Michael Shaulov

Background

Michael Shaulov is a serial cybersecurity entrepreneur and angel investor, best known as the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, a digital asset infrastructure company valued at $8 billion ⁷. Before his commercial career, Shaulov served in Israel’s elite military Unit 8200, where he pioneered mobile security work and received the Israeli Presidential Excellency Honor for his contributions ¹. He holds a BSc in Computer Sciences and Physics from Ben-Gurion University in Israel ¹.

In 2012, Shaulov co-founded Lacoon Mobile Security alongside Ohad Bobrov ². Lacoon developed mobile threat prevention technology and built a customer roster that included Samsung, Intel, and Dell ². Check Point Software Technologies acquired Lacoon in April 2015 for approximately $100 million ². Following the acquisition, Shaulov was appointed Head of Products for Mobile and Cloud Security at Check Point ¹.

While at Check Point, Shaulov was part of the task force that investigated the 2017 Lazarus Group hack, which resulted in $200 million in cryptocurrency losses ³. This experience inspired Shaulov and his co-founders to launch Fireblocks in 2018 ³. Fireblocks has since grown to process over $1.5 trillion in stablecoin transactions in 2024 alone and serves major financial institutions globally ⁴. In January 2026, Fireblocks acquired the crypto accounting platform TRES Finance for $130 million ⁵.

Alongside running Fireblocks, Shaulov has been an active angel investor since at least 2015, primarily backing Israeli cybersecurity and blockchain infrastructure startups ⁶. He has been a member of Cyberstarts VC since 2018 ⁶.

Stated Thesis

Shaulov has not publicly articulated a formal angel investing thesis separate from his role as Fireblocks CEO. However, his public statements suggest his investing focus is informed by two core convictions:

On the crypto and blockchain side, Shaulov has stated: “The future of finance is really around blockchain and digital assets” ³. He has expressed the view that blockchain will displace traditional financial intermediaries: “I think that in the future, we will no longer see financial intermediaries — not just SWIFT but also credit card companies in their current format will no longer be around” ⁷.

On cybersecurity, his investments through the Cyberstarts network reflect a focus on backing founders from Israel’s intelligence and cybersecurity ecosystem ⁶. Signal by NFX lists his investment range at Cyberstarts as $100K to $5M with a sweet spot of $1.5M ⁶.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 11 verified investments, Shaulov’s portfolio reveals two distinct clusters:

Sector breakdown (11 verified investments): - Cybersecurity/security infrastructure: 7 of 11 (64%) — Armis Security, Hexadite, Orca Security, Talon Cyber Security, Wing Security, Otterize, Trustmi - Blockchain/crypto infrastructure: 3 of 11 (27%) — Chaos Labs, Borderless.xyz, Upstream - AI/ML observability: 1 of 11 (9%) — Aporia

Stage distribution (11 verified investments): - Seed: 8 of 11 (73%) — Hexadite, Armis, Orca Security, Wing Security, Aporia, Talon Cyber Security, Otterize, Trustmi - Pre-Seed: 1 of 11 (9%) — Borderless.xyz - Series A: 2 of 11 (18%) — Chaos Labs, Upstream

Geographic concentration: All 11 verified portfolio companies are Israel-founded, though several operate primarily in the United States.

Founder profile patterns: Shaulov strongly favors founders from the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem, particularly those with intelligence unit backgrounds. Several portfolio companies (Armis, Talon, Otterize) were founded by alumni of the same networks — Armis co-founders Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael also appeared as co-investors in Aporia’s seed round ⁸. Talon was co-founded by Ohad Bobrov, Shaulov’s own co-founder at Lacoon Mobile Security ²⁹.

Exit patterns: 3 of 11 portfolio companies have been acquired, all at significant valuations: - Hexadite acquired by Microsoft for ~$100M (2017) ¹⁰ - Armis acquired by Insight Partners at $1.1B valuation (2020) ¹¹ - Talon Cyber Security acquired by Palo Alto Networks for ~$625M (2023) ⁹

Co-investor patterns: Cyberstarts (Gili Ra’anan) appears most frequently as a co-investor across Shaulov’s deals, consistent with his Cyberstarts membership ⁶. YL Ventures also appears in multiple deals (Hexadite, Orca Security).

Notable gap: Despite leading a crypto company, only 27% of his angel portfolio (3 of 11) is in crypto/blockchain — the majority is enterprise cybersecurity, suggesting his investing identity is rooted in his cybersecurity background more than his current company focus.

Portfolio

This table represents Shaulov’s publicly confirmed angel investments. Tracxn lists 9 portfolio companies; CryptoRank lists 3 blockchain-specific investments; Signal by NFX lists 6 ⁶¹⁵¹⁴. Cross-referencing these sources yields 11 verified investments.

In Their Own Words

“A really funny story I have is that when we actually started, people were telling me that the idea is dumb and stupid.” — Michael Shaulov, CryptoPotato interview, 2022 ¹⁹

“We didn’t want to do IT security again, chasing and schmoozing CISOs. It’s true that technology and cyber are in our DNA but I view Fireblocks as a fintech company.” — Michael Shaulov, Calcalist interview, 2022 ⁷

“When we started Fireblocks, we viewed ourselves as a cybersecurity company, but I think we have evolved into being a fintech infrastructure provider with a team and founders and technology that focuses on cybersecurity.” — Michael Shaulov, Finance Magnates interview ³

“Although I had spent a lot of years in the cybersecurity space, you rarely see a situation in which someone loses $200 million overnight.” — Michael Shaulov, on the Lazarus Group hack that inspired Fireblocks, Finance Magnates interview ³

“I think investors have begun to grasp that at least for now, Fireblocks is the dominant and triumphant player, or in investor lingo — ‘the one’.” — Michael Shaulov, Calcalist interview, 2022 ⁷

“You have a slew of [crypto] companies that either are looking to go public or they need to operate in a way that is within the fintech or traditional financial standards.” — Michael Shaulov, on the TRES Finance acquisition, Fortune, January 2026 ⁵

“Stablecoins are reshaping how value moves across the digital economy.” — Michael Shaulov, Fireblocks announcement on Minna Bank partnership, 2025 ⁴

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found regarding Shaulov’s role as an angel investor. While LinkedIn endorsements describe him as “a stellar entrepreneur and technological architect” and “one of the most talented developers I have worked with” ²⁰, these relate to his work as a colleague and entrepreneur rather than his angel investing activity.

Sources