YL Ventures Closes $400 Million Cybersecurity Investment Fund
Israeli venture capital outfit plans to invest in seed-stage rounds of approximately 10 cybersecurity startups at a pace of 3 startups per year
YL Ventures, an active venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage cybersecurity startups, has closed a new $400 million fund and announced plans to ramp up investments in Israel’s security technology sector.
The Tel Aviv-based firm, which counts red-hot companies like Axonius and Orca Security among its portfolio, said the closing of its fifth fund brings the total capital under management to $800 million.
The firm said the plan is to use the new capital to support Israeli security startup founders “from inception through every critical stage” of building and positioning a company to solve pressing security problems.
YL Ventures said the fund will be used to lead seed-stage rounds of approximately 10 startups at a pace of 3 startups per year. The company will also invest in the companies’ follow-on rounds.
Startups with roots in Israel have found traction in the global cybersecurity market and YL Ventures has established itself as a major player in the ecosystem.
“For the past 15 years, our primary priority has been providing our portfolio companies with everything they need from the very beginning in order to break into the global market,” YL Ventures managing director Yoav Leitersdorf said in a note announcing the fund.
“We plant the first seed in these budding startups and then continue to support them as they blossom [and] succeed,” he added.
In addition to its unicorn-valuation investments in Axonius and Orca Security, YL Ventures has scored exits via acquisitions by major corporations including Palo Alto Networks (Twistlock), Microsoft (Hexadite), CA (BlazeMeter) and Proofpoint (FireLayers).
Related: ForgePoint Capital Announces $450 Million Cybersecurity Investment Fund
Related: Axonius Valuation Hits $2.6 Billion Mark
Related: Israeli Startup Orca Security Raises $210 Million at $1.2 Billion Valuation
Related: This Group of CISOs Is Pumping Their Money and Advice Into Security Startups
Ryan Naraine is Editor-at-Large at SecurityWeek and host of the popular Security Conversations podcast series. He is a journalist and cybersecurity strategist with more than 20 years experience covering IT security and technology trends.
Ryan has built security engagement programs at major global brands, including Intel Corp., Bishop Fox and Kaspersky GReAT. He is a co-founder of Threatpost and the global SAS conference series. Ryan's career as a journalist includes bylines at major technology publications including Ziff Davis eWEEK, CBS Interactive's ZDNet, PCMag and PC World.
Ryan is a director of the Security Tinkerers non-profit, and a regular speaker at security conferences around the world.
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