OurCrowd teams up with Airwallex to let its investors back startups in their local currency

Over the course of the last few years, venture investment platform OurCrowd has become Israel’s most active venture investor, with over 400 portfolio companies across 42 funds. The platform allows accredited investors to invest in the startups in the OurCrowd portfolio, but until now, they had to do so by first converting their local currency to U.S. dollars and then wire it. Now, thanks to a partnership with payments platform Airwallex, that’s not necessary anymore.

“With the globalization of the startup world, advanced fintech which is multi-currency is a
game changer,” said OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. “Now, you can be sitting in Israel and invest in a Silicon Valley startup, pay in Shekels with a single click and it is totally transparent.”

OurCrowd first started using Airwallex, which is valued at about $5.6 billion, earlier this year, and currently, about a third of the investment platform’s FX flow is handled by it. The plan is to bring this number to 90 percent by the end of the year. Currently, the focus of the partnership is on accepting local currencies. In the next phase of the partnership, the two companies will expand OurCrowd’s payment options “so investors can invest using the best local payment options and currencies available via local rails.”

“Our embedded finance partnership is a perfect example of how we support and enable our customers’ end users to grow, while also giving OurCrowd the tools to expand and deepen their services,” said Pranav Sood, EGM, EMEA at Airwallex. “From streamlining payment processes for investors and startups to minimizing FX costs, embedded finance is simplifying the way businesses operate across borders.”