Latest news with #GiliRaanan
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Israel's Cyberstarts launches $300 million fund to help startups retain talent
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Israeli venture capital fund Cyberstarts has launched a $300 million fund aimed at helping its portfolio companies attract and retain cybersecurity talent , it said on noted it has raised more than $1 billion in capital commitments across six funds. Its investment portfolio has nearly 30 investments to date, with most in seed, or early stage cybersecurity startups in firms that include Wiz - which is in the process of being bought by Google for $32 said its newest fund offers structured, annual secondary windows for employees to sell a portion of their vested shares without leaving their a result, it said, Cyberstarts will help its portfolio companies "retain key talent, align incentives, and sustain a culture of long-term commitment and innovation." Cyberstarts will partner directly with its portfolio companies to determine eligibility based on scale and talent needs, it eligible Cyberstarts-backed company will receive its own dedicated allocation within the fund, allowing for flexible, founder-aligned implementation."With this new fund, we are hoping to ... support our portfolio companies - creating a retention tool that rewards employees with a way to participate in their company's early success while staying focused on the long term vision," said Gili Raanan, Founder of Cyberstarts.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Israel's Cyberstarts launches $300 million fund to help startups retain talent
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli venture capital fund Cyberstarts has launched a $300 million fund aimed at helping its portfolio companies attract and retain cybersecurity talent, it said on Wednesday. Cyberstarts noted it has raised more than $1 billion in capital commitments across six funds. Its investment portfolio has nearly 30 investments to date, with most in seed, or early stage cybersecurity startups in firms that include Wiz - which is in the process of being bought by Google for $32 billion. Cyberstarts said its newest fund offers structured, annual secondary windows for employees to sell a portion of their vested shares without leaving their company. As a result, it said, Cyberstarts will help its portfolio companies "retain key talent, align incentives, and sustain a culture of long-term commitment and innovation." Cyberstarts will partner directly with its portfolio companies to determine eligibility based on scale and talent needs, it added. Each eligible Cyberstarts-backed company will receive its own dedicated allocation within the fund, allowing for flexible, founder-aligned implementation. "With this new fund, we are hoping to ... support our portfolio companies – creating a retention tool that rewards employees with a way to participate in their company's early success while staying focused on the long term vision," said Gili Raanan, Founder of Cyberstarts. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
09-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Cyberstarts Launches $300 Million Employee Liquidity Fund to Power the Next Stage of Cybersecurity Startup Growth
TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cyberstarts, the leading early-stage cybersecurity venture firm, today announced the launch of a $300 million Employee Liquidity Fund. This innovative new investment vehicle is designed to reward startup employees and ignite greater momentum at breakout companies across Cyberstarts' portfolio. This new fund offers structured, annual secondary windows for employees to sell a portion of their vested shares without leaving their company. By providing this built-in path to liquidity, Cyberstarts will help its portfolio companies retain key talent, align incentives, and sustain a culture of long-term commitment and innovation. Cyberstarts will partner directly with its portfolio companies to determine eligibility based on scale and talent needs. HR teams at each respective company will then determine implementation for employees. 'At Cyberstarts, we have always made it our mission to nurture and motivate talent from idea through execution – and that includes finding new ways to have deeply technical cybersecurity talent stay and thrive at our portfolio companies,' said Gili Raanan, Founder of Cyberstarts. 'With this new fund, we are hoping to go even further to support our portfolio companies – creating a retention tool that rewards employees with a way to participate in their company's early success while staying focused on the long term vision.' 'In today's market, we're seeing industry-leading technology companies scale to extraordinary heights over years and years with continued drive and commitment of their original employees,' shared Yotam Segev, Co-Founder and CEO of Cyera. 'At Cyera, we're building a lasting company in a critical industry, which requires retaining and motivating the very best talent over a long time horizon. Cyberstarts has been supporting our mission from day one, and this new liquidity program supercharges our team by rewarding them with reliable and predictable liquidity.' 'To build a fundamentally new category at a company like Island, we require deep expertise, long-term commitment, and a shared sense of purpose from our team,' said Michael Fey, Co-Founder and CEO of Island. 'Especially given today's extended IPO timeline, secondary equity transactions are becoming an essential component of the employee experience at startups that choose to remain private and independent. This new commitment from Cyberstarts is a tremendous asset as founders work to deliver an exceptional workplace.' Cyberstarts is uniquely positioned to launch this new Employee Liquidity Fund given its close and long-standing partnerships with its portfolio companies. Each eligible Cyberstarts-backed company will receive its own dedicated allocation within the fund, allowing for flexible, founder-aligned implementation. The initiative reflects Cyberstarts' commitment to rethinking venture capital with a talent first mindset. With the close of this new fund, Cyberstarts now has raised over $1 billion in capital commitments across six funds. Its investment portfolio continues to grow, with nearly 30 investments to date. Cyberstarts is well known for investing in the Seed rounds of category leaders, including Wiz, Fireblocks, Island, and Cyera, among many others. About Cyberstarts Since its founding in 2018, Cyberstarts has operated with a singular goal: to support exceptional founders from idea to execution. As one of the only venture firms built specifically for cybersecurity entrepreneurs, Cyberstarts invests before there's a product, a team, or even a single line of code—backing founders who have identified a challenge and have the grit to solve it. With deep domain expertise and hands-on partnership, Cyberstarts works side-by-side with founders to refine go-to-market strategy, build out early teams, and tap into a trusted network of global CISOs. Cyberstarts has raised more than $1 billion across 6 funds. Its portfolio accounts for nearly 50% of the global market cap of private cybersecurity companies. As the investment partner of choice for the most ambitious cybersecurity founders, Cyberstarts is proud to be counted as a seed investor in today's most notable solutions, including Wiz, Fireblocks, Cyera, Island, and Transmit Security, among others.
Bloomberg
09-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Wiz Backer Raises $300 Million to Help Startup Employees Cash Out
Cyberstarts, the Israeli venture capital firm best known for its early investment in the cybersecurity company Wiz, has raised $300 million to buy shares from employees of the firm's portfolio companies, co-founder Gili Raanan said. Raanan, a former partner at Sequoia Capital, said the goal is to reward long-tenured employees with reliable and recurring opportunities to cash out vested shares. It's part of a broader effort by Raanan to rethink the venture capital model as startups stay private longer and face new challenges.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alphabet's $32 billion Wiz deal promises windfall for VC backers
By Krystal Hu (Reuters) -The venture capital firms that invested in cybersecurity firm Wiz, which agreed to a $32 billion buyout by Google's parent Alphabet, stand to reap returns as high as 200 times for seed investors, among them Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts and Index Ventures. The $32 billion all-cash Wiz deal on Tuesday marked a major win for about 25 firms on Wiz's cap table, according to PitchBook, a rarity in the past few years as high interest rates and tight antitrust scrutiny reduced exit events. Among the investors, the biggest beneficiaries are those that put money into Wiz early and continued to invest over the years. Their success demonstrated the power law in venture capital when a small number of investments generate the majority of returns. Israel-based early-stage firm Cyberstarts co-led a $21 million seed round in Wiz in February 2020 that valued the company at around $67 million post-money. While it also invested in follow-on rounds, Cyberstarts' biggest win is $6.4 million invested in its first seed fund, worth about $1.3 billion when the deal goes through. That represents a return of more than 200 times within five years, according to a source familiar with the performance, a home run in an industry built on them. Insight Partners co-led the company's second funding round. Silicon Valley heavyweight Sequoia enjoyed similar success by investing early, with an initial $10 million in the seed round. After committing more in later rounds, it now owns about a 10% stake in Wiz and could reap $3 billion from the sale, sources said. Index Ventures, now the largest shareholder in Wiz, has about a 12% stake, which could translate to over $3.8 billion in cash when the transaction is completed, sources added. The firm's partners Gili Raanan, Doug Leone and Shardul Shah sit on Wiz's board. They got to know Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport, a former captain in the Israel Defense Forces, and his founding team in his first company, which was acquired by Microsoft. When the team founded Wiz in 2020, Cyberstarts, Index Ventures and Sequoia were quick to invest. For some investors, the success is both personal and professional. 'We have known each other for years, talk weekly and attend each other's birthday parties,' Cyberstarts founder Raanan said in an interview. Cyberstarts Opportunity Fund, which invested in Wiz in 2024, is turning its $40 million investment into $128 million. Thrive Capital, a firm known for its concentrated late-stage bets, is securing a quick win with a $1 billion stake after leading Wiz's most recent two funding rounds, one at a $12 billion valuation and one at $16 billion in an employee tender offer late last year, the source added.
