OurCrowd, a global digital investment platform, and RISE, the corporate innovation powerhouse based out of Southeast Asia, announced the launch of the ROCX (Rise OurCrowd Exponential) Fund.
The $50 million fund is Thailand’s “first” Israel-focused VC fund and “will invest in early-stage deep technologies in cybersecurity, AI, HealthTech, semiconductors, quantum computing, ClimateTech, AgTech, FoodTech, and more.”
Dr. Kid Parchariyanon, Co-founder and CEO of RISE said:
“RISE is dedicated to fostering the growth of corporate innovation and global startups by facilitating powerful collaborations with leading corporations across Southeast Asia, creating mutually beneficial partnerships that drive growth and market expansion. This new fund in partnership with OurCrowd will invest in the most cutting-edge deep technologies both Israel and Asia have to offer and put them to work in creating maximum impact and changing lives, from life sciences to agriculture, from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and beyond.”
OurCrowd Founder & CEO Jon Medved said:
“The partnership between the ROCX Fund, RISE and OurCrowd will create an unprecedented bridge between Thailand, greater Southeast Asia, and emerging Israeli technologies. OurCrowd is Israel’s most active early-stage investor with a 10-year track record of fostering collaboration between hundreds of portfolio companies around the world with thousands of multinational corporations across dozens of countries. The new joint capacity unleashed by the ROCX Fund has the exponential potential to leverage the innovation from Startup Nation for the benefit of Thailand and the regional ecosystem to generate a double bottom line of GDP growth and social impact across Southeast Asia.”
The ROCX Fund, anchored by a major Thai institution and managed by an experienced team of VC experts from both Thailand and Israel, will “begin investing by the end of 2024. and the fund plans to deploy tens of millions of dollars over a 2-3 year period into 20-30 companies with a promising track record and the capacity to develop and deploy solutions with proven product-market fit, providing them with the capital to scale up their commercial growth with leading corporations across Southeast Asia.”
RISE is a leading corporate innovation powerhouse “based in Southeast Asia with the mission to raise regional GDP by 1 percent.”
RISE works closely with Fortune 500 companies, large family businesses, and government agencies across Southeast Asia “to set up and scale innovation initiatives through 5 corporate services: Corporate Innovation Consulting, RISE University, SeaX Ventures, and Athena.”
OurCrowd has grown into an online venture investing platform “with $2.2 billion capital deployed into more than 420 portfolio companies and 50 funds in five continents across dozens of major technology sectors.”
OurCrowd FinTech platform “leverages artificial intelligence and advanced automation tools to identify world-class startups, empower hundreds of thousands of accredited investors, corporate VCs, and family offices to discover and participate in exclusive investment opportunities, and rapidly realize commercial connections between the portfolio companies and major corporations worldwide, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of contract value.”