Startup Investing

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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Join us (online) for an early look at startups dedicated to boosting small business

Join us (online) for an early look at startups dedicated to boosting small business

Jul 23, 2015 | ,

Did you know 96% of all 30 million US companies have fewer than 10 employees? From builders to brokers, convenience shops to consultants, millions of small businesses are adopting a new breed of online tools to help them compete toe to toe with global brands. Join Prescott Watson, investment analyst at OurCrowd, and Kirk Simpson, co-founder and CEO of Wave, on this 45-minute webinar for an early look at startups dedicated to boosting small business. Revenge of Main Street: How small businesses compete – and succeed – in the era of Amazon Monday, July 27th (10:00 PM Israel / 3:00 PM NYC / 12:00 PM San Francisco) In this webinar, we will explore: Logistics: We all appreciate Amazon, but can’t deny it has derailed retailers of all sizes. New tools help small business compete via supply chain and delivery, in ways, only a year ago, were unthinkable. Branding & advertising: Social and search supplied small business a new way to find their audience – but that’s just the beginning. The next generation of marketing tech startups are bringing the...

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Get your copy: The smart investor’s guide to AdTech

Get your copy: The smart investor’s guide to AdTech

Jul 21, 2015 | ,

Although we are exposed to them every day, digital advertisements are often taken for granted. Whether it’s a video on Facebook, a pop-up in a mobile app, or an informational banner on the screen in the back of a cab, we are constantly being targeted by relevant (or not so relevant) attempts to capture our attention and mind share. The underlying marketing tools and infrastructure technologies that power today’s hyper-specific user targeting fall under the broad umbrella of AdTech. Recent advances in bandwidth, mobile computing, networking, and cloud services have enabled the development of a thriving digital advertising ecosystem. On two ends of the spectrum are publishers who have ad space to sell, and advertisers who demand space to place ads. In between, a variety of infrastructure services have been developed, which automate the process of placing and optimizing this content in real-time, for the most appropriate viewers, via a series of exchanges and programmatic platforms. The fragmented nature of the industry, and the range of products and services which can be categorized as “AdTech”, has made investing in...

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The Land of Milk, Honey, and Mythical Creatures: How to build a unicorn consumer company – from Israel

The Land of Milk, Honey, and Mythical Creatures: How to build a unicorn consumer company – from Israel

Jul 16, 2015 | ,

What does it take to build a unicorn in Israel? The term “unicorn” refers to tech companies that are valued at $1 billion by private or public markets. Israel has produced ten billion dollar unicorn exits over the last two years, a pace that is predicted to accelerate within the next few years. The Future of Israeli Startup ‘Unicorns’ Earlier this month, OurCrowd hosted an investor event with Yori Nelkin, General Partner of OurCrowd’s first seed fund investment vehicle, and Jim Scheinman, CEO of Maven Ventures. Scheinman has successfully achieved three ‘unicorn’ ($1B+) exits/valuations in 20 years and discussed with our crowd of investors how to build a unicorn consumer company – from Israel. View the webinar recording below or online here. Jim Scheinman (Maven Ventures) Talks Unicorns Jim Scheinman is the founder and CEO of Maven Ventures, an incubator and Micro VC fund focused exclusively on consumer internet and mobile startups with hyper-growth potential. He has achieved 3 ‘Unicorn’ ($1B+) exits/valuations over the past 20 years and serves as a highly engaged investor and mentor for all companies...

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