OurCrowd
OurCrowd is an investment platform built for accredited investors and institutions to invest in startups, early stage companies and venture funds. Based in Jerusalem, the company launched in February 2013, with overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain and Singapore. As of October 2020, OurCrowd has over $1.5 billion in committed funding. OurCrowd uses equity crowdfunding as its model. In equity crowdfunding, investments into a company's shares are pooled together from the crowd. OurCrowd allows each investor to choose the individual companies in which to invest. OurCrowd is only available to accredited  investors, and requires its Israeli portfolio companies to donate a portion of their equity to charity as part of the closing of any funding round. Pitchbook has rated OurCrowd "Israel's most active VC fund." OurCrowd invests its capital in all the companies and venture funds offered on its platform, and extends the opportunity to invest to its accredited membership on the same terms. History. OurCrowd launched in February 2013 in Jerusalem, by venture capitalist and angel investor Jonathan Medved. Medved began pursuing the idea of an online equity crowdfunding platform in 2012. In March 2013, OurCrowd opened its US  office in San Diego. It also has offices in Tel Aviv, Herzilya, New York City, Toronto, London, Sydney, Madrid, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In November 2013, OurCrowd partnered with GE Ventures, the venture capital branch of General Electric, allowing GE to invest alongside OurCrowd in venture capital investments. In July 2016, the company launched "Our Innovation Fund", which invests in the Australian innovation ecosystem. In November 2016, OurCrowd announced of a new fund called Qure, focusing on seed and Series A rounds and investing in digital health startups. In December 2016, OurCrowd Portfolio Index Fund was launched. In January 2018 , OurCrowd announced that its Labs/02 seed stage incubator would be investing in 100 early stage startups over a ten-year period. In May 2018, OurCrowd entered into a partnership with Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited to explore direct partnerships between Thailand’s investors and the OurCrowd platform. In June 2019, the Israel Innovation Authority announced its selection of a consortium consisting of Tnuva, Tempo Beverages, OurCrowd, and Finistere Ventures to run a foodtech incubator in northern Israel. The government will provide NIS 100 million in funding for the incubator over the eight-year franchise period. By February 2020, OurCrowd’s  portfolio reached 36 exits since its 2013 launch. It was announced in October 2020 that Our Crowd has teamed up with Phoenix Capital, in Dubai, and appointed Sabah al-Binali as head of its activities in the Gulf region. In October 2021, Softbank Group's Vision Fund 2 invested 25 million USD in OurCrowd. OurCrowd Global Investor Summit. The OurCrowd Global Investor Summit is an annual conference held in Jerusalem and is a gathering of innovation and startup ecosystem players: VC leaders, multinational corporations, institutional and individual investors, entrepreneurs, and other related professionals. The conference covers three days, but the  main event is the final day which includes content (on-stage and interactive exhibitions) networking opportunities, business meetings and satellite events. OurCrowd’s first annual Global Investor Summit was held in Jerusalem on December 9–10, 2014. The event hosted 700 attendees from 27 countries. In January 2016, OurCrowd brought together 3,000 investors and entrepreneurs for an annual summit in Jerusalem. In February 2017, OurCrowd nearly doubled attendance, with 5,000 investors and entrepreneurs coming in from 80 countries around the world to Jerusalem. It was described in press coverage as the world’s largest equity crowdfunding event and the biggest investment  event in Israel’s history. In February 2018, OurCrowd saw over 10,000 registrants for the Summit, including investors, VCs, multinationals, and entrepreneurs. One of the main stage speakers was Sir Ronald Mourad Cohen, a renowned figure in social impact investment and the founder of Social Finance UK amongst the speakers, discussing "The New Investment Paradigm". On March 7, 2019, the OurCrowd Summit broke its own record with 18,000 registrants. Speakers on the agenda included Nas Daily's Nuseir Yassin, Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Kahneman, Ron Fisher of Softbank Holdings, Daniel Bonderman (founding partner of private equity firm TPG), Dr Kira  Radinsky of eBay Israel. The next OurCrowd Summit will be held on March 10, 2022. Awards. Over its years of activity OurCrowd has won various awards and received industry recognition on numerous occasions. In 2014, OurCrowd was ranked #22 in "The 50 Best Fintech Innovators" report, a collaborative effort between AWI, KPMG Australia, and the FSC. OurCrowd was also consecutively named in H2 Ventures and KPMG's 'Fintech 100' list of leading global fintech innovators between 2015-2018. In 2015, OurCrowd was named #23 in Forbes' list of 24 Israeli companies you should watch. In 2017, OurCrowd was ranked #23  in Business Insider’s coolest tech startups in Israel. Additionally, OurCrowd was featured in Fast Company’s list of the most innovative companies in 2016 and 2018. In March 2019, PitchBook Data Inc. ranked OurCrowd as Israel’s most active venture investor for a second year in a row.