Crowd equity platform OurCrowd has launched an Israel-based seed stage incubator in partnership with telecommunications equipment provider Motorola Solutions and diversified conglomerate Reliance Industries.
Yissum, the technology transfer office of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has also put its weight behind the scheme, which will form part of the incubator program administered by the Ministry of Economy’s Israel Innovation Authority.
The incubator will invest in up to 100 companies over 10 years, focusing on artificial intelligence, deep learning, autonomous transportation and smart cities. It will be led by managing partner Moshe Raines, who is also general partner of OurCrowd.
OurCrowd has selected Keepers, the developer of a platform that analyses messages on a child’s device and flags abusive content to parents in real time, and C2A Security, a chip-level security platform for cars, as potential first investments, but has not confirmed funding details.
OurCrowd has also co-founded a $50m fund with sports technology accelerator LeAD Sports. The vehicle, named Advantage, is expected to make about 15 investments in early-stage sports technology startups.
The Advantage fund will be co-managed by Jeremy Pressman, business development associate at OurCrowd, and Christoph Sonnen, founding partner and managing director of LeAD.
Jon Medved, founder and CEO of OurCrowd, said: “Just when recent data shows a 49% decline in early stage seed investments in Israel for 2017, OurCrowd is proud to be pouring more resources and investment into the critical seed investing arena.
“My personal roots were always in seed investment, and Moshe and his Labs/02 team are just what the market needs to revitalise the seed scene in Israel.”