Specialist alternatives investment research firm Evergreen Ratings has assigned a “Commended” rating to the OurCrowd 50 Fund, saying it would meet the requirements of investors looking for exposure to a technology-focused early-stage venture capital portfolio.
The Fund is open to wholesale sophisticated investors, with a minimum investment of $50,000, providing access to venture capital for investors who often have trouble getting into that market.
Evergreen Ratings Founder and Chief Executive Angela Ashton says: “OurCrowd 50 Fund invests in companies that would normally be funded by institutional investors or hard to access venture funds. It caters to investors with an appetite for risk and an interest in gaining exposure to unlisted growth companies.”
The Fund’s objective is to generate long-term capital appreciation, through exposure to 50 OurCrowd portfolio opportunities. The investment time frame is 10 years.
OurCrowd invests mainly in technology start-ups based in Israel and North America. Israel has a booming venture capital market, with the world’s highest level of venture capital money invested per capita and the third-largest number of listings on the NASDAQ market.
Ashton says: “In all venture capital exposures there is a high risk of loss from individual investments, requiring a portfolio approach for most investors. Ideally such exposures should be with fund managers that have access to quality deal flow. On the evidence presented we believe that OurCrowd meets this requirement.”
The OurCrowd Platform has US$1.8 billion deployed either in funds or as single investments. Since it was launched in 2013 it has made more than 300 investments, which have resulted in 56 exits so far.
The OurCrowd investment team reviews over 3000 technology companies a year and invests in 1% to 2% of them. OurCrowd employs many levers to access leading technology investments and also offers co-investment opportunities into individual deals. This allows major institutional investors to choose investee companies from the OurCrowd platform.
Its investment philosophy is based on evidence that shows higher returns come from early-stage investing.
The firm is based in Jerusalem and has 14 offices around the world, including Sydney. It was founded in 2013 by global technology leader and venture capitalist Jonathan Medved.
It has strategic relationships with a number of financial institutions, including Softbank, National Australia Bank, United Overseas Bank (UOB), Hana Bank, NTT Finance, Orix and Stifel
Ashton says: “The network allows for tremendous access to deal flow and access to non-market information. Evergreen sees this as a competitive advantage.
“Evergreen has reviewed a number of early-stage investment opportunities and so far, none has provided global or sector diversification to the extent of the OurCrowd 50 Fund.”