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What We’re Investing In: Current Investment Opportunities on OurCrowd (November 2014)

What We’re Investing In: Current Investment Opportunities on OurCrowd (November 2014)

Nov 6, 2014 | ,

Welcome to the latest installment of OurCrowd’s “What We’re Investing In” series. This month we’re featuring three of our existing portfolio companies raising follow-on rounds – but that’s not all. We have a number of new, exciting companies in the pipeline about to launch on the platform, so stay tuned and visit www.ourcrowd.com for more information. VocalZoom – Accurate voice recognition in any environment Walk down the street today and you’ll see people talking to their phones. The multi-billion dollar voice recognition market went mainstream big time with Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Search. However, one fundamental problem with all of these technologies is that they have a hard time deciphering speech out of the cacophony of everyday life. VocalZoom has created a proprietary patented` software to address this major pain point in the voice recognition market. Using acoustic and optical sensors, VocalZoom’s technology is able to monitor vibrations from the throat and face of the speaker, filtering out any external signals usually picked up by traditional microphones. VocalZoom’s product can be used in cellphones, personal headsets and automotive...

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Take these 8 steps to become an all-star startup investor

Take these 8 steps to become an all-star startup investor

Oct 28, 2014 | , ,

Show of hands: Who here doesn’t want to invest in the next Facebook or Google? Didn’t think so. The people who invest in startups have supplanted hedge fund managers as the investment rock stars of our age. What makes startup investing so thrilling is that unlike the passive investing common in the stock market (see our Ultimate Stock Market Investor’s Guide to Investing in Startups), angel investors have the opportunity to provide ongoing value with their experience… and Rolodexes. Whether you’re just kicking off your career as a venture capitalist or starting out in angel investing after making your money in other businesses, investing in startups can be a very lucrative activity. In fact, the data show that well-positioned angel portfolios can return 2.5X over a 4-year period. Returns like these easily trounce stock market returns (and historical returns of most other asset classes). However, investing in startups can be tricky. For example, it’s very likely that some of the startups you invest in will end up folding (less than 50% of startups never reach their 5th birthday). What are...

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The ultimate stock market investor’s guide to investing in startups

The ultimate stock market investor’s guide to investing in startups

Oct 1, 2014 | , ,

Most investors ‘come of age’ learning the mechanics and strategy of investing through their involvement in stock markets. That makes sense: stock markets are typically comprised of the largest and most stable companies within a geography, with enough interest that investors can relatively easily buy and sell shares. Individual shares and mutual funds populate many long-terms investors’ retirement portfolios. And it’s the stock market, we’ve always been told, that deserves investors’ dollars and attention. But as new technology enables investing in newer, different types of assets, stock market investors are beginning to look beyond just investing in the stock market and more towards investing in alternative assets: like real estate, commodities, and more often, startups. For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on investing in small, growth-oriented private companies (startups). Small companies are the lifeblood of the US economy, driving growth and providing new jobs to the workforce. It’s the allure of large, outsized returns by investing in the next Google, Facebook and Apple that is captivating investors right now. How stock market investors evolve to...

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What we’re investing in: Current investment opportunities on OurCrowd (Sep.-Oct. 2014)

What we’re investing in: Current investment opportunities on OurCrowd (Sep.-Oct. 2014)

Sep 30, 2014 | , ,

Over the course of the past two years, OurCrowd along with our community of 5,000 investors have invested $65 million in our 50 portfolio companies. This unprecedented access to early stage investments has made startups an investable asset that is now being included in investor portfolios, just like stocks and bonds. In order to give you a little preview of all the excitement happening on the OurCrowd platform, we’ve decided to publish a monthly digest of our currently funding companies. (To become an OurCrowd member, join us free of charge.) Without further ado, here are the most recent funding OurCrowd companies: Clipfort – Securing firearms with biometric authentication Clipfort developed a patented gun magazine that requires the owner’s unique fingerprint to unlock and fire the weapon. Global gun violence has been on a steady rise over the past few years and is responsible for 85 deaths on average per day in the United States alone. Nearly 18 thousand of these victims are children and teenagers who had unwarranted access to guns. To solve this crisis, current solutions require gun owners...

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