Israel venture capital crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has announced a strategic partnership with US investment bank Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF). Stifel will also make a minority investment in OurCrowd.
Stifel and OurCrowd are establishing a distribution relationship focused on building an investment offering for Stifel’s accredited investor clients. This will include offering curated access to both venture capital funds and individual portfolio companies on a deal-by-deal basis. Stifel will also provide advisory and related investment banking services to portfolio companies, as required.
OurCrowd founder and CEO Jon Medved said, "Partnering with a leading US-based wealth management and investment banking firm like Stifel is yet another major step toward further expanding the OurCrowd brand and investor base. We also look forward to collaborating with Stifel’s investment and venture bankers to identify potential ways we can help identify and best support prospects and portfolio companies."
"As companies stay private for longer, we are excited to be associated with such an innovative platform that is empowering individual investors to access the ever-expanding venture capital asset category," said Ronald J. Kruszewski, Chairman and CEO of Stifel. "Through this partnership, our clients will gain access to attractive, early-stage investment opportunities that have been typically restricted to traditional VC firms and family offices."
Stifel currently operates the seventh largest US retail brokerage network (among full-service investment firms) with nearly 2,200 advisors nationwide and more than $300 billion in client assets. The firm also operates the industry’s largest US equity research platform and employs more than 400 investment banking professionals with extensive experience across a broad range of products and industry verticals.
The OurCrowd community consists of almost 37,000 registered investors from over 183 countries. OurCrowd has more than $1.28 billion in commitments and has made investments in more than 200 companies and funds. OurCrowd already has 35 exits to date, including Beyond Meat’s IPO, JUMP Bikes’ sale to Uber, Briefcam’s sale to Canon, Argus’ sale to Continental, Crosswise’s sale to Oracle, and Replay’s sale to Intel.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 17, 2019
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