Israel-based crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has opened a new office in London to support its rising number of British investors.
The company, which has around 25,000 global investors, is looking to add hundreds of new UK investors through events, increasing UK deal flow, collaborating with venture capital funds and aiding Israeli startups moving to the UK market.
Operations in the UK will be led by former Goldman Sachs banker Lina White, who will be made the director of investor relations, UK.
OurCrowd is a crowdfunding platform for angel investors and venture capital firms. The platform works by OurCrowd researching opportunities in which to invest some of its own capital in to, it the looks for funding support on the platform from accredited investors. Since launch, it has raised over $680m for a portfolio of 148 companies.
Earlier in the year, the company launched Cognitiv, a $100m investment vehicle to back early-stage AI, deep-learning, IoT, robotics and digital manufacturing startups.
UK Israel Business chief executive Hugo Bieber said, “The UK is Israel’s second largest trading partner, and OurCrowd has already proven to be a true bridge between these two countries. UK Israel Business have helped our member OurCrowd navigate the UK market, and we are proud to see these efforts culminate in their investment in a UK office, creating new British jobs.”
Last year, OurCrowd collected up to $3.6m in a funding round, according to an SEC filing. The company had picked up contributions from 61 investors, and a minimum commitment to the round was set at $10,000.
In an interview with FinTech Global, Viola FinTech partner Tomer Michaeli said that Israel is an extremely ‘vibrant’ market with a strong B2B sector. The main issue he sees, is the slow convergence between FinTechs and financial institutions, which can be improved by more value-add investors.
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