Jon Medved, CEO, OurCrowd
Improving the world
Through OurCrowd, combining venture capital protections with the power and accessibility of crowdfunding to promote the best Israeli innovation.
According to the New York Times, "one of the ten Americans who has the greatest influence on the Israeli economy."
According to the Jerusalem Post, one of the top 50 most influential Jews in the world.
Home
HQ: Jerusalem
Money
Invested in over 100 Israeli startup companies. 12 have been valued in excess of $100 Million dollars.
On risk
Most people avoid risk, while Jews and Israel live constantly in the shadow of existential danger. For us, to think about establishing a company or writing a play that might be a failure is not a big deal. There are worse things.
Why Israel now
The coming of age of Israeli technology and entrepreneurs, who are now more professionally mature and experienced than ever; the influx of new investments from Asian VCs, primarily from India and China; the rise of later-stage capital – the growth of private equity firms that write $150 million checks; the growth of crowd-funding; and the fact the Israeli researchers and developers happen to excel in products the world needs right now, like robotics, drones, optics, machine vision, cyber security, medical equipment, and big data.
Thanks to all the money pouring into Israel, there's never been a better time to start a company. The numbers are off the charts. I've never seen anything like this.
Most important lesson from father
Not to take life too seriously. He took life seriously, but he had his limits. For example, every day at three o'clock he would go out to surf or to swim. It did not matter what was going on in the rest of the world. The office was located three minutes from the Santa Monica beach, and no matter what we were talking about at that moment, he would cut me off and say to me seriously, "Now, son, I got to go to the beach."
OurCrowd
OurCrowd is a venture capital and crowdfunding hybrid platform that helps investors back Israeli startups.
Run by serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Jon Medved, OurCrowd officially launched in February 2013. Since that time the company has raised and invested more than $130 million for 67 startups. The company has built a base of 8,000 individual investors and is constantly expanding.
OurCrowd's companies are not only successful investments, they also make a positive impact on the world. OurCrowd's first IPO was ReWalk Robotics, a technology company that helps disabled people walk again through the use of the first personal exoskeleton. ReWalk was also the first early stage company to crowdfund and then go public on the NASDAQ. It now has a market capitalization of about $360 million.
Other successful, socially positive, and technologically innovative OurCrowd companies featured at the 2015 Wharton Israel Conference are BioCatch, BriefCam, CropX, ElMindA, eVigilo, HIL Applied Medical, PulmOne, Sight Diagnostics, Surgical Theater, and Syqe Medical.
After a 50-person OurCrowd due diligence team vets a deal, OurCrowd contributes about 5 to 15 percent of the funding. OurCrowd takes traditional venture capital protections such as board seats and pre-emptive and anti-dilution rights. Investors can build their own OurCrowd portfolio with a low minimum investment of $10,000. Using OurCrowd's online platform, they can pick and choose which OurCrowd companies make sense for them.
OurCrowd's investment model offers the best of all worlds: experienced research and analysis, the protections of a venture capital fund, and the accessibility of crowdfunding.
Company website: www.ourcrowd.com