Singapore bank participates in OurCrowd's $72M Series C
Singapore's United Overseas Bank (UOB) is one of several investors that participated in OurCrowd's US$72 million Series C funding, which the Israeli crowdfunding platform says will facilitate its global expansion and support new investment.
The latest round also included financial institutions, family offices, and private investors from five continents, OurCrowd announced Thursday. Investors get equity stakes in the companies they support on the equity crowdfunding platform, which launched in 2013.
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OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved said: "One half of the round will be invested in the expansion of our seven global offices, and further developing our technology platform. The other half of the Series C funding will be used to make sure that each and every company that raises funding on our platform receives participating investment from the General Partner on the same terms as the crowd.
"This new capital will help us hit our goal of investing US$1 billion annually by 2020," Medved added.
To date, the company had invested in 100 portfolio companies and funds to the tune of more than US$300 million. Of these, there were nine exits, seven acquisitions, and two IPOs, including ReWalk's public listing and Crosswise's merger with Oracle.
The identities of the latest group of investors were not revealed, but UOB itself issued a statement confirming its participation in the Series C round. The bank in March said it invested US$10 million in OurCrowd, marking the platform's foray into Asia and the region's fintech industry.
Noting that the bank's latest funds injection underscored its support for startups and small businesses, UOB's head of group channels and digitisation, Janet Young, said: "We look forward to working closely with OurCrowd to further develop their platform to support the startup ecosystem both in Singapore and the broader Asian market."
OurCrowd's Asia managing director Denes Ban added that the latest investment indicated the significance of its traction into the region and partnerships in Singapore.