Author: OurCrowd

Innovation knows no age: Shimon Peres takes Google’s streetview for a ride

Yesterday (Monday), Google Tel Aviv hosted a vary special guest, Israeli President Shimon Peres. The international technology giant opened its Tel Aviv offices back in 2006 and earlier this year launched Campus TLV, an innovation hub for Israeli startups. Peres toured the Tel Aviv offices, met with Google Israel’s management team, schmoozed with young Israeli entrepreneurs and checked out a few of the projects developed on the premises. At some point during the tour, typical of his young-at-heart character, the 90-year-old President mounted the Google streetview bike and pedaled around the office. Let’s hope he doesn’t forget his helmet! An advocate for technological progress, Peres is known for his interest in high-tech and support of innovative ventures. Peres takes an active role in promoting and encouraging the growth of Israel’s startup scene. For the past five years, Peres holds the Israeli Presidential Conference – “Facing Tomorrow” – which addresses central issues across various fields that will influence the face of our future. Following the visit, Peres is quoted on his Facebook page saying: The Israeli mind is uninhibited, creative and constantly looking for innovations and...

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[webinar] The 1st rule of startup investing: How investors lower risk and boost returns when investing in startups

OurCrowd Bootcamp is series of in-depth webinars is intended to give investors new to startup investing — as well as seasoned angel investors — a look into best practices.   Yesterday, we held the 2nd installment of the OurCrowd Bootcamp series on the importance of taking a portfolio approach to angel investing. Picking a startup to invest in is not easy and involves substantial risk.  In the webinar OurCrowd’s Bootcamp team addressed these issues and discussed how professional angel investors de-risk their investments in order to increase their chances of generating good returns. Additional topics covered in the webinar: What kind of returns you can expect with — and without — diversification  How to build a portfolio of startups Other methods professional investors use to de-risk investing in early stage companies Be on the lookout for more webinars in our bootcamp series (for investors in Israeli startups).  To stay updated on future events and the best news from the Startup Nation, sign up for our newsletter, email us, and follow us on social media. To contact David Stark, follow him on Twitter / Linkedin To contact Zack...

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TechCrunch: “Nextpeer, Which Brings Multiplayer Mode To Mobile Games, Comes To Android”

Leading technology website, TechCrunch, featured OurCrowd portfolio company Nextpeer as it  launches on Android after racking up about 10 million monthly actives in its network on iOS. The company started off slowly with barely just a handful of titles until a game earlier this year called ‘A Bike Race of Ninja Temple’ took off. Then they started racking up titles quickly, reaching about 2,000 games in the network on iOS alone. That brought them to 15 million unique players and 10 million monthly actives in the network. Now they’re coming to Android with about 100 titles in the waiting, and are planning to support Unity and build an enterprise-level SDK to allow bigger studios to customize their integrations. Nextpeer raised $325,000 from OurCrowd investors in December 2012 and $350,000 in its 2nd round of funding in March 2013. Read more on...

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OurCrowd events in August and September

OurCrowd is holding events across the US, Canada, and Israel again. If you see us in your neighborhood, let us know and we can arrange a one-on-one with you or a small group. If you’d like to attend one of our meetings, click on the RSVP links, or email us at events@ourcrowd.com. Events listed as “open to OurCrowd members” feature actively funding companies. To attend these events, attendees must accredit online as an OurCrowd member. Doing so is easy, fast, and free – simply click here. If you’re already an OurCrowd member, email us to find out more about the companies to be featured at our events.   Jerusalem – “Investing in the Start-Up Nation: Crowdfunding and Investing in Israel” Featuring OurCrowd General Partner Elan Zivotofsky. Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 4:30 – 6:00 PM (IDT)  RSVP here Public event – all welcome   San Diego – OurCrowd investor briefing with actively funding companies Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 4:30 – 6:00 PM (PDT)  RSVP here Open to OurCrowd members – register here as a member to attend closed events   Tel Aviv – OurCrowd investor briefing with actively funding companies Monday, September 9, 2013, 8:00 – 9:30 PM (IDT)...

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