Eli Nir, a former senior investment partner at OurCrowd, has been publicly named as the venture capital executive accused of rape and sexual offenses. The decision to reveal Nir's identity came on Wednesday from Supreme Court Judge Khaled Kabub.
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According to the indictment, Nir allegedly used the Tinder app to connect with women, and now is facing charges of two counts of rape and two counts of sodomy. These charges stem from three separate incidents that occurred in 2017, 2019 and 2020, involving three women he met through the app. The indictment was filed in October 2023 after a court hearing.
Nir, who recently held a prominent position at OurCrowd, played a significant role in overseeing many of its investments in Israel, including ventures with Innoviz, Arbe, Hailo, and Vayyar, as reported by the IVC research center.
In response to media reports about the Supreme Court decision on January 30, OurCrowd issued a statement expressing shock at the serious charges against Nir. "Before this date, Eli did not disclose to our management any information about being indicted, investigated by the Israel Police, or arrested several years ago as part of this investigation," according to the company statement.
"Eli Nir previously worked as a senior investment partner for OurCrowd. At the beginning of October 2023, he requested to leave the company for personal reasons and on January 30 he ceased all activity on behalf of the company. During his tenure with us, Eli was a member of the investment committee, but was not a member of our board, nor did he play any role on the firm’s executive committee. He served on the boards of certain of our portfolio companies and as an adviser to some of our funds. He has either resigned or has been removed from all of those positions and no longer represents us in any capacity," the statement continues.
"Our management team takes a strong position against any improper conduct, sexual harassment, sexual crimes and in particular rape," the company added. "We make great efforts to ensure that the women who work here are safe and feel safe at all times. We will be providing support to any of our employees who feel in any way threatened by this matter."
"As a company that values transparency, we oppose any effort to keep key information from the public. We respect the diligent and persistent efforts of the media to investigate these alleged acts,” the statement concluded.
Nir's attorneys, Igal Dotan, Avigdor Feldman, and Haim Itzhaki, said in a statement: "The indictment in this case should not have been filed in the first place, since the evidence of the investigation points to our client's complete innocence. … Even before the appeal was rejected to ban the publication of his name and details, he resigned from his position at the fund to prevent possible damage to the fund and investors."