A burgeoning startup community is thriving within the Orthodox Jewish community, thanks to the pioneering efforts of Crown Ventures Accelerator.

“Crown Ventures https://www.crownventures.nyc/  was created to enhance opportunities for Yeshiva-educated founders within the technology and innovation sector,” said Crown Ventures founder, Yehoshua Werde.
“Our vision is to create a comprehensive startup ecosystem to rapidly launch and scale profitable companies that will change the world for the better.”

“Until now there was a big lack of support for tech in our community so [Crown Ventures] is a huge help,” said Jacob Eisenbach Founder/CEO of Geeker.co.

Hershy Goldstein, Founder/CEO of fridayapp.com, said he attended a Crown Ventures event because he wanted “to be around the heimishe startup ecosystem.”

It’s very inspiring to see young people from our community pursue this path, which until now wasn’t as accessible to people from our community. “I believe that Jewish Orthodox founders are talented, capable, knowledgeable, and innovative, but in the sphere of technology and innovation, they remain underrepresented,” said Crown Ventures program Director, Ephraim Yarmak.

“Encouraging entrepreneurship is essential to the frum world. I’m particularly excited about our community succeeding in tech, where it’s less about which school you went to, and more about talent and drive. Yeshiva-world founders are smart and driven, and with Seyata DeShmaya we’ll see some amazing successes come out of this accelerator.” Daniel Cotlar former CMO Blinds.com (Home Depot) and a Crown Ventures Mentor.

Yedid and Tova Herskovitz, co-founders of Rapidream.com, a member of Crown Ventures echoed the widely held sentiment that we need more investment in tech in the Jewish world. “It’s really hard to break into the outside world’s tech bubble because a lot of us [Orthodox Jews] didn’t go to Stanford or the other universities where most of the future tech leaders go,” said Tova. “A lot of business is about who you know, so if you don’t have industry connections, it can be harder to break into the ecosystem and raise capital. That’s why it’s so great to finally have a place like Crown Ventures where you can meet other people in the community with whom you may have connections in common, and they can get to know you, trust you, and hear your ideas. This will make it easier for startups in our community to find investment.”

Current Startups in the Crown Ventures Ecosystem represent the cutting edge of what our community has to offer with incredible startups that have the potential to disrupt industries.

A look at a few:

Hatch: The first-ever Giving Intelligence Platform that harnesses AI to revolutionize fundraising, marketing, and volunteering. https://hatch.ai

Rapidream: A cutting-edge design-to-code tool for software development, streamlining the process for designers and developers. https://rapidream.com/

Ritual: A platform providing personalized and science-backed tools for relationship support, addressing a critical area of mental healthcare. https://www.heyritual.com

Weave: Pioneering a generative AI platform for enhanced collaboration within the life science industry. https://www.weave.bio

Simbryo: Pioneers in the IVF space, using organoid technology and AI for a personalized IVF process.

“We’re here because we’re lucky enough to be small investors in this,” said Zach Firestone of Tiferes Ventures, a VC firm. “We’ve gotten to know these startup companies quite well thanks to Crown Ventures and we are incredibly impressed. Crown Ventures is providing an unbelievable service for the Orthodox Startup community and the startup community at large. All the companies in this cohort are world-class startups who deserve to be on that stage! I’m looking forward to going even deeper with a number of these companies and to participating in future cohorts as well. Kudos to Crown Ventures and thank you so much for everything you’ve done!”

If you have a startup and would like to join the Crown ventures network, please send us an email at [email protected]