700 Club Special
Jonathan Medved Biography
The 700 Club
Jonathan Medved is an investor, serial entrepreneur and according to the Washington Post “one of Israel’s leading high tech venture capitalists”. In the NY Times Supplement “Israel at 60” Medved was named one of the top 10 most influential Americans who have impacted Israel.
Medved is the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, which The Wall Street Journal named “Investment of the Week…bringing together ten seasoned investment pros to create a crowdfunding hybrid to back Israeli startups.” In less than six months since launch, OurCrowd has invested more than $16Million in its platform and its 18 portfolio companies. According to the The Next Web, “the investment team at OurCrowd rocks”, while Pando Daily called OurCrowd “the most interesting recent development in the (angel investing) area”.
Medved 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 over 100 Israeli startup companies, helping to bring over a dozen of them to values in excess of $100 Million. Medved has currently over 30 startup companies in his personal angel investor portfolio, including his OurCrowd portfolio.
Between 2006 and 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) in June, 2010 and it trades today on NASDAQ under the symbol VRNG.
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. Israel Seed had over a quarter billion dollars under management in four funds and has been an investor in 60 leading Israeli companies. Exits include: Shopping.com (acquired by Ebay), Compugen (Nasdaq: CGEN), Answers.com (Nasdaq: ANSW, acquired by Summit), Cyota (acquired by RSA/CA), Finjan (acquired by M86), 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 and1991. 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 and 1994.
Medved serves 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, chairs the Aish HaTorah Boneh Yerushalayim Dinner and serves on the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency and on the Board of Governors of the Jerusalem College of Technology.
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”.
Medved regularly appears as a TV commentator on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, etc. and provides frequent Israel updates to his brother’s radio show, The Michael Medved Show. Medved’s writing has appeared in USA Today, The Jerusalem Post, Townhall.com, and Aish.com.
Jon lives in Jerusalem with his wife Jane and his four children and three grandchildren, where he collects loud Hawaiian shirts.
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