Author: OurCrowd

[HIL Medical in Geektime] Israeli biomed HIL Applied Medical acquires Reno’s Nanolabz in race for cancer treatment

Jun 1, 2016 |

Jerusalem-based HIL Applied Medical Ltd. announced on Thursday their buyout of Nanolabz Inc., a Nevada-based firm developing smart nano-engineered targets for the short-pulse R&D sector. According to CEO Sagi Brink-Danan, HIL made their acquisition through an equity agreement wherein Nanolabz’s stakeholders gained ownership of 5% of the Israeli company’s shares. Read more on...

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Risk and Reward: The truth about diversification

Risk and Reward: The truth about diversification

Feb 2, 2016 | , ,

It is a common misconception that investing in startups is for the uber-wealthy, venture capital and angel investing insiders; being exclusive and risky — an alternative asset class where losing is part of the strategy. Venture capitalists leaders highlight how often you lose before you win. Thought leader Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures says, “Investing in startups is risky. If you make just one investment, you are likely going to lose everything. If you make two, you are still likely to lose money. If you make five, you might get all your money back across all five investments. If you make ten, you might start making money on the aggregate set of investments.” How Much to Invest That being said, no one will advise you to put a large percentage of your savings into early stage companies. However, if you allocate 5% of your overall portfolio into startup investments you can increase returns and reduce risk. According to a SharesPost whitepaper, if you allocate 5% of your investments to private growth companies, you can increase the returns of a traditional portfolio by...

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Q&A with Replay Technologies CEO and co-founder Oren Yogev

Q&A with Replay Technologies CEO and co-founder Oren Yogev

Oct 27, 2015 |

We went to watch Manchester United play during a lunch break […] During the match Aviv said he would like to see the game from the perspective of the ball, and we started making sketches and tossing around ideas.” — Oren Yogev, Ha’aretz Join OurCrowd for a live demo of Replay Technologies at the company offices in Tel Aviv on November 2nd, 2015, at 6:00PM — RSVP here. Oren Yogev, CEO and co-founder of Replay Technologies, OurCrowd’s latest investment opportunity, is reinventing the sports-viewing experience with Free-Dimensional Video. freeD is a video format that gives sports fans a dynamic 360 degree, 3D viewing experience of their favorite professional sporting events. A Technion-trained physicist and electro-optical engineer with a deep background in high-end military technologies, Oren has spent more than a decade working on laser guidance systems, drone manufacturing, and video recognition platforms. OurCrowd Investment Analyst Avi Lozowick recently interviewed Oren about Replay Technologies’ revolutionary free-dimensional video technology, and the transition of military technologies and innovations to commercial use and civilian applications in general. 3D-ing the playing field: Q&A with Oren Yogev Avi Lozowick: So how did Replay get...

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Doing Well While Doing Good: Impact investing in the Startup Nation

Doing Well While Doing Good: Impact investing in the Startup Nation

Aug 5, 2015 | , ,

Everyone dreams of making a difference in the world, but how many people have the means to do so? The rising trend of Impact Investing makes that worthy aspiration a very promising reality. By investing in companies offering products and services geared towards global impact, this niche sector combines social responsibility with financial returns. It’s Good to Invest in Good A Financial Times survey of 143 big investors indicates overall satisfaction with both financial and social returns on impact investments. Promisingly, these investors expressed intent to raise their investments by 16%. Another measurement of success is the Impact Investing Benchmark, a joint venture between Cambridge Associates and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). The IIB is a “comprehensive analysis of the financial performance of market rate private equity and venture capital impact investing funds,” which has proven instrumental in indicating the benefits of this field. An analysis of 68 Impact Investment funds between 1998–2010 indicated a 6.9% return to investors, with small funds returning 9.5% and Africa-focused funds returning 9.7%. This benchmark has even outperformed comparative conventional PI funds....

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The Rise of Real Estate Tech: How startups are transforming the housing industry

The Rise of Real Estate Tech: How startups are transforming the housing industry

Aug 2, 2015 |

Real estate and startups? For most people, there might not be an immediate connection between the two industries. Real estate has been around as an industry for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and is generally regarded as a multigenerational business. In New York City, for example, eight of the ten largest commercial landlords were founded before 1985, a testament to the enduring nature of real estate empires. In stark contrast, the startup world has come about within the last few decades, and many success stories, such as Facebook and Uber, have achieved unicorn status after only a few years. It would not be unreasonable to regard these two businesses as fundamentally separate from one another, but the last few years have shown that the reality is far different. In fact, there are a few unique features of real estate that have made it an ideal new frontier for the startup world. The most crucial characteristic of the real estate sector is its size. According to a 2014 Federal Reserve report, the United States residential and commercial real estate...

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