ITEM 3. Key Information.

A.          Selected Financial Data.

SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

We prepare our historical consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The selected financial data, set forth in the table below, have been derived from our audited historical financial statements for each of the years from 2013 to 2017. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years 2017, 2016 and 2015, and the selected consolidated balance sheets data at December 31, 2017 and 2016, have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements set forth in “Item 18 – Financial Statements.” The selected consolidated statement of operations data for the years 2013 and 2014, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data at December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, have been derived from our previously published audited consolidated financial statements, which are not included in this Annual Report on Form 20-F. These selected financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, as set forth in Item 18, and are qualified entirely by reference to such consolidated financial statements.

B.          Capitalization and Indebtedness.

Not applicable.

C.          Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds.

Not applicable.

D.          Risk Factors.

Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Capital Requirements

We have a limited operating history on which to assess our business, have incurred significant losses since our inception, and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.

We have a limited operating history. We have incurred net losses since our inception in 2009, including a net loss of approximately $2.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. As of December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $15.1 million. In December 2017, we finalized the purchase of Digiflex Ltd., or Digiflex, an Israeli corporation which develops, manufactures and distributes proprietary printers for the graphic industry and non-conductive polymeric inks. Digiflex generated $603,211 in revenues in 2016 and approximately $400,000 in 2017. We expect minimal revenues from Digiflex this year as we transition it into the Company’s operations, and we anticipate Digiflex will contribute to our Company’s losses. Digiflex also has a history of losses, certain debt obligations, and limited operating history. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity and convertible securities and government grants. The amount of our future net losses will depend, in part, on the rate of our future expenditures, our ability to obtain funding through equity or debt financings, strategic collaborations, or grants and our ability to commercialize our products or technologies. We do not know whether or when we will become profitable. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on an ongoing basis. Our inability to achieve and then maintain profitability would negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our history of net losses has raised substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern. If we do not continue as a going concern, investors could lose their entire investment.

We generated extremely limited revenues which are not presently sufficient to sustain our operations. Our total revenues generated from sales were $88,691, $67,678 and $60,740 for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. We have incurred net losses since our inception in 2009, including a net loss of approximately $2.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2017. Digiflex has incurred approximately $21 million of accumulated deficit since inception up to December 3, 2017, the date it was acquired by us.

Our history of net losses has raised substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, and as a result, our independent registered public accounting firm included an explanatory paragraph in its report on our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2017 with respect to this uncertainty. We believe that we will need to raise significant additional funds before we have significant cash flow from operations. Accordingly, our ability to continue as a going concern will require us to seek alternative financing to fund our operations. The substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of new debt or equity securities or otherwise. Future reports on our financial statements may include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern.

We will need significant additional capital, which we may be unable to obtain.

As of December 31, 2017, we had cash reserves of $450,305. As of May 15, 2018, we had sufficient cash to fund operations for approximately two (2) months if we do not raise additional capital. We will need to raise additional capital to continue our operations beyond such two-month period, or earlier if we change our current strategy or operating plan. There can be no assurance that additional funds will be available when needed from any source or, if available, will be available on terms that are acceptable to us. We may be required to pursue sources of additional capital through various means, including debt or equity financings. Future financings through equity investments are likely to be dilutive to existing stockholders. Furthermore, the terms of securities we may issue in future capital transactions may be more favorable for our new investors. Newly issued securities may include preferences, superior voting rights, the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities, and the issuances of incentive awards under equity employee incentive plans, which may have additional dilutive effects. Further, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing future capital and/or financing, including investment banking fees, legal fees, accounting fees, printing and distribution expenses and other costs. We may also be required to recognize non-cash expenses in connection with certain securities we may issue, such as convertible notes and warrants, which will adversely impact our financial condition. Our ability to obtain needed financing may be impaired by such factors as the capital markets and our history of losses, which could impact the availability or cost of future financings. If the amount of capital we are able to raise from financing activities, together with our revenues from operations, is not sufficient to satisfy our capital needs, even to the extent that we reduce our operations accordingly, we may be required to cease operations.

We have generated only minimal revenue from product sales and may never be profitable.

We have generated only minimal revenue in the past, from limited sales of our Sicrys™ inks. We expect Digiflex will generate only minimal revenue from the sale of printers, inks and foils. While Digiflex has sold approximately 45 printers since inception, its revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017 was limited to inks, foils and maintenance of the printers. Our ability to generate revenue and achieve profitability depends on our ability to successfully commercialize our Sicrys™ inks and future products and technologies. It will also depend on (i) our ability to modify and bring to market Digiflex printers so that instead of just being able to do low volume printing, we will be able to serve the electronics market and to use our Sicrys inks; and (ii) our ability to adapt Digiflex’s inks to allow for the printing of full printed circuit boards, or PCBs. There is no assurance that we will be successful in any of these endeavors. Our ability to generate future revenue from product sales depends heavily on our success in many areas, including but not limited to:

Risks Related to Our Business

If our conductive inks and Digiflex printers fail to achieve and sustain sufficient market acceptance or if market penetration occurs more slowly than we expect, our future revenue will be adversely affected.

Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to gain market acceptance of our Sicrys™ inks and Digiflex inks as a reliable and cost-saving alternative to existing printing technologies. Compared to some competing technologies, our nano-metric conductive ink technology is relatively new, and most potential customers have limited knowledge of, or experience with, our conductive inks. Potential customers may be reluctant to adopt our conductive inks as an alternative to conventional printing technologies. Such potential customers may have substantial investments and know-how related to their existing printing technologies, and may perceive risks relating to the reliability, quality, usefulness and profitability of adopting our conductive inks when compared to other printing technologies available in the market. Prior to adopting our conductive inks, some potential customers may need to devote significant time and effort to testing and validating our technology. Any failure of our technology to meet these customer benchmarks could result in customers choosing to retain their existing technology or to purchase technologies other than ours. If we fail to achieve market acceptance of our conductive inks or if market penetration is slower than expected, then our opportunities to grow our revenues and reach profitability will be severely limited. In addition, our success depends on our ability to gain market acceptance of Digiflex printers. There is no assurance that we will succeed in any of the foregoing.

As one of our strategies to increase sales, we have acquired one inkjet printer that has been installed at a customer’s site, and intend to acquire additional inkjet printers to also be deployed, free-of-charge, to consumers who agree to purchase a minimum quantity of inks from us, in certain specific fields (e.g. production of printed circuit boards, or PCBs, one layer electronics). There can be no assurance that such printers will be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all, that customers will be willing to make such minimum purchase commitments or that the printers will work as expected in the commercial environment. In addition, it has taken much longer than expected to debug the initial printer and there is no assurance that debugging additional printers will not take longer than expected. In December 2016, we purchased the first beta printer and deployed it to a customer in Israel. We are currently in the debugging process for this printer, and we are developing customized products with this customer for one layer printed electronics. We sold a small amount of ink to this printer in 2017. We intend to eventually enter into an agreement with this printer producer for the sale of our ink and we are currently in negotiations with this printer producer. We are negotiating with additional printer producers to develop and provide us with printers which could ultimately enable us to deploy the printers to customers and to provide ink to customers with such printers. There is no assurance that the printers will be successfully debugged, that customers will accept these printer, that the such customer will order any or significant quantities of our ink, that we will enter into an agreement for the sale of our ink with any customers, or that we will successfully conclude our negotiations with printer producers and develop additional sources of printers. 

In order to expand our capabilities to sell inks and introduce the additive digital conductive printing technologies to the market, in December 2017, we finalized the purchase of Digiflex. We are currently in the process of integrating the operations of the two (2) companies together and will soon start to adapt the Digiflex printers and the polymer inks they have developed so that they are compatible with our inks and have the relevant capability to serve the conductive printing market needs. We hope to have the first conductive printing printers in the market by end of 2018, and to continue to develop the process to produce multi-layer printed PCBs. The Digiflex printers are for low volume printing. There is no assurance that we will be able to adapt the Digiflex printers to our inks, or that they will be able to produce PCBs. Further, there is no assurance that we will be able to adapt the Digiflex printers to our market demands or that they will be accepted by the market and, conversely, there is no assurance that we will be able to keep and or ramp up Digiflex sales in the graphics industry, or that we will be able to adapt their inks to our PCB requirements.

Digiflex developed a small market for its printers for the graphics industry (approximately 45 of which have been sold, although none were sold last year). Digiflex’s annual revenue last year was approximately $400,000, all of which came from the sale of inks and foils, as well as maintenance. There is no assurance that we will be able to expand this market.

Digiflex has two (2) wholly-owned subsidiaries: Digiflex Inc. which was incorporated in the United States with one employee who provides services to installed printers, and Digiflex HK Limited, which was incorporated in Hong-Kong and has been inactive since inception.

If we are not successful in completing the integration of Digiflex into the Company, the benefits of this transaction may not be fully realized and the market price of our ordinary shares may be negatively affected.

Our integration of Digiflex may encounter ongoing difficulties of coordination, which may include:

As a result of these and other factors, we may not successfully complete the integration of Digiflex. Furthermore, we may not realize all of the benefits and synergies of acquiring Digiflex in the timeframe anticipated. It is also possible that such continuing integration and coordination arrangements could lead to the loss of members of management, diversion of the attention of management, or the disruption or interruption of, or the loss of momentum in, our ongoing business, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. The occurrence of such negative results could adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares.

Our ink products may not be compatible with commercially available printers and printer heads.

We have successfully certified our ink with several manufacturers of commercially available printers and printer heads, and are in the process of certifying our ink products with additional manufacturers of commercially available printers and printer heads, as this is critically important to convince potential customers to implement inkjet technology and purchase our inks. We will also need to certify the Digiflex inks with manufacturers of commercially available printers. If we are unable to certify our ink products with a sufficient number of manufacturers of popular printers and printer heads, our ability to widely market our ink products will be impaired and we may be unable to generate significant revenue.

Printer heads generally require compatible inks. An ink may be incompatible for use with a particular printer head for a number of reasons, including, without limitations: because the chemicals used in the ink are not compatible with the materials used in the manufacture of the printer head; or because the physical properties of the ink (e.g., viscosity, surface tension, etc.) are not compatible with the printer head. As a result, there can be no assurance that our inks will be compatible with a sufficient number of printer heads, if any, to support wide scale sales of our inks for digital inkjet printing.

Given our limited resources, there is no assurance that the Company will be able to comply with its contracts.

The Company has recently become a party to one commercial contract with a leading printer manufacturer to supply commercial quantities of dispersions and inks. We are also currently in negotiation with additional customers. There is no assurance that the additional or other contracts will be executed. There is no assurance that we will be able to produce and supply all the ink required to satisfy all orders. There is also no assurance that commercial customers will be able to market their printers and other products with our inks.

We currently have minimal marketing and sales capabilities. If we are unable to establish significant sales and marketing capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties to market and sell our products, we may be unable to generate significant revenue.

Although our employees may have sold other similar products in the past while employed at other companies, we as a company have minimal experience selling and marketing our conductive inks and we currently have a small marketing and sales operation consisting of one full-time employee (Inside Sales Manager). In addition, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer generally devote a portion of their efforts to increasing awareness of, and marketing, our products. To successfully commercialize our Sicrys™ inks and any products that may result from our development programs, we will need to develop these capabilities, either on our own or with others. We intend to collaborate with additional third party distributors and sales agents with established sales and marketing operations and industry experience to market our inks. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into distribution and/or sales agency agreements on terms acceptable to us, or at all, or that such distributors or sales agents will be successful in marketing our inks. If our future distributors or sales agents do not commit sufficient resources to commercialize our products, we will be unable to generate sufficient product revenue to sustain our business. We may be competing with companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Without an internal team or the support of a third party to perform marketing and sales functions, we may be unable to compete successfully against these more established companies. Digiflex also has had minimal experience selling and marketing its printers and will discontinue selling and marketing them in the graphics field in order to focus on printing multi-layer electronics.

Our manufacturing capacity and operations may not be appropriate for future levels of demand.

We manufacture our inks, including Digiflex inks, at our Migdal Ha’Emek facilities. We currently have capacity to produce an estimated two (2) tons of ink per year and intend to upgrade our facilities (estimated at $500,000) to increase production capacity to 20 tons per year, if and when demand for our inks is projected to surpass our production capabilities. If the demand for our conductive inks does not increase, we may have significant excess manufacturing capacity and under-absorption of our fixed costs, which could in turn adversely affect our gross margins. In the event that demand for our conductive inks outgrows our internal manufacturing capacity, we intend to engage third-party manufacturers to produce additional inks. There can be no assurance that we will be able to enter into agreements with qualified manufacturers on terms acceptable to us, or at all, or that, once contracted, such manufacturers will perform as expected.

We are subject to a multitude of manufacturing risks, any of which could substantially increase our costs and limit supply of our products and technologies.

The process of manufacturing our products and technologies is complex and subject to several risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: our ability to scale up our production if and when demand for our inks grows and the quality, availability and prices of the raw materials (including, in particular, silver and copper) necessary for production of our inks. Any adverse developments affecting manufacturing operations for our products and technologies may result in shipment delays, inventory shortages, lot failures, withdrawals or recalls, or other interruptions in the supply of our products and technologies. We may also have to take inventory write-offs and incur other charges and expenses for products and technologies that fail to meet specifications, undertake costly remediation efforts, or seek more costly manufacturing alternatives.

We face intense competition and rapid technological change and the possibility that our competitors may develop products that are similar to, more advanced than, or more effective than ours, which may adversely affect our financial condition and our ability to successfully commercialize our products and technologies.

The digital electronic printing and inkjet conductive ink manufacturing industries are extremely competitive. We are currently aware of various existing products in the market and in development that may compete with our products and technologies. To our knowledge, more than twenty other companies are currently developing silver-based inkjet inks for PE digital electronic inkjet printing applications. Some of these companies are selling conductive inkjet inks for PE applications. Of those, to our knowledge, no other company claims to have metallization inkjet inks for silicon nitride based PV applications.

In addition, silver-based inks are more expensive than copper-based inks. We are aware of at least six (6) companies seeking to develop copper-based inks for inkjet printing, including NovaCentrix, Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd., IntrinsiQ Materials Ltd., Cupro, Promethean Particles and Nanotec-USA. However, to our knowledge, none of our competitors has copper-based inks in mass production and at a commercially viable price and quantity, and some are using copper oxide as a precursor in their inks instead of copper. We have checked samples of some of these and found them to be unsuitable for formulating inkjet inks. Copper precursors are less effective for thick patterns and high throughput. To our knowledge, we are the only company offering as much as a 50% copper inkjet ink, although we are not yet in mass production. As, to our knowledge, no one has proven our strategy to be effective, there is no assurance that we will be successful and the utilization of 50% copper inkjet ink may not prevail.

Many of our competitors have substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources, such as larger research and development staff and experienced marketing and manufacturing organizations. Mergers and acquisitions in the conductive ink industry may result in even more resources being concentrated in our competitors. As a result, these companies may be more effective in selling and marketing their products. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large, established companies. Competition may increase further as a result of advances in the commercial applicability of technologies and greater availability of capital for investment in this industry. Our competitors may succeed in developing, acquiring, or licensing on an exclusive basis, products that are more effective or less costly than our current or future products or technologies, or achieve earlier patent protection, product commercialization, and market penetration than we do. Additionally, technologies developed by our competitors may render our potential products and technologies uneconomical or obsolete, and we may not be successful in marketing our products and technologies against competitors.

We may not be successful in our efforts to identify, license, or discover additional products and technologies.

Although we intend to focus a substantial amount of our research and development efforts on the continued development and commercialization of our existing products and technologies, the success of our business also depends upon our ability to identify, license, or discover additional products and technologies. Our research programs or licensing efforts may fail to yield additional products and technologies for development for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the following:

If any of these events occurs, we may be forced to abandon our development efforts for a program or programs, or we may not be able to identify, license, or discover additional products and technologies, which would have a material adverse effect on our business and could potentially cause us to cease operations. Research programs to identify new products and technologies require substantial technical, financial, and human resources. We may focus our efforts and resources on potential programs or products and technologies that ultimately prove to be unsuccessful.

Sustained declines in worldwide oil prices could adversely affect our business.

Worldwide oil prices have recently declined. Oil is used as a fuel for electricity generation in only a small percentage of applications worldwide, compared to natural gas or coal-fired electricity generation and other forms of electricity generation, and accordingly, fluctuations in oil prices generally do not have a significant direct causal effect on prevailing competitive electricity prices, including electricity from solar sources. Nonetheless, sustained decreases in oil prices could result in decreased demand for solar sources of energy, which in turn would materially adversely affect our business, prospects and results of operations.

International expansion of our business exposes us to business, regulatory, political, operational, financial, and economic risks associated with doing business outside of Israel.

Our headquarters are located in Israel. As part of the acquisition of Digiflex, we now have subsidiaries in the United States and Hong Kong that have minimal or no activity. Nevertheless, our business strategy incorporates potentially significant international expansion, particularly in China. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including but not limited to:

Any of these factors could significantly harm our future international expansion and operations and, consequently, our results of operations.

If we fail to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations, we could become subject to fines or penalties or incur costs that could have a material adverse effect on the success of our business.

We are subject to numerous environmental, health and safety laws, regulations and permitting requirements in Israel, including those governing the emission and discharge of hazardous materials into ground, air or water; noise emissions; the generation, storage, use, management and disposal of hazardous waste; the registration of chemicals and in the future also import and export of chemicals; the cleanup of contaminated sites; and the health and safety of our employees. We expect to be subject to similar regulations in any other jurisdictions in which we may establish manufacturing operations in the future. Some of these laws and regulations require us to obtain licenses or permits to conduct our operations. Environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. If we violate or fail to comply with these laws, regulations, licenses or permits, we could be fined or otherwise sanctioned by regulators. We cannot predict the impact on our business of new or amended laws or regulations or any changes in the way existing and future laws and regulations are interpreted or enforced, nor can we ensure we will be able to obtain or maintain any required licenses or permits.

The health effects of nanotechnology are unknown.

There is no scientific agreement on the health effects of nanomaterials, but some scientists believe that, in some cases, nanomaterials may be hazardous to an individual’s health or the environment. The science of nanotechnology is based on arranging atoms in such a way as to modify or build materials. Depending on the nanomaterials used, the resulting material may not be found in nature; therefore, the effects are unknown. Our technologies are based on nanometals that are, at most times, dispersed in a liquid minimizing the exposures risks. Moreover, once the metal particles have been printed and sintered they are no longer nanometals, therefore lowering the risks. We take appropriate precautions for employees working with our materials and believe that any health risks related to the nanometals used in potential products can be minimized. Future research into the effects of nanomaterials, in general, on health and environmental issues may have an adverse effect on products using our technology.

Public perceptions of ethical and social issues may discourage the use of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology has received both positive and negative publicity and is the subject of public discussion and debate. Governments and regulatory bodies may, for social or health purposes, prohibit or regulate the use of nanotechnology. This may restrict our ability to license our technology, or the ability of our future licensees (if any) to sell products.

Our future success depends in part on our ability to retain our Chief Executive Officer and management of Digiflex and to attract, retain, and motivate other qualified personnel.

We are highly dependent on Dr. Fernando de la Vega, our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, and Digiflex is highly dependent on its management team, and the loss of his services or Digiflex’s management’s services without proper replacements would adversely impact the achievement of our objectives. Under the terms of his services agreement with us, Dr. de la Vega may cease providing services to us at any time by providing 30 days’ prior written notice. Recruiting and retaining other qualified employees, consultants, and advisors for our business, including scientific and technical personnel, will also be critical to our success. Locating and attracting skilled personnel may take time. We may not be able to attract and retain personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous high-technology companies for individuals with similar skill sets. The inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel, or the loss of the services of Dr. de la Vega without proper replacement, may impede the progress of our research, development, and commercialization objectives.

We will need to expand our organization and we may experience difficulties in managing this growth, which could disrupt our operations.

As our development and commercialization plans and strategies develop, we expect to need additional managerial, operational, sales, marketing, financial, legal, and other resources. Our management may need to divert a disproportionate amount of its attention away from our day-to-day activities and devote a substantial amount of time to managing these growth activities. We may not be able to effectively manage the expansion of our operations, which may result in weaknesses in our infrastructure, operational mistakes, loss of business opportunities, loss of employees, and reduced productivity among remaining employees. Our expected growth could require significant capital expenditures and may divert financial resources from other projects, such as the development of additional products and technologies. If our management is unable to effectively manage our growth, our expenses may increase more than expected, our ability to generate and/or grow revenue could be reduced and we may not be able to implement our business strategy. Our future financial performance and our ability to commercialize products and technologies and compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth.

We are dependent on a license for the additives necessary for the metallization of solar cells.

In order for our inks to be suitable for use in silicon nitride based solar cell metallization processes, we use certain additives in our inks. These additives are not readily commercially available, and we have an exclusive license for these additives from the Fraunhofer Institute, IKTS, or IKTS, in Germany, which developed them especially for our inks. Pursuant to the license, IKTS has agreed to manufacture a limited quantity of such additives for us each year. If we require greater quantities, IKTS has agreed to transfer the production file and knowhow to our chosen manufacturer. If IKTS is not able to supply these additives in sufficient quantities or at an acceptable quality, we will need to seek other sources for such additives. However, we are not aware of any other party capable of manufacturing such additives without an orderly transfer by IKTS, as they were specially designed by IKTS for use with our inks. Furthermore, even if we obtain the production file and knowhow for such additives, we may have difficulty in finding other manufacturers with the ability or technical knowledge to utilize such information to produce such additives in our desired quantities and quality, or at all. Any of these events could materially impair our ability to manufacture inks suitable for use in solar cell metallization processes in sufficient quantities or at all, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

We are subject to risks resulting from fluctuations in the price of silver.

The manufacturing process for our silver-based inks utilizes a silver salt, the price of which is linked to the price of silver. The price of silver is affected by numerous factors beyond our control, including inflation, fluctuation of the United States dollar and foreign currencies, global and regional demand, speculative activities by commodities traders and others and the political and economic conditions of major silver producing countries throughout the world. The volatility of mineral prices represents a substantial risk which no amount of planning or technical expertise can fully eliminate. In the event silver prices increase and remain high for prolonged periods of time, we may not be able to produce silver-based inks at a price which is cost effective for manufacturers of solar cells. Furthermore, if the price of silver decreases substantially and remains low for prolonged periods of time, the value proposition that we believe is offered by our copper-based nano-metric ink may be substantially decreased, since a low price of the silver used in their manufacturing processes reduces the incentive for manufacturers of electronic devices to replace silver with another metal, such as copper. Any of the foregoing would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our U.S. investors may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are characterized as a passive foreign investment company.

Generally, if for any taxable year 75% or more of our gross income is passive income, or at least 50% of our assets are held for the production of, or produce, passive income, we would be characterized as a passive foreign investment company, or a PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. We have not determined whether we have been a PFIC for 2017 or any previous year, or whether we will be a PFIC in any future year. Because PFIC status is determined annually and is based on our income, assets and activities for the entire taxable year, there can be no assurance that we will not be classified as a PFIC in any year. If we were to be characterized as a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes in any taxable year during which a U.S. Investor, as defined in “Item 10. Additional Information –Taxation — Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations”, owns Ordinary Shares, such U.S. Investor could face adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences, including having gains realized on the sale of our Ordinary Shares classified as ordinary income, rather than as capital gain, the loss of the preferential rate applicable to dividends received on our Ordinary Shares by individuals who are U.S. Investors, and having interest charges apply to distributions by us and the proceeds of share sales. A “qualified electing fund” election may alleviate some of the adverse consequences of PFIC status; however, we do not intend to provide the information necessary for U.S. Investors to make qualified electing fund elections if we are classified as a PFIC. See “Item 10. Additional Information – Taxation — Certain Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations.”

As an “emerging growth company” under the JOBS Act, we are permitted to, and intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements, which could make the Ordinary Shares less attractive to investors.

We qualify as an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we are deemed an emerging growth company, we are permitted to and intend to take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other regulatory requirements that are generally unavailable to other public companies, including:

We may take advantage of these provisions until the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the first sale of our common equity securities pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. However, if certain events occur prior to the end of such five-year period, including if we become a “large accelerated filer,” our annual gross revenues exceed $1 billion or we issue more than $1 billion of non-convertible debt in any three-year period, we will cease to be an emerging growth company prior to the end of such five-year period.

Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” can take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This means that an “emerging growth company” can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We are electing to delay such adoption of new or revised accounting standards. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with the public company effective date.

We cannot predict if investors will find the Ordinary Shares less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find the Ordinary Shares less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for the Ordinary Shares and the market price of the Ordinary Shares may be more volatile.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

If we are unable to obtain and maintain effective patent rights for our products and technologies or any future products and technologies, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

We rely upon a combination of patents, trade secret protection, and confidentiality agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our products and technologies. Our success depends in large part on our and our licensors’ ability to obtain and maintain patent and other intellectual property protection in the United States and in other countries with respect to our proprietary technology and products.

We have sought to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our novel technologies and products that are important to our business. The silver ink-related patent applications have been granted in the USA, China and Russia and are pending in a number of additional countries. The applications for copper ink-related patents are pending in a number of countries. This process is expensive and time consuming, and we may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection.

The patent position of technology companies generally is highly uncertain and involves complex legal and factual questions for which legal principles remain unsolved. The patent applications that we own or in-license may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our products and technologies in the United States or in other foreign countries. There is no assurance that all potentially relevant prior art relating to our patents and patent applications has been found. The discovery of relevant prior art can invalidate a patent or prevent a patent from issuing from a pending patent application. Even if patents do successfully issue, and even if such patents cover our products and technologies, third parties may challenge their validity, enforceability, or scope, which may result in such patents being narrowed, found unenforceable or invalidated. Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our intellectual property, provide exclusivity for our products and technologies, or prevent others from designing around our claims. Any of these outcomes could impair our ability to prevent competition from third parties, which may have an adverse impact on our business.

We, independently or together with our licensors, have filed several patent applications covering various aspects of our products and technologies. Even though some have already been granted, we cannot provide any assurances about which, if any, additional patents will issue, the breadth of any such patent or whether any issued patents will be found invalid and unenforceable or will be threatened by third parties. Any successful opposition to these patents or any other patents owned by or licensed to us after patent issuance could deprive us of rights necessary for the successful commercialization of any products and technologies that we may develop. Further, if we encounter delays in regulatory approvals, the period of time during which we could market a product under patent protection could be reduced.

If we cannot obtain and maintain effective patent rights for our products and technologies, we may not be able to compete effectively and our business and results of operations would be harmed.

We may not have sufficient patent terms to effectively protect our products and business.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after it is filed. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our products and technologies are obtained, once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be open to competition.

The patent protection and patent prosecution for some of our products and technologies is dependent on third parties.

While we normally seek and gain the right to fully prosecute the patents relating to our products and technologies, there may be times when patents relating to our products and technologies are controlled by our licensors. In addition, even where we now have the right to control the prosecution of patents and patent applications we have licensed from third parties, we may still be adversely affected or prejudiced by actions or inactions of our licensors and their counsel that took place prior to us assuming control over patent prosecution.

Patent policy and rule changes could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents.

Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. The laws of foreign countries may not protect our rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months after filing, or in some cases not at all. We therefore cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to make any invention claimed in our owned and licensed patents or pending applications, or that we or our licensor were the first to file for patent protection of any such invention. Assuming the other requirements for patentability are met, in the United States prior to March 15, 2013, the first to make the claimed invention is entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application is entitled to the patent. After March 15, 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the Leahy-Smith Act, enacted on September 16, 2011, the United States has moved to a first to file system. The Leahy-Smith Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and may also affect patent litigation. The effects of these changes are currently unclear as the United States Patent and Trademark office, or the USPTO, must still implement various regulations, the courts have yet to address any of these provisions and the applicability of the act and new regulations on specific patents discussed herein have not been determined and would need to be reviewed. In general, the Leahy-Smith Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

If we are unable to maintain effective proprietary rights for our products and technologies or any future products and technologies, we may not be able to compete effectively in our markets.

In addition to the protection afforded by patents, we rely on trade secret protection and confidentiality agreements to protect proprietary knowhow that is not patentable or that we elect not to patent, processes for which patents are difficult to enforce and any other elements of our product candidate discovery and development processes that involve proprietary knowhow, information or technology that is not covered by patents. However, trade secrets can be difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, and contractors. We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and trade secrets by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems, agreements or security measures may be breached, and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors.

Although we expect all of our employees and consultants to assign their inventions to us, and all of our employees, consultants, advisors, and any third parties who have access to our proprietary knowhow, information, or technology to enter into confidentiality agreements, we cannot provide any assurances that all such agreements have been duly executed or that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. Misappropriation or unauthorized disclosure of our trade secrets could impair our competitive position and may have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, if the steps taken to maintain our trade secrets are deemed inadequate, we may have insufficient recourse against third parties for misappropriating the trade secret.

Third-party claims of intellectual property infringement may prevent or delay our development and commercialization efforts.

Our commercial success depends in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There have been many lawsuits and other proceedings involving patent and other intellectual property rights in the high-technology industries, including patent infringement lawsuits, interferences, oppositions, and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO and corresponding foreign patent offices. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing products and technologies. As the conductive ink industry expands and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our products and technologies may be subject to claims of infringement of the patent rights of third parties.

Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, or methods of manufacture related to the use or manufacture of our products and technologies. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be currently pending patent applications that may later result in issued patents that our products and technologies may infringe. In addition, third parties may obtain patents in the future and claim that use of our technologies infringes upon these patents. If any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover the manufacturing process of any of our products and technologies, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to commercialize such product or technology unless we obtained a license under the applicable patents, or until such patents expire or are finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable.

Similarly, if any third-party patents were held by a court of competent jurisdiction to cover aspects of our formulations, processes for manufacture, or methods of use, the holders of any such patents may be able to block our ability to develop and commercialize the applicable product or technology unless we obtained a license or until such patent expires or is finally determined to be invalid or unenforceable. In either case, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Parties making claims against us may obtain injunctive or other equitable relief, which could effectively block our ability to further develop and commercialize one or more of our products and technologies. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may have to pay substantial damages (including treble damages and attorneys’ fees for willful infringement), pay royalties, redesign our infringing products or obtain one or more licenses from third parties, which may be impossible or require substantial time and monetary expenditure.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents or the patents of our licensors, which could be expensive, time consuming, and unsuccessful.

Competitors may infringe our patents or the patents of our licensors. If we or one of our licensing partners were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our products or technologies, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product or technology is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO, or made a misleading statement to the USPTO, during prosecution. The outcome following legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable.

Interference proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by us or declared by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications or those of our licensors. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Our defense of litigation or interference proceedings may fail and, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees.

Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. There could also be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions, or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our Ordinary Shares.

We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.

We employ individuals and engage consultants, including our Chief Executive Officer, who were previously employed at other high-technology companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants, and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants, or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any of our employees’ former employers or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely impact our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. 

We may be subject to claims that former or current employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our patents or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of consultants or others who are involved in developing our products in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, valuable intellectual property. Such an outcome could have a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.

Under the Israeli Patent Law, 5727-1967, or the Patent Law, inventions conceived by an employee during the scope of his or her employment with a company are regarded as “service inventions,” which belong to the employer, absent a specific agreement between the employee and employer giving the employee service invention rights. The Patent Law also provides that if there is no such agreement between an employer and an employee, the Israeli Compensation and Royalties Committee, or the Committee, a body constituted under the Patent Law, shall determine whether the employee is entitled to remuneration for his or her inventions. Recent decisions by the Committee have created uncertainty in this area, as it held that employees may be entitled to remuneration for their service inventions unless they specifically waived their rights under the Patent Law. Further, the Committee has not yet determined the method for calculating this Committee-enforced remuneration or the criteria or circumstances under which an employee’s assignment of all rights and/or waiver of his or her right to remuneration will be disregarded. Although our employees have agreed to assign to us service invention rights, we may face claims demanding remuneration in consideration for assigned inventions. As a consequence of such claims, we could be required to pay additional remuneration or royalties to our current and/or former employees, or be forced to litigate such claims, which could negatively affect our business.

If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property and other rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose license rights that are important to our business.

We are a party to a number of intellectual property license agreements that are important to our business and may enter into additional license agreements in the future. Our existing license agreements impose, and we expect that future license agreements will impose, various diligence, reporting, royalty, minimum annual license fees, and other obligations on us. If we fail to comply with our obligations under these agreements, or we are subject to a bankruptcy, we may be required to make certain payments to the licensor, we may lose the exclusivity of our license, or the licensor may have the right to terminate the license, in which event we would not be able to develop or market products covered by the license. Additionally, the royalty payments associated with these licenses will make it less profitable for us to develop our products and technologies.

We may not be successful in obtaining or maintaining necessary rights to our products and technologies through acquisitions and in-licenses.

We currently have rights to the intellectual property, through licenses from third parties and under patents that we own, to develop our products and technologies. Because our programs may require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business will likely depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license, or use these proprietary rights. In addition, our products and technologies may require specific formulations to work effectively and efficiently and the rights to these formulations may be held by others. We may be unable to acquire or in-license any compositions, methods of use, processes, or other third-party intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for our products and technologies. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies are also pursuing strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, cash resources, and greater development and commercialization capabilities. 

In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights, we may have to abandon development of that program and our business and financial condition could suffer.

We may not be able to fully enforce covenants not to compete with our key employees, and therefore we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of such employees.

Our employment agreements with our key employees contain non-compete provisions. These provisions prohibit our key employees, if they cease working for us, from competing directly with us or working for our competitors for a limited period of time. We may be unable to enforce these provisions under applicable laws in Israel where all of our key employees reside. In Israel, the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation, as interpreted by binding case law, may restrict our ability to enforce non-compete provisions against our employees. If we cannot enforce our non-compete provisions against our employees, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of such employees. Even if these provisions are enforceable, they may not adequately protect our interests. As a result, if one or more of our employees leaves our employment and subsequently becomes employed by one of our competitors, our business, results of operations and ability to capitalize on our proprietary information may be materially adversely affected.

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Filing, prosecuting, and defending patents on products and technologies in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States.

Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may also export otherwise infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

Risks Related to Our Operations in Israel

Our headquarters and other significant operations are located in Israel and, therefore, our results may be adversely affected by political, economic and military instability in Israel.

Our executive offices are located in Migdal Ha’Emek, Israel. In addition, following the acquisition of Digiflex, we have an additional office in Kfar Saba, Israel. In addition, the majority of our officers and directors are residents of Israel. Accordingly, political, economic and military conditions in Israel may directly affect our business. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a number of armed conflicts have taken place between Israel and its neighboring countries and militia groups. Any hostilities involving Israel or the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its trading partners could adversely affect our operations and results of operations. Certain of these conflicts involved missile strikes against civilian targets in various parts of Israel, including the city in which our headquarters are located as well as areas in which our employees and some of our consultants are located, and negatively affected business conditions in Israel. Recently, Israel was involved in a military operation against Hamas militants in Gaza. In connection with this operation, Israel called up a large number of reservists to active duty. Furthermore, Hamas militants in Gaza have fired thousands of rockets at Israel, including Tel Aviv, Israel’s main financial center. Any armed conflicts, terrorist activities or political instability in the region could adversely affect business conditions and could harm our results of operations and could make it more difficult for us to raise capital. Parties with whom we do business may sometimes decline to travel to Israel during periods of heightened unrest or tension, forcing us to make alternative arrangements when necessary in order to meet our business partners face to face. In addition, the political and security situation in Israel may result in parties with whom we have agreements involving performance in Israel claiming that they are not obligated to perform their commitments under those agreements pursuant to force majeure provisions in such agreements. Israel also faces threats from more distant neighbors, in particular, Iran, an ally of Hezbollah and Hamas. There is current unrest in Egypt and a civil war in Syria, both of which are neighboring countries to Israel. 

Several countries, principally in the Middle East, still restrict doing business with Israel and Israeli companies, and additional countries may impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies if hostilities in Israel or political instability in the region continues or increases. These restrictions may limit materially our ability to obtain raw materials from these countries or sell our products to companies or persons in these countries. Any hostilities involving Israel or the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its present trading partners, or significant downturn in the economic or financial condition of Israel, could adversely affect our operations and product development, cause our sales to decrease and, if our securities become publicly traded, adversely affect the share price of our securities.

Our commercial insurance does not cover losses that may occur as a result of an event associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Although the Israeli government is currently committed to covering the reinstatement value of direct damages that are caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot assure you that this government coverage will be maintained, or if maintained, will be sufficient to compensate us fully for damages incurred. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business. Any armed conflicts or political instability in the region would likely negatively affect business conditions generally and could harm our results of operations.

Our operations may be disrupted as a result of the obligation of management or key personnel to perform military service.

Although none of our management or key personnel are presently subject to the following, our male employees and consultants in Israel, including possibly, in the future, members of our senior management may be obligated to perform one month, and, in some cases, longer periods, of annual military reserve duty until they reach the age of 45 (or older, for citizens who hold certain positions in the Israeli armed forces reserves), and, in the event of a military conflict, may be called to active duty. In response to increases in terrorist activity, there have been periods of significant call-ups of military reservists (including during the recent military operation in Gaza, as described above). It is possible that there will be similar large-scale military reserve duty call-ups in the future. Our operations could be disrupted by the absence of a significant number of our officers, directors, employees and consultants. Such disruption could materially adversely affect our business and operations.

The Israeli government grants we have received for research and development expenditures restrict our ability to manufacture products and transfer technologies outside of Israel and require us to satisfy specified conditions. If we fail to satisfy these conditions, we may be required to refund grants previously received together with interest and penalties.

We have received grants from the Israel Innovation Authority, or the Authority (formerly operating as Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy of the State of Israel, or the OCS), for research and development programs and intend to apply for further grants in the future. In order to maintain our eligibility for these grants, we must comply with the requirements of the Research Law. Under the Research Law, we are prohibited from manufacturing products developed using these grants outside of the State of Israel without special approvals. As of the date of this annual report, we have not sought to obtain such approvals, as we do not have immediate plans to manufacture outside of Israel. We may not receive the required approvals for any proposed transfer of manufacturing activities. Even if we do receive approval to manufacture products developed with government grants outside of Israel, the royalty rate may be increased and we may be required to pay up to 300% of some or all of the grant amounts requiring repayment plus interest, depending on the manufacturing volume that is performed outside of Israel. This restriction may impair our ability to outsource manufacturing or engage in our own manufacturing operations for those products or technologies. 

Additionally, under the Research Law, we are prohibited from transferring, including by way of license, the Authority financed technologies and related intellectual property rights and knowhow outside of the State of Israel, except under limited circumstances and only with the approval of the Authority Research Committee. As of the date of this annual report, we have not sought to obtain such approvals, as we do not have immediate plans to transfer the Authority financed technologies and related intellectual property rights and knowhow outside of Israel. We may not receive the required approvals for any proposed transfer and, even if received, we may be required to pay the Authority a portion of the consideration that we receive upon any sale of such technology to a non-Israeli entity up to 600% of the grant amounts plus interest. The scope of the support received, the royalties that we have already paid to the Authority, the amount of time that has elapsed between the date on which the knowhow or the related intellectual property rights were transferred and the date on which the Authority grants were received and the sale price and the form of transaction will be taken into account in order to calculate the amount of the payment to the Authority. Approval of the transfer of technology to residents of the State of Israel is required, and may be granted in specific circumstances only if the recipient abides by the provisions of applicable laws, including the restrictions on the transfer of knowhow and the obligation to pay royalties. No assurance can be made that approval to any such transfer, if requested, will be granted.

These restrictions may impair our ability to sell our technology assets or to perform or outsource manufacturing outside of Israel, engage in change of control transactions or otherwise transfer our knowhow outside of Israel and may require us to obtain the approval of the Authority for certain actions and transactions and pay additional royalties and other amounts to the Authority. In addition, any change of control and any change of ownership of our ordinary shares that would make a non-Israeli citizen or resident an “interested party,” as defined in the Research Law, requires prior written notice to the Authority, and our failure to comply with this requirement could result in criminal liability.

These restrictions will continue to apply even after we have repaid the full amount of royalties on the grants. If we fail to satisfy the conditions of the Research Law, we may be required to refund certain grants previously received together with interest and penalties, and may become subject to criminal charges.

The Government of Israel has reduced the grants available under the Authority’s program in recent years, and this program may be discontinued or curtailed in the future. If we do not receive additional grants in the future, we will be required to allocate other funds to product development at the expense of other operational costs.

We have received a grant from the Office of the Authority of the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources, or the Ministry of Infrastructures, for one of our research and development programs. In order to maintain our eligibility for this grant, we must meet specified conditions, including the payment of royalties with respect to the grant received. If we fail to comply with these conditions in the future, sanctions (such as the cancellation of the grant) might be imposed on us, and we could be required to refund any payments previously received. Even following full repayment of any Ministry of Infrastructures grants, we must nevertheless continue to comply with the requirements of our agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructures. The terms of the Ministry of Infrastructures’ grant require us to obtain the Ministry of Infrastructures’ approval prior to any assignment of knowhow developed under the research and development program funded with its grant. The Ministry of Infrastructures also has a right to receive a nonexclusive royalty free license to the know how developed under any such program to the extent necessary for national needs (as determined by the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of Treasury and the Minister of Justice). Pursuant to the terms of the grant, we will be required to notify the Ministry of Infrastructures of any new investment we receive, and any new investor will be required to undertake in writing to the Ministry of Infrastructures to make reasonable efforts to ensure that the Company shall observe the terms of the research and development agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructures and the law governing the grant program of the Ministry of Infrastructures. In addition, in any case where one or more new investors makes an investment with the Company, the Ministry of Infrastructures has a right to negotiate with such investor(s) for the repayment by us of the grant provided to us by the Ministry of Infrastructures. At our request, the Ministry of Infrastructures confirmed our interpretation that the registration of the securities herein will not be deemed as a new investment.

Exchange rate fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and the New Israeli Shekel currencies may negatively affect our earnings.

We incur expenses both in U.S. dollars and New Israeli Shekels, but our financial statements are denominated in U.S. dollars. As a result, we are exposed to the risks that the New Israeli Shekel may appreciate relative to the U.S. dollar, or, if the New Israeli Shekel instead devalues relative to the U.S. dollar, that the inflation rate in Israel may exceed such rate of devaluation of the New Israeli Shekel, or that the timing of such devaluation may lag behind inflation in Israel. In any such event, the U.S. dollar cost of our operations in Israel would increase and our U.S. dollar-denominated results of operations would be adversely affected. We cannot predict any future trends in the rate of inflation in Israel or the rate of devaluation (if any) of the New Israeli Shekel against the U.S. dollar.

Provisions of Israeli law and our Fourth Amended Articles of Association, or our Articles of Association, may delay, prevent or make undesirable an acquisition of all or a significant portion of our shares or assets.

Provisions of Israeli law and our Articles of Association could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our Company; may make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us; may make it more difficult for our shareholders to elect different individuals to our board of directors, even if doing so would be considered to be beneficial by some of our shareholders; and may limit the price that investors may be willing to pay in the future for our Ordinary Shares. Among other things:

On September 24, 2015, we held a general meeting of shareholders at which our shareholders approved, among other things, an amendment to the provisions of our Articles of Association applicable to the election of directors to provide for a board of directors consisting of no less than three (3) and no more than seven (7) directors, with all directors (other than the external directors, whose appointment is required under the Companies Law, as described below) divided into three (3) classes with staggered three-year terms with each class of directors to consist, as nearly as possible, of one-third of the total number of directors other than the external directors. This provision may make it more difficult for our shareholders to elect different individuals to our board of directors, even if doing so would be considered to be beneficial by some of our shareholders, may limit the price that investors may be willing to pay in the future for our Ordinary Shares, and may make it more difficult for a potential acquiror to effect a change of control of our Company or may deter potential acquirors from seeking to effect a change of control.

Further, Israeli tax considerations may make potential transactions undesirable to us or to some of our shareholders whose country of residence does not have a tax treaty with Israel granting tax relief to such shareholders from Israeli tax. With respect to mergers, Israeli tax law allows for tax deferral in certain circumstances but makes the deferral contingent on the fulfillment of numerous conditions, including a holding period of two (2) years from the date of the transaction during which certain sales and dispositions of shares of the participating companies are restricted. Moreover, with respect to certain share swap transactions, the tax deferral is limited in time, and when such time expires, the tax becomes payable even if no actual disposition of the shares has occurred. For additional information, see “Description of Share Capital - Mergers and Acquisitions under Israeli Law” in Amendment No. 1 to our Registration Statement on Form F-1, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on September 22, 2015.

The tax benefits that are available to us as a preferred enterprise require us to continue to meet various conditions and may be terminated or reduced in the future, which could increase our costs and taxes.

We have not yet elected to be treated as a preferred enterprise for Israeli tax purposes, a designation which would allow us to receive certain tax benefits, since we are still not at a stage where we have to pay tax due to carry forward losses. Once we are liable for tax payments, we may be entitled to reduced tax rates and other tax benefits. See “Item 10. Additional Information –Taxation – Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 5719-1959”. If these tax benefits were reduced or eliminated or if we no longer comply with the various pre-conditions required, the amount of taxes that we pay would consequently be subject to corporate tax at the standard rate, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

It may be difficult to enforce a judgment of a United States court against us and our officers and directors and the Israeli experts named in this annual report located in Israel or the United States, to assert United States securities laws claims in Israel or to serve process on our officers and directors and these experts.

We were incorporated in Israel. Our Chief Executive Officer and substantially all of our directors reside outside of the United States, and all of our assets and most of the assets of these persons are located outside of the United States. Therefore, a judgment obtained against us, or any of these persons, including a judgment based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws, may not be collectible in the United States and may not necessarily be enforced by an Israeli court. It also may be difficult for you to effect service of process on these persons in the United States or to assert U.S. securities law claims in original actions instituted in Israel. Additionally, it may be difficult for an investor, or any other person or entity, to initiate an action with respect to United States securities laws in Israel. Israeli courts may refuse to hear a claim based on an alleged violation of United States securities laws, reasoning that Israel is not the most appropriate forum in which to bring such a claim. In addition, even if an Israeli court agrees to hear a claim, it may determine that Israeli law and not United States law is applicable to the claim. If United States law is found to be applicable, the content of applicable United States law must be proven as a fact by expert witnesses, which can be a time consuming and costly process. Certain matters of procedure will also be governed by Israeli law. There is little binding case law in Israel that addresses the matters described above. As a result of the difficulty associated with enforcing a judgment against us in Israel, you may not be able to collect any damages awarded by either a United States or foreign court.

Risks Related to Our Securities

Your rights and responsibilities as a shareholder will be governed by Israeli law which differs in some material respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders of U.S. companies.

The rights and responsibilities of our shareholders are governed by Israeli law and our Articles of Association. These rights and responsibilities differ in some material respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders in typical U.S.-based corporations. In particular, a shareholder of an Israeli company has a duty to act in good faith and in a customary manner in exercising its rights and performing its obligations towards the company and other shareholders and to refrain from abusing its power in the company, including, among other things, in voting at general meetings of shareholders on certain matters, such as an amendment to the company’s articles of association, an increase of the company’s authorized share capital, a merger of the company and approval of related party transactions that require shareholder approval. A shareholder also has a general duty to refrain from discriminating against other shareholders. In addition, a controlling shareholder or a shareholder who knows that it possesses the power to determine the outcome of a shareholders’ vote or to appoint or prevent the appointment of an office holder in the company has a duty to act in fairness towards the company. However, Israeli law does not define the substance of this duty of fairness. There is limited case law available to assist us in understanding the nature of this duty or the implications of these provisions. These provisions may be interpreted to impose additional obligations and liabilities on our shareholders that are not typically imposed on shareholders of U.S. corporations.

We do not plan to pay dividends to holders of Ordinary Shares.

We do not anticipate paying cash dividends to the holders of our Ordinary Shares at any time. Moreover, the Companies Law imposes certain restrictions on our ability to declare and pay dividends. For additional information, see “Description of Share Capital — Dividends” in Amendment No. 1 to our Registration Statement on Form F-1, filed with the SEC on September 22, 2015. Accordingly, investors in our securities must rely upon subsequent sales after price appreciation as the sole method to realize a gain on investment. There are no assurances that the price of Ordinary Shares will ever appreciate in value.

We rely on an outsourced financial consultant to assist in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. We believe that our financial consultant has sufficient experience with U.S. GAAP to assist in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, which was gained, among other things, through service as the Chief Financial Officer and other senior accounting positions with several public and private companies that prepared financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP and by maintaining subscriptions to accounting resources made available by the “Big Four” accounting firms in Israel, which allows our outsourced financial consultant to obtain accounting and regulatory updates through their distribution lists, including updates with regard to U.S GAAP. Our outsourced financial consultant also has access to disclosure checklists for financial statement preparation compliance purposes and related accounting materials. Our outsourced financial consultant attends training conferences on accounting and regulatory updates, including updates with regard to U.S GAAP. Our historical consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2015 were prepared by our former outsourced financial consultant as well as our former internal Chief Financial Officer, while our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017 were prepared by our current outsourced financial consultant. Our Company does not have a full-time Chief Financial Officer and outsources certain matters to a part-time consultant. If there are errors in our consolidated financial statements and/or we are required to restate certain of our consolidated financial statements as a result of our arrangement to outsource certain financial matters, we could be required to implement expensive and time-consuming remedial measures.

Our directors, executive officers and controlling persons as a group have significant voting power and may take actions that may not be in the best interest of shareholders.

Our directors, executive officers and controlling persons as a group beneficially own approximately 38% of our Ordinary Shares. As a result, they will have the ability to exert substantial influence over all matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including the election and removal of directors and any proposed merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. In addition, due to their share ownership, our executive officers and controlling persons could dictate the management of our business and affairs. This concentration of ownership could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control, or impeding a merger or consolidation, takeover or other business combination that could be favorable to you. This significant concentration of share ownership may also adversely affect the trading price for our Ordinary Shares, if a public market further develops for such securities, because investors may perceive disadvantages in owning stock in a company with controlling affiliated shareholders.

We incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

We are subject to the requirements to file periodic and annual reports under the Exchange Act, and are otherwise subject to laws applicable to public reporting companies in the United States. As a public reporting company, we incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as amended, and the rules and regulations of the SEC thereunder, have imposed various requirements on public companies. Shareholder activism, the current political environment, and the current high level of government intervention and regulatory reform may lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we cannot currently anticipate. Our management and other personnel need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly.

As an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, we are entitled (and intend) to take advantage of certain temporary exemptions from various reporting requirements including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. When these exemptions cease to apply, we expect to incur additional expenses and devote increased management effort toward ensuring compliance with them. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur as a result of becoming a public reporting company or the timing of such costs.

We are a “foreign private issuer” and have disclosure obligations that are different from those of U.S. domestic reporting companies.

We are a foreign private issuer and are not subject to the same requirements that are imposed upon U.S. domestic issuers by the SEC. Under the Exchange Act, we are subject to reporting obligations that, in certain respects, are less detailed and less frequent than those of U.S. domestic reporting companies. For example, we are not required to issue quarterly reports, proxy statements that comply with the requirements applicable to U.S. domestic reporting companies. Furthermore, although under a recent amendment to the regulations promulgated under the Companies Law, as an Israeli public company listed overseas we are required to disclose the compensation of our five (5) most highly compensated officers on an individual basis (rather than on an aggregate basis, as was previously permitted for Israeli public companies listed overseas prior to such amendment), this disclosure is not as extensive as that required of U.S. domestic reporting companies. We also have four (4) months after the end of each fiscal year to file our annual reports with the SEC and are not required to file current reports as frequently or promptly as U.S. domestic reporting companies. Furthermore, our officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the requirements to report short-swing profit recovery contained in Section 16 of the Exchange Act. Also, as a “foreign private issuer,” we are also not subject to the requirements of Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) promulgated under the Exchange Act. These exemptions and leniencies will reduce the frequency and scope of information and protections available to you in comparison to those applicable to a U.S. domestic reporting companies.

Offers or availability for sale of a substantial number of our Ordinary Shares may cause the price of our Ordinary Shares to decline.

If our shareholders sell substantial amounts of our Ordinary Shares in the public market (if one develops) or if there is a perception in the market that substantial sales may occur in the future upon the expiration of any statutory holding period, under Rule 144, or upon the exercise of outstanding options or Warrants, the market price of our Ordinary Shares could fall. The occurrence of such substantial sales or the perception that substantial sales of common stock may occur in the future could also make it more difficult for us to raise additional financing through the sale of equity or equity related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate.

The market price of our Ordinary Shares may fluctuate significantly.

If a public trading market further develops for our Ordinary Shares, the market price of the Ordinary Shares may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as:

Further, in recent years, the stock market has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. Continued or renewed market fluctuations could result in extreme volatility in the price of our Ordinary Shares, which could cause a decline in the value of the Ordinary Shares. Price volatility of our Ordinary Shares might be significant if the trading volume of the Ordinary Shares is low, which often occurs with respect to newly traded securities on the OTCQB.

Because our Ordinary Shares are traded as a “penny stock,” it may be more difficult for investors to sell our Ordinary Shares, and the market price of our Ordinary Shares may be adversely affected.

Our Ordinary Shares are deemed a “penny stock” since, among other things, the stock price is currently trading below $5.00 per share. Broker-dealers who sell penny stocks must provide purchasers of these stocks with a standardized risk-disclosure document prepared by the SEC. This document provides information about penny stocks and the nature and level of risks involved in investing in the penny-stock market. A broker must also give a purchaser, orally or in writing, bid and offer quotations and information regarding broker and salesperson compensation, make a written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and obtain the purchaser’s written agreement to the purchase. Broker-dealers must also provide customers that hold penny stock in their accounts with such broker-dealer a monthly statement containing price and market information relating to the penny stock. If a penny stock is sold to an investor in violation of the penny stock rules, the investor may be able to cancel its purchase and get its money back.

The penny stock rules may make it difficult for investors to sell their Ordinary Shares. Because of the rules and restrictions applicable to a penny stock, there is less trading in penny stocks and the market price of the Ordinary Shares may be adversely affected. Also, many brokers choose not to participate in penny stock transactions. Accordingly, investors may not always be able to resell their Ordinary Shares publicly at times and prices that they feel are appropriate.

Compliance with changing regulations concerning corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.

There have been changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, new regulations promulgated by the SEC and rules promulgated by the national securities exchanges. These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies, which could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. As a result, our efforts to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards are likely to continue to result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. Our directors, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer could face an increased risk of personal liability in connection with the performance of their duties. As a result, we may have difficulty attracting and retaining qualified directors and executive officers, which could harm our business. If our efforts to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies, we could be subject to liability under applicable laws or our reputation may be harmed.

Any of the risk factors referred to above could significantly and negatively affect our business, results of operations or financial condition, which may reduce our ability to pay dividends and lower the trading price of our ordinary shares. The risks referred to above are not the only ones that may exist. Additional risks not currently known by us or that we deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.