Top 10 Equity Crowdfunding New Investment Opportunities for Investors and VCs in 2018

Top 10 Investing Opportunities for Investors and Venture Capitalists in 2018

By Robert Hoskins

Top 10 Equity Crowdfunding Investment Opportunities for Investors and VCs in 2018

What technologies will represent the best equity investment opportunities for investors and venture capitalists in 2018?

1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Go Mainstream
2. Seeing Is Believing: VR and AR Become Critical Business Tools
   
3. Obey the Sound of My Voice: Voice-Driven Apps Filter Out the Noise
   
4. Apples and Oranges: Ag-Tech Disrupts the World’s Oldest Industry
   
5. Industrial and Agricultural Drones Set to Take Off
   
6. Is That a Doctor in Your Pocket? Digital Revolutionizes Healthcare
   
7. Here, There, Everywhere: Blockchain Applications Finally Take Hold
   
8. Boldly Going Where No Company Has Gone Before: Space-Tech
9. Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure Becomes Vital
   
10. Autonomous Driving Picks Up Speed

1. Artificial Intel/Machine Learning Go Mainstream

Driven by exponentially faster computing power and cloud computing, “teaching machines” is becoming easier and more scalable, enabling AI to go mainstream across a wide range of industries: including consumer marketing and retail, entertainment, digital health, and newer areas like autonomous driving and advanced robotics.

More and more startups are building applications which will solve real world problems by applying AI in areas that can truly have an impact on the quality of our lives.

2. Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Business Tools

Did you know that in operating rooms across the US, brain surgeons are already using Virtual Reality (VR) to rehearse and simulate surgery in order to be more effective?  VR and Augmented Reality (AR) is not just about show business, entertainment, and 3D gaming, but also about saving lives, industrial solutions, and infrastructure.

VR and AR are about to go mainstream and will be used across a wide range of sectors from sports analytics to building airplane wings. These are definitely interesting technologies to keep an eye on!

3. Voice-Driven Apps Filter Out Background Noise

Have you ever tried using Siri in a car going over 50 Mph?  Or talking to Alexa with the kids making noise in the background? Good Luck! As we all know it does not work.

However, the era of voice driven computing is coming. In the last 10 years, the world has moved from primarily using keyboards to swiping and using touch-screens. In the next five years users will move to talking to our devices as the primary mode of man to machine communication.

Core voice recognition software has become almost perfect at understanding the human voice and getting our words correct. The missing ingredient is its ability to enable our machines to get a clear signal and cancel background noise so that Siri really can HEAR what we are saying.

4. Ag-Tech Disrupts the World’s Oldest Industry – Farming

The world’s oldest industry of growing crops has not been known for its technological flexibility. However, these days Agriculture-related technologies are blooming for different reasons.

Traditionally farming is a family owned business and we now see how second generation of farmers are much more techie and open to adopt advanced farming technologies. In addition, the last two years have seen mass consolidation between leading players in AgTech creating deep pockets and a big appetite for acquisitions.

5. Industrial and Agricultural Drones Take Off

Over the past couple of years, more and more buzz is hitting the airwaves about Amazon and others using drones to deliver packages to your doorstep or bring you fast food on demand.

While this sounds pretty cool, more interesting and profitable uses of drone technologies probably lie within industrial and agricultural markets.

Drones are already playing critical roles in facility security, mining, oil and gas exploration, crop protection and surveying landmass. Building industrial scale drones with light-weight, long-lasting batteries, which are robust and reliable seems to be a temporary roadblock, but companies that can advance these technologies are worth watching closely.

6. Digital Healthcare Puts a Doctor in Your Pocket

As much as we try not to overuse this term, artificial intelligence is actually a powerful factor in the rapidly growing digital health sector. Enable regular people as well as healthcare personnel crunch historic data sets from electronic medical records from way back when — to the latest data that is now being collected from wearables in order to increase our quality of life and perhaps even prevent deaths.

The same will be true for computer vision and machine learning technologies that enable the bio-tech and life sciences industries to begin extracting new insights and diagnostics from images.

7. Blockchain Applications Finally Take Hold

Timing is everything! In the buzzword competition of 2017, blockchain was the hands-down winner.   Since then, there have been missteps and pivots for this important financial technology. Many Venture Capitalists (VCs) have been disappointed with their investments in this sector; however, now is the time to begin taking a fresh look as this technology matures and evolves beyond Bitcoin across multiple applications such as: sharing economy, data security, logistics, and of course, banking and finance.

8. SpaceTech Goes Where No One has Gone Before

The Space Tech sector is usually dominated by governments and states , but is rapidly opening up to private ventures and prestigious VC funds are seeking to begin building space portfolios that will enable these ventures to take off.

In terms of funding needs, what used to be super-expensive is becoming much more affordable, with standardization of hardware protocols as well as general cost reductions of consumer electronics. Satellites can now be built and launched for less than half a million dollars, creating exciting opportunities to commercialize the technology.

9. Cyber Security for Infrastructure Becomes Critical

Are you worried about your car getting hacked? How about cyber criminals sneaking in through your air conditioner or refrigerator?  Cybersecurity is not new; and in fact, the investing landscape is quite crowded, and the playing field is highly competitive.

The key shift in Cyber Security for investing in the next few years will be a move from protecting IT infrastructure to protecting all infrastructure. Companies are now designing full-proof solutions to protect everything such as automobiles, electric grids and everything in between.

10. Autonomous Driving Picks Up Speed

Everyone knows that autonomous driving is coming. The question is when?  Thanks to the development of core technology and expertise of leading Autonomous Driving companies such as Waze and Mobileye, the world is sure to become a global hub of automotive innovation.

(Source: Jon Medved, OurCrowd’s CEO)

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Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

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Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins is considered one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding experts that has amassed a huge social media following, which is dedicated to supporting donation-, rewards- and equity-based crowdfunding campaigns.

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OurCrowd and LetsVenture Announce Collaboration on Setting Up New ‘India Investment Fund’ to Begin Investing in Indian and Israeli Entrepreneurs and Startups

OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform

By Robert Hoskins, Crowdfunding PR

Bengaluru, India – OurCrowd, one of the landing equity crowdfunding in Israel, announced that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, one of India’s largest angel investment syndicates for seed stage and venture capital for startups and growing businesses. As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform

OurCrowd and LetsVenture will be also be collaborating on an ‘India Fund’ to invest in Israeli, Indian and global startups. The investment into this fund would primarily be from family funds and high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in India and OurCrowd’s global network of accredited investors.

Leveraging LetsVenture’s domestic network, OurCrowd will offer Indian corporates access to the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

“Having made startup funding easy, our vision is to make angel investing easy with a focus on portfolio management (startup reporting, portfolio diversification and exits). The partnership with OurCrowd aligns with our vision of offering our investors access to some of the best startups across geographies including Israel, along with giving LetsVenture portfolio companies access to global investors for their next round of funding. In this partnership with one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms globally, we do believe this is a win-win for both of us,” said Shanti Mohan, Co-Founder & CEO, LetsVenture.

In addition to this, LetsVenture will facilitate ‘Take to Market’ activities for OurCrowd’s portfolio companies to access the Indian market, the activities of which are under development by LetsVenture and are targeted to commence in 2018.

Commenting on the announcement, Jon Medved, OurCrowd CEO, said, “India is a critical growth market for our business with a huge number of very exciting startup investment opportunities in a range of sectors. Israel and India have a great joint heritage sharing many of the same entrepreneurial qualities that are the backbone of our economies. I am excited to be entering into this collaboration with LetsVenture, which I believe will deliver great value to our investors.”

Elias Ghosalkar, Director of Corporate Development at OurCrowd, added, “OurCrowd, with its strong global presence and established industry leadership is well poised to support the Indian startup eco-system and its stakeholders via its strategic collaboration with LetsVenture. This strategic collaboration helps build much needed bridges between the Israeli and Indian startup ecosystems, and opens the doors to tapping into high growth potential synergies. Indian investors, startups and corporates gain access to global expertise, know-how and innovation via the OurCrowd network, which will truly help put the ‘Startup India initiative’ on a fast track and further strengthen the economic linkages between Israel and India.”

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Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

---

Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding PR” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

OurCrowd, Motorola Solutions, Reliance Industries, and Yissum Launch Incubator, Accelerator to Give Jerusalem Startups a Competitive Edge

OurCrowd’s Incubator and Accelerator will focus on emerging startups using ‘frontier technologies’ including: big data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), fin-tech, storage, internet of things (IoT) and computer vision

By Robert Hoskins

Jerusalem, Israel –  OurCrowd Incubator announced new partnerships with Motorola Solutions, Reliance Industries and Yissum, to operate an innovation technology incubator to support growth of early stage startups in Jerusalem. With a long track record of startup investment in Jerusalem, and as a key player in the Israeli tech ecosystem, OurCrowd is a natural fit to lead the incubator team. The incubator will focus on frontier technologies such as big data, analytics, AI, fintech, storage, IoT and computer vision.

OurCrowd, Motorola Solutions and Reliance Industries Launch Israeli Incubator, Accelerator to Give Jerusalem Startups a Competitive Edge

The incubator will be based in OurCrowd’s Jerusalem headquarters, located in the JVP Media Quarter campus, founded by MK Erel Margalit. OurCrowd will lead the incubator consortium together with partners Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), Reliance Industries (NSE: Reliance) and Yissum Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In less than five years, OurCrowd has invested over $440M into 120 companies and eight funds. After vetting more than 6,000 companies and celebrating 13 exits, OurCrowd continues to lead the global equity crowdfunding sector for accredited investors, and make it one of the most active Venture Capitalists in the vibrant Israeli startup scene.

Jon Medved, OurCrowd’s CEO said, “We are proud to be strengthening the Jerusalem tech-ecosystem together with strong partners such as Motorola Solutions, Reliance Industries and Yissum. This represents a unique team with a global reach, incredible scale, and with deep technological, commercial and academic roots. We expect to invest in close to 50 companies over the next 10 years and further grow the formidable cadre of Jerusalem startups.”

The incubator will be part of the world famous Israeli incubator program administered by Israel’s National Innovation Authority (formerly the office of the Chief Scientist).

Eduardo Conrado, Executive Vice President, Strategy & Innovation Office, for Motorola Solutions said, “In today’s technology environment, strong partnerships and strategic investments help accelerate innovation. The Jerusalem incubator is one element of our Israel innovation hub, which is focused on developing advanced solutions in artificial intelligence, cyber security and other fields. We are proud to be part of this important project and look forward to working with OurCrowd, Reliance and Yissum on the future of public safety technology.”

“Reliance Industries is excited to further its long-term commitment to Israel by partnering with Israel Innovation Authority jointly with OurCrowd, Motorola and Hebrew University for the Jerusalem Incubator,” said the spokesperson from Reliance Industries Limited. “We are confident of Israeli start-ups offering unique value proposition by delivering next-gen digital services. We believe the incredible technological innovation from Israel will gain immensely by addressing the huge Indian market riding on the nationwide 4G LTE digital infrastructure setup in India by Jio. This will be a significant win-win for both India and Israel.”

OurCrowd is the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors. Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community of almost 20,000 investors from over 112 countries has invested over $440M into 120 portfolio companies and funds. OurCrowd already has thirteen exits to date, two IPO’s and eleven acquisitions.

Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) creates innovative, mission-critical communication solutions and services that help public safety and commercial customers build safer cities and thriving communities. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s largest private sector company, with a consolidated turnover of $ 50.9 billion and net profit of $ 4.6 billion for the year ended March 31, 2017. RIL’s activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and 4G digital services.

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd. was founded in 1964 to protect and commercialize Hebrew University’s intellectual property. Products based on Hebrew University technologies that have been commercialized by Yissum currently generate $2 Billion in annual sales. Ranked among the top technology transfer companies in the world, Yissum has registered over 9,325 patents covering 2,600 inventions; has licensed out 880 technologies and has spun out 110 companies including Mobileye, BriefCam, CollPlant and Qlight Nanotech. Yissum’s business partners span the globe and include companies such as Syngenta, Monsanto, Roche, Novartis, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Intel, Teva and many more.

# # #

Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

---

Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

 

SpaceoutVR Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign on Netcapital.com to Raise Money for a New High Tech Mobile Virtual Reality Company

The team has had an exciting quarter leading up to this campaign, with several big milestones including a seed funding round with $365k invested

By Robert Hoskins

Troy, NY – SpaceoutVR, Inc. announced the launch of an equity crowdfunding campaign on Netcapital.coml to raise money for a Mobile Virtual Reality software company. Their product, Spaceout.VR is a free to play Social VR MMO for iOS & Android that monetizes with upgrades and features for entertainment, gaming and communications.

SpaceoutVR Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign on Netcapital.com to Raise Money for a New High Tech Mobile Virtual Reality Company

“We are pleased to offer our friends and fans an opportunity to grow with our company,” said SpaceoutVR’s CEO, V. Owen Bush. “Equity crowdfunding is how the future is funded and SpaceoutVR is the future of immersive entertainment.”

The VR MMO engages players with fun VR experiences. Players aim to win by building the biggest Space Station in VR. Using machine learning and social media analysis, the MMO populates personal spaces with the digital content that players love. A social feed allows players to meet, share, and leave messages for each other. A gamified user economy will drive the revenue of SpaceoutVR, Inc.

With two years of operations, over 250,000 app downloads and over $1.2M invested, the startup is on the launchpad to success. The team has had an exciting quarter leading up to this campaign, with several big milestones including a seed funding round with $365k invested.

SpaceoutVR has been selected as a top featured VR app for the Google Play Store and smashed new records in engagement with an average session of 18.33 mins in May. The team launched Spaceout.VR v 1.3.1 with a Social VR Feed and in-app 360 Photo Sharing.  Spaceout.VR is now a top featured app on the Google Cardboard VR Library.

On June 29, 2017, SpaceoutVR won the CEG Technology Award “Judges’ Choice for Technology”. They were also awarded a free booth at both TechCrunch Disrupt in May and at the Northside Festival, June 7-9 in New York.

The company was co-founded by four senior executives in Gaming, Entertainment and Digital Marketing. SpaceoutVR, Inc. hopes to become a defining brand in mass-market consumer VR, and they have the experience behind them to make it happen.

# # #

Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

---

Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.