Yuan to finance shekel startups

Ten aspiring Israeli tech and medical startups made an extraordinary pitch in Tel Aviv recently. Extraordinary because their audience was 3,000 km away: 50 prospective Chinese investors in Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing who hooked up online to assess the startups' virtual pitches in English.

A translator helped both sides make sense of the video conference, part of the TechCode Israel China Innovation Center's broad plan to connect startups in the Middle Eastern country with cash-rich Chinese investment firms on the prowl for cutting-edge technologies.

"We plan to hold such events twice a month. Eventually, we hope it'll be once a week," said Holo Zheng, general manager of TechCode Israel.