Startup Investing

Eye-opening innovation: Top 10 incredible Israeli advances in vision

Eye-opening innovation: Top 10 incredible Israeli advances in vision

Oct 8, 2013 | , , ,

The Startup Nation is known for its eye opening innovation — literally speaking, that is. Israel is home to a growing medical device industry. It’s developed an advanced infrastructure of medical and paramedical research as well as bio-engineering capabilities. Israeli researchers have provided an impressive number of medical advances and copious contributions across the various branches of the medical industry and the field of vision is no exception. Israeli scientists have been consistently a dominant force in developing innovative technologies to help transform the lives of the world’s blind and visually impaired. World Sight Day, an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment, falls out this week on October 10th. As writer Abigail Klein Leichman points out in ISRAEL21c, an online news magazine covering 21st century Israel, this is the “perfect opportunity to present some of the amazing advances coming out of Israel for treating medical conditions of the eye.” The ISRAEL21c article lists a range of innovations that dramatically improve eyesight or the quality of life for people with vision impairments. The various technologies listed address a wide range of visual impairments,...

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A startup investor’s guide to the 3D printing industry

A startup investor’s guide to the 3D printing industry

Oct 3, 2013 | ,

Last week, my neighbor told me about his new business idea. He was planning on buying a 3D printer and renting it out to people who were interested in using the product – sort of like a FedEx Office (‘Kinkos’) for 3D printing. Although he had some hesitations about the traction of that business in Beit Shemesh (a Jerusalem suburb), he still thought that it would take off in the near future. Size of 3D printer market Kenneth Wong, an analyst at Citigroup could not agree more. He predicts that the market for 3D printing will triple to $6Bn by 2018. A big player in the field of CAD/CAM, Stratasys, predicts it can increase revenues 25% by the end of the fiscal year. 3D Systems, another giant in the arena, had an increase of 53% in revenues from 2011 to 2012. Analysts accredit this to the fact that 3D printing companies want to break through the prototyping stage and start addressing the general consumer end of the market. What is 3D printing? What exactly is 3D printing? 3D printing...

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The Happiest, Competitive and Innovative Nation: Israel ranks high on global reports

The Happiest, Competitive and Innovative Nation: Israel ranks high on global reports

Sep 12, 2013 | ,

A couple of important global ranking reports published recently reveal some interesting facts about the nations of the world in general and about Israel in particular. Each report calculates the rankings of the countries by taking into consideration several factors that span from economic and social to government policies and security, etc. To sum up the report findings, Israel is one of the happiest, competitive and most innovative countries in the world. Always look on the bright side of life The World Happiness Report released by Columbia University’s Earth Institute ranked Israel the 11th-happiest country, according to the survey of 156 countries. Israel jumped three spots in the rankings from last year, coming in just behind Australia (10th). Other noteworthy ranking are the USA (17), UK (22) and Canada (6). Other than the United Arab Emirates (14), Israel ranks way above any of its neighbors in the Middle East. The report ranked the happiness of the world’s nations based on a “life evaluation score,” a number between 0 and 10 that measures several factors including health, family and job security, and social factors like political freedom, social networks and lack...

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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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Zula rocking it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013 — wins ‘Audience Choice’ award!

Zula rocking it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013 — wins ‘Audience Choice’ award!

Sep 10, 2013 | , , , ,

TechCrunch Disrupt is an annual technology conference hosted by TechCrunch in San Francisco, New York City and Beijing and is one of the most anticipated and popular events of the year in the tech industry. It’s at this conference that many technology startups choose to launch their products and services competing on stage in front of leading venture capitalists, potential investors, media and other interested parties. OurCrowd’s portfolio company Zula, an innovative cloud-based mobile collaboration platform for teams, is participating in the conference this week and has lived up to its promise to become one of the most disruptive startups there! Last night the Zula team were the ‘Audience Choice Winners’ and got a chance to pitch live before the Disrupt judges. Co-founders Jeff Keni Pulver and Jacob Ner-David took to the TechCrunch Disrupt stage and wowed the audience, judges and online viewers with their innovative Zula app. Watch the video of their performance on stage: TechCrunch published an article featuring Zula with some of the selected Q&A with the Disrupt judges. Take a look: Zula’s Mobile-First Teamwork Tool Lets You Spend More Time Outside Of The Inbox Way to go Zula team, you guys...

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