August Newsletter – Israel's Sustainable / Renewable Energy Technology

Israel has long played a major role in the Cleantech field, evolving from a nation of limited natural resources to a significant player in global sustainability. The Israeli sustainable energy industry is today considered a global pioneer thanks to breakthrough technological innovations in this area.

Israel's Sustainable / Renewable Energy Technology is Vega’s topic of the month. For a full coverage of this topic please refer to the Full Article published at our Blog.

Israel's Sustainable / Renewable Energy Technology 

Israel has long played a major role in the Cleantech field, evolving from a nation of limited natural resources to a significant player in global sustainability. The Israeli sustainable energy industry is

today considered a global pioneer thanks to breakthrough technological innovations in this area.

The Global Energy Challenge

The use of energy has always been key to the development of human society, enabling humanity to control and adapt to its environment for centuries. Nowadays, humanity is forced to utilize all of its creativity and technological innovation to answer the rising energy needs. In turn, this challenge also presents a huge market and business opportunity for those companies that can provide real, relevant and outstanding sustainable energy solutions.

Sustainable/ Renewable energy industry fast facts

P  Renewable forms of energy have contributed 14% of the growth in global power generation over the past three years.

P  World primary energy consumption - oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy - fell by 1.1% in 2009, indicating a rise in sustainable energy use.

P  Solar energy demand has grown at about 30% per annum over the past 15 years (hydrocarbon energy demand typically grows between 0-2% per annum).

P  The projected global clean energy investment in 2017 will be $254.5 billion.

P  Only 1.7% of the world’s total energy supply is provided by sustainable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, etc.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of human prosperity hinges on finding a way of supplying the world’s growing energy needs in a way that does not irreparably harm the environment. Until recently, it looked as if we had plenty of time to meet that challenge. No longer.”

Israel - A history of turning desert into oasis

Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has placed great emphasis on conserving energy wherever possible; developing innovative, alternative, and sustainable solutions to combat the nation’s lack of natural resources. Ranging from its decades-long use of solar thermal energy, to its development of unique biofuels, the country has consistently turned its natural disadvantages around, achieving great success and demonstrating expertise and knowledge in the field of sustainable energy. Energy sustainability has been a national priority in Israel since day one, and this emphasis has proven itself in one of the world’s most emergent and well-crafted energy systems.

ï  Israel serves as the base to over 100 start-ups in the sustainable energy sector.

ï  Solar water heaters are used in over 90% of Israeli homes.

ï  Israel houses one of the world’s largest solar energy dishes at the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center.

ï  The Israeli Public Utility Authority and National Infrastructures Ministry have established feed-in tariffs for the development of solar and wind power technology, encouraging major investment and innovation into these fields.

ï  As of October 2010, a consortium of leading Israeli companies, investors and academic institutions began to develop and operate a brand new technology center for sustainable energy in the south of the country.

ï  Israel is currently embarking on programs that will enable it to integrate alternative energy systems and implement energy efficiency technologies to meet climate change challenges. 

For more ...... See Vega's August  Newsletter

São Paulo is the best tech startup ecosystem in LatAm

São Paulo is the best place in Latin America for budding tech entrepreneurs, according to a study.Availability of capital, startup performance and market reach are the city's strongest points
By Angelica Mari , Brazil Tech

The study Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking 2015 ranks the largest urban center in Brazil as the 12th most attractive city to start a technology-based business.

According to the research, carried out by software development firm Compass, the city has gone up one position in relation to the previous study, published in 2012.

The criteria used in the study includes ability to expand internationally and local talent, as well as availability of capital, startup performance and market reach - the last three points being the strongest in São Paulo.

São Paulo was the only Latin American city to appear among the top 20 locations cited in the ranking. According to the study, the best locations to start a tech business are the Silicon Valley, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Tel Aviv.

The Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking is based on interviews with more than 200 entrepreneurs and industry players in 25 countries, as well as a five-year survey of more than 11,000 startups and investors worldwide.

Start-up cracks wheat genome – in months, not years

For a decade, dozens of scientists in 55 countries toiled to figure out the DNA sequence of wheat – but were unable to meet their goal.
Israeli biotech start-up NRGene, which announced this week that — working with experts at Israeli universities — it was able to map out the genome for wild Emmer wheat in about three months.
By David Shamah, The Times of Israel

“It’s a tremendous accomplishment, both from the technology point of view and for helping to

prevent world hunger,” said Guy Kol, founder and vice president of research and development at Ness Ziona-based NRGene. “As a result, it will be much easier for scientists to develop breeds of bread wheat that will thrive in drier, hotter climates. This is going to be crucial as the world’s population grows, and climate change becomes even more pronounced in the coming decades.”

“The repercussions of the mapping will be felt around the world,” said Dr. Assaf Distelfeld, PhD, of Tel Aviv University (TAU), a renowned wheat geneticist and the primary researcher on the project. “Scientists will now be able to identify key genes in the Emmer wheat and introduce them into commercial wheat via classical breeding, creating hardier varieties across environmental conditions, ultimately increasing the global food supply.”

The potential of genome mapping

Genome sequencing is the latest tool, and among the most important, available to agronomists who are helping farmers develop better versions of staple crops – the most important, according to UN statistics, being maize (corn), along with wheat and rice. As the global population grows, more, and more nutritious food will be needed. This becomes an ever-greater challenge as the world “loses” arable land to the effects of pollution, desertification, and other man-made and natural causes.

Mapping genomes for plants allows scientists to see what makes them “tick” and the attributes they contain which allow them to thrive in specific environments. This holds out great promise for helping to increase the food supply, which is one reason why, as DNA sequencing became feasible in the 1990s, scientists wasted no time in trying to decipher the genetic code that make up maize and rice.


Those projects took between five and ten years to complete, with the rice genome mapped in 2002, and the maize genome completed in 2009. Wheat’s genetic complexity and the amount of information to be analyzed proved to be a much greater challenge. The wild Emmer wheat genome is four times bigger than the human genome, which was mapped in 2003 – and 30 times bigger than the rice genome.

While the data culled from genome mapping could be used to genetically modify a crop, Kol told the Times of Israel that the more common use case is to enable more precise breeding of specific traits in subsequent generations of crops. Farmers have actually been doing this for thousands of years, saving seeds from plants that were better able to withstand the vagaries of weather, insect infestation, and other environmental factors.

Usually it takes 15 years or more to develop a strain that it more suited to specific conditions. With DNA data pointing out a variety’s specific characteristics, farmers will be able to breed crops that can stand up to arid surroundings, brackish water, and other harsh environmental conditions in as little as three years, said Kol.

Wheat genome sequencing research was undertaken in 2005, by the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), which includes over 1,100 scientists, farmers, and food industry executives. By 2015, the group had spent $54 million on developing the genome for bread wheat (the variety used in most temperate climates) – but had not yet completed its work.

How to process 17 billion pairs of base codes?

Enter NRGene, which, in collaboration with Tel Aviv University’s Institute for Cereal Crop Improvement, undertook to map the genome of wild Emmer wheat, an ancient variety endemic to the Middle East, found in many archaeological excavations and ancient tombs. The variety, thought lost, was (re)discovered in 1906 in what is today Rosh Pina, and is used chiefly in mountainous regions in Turkey, central and northern Europe due to its ability to withstand drier and colder environments endemic to those areas.

It looked like a good place to start in the search for genetic factors that could help breed hardier varieties of bread wheat (the preferred variety for commercial production), said Kol. Using its advanced and patented big data analysis system, NRGene was able to generate the Emmer wheat’s genetic base pair codes – 17 billion of them (humans have about 3 billion). Besides the sheer amount of data, said Kol, the NRGene system had to differentiate between a lot of confusing and excessive information.

“Almost 99 percent of the code is the same in each gene,” said Kol. “The difficulty in deciphering those differences was one of the reasons the IWGSC was unable to complete its work.” Instead of the tens of millions of dollars the IWGSC spent, NRGene spent under a million dollars to map Emmer wheat.


Now, with the Emmer genome deciphered, he added, scientists will be able to isolate specific characteristics that could successfully pair up with traits in bread wheat that will allow for growing under specific circumstances. “For example, many farmers are adopting drip irrigation to save money and water, but not all varieties of bread wheat thrive under those circumstances. With specific knowledge of genetic data, we could breed a variety that includes characteristics that would be more successful in a drip irrigation environment.”

Besides the benefit to the world of the wheat research, NRGene’s accomplishment is also a major development for the agricultural business. “Besides wheat, we have successfully mapped over 30 other genomes, some for academic research, and others for commercial use.” In that latter category, said Kol, was a major producer of animal feed, which turned to NRGene for a genome that would help it breed more nutritious varieties of corn for its animals.


In May, NRGene announced that, together with scientists from the USDA and the University of Illinois, it had mapped the rainbow trout, which will enable the breeding of tastier and longer-lived varieties of farmed fish, said NRGene CEO Dr. Gil Ronen.

“Aquaculture is at a critical juncture. The significant decrease in the wild fish population means that they must take the lead in continuing to ensure genetic diversity while still breeding healthy, protein-rich, and disease resistant fish,” said Ronen. “Mapping a full and reliable reference genome is a critical step toward efficient breeding, and the trout is simply the first of many critical species for the aquaculture industry that must be mapped.”

Now that Emmer wheat has been “conquered,” NRGene will be working on more basic crop projects, said Kol. “The world is getting drier, and the need to develop varieties of corn and rice that can withstand that is more important than ever. Imagine being able to develop a variety of rice that would be able to go weeks or longer without rain. That would be a very important accomplishment.”

New Brazilian Rules on Outsourcing to Benefit Call Center Companies

Draft laws on outsourcing in Brazil could benefit contact center companies by addressing legal uncertainty and clarifying the requirements involved in such outsourcing deals.

By Silvia Rosa. Nearshore america 

Brazilian call center companies are excited about the draft bill that regulates outsourcing services in the country. Bill 4330 was approved by the Brazilian House of Representatives and sent to the Senate to be voted on. The market expectation is that the new regulations will reduce the legal uncertainty in Brazil and they should increase the demand for contact center services, with companies seeking to

outsource their activities in order to reduce costs in the face of the current slowing of the Brazilian economy.

The call center sector employs about 1.5 million workers, providing customer services for large companies. In 2014, the outsourcing of such services generated US$14.94 billion and for this year, the forecast is for 3.73% growth. However, the lack of specific regulation on outsourcing has increased legal uncertainty in this sector. “The draft bill provides greater legal certainty by allowing the outsourcing of all kinds of activity,” said lawyer Gabriela Coutinho Frassinelli, a specialist in digital law at Opice Blum Associated Attorneys.

The proposed law should help to reduce the number of lawsuits. According to Frassinelli, there are 10,000 legal proceedings involving call center outsourcing and 16,000 legal actions related to outsourcing in general. “If the draft bill, which has been approved by the House of Representatives, passes through Senate it should bring efficiency gains to companies and allow them to plan their processes better,” said José Americo, director of the Brazilian Association of Telecommunications (Telebrasil).

Many contact center companies have faced several lawsuits filed by their employees, who claim that they had to be hired directly by contracting companies rather than the intermediary employer.

In addition, some telecom companies and banks have been fined due to some judges understanding that the outsourcing of the contact center in these sectors is not permitted, because this service is related to the core business of such companies.

However, there is not a clear definition of what is considered a core activity. The precedent “súmula” 331 of the Superior Labor Court (TRT) stipulates that the outsourcing of the services related to the core activities of the contracting company is not permitted. In the cases of activities such as security services, maintenance, cleaning or other services that are not related to the core business of the contracting company, outsourcing is allowed.

Nevertheless, the General Telecommunications Law (Law 9,472 / 1997) provides for the outsourcing of inherent, accessory or complementary services by telecom companies. “We understand that the telecommunications companies were allowed to outsource call centers. This is an issue that is not fully clear and, therefore, it is possible to contest such judgments,” said Americo.

In September 2014, the Minister of the Supreme Court, Teori Zavascki, suspended all legal proceedings in the Labor Court with regard to the legality of call center outsourcing by telecom companies. “Those processes are awaiting judgment by the Court and should remain unchanged until the Supreme Court has a clear understanding about this issue,” said Frassinelli.

Companies that outsource their services have to oversee the tax payments by the contracted companies. “I recommend that companies oversee the payments of employees and tax collection every month, as well as requesting that outsourced companies send their payment receipts,” said Frassinelli.

Furthermore, they continue to have secondary liability, i.e, if the contractor is prosecuted and if it is proved that it is not able to comply with its obligations, the contracting company may be liable.

Frassinelli said that companies that outsource their services should also be aware of situations that can be characterized as a direct employment relationship. “For example, if a certain employee from a contracted company is requested to work within the other company and he has to meet the targets set by the contracting company, this situation can be characterized as a direct employment relationship.”

Legal uncertainty is a factor that has hampered corporate transactions in this sector and has made investment in this segment less attractive for foreign companies.

This situation happened to AeC. The company, one of the largest Brazilian contact center providers, had problems with the negotiation involving a merger with British Serco in 2013, which did not go ahead due to the legal uncertainties regarding outsourcing activity in Brazil.

Headquartered in Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, AeC has about 35,000 employees and expects to reach a revenue of one billion Brazilian real (approximately US$319 billion) this year. “The approval of the outsourcing law should attract foreign companies that are interested in investing in the call center sector in Brazil,” said Watson Pacheco, lawyer specialist in labor and teleservices industry at Terçariol, Yamazaki, Calazans e Vieira Dias Attorneys.

In addition, Brazilian call center companies may specialize in providing specific customer services to clients from different sectors, said Pacheco. After the law on outsourcing comes into force, companies will have 120 days to comply with the new regulations.

Revolutionary: Israeli Researcher Says He Can ‘Erase’ Memory Of Addiction

“Blow”, “Charlie”, “snow” and “nose candy”. These are only some of the code names for the second most addictive drug after methamphetamine – cocaine. The white powder that’s sniffed, smoked or injected is so highly addictive, because users develop tolerance quickly, causing them to gradually increase the amounts they consume. This and other factors make cocaine addictions one of the most difficult drugs to recover from, with drastically high relapse rates.
By Maya Yarowsky, NoCamels

One Israeli researcher hopes he can combat this rate of relapse by overhauling the way we do drug rehabilitation. According to Bar Ilan University Prof. Gal Yadid, drug addiction is not the reward

disease that it was once believed to be, but rather a learning and memory disease that is more like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than anything else. This distinction made it clear that in order to curb addiction, something had to be dramatically changed in the brain. That’s where Yadid’s alternative method to traditional rehabilitation, called “the Incubation of Craving”, comes into play.


By identifying the changes made to our DNA during withdrawal from drugs, namely cocaine, Yadid is able to reprogram the genes responsible for triggering the addict’s strongest cravings to ensure that they won’t return. The method has undergone successful trials in rats addicted to cocaine, and if Yadid is able to show similar results in humans, traditional rehab centers and “replacement” drugs could be a thing of the past.

“Eternal Sunside” of the addicted mind

In what sounds like something out of the science-fiction movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, Yadid claims that he is able to “erase” the memory of drug addiction, thereby preventing relapse. Before jumping to any rash conclusions about what “erasing” memories may mean, we should clarify the scientific backstory.


Back in the 1950’s, a psychologist named James Olds discovered what is colloquially known as the

“pleasure center” of the brain, scientifically termed the ‘nucleus accumbens’. Through images of the
brain, known as PET Scans, Olds noted that a part of the pleasure center, the amygdala, lights up when stimulated by external factors dealing with particular traumatic memories that lend to addictive behavior.

With Olds in mind, Yadid, a neuropsycopharmacologist, wanted to observe what was stimulating the amygdala on a microscopic level, “We screened the entire genome and we found two things: one was that, against all logic, during drug consumption, not many genes are altered in the brain. Second, we found that when the addict is in remission, thousands of genes are changed epigenetically.” Epigenetic changes to genes are those that aren’t inherited from our families, but occur as a result of external, environmental factors, like an exposure to trauma or the ritual of taking a drug. These are actual changes to how the gene functions, which makes it clear why methods of drug replacement and reward therapy wouldn’t and shouldn’t work on the majority of drug addicts.

Yadid discovered that in order to address these epigenetic changes, special drugs needed to be administered in the amygdala at a point of heightened cravings to subdue the effect of the altered genes on the brain. He knew that the epigenetic changes in the genes, a process known as methylation, needed to be reversed, but how?


“We saw that it wasn’t just one or two genes that were changed, it was a cluster of genes that had their DNA changed, or methylated, during the remission period from the drug. That means that we would have to administer a number of drugs in order to see the changes reversed,” says Yadid. “As a frustrated neuropsychopharmacologist I said to myself, ‘Why not reset the system?’”

“Acute, robust, targeted” treatment

Right off the bat, a number of ethical questions came to mind. What if the drugs trying to reverse the

methylation altered the entire genome, and therefore brain function? And what about “innocent” genes that have absolutely nothing to do with addiction? There were a number of potentially scary psychological outcomes that Yadid had to take into account. Yet following a number of trials on cocaine-addicted rats, he finally discovered the correct dosage of the demethylating drugs that could eliminate the memory of drug addiction.
“The beauty of acute, robust and targeted treatment is that you don’t change all of the genes in the brain; you only change the genes that have undergone the most dramatic epigenetic changes. Those genes are reset immediately when they meet the drug at a very specific time and according to a particular cue so that we are reprogramming the genes at the height of the craving,” says Yadid of the method, which has yet to be examined in human subjects. Though Yadid claims that this method could potentially “erase” the memory of addiction for up to 15 years, it is still uncertain how long the brain will retain the effects of the demethylating drugs. He will present the results of his study for examination by his colleagues at the annual Society for Neuroscience Conference this year.

Could rehabilitation be as simple as taking a daily supplement?

If the idea of altering genes in your brain scares you (you’re not alone in that boat), Yadid has a more “natural” way to help wean addicts off drugs. He discovered that a common, over-the-counter

supplement used mostly for its anti-aging benefits called DHEA could dramatically decrease the likelihood of relapse.
Because of its anti-aging properties that seek to keep the brain fresh and on-point, Yadid found that by administering DHEA to drug addicts on a regular basis, it was possible to “replace” memories of addiction with new memories of a life a sobriety. “I observed the cognitive performance of the subjects while they took the DHEA supplement, and a year-and-a-half after they stopped taking the supplement. We saw that 60 percent wouldn’t relapse when they were taking the supplement and then only 11 percent relapsed after taking the supplement,” says Yadid. He also claims that the entire process restored confidence in the subjects, making them less compulsive and less prone to giving into the cravings.

Besides the impressive scientific progress Yadid has made in understanding the treatment of drug addiction, he is convinced that the health systems of today are mistreating drug addicts and leading them down a dangerous path of a lifetime of addiction. “It is our responsibility as a society to make sure that there is proper treatment for drug addiction. I believe that we need to change our entire perception of addiction and what it is, and initiate new approaches to a more effective and long-lasting treatment.”

Brazilian government wants fiber in 90 percent of the country

The Brazilian government wants to roll out fiber optic technology across 90 percent of the country's cities. Current fiber optic coverage is concentrated in 4 percent of Brazilian cities.

By Angelica Mari,Brazil Tech

Without specifying how long the project might take to complete, telecommunications secretary at the Ministry of Communications Maximiliano Martinhão told delegates at an event promoted by the Brazilian Senate that the ambition is part of the National Broadband Plan.

About 80 percent of fiber provision is concentrated in 4 percent of Brazilian cities, the secretary said, adding that the fiber roll out should initially focus on expanding the existing networks.


"Doubling the average [Internet] speed could add 0.3 percentage points to the GDP. Increasing the average speed by five-fold can increase the average monthly household income up to 5.7 percent," Martinhão said.


Internet speed in Brazil lags behind rest of the world: the country's average connection speed goes up, but other South American such as Chile and Uruguay neighbors fared better.

As well as the government intentions to expand the fiber network across the country, other major projects are underway to improve the Internet connectivity in the country: a Brazil-Angola submarine fiber optic cable will be ready in 2017 while a Google-sponsored undersea link will connect Brazil to the US and is due to commence operations in 2016.

Israeli tech firms wins an ‘Oscar’ for fraud prevention

The Israeli fraud prevention firm Forter last week won a Silver Stevie, one of the most prestigious awards in the business world, for taking a lead in the e-commerce and fraud prevention industries.
By David Shamah, The Times of Israel

The Silver Stevie, given out as part of the American Business Awards, are considered “the Oscars of

the business world,” and are given only to companies with “fascinating and inspiring stories of success,” according to Stevie Awards president and founder Michael Gallagher.

Forter is the only fraud prevention company that’s willing to put its money where its mouth is – refunding money to customers if they make an incorrect call about a sale that a retail website loses money on.

When hackers steal credit card numbers, there’s really only two things they can do with them – either sell them, or use them. And using them means going to a website and trying to buy something with them. Unable to stop illicit use of those numbers, consumers have no choice but to rely on retail sites to determine if their account is being used illicitly.

That’s a problem for not only consumers, but for online retailers, who often can only catch fraudulent sales after it’s too late. Often, a purloined credit card number is used even before the consumer is aware that their identity has been compromised, and when that happens, sites and credit card companies foot the bill.

To prevent that, Forter provides a service that examines each sale, determining whether or not it appears legitimate.

“We provide a real-time automated decision service for web retailers that protects them from fraudsters,” said Forter CMO Bill Zielke. “Using our behavior detection algorithms, retailers can quickly determine what transactions are legitimate and which ones are fraudulent.”

“We remove the entire decision-making burden from the retailer – they don’t have to analyze metrics and make an educated guess, as our competitors require,” added Zielke “If we approve a transaction that is fraudulent – we take the hit, paying the site 100% of the failed transaction.

It’s a bold policy, but one that Forter feels quite comfortable backing, said Zielke. “We really have no choice but to be as accurate as possible because we only get paid on approved transactions.”

Forter’s made-in-Israel technology – the company’s founders, Michael Reitblat, Liron Damri, and

Alon Shemesh are all graduates of the IDF’s Unit 8200 cyber-tech unit – uses machine learning to figure out if a transaction represents a problem, said Zielke.

“We implement a behavior analysis layer to see what the customer is doing on a retail site, including what pages they are looking at and what they are doing on those pages,” he explained.

Just like a trained security agent can spot a potential shoplifter in a brick and mortar store, Forter’s system is able to draw on a large database of user behavior on a site to see whether a specific user’s activities fit a legitimate pattern – or if the customer is a likely fraudster.

“There are many data points that can indicate this, like the type of products they are looking at as compared to previous purchases, information about their personal life based on registration information or location, and much more,” said Zielke.

In addition, the system looks at log-in location, IP address, billing/shipping information – in short, casting a very wide net that a fraudster is unlikely to slip through. According to the company, Forter is able to thwart 99% of phony transactions.

Besides keeping out thieves, the system’s big data analytics ensures that legitimate users are not the victims of a false-positive bias.

“We recently had a case where a user logged into a site with an African IP address, and a billing and shipping address in Washington, DC,” said Zielke. “That is the kind of transactions most other fraud prevention systems would have immediately banned, because of the disparity of the data. We approved it, because the customer’s behavior online was in line with acceptable patterns.

“And it turned our we were right,” added Zielke. “After checking the shipping address, we realized that it was a diplomatic mission of an African country, and the customer was a diplomat who was ordering products he was planning to bring home.”

Last November, the company, with 65 employees in Israel, received $15 million in Series B funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Sequoia Capital.

“During the last year we have approved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions that have allowed merchants to boost their mobile commerce, accept more international customers and significantly improve the brand experience,” said Michael Reitblat, Forter CEO and co-founder.

“Our merchants are shipping faster, selling more and experiencing higher customer satisfaction. The support of NEA and Sequoia will help us respond to market demand among US e-tailers by expanding our sales and marketing efforts.”