Is the great VC sale underway?
A weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from OurCrowd, the global venture investing platform
Startup of the Week
Air EV: Flying vehicles become a reality
Air EV ’s full-scale prototype of its AIR ONE flying vehicle was one of the standout attractions at the 2023 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit. With a seven-meter wingspan, the two-seat electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle has a range of 100 miles on a single charge, at speeds up to 155 miles per hour. Designed specifically for the private market, the AIR ONE is priced similar to a high-end luxury car. CEO Rani Plaut told Summit participants the company has already received over 300 pre-orders, and the potential for revenue is in the billions. Air EV is currently on its way to FAA clearance and expects to start deliveries in the second half of 2024. OurCrowd has an allocation in Air EV’s current funding round.
PitchBook: OurCrowd Israel’s most active investor?
Investing industry bible PitchBook has crowned OurCrowd the most active venture capital investor in Israel over the past five years. “OurCrowd remains at the top of the list of the most active venture investors in Israel, even as the country sees a slowdown,” Leah Hodgson reports. “Domestic investors are a driving force behind Israel's startup ecosystem, with all but one of the 10 most active VCs—in terms of deals done—headquartered there.” Hodgson notes that 2023 “had a slow start relative to previous years,” but while capital invested in Israeli startups fell during the economic downturn as it did in other countries, it was “to a lesser extent than the decline in other ecosystems of a similar size like the Nordics.” In its annual survey, PitchBook has ranked OurCrowd as Israel’s most active investor every year since we were founded in 2013, with more deals than any other Israeli VC.
Hub Security starts trading on Nasdaq
Congratulations to our portfolio company Hub Security (NASDAQ: HUBC), which began trading on Nasdaq on Wednesday. The listing comes a day after the Tel Aviv-based developer of confidential computing cybersecurity products and services and Mount Rainier Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: RNER) announced the completion of their business combination. The combined company will operate as Hub Cyber Security Ltd. Its ordinary shares and two series of warrants have been approved for trading on Nasdaq. “We are extremely pleased to complete this transaction and become a public company traded on the Nasdaq,” says Uzi Moscovich, CEO of Hub. “Our goal is to continue to develop and implement advanced Con?dential Computing and other cybersecurity technologies for our current and future customers in both government and private industries. Access to larger capital markets is expected to enable Hub to accelerate its growth plans both in technology development and customer adoption, while building more value for our public shareholders.”
‘Everything is on sale. It’s a great time to be buying’?
Current market conditions, and whether now is the time for newcomers to the venture capital world to start building a portfolio, were two topics I discussed with Thane Stenner, the award-winning portfolio manager who hosts the Smart Wealth podcast on Canada’s BNN Bloomberg. “We’re buyers. Everything is on sale. It’s a great time to be buying,” I told Stenner. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. The fact that there are lots of good companies now on sale makes them very attractive.”??
Samsung Ads certifies Clinch
Samsung Ads has certified our AdTech pioneer Clinch to deliver automated, data-driven, personalized content on its platform. Clinch can now serve, run and optimize personalized and dynamic programmatic campaigns across Samsung North America's Samsung TV Plus and Audience Extension inventory suite, which includes Connected TV (CTV), online video, display and mobile, through the Samsung DSP. “Through this partnership we are able to bring a new level of real-time personalization to millions of Samsung connected devices, with superior automation and efficiency,” says Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, which is currently funding on the OurCrowd platform.
NT-Tao: Striving for an infinite supply of fusion energy?
Nuclear fusion could potentially provide an unlimited source of clean energy, and Israeli startup NT-Tao is looking to supply it. After emerging out of several years of stealth, the company raised $22M in a Series A round of funding, with the goal of accelerating the progress toward commercializing nuclear fusion energy, Anne-Fran?oise Pelé reports in EE Times Europe . “As the cleanest form of energy in the universe, fusion offers a unique solution to tackle global emissions. It is also an infinite source of energy, and once harnessed on Earth, it will democratize energy globally while significantly reducing our dependence on fossil fuels,” says Oded Gour-Lavie, CEO and Co-founder of NT-Tao. An allocation of the closed Series A round is still available to OurCrowd investors. Additional details are available under NDA.
New England Journal: Insightec eases Parkinson’s symptoms
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Findings of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine show that focused ultrasound treatment from our portfolio company Insightec can help ease symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, Amy Norton writes in US News and World Report . The incision-free procedure uses sound waves to heat and destroy specific spots of brain tissue contributing to movement problems. Insightec has been used for several years to treat some patients with Parkinson's disease whose primary symptom is limb tremor. This latest trial aims to treat different groups of patients: those troubled by a side effect of Parkinson's medications that causes the body to twitch or jerk involuntarily, and those still having movement problems between their medication doses.
Remilk approved in Singapore; receives US ‘No Questions Letter’?
Singapore opened its doors to our portfolio company Remilk . The Singapore Food Authority (SFA) granted the company regulatory approval allowing it to sell its animal-free whey protein in the country. Remilk reached another milestone in the US: it received a “No Questions Letter” from the FDA that concludes that the protein can be safely used in food products under its GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) standards. “Both SFA's approval and the No Questions Letter we received from the FDA serve as further proof that our animal-free milk protein is bioidentical to its cow-derived counterpart and safe for consumption,” says Aviv Wolff, Co-founder and CEO of Remilk.??
Swarco, Connected Energy accelerate EV charging in UK
SWARCO Smart Charging and our portfolio company Connected Energy have joined forces to help accelerate the rollout of electric vehicle charging across the UK, Transport and Energy reports . Swarco’s charging stations will be powered by Connected Energy’s E-STOR system, which uses second life EV batteries as an energy storage system. “This is a natural collaboration between two like-minded companies that are both on a mission to support vehicle electrification and help to decarbonize charging for organizations and drivers,” says Matthew Lumsden , CEO of Connected Energy. “Since we helped pioneer the installation of charging points in the UK more than a decade ago, as the size and scale of projects increases, we have seen EV charging projects hampered by the lack of electricity capacity. It is a constant issue, and one that until now has been difficult to overcome, resulting in EV charging roll out being scaled back, relocated away from preferred sites, or delayed," says Justin Meyer , SWARCO Smart Charging’s Managing Director.
D-ID launches chat API with digital human interface
OurCrowd portfolio company D-ID launched a new chat API that enables face-to-face conversations with an AI digital human, Aisha Malik reports in TechCrunch . The company is currently offering it to enterprises for branding and customer experience purposes. The premise of the API is to provide a “human” interface for conversational AI. “We are making tech more human by giving it a face and making the interaction more natural. D-ID continues to be at the cutting edge of the emergent generative AI industry,” says Gil Perry , CEO and Co-founder of D-ID.?
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Startup Beat?is a weekly selection of news and investment opportunities from?OurCrowd , the global venture investing platform.
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OurCrowd is a global venture investing platform. To date we have more than $2.1 billion in commitments, 220,000 registered investors, 380 portfolio companies, 42 venture funds and 61 exits.
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