CTech's Weekly Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Israel won’t settle for Airbnb’s settlement snub. The Israeli government is trying to overturn Airbnb’s decision to remove listings in settlements in the West Bank. Read more

The company is also facing some backlash in the U.S. Read more

An ambitious interview with Compass co-founder Ori Allon. The company’s executive chairman says Compass is the biggest brand name in U.S. real estate. Read more

Ori Alon. Photo: Orel Cohen

Israeli credit card clearance system overwhelmed in Black Friday rush. Black Friday madness has reached the Israeli market, with about 10,000 credit transactions measured per minute in the country in peak hours. Read more

Israel comes as close second on list of biggest investors in Israeli tech. American investors top the list with 35% of all capital raised by Israeli companies between 2013 and 2018. Read more

Amazon Web Services launches ARM core-based custom CPU. The central processing unit was developed by Annapurna Labs, an Israel-based chipmaker acquired by Amazon in 2015. Read more

Twitter to grow commercial presence in Israel. The company’s first B2B event in Israel is being held Monday with attendance by hundreds of local entrepreneurs and executives. Read more

FSD Pharma co-chairman on where the cannabis industry is headed. On a visit to Israel, the co-chairman of the company said he believes cannabis research is going to come from Israel and Australia. He expects China to become a significant player in the cannabis market. Read more

Former Telecom Italia CEO calls his ousting a coup. Earlier this month, while on a business trip to Seoul, Amos Genish was removed from his position as CEO of Italy’s biggest phone group Telecom Italia following a public stakeholder clash. Read more

El Al to compensate passengers for failing to land in time for Shabbat. After failing to land a flight in time for Shabbat earlier this month and consequently making a series of publicity faux pas, Israel’s national carrier El Al said Monday it would compensate each of the 400 affected passengers with a roundtrip flight to Europe. Read more

After more than seven years, Israel raises interest rate. On Monday, the Bank of Israel raised its benchmark interest rate, for the first time in seven and a half years, from 0.1% to 0.25%. Read more 

M&A and IPOs

Red Hat acquires Israeli cloud management startup NooBaa. Read more

BNP Paribas backs API startup OpenLegacy. Read more

Fosun Pharma acquires Israeli distributer via Israeli subsidiary Sisram. Read more 

Funding

Blockchain securities startup Securitize raises $12.75 million. Read more

WeWork’s Adam Neumann invests in Ehud Barak’s cannabis venture. Read more

Hotel fee analytics company Hotelmize raises $3.2 million. Read more