Venture capital fund YL Ventures has announced that it has sold its stake in Israeli cybersecurity company Axonius for $270 million. YL Ventures, which specializes in funding early stage cybersecurity companies, has sold its stake to four funds - ICONIQ Growth, Alkeon Capital Management, DTCP and Harmony Partners - at a company valuation of $1.1 billion, the same value at which Axonius raised $100 million last week and officially became a unicorn.
YL Ventures led the $4 million seed financing round in Axonius back in September 2017, just several months after the company was founded, with an investment of $3 million for a 30% stake in the company. YL Ventures invested in each of the following three financing rounds in order to maintain its 30% stake and in total has invested $25 million in Axonius for what is now slightly below a 30% stake, diluted by expanded options for employees. In other words, YL Ventures achieved a profit of $245 million in three and a half years for an eleven-fold return on its investment. This is the highest-ever return on an investment for YL Ventures.
YL Ventures has invested in other Israeli cybersecurity companies including Orca Security, founded by former Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) senior executives, and which is well on the way to becoming a unicorn.
YL Ventures managing partner Yoav Leitersdorf told "Globes", "There are six more excellent companies in the fund and from our point of view this is only the first exit out of seven. I hope that each one of the companies will repay the fund and I estimate that this will be our most successful ever fund.
Axonius CEO Dean Sysman said, "The transition from early-stage to late-stage investors just makes sense as we drive toward IPO, and it allows each investor to focus on what they do best."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 9, 2021
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