Israel’s OurCrowd to expand investments in India

OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based crowdfunding venture capital platform, is all set to spearhead its next India journey by identifying half a dozen startups and mulls investing around a total of $30 million.

In an interaction with DH, OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said he is buoyed by the growing global enthusiasm in the Indian startup ecosystem.

“We have been witnessing Indian startups, especially from the Asian region, making a global impact with their product and market access. So, now we have decided to focus more on India,” he said.

Medved said OurCrowd’s India journey started when it made first investment in Zoomcar, a self-drive rental service that is US-incorporated and based in Bengaluru. “We made Zoomcar investment last year with a total of $5,921,459. We are happy with that investment and scouting for half a dozen companies this year for $5 million in each,” he said.

OurCrowd opened the Singapore office, its seventh worldwide last year, to serve Asian investors interested in funding early-stage high-growth companies. “Asia is one of our fastest growing markets and following our launch in Singapore, we will be looking to take OurCrowd further into the ASEAN market,” said the CEO.

He said OurCrowd business in Asia has grown five times since 2014, both in terms of the number of investors on the platform and investment dollars committed on our platform.

“We are ready to invest in IoT, AI, data analytics, ecommerce, solar, mapping and enterprise startup. We are planning to take along with us a few investment companies and prominent angel investors in India for this initiative,” he said.

According to Federation of Indo-Israel Chamber of Commerce Vice-chairman David Keynan, who is also business partner of OurCrowd, said the Indian startup ecosystem is evolving.

“Israeli investors are finding Indian companies interesting. They are also ready to take Indian investors to Israel to make suitable matchmaking by investing in Israel startup companies also,” said Keynan.

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