OurCrowd launches $100 million Pandemic Innovation Fund – ISRAEL21c

“It’s time for tech to move fast and fix things,” said OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved on this week’s launch of the crowdfunded-venture investment platform’s Pandemic Innovation Fund.

The goal is to raise $100 million for investment in urgent technological solutions for the medical, business, educational and social needs triggered by global pandemics and other health emergencies.

“The rapid spread of the coronavirus has validated our vision of a connected digital world poised to solve any crisis through global communication and rapid response,” said Medved.

OurCrowd’s Pandemic Innovation Fund will focus on prevention (vaccines, testing, personal protection); treatment (therapeutics, diagnostics, remote monitoring, digital health); and continuity (remote working, distance learning, robotic process automation, home exercise, cybersecurity).

Advisors to the Pandemic Innovation Fund, portfolio company experts, and international speakers will participate in the OurCrowd Pandemic Innovation Conference to be broadcast from Jerusalem on June 22.

Both new startups and select relevant companies in OurCrowd’s existing portfolio could receive funding. Some 20 portfolio companies are already working to mitigate the coronavirus crisis. Among these are:

MigVax – developing a Covid-19 oral sub-unit vaccine.

Sight Diagnostics — compact complete blood count analysis in under 10 minutes using two drops of finger-prick blood.

SaNOtize – approved by Health Canada for multi-center Phase II trial of its Nitric Oxide Releasing Solution (NORSTM) for the prevention and early treatment of Covid-19.

TytoCare – remote physical exams and monitoring for primary care, chronic care and Covid-19 patients.

MeMed – diagnostic system to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections, and in the future a solution to enable early intervention before Covid-19 symptoms appear.

Zebra Medical Vision – AI that detects and quantifies suspected Covid-19 findings on standard chest CTs, already integrated in Apollo Hospitals Group in India.

“Together we must tackle the current pandemic as well as plan for future ones, because this story is just beginning,” Fund Partner Dr. Morris Laster said. “Our new fund will create the bridge between the innovations we need and the far-sighted investors able to provide the resources required to improve our world.”

The fund is open to accredited private investors (minimum $50,000) and institutional investors (minimum $1,000,000).