OurCrowd, a leading Israeli equity crowdfunding company, and Toyota Tsusho, the trading arm of the Japanese Toyota Group, announced on Wednesday a new business partnership that will focus on technology scouting in search of groundbreaking innovative startups.
The Jerusalem-based firm will act as a technology scout and source innovation and investment opportunities for Toyota Tsusho in Israel and abroad.
The scouting agreement will seek out next-generation startup leaders in the areas of autonomous vehicles with a focus on sensors, image recognition, data compression, and security.
The companies will seek out new technologies in a diverse group of other sectors as well. These include Smart Cities, Medtech, including cancer examination and digital health, environmental technologies, and big data in agriculture.
Minoru Murata, Executive Vice President, Regional CEO & CTO of Toyota Tsusho, said the new partnership will bring key technological innovation to Toyota, giving them an edge in an ever-changing world.
“The future belongs to the bold, who are implementing game-changing technologies. Toyota Tsusho and its 58,000 employees all over the world are proud to be leaders in our focus industries, but to ensure our future leadership we must identify, invest and work with startups who are changing the world we live in. Our partnership with OurCrowd will bring us these key technologies and leaders to work together on the next generation of global challenges,” he said.
Jon Medved, Founder and CEO of OurCrowd, said that he is proud to work with a global company such as Toyota Tsusho.
“We are proud to be partnering with a general trading company such as Toyota Tsusho. Not only do they represent a 70-year tradition of excellence in global business, but they are focused on solving real global problems,” he said.
Medved said that Toyota’s platform could help startups reach unparalleled achievements, facilitating significant growth and great opportunities.
“Together, we can help startups turn into ‘scaleups’ by providing access to Toyota Tsusho’s unrivaled platform that can deploy new technologies and products quickly and effectively in over 120 markets around the world. This is good news for startups and good news for the world,” he added.