CTech's Tuesday Roundup of Israeli Tech News

Israeli cannabis companies setting sights on Toronto Exchange. The Canadian cannabis market is perceived as having great potential, thanks in large to the recent legalization of recreational use of the drug. Read more

Israel accepted as member of global anti-money laundering organization FATF. Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental organization founded to create anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding policies. Read more

Israeli medical device company WhiteSwell raises $30 million. WhiteSwell will use the funding to develop its catheter-based technology to treat a condition related to heart failure. Read more

SaaS startup Quali Systems raises $22.5 million. Quali Systems offers a cloud-based platform for software testing automation. Read more

Supporting Arab entrepreneurs is vital for Israeli economy, says Innovation Authority chief. Aharon Aharon, head of Israel’s governmental tech investment arm, spoke at a conference on tech and the country's Arab sector held in Nazareth Tuesday. Read more

To make inroads into local market, Yandex partners with Israeli taxi firm. Yango, a taxi-hailing service by Russian technology company Yandex, began operating in Israel Monday. Read more

Automated video creation company Wibbitz parts ways with co-founder. Wibbitz offers a service that semi-automatically creates short videos from existing texts such as media articles. Read more

Coworking real estate company Regus opens Nazareth location. Read more  

Calcalist’s Mind the Data Conference

Digital banking wants to be less big brother, more like Spotify. Speaking at Calcalist's Mind the Data conference in Tel Aviv, Bank Leumi executive Michal Kissos Hertzog said banks need to look to services like Spotify and Netflix to learn how to give their customers valuable services in exchange for their financial data. Read more

Microsoft exec outlines ways to make AI more accessible. The main challenge is that the field of AI is currently dominated by big companies that hold most of the resources and the biggest databases, Ami Luttwak, chief technology officer for Microsoft Israel, said. Read more

The key to military and civil AI applications is data governance, says Israeli military data expert. Lt. Col. Nurit Cohen Inger, head of data at the Israeli military’s Computer Service Directorate, is charged with the development of new technologies in the fields of artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, data extraction, internet of things, and augmented reality for military use. Read more