Jonathan Medved (born September 16, 1955) is a

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

venture capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

and

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

in Israel's high-tech scene. He is the founder and CEO of

OurCrowd OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the co ...

, a leading

equity crowdfunding Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it ...

platform. Medved was named one of the "50 Most Influential Jews" by the ''

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'', where he was dubbed "the startup nation's guru." Jon lives in Jerusalem with his wife Jane, their children and grandchildren.

Early life

Medved was born into a traditional but secular Jewish family in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, the son of Renate (Hirsch) and David Bernard Medved, a Navy veteran and scientist. He was raised in

, where his father worked for the defense contractor

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee, was an American aircraft manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft. In 1953, it ...

and later for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. Medved attended Palisades High School when the family moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. He attended

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, located in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. He has four brothers, including radio talk show host and movie critic

Michael Medved Michael Saul Medved (born October 3, 1948) is an American radio show host, author, political commentator, and film critic. His talk show, ''The Michael Medved Show'', is syndicated from his home station KTTH in Seattle. It is syndicated via Gen ...

Career

Medved is the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, an equity crowdfunding platform that connects its "crowd" of accredited investors to funding startup investments. OurCrowd was started in 2013 and has its global headquarters in Jerusalem with additional offices in Tel Aviv, San Diego, New York, Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney. As of November 2018, OurCrowd has raised $800M in 160 startup companies and venture funds in its portfolio. 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 An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in June 2010, and it trades today on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

under the symbol VRNG. In 1995, Medved co-founded Israel Seed Partners with Michael Eisenberg and Neil Cohen in a garage with $2 million in funding. Saul Singer and Dan Senor, in their best-selling book,

Start-up Nation ''Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle'' is a 2009 book by Dan Senor and Saul Singer about the economy of Israel. It examines how Israel, a 60-year-old nation with a population of 7.1 million, was able to reach such economi ...

, describe Medved as "one of Israel's legendary business ambassadors…. ehas taken on a role that – in any other country – would typically belong to the local Chamber of Commerce, Minister of Trade, or Foreign Secretary."

Personal life

Although Medved disliked many religious practices growing up, he and Jane, his wife, became more religious over time in their

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, California community. His parents also became religious (returning to the

Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

of their youth) as well as his in-laws. He credits Venice's Rabbi

Daniel Lapin Daniel Lapin (born January 1, 1947) is an American Orthodox rabbi, author, and public speaker. xaminer om/article/rabbi-lapin-reveals-prosperity-secrets (URL blocked by Wikipedia) He was previously the founding rabbi of the Pacific Jewish Center ...

with helping them on that path and making them feel accepted. Medved and his family made

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

in 1980. Jane Medved is a published poet. They have four children, three sons and a daughter. Their sons – Moshe, Yossi, and Ithamar – have careers in law, film, and medicine. Daughter Nina was born in 1993 or 1994 in Jerusalem. She married Yoni Tokayer in June 2015. The Tokayers perform Jewish inspirational music under the name Yonina Music. Nina gave birth to daughter Ashira in 2016. They released ''Emet Pshuta,'' an album of original music, in 2017. They have toured internationally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Medved, Jonathan 1955 births Living people Angel investors Israeli chief executives Israeli company founders University of California, Berkeley alumni Israeli Venture capitalists