Israeli cybersecurity venture capital fund Cyberstarts announced today that it recently closed a $200 million fund, oversubscribed by existing and new investors. The new Opportunity Fund line will take advantage of follow-on opportunities from portfolio companies that are raising Series A and Series B rounds. Cyberstarts was founded by Gili Raanan and Lior Simon
Over the past three and a half years, Cyberstarts managed to form one of the world’s most successful venture capital businesses, partnering with a few of the most important companies in the Cybersecurity market at the time of their incorporation. Investments in cybersecurity companies by the $54 million Cyberstarts I fund, focused on seed deals, with marginal participation in follow on rounds, are currently worth $1 billion "on paper," averaging 300% annual return to investors.
With the establishment of the Opportunity Fund, the $100 million Cyberstarts II fund aimed at investments in Seed and subsequent A rounds, is now being downsized to $60 million.
Cyberstarts seed investments include Fireblocks valued at $8 billion, Wiz valued at $6 billion, Transmit, Noname Security, Island, Axis Security, Bionic, Dazz, Legit Security, and several still in stealth mode. Cyberstarts recently revealed that its 13 portfolio companies raised a total of $1.3 billion in 2021, with a combined valuation of $20 billion, from investors including Sequoia, Greylock, Lightspeed, Index, Insight, and many more.
Raanan said, "Most of the entrepreneurs we have partnered with, manage to hit the ground and grow into significant businesses over a short period of time. The Opportunity fund is another assurance for them and a new generation of entrepreneurs, we can and will support them with a constant flow of cash as they grow their businesses." The investors behind Cyberstarts include entrepreneurs like Shlomo Kramer of Cato Networks, Imperva, and Check Point, Marius Nacht of Check Point, Nir Zuk from Palo Alto, Udi Mokady from CyberArk, Mickey Boodai and Rakesh Loonkar from Transmit, Roy Zisapel from Radware, Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Israel from Armis, Assaf Rappaport from Adallom and Wiz, Demisto entrepreneurs and more. These encompass 40 of the leading executives in cybersecurity, who help the fund's portfolio groundbreaking products with precision, recommend key employees and executives who have worked with them in the past, efficient sales partners, or grant valuable advice to entrepreneurs.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 28, 2022.
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