Globes - Israel's Business Arena  |  Posted on Sept 10, 2013

Israel's equity crowd-funding platform for accredited investors, OurCrowd announced that it has raised over $20 million for its 26 portfolio companies.

OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said, "With OurCrowd reaching this funding milestone, we have solidly positioned ourselves as a leading player in the growing equity crowd-funding revolution. Our trailblazing platform has enabled accredited angel investors worldwide to invest in promising companies alongside top notch VCs, such as Canaan, JVP, Accel, Index and Khosla Ventures."

Medved added, "What truly sets us apart from other platforms is that we are focused not just on ‘crowd-funding’ but on ‘crowd-building’ for our portfolio companies. Funding is just the first level of engagement with the crowd. OurCrowd assigns experienced mentors to work with each of our companies, often taking board seats, and we play an active role in helping our companies grow. We encourage our investors to pitch in by helping the companies, and this has borne fruit with dozens of introductions and strategic connections being made as a result of the crowd’s help."

Among the companies that OurCrowd has invested in are parking app Parko, mobile communications platform Zula, organic products e-commerce site Abe's Market Ltd., website protection company Fireblade (formerly SiteBlackBox), and renewable energy developer LucidEnergy Inc.

OurCrowd general partner Elan Zivotofsky said, "We are most proud of the fact that we are raising far more than symbolic amounts of capital for our companies. Many view equity crowd-funding as a curiosity or a way to raise small amounts of cash. The fact that we have now completed seven deals in excess of $1 million each via our platform demonstrates that this model works and can be effectively used for significant capital raises."

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