Jonathan Medved (; born September 16, 1955) is a

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

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 to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

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 com ...

, 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 an English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Je ...

'', where he was dubbed "the startup nation's guru."

Biography

Jon Medved was born into a traditional but secular Jewish family in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, the son of Renate (Hirsch) and David Bernard Medved, a Navy veteran and scientist. His father worked for the defense contractor

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, 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 ...

and later for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. Medved attended Palisades High School when the family moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He attended

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

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 Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

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

Michael Medved Michael S. 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 available via Cable ...

. Medved became more observant over time and credits Rabbi

Daniel Lapin Daniel Lapin (born January 1, 1947) is an American rabbi of Orthodox Judaism, author, and public speaker. He was previously the founding rabbi of the Pacific Jewish Center in Venice, California, and the former head of Toward Tradition, the Common ...

with helping them feel accepted in the religious community. Medved and his family made

aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

in 1980. Medved lives in the

Baka Baka, baká or BAKA may refer to: Ethnicities and languages * Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), an African ethnic group * Baka people (Congo and South Sudan), an African ethnic group * Baka language, a dialect cluster of Cameroon and Gabon * Baka ...

neighborhood of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

with his wife Jane, a poet. Medved has four children, three sons and a daughter. Their sons – Moshe, Yossi, and Ithamar – have careers in law, film, and medicine. Their daughter Nina married Yoni Tokayer in June 2015. The Tokayers perform Jewish inspirational music in a duo known as Yonina.

Business career

In 1995, Medved co-founded Israel Seed Partners with

Michael Eisenberg Michael Eisenberg (; born May 18, 1971) is an American-born Israeli businessman, venture capitalist, and author. Biography Eisenberg was born in Manhattan, New York City, the eldest of seven children. His father was a lawyer and his mother ran ...

and Neil Cohen in a garage with $2 million in funding. 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 March 2024, OurCrowd has raised over $2B in 440 startup companies and 56 venture funds in its portfolio, with over 60 exits since its inception. 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) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

under the symbol VRNG.

Awards and recognition

Saul Singer Saul Singer () is formerly the editorial page editor at ''The Jerusalem Post'', Singer co-wrote with Dan Senor '' Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle'', a best-seller which investigates Israel's innovative prowess. Biography S ...

and

Dan Senor Daniel Samuel Senor (, ; born November 6, 1971) is an American columnist, writer, and political adviser. He was chief spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and senior foreign policy adviser to U.S. presidential candidate Mitt ...

, 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 was able to reach such economic growth that "at the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli comp ...

, 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."

References

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