Where Idealism & Capitalism Come Together: Doing Good & Doing Business

JERUSALEM--International investors have just finished a week in Jerusalem looking for products to back that can make life on earth better and also turn a profit.   They were attending the OurCrowd Global Investors Summit that brought idealism and capitalism together.

This biggest summit in Israel is all about dreamers, innovators and entrepreneurs who come up with ideas for stuff getting together with the money people who can give them the cash to make that stuff into real products.   And maybe improve the world at the same time.

Jon Medved founded and heads up OurCrowd, which not only sponsored this huge event but is a backer of startup companies.   Medved sees improving the world as a mandate for the Jewish people.

As he told CBN News, "God created the world in six days, except that He left it for man to perfect.  In other words, it's up to us to join the Almighty and to make things right.  And that's sort of like the real agenda item here.   That's what we're all talking about.  And I hope that together we're going to make some progress."

How to Rise Above Gas Guzzlers and Traffic Jams

Just after walking into the summit space, one of the first eye-catching exhibits attendees saw was a personal electric-powered, vertical-takeoff plane that could eventually cut down on gas-guzzling cars and jammed highways.

The price tag now is around $150,000, but Chen Rosen of Air EV said as the planes catch on and head into mass production, that could come down to less than $100,000.

"It's very difficult to own a private aircraft or a helicopter," Rosen admitted.  But added, "We're trying to solve a lot of...and remove most of...the obstacles that prevent people from owning private aircraft.   And being vertical and being electrical, therefore quiet, is just part of it."

Turning Household Waste into a Replacement for Plastic

A few feet away, UBQ Materials showcased a way to take waste produced at home and turn it into a replacement for an environmental threat now choking dumps and landfills.

Spokeswoman Liat Arad said, "We turn household waste into a sustainable substitute to plastic."

"We are able to replace fossil fuel-based resins in automotive, in construction and in retail," Arad added.  "We're working with Mercedes Benz.  We're working with McDonald's.  They make the McTray partially out of UBQ."

The giant rooms and hallways of Jerusalem's International Convention Center were filled with hundreds of booths and exhibits like those of Air EV and UBQ Materials.

For instance, H2Pro was on hand, promoting its cleaner, greener way involving hydrogen to reduce the much talked about carbon footprint. 

"The hydrogen industry and the hydrogen CO2 emissions are 12 to 15 percent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions," H2 Pro's Gilad Yogev stated.  "So making that green will contribute immensely to de-carbonizing the world."

Helping Those who were Wheelchair-Bound Stand Tall

Rushing around the exhibits was a tall quadraplegic gentleman strapped into and stood up by a giant wheeled device sold by UPnRIDE Robotics.   It's designed to change the lives of people who can't walk by getting them out of wheelchairs and up on their feet.

That gentleman is Amit Goffer of UPnRIDE Robotics and he explained to CBN News what the device gives: "It's dignity for a person."

He then hunched down low and said, "Being little in a wheelchair and sitting like this, no one really counts you."

These startups and dozens more gave the investors at the Our Crowd summit a vast array of positive, uplifting inventions and services to pick getting behind with their cash.

Some Netanyahu Foes Say "Don't Invest Here"

But debate in Israel over the present government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led to a move by his opponents encouraging investors to keep their money out of Israel as long as he's in charge.

OurCrowd's Medved says most investors concentrate on bigger issues than Israeli politics and those agitated by Netanyahu's policies.

"Creativity and the kind of drive that creates startups flourishes in democratic environments and I think Israel's democracy is healthy.   I think there are some wild people who say things, who are upset and passionate.   And I'm not going to hold it against them," Medved said to CBN News.  But, he added, "We're getting beyond that here at this conference.   We're talking about how to fight greenhouse gases, how to clean the world's water supply, how to reforest the trees.  The reality is, and your audience certainly understands this, that humanity has to be a partner with God in creation."

While many of the world's economies are stagnating or spiraling down to recession, investors from all over rushed to this summit in Jerusalem because Israel and other nations in the region are seeing continued financial prosperity.   Medved sees that as part of Israel's reward for trying to do right spiritually.

Viewing Capitalism as a Spiritual Undertaking

"If Israel wasn't the Startup Nation, what are we going to be?  Okay, this is our destiny.   Our destiny is to create.  Our destiny is to fix the world," Medved insisted.  "And we're just a little people, making a lot of noise.  But I think most Israelis, whether they wear a yarmulke or they don't wear a yarmulke, view this as a spiritual undertaking: that we're doing this not just to make money, but to do good.   And we believe very firmly at OurCrowd in the double bottom line, where you can do good and make money at the same time."

This OurCrowd summit wasn't held for the last two years due to the COVID pandemic.   But now that it's back up and running one new development was many Arabs and Muslims attending.   They came because the Abraham Accords have paved the way for better relations between Israel and countries like Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

So now nations that were enemies for decades have a chance to work together both to do business and do good.