Jonathan Medved

Jonathan Medved is serial entrepreneur and according to the Washington Post (Dec 5, 2007) "one of Israel's leading high tech venture capitalists". In the September, 2008 NY Times Supplement "Israel at 60" Medved was named one of the "top 10 most influential Americans who have impacted Israel". In May 22, 2015 Edition of the Jerusalem Post, Medved was named one of the "50 most influential Jews". Medved currently is the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors and angels. Our Crowd is according to Forbes (August 13 2013) "one of the largest crowdfunding organizations on the planet" having raised over $130M for 70 portfolio companies since its launch in February 2013. Bloomberg Business week said in the May 7, 2015 edition that "OurCrowd is hands down the most successful equity-crowdfunding platform in the world right now." TheStreet.com described OurCrowd as "Crowdfunding for Real Investors." Medved has been both an entrepreneur and investor: He has been part of the founding teams at several successful Israeli startups, and as a venture and angel investor over the past two decades he invested in almost 200 startup companies, helping to bring 15 of them to values in excess of $100Million. Between 2006-2012, Medved was the co-founder and CEO of Vringo, a leader in the innovation, development and monetization of mobile technologies and intellectual property. Medved led Vringo to a successful completion of its IPO (Initial Public Offering) on the NYSE:AMEX in June, 2010 and it trades under the symbol VRNG. Before founding Vringo, Medved was the founder and General Partner of Israel Seed Partners, one of Israel's leading venture capital funds. Started by Medved in 1995 in his garage; he co-managed the fund until January 2006. Israel Seed had $262M under management in four funds and has been an investor in 60 leading Israeli companies. Exits include: Shopping.com (acquired by Ebay), Compugen (Nasdaq: CGEN), Answers.com (Nasdaq: ANSW, acquired by Summit), Cyota (acquired by RSA/CA), Finjan (Nasdaq: FNJN ), Mobile Access (acquired by Corning), Tradeum (acquired by VerticalNet), Native Networks (acquired by Alcatel), Broadlight (acquired by Broadcom), Xacct (acquired by Amdocs), Business Layers (acquired by CA), Xtellus (acquired by Oclaro), and Digital Fuel (acquired by VMWare). Prior to Israel Seed, Medved built several successful technology startups. Medved was a founder and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at MERET Optical Communications, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA) between 1982-1991. MERET was an early pioneer in fiber optic communication systems for video transmission which was acquired by the Amoco Corporation (NYSE:BP) in 1990. Medved then came to Israel where he was part of the founding management team at Accent Software (Nasdaq:ACNTF) where he served as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales between 1992-1994. Accent was later acquired by L&H/Microsoft. Medved serves on the Boards of various non-profits including Ma'aleh Film School, The Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center, Jerusalem Season of Culture, Artists and Musicians for Israel, Bnai David Eli, chairs the Aish HaTorah Boneh Yerushalayim Dinner and serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency and on the Board of Governors of the Jerusalem College of Technology. Medved was recently awarded (May 2015) the "Boneh Zion" award at Israel's Parliament, by Nefesh b'Nefesh for his contributions to Israel as a new immigrant. Medved speaks regularly to groups both in Israel and abroad, and has briefed scores of journalists, business leaders and public officials on Israel's tech miracle. George Gilder in his book The Israel Test describes Medved as a "engaging, visionary, pioneering venture capitalist" and traces the origins of his book to meetings he held in Medved's Jerusalem office. Saul Singer and Dan Senor, in their best-selling book, Start-up Nation describe Medved as "one of Israel's legendary business ambassadors (he) has taken on a role that -- in any other country -- would typically belong to the local Chamber of Commerce, Minister of Trade, or Foreign Secretary". According to a profile in the September 24, 2012 Jerusalem Report, Medved speeches combine "breathtaking statistics" with "the knowledge of a consummate insider" and the "arresting skills of a born orator". The article summarizes the impact on a Medved speech on an international crowd of business executives as follows: "The mesmerizing effect on this cynical gathering of hard-bitten executives is palpable. If Medved was hawking a new religion, he would win a roomful of converts tonight" Medved is a frequent guest and commentator on US and Global TV (PBS, CNN, CNBC, BNN, Bloomberg, CBN, CBC, BBC, ReutersTV, CCTV, etc), and was featured in the documentary movie "Israel Inside", the recent CBN series "Made in Israel", and the Charlie Rose Show. Medved appears regularly on US talk radio including Israel commentary on his brother's show, The Michael Medved Show and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Jerusalem Post, Townhall.com, and Aish.com Jon lives in Jerusalem with his wife Jane and his four children and four grandchildren, where he collects rare single malts and loud Hawaiian shirts.