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 logoClipfort 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 to sacrifice accessibility to their weapon by locking it in a safe. Now, with Clipfort’s biometric magazines, guns can be both accessible and usable by authorized personnel only. Clipfort’s affordable solution addresses a $4 billion market and, more importantly, has the potential to save thousands of lives.

HIL – Next generation accelerators for proton beam cancer therapy

HIL logoRadiotherapy is a common treatment for preventing the spread of cancer. One unfortunate side effect of traditional radiotherapy is the collateral damage caused to surrounding tissue, which has the potential to cause secondary cancer.

Proton beam therapy is a more accurate type of radiotherapy, which is used to prevent any subsequent damage and deliver a more concentrated beam of radiation to the tumor. Although proton beam therapy is not a new technology, the prohibitive cost of production has prevented it from becoming a common form of cancer treatment. To date, there are only 38 proton therapy centers worldwide, leaving the market mostly untapped and in desperate need of innovation.

HIL Applied Medical has developed a breakthrough technology that greatly decreases the cost and increases accuracy and the affectivity of proton beam therapy. To learn more about HIL’s proprietary technology, register on OurCrowd.com.

Pixie – Accurate location tracking for the Internet of things

Pixie logoMisplacing your possessions is an occurrence that happens all too often. Whether it’s your wallet, car keys or your own child, losing track of your stuff, well, sucks. Pixie, an Israel-based company (founded by serial entrepreneur Amir Bassan-Eskenazi) came up with a solution to this everyday problem.

Pixie created the world’s most accurate location tracking tags that attach to your everyday things. Once all of your items are tagged with “Pixie points,” they can then be precisely located from the convenience of your smartphone. The Pixie points function using low-energy Bluetooth technology and proprietary algorithms that allow users to locate their lost items within inches of their location. As opposed to competitors who only show users the general direction and distance of their lost items (much like a radar), Pixie uses an augmented reality interface that allows users to actually see exactly where their lost item is located.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a recent technological phenomenon that seeks to connect every day items to the Internet, giving those items increased “smart” capabilities and functionality. Pixie is competing specifically in the location segment of the IoT industry and has an estimated addressable market value of $1 billion. OurCrowd is investing alongside other significant VCs in this round of investment in Pixie.

Next Steps

OurCrowd is a better way to invest in Israeli and global startups. To find out more about these investment opportunities and others on our investment platform, click here.

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