Israel’s OurCrowd marks $2 billion in investment commitments
Israel-headquartered global venture firm OurCrowd is marking $2 billion in investment commitments ahead of its annual Global Investor Summit event in Jerusalem slated for February.
The firm, founded in 2013, is also celebrating its 10-year anniversary, with investments in over 40 funds across five continents and 370 portfolio companies of which 60 have “exited” (tech exits are defined as merger and acquisition deals or initial public offerings).
OurCrowd companies include California food tech firm Beyond Meat, Israeli insurance tech company Lemonade (now traded on the New York Stock Exchange) and Israeli company Innoviz Technologies, a maker of sensors for self-driving cars, traded on the Nasdaq. It has also invested in an additional 410 companies through partner funds.
Investments in startups through OurCrowd have totaled over $250 million so far in 2022, the company said. Crowned the “most active venture capital investor” in Israel by Pitchbook, OurCrowd said the largest share — 22% — of investments went to healthcare startups, followed by enterprise software with 18%, and agriculture and food tech with 13%. A majority of investments, 47%, came from the US, 17% from Europe and 11% from Asia.
The company has grown its investment platform to include over 220,000 registered investors from over 190 countries. OurCrowd has an office in the United Arab Emirates and is opening a global artificial intelligence (AI) innovation center in the capital Abu Dhabi.
This fall, OurCrowd partnered with the Geneva-headquartered World Health Organization (WHO) Foundation to launch a $200 million equity fund that will invest in global health initiatives.
OurCrowd founder and CEO Jon Medved said the company was “delighted to announce that OurCrowd has passed the landmark figure of $2 billion in commitments. The platform continues to grow, both in terms of new users and portfolio companies. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, our focus is firmly on the future and bringing the latest technology to bear on the challenges we face in sustainability, healthcare, food security, alternative energy, alternative proteins and cybersecurity.”
“As Israel’s most active venture investor, with corporate partners around the world and strong connections to the Gulf, OurCrowd is uniquely positioned to bring the global startup ecosystem together in Jerusalem,” he added.
OurCrowd’s annual investor summits in Jerusalem are prominent affairs in the Israeli tech scene, and draw thousands of participating startups, investors, officials and entrepreneurs from across the world. In 2020, the summit had over 20,000 registrants, including from the Arab world.
At the upcoming summit, OurCrowd said it “expects hundreds of visitors from the Gulf and North Africa, representing the largest ever delegation to Israel of investors, corporate executives, government representatives and journalists from the broader Middle East.”
Last year, Japanese investment giant SoftBank, one of the biggest venture capital investors in the world, bought a $25 million stake in OurCrowd.
SoftBank’s Israel operations are headed by Yossi Cohen, who stepped down as head of the Mossad last summer after more than five years on the job.
Softbank and OurCrowd also have a strategic cooperation agreement to source investment opportunities through SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA – Sub-Adviser to SoftBank Vision Fund 2), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
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