Equity Crowdfunding

Robots in the operating room: Making doctors — and healthcare — more efficient

Robots in the operating room: Making doctors — and healthcare — more efficient

Oct 10, 2013 | , ,

In Harl Vincent’s 1934 book “Rex”, a robot surgeon sought to remake mankind in the image of the robot. While he was (thankfully) unsuccessful in his pursuit, robots have certainly made their impact felt at a societal level. Robotic technologies are being introduced to a wide array of industries and have demonstrated their potential to save lives. The resident robots The first robotic system was introduced into the medical world in 1985. Dr. Yik San Kwoh of the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center used a robotic arm to direct a needle into his patients brain. Dr. Kwoh said about the surgery, ”The robotic arm is safer, faster and far less invasive than current surgical procedures.” Since then, robotics have played key active roles in the fields of surgery, rehabilitation and diagnostics. Surgery, in specific, is an area where robots are changing the way healthcare is delivered. Early technologies have mostly been aimed at assisting the surgeon, leading to a more efficient surgery. Robots in the Operating Room Perhaps the most well-known Israeli medical innovation using robotics is Mazor’s Renaissance. The...

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OurCrowd op-ed in WSJ: “An SEC Rule Change Opens a New Era for Crowdfunding”

OurCrowd op-ed in WSJ: “An SEC Rule Change Opens a New Era for Crowdfunding”

Oct 10, 2013 | , , ,

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed today written by OurCrowd CEO, Jon Medved. In the editorial, Jon talks about how recent U.S. regulatory changes to equity crowdfunding will open up new opportunities for investors and how these changes have positioned OurCrowd as a leader in its space. Startups and businesses have taken notice. They have begun to use similar online crowdfunding platforms—but to gather investments. And thanks in part to the SEC’s new rule, the equity crowdfunding market is poised for rapid growth over the next decade.   A new class of angel investors, affluent individuals who invest personal funds in companies, is another byproduct of the burgeoning crowdfunding movement. These angel investors are no longer just former startup founders. They’re a younger, broader class of Internet-savvy investors ready to evaluate and pick deals online. Read the full Wall Street Journal article here. A version of this article appeared October 10, 2013, on page A17 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: An SEC Rule Change Opens a New Era for Crowdfunding.   Making...

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The WIX IPO, the future of website creation, and the designer’s changing role

The WIX IPO, the future of website creation, and the designer’s changing role

Sep 23, 2013 | , , ,

Unless you’ve been living in a cave  (with no Wifi — no cheating), you’ve probably heard about the arms race in the do-it-yourself (DIY) website building space (we did a great run-down of the entire market in Where to invest in the next generation of website building tools). Wix’s upcoming IPO and what that means for the market The largest player in this space, Israel’s Wix.com, makes it stupid-easy to build your own website using simple fill-in-the-blank templates. Wix recently filed for an IPO in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Sources say that Wix will raise $75M at a valuation of $400M. This validates that there’s a business here: 28 million people have used Wix to build websites. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Wix ‘s revenue rose 60% to $40 million in 2012 from $25 million in 2009. Wix has a strong hold on the DIY end of the market. Website creation for professionals But this is far from a winner-take-all market. If DIY website creation sits on one end of the website development spectrum, professional tools sit on the other....

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[Webinar] Making Sense of the JOBS Act: New Rules on General Solicitation

[Webinar] Making Sense of the JOBS Act: New Rules on General Solicitation

Sep 11, 2013 | ,

On Monday, September 16th, we will be hosting an educational webinar to discuss and understand the SEC’s new rules on general solicitation. After 2 years of waiting, the JOBS Act will come into effect on September 23rd, essentially changing the way people invest in startups. Join OurCrowd’s Jay Kalish and Zack Miller as we examine these new changes. So, be sure to register for this event, and join us September 16th for the webinar. Click here to...

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Make turn at next exit: a roadmap for startup investing

Make turn at next exit: a roadmap for startup investing

Aug 27, 2013 | , ,

Angel investors as a whole have done exceptionally well lately.  A recent study by Prof. Robert Wiltbank that made noise in the angel scene claims that angel investors make 2.5x their investment in just 3.5 years when diversifying properly – which, if you think about it, is a ridiculous nearly 30% year over year return and more than double the returns of the S&P 500 over that same timeframe. How do angels make money? Angel investors make money when a startup they invested in exits, but what exactly qualifies as an exit? From an investor’s perspective, an exit is an event where the investor realizes gains or losses from original investment through a liquidation event, public offering, or a merger.  Sometimes exits are highly profitable events where investors receive a 20 or 30 times return on investment– in the VC/investing world these are called home-runs.  However, more often than not, returns from individual startup exits are more modest, or negative, and as such don’t receive press attention.  Finally, there are also those exits that startups are notoriously famous for producing and every investor should...

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