Author: OurCrowd

At the heart of the Startup Nation: Technology booming in Israeli R&D labs

At the heart of the Startup Nation: Technology booming in Israeli R&D labs

Jan 27, 2014 |

From the time of its establishment in 1948, Israel has been at the forefront of agricultural research & development. Since then, the Startup Nation has evolved from an agrarian powerhouse to a hotbed for high-tech companies’ R&D headquarters. Under the pressure of its far larger and often hostile neighbors, Israel and its government began to realize that in order to survive it would need to direct much of its resources toward developing technologies. Just four years later, University R&D hit the Technion Institute, and has since been one of the leading contributors of patents and developments in agriculture, science, medicine, and of course, technology. In 1968, the government elected to establish a national office for a Chief Scientist, often referred to today as Matimop. This department plays an important role in creating the funds for, as well as advising certain R&D projects that have shown their potential. Matimop provides grants to further R&D projects in the areas of communication, electronics, software, and other developments. Israeli R&D Today Since the establishment of this office and the appointment of a chief...

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It all ‘ads’ up to innovation: Investing in the future of Israeli digital marketing

It all ‘ads’ up to innovation: Investing in the future of Israeli digital marketing

Jan 21, 2014 | ,

This guest post was written by Levi Shapiro, the Managing Partner at the JIMMI Fund, a corporate venture investment fund, and concurrently Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors. He is also the organizer of Marketing & Ad:Tech Israel, Israel’s largest conference for digital advertising. .  Last year, the VC industry partied like it was 1999.  New data from research firm Pitchbook makes it official: valuations are at an all-time high. Some of the frenzy is driven by Wall Street. The bull market will celebrate its 5th anniversary in March (NASDAQ grew 38.3% last year, more than any other major index), and the IPO market is booming. 222 firms held initial public offerings last year, raising $55 Billion, the most since 406 companies went public for $97 million in 2000. Now the cost of entry to the Party is rising.  Across all investment stages, median pre-money valuations last year rose dramatically.  Seed-stage deals now require $5.1 million; Series A rounds reached $9.4 million; Series C rounds soared 23% to $62.6 million;  Series D and later rounds are now a lofty $105.2 million. The bubble came to Israel...

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What is a growth hacker and why every startup needs one

What is a growth hacker and why every startup needs one

Jan 21, 2014 |

This guest post was written by Shy Rosenzweig and originally published on The Times of Israel (Ops & Blogs). Shy Rosenzweig is an experienced entrepreneur & and “innovation freak” who specializes in marketing and product development. Shy is the co-founder and COO at Meetey.com – a local social network. @ShyRosenzweig . The title “Growth Hacker” started gaining its popularity after Sean Ellis first coined the term in 2010. Before that, growth hackers were simply called “marketers” for lack of a better name. A growth hacker is a marketer, but with one focus in mind – growth. That’s not to say that all marketers are not interested in growth – they are, but the difference is in the extent of their focus. In a large corporation, you’ve got your VP Marketing or CMO at the top of the marketing food chain. This person looks at the big picture of everything – customer satisfaction, revenues, brand awareness, reputation management, partnerships, etc. It’s quite a lot to focus on, so they’ll have a team working with them. One person will focus on managing affiliates, another on writing great copy, one on...

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2013: The Startup Nation’s year in review

2013: The Startup Nation’s year in review

Jan 14, 2014 | ,

From the billion dollar acquisition of Waze to a plethora of IPOs in the industries of agriculture, science, technology, and social media, Israeli startups have been turning heads and smashing records after a very successful year in 2013. Global presence According to Cornell University’s 2013 Global Innovation Index Rankings, Israel ranked 14th of 142 countries in innovation, in addition to earning the number two spot among startup ecosystems worldwide, second only to California’s Silicon Valley. Startups developed in Israel seem to be instant sensations on various global markets. Despite Israel’s meager population of just over 8 million, the less-than sizeable nation-state has more companies listed on the NASDAQ’s exchange than any country after the United States and China . 2013 has been a year of momentous growth in the Israeli startup world — the third quarter of 2013 alone attracted $660 million investor dollars raised by 162 companies, the largest single-quarter performance in well over a decade. High tech success 2013 was a prodigious year for high-tech startups in Israel. While Waze took the cake with its billion-dollar acquisition, other...

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2013 was a multimillion-dollar year for leading Israeli agritech and medtech startups

2013 was a multimillion-dollar year for leading Israeli agritech and medtech startups

Jan 9, 2014 | ,

 This post was written by Karen Kozek from The Trendlines Group,  Israel’s leading agritech and medtech incubator.    It’s that time again. A time to take a look back at Trendlines and our portfolio companies in 2013. Last year, our portfolio companies raised ~$20 million (~NIS 70 million). Among these companies were LapSpace, Leviticus Cardio and MitrAssist. As well, ApiFix completed its second funding round. Last year marked the first time our companies received investments from Chinese investors. Since 2007, our portfolio companies have raised $140 million (not including government funding). With our entrepreneur partners, we created 9 new companies in 2013. On the agritech side, BioFishency, FuturaGraft, Metabolic Robots, Saturas, and Valentis started up. And in medical, we established Arch2Fix, Omeq Medical, STS Medical, and VisiDome. Since 2007, Trendlines has started 52 medical and agricultural technology companies. Our portfolio now numbers 55, including 15 revenue-stage companies. We announced 2 exits last year, and both involved major global players: Teleflex acquired Innolap and Baxter acquired FlowSense. Awards & Recognition A number of our companies gained local and international recognition last year. Israel’s Office of the Chief Scientist named ApiFix and Sol Chip “Best Start-Ups.” Sol Chip also received the award for Best Technical Development of Energy Harvesting at IDTechEx 2013 IDTechEx. GreenSpense walked away two awards from the 2013 International Cleantech Open...

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