Israeli venture firm OurCrowd to run New Zealand start-up incubator
This is the first time OurCrowd has won an international tender, and reflects the growing prestige and recognition of Israel's investment platforms.
By AARON REICHOurCrowd founder & CEO Jon Medved addresses the 2019 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, March 7, 2019(photo credit: NOAM MOSKOWITZ)
Israeli venture investor platform OurCrowd announced last week that they will be part of a consortium with a tender to operate a start-up incubator in New Zealand.This is the first time OurCrowd has won an international tender, and reflects the growing prestige and recognition of Israel's investment platforms.OurCrowd's consortium, led by New Zealand-based company Sprout, was chosen by New Zealand's government agency Callaghan Innovation to run an incubator for agritech and foodtech start-ups. Other members of the consortium are US-based agritech venture group Finistere Ventures and New Zealand’s food giant Fonterra and animal management leader Gallagher."We’re very excited to join this exciting consortium and participate in our first global incubator outside of Israel,” said Jon Medved, CEO and founder of OurCrowd. “This will hopefully be the first of many international incubators with which we will partner around the world... and there is no better place to do this than the incredible innovative environment of New Zealand.”OurCrowd has experience with incubators, having operated the LABS02 deep tech incubator in Jerusalem with India’s Reliance and US-based Motorola Solutions and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Yissum; the LABS08 cybersecurity and digital health incubator in Beersheba with Soroka Medical Center and the National Cybersecurity Directorate; and the "Fresh Start" foodtech incubator in the North with Finistere and Israeli food industry leaders Tnuva and Tempo.“By bringing together two global companies with internationally connected and experienced investment partners, Sprout is developing a world class platform to allow early stage agritech and future food technologies to be commercialized and launched into international markets," said Sprout CEO Dean Tilyard. "Together we will be able to provide more support for entrepreneurs and organizations who want to move fast and think big and who are committed to building solutions for problems that address the challenges and opportunities of global food production.”Jon and the OurCrowd team bring a depth of expertise and significant relationships to help the companies we invest in said Finstere founder Arama Kukutai.
