Israeli crowdfunding platform launches in Australia

Launched in February last year, OurCrowd is an exclusive platform for accredited investors looking to invest in early stage companies. OurCrowd selects the startups and invests $50,000 of its own capital before opening the funding round to its accredited members – of which there are 3000.

According to a release, wholesale investors are able to select which deals they want to invest in via the online OurCrowd investment platform. Investors must meet stringent accreditation criteria in accordance with the laws of each investor’s country of residence and must invest a minimum of $10,000 per deal.

Deals currently being funded are visible only to the accredited members and are not disclosed to the general public until funding is complete.

In additional to sourcing potential targets for its investors, OurCrowd also provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, in many cases by assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats.

In 2013, OurCrowd claims to have raised more than $30 million for its 30 portfolio companies, including eleven financings in excess of $1 million.

The platform’s Australia operations will be led by founding partners David Shein and Geoff Levy, alongside Nathan Cher who previously co-founded technology IT services firm Com Tech with Shein. Levy is also chairman of Monash Private Capital.

“What truly sets us apart from other platforms is that we’re focused not just on ‘crowdfunding’ but on ‘crowdbuilding’ for our portfolio companies,” said Medved. “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.”

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Australia
• seed
• Venture