The First Ever IPO for an Equity Crowdfunded Company is Complete

ReWalk Robotics has now etched its name into the equity crowdfunding history books.

ReWalk Robotics – the developer of wearable, robotic exoskeletons for those that have suffered spinal cord injury – has successfully completed its IPO on the NASDAQ. ReWalk has raised a sizeable $3.3m over the past year in two separate funding rounds via the Israeli equity crowdfunding giant OurCrowd. Now the company has issued 3.45 million shares on the NASDAQ in order to raise net proceeds of around $36.3m.

OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved commented on the news:

"OurCrowd is proud of ReWalk and this important achievement. We have now demonstrated that equity crowdfunding can provide an opportunity for individual accredited investors to fund the best of companies. This offering marks the first time an equity crowdfunding platform has accompanied a company over the full cycle, from venture funding through to an IPO on a major US exchange. Moreover, it is truly gratifying to invest in successful companies that dramatically change people’s lives for the better."

The ReWalk listing is hugely significant for the equity crowdfunding world because it represents the first time that a platform can point to tangible, measurable returns for its investors. Early stage equity investment will always be a high-risk, high reward play – but up to now the crowdfunding space has had nothing to showcase in terms of practical examples of that potential reward. ReWalk’s IPO changes that.

This story gets even more exciting when you crunch the numbers. AltFi Data has been able to calculate the exact return on investment for the participating OurCrowd investors. The platform’s users have invested a total of $3.39m in two distinct funding rounds – one in May 2013, the other in June 2014. The value of the OurCrowd investors’ stake at today’s shareprice is $19.05m, meaning investors have achieved a return of more than 5.5x their original investment in less than 18 months.

Realization within just 2 short years, sky-high profits for OurCrowd investors, and at the centre of it all a product that makes a real difference to the lives of thousands of people. ReWalk Robotics now becomes the perfect poster child for the equity crowdfunding industry.