Author: wp_archive_user

Lucid Energy Receives Funding From Israel’s OurCrowd

Mar 6, 2013 | , ,

OurCrowd is proud to announce the funding for our 1st U.S. portfolio company Lucid Energy Inc., a provider of renewable energy systems.  Lucid Energy’s patented LucidPipe™ Power System enables industrial, municipal and agricultural facilities to generate clean, reliable, low-cost electricity from the water grid. “We are thrilled to be working with OurCrowd,” said Gregg Semler, CEO of Lucid Energy Inc. “The speed and efficiency of the OurCrowd platform – which has brought entrepreneurial investors to us from as far away as Israel, New York, Brazil and Australia – is amazing.” Lucid Energy, based in Portland, Oregon, was formed in 2007 as an innovative clean technology company focused on creating a new way for industries to turn the untapped energy of moving water into cost-saving, renewable energy. “Water usage worldwide is growing rapidly, and in order to meet this demand, thousands of miles of water pipelines are being built in fast-developing countries while, at the same time, many of the world’s existing pipelines are aging and in dire need of repairs.” For more information read the full article published on...

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What Israeli entrepreneurs are working on now

What Israeli entrepreneurs are working on now

Feb 28, 2013 | ,

After opening our doors last fall, we’ve gotten to know so many of you: thousands of investors, entrepreneurs, and partners. Particularly, we’re seeing an incredible number of really high-quality startups. A huge percentage of these are companies founded by serial entrepreneurs with differentiated technologies and real tractions (with serious users, customers, revenues, etc.). An incredibly high number fit our investment methodology and criteria. I thought it would be interesting to break down what our deal flow looks like (thanks to our resident geniuses, David S, David C, and Jeremy for pulling this data). What Israeli entrepreneurs are working on now So far, OurCrowd has seen: Total deals 175 deals since Jan 1, 2013 (100+ deals per month)  350 deals (received actual materials) since Nov 1, 2012 Maturity of deal flow deal flow has ranged from seed investments to Series C, with sweetspot in the Series A range Internationality of deals while the vast majority of our deal flow comes from Israel, we have looked at deals from 9 countries Sector breakdown of deals  We’re seeing the most activity in...

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OurLinks: What we’ve been reading this past week (February 25, 2013)

OurLinks: What we’ve been reading this past week (February 25, 2013)

Feb 25, 2013 |

We read a heck of a lot of material during a work week. From deal flow to industry research, it’s important for us to stay on top of our game. Here’s a smattering of what crossed our desks (monitors) this past week. Hopefully, you can find a smattering of usefulness in these links. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Tel Aviv: 1 of the 10 cheapest stock markets in the world (Globes): “In 2011, in line with the global trend, the Israeli market fell. But internal and external forces last year resulted in only a partial correction in Israel, while all other markets enjoyed rising prices.” The n0-effort email to convert free users to paying customers (Unbounce): Sometimes it pays to have a senior leader reach out to prospects. Wading into dark pools (Barron’s): NYSE’s dark pool for small investors hasn’t been as disruptive as many feared. The new way we make web headlines now (The Awl): “Our actions are increasingly passive online, and we really are just looking for something to watch, click, share and receive.” How to view the entire free Kindle...

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Want to identify successful startup founders? Check Linkedin.

Want to identify successful startup founders? Check Linkedin.

Feb 19, 2013 | , ,

Over the past few weeks on the blog, we’ve been exploring how to identify successful startup founders (obviously, this matters A LOT to investors in early stage companies). Are entrepreneurs born or made? I remember a few years back, there were some (credible) studies that seemed to point to the existence of the entrepreneurship gene. In the book, Born Entrepreneur, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life, author Scott Shane looked at identical and fraternal twins and their inclinations to be entrepreneurs. The siblings who shared 100% of their genes demonstrated higher rates of entrepreneurship — leading Shane to estimate that 30-40% of successful startup skills are innate. Successful entrepreneurs are more tribal This startup gene theory is being challenged by some more recent work at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (admittedly, the existence of the startup gene would be b-a-d for the MBA program business). In The Power of Alumni Networks — Success of Startup Companies Correlates with Online Social Network Structure of Its Founders, researchers found that university networks whose alumni have a stronger “old-boys-network” (larger...

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OurCrowd launches, raises $12M for startups, platform

Feb 6, 2013 | ,

OurCrowd hit the news today in a big way, with news that it has raised $12M for its first class of startups and to fund its own operations. This news was all about: explaining how our hybrid angel/VC model is a better mousetrap for investors quantifying the international interest in investing in the Start-up Nation describing how OurCrowd’s investment platform helps address the Series A crunch patting ourselves, our entrepreneurs, and our investors on the back for a job well-done (it’s been seriously hard and rewarding work) >>You can read the whole press release here More OurCrowd mention in the news: OurCrowd in The Marker (The Marker – Hebrew) Crowdfunding platform OurCrowd raises $5.5M (Globes) OurCrowd completes funding (TechTime) OurCrowd in Chip Portal (Chip Portal – Hebrew) Israel jumps on the crowdfunding platform wagon (SmartPlanet) Business in Brief (Haaretz) OurCrowd in Newsgeek (Newsgeek –...

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