Jonathan Medved is a serial entrepreneur and according to the Washington Post (Dec 5, 2007) “one of Israel’s leading high tech venture capitalists”. September 2008, the 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 World’s “50 most influential Jews”.
Medved currently is the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors and angels. OurCrowd, according to Forbes (August 13, 2013) is “one of the largest crowdfunding organizations on the planet”. OurCrowd has raised $1.8B in commitments and has made investments in more than 270 companies, in 27 funds and has seen 47 exits since its launch in February 2013. OurCrowd exits include: Jump Bikes sold to Uber, Briefcam sold to Canon, Argus sold to Continental, Crosswise sold to Oracle, and Replay sold to Intel. 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 250 startup companies, helping to bring 25 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 today on the NASDAQ under the symbol FH.
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. His partners at Israel Seed included Neil Cohen, Michael Eisenberg (Benchmark, Aleph) and Alan Feld (Vintage). Israel Seed had $262M under management in four funds and has been an investor in 60 leading Israeli companies. Israel seed 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 has served on the Boards of various non-profits including Ma’aleh Film School, The Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center, Artists and Musicians for Israel, Bnai David Eli, chaired the Aish HaTorah Boneh Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv Dinners and served 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 ten grandchildren, where he collects rare single malts and loud Hawaiian shirts.