Israel’s startup economy did not become global by accident. It was built by people who believed money could move fast without leaving values behind. Few figures embody that idea more clearly than Jon Medved, the investor who helped recast Israeli innovation as a global force tied to human purpose as much as financial return.
In boardrooms, war rooms, and packed auditoriums, Medved’s influence has stretched far beyond balance sheets. His story is about systems, yes. But also family, responsibility, and timing.
A builder in the modern Israeli tradition
Every era has its builders.
In Israel’s early years, leadership meant turning aspiration into survival. Today, it often means translating ingenuity into scale. Medved fits squarely into that second chapter.
Founder of OurCrowd, Medved became one of the most influential figures in Israel’s technology ecosystem without ever following the classic path. He was not trained as an engineer. He did not come up through labs or code bases.
Instead, he believed in people.
Israel, Medved has often said, is a place where improbable things happen if systems allow them to. His career became proof of that idea. Over decades, he helped channel billions of dollars into Israeli companies and backed ventures that created more than 10,000 jobs.
One sentence he often returns to comes from an old Hebrew pioneer song: we came to the land to build it, and to be built by it. That line, he says, explains his life better than any résumé.
Family as the first metric that matters
For all the talk of exits and valuations, Medved’s own definition of success starts at home.
Asked about his greatest accomplishment, he does not cite deals or platforms. He talks about his wife, Jane, and a decision made early, when commitment came with a clear ultimatum. Choose family, or lose it.
He chose family.
Today, Jon and Jane Medved are parents of four and grandparents to 15, with more on the way. Medved jokes that this is his best KPI. The humor lands because it is clearly sincere.
That framing matters. Family is not a footnote in Medved’s worldview. It shapes how he hires, how he leads, and how he thinks about institutions that are meant to last longer than their founders.
Reinventing access to capital, from both sides
When Medved launched OurCrowd in 2013, the headline innovation was democratized venture capital. Accredited investors could participate in early-stage deals once reserved for elite funds.
That was only half the shift.
The other half happened quietly, on the founder side.
Early-stage entrepreneurs suddenly had access to a structured, repeatable path to capital. Fundraising stopped being a black box controlled by a few gatekeepers. Founders learned how to prepare for due diligence, how to speak to global investors, and how to professionalize their growth stories.
Medved often describes the platform as something that reached “critical mass.” Once that happened, the model could not easily be undone.
Capital moved faster. Trust scaled. Israel’s startup economy gained infrastructure, not just momentum.
Profit was never the whole point
Medved has been explicit about motive.
Making money, he argues, is necessary. It is not sufficient.
The companies that gathered under the OurCrowd umbrella tend to share a pattern. Commercial ambition paired with clear social impact. Climate, health, water, food, security. Solutions that aim to matter.
A partial snapshot of areas where OurCrowd-backed companies operate includes:
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Energy efficiency and climate mitigation
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Medical technologies that improve outcomes and reduce invasiveness
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Water treatment and resource management
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Food systems that reduce emissions and cost
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Cybersecurity and defense infrastructure
Medved describes these outcomes as impact multipliers. You generate returns, and you move something real in the world at the same time.
That framing resonated with investors who wanted alignment, not tradeoffs.
A culture shaped by values, not slogans
Inside OurCrowd, the tone is unusually direct.
Medved has said, plainly, that he does not tolerate jerks. Culture is not something to be fixed later, once scale arrives. It is the operating system.
That ethos shows up in hiring decisions that might puzzle more conventional firms. Women are hired while pregnant. Careers pause and resume. Life events are not treated as liabilities.
The logic is simple. If you get a decade of excellence from someone, and they take time to live their life along the way, that is a good deal.
In an ecosystem famous for intensity, Medved insisted that humanity was not a weakness. It was a filter.
Facing illness without stepping away from meaning
In recent years, Medved disclosed that he has been diagnosed with ALS.
The news reshaped timelines. It did not rewrite purpose.
Medved stepped aside as CEO, leaving day-to-day leadership to a management team he helped build. He speaks with pride about watching others take responsibility, make decisions, and push the organization forward.
Strong founders, he says, have to know when to step back.
That belief mirrors his thinking about Israel itself.
Making room for the next generation
Medved is candid about generational change.
Israel’s younger leaders, many now in their 30s and 40s, have been tested under extraordinary pressure, including war and prolonged instability. He believes they are ready.
Older leaders, he argues, do not disappear. They advise. They support. But they must make space.
This view applies across business, politics, and civil society. Institutions that cling too tightly to founders risk stagnation. Those that plan for succession earn resilience.
Medved’s own transition at OurCrowd reflects that logic in real time.
Staying present, staying connected
Despite physical limits imposed by ALS, Medved remains engaged.
“I’m far from done,” he has said. “I’m staying in the game.”
When asked how people can support him now, the answer is disarmingly simple. Stay in touch. Send messages. Visit. Be present.
Connection, he says, gives strength. And strength is something he intends to return.
A legacy measured in systems, not statues
Jon Medved’s influence is unlikely to be captured by a single metric.
It lives in companies that solve problems rather than chase buzz. In founders who learned how to raise capital without losing themselves. In investors who discovered that returns and responsibility can coexist.
His story is not about reinvention through disruption. It is about redesign through intent.
