Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has opened a new office in Singapore to serve Asian investors interested in funding early stage high-growth companies.
The move follows OurCrowd’s collaboration with United Overseas Bank and Sassoon Investment Corporation to pursue equity crowdfunding for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region.
In August 2016, the crowdfunding platform received license to open a new office from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Additionally, the company hired Denes Ban as managing partner Asia and head of its Singapore management company.
Ban said: “We are excited to be operating in Singapore, which is fast becoming a leading global fintech center. We look forward to strengthening our winning team of UOB and the Sassoon family by adding new Singapore partners, investors, and portfolio companies.”
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said: “Asia is one of our fastest growing markets and following our launch in Singapore, we will be looking to take OurCrowd further into the ASEAN market.
“Our business in Asia has grown five times since 2014, both in terms of the number of investors on the platform and investment dollars committed on our platform.
“Asia more broadly, and Singapore in particular, is becoming a globally-recognized financial hub for the next generation of innovative technology companies. We expect to tap into exciting new deal flow, as well as bring more and more Asian investors to join us in funding global technology companies.”
In over three years, OurCrowd invested more than $320m from its group of 16,000 accredited investors in its portfolio of 100 companies and five funds. These firms span investment sectors such as mobility and transportation, machine learning, cybersecurity, digital health, agtech, big data, and robotics.
