Gili Raanan

Founder & General Partner at cyberstarts

Reviewed Updated Mar 25, 2026

This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.

Cyberstarts founder and seed-stage cyberecurity GP ($1.4B+ AUM) investing $2M-$10M exclusively in cybersecurity. Validates ideas with Fortune 500 CISOs pre-launch; 92% Israeli portfolio (Unit 8200 alumni); achieved unicorn exit (Wiz to Google for $32B).

Location Mikhmoret, Israel
Check Size $2M-$10M
Last Verified Investment Oasis Security (Series B) — Mar 19, 2026
Social @giliraanan LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed
Sector Focus
cybersecurity

Background

Gili Raanan is the founder and general partner of Cyberstarts, an early-stage venture capital firm focused exclusively on cybersecurity 1. Born in Kfar Saba, Israel, Raanan served for ten years in Unit 8200, the Israeli Defense Forces’ intelligence agency, where he received the Israel Defense Presidential Prize in 1996 and the Israeli Intelligence Forces Innovation Award in 1992 2. He holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and an MBA from the Recanati School at Tel Aviv University 2.

An engineer by training, Raanan is widely recognized as a co-inventor of CAPTCHA, one of the world’s most widely used security algorithms, and holds 10 U.S. patents in security and application management 1. He founded Sanctum in 1997, creating AppShield (a web application firewall) and AppScan (a web application penetration testing tool), which was acquired by IBM 2. He later founded NLayers in 2003, which was acquired by EMC Corporation 2.

In 2009, Raanan joined Sequoia Capital as a General Partner, where he led the firm’s cybersecurity, internet, mobile, and technology investing in Israel for nearly nine years 1. At Sequoia, he led investments in Adallom (acquired by Microsoft in 2015 for $320 million) and Armis 3. In 2018, Raanan left Sequoia to found Cyberstarts 1.

Under Raanan’s leadership, Cyberstarts has raised over $1.4 billion in total capital commitments across seven funds as of September 2025, with over $700 million raised in 2025 alone 4. The portfolio includes 28 investments with a combined company valuation exceeding $55 billion 1. Raanan currently sits on 10 company boards 1.

Stated Thesis

Raanan publicly describes his investing approach as founder-first rather than thesis-driven. On the 20VC podcast, he stated that the best seed investors do not have theses, and that both market and product are secondary to the founder 5. He has said he enters investment discussions with an “unprepared mind,” deliberately avoiding preconceived frameworks to remain open to founders’ perspectives 5.

Cyberstarts uses a proprietary “Sunrise Process” for market validation, in which the firm consults with approximately 100 CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) from Fortune 500 companies to identify their most critical pain points before a company writes a single line of code 6. As Raanan described it: “I tell them – I have a very smart team here that is going to spend $100 million in the next three years to solve one cyber-related problem” 7.

Raanan has stated his focus on founder resilience over technical brilliance: “I’m not looking for the smartest, but rather I prefer to invest in an underdog, someone who has experienced something challenging in life” 7. On his personal website he has written: “My underdog mentality has encouraged me to hunt for adversity. I believe adversity – and the ability to overcome it – is the greatest signal of a successful founder” 1.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 24 verified portfolio companies at Cyberstarts (see Portfolio table below), the following patterns emerge. Note: Raanan also made several investments at Sequoia Capital (e.g., Adallom, Armis) but this analysis focuses on Cyberstarts-era investments for consistency.

Sector concentration: 24 of 24 Cyberstarts investments (100%) are in cybersecurity or closely adjacent security categories 8. This is uniquely narrow among major VC firms. Sub-sectors include: - Cloud security: 7 of 24 (29%) – Wiz, Bionic, Upwind, Dazz, Avalor, Legit, Surf AI - Identity & access management: 4 of 24 (17%) – Transmit Security, Trustdome, Linx, Oasis - Network/infrastructure security: 3 of 24 (13%) – Axis, Island, Trail - Data security: 2 of 24 (8%) – Cyera, Vega - API security: 1 of 24 (4%) – Noname - Digital asset security: 2 of 24 (8%) – Fireblocks, Blockaid - Other cybersecurity: 5 of 24 (21%) – Zafran, Savvy, Onyx, Gambit, Trustmi

Stage focus: Cyberstarts invests almost exclusively at the seed stage, typically as the first institutional check. Based on publicly available data, at least 20 of 24 investments (83%) were at the seed stage 8 9. The firm then follows on through its Opportunity Funds at later stages 4.

Geography: The vast majority of portfolio companies are Israeli-founded, typically with R&D in Israel and go-to-market operations in the United States. Based on available data, at least 22 of 24 companies (92%) have Israeli founding teams, predominantly drawn from Unit 8200 alumni 7 3.

Founder profile: Raanan heavily favors founders from Israeli military intelligence backgrounds, particularly Unit 8200. He has acknowledged: “90% to 95% of the teams I see are made up of 8200 graduates” 3. He targets young, first-time entrepreneurs – often recent graduates of military intelligence service without prior startup experience 7.

Check size: At the seed stage, Cyberstarts typically writes checks in the $2-10 million range. The Fireblocks seed was $4 million (2018) 10, Dazz seed was $10 million (2021) 11, and Blockaid seed was part of a $6 million round (2022) 12.

Co-investor patterns: Frequent co-investors across the Cyberstarts portfolio include Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Index Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greylock, and Accel 4 8.

Notable divergence from stated thesis: While Raanan claims to be thesis-free, the data shows an extremely rigid sector thesis – 100% cybersecurity – combined with a strong geographic and demographic thesis (Israeli, Unit 8200). The “no thesis” framing applies to specific product categories within cybersecurity, not to sector selection broadly.

Exit pattern: Cyberstarts has had an exceptional exit rate. Of 24 companies, at least 7 have been acquired (Axis/HPE, Bionic/CrowdStrike, Noname/Akamai, Dazz/Wiz, Avalor/Zscaler, Trustdome/Zscaler, Trail), and one (Wiz) was acquired by Google for $32 billion 4 13 14 15 16. No portfolio company has shut down as of the latest available data 7.

Portfolio

Company Stage Year Sector Source
Fireblocks Seed 2018 Digital asset security 10
Axis Security Seed 2018 Network security (SSE/SASE) 17
Transmit Security Seed ~2018 Identity & access management 8
Trustdome Seed ~2019 Cloud identity (CIEM) 18
Bionic Seed 2019 Application security (ASPM) 19
Armis Follow-on ~2019 Device security / cyber exposure 3
Wiz Seed 2020 Cloud security 9
Noname Security Seed 2020 API security 20
Island Seed 2020 Enterprise browser security 21
Legit Security Seed 2020 Software supply chain security 22
Dazz Seed 2021 Cloud security remediation 11
Cyera Seed 2021 AI-native data security 23
Savvy Seed 2021 SaaS application security 24
Trustmi Seed ~2021 Payment fraud prevention 8
Avalor Seed 2022 Security data fabric 25
Blockaid Seed 2022 Web3 / blockchain security 12
Upwind Seed 2022 Cloud security (runtime) 26
Oasis Security Seed 2024 Non-human identity management 27
Zafran Seed 2024 Exposure management 28
Linx Security Seed 2024 Identity security 29
Vega Seed 2024 Security analytics 30
Surf AI Seed 2024 Security operations (AI) 31
Gambit Security Seed 2025 AI-native enterprise resilience 32
~unknown Onyx Security Seed – Cybersecurity (stealth)
~unknown Trail Seed – Cybersecurity (acquired)

This table represents 24 of approximately 28 claimed investments. Investment years marked with “~” are approximate based on company founding dates. Entries marked “–” indicate year could not be independently verified.

In Their Own Words

“The sale of Wiz to Google is an amazing story. Its main importance, beyond the financial implications, is that it completely shatters the glass ceiling of what is possible.” – Gili Raanan, Calcalist interview, 2025 13.

“If someone had told me five years ago that Wiz would be worth $32 billion, it would have amused me.” – Gili Raanan, Calcalist interview, 2025 13.

“We are living in days of a perfect storm in cybersecurity… AI is not going to improve cybersecurity, it’s going to redefine it.” – Gili Raanan, Invest Like the Best podcast with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, March 2025 6.

“Cybersecurity is always a derivative of something else, of a new technology or a new business.” – Gili Raanan, Invest Like the Best podcast, March 2025 6.

“There is a revolution underway in which value is moving from the product to the model… The real value lies in data, domain expertise, and the ability to analyze it. If I were founding a cybersecurity company today, I would make it AI-native from day one, focusing on areas with lasting, deep value.” – Gili Raanan, Calcalist interview, 2025 13.

“First of all, I partner with people. And we know that, even if they come to the meeting with a well-defined pitch around a very specific product, two weeks later, it would be a different product… So there’s no point, at this phase, to focus from the get-go on the solution.” – Gili Raanan, Cisco Investments interview 33.

“I focus on their failures, and I focus on their feelings.” – Gili Raanan, Fortune, October 2024 9.

“Essentially we signed the terms on a napkin in a gas station.” – Gili Raanan, on the founding investment in Adallom with Assaf Rappaport, Calcalist, 2025 3.

What Founders Say

Merav Bahat, CEO of Dazz, on the relationship with Cyberstarts: “Of course, our investors, like Gili Raanan, are familiar with the details of the deal, but none of them ‘pushed’ for it to happen – the deal is good and will serve customers, investors, and the founders.” – Merav Bahat, Globes, November 2024 16.

Amiram Shachar, CEO of Upwind, on Raanan’s decisiveness: Raanan made a decision to invest in Upwind within 45 minutes of discussing the idea with Shachar over a weekend 34. Shachar’s previous startup Spot.io was acquired by NetApp for $450 million in 2020, and Cyberstarts invested from day zero in his next company 34.

Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO of Armis, on his investors: Dibrov has publicly praised working with “Gili Raanan (Armis chairman and the first investor in the company)” as someone he wanted to make the journey with 35.

Assaf Rappaport, CEO of Wiz, on Raanan’s founder-first approach: After Rappaport’s initial pitch at Sequoia, Raanan told him the presentation was “one of the worst” he had ever seen and the idea “wasn’t wonderful” – but added that he believed “the right team with the right guidance would find the right idea,” and invested anyway 3. Rappaport later became an LP in Cyberstarts’ funds 9.

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found beyond those above.

Sources

  1. Cyberstarts website, “Gili Raanan,” accessed March 2026. https://www.cyberstarts.com/team/gili-raanan↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Wikipedia, “Gili Raanan,” accessed March 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gili_Raanan↩↩↩↩

  3. Calcalist, “Napkin contract in gas station: Wiz’s journey from Israel’s military intelligence to $23B exit,” accessed March 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bjbmh00suc↩↩↩↩↩↩

  4. BusinessWire, “Cyberstarts Closes Second $380M Opportunity Fund to Back the Next Stage of Cybersecurity Breakouts,” September 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929834391/en/Cyberstarts-Closes-Second-380M-Opportunity-Fund-to-Back-the-Next-Stage-of-Cybersecurity-Breakouts↩↩↩↩

  5. The Twenty Minute VC, “Gili Raanan: One of the Best Seed Investors of All Time,” Episode 1128, accessed March 2026. https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/gili-raanan↩↩

  6. Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, “Gili Raanan - Cybersecurity Investment Playbook,” Episode 416, March 2025. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gili-raanan-cybersecurity-investment-playbook/id1154105909?i=1000700723074↩↩↩

  7. Calcalist, “The Gili Ra’anan model: Questions emerging from Cyberstarts’ remarkable success,” accessed March 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1a1jn00hc↩↩↩↩↩

  8. Cyberstarts website, “Portfolio,” accessed March 2026. https://www.cyberstarts.com/portfolio↩↩↩↩↩

  9. Fortune, “Exclusive: Gili Raanan’s Cyberstarts raises $60 million for fourth seed fund,” October 2024. https://fortune.com/2024/10/21/exclusive-gili-raanans-cyberstarts-raises-60-million-for-fourth-seed-fund/↩↩↩↩

  10. Tracxn, “Fireblocks - Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/fireblocks/__JBHWJgoBwJ9LqfEMEFNymNodNVn7_wc8ex_hMPRgsh4/funding-and-investors↩↩

  11. Calcalist, “Wiz acquires Dazz for $450 million to strengthen AI-driven cloud security,” accessed March 2026. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1xnec3gjl↩↩

  12. The Block, “Ex-Israeli military alums raise $33 million for web3 security startup Blockaid,” accessed March 2026. https://www.theblock.co/post/258907/blockaid-web3-security-funding-israel↩↩

  13. Calcalist, “Gili Raanan: ‘Wiz’s sale to Google shattered the glass ceiling, and it’s not a one-of,’” 2025. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rkgihcpd11g↩↩↩↩

  14. TechCrunch, “Akamai confirms acquisition of Noname for $450M,” May 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/07/akamai-confirms-acquisition-of-noname-for-450m/↩

  15. TechCrunch, “CrowdStrike confirms its Bionic.ai acquisition, sources say for $350M,” September 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/19/crowdstrike-bionic-ai-acquisition/↩

  16. Globes, “Wiz buys Israeli cybersecurity co Dazz for $450m,” November 2024. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-wiz-buys-israeli-cybersecurity-co-dazz-for-450m-1001494783↩↩

  17. HPE Newsroom, “Hewlett Packard Enterprise fortifies network security with acquisition of Security Service Edge provider Axis Security,” March 2023. https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2023/03/hewlett-packard-enterprise-fortifies-network-security-with-acquisition-of-security-service-edge-provider-axis-security.html↩

  18. Jewish Business News, “Trustdome Cloud Security Co Bought by Zscaler,” April 2021. https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/04/19/trustdome-cloud-security-co-bought-by-zscaler/↩

  19. SecurityWeek, “Application Intelligence Firm Bionic Emerges From Stealth With $17M in Funding,” December 2020. https://www.securityweek.com/application-intelligence-firm-bionic-emerges-stealth-17m-funding/↩

  20. Noname Security press release, “Noname Security launches from stealth with $25 million to help secure APIs,” December 2020. https://nonamesecurity.com/press/noname-security-launches-from-stealth-with-25-million-to-help-secure-apis/↩

  21. BusinessWire, “Island Introduces First Enterprise Browser to Radically Improve Enterprise Security and Redefine the Nature of Work,” February 2022. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220201005253/en/Island-Introduces-First-Enterprise-Browser-to-Radically-Improve-Enterprise-Security-and-Redefine-the-Nature-of-Work↩

  22. Legit Security blog, “Announcing Legit Security: The Story Behind Our Mission,” accessed March 2026. https://www.legitsecurity.com/blog/announcing-legit-security-the-story-behind-our-mission↩

  23. Contrary Research, “Cyera: Business Breakdown & Founding Story,” accessed March 2026. https://research.contrary.com/company/cyera↩

  24. TechCrunch, “Savvy, a platform to secure SaaS apps, launches out of stealth with $30M,” July 2023. https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/11/savvy-a-platform-to-secure-saas-apps-launches-out-of-stealth-with-30m/↩

  25. TechCrunch, “Zscaler buys Avalor to bring more AI into its security tools,” March 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/14/zscaler-buys-avalor-to-bring-more-ai-into-its-security-tools/↩

  26. TechCrunch, “Cloud security specialist Upwind confirms it raised $100M at a $900M valuation,” December 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/02/confirmed-cloud-security-specialist-upwind-raises-100m-on-a-900m-valuation/↩

  27. TechCrunch, “Oasis Security leaves stealth with $40M to lock down the wild west of non-human identity management,” January 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/31/oasis-security-leaves-stealth-with-40m-to-lock-down-the-wild-west-of-non-human-identity-management/↩

  28. Calcalist, “After fleeing Iran and an illustrious career in Israeli intelligence, Sanaz Yashar raises $30M for cyber startup,” March 2024. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjhhpaz↩

  29. TechCrunch, “Linx emerges from stealth with $33M to lock down the new security perimeter: Identity,” July 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/22/linx-emerges-from-stealth-with-33m-to-lock-down-the-new-security-perimeter-identity/↩

  30. SecurityWeek, “Security Analytics Firm Vega Emerges From Stealth With $65M in Funding,” accessed March 2026. https://www.securityweek.com/security-analytics-firm-vega-emerges-from-stealth-with-65m-in-funding/↩

  31. BusinessWire, “Surf AI Launches with $57 Million in Funding to Help Enterprises Operationalize Security,” March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260317476754/en/Surf-AI-Launches-with-57-Million-in-Funding-to-Help-Enterprises-Operationalize-Security↩

  32. BayelsaWatch, “Gambit Security Raises $61 Million to Build AI-Native Enterprise Resilience Platform,” accessed March 2026. https://bayelsawatch.com/gambit-security-secures-61m/↩

  33. Cisco Investments, “Cyberstarts: A Cyber VC Powered by Cybersecurity Founders,” accessed March 2026. https://www.ciscoinvestments.com/cyberstarts-vc↩

  34. Upwind blog, “Building the Next Wave of Cloud Security,” accessed March 2026. https://www.upwind.io/feed/building-next-wave-cloud-security-upwind↩↩

  35. Times of Israel, “In largest Israeli cybersecurity deal, Insight buys Armis at $1.1b valuation,” January 2020. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-largest-israeli-cybersecurity-deal-insight-buys-armis-at-1-1b-valuation/↩

Similar Investors

Part of

Lior Simon
Israel
Hila Zigman
Tel Aviv, Israel
Dor Knafo
Tel Aviv, Israel
Emily Heath
San Francisco, CA
Nir Zuk
Tel Aviv, Israel