Online payments company PayPal is deepening its involvment in Israel with the establishment of a new collaboration with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). They will conduct joint R&D in the fields of big data, machine learning and cyber security. It is the first such collaboration between PayPal and an Israeli university, BGU said in a statement.
PayPal’s involvement in Israel started with the acquisition of Israeli startup Fraud Sciences in 2008. The company has also established a global risk and data sciences R&D center in Tel Aviv. Over the last eight years, this center has delivered cutting-edge technologies in the fields of fraud detection, data sciences and big data.
After PayPal acquired Israeli startup CyActive in 2015 for about $60 million, which was part of JVP and BGU’s incubator program, the company set up a global security products center in Beer- Sheba’s Advanced Technologies Park, adjacent to BGU.
BGU is at the center of Beer-Sheva’s transformation into the country’s cyber capital, where leading multinational corporations leverage BGU’s expertise to generate innovative R&D.
A third of Israel’s engineers graduate from BGU, with that number destined to rise as the IDF moves south and sends its brightest to join the ranks of BGU’s student body. To accommodate that growth, BGU has launched an ambitious campaign to double the size of its main campus.
