OurCrowd raises $72M in Series C funding
The global equity crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd has announced the raise of $72 million in Series C funding from investors including financial institutions, family offices, and private investors from five continents. Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) after pumping $10 million in OurCrowd earlier this year, has also participated in OurCrowd’s Series C.
The funding, says the company, will be used in expansion of its seven global offices and further developing its technology platform. Jon Medved, CEO, OurCrowd said:
“OurCrowd has grown exponentially since our launch in 2013 to become the leading global platform for Equity Crowdfunding. This transformative Series C funding will allow us to take advantage of the growing investor interest in quality equity crowdfunding.”The Israel-based company also plans to use the other half of funds ‘to make sure that each and every company which raises funding on OurCrowd’s platform receives participating investment from the General Partner on the same terms as the crowd’.
“This new capital will help us hit our goal of investing $1 billion annually by 2020,” Medved added.The platform vouches to have invested in 100 portfolio companies and funds till date with total investment exceeding a massive $300 million. It apparently has had nine exits from its portfolio investments – two IPO’s and seven acquisitions. These include ReWalk, Crosswise (bought by Oracle), Replay Technologies (bought by Intel), and NextPeer (bought by Viber). With a community of almost 15,000 investors from over 110 countries, OurCrowd claims to vet and select opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. Reportedly it also provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. Geoff Levy, an OurCrowd investor and member of the OurCrowd Advisory Board, also commented that “OurCrowd has grown incredibly fast over the last 3 years. With this new and important Series C funding, we expect to continue this steep growth trajectory, not only gaining more investors and capital worldwide, but most importantly increasing the ‘crowds’ involvement in sourcing and adding value to our remarkable portfolio of companies.”