OurCrowd reaches $1bn funds under management with $200m from Australian backers

Israel-founded equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has become one of the biggest sources of offshore venture capital for Australian investors, revealing it just surpassed $1 billion under management, globally with more than 20 per cent or $200 million coming from Australian investors.

OurCrowd, which has achieved 20 exits from company investments since launching in 2012 and currently backs 150 start-ups and scale-ups including one in Australia, allows wholesale investors to back those companies with a minimum investment of $10,000.

Since it launched in Australia in 2014 it has picked up 2000 accredited investors locally out of a global crowd of 25,000. It takes a minimum 5 per cent stake alongside its “crowd” of individual wholesale investors, whom it gathers into special purpose vehicles acting like a single investor in each investee company.

Despite initially acting as a vehicle to back start-ups, it now also participates in later funding rounds for scale-ups such as Hyperloop, the Los Angeles-based builder of trains that hopes to shuttle people and goods between cities in pneumatic tubes, travelling at almost 400 kilometres an hour.

OurCrowd backed Hyperloop before Virgin Group joined its register last year and significantly grew the potential footprint of the company via a partnership with shipping giant DP World.

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Source: OurCrowd reaches $1bn funds under management with $200m from Australian backers | afr.com