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Zack’s App of the Week: Mattermark

Zack’s App of the Week: Mattermark

Jan 29, 2014 |

When I was an analyst at a hedge fund, we were Bloomberg addicts. Our research, stock quotes, financial deep-diving — even our chat messaging system, everything ran through a Bloomberg terminal. If you’re investing in public companies, there isn’t anything close for a researcher. As an angel investor, though, I’ve found that coverage of the startup industry is well… let’s just say it’s nothing near to Bloomberg. Mattermark is trying to change all that. Mattermark bills itself as where “big data meets venture capital”. The company (which has a must-read free newsletter, by the way) tracks 200,000 startups around the world by profiling them, tracking millions of data points including location, stage, investment history + the more valuable traction metrics (web traffic, mobile downloads, social media following and engagement). It’s not cheap — at $500/month/seat, it’s a tool for very active and larger investors in startups. What do you use to research startups? [xyz-ihs...

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Zack’s App of the Week: Crunchbase

Zack’s App of the Week: Crunchbase

Jan 20, 2014 | ,

At OurCrowd, our investor community runs the gamut — we have extremely experienced investors who have had a lot of exposure to investing in startups. We also have investors new to the asset class. Regardless of what type of investor you are, you’re probably looking for tools to help you identify new investment opportunities and manage them better (or, you’re happy to work with a firm that does this for you…) Crunchbase is one of those tools. Owned by TechCrunch parent, AOL, Crunchbase has become almost a de-facto open database of startups and the people who invest in them. The site is run like a wiki, where anyone can add or edit the information. As you can see from the image above, this is a listing for OurCrowd portfolio company, Argo Medical Technologies. You can read corporate information about the maker of the ReWalk device, view some videos about the technology helping paraplegics walk again, and see who’s invested in the company. Crunchbase has its own API that interested and motivated investors can use to feed larger apps to...

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Ushering in a New Year of angel investments: Current investments on OurCrowd 12.2013

Ushering in a New Year of angel investments: Current investments on OurCrowd 12.2013

Dec 29, 2013 | , , , ,

The ushering in of a New Year traditionally represents the time for reflection, resolution and most importantly, opportunity. As we reflect on this past year, we’ve made it our New Year’s resolution to continue to keep our investors up to date on all of the latest investment opportunities coming out of the booming Israeli startup scene. Here’s a short summary of 3 current investment opportunities on OurCrowd’s platform: Highcon: Future of digital printing/packaging For those investors following what’s happening, Israel has quickly become a global center of innovation in the digital printing industry — creating, developing, and selling technology to all the top players in the field. Addressing the massive packaging industry, OurCrowd portfolio company, Highcon has developed a solution to the labor-intensive, costly, folding carton-packaging production process. Their Euclid machine uses revolutionary digital technology to crease, fold, and cut cartons, instantaneously producing a finished packaging product. OurCrowd is investing alongside digital printing pioneer, Benny Landa, widely known as the “father of digital printing”, and a member of Highcon’s Board of Directors. Highcon’s impressive management also offers over 100...

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The past, present, and future of crowdfunding — Harvard Business School style

The past, present, and future of crowdfunding — Harvard Business School style

Dec 18, 2013 | ,

It’s been almost 20 years since the last time I was  at Harvard. I had spent most of my undergraduate degree running up and down the campus trying to make it in time to my economics classes. Earlier this month, through my role at OurCrowd, I had the opportunity to revisit the campus and go back to school, so to say. On December 4th 2013, I participated in a crowdfunding panel at the Harvard Business School Association of Boston (see the event link here). In light of recent developments int he crowdfunding field, HBS has organized a series of events to discuss the various aspects, implications and issues concerning the crowdfunding market today. The panel was moderated by Daniel Gorfine of the Milken Institute. The slides below are his and were presented at the event. Daniel is one of the foremost analysts on the ecosystem evolving around crowdfunding and the great discussion that ensued was evidence of his expertise. Crowdfunding Panel at Harvard Business School (Dec 4, 2013) from OurCrowd Represented on the crowdfunding panel were OurCrowd (equity crowdfunding), Fundrise...

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Technology Transfer: The engine driving Israel’s startup industry

Technology Transfer: The engine driving Israel’s startup industry

Nov 27, 2013 | ,

Have you ever wondered how technologies that are developed on university campuses make it out of research labs and into the real world? For the majority of researchers—and particularly for student researchers— the commercialization process can appear to be a slightly daunting task at best and a giant black hole at worst. To help students and faculty utilize their research for commercial purposes, many universities employ a “technology transfer office” (TTO) which acts as a liaison between an academic institution and industry. TTOs are generally experts on patents, research collaborations, licences, and other relevant legal and financial matters. TTO’s and Israel: Together from the start You may have assumed—understandably so—that TTOs only started to spring up in Israel over the last decade, as excitement surrounding the country’s startup scene has skyrocketed. You’d then be surprised to learn that the first Israeli TTO, Yeda, was established at the Weizmann Institute in 1959, just 11 years after the country’s founding. During this period, revolutionary agricultural engineering research that was being conducted at Israeli academic institutions was transferred to kibbutzim and private...

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