Prominent Israeli VC Jon Medved, who was diagnosed with ALS, contributed to a technology that would change his life.

Years ago, when entrepreneur Jon Medved became interested in various medical technology startups, little did he know that he would one day need them to change his life.

The closely-knit Israeli startup group suffered a setback in October when Medved, one of its most prominent VCs, announced he was resigning with immediate effect. He was forced to resign from the company he founded, OurCrowd, after being diagnosed with the debilitating disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS,) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“This has come out of nowhere,” he told TechCrunch in a hoarse voice — a hallmark of ALS — in what would be his last interview.

She said: “I had a strange feeling before and they didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was in the hospital for a few weeks recovering, and that’s when they tested me and said, ‘You have ALS,’ which is the worst disease you can imagine.”

ALS is a condition that damages the brain’s neurons, causing muscle dysfunction, and eventually impairs movement, speech, eating, and breathing. He did not have the old symptoms, as his voice was attacked first, not the end, he said. But they know that the problem will get worse, and there is no medicine, only healing.

Medved is known as one of the founding fathers of the Israeli ecosystem – which is called “Startup Nation” many years later. best selling book of the same name. He helped found it, moving from California to Israel in his 20s, then founded and sold several tech companies before investing.

In 2013, he founded OurCrowd. When Israel said many strong home-grown VC firmsas well as branches of international businesses like Bessemer, OurCrowd created corporate capital, while limited partnerships were open to everyone. accredited investor.

The company’s listing attracted LPs from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, expanding its network of 240,000 accredited LPs in 195 countries, the company said. Most of them are doctors, lawyers, and ordinary people who not only help their financial companies, but would be excluded from the financial generation that VCs meet.

OurCrowd has names like Anthropic, Beyond Meat and Lemonade.

Medved describes OurCrowd as a “significant player” that supports about 500 companies with about 74 exits, including an exit a few weeks ago when Locusview sold $525 million. in Itron.

Despite Israel’s conflict with Gaza, which has affected its citizens and put the country in the international spotlight due to the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, its basic environment has remained strong.

As a “primary nation,” Israel is still very important cybersecurity and technology security but also AI, microchips, enterprise software, food technologies, health technology – the whole range of technology. For example, in November, there was “800 million dollars invested in the Israeli ecosystem in one week,” Medved said. The country now has about 100 unicorns and over the course of the year, it is estimated that between $15 billion and $16 billion have been invested in the country in business ventures.

Now the technology for some of these basics will help you navigate life with a chronic illness.

For example, he has a self-created avatar that stores his voice, face and actions. (The digital twin of the photo/video is captured with full video can be seen here.) OurCrowd AI portfolio company D-ID, creating assistants and avatars, compatible with voice. AI startup ElevenLabs and other companies through ALS-focus Scott-Morgan Foundation to create an avatar system designed for people with ALS.

He just experienced this technology on a Zoom call with a person with ALS who uses an avatar to communicate.

“So these things have become very personal to me,” Medved said. “It will keep my word when it goes.”

But he said there will be different types of technology he can lean on.

“We’ve made 60, 70 medical investments in good companies that help people. We have a company called OncoHost, which uses AI to help you choose the type of immunotherapy that will work for you…

“I’m telling you now as a healthy person (who took health carelessly) I felt human pain and disease, but once you start dealing with this terrible disease, it changes your attitude,” Medved shared.

All this means that, although he has left his role of managing the company and may be retiring from the public, “I could not, okay? I want to continue to contribute, to OurCrowd and the whole universe. So I am fully prepared not to go (silently) in this good night.”

And in the end he says, “I am very proud to be a part of this group, even though we are investors.”

A video featuring Medved’s “digital twin” shows how realistic his avatar is.