Israeli venture capital firm Cyberstarts raises $60M in seed funding

Cyberstarts, an Israeli venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity, announced Wednesday it raised $60 million in seed funding to further invest in early-stage cybersecurity companies, raising its total assets to $374 million. 

Cyberstarts has funded 24 Israeli cybersecurity startups since it was founded by Gili Raanan in 2018. Raanan is also a partner at Sequoia Capital, which backs the firm. 

Its portfolio of companies has raised a total of $2 billion and have a combined valuation of $20 billion, as of 2021. Israel is known for security software innovation within its military, contributing to the $8.84 billion raised by Israeli cyber startups in 2021, triple that of the previous year. 

According to The Information, Raanan has often supported companies founded by veterans from an elite Israeli hacking unit. 

This round of funding follows a previous round in February, which raised $200 million. 

Cyberstarts’ 2021 investments included cryptocurrency platform Fireblocks, cloud security startup Wiz, and API security company Noname Security. 

Cyberstarts’ funding comes at a time in which investors are closely tracking the cybersecurity market and anticipating a drop from last year’s record-breaking high — aligning with an overall downturn in venture-funded startups in other sectors. According to Crunchbase, nearly $6 billion was invested into cyber startups by venture firms in the first quarter of this year, a notable increase year over year, but a fall from the $8.2 billion raised in the fourth quarter of last year.