Toyota Tsusho Forms Partnership With OurCrowd To Scout For Israeli Tech

Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a member of the Toyota Group and one of Japan’s general trading companies, has partnered with OurCrowd, Israel’s largest crowdfunding platform, the companies announced Wednesday.

As part of the agreement, OurCrowd will act as a technology scout and source innovation and investments in both Israel and worldwide for Toyota Tsusho.

The focus of the scouting agreement will also be “to seek out next-generation startup leaders in the age of autonomous driving with a focus on sensors, image recognition, data compression, and security,” the parties said in a statement. The partnership will also seek out disruptive technologies in other sectors like smart cities, medtech, digital health, environmental tech, and agritech.

“We are proud to be partnering with a general trading company such as Toyota Tsusho. Not only do they represent a 70-year tradition of excellence in global business, but they are focused on solving real global problems, ” said Jon Medved, OurCrowd founder and CEO. “Together we can help startups turn into “scaleups” by providing access to Toyota Tsusho’s unrivaled platform that can deploy new technologies and products quickly and effectively in over 120 markets around the world.”

Founded in 2013, OurCrowd’s innovation and investment platform has raised over $1.28 billion in funding commitments and has made investments in 200 diversified companies and funds.

Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corporation is a trading company with a worldwide presence through its many subsidiaries and operating divisions, including over 150 offices, and 900 subsidiaries and affiliates around the world. Its main business is supporting Toyota Motor’s automobile business and other Toyota Group companies.

“The future belongs to the bold who are implementing game-changing technologies. Toyota Tsusho and its 58,000 employees all over the world are proud to be leaders in our focus industries, but to ensure our future leadership we must identify, invest and work with startups who are changing the world we live in,” said Minoru Murata, executive vice president, regional CEO & CTO of Toyota Tsusho, “Our partnership with OurCrowd will bring us these key technologies and leaders to work together on the next generation of global challenges.”