Entrepreneur Magazine, a leading publication covering news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities, featured OurCrowd portfolio company Abe’s Market. Abe’s Market is a fast growing e-commerce company focused on creating the amazon.com equivalent for the explosive natural and organic products market.

These direct interactions between small-business owner and consumers, along with a commitment to natural and organic products, is what defines Abe’s Market, says Richard Demb, the Chicago-based company’s CEO and co-founder.

And now Abe’s Market is taking its mission a step further by investing in some of the businesses on its marketplace. Mistral Equity Partners, a New York private equity firm, recently provided $20 million in funding, $10 million of which will go into Abe’s own mini-VC fund that will invest directly in their own suppliers and other natural product businesses that apply through the site. “This will help fill a big gap in industry,” Demb says. “If you are a company that is doing a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars in sales, you’re not yet at a professional money level yet. There are not many venture capital firms who would back you.”

 

Abe’s Market raised $680,000 from OurCrowd investors in 2012 and $1,000,000 its 2nd round of funding in 2014.

Read more on the Entrepreneur website here.