Eighteen thousand entrepreneurs and tech-savvy individuals participated in the 2019 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit, the largest technology conference in Israel, showcasing nearly 180 start-ups.
OurCrowd is an investment platform that vets and selects companies and, in a process referred to as the "democratization of investing," invites its 30,000 accredited members and institutional partners to join the opportunities.
Notable attendees and speakers at the conference ranged from Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion to behavioral economist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and video blogging sensation Nuseir Yassin (AKA Nas Daily).
The event, recently held at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, was an interactive window into the arena of start-up venture capital, highlighting cutting-edge products and their inventors.
"We've got the whole world here, people from 182 countries," OurCrowd Founder & CEO Jonathan Medved, told The Media Line. "Delegations from Hong Kong, Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, Kenya—and it's really cool because they're all coming to Israel because the country is such an incredible source of innovation. Start-ups are changing the world."
One of these start-ups, Watergen, is in fact doing just that, generating clean drinking water literally out of thin air. Its patented GENius technology transforms atmosphere—a free, unlimited resource—into potable water, with the largest system capable of a daily maximum output of 5,000 liters.
"You know that you are in the Holy Land, so we are actually making holy water out of holy air," Watergen executive chairman Maxim Pasik told The Media Line.
"There is currently a shortage of clean drinking water in 70 percent of the world, so imagine what the situation will be in two decades, as populations continue to increase,” Pasik said.
"Our product is cheaper than any mineral water alternative, and we are also reducing the need for plastic bottles," he continued. "To use our machines, you don't need anything except for electricity, so this solution is going to solve the global water crisis."