Gil Ben-Artzy

Background

Gil Ben-Artzy is a Founding Partner of UpWest, a Silicon Valley-based seed fund focused on Israeli founders entering the U.S. market ¹². He co-founded UpWest in 2012 with Shuly Galili ³⁴.

Ben-Artzy was born and raised in Kfar Saba, Israel ⁵. He earned a BA in Economics and Business Administration from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then relocated to the United States in 2000 to pursue an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with honors ⁶⁷.

After Wharton, Ben-Artzy joined The Boston Consulting Group in New York, where he advised Fortune 500 companies ⁶⁷. In 2005, he moved to Silicon Valley to join Yahoo!’s Corporate Development group, where he worked on strategy and acquisitions and managed relationships with the Israeli tech ecosystem ⁶⁷. During his time at Yahoo!, he led the acquisition of FoxyTunes, Yahoo!’s first Israel-based startup acquisition, and helped establish the company’s first R&D center in Haifa ⁶⁷. He later served as VP of Operations Management at Yahoo! for two years, driving business for the tech infrastructure organization ⁷. He left Yahoo! in the summer of 2011 to launch UpWest Labs ⁶⁸.

UpWest began in 2012 as an accelerator program — the only one in the U.S. specifically serving Israeli startups — offering a 3-month program in Palo Alto with seed investments of $25,000 to $300,000, mentorship from executives at companies like PayPal, Facebook, and Dropbox, and group housing in Palo Alto ⁹¹⁰. The firm has since evolved into a dedicated pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund.

UpWest has raised four funds: Fund I (~$2M, bootstrapped from friends and colleagues), Fund II, Fund III ($18.5M, closed 2018), and Fund IV ($70M, closed 2021) ³⁴¹¹¹². As of 2026, the firm has invested in more than 100 Israeli startups ¹⁴, with a collective portfolio market cap exceeding $20 billion and over $3 billion in follow-on funding raised by portfolio companies ¹. In January 2026, Ben-Artzy stated: “This is the most active investment period we’ve had in recent years” ¹⁴.

Stated Thesis

UpWest publicly describes its mission as funding, fast-tracking, and frontlining Israeli founders into the U.S. market ¹. The firm positions itself as a first-check investor, aspiring to be the earliest institutional backer as Israeli companies begin their U.S. expansion ³.

Ben-Artzy has stated: “Raising this fund is a testament to the strategy we’ve had since day one — to help entrepreneurs break into the U.S. market” ¹². He has also said: “With this new fund, our intention is not only to bring new startups to market and fund them at the critical phase of pre-product/market fit, but also to be there in their next stages of growth” ⁴.

Ben-Artzy has emphasized that “Being in market increases your likelihood to build amazing businesses, amazing companies” ⁵.

The firm’s stated approach emphasizes helping founders validate technology with U.S. customers and scale operations stateside while maintaining engineering in Israel, creating distributed teams from inception ³.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 39 active portfolio companies with verified first-check years from the UpWest portfolio page, plus 22 verified exits, the following patterns emerge. UpWest has invested in 100+ companies total, so these 61 verified investments represent approximately 61% of the known portfolio.

Sector Allocation (computed from 61 verified portfolio entries)

• Cybersecurity / Security: 12 companies (20%) — SentinelOne, CyberX, CyCognito, Zenity, Rotate, Raven, Levl, SecuredTouch, Javelin Networks, SlickLogin, Flowmill, Stealth Cybersecurity
• Enterprise SaaS / B2B Software: 11 companies (18%) — HoneyBook, Stampli, Deeto, Salespeak, ONDiGO, Comeet, Senexx, Simpo, Tillion.ai, TrialKit, Jolt
• AI / Machine Learning: 6 companies (10%) — Anyword, Imubit, Darwin, Ecton, Elio, BOLTX
• Healthcare / Biotech: 5 companies (8%) — Canopy, Latica, Lynx.md, Genoox, SwiftShift
• DevOps / Developer Tools: 4 companies (7%) — CodeFresh, Loadmill, PerfectScale, Aspecto
• Agritech / Climate: 3 companies (5%) — BeeHero, InnerPlant, Zone7
• Fintech / Payments: 2 companies (3%) — Balance, Livble
• Consumer / Marketplace: 4 companies (7%) — Donde, Drippler, VeedMe, Peer5
• IoT / Hardware / Autonomous: 4 companies (7%) — Airobotics, uMake, Exo Technologies, Navmatic
• Analytics / Data: 3 companies (5%) — Waycare, vBrand, Neura
• Other (Messaging, Community, Gifting): 7 companies (11%) — Mobilize, Gifted, jaco, Torch, Unity SCM, invi Messages, Qlika

Note: Some companies span multiple categories; each is counted once in its primary category.

Stage Distribution

Virtually all investments are at pre-seed or seed stage. The firm’s check sizes have scaled with fund size: Fund I deployed ~$25K-$300K per company; Fund III averaged $250K-$400K at pre-seed targeting ~8% equity ³; Fund IV deployed up to $4M per company ¹¹. The firm evaluates approximately 1,000 startups annually and invests in 6-8 companies per year ³.

Geographic Concentration

100% of portfolio companies are founded by Israeli entrepreneurs. The firm sources 90% of deals from Israel and 10% from the U.S. ³. Portfolio companies typically maintain R&D in Israel while establishing headquarters and go-to-market operations in the United States.

Founder Profile Patterns

The portfolio strongly favors Israeli technical founders building enterprise-grade technology. Cybersecurity and enterprise SaaS dominate, reflecting Israel’s deep bench of cybersecurity talent (many founders have intelligence/military backgrounds). The firm explicitly seeks founders at the “critical phase of pre-product/market fit” who need help with U.S. market entry ⁴.

Co-investor Patterns

As a first-check investor, UpWest frequently precedes larger institutional rounds. Notable follow-on investors in the portfolio include Tiger Global (HoneyBook), Insight Partners (SentinelOne), and SignalFire (Stampli) ³¹¹. UpWest introduced SentinelOne founder Tomer Weingarten to early investors including Dan Scheinman, who also seed-invested in Zoom and remains on SentinelOne’s board ¹⁷.

Notable Gaps

Despite claiming broad sector coverage, the portfolio skews heavily toward cybersecurity (20%) and enterprise B2B (18%), with relatively limited consumer, marketplace, or fintech exposure. The “agritech” and “climate” positioning is supported by only 3 companies out of 61 verified. The firm’s stated breadth across “cybersecurity, AI, fintech, digital health, biotech, and govtech” somewhat overstates the actual fintech and biotech allocation.

Portfolio

Verified Exits (22):

Note: Exit-year estimates for early companies use the best available data. UpWest has invested in 100+ companies ¹⁴; this table represents approximately 61 verified investments (~61% of the total). Of 85 investments tracked as of 2021, UpWest reported 25 exits and 22 company closures ¹¹.

In Their Own Words

On UpWest’s founding mission:

“Being in market increases your likelihood to build amazing businesses, amazing companies.” ⁵

On the joy of the work:

“I get great joy from working with various domains and various founders, and being there for them.” ⁵

On long-term commitment:

“We want to be there for the long term… being there for the founders in those early years and supporting them throughout.” ⁵

On Fund IV:

“Raising this fund is a testament to the strategy we’ve had since day one — to help entrepreneurs break into the U.S. market.” ¹²

On Fund III and supporting growth:

“With this new fund, our intention is not only to bring new startups to market and fund them at the critical phase of pre-product/market fit, but also to be there in their next stages of growth.” ⁴

On the current investment pace (2026):

“This is the most active investment period we’ve had in recent years. Over the past two years, we’ve expanded our team in Israel and led pre-Seed and Seed investments across [multiple sectors].” ¹⁴

On building startup momentum (from his blog):

“Momentum is really more about the process of getting there.” ⁸

On due diligence advice for founders:

“Just do your homework. Spend time with the investors, do your due diligence on companies they invested in.” ⁵

What Founders Say

Oz Alon, Co-Founder and CEO of HoneyBook:

“The first guy that gave us the $25,000 was Gil Ben Artzi.” Alon described how this initial investment from Ben-Artzy convinced the HoneyBook co-founders to relocate from Israel to Palo Alto: “He said, ‘I’m going to seed you. Once you start the company, I’m going to seed it.’ It was $25,000 if we made the move to Palo Alto. It seemed like a no-brainer.” ¹⁵

Oz Alon, Co-Founder and CEO of HoneyBook (via UpWest website):

“The UpWest team is exceptional at helping you immerse yourself in the US market so you can meet your real customers and ultimately get a foothold where it matters the most.” ¹⁸

Tomer Weingarten, Co-Founder and CEO of SentinelOne (via UpWest website):

“UpWest helped us create momentum — the entrepreneur’s ultimate weapon.” ¹⁸

Eyal Feldman, CEO and Co-Founder of Stampli (via UpWest website):

“Operating early in Silicon Valley alongside the UpWest team opened a whole new world of possibilities for Stampli.” ¹⁸

Note: The Oz Alon, Tomer Weingarten, and Eyal Feldman quotes sourced from the UpWest website are firm-curated testimonials. The Oz Alon quote from the Alejandro Cremades interview is independently sourced.

Sources