Startup Investing

Meet the Israeli Startups in Fast Company’s report on the World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014

Meet the Israeli Startups in Fast Company’s report on the World’s Most Innovative Companies 2014

Feb 11, 2014 | , ,

Each year, award-winning tech magazine Fast Company spends months gathering and analyzing data in order to generate its annual  report on The World’s Most Innovative Companies. According to Fast Company, their list is a guide to the state of innovation in economy, featuring the businesses whose innovations are having the greatest impacts across their industries and our culture as a whole. Therefore, it’s not surprising that a number of Israeli companies fresh out of the Startup Nation, the world’s #2 startup ecosystem, were included on the list. Check out the Israeli companies at the forefront of business and creativity that were ranked by Fast Company as part of the world’s most innovative companies: World’s Most Innovative Companies Two Israeli companies made it to the main list of the Fast Company World’s Most Innovative Companies: Tel Aviv-based Water-Gen ranked at #21 for creating water where soldiers need it most. Water-Gen began its operation in the defense market, designing state-of-the-art solutions for water supply. The company developed three machines — one that turns air moisture into drinking water, one that purifies the dribbles of air-conditioning units, and one that purifies any water source (such as...

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The Lifecycle of an OurCrowd Investment: Following a Company’s Progress from Due Diligence to Investment (and Beyond)

The Lifecycle of an OurCrowd Investment: Following a Company’s Progress from Due Diligence to Investment (and Beyond)

Feb 5, 2014 | , , ,

 OurCrowd launched a new webinar series called ‘Teach-In Tuesdays’. In this series, we’ll explore investing in early-stage Israeli companies, identify and explain influential tech trends, stay up-to-date with the crowdfunding industry, and examine actionable insights from our own experience running OurCrowd’s investment platform. Yesterday, we held the 1st installment of the OurCrowd Teach-In Tuesdays series on the investment lifecycle of a startup at OurCrowd, from dealflow to first investment to follow-on rounds. Additional topics covered in the webinar: How OurCrowd chooses which companies to invest in The tools we create for investors to do their own research What successful investors can do to maximize value AFTER an investment is made How our portfolio companies receive support from us in future investment rounds  ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Be on the lookout for our next webinar: OurCrowd’s Portfolio RESERVE: Making investing easier by putting the investment process on autopilot Tuesday, February 18th  (6:00 PM Israel / 11:00 AM NYC/ 8:00 AM San Francisco) >> Reserve your seat (recommended for investors) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: To stay updated on future events and the best news from the Startup Nation, sign up for our newsletter,...

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The 3 Most Common Crowdfunding Concerns (Part 1): “I Don’t Have Millions to Invest”

The 3 Most Common Crowdfunding Concerns (Part 1): “I Don’t Have Millions to Invest”

Jan 28, 2014 | ,

Today, OurCrowd is featuring Part 1 of a special 3-part series from Matt and Wayne, the founders of www.Crowdability.com.  Crowdability provides individual investors with independent research and education on equity crowdfunding. With their free service, they aim to simplify the process of discovering and evaluating crowdfunding opportunities. In this series that they’ve created especially for OurCrowd, Crowdability will address investors’ 3 most common concerns about Equity Crowdfunding.  ——————————————————————— “Dear Matt and Wayne: Does investing in equity crowdfunding deals make sense for me? I’m not a professional investor, and I’m not planning to invest millions into start-ups.” Several times a week, our subscribers ask us variations of this same question.  Since it’s such a common concern, we thought we’d dig into it today. Let’s start with the simple answer: Yes, it does make sense – even if you’re not a “professional” investor, and regardless of how much you intend to invest. You see, equity crowdfunding was specifically designed to help small companies raise small rounds of financing, ideally in small amounts from many investors. The fact is, you can dip your toe in the water for less...

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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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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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