US’ Stifel Financial Forms Strategic Partnership With Israel-based OurCrowd

By NoCamels Team October 16, 2019 < 1 minute

OurCrowd founder and CEO Jon Medved at the Global Investor Summit in Jerusalem on March 7, 2019. (Credit: Noam Moskowitz photography)

Stifel Financial Corp, the US multinational independent investment banking and financial services company, has partnered with OurCrowd, Israel’s largest crowdfunding platform, the companies announced on Wednesday.

Stifel will also make a minority investment in OurCrowd.

As part of the deal, both Stifel and OurCrowd will establish a distribution relationship that will focus on building an investment offering for Stifel’s accredited investor clients. This will include offering curated access to both venture capital funds and individual portfolio companies on a deal-by-deal basis. Stifel may also provide advisory and related investment banking services to portfolio companies, the company announced in the statement.

“Partnering with a leading US-based wealth management and investment banking firm like Stifel is yet another major step toward further expanding the OurCrowd brand and investor base,” said Jon Medved, OurCrowd founder and CEO. “We also look forward to collaborating with Stifel’s investment and venture bankers to identify potential ways we can help identify and best support prospects and portfolio companies.”

Founded in 2013, OurCrowd’s community consists of some 37,000 registered investors from over 183 countries. The company has been rated “the most active venture investor in Israel” by Pitchbook.

The St. Louis, Missouri-based firm Stifel is said to operate the seventh-largest US retail brokerage network with nearly 2,200 advisors nationwide. The firm also operates the industry’s largest US equity research platform.

“As companies stay private for longer, we are excited to be associated with such an innovative platform that is empowering individual investors to access the ever-expanding venture capital asset category,” said Ronald J. Kruszewski, chairman and CEO of Stifel. “Through this partnership, our clients will gain access to attractive, early-stage investment opportunities that have been typically restricted to traditional VC firms and family offices.”