Bright Light Management Launches in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the San Diego Venture Group's Crowdfunding 2014 event, Jeff Belk announced the founding of Bright Light Management, a new venture that has been formed to identify, evaluate and stimulate funding for early-stage, entrepreneurial projects and advance them to the next phases of their development.

Belk, a San Diego technology veteran and former Qualcomm executive, said Bright Light Management will initially focus its efforts in the mobile health, wearables, wireless, genomics, big data and consumer-lifestyle services and applications sectors.

Belk and OurCrowd's General Partner and CTO Gadi Mazor also announced Bright Light Management's venture partner role with OurCrowd. Together, the two firms will bring new sources of equity funding for San Diego entrepreneurs to build and scale their companies.

OurCrowd is the global leader in equity crowdfunding for accredited investors and has previously led or co-invested with leading venture capital firms in 33 startups and has 4,000 accredited investor members from 53 countries, with over 150 residing in San Diego County.

San Diego companies placed on the OurCrowd website will make use of OurCrowd's compliance, investor management and offer platform, and will leverage OurCrowd's global base of accredited investors.

"For decades, funding options available to emerging San Diego companies have often been limited, with a heavy reliance on Silicon Valley for funding," said Belk. "With the recent emergence of equity-based crowdfunding, accredited Investors in communities like San Diego can now directly participate in the growth of emerging companies and help to drive the San Diego County economic engine in new ways."

Founded by leading Israeli venture capitalist Jon Medved, OurCrowd has created an advanced platform for accredited investors. With initial investments largely focused on the vibrant Israeli startup community, OurCrowd is now expanding its model into other markets, with San Diego a natural starting point.

"OurCrowd is excited to be working with Jeff Belk to bring our platform to accredited investors in San Diego," said Medved, CEO of OurCrowd and a San Diego native,  "San Diego has a reputation for accomplishing the hard things in fields such as wireless, IT and the life sciences.  We look forward to our presence in San Diego to identify amazing companies that will help transform our future."

San Diego Venture Group estimates show that approximately 1,000 San Diegans participated in angel investments in 2013.  According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics on household income in San Diego County, up to 7.3 percent of county households may meet the threshold criteria for accreditation for equity based crowdfunding platforms.  These new rules allow potential investors to support the growth of companies that can start, hire and grow in San Diego.

About Bright Light Management's Founder
Jeffrey Belk, 51, is Bright Light Management's founding Managing Partner.  Belk served in several executive positions for more than 14 years at Qualcomm, including Senior Vice President, Strategy and Market Development, as well as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Interdigital Corporation. and San Diego's Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, the UC San Diego Alumni Association, San Diego-based Wireless Life Sciences Alliance, and is on the advisory board of CommNexus, a leading San Diego technology trade organization.  Belk also has made a broad range of angel investments and serves as an adviser to a number of privately held companies.

About OurCrowd
OurCrowd is a hybrid VC-crowdfunding platform for accredited investors only who wish to invest in Israeli and global early stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital and brings these startups to its accredited membership. Members choose those deals they invest in via OurCrowd-managed partnerships. OurCrowd investors must meet stringent accreditation criteria and invest a minimum of $10,000 per deal. OurCrowd provides post investment support to its portfolio companies, assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats. www.ourcrowd.com

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What They Are Saying About Bright Light Management and Velocity Growth

"San Diego is often overlooked by the venture capital community," said Rob McCray, who is CEO and co-founder of the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance and previously was a venture backed CEO and investment banker. "Bright Light Management and OurCrowd fills a missing piece of the funding chain in San Diego, especially in the high growth connected health and wearables sectors."  

"Having an equity crowdfunding platform active in San Diego will give the community a big boost in getting more accredited investors in San Diego involved in the venture area and potentially investing in exciting San Diego companies," said Dave Titus, Executive Director of the San Diego Venture Group.

"We regularly see many good ideas from entrepreneurs seeking legal assistance and company formation, but there's often a shortage of local capital. Bright Light Management and OurCrowd's presence in San Diego is a positive step towards new capital for San Diego," said Wain Fishburn, founding partner at Cooley's San Diego office and founding board member of BIOCOM. 

"San Diego based entrepreneurs who have great ideas but limited avenues for funding welcome the arrival of Velocity Growth and Bright Light Management," said Rory Moore, CEO of CommNexus and EvoNexus, San Diego's first fully pro-bono incubator. "We look forward to more funding sources discovering San Diego's dynamic startup environment."

SOURCE Bright Light Management