MATERIALS FOR RELEASE: |
—
OurCrowd Global Investor Summit Enters Second Day: Four Million Dollars Already Invested in First Twenty-Four Hours as Accredited Investors Meet Top Startups
Jerusalem, Israel. December 10, 2014: OurCrowd announced that over $4 million has already been invested in the first day of its Global Investor Summit, which brought together almost 1,000 participants from 27 countries to Jerusalem.
“Global equity crowdfunding reached a new level today, as the virtual world met face-to-face with some truly exciting companies,” said Jon Medved, founder and CEO of OurCrowd. “We are proud that $4 million was invested by accredited summit investors by the end of the first day.”
These investments join the $80 million that accredited investors have already invested through OurCrowd in 55 companies since launching in early 2013.
In the opening summit panel on “The Next Big Thing”, Rona Segev-Gal, General Partner at Pitango, congratulated OurCrowd on its success in becoming “the biggest venture capital investor in Israel” during the past year.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat addressed the summit by stating that he was “extremely pleased that OurCrowd chose to host its summit in Jerusalem because, through entrepreneurship, we’re strengthening ourselves and developing and creating a better future for our kids. OurCrowd gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to stay in the City of Jerusalem and work globally.”
Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, the “father of Israel’s Iron Dome”, received a standing ovation to a packed audience after an exclusive briefing on the performance of the missile defense system he helped to create. He said, “OurCrowd, like Iron Dome, is based on innovative principles and technology management, and I look forward to collaborating with the OurCrowd team in the near future.”
Today, summit participants have fanned out across Israel in five different tours to view Israeli’s tech sector up close, meeting with leading public companies such as Google, Mobileye, Check Point and Evogene, as well as OurCrowd portfolio companies, BioCatch, eVigilo, Covertix, MST, and BillGuard.
But the summit was not all work and no play: the first day of the summit concluded with a gala cocktail party at Jerusalem’s First Train Station, sponsored by the Jerusalem Development Authority and JNext. This party celebrated the rapid growth in Jerusalem’s entrepreneurial scene with over 100 new startups set up in Jerusalem in the last year alone. Noted Israeli singer/songwriter Meir Banai, backed by rocker Yehuda Katz, entertained the crowd with a selection of his classic hits as the summit participants partied into the night.
About OurCrowd
OurCrowd is the leading hybrid venture capital equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors who wish to invest in Israeli and global early stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital and brings these startups to its accredited membership. Members choose those deals they invest in via OurCrowd-managed partnerships. OurCrowd investors must meet stringent accreditation criteria and invest a minimum of $10,000 per deal. OurCrowd provides post investment support to its portfolio companies, assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats. OurCrowd has raised over $80 million in equity crowdfunding for its 50 portfolio companies which include leading companies, such as: BillGuard, Consumer Physics (SCiO), BioCatch, Abe’s Market and ReWalk, OurCrowd’s first portfolio company to complete a successful IPO on the NASDAQ.
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved was recently featured on CNN Business with Richard Quest. The full interview can be watched here.
Press contact:
Leah Stern
Public Relations Director
T: +972.2.636.9352
C: +972.54.341.4861
USA Phone: +1.877.848.0964 ext. 2
