Three months into the war against Hamas in Gaza, Israeli startups are weathering the storm. OurCrowd has created an Israel Resilience Fund to help startups affected by the crisis.
Startups are really using a lot of grit to be resilient. That means to make sure that they can deliver. There’s been a slogan here: ‘Israel Tech delivers no matter what.’ People are working very hard.
Israel’s startups raised $7 billion in 2023 – about half of the amount raised in 2022 and in line with global trends. Meanwhile, Israel’s shekel and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange have both recovered to the levels they were at before the brutal Hamas massacre on Oct. 7.
There’s been a slogan here: ‘Israel Tech delivers no matter what.’ People are working very hard.
Startup companies, by and large are not profitable. They need investment in order to get to their goals. The problem of course is that in war, it’s not always the easiest time to get this investment. So we created a vehicle.
OurCrowd’s Israel Resilience Fund managed to raise more than $13 million in just a few weeks and has already announced its eight initial investments, with more to come as fundraising continues.
As soon as the war broke out, we decided that we had to take action and to raise a special fund that would enable companies to extend their runway.
We are choosing companies that have been affected by the war because they have team members who are in the service, they are on border zones like in the north or the south, or that they somehow are providing critical technology for the war effort.
We have done the diligence, they run through our investment committee and we act as sort of a catalyst to bring additional money from both investors alongside of us, both inside the company and new investors, as well as the government who is providing matching funds.
OurCrowd’s Israel Resilience Fund is also organising an online event on February 1 to assess the progress of fund in collecting money. This online event will give investors the opportunity to ask questions of the Advisory Board and fund managers and hear from co-investors.
The event will also feature CEOs of recipient startups describing what it’s like to run a tech company in Israel in the current environment.
The Israel Resilience Fund is a pioneering investment initiative that seeks to generate positive impact for Israeli startups impacted by the war with Hamas and Hezbollah while delivering robust financial returns. OurCrowd is waiving all management fees and carried interest.
In December, the fund announced it had raised $13 million in commitments toward its $50 million target within just a few weeks, and made the first 8 investments. More announcements are imminent. The fund has an Advisory Board of prominent global venture investors.
The fund seeks to satisfy a growing demand for vehicles to support Israel’s economy and startup ecosystem during this crisis, beyond purely charitable contributions, and adopts a dual-pronged, social impact approach by which investors can both do good, and do well.
By Jonathan Medwed
Founder and CEO OurCroud Ventures
