Author: OurCrowd

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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Democratizing Innovation: The movement of problem solvers, misfit thinkers, & crazy dreamers

Democratizing Innovation: The movement of problem solvers, misfit thinkers, & crazy dreamers

Jul 12, 2015 | , ,

This guest post was written by Christian Cotichini, co-founder and CEO of HeroX, the world’s problem solver community. Christian has over 20 years of experience leading startup and high growth technology companies; he is an active angel investor and mentors startup entrepreneurs. Here we are, about two years into the HeroX experiment: what happens when we unleash the power of incentive challenges to everyone, anywhere, in the whole world? So far, I couldn’t be happier. I co-founded HeroX together with Peter Diamandis and Emily Fowler from the XPRIZE Foundation. Peter, of course, needs little introduction. Inspired by the original Orteig Prize, which took Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, Peter created the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million prize awarded to the first private reusable spacecraft to reach an altitude of 100 km, twice within two weeks. The prize was won in October 2004 by Scaled Composites, and the technology was licensed to create Virgin Galactic. Within the next few years, the general public will be able to get their astronaut wings. From this revolutionary beginning, the XPRIZE...

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Putting the ‘ad’ in venture: Why investors are excited about the AdTech market

Putting the ‘ad’ in venture: Why investors are excited about the AdTech market

Jul 9, 2015 | , ,

Have you ever been surprised to see an ad appear on your computer screen with exactly what you were looking for? Sometimes, it seems like the Internet can read our minds. It turns out that with the growing adtech industry, it can. Adtech platforms work to connect advertisers and consumers efficiently, by using sophisticated analytics to enable targeted advertising. The growing global adtech market is currently worth approximately $142 billion, with some estimates putting it at over $200 billion by 2018. Nearly 70% of these revenues come from mobile advertisement, which brings in about $100 million annually, according to emarketer. As the digital advertising industry expands, with revenues growing at 11% annually, it continues to make gains on the market share of traditional media outlets. But, what is adtech? When advertisers seek to place ads, they face the dual challenge of identifying their target audience and figuring out where to spend their money searching for it. Adtech companies solve these problems in one, by providing a means for advertisers to target the right people and know exactly where to...

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Medical Marijuana: Clearing the smoke on a miracle drug

Medical Marijuana: Clearing the smoke on a miracle drug

May 18, 2015 | , ,

This is a guest post by OurCrowd Venture Partner and medtech investment advisor Dr. Morris Laster.  If ever there was a ‘miracle drug’, the top candidate would be cannabis. The range of clinical conditions that have had the potential for treatment with marijuana is extensive ranging from approved conditions with cannabis derivatives such as Sativex for MS induced neuropathic pain and spasticity, or Marinol for cancer treatment induced nausea and vomiting, and AIDS cachexia. Other conditions include Type 2 diabetes, obesity, various neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, or Huntingdon’s disease, glaucoma and the list goes on and on. The biggest challenges with medical marijuana are: Marijuana is best administered by smoking due to the combination of active ingredients and first pass kinetics Dosing variability due to individual smoking differences and plant material There is the potential for recreational drug abuse For the first time, there is a solution for the issue of dosing medical marijuana. Israel-based Syqe Medical has developed an inhaler that “druggifies” marijuana by providing clinically-proven standardized dosing, utilizing a cartridge based dose, uniform heating element and...

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Dripping with innovation: 5 Israeli water tech companies changing the world

Dripping with innovation: 5 Israeli water tech companies changing the world

Nov 19, 2014 | , ,

Plato said, “necessity is the mother of invention.” That saying couldn’t be more true in the case of the Startup Nation. A desert country with an utter lack of natural water resources, Israel has literally made the desert bloom. In the decades since its founding, Israel has become a worldwide leader in turning water scarcity into water abundance. The tiny country has been making waves in water technology since its inception, and its innovations of drip irrigation, desalination, wastewater treatment, and water reuse, among others, have been globally recognized and awarded. These days, the country’s water know-how is in high demand. Over the past year, Israeli water gurus have been sought out to provide expertise on numerous humanitarian and financial projects across different sectors worldwide — bailing California out of its worst drought in history, bringing self-cleaning water filters to Africa, cleaning up holy rivers in India—to name a few. In light of global warming and continued decrease of water resources, now more than ever countries in both the developed and developing world are seeking the help of Israeli water tech...

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