VENTURE CAPITAL POST

President Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Israeli government has approved to give Intel a $3.2 billion grant for its upcoming $25 billion chip plant in southern Israel.

The Biden administration is facing heightened scrutiny for supplying tank shells to Israel without obtaining congressional approval.

Authorities in Israel are currently investigating unusual trading activities that occurred just days before the October 7 Hamas attack.

Airlines are grappling with a significant decline in bookings following the conflict between Israel and Hamas as people cancel trips to the Middle East and nearby countries.

An ultra-Orthodox Israeli start-up incubator organization – KamaTech, launched a venture capital fund focused exclusively to entrepreneurs and start-ups from the haredi community in a seasonally appropriate setting – a succa – a temporary hut as a symbolic shelter commemorating the time when the Israelites lived in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt.

Palo Alto-based venture firm Accel has raised a new fund. The fund is targeting the next generation of entrepreneurs in Europe and Israel.

Firms in United States are looking into Israeli cannabis research and development. Israel, the pioneer in high tech agriculture is now leading the medical marijuana R&D.

Israeli fintech hub initiative is receiving $2 million investments from Chinese venture capital firm Pando Group. The partnership is expected to build the bridge between Israel companies and the Asian markets.

Cisco has acquired Leaba Semiconductor, an Israeli company for less than $400 million. The acquired company provides new ideas and solutions for important infrastructure difficulties. It focuses on the product design, development and marketing and develop affinity with silicon wafer manufacturers.

Stratasys, the leading player in the 3-D printing and additive manufacturing industry, has extended its investment arm towards the promising start-up, Massivit. The start-up is just the kind of venture Stratasys likes to support, with disruptive technologies like their proprietary Gel Dispensing Printing and the 1800 3D printer which produces 3D printed sculptures.

Nestle has decided to acquire the remaining stake of 36.3% in Osem and take the Israeli food company fully private. An offer of $840 million has been made to buy out the shares, and a shareholder meeting has been scheduled in March which should reveal the final decision arrived at by the company.

Palestinian-American entrepreneur Zahi Khouri teamed up with Palestinian investors to build a Coca-Cola manufacturing plant in the Gaza Strip. This new factory would provide direct jobs for 250 people and indirectly support 1,000 local families. This move is one of the first and most significant economic development in Gaza after the end of the war in 2014.

ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has begun selling Iraqi crude oil to Syria, against which the Islamic militant group has been fighting to take over the country.

It appears that a supergiant gas field was recently discovered in an Egyptian coast by an Italian oil group called 'Eni'. According to a recent report by Telegraph, "a supergiant gas field holding the equivalent of 5.5 billion barrels of oil has been discovered off the coast of Egypt, the largest ever find in the Mediterranean."