end machine learning technology to give a scalable valuable solution with high users’ engagement.

TAKO converts any mobile device into a full user-friendly work station. We do this by centralizing all your apps into 1 virtual desktop thereby allowing you to run your apps from any device. TAKO then automatically adjusts the app you are running to that device in real time. TAKO also allows you to share you apps with friends, friends and colleagues.

Webydo provides professional designers with a full SaaS solution for both the creation and management of cross platform business websites, without programming. This design-centered cloud platform includes both a Design Management System and a built-in Content Management System for the website owners. This integrated system allows designers total creative freedom in designing unique websites from scratch without writing one line of code, while facilitating direct communication between designers and their clients in the ongoing management of the website. Behind the scenes, Webydo’s innovative CODE GENERATOR automatically generates both an HTML website updated to the latest industry standards, cross all browsers & platforms and optimized for SEO, and a friendly WYSIWYG built-in CMS.

Wedeeo is a truly social video application that gives you the power to co-create, mix and share video moments together with your friends and fans. Wedeeo is seamlessly integrated with Facebook and Facebook pages which allows true engagement and fun communication with your fans. It’s video together.

For more info about the event and roadshow surrounding the Israeli Delegation at TechCrunch NYC this year, CLICK HERE. CLICK HERE for pics of ISRAEL ALLEY! [Updated]

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Companies at Houston’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC)

roee — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:05:24 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israeli Companies at Houston’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC)

Innovative companies will be at Houston’s Offshore Technology Conference, the premier U.S. event for offshore development including drilling, exploration, production and environmental protection.

These companies include a delegation of companies that own drilling rights in off-shore parcels and are looking for partnerships with energy companies and capital to start drilling. This delegation is organized by the Israel Association of Chambers of Commerce and the Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Industries in Israel. The delegation includes: Adira Energy, Avner Oil and Gas, Delek Drilling, Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), Israel Opportunity Energy Resources, Modiin Energy, Ratio Oil Exploration and Zion Oil and Gas. For a profile on each company please click here.

A second delegation of Israeli companies have technology solutions for the oil and gas exploration industry. This delegation is being organized by the Israel Export Institute and they will be sharing a booth on the Exhibition floor #812. Their main interest is meeting with drilling companies and drilling companies’ service providers and many of them carry solutions involving water used throughout the oil and gas industry. The companies include: Atlantium, Dorot, IOsat, Eltav, Filtersafe, HOP, Nirosoft, PCT, Emco Marine and Blue Ark. For a catalog of the companies’ profiles, please click here.

There are multiple business opportunities with great potential for high future returns in the thriving Israeli oil and gas industry, which is currently in its early stages of development. Two of the top ten natural gas discoveries in the world are off the Israeli coast – the Leviathan and the Tamar, measuring 18 and 10 trillion cubic feet respectively, including 35 million barrels of condensate in both reservoirs. The full potential of these discoveries is far from realized.

For more information please send an email to Audrey.Niego @ Israeltrade.gov.il

Israel Trade & Economic Office

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

Israel at NHS 2013

paul — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:32:31 +0000

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel

May 7, 2013 - May 9, 2013
Las Vegas, Nevada

Join the Economic Mission at the National Hardware Show (NHS) in Las Vegas this May and see what Israel has to offer. The National Hardware Show is the prime time and place for face-to-face sourcing, trading and learning for the $343 billion dollar US home improvement and DIY markets. This year, 12 Israeli companies will showcase their diverse solutions, ranging from water-saving products to cleaning and disinfecting solutions, to textile recreation technologies and gardening tools. For more information on the exhibiting companies, please click here.

If you will be attending NHS and are interested in meeting any of the Israeli companies, please contact the Economic Mission.

Catalog of Companies

Israel Trade & Economic Office, Embassy of Israel