February Edition 2022

30 What notable commercial transactions have you seen? DoorDash’s Wolt acquisition is probably the latest notable transaction. Israel has been one of the key and best performing markets for Wolt and 83North was one the largest investors bringing good returns to them. Also, Playtika did their second acquisition from Finland end of August when they bought Finland-based mobile apps company Reworks Oy for USD 600 million. When looking more traditional industries, Nokia is well established in Israel, KONE was selected to equip escalators and elevators to Tel Aviv’s Light Rail Line in Israel and Konecranes has delivered plenty of equipment and systems to new smart port; Port South in Ashdod, to name a few. What opportunities lie ahead for Israel and Finland? I would highlight that Israel has always been very strong B2B ecosystemand I think that Finnish B2C solutions could have plenty of opportunities in Israel to complement that ecosystem. Digital Health, and especially secondary use of data supported by AI/ML related solutions, is one of the key verticals. Finland and Israel share very similar structure in their healthcare systems: it is a world class, universal, centralized, digitalized, public sector driven and therefore all residents are entitled to basic health care as a fundamental right. Additionally both countries have digital key (national ID number) to identify citizens and vast amount of health data collected over many decades. The Israeli energy sector is undergoing substantial developments – mainly around the reform of the electricity sector and renewables targets. We cooperate with both sides to leverage Finnish capacities in areas such as smart grids, energy storage, hydrogen economy and waste-to-energy. The reform of the port sector and opening of new private ports bear many opportunities for FI know-how in Smart Maritime and Ports. Finnish companies are already deeply involved in various projects. It’s also great to see that the need for Circular Economy, CleanTech, Clean Energy and Sustainability related solutions are getting more and more attention in Israel. This is a massive opportunity for Finnish companies that already have developed commercially proven solutions and have helped Finland to become one of the most sustainable countries in the world. It’s still a long but important journey ahead and I believe that we have plenty of untapped opportunities.

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