OurCrowd
OurCrowd is a Jerusalem-based global venture investment platform and one of the world's largest equity-crowdfunding networks, letting accredited investors and institutions co-invest alongside it in startups. Among Israel's most active venture investors, it backs every tech sector; in water it has funded 3 companies across 7 deals as of 2024.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
OurCrowd built its name doing something most venture firms never bothered with: opening startup deals to the crowd. It runs venture capital as an open membership rather than a closed partnership, letting any accredited investor (a qualifying high-net-worth individual) put a few thousand dollars into the same rounds it backs, alongside more than 225,000 members across 195 countries. That platform model is the whole identity, and water is just one aisle of a very large store.
OurCrowd is not a water fund, and the data (don't) Waste Water tracks shows water as a small, deliberate slice of a much bigger book. Across the three water companies it has backed, the thread I keep coming back to is Israeli deep tech: BlueGreen Water Technologies, which clears toxic algal blooms off reservoirs and lakes; Kando, which reads a city's sewage with sensors to catch industrial polluters; and CropX, whose soil probes tell a farmer exactly when to irrigate. Every water bet sits where Israeli engineering meets a scarce-water problem.
OurCrowd reached this point as one of Israel's most active tech investors, with about $2.6 billion in assets, more than 50 exits and stakes in names from SpaceX to Anthropic. As of October 2025 the firm is mid-handover: founder Jon Medved has moved from chief executive to chairman, and Cali Chill, its former chief investment officer, is acting CEO. The water portfolio now answers to the investment team Chill built, not to a standalone water unit.
OurCrowd spreads its capital across AI, defense, health and climate, so for a newcomer the honest read is this: it is a way to get Israeli water-tech exposure inside a generalist platform rather than a pure-play water bet (a fund that invests in only one sector). The question worth watching is whether water stays a recurring theme or fades as AI soaks up the firm's attention.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 3 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does OurCrowd invest in?
- OurCrowd invests across technology, backing startups in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, defense, health, fintech and climate, plus its own venture funds. It is sector-agnostic rather than water-focused. Within water, (don't) Waste Water tracks 3 portfolio companies across 7 deals, spanning algae remediation, wastewater monitoring and precision irrigation.
- Is OurCrowd a water fund?
- OurCrowd is not a water fund. It is a generalist venture investment platform, and water is one small theme inside a portfolio of more than 300 companies. That said, it is among Israel's most active investors in water tech, having backed 3 water companies, including BlueGreen Water Technologies and the wastewater-monitoring firm Kando.
- Who runs OurCrowd?
- OurCrowd was founded in 2013 by Jon Medved, who moved from chief executive to chairman in October 2025. Cali Chill, the firm's former chief investment officer and a seven-year veteran, now serves as acting CEO and chief operating officer, leading day-to-day investment activity across the global platform.
- How does OurCrowd work?
- OurCrowd runs an online investment platform that lets accredited investors, qualifying high-net-worth individuals, co-invest alongside the firm in venture deals from a few thousand dollars. OurCrowd sources and vets the startups, takes its own stake, then opens the round to its global membership of more than 225,000 investors.
- What water companies has OurCrowd backed?
- OurCrowd's water portfolio tracked by (don't) Waste Water includes BlueGreen Water Technologies, which clears toxic algal blooms and captures carbon; Kando, a wastewater-intelligence platform that uses sensors to trace pollution; and CropX, whose soil sensors guide precise irrigation. All three are Israeli deep-tech companies.