OurCrowd opens Singapore office, appoints new chief to tap Asian investors

The crowdfunding platform has expanded into Singapore to meet rising interest from Asian investors in equity crowdfunding. 

Jerusalem-based Crowdfunding giant OurCrowd has opened an office in Singapore, its seventh worldwide, to serve a swell in demand from Asian investors of funding early stage high-growth companies.

The company recently closed a $72m Series C. Investors included  financial institutions, family offices and private investors from across five continents, according to the firm.

The move also follows partnership with United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Sassoon Investment Corporation (SassCorp) to pursue equity crowdfunding for startups and SMEs in the region. OurCrowd also received a formal license to begin operating in Singapore from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in August 2016.

To manage the new operation, it has appointed Denes Ban, a successful entrepreneur and technology executive, as managing partner Asia and head of Our Crowd’s Singapore management company.

“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,” said OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. “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.”

Medved adds that OurCrowd’s Asian funding now represents over half of the funding recently invested on the site.

In just over three years, OurCrowd has faccillated investments totalling over US$320m from its "crowd" of 16,000 accredited investors in its portfolio of 100 companies and five funds, which span major investment sectors including Mobility and Transportation, Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Digital Health, Agtech, Big Data, and Robotics.