Winners and Losers of the Week: Intel’s Israeli AI Team Behind new Nervana NNP-I Chip

This week’s winners are:

Intel’s Israeli AI development team for introducing the Nervana NNP-I chip. The chip is the first artificial intelligence product developed at Intel’s development center in Haifa in northern Israel. The company unveiled the new chip, designed to handle large workloads at low power, at the Hot Chips 2019 conference in Silicon Valley. Read more

Another winner of this week is ridesharing company Via for being selected to manage New York’s school bus system. The NYC Department of Education is the largest school district in the U.S., transporting around 150,000 students on 9,000 bus routes every day. Read more

Homeis, the startup that wants to help expats connect, for raising $12 Million. The New York and Tel Aviv-based social networking app helps immigrants acclimate in their new country by utilizing the common wisdom of the local community of migrants from the same place and culture. Read more

This week’s losers are:

Once again, Israeli universities for continuously dropping in world rankings. Only Technion Israel Institute of Technology made it to the top 100 list of this year’s Shanghai Ranking. The Haifa-based institute came in at 85th place in this year’s ranking, after dropping eight places since 2018. Read more

This week’s data point: 40%

40% of fresh produce in Israel is wasted at the consumer’s home, and the rate of depreciation of produce in shops is estimated at 15%-17%. Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture announced this week it would award one supermarket chain with a $2.6 million grant as part of a pilot program that would see food retailers pre-package produce to reduce food waste. Read more

This week’s top deals:

Japan's Sompo, AT Partners, NTT Finance launch joint $40 million fund to invest in Israel. Read more

Bright Mountain Media acquires S&W Media Group for $23 million. Read more

Crypto company INX wants to raise $130 million in a U.S. IPO. Read more

Medical data startup MDClone raises $26 million. Read more

Cybersecurity company Checkmarx wins U.S. Navy contract. Read more

Smart farming startup CropX raises $10 million. Read more

Anti-bacterial fabric startup Sonovia receives 2.4 million euros EU grant. Read more

Bosch backs Tel Aviv construction site analytics startup Versatile Natures. Read more