specifically geographic, I don’t want to preclude [deals] outside of San Diego.”
Since it was founded almost exactly a year ago, OurCrowd has invested a total of more than $35 million in 33 startups, which are mostly based in Israel. OurCrowd says it has signed up about 4,000 accredited investors from dozens of countries around the world—including about 150 investors in San Diego. OurCrowd requires a minimum investment of $10,000, but says the average per investor is about $32,000, and investors make about 3.5 investments on average.
Most of those investments have been in Israeli startups, but OurCrowd says it has made investments in four U.S. companies: Portland, OR-based Lucid Energy; Mayfield, OH-based Surgical Theater; New York-based Neverware; and San Francisco-based Boatbound.
OurCrowd says its investment team screens more than 125 prospective deals a month, choosing two or three for its investors. OurCrowd invests its own capital alongside those who come through the crowdfunding portal.
“We’re combining the best of both worlds,” OurCrowd founder and CEO Jonathan Medved said during a presentation in San Diego earlier this month. What he means is the crowdfunding website offers individual investors the freedom to invest in deals that have been vetted by professional venture fund managers.
Medved told the group he was born in San Diego—his dad worked as an engineer at General Dynamics here—and he has spent the past 30 years as an entrepreneur and investor in Israel. Medved has maintained loose ties to San Diego through the years, and was invited to speak at the 2012 inauguration of the U.S.-Israel Center on Innovation and Economic Sustainability at the UC San Diego Rady School of Business.
Belk, who retired from Qualcomm in 2008 as a senior vice president for strategy and market development, said he has known Medved for many years. Belk was an investor and advisor at Vringo (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRNG]]), a New York mobile products company that Medved co-founded and led for many years.
In addition to Bright Light Management, Belk said he also helped start Velocity Growth, a San Diego-based firm providing Web-based crowdfunding services for entrepreneurs. The idea is to provide expert guidance to startup founders who want to raise capital by using rewards-based funding sites such as Indiegogo or Kickstarter to pre-sell their products.
Velocity Growth is intended to help entrepreneurs get enough early stage funding to create a minimally viable product—and a sense of whether or not they really have a business.
“I have a theory or belief about San Diego and other markets where there is a shortage of venture capital, and that is you have to do things yourself,” Belk said. “Getting that first check is one of the hardest things for an entrepreneur to do. What this rewards program does is help entrepreneurs overcome that barrier, and get that first check.”
