Shlomo Kramer

Background

Shlomo Kramer, born in 1966, is an Israeli technology entrepreneur and angel investor widely recognized as “the godfather of Israeli cybersecurity” ¹². He served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Unit 8200, the military’s elite cybersecurity and intelligence unit ³. He holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science from Tel Aviv University and a Master of Science in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ³.

Kramer has co-founded three cybersecurity companies that each achieved multi-billion-dollar valuations:

Check Point Software Technologies (1993): Co-founded with Gil Shwed and Marius Nacht, Check Point introduced the first commercial firewall and went public in 1996. The company maintains approximately a $19 billion market capitalization ¹²⁴.

Imperva (2002, originally WebCohort, renamed 2004): Co-founded with Mickey Boodaei and Amichai Shulman, Imperva pioneered web application firewalls (WAF). The IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2011 raised $90 million, with shares gaining 33% on the first day of trading ³⁵. Kramer served as CEO until 2014 and sold his entire stake for approximately $90 million in early 2018 ⁵. Imperva was later acquired by Thoma Bravo ².

Cato Networks (2015): Co-founded with Gur Shatz, where Kramer currently serves as CEO. Cato created the SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) category. In June 2025, Cato raised $359 million in Series G funding at a valuation exceeding $4.8 billion, bringing total funding past $1 billion ⁶. By year-end 2025, Cato surpassed $350 million in annual recurring revenue, growing 43% year-over-year ⁷.

Beyond founding companies, Kramer has been a prolific angel investor, with approximately 67 investments primarily in cybersecurity and enterprise software ⁸. As of January 2024, Forbes listed Kramer’s net worth at $2.2 billion, ranking him 17th among the wealthiest people in Israel ³. He was inducted into the InfoSec Hall of Fame in 2013 and named one of “20 luminaries who changed the network industry” by Network World in 2006 ³.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Kramer says publicly about his investing approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Kramer publicly describes himself as a domain-focused angel investor concentrated in cybersecurity: “I’m just an angel investor focused primarily on areas that I’m familiar with, which are essentially cyber” and “I really focus on areas where I have a lot of domain knowledge. My portfolio target is very concentrated around security” ⁹¹⁰.

He has articulated three criteria he looks for when investing in a startup ⁸:

1. Products need a “hook” that is “quick to understand” — he has said: “It feels right” ⁸.
2. Products should have “potential to evolve into a platform, or at least a ‘mini platform’” expandable over time ⁸.
3. Teams must have a “clear vision for the use cases” enabling monetization ⁸.

On market disruption: “I really like companies that go after an existing market and sense a disruption, because then the use cases are very clear” ¹⁰.

On founding teams: “Great entrepreneurs is the number one requirement because a lot of the companies that I was involved with ended up doing not what they started doing.” The key traits are “the ability of the entrepreneurs to be intellectually honest, one, and second being smart enough to be able to navigate the market” ¹⁰.

On competition: “If you have a good idea, you should expect that there are 10 other startups that are going to do the same thing. And it’s not only about the idea, it’s really about how you execute around that idea” ².

On the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem: “I’m super optimistic about the Israel cybersecurity ecosystem” ².

Inferred Thesis

The analysis below is based on 23 verified investments by Shlomo Kramer. PitchBook attributes approximately 67 total investments to him ⁸, so this represents roughly 34% of his known portfolio.

Sector concentration (based on 23 verified investments): - Cybersecurity / network security: 15 of 23 (65%) — Palo Alto Networks, Trusteer, Exabeam, SafeBreach, LightCyber, Lacoon Mobile Security, Indegy, Cynet, Aqua Security, WatchDox, At-Bay, Secure Islands, SkyFence, Token Security, Clover Security - Enterprise software / SaaS: 4 of 23 (17%) — Gong.io, Sumo Logic, Worklight, Business Layers - Fintech: 1 of 23 (4%) — Fundbox - Data / storage: 2 of 23 (9%) — Excelero Storage, Equalum - Mobile / other: 1 of 23 (4%) — Insert Mobile

Key patterns:

• Cybersecurity dominance: Nearly two-thirds of Kramer’s verified investments (65%) are in cybersecurity, consistent with his stated focus. He brings deep domain expertise and network effects that few other angel investors can match.

• Extraordinary angel returns: Kramer wrote the first angel check in Palo Alto Networks in ~2005 and sat on its board for six years; the company is now valued at over $100 billion ¹². His investment in Trusteer resulted in a ~$1 billion acquisition by IBM in 2013 ²¹⁰. His ~4% stake in Sumo Logic was worth approximately $100 million at IPO ¹¹. Six unicorns in portfolio including Gong and Fundbox ¹².

• Active board participation: Kramer has served as board member at Palo Alto Networks, Gong, At-Bay, Aqua Security, Fundbox, Indegy, Exabeam, and LightCyber, and was chairman of WatchDox ^3101314. This indicates deep engagement beyond capital deployment — unusual depth for an angel investor.

• Israeli ecosystem focus: All 23 verified investments are in Israeli-founded companies, leveraging his unparalleled Unit 8200 and Israeli cybersecurity network ²³.

• Seed and Series A concentration: Kramer typically invests at the earliest stages, often writing the first institutional check. Investment range of $100K to $5M with a sweet spot around $1.5M ¹². His co-investment in Gong’s seed round ($6M alongside Norwest) represents the upper end ¹⁵.

• Pattern: security category creation: Kramer’s personal companies and investments share a common thread of creating new security categories — firewalls (Check Point), WAF (Imperva), SASE (Cato), next-gen firewall (Palo Alto Networks), container security (Aqua Security), breach simulation (SafeBreach), cyber insurance (At-Bay), identity security (Token Security), AI product security (Clover Security).

• Non-security bets are enterprise-adjacent: Even when investing outside cybersecurity, Kramer focuses on enterprise software (Gong, Sumo Logic) and fintech (Fundbox) rather than consumer companies. He has acknowledged his Gong investment was somewhat outside his core domain, driven by seeing the product’s value personally: “I immediately saw the value for me, so I invested with MVP, and we doubled down, and the rest is history there” ⁹.

• Still actively investing (2024-2025): Despite running Cato Networks as CEO, Kramer continues to make angel investments — Token Security seed in 2024 ¹⁶ and Clover Security Series A in 2025 ¹⁷.

• Co-investor patterns: Frequently co-invests with Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Battery Ventures. He is a member of Cyberstarts, a cybersecurity-focused seed fund built by founders including Marius Nacht, Nir Zuk, and Mickey Boodaei ¹⁸.

Portfolio

This table represents 23 of approximately 67 total investments attributed to Kramer by PitchBook ⁸, or roughly 34% of his known portfolio. Ten portfolio exits have been documented including Sumo Logic, Exabeam, Equalum, and Excelero ¹².

In Their Own Words

“I’m just an angel investor focused primarily on areas that I’m familiar with, which are essentially cyber.” — Shlomo Kramer, Inside the Network podcast ⁹

“I really like companies that go after an existing market and sense a disruption, because then the use cases are very clear.” — Shlomo Kramer, Network World, 2016 ¹⁰

“Great entrepreneurs is the number one requirement because a lot of the companies that I was involved with ended up doing not what they started doing.” — Shlomo Kramer, Network World, 2016 ¹⁰

“The entrepreneur anger is by far the most important anger when you look at an investment, especially in cyber, where you have 10 different startups.” — Shlomo Kramer, Inside the Network podcast ⁹

“I immediately saw the value for me, so I invested with MVP, and we doubled down, and the rest is history there.” — Shlomo Kramer, on investing in Gong, Inside the Network podcast ⁹

“You need to learn as much as possible…but in the end, the decision needs to be a gut level decision…gut feeling is important, and you need to listen to it.” — Shlomo Kramer, Inside the Network podcast ⁹

“If you’re lucky to have been successful, you have to make sure you are not frozen in that persona.” — Shlomo Kramer, Greylock Greymatter podcast ¹

“Startups are a very human experience. They’re all about taking calculated risks.” — Shlomo Kramer, Greylock Greymatter podcast ¹

“IT security became so convoluted, so expensive, and so rigid. By 2015, we had to simplify it again.” — Shlomo Kramer, on founding Cato Networks, Greylock Greymatter podcast ¹

“We want to be remembered as the AWS of IT security.” — Shlomo Kramer, on Cato Networks, Greylock Greymatter podcast ¹

“What we call ‘tech’ today isn’t one sector. It’s a collection of deeply specialized domains, each with its own economics.” — Shlomo Kramer, Fortune, March 2026 ²¹

“The reaction only makes sense if you assume that ‘AI’ and ‘cybersecurity’ are interchangeable labels.” — Shlomo Kramer, on Wall Street’s mispricing of cybersecurity stocks, Fortune, March 2026 ²¹

Kramer has compared the current AI environment to the dot-com era, noting there is “a lot of devastation” but maintaining that AI’s long-term impact will be significant: “the same is going to be with AI” as it was with e-commerce ⁸.

Kramer compares entrepreneurs to professional basketball players: “they don’t just want to win, but also really love to play.” He emphasizes that successful startups require founding teams with “very high stamina, intellectual integrity, and a combination of the ego necessary to found a startup and the humility required to be able to work with other people as a team” ⁵.

What Founders Say

Nir Zuk, founder of Palo Alto Networks and former Check Point colleague, has said of Kramer: “He was one of the first investors in Palo Alto, and was on its board. He does very good things in the cyber domain” ²².

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found. Kramer’s deep board involvement across multiple portfolio companies (Gong, At-Bay, Aqua Security, Fundbox, Indegy, Palo Alto Networks) suggests operational engagement, but portfolio founders have not been extensively quoted about his specific contributions in publicly available sources.

Note: Jerry Chen, Partner at Greylock (co-investor in Cato Networks, not a portfolio founder), has stated: “Shlomo has built a painkiller for IT security teams, and their growth speaks to how crucial their product has become” ¹.

Connections

• Co-founder, Check Point Software (1993-1998) — alongside Gil Shwed (CEO) and Marius Nacht ²⁴
• Co-founder and CEO, Imperva (2002-2014) — alongside Mickey Boodaei and Amichai Shulman ²⁵
• Co-founder and CEO, Cato Networks (2015-present) — alongside Gur Shatz ⁶
• Board member, Palo Alto Networks — served six years alongside co-founder Nir Zuk (CTO) ¹²
• Board member and founding investor, Gong — alongside Norwest Venture Partners ¹⁵
• Board member and founding investor, At-Bay — alongside Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners ¹⁹
• Board member and founding investor, Aqua Security ³
• Board member and founding investor, Fundbox — alongside Khosla Ventures, Bezos Expeditions ¹⁴
• Board member and founding investor, Indegy ³
• Board member, LightCyber — prior to Palo Alto Networks acquisition ¹⁰
• Chairman, WatchDox — prior to BlackBerry acquisition ¹³
• Member, Cyberstarts — cybersecurity seed fund alongside Marius Nacht (Check Point), Nir Zuk (Palo Alto Networks), Mickey Boodaei (Trusteer), Amichai Shulman (Imperva) ¹⁸
• Advisory board, Rescana — joined March 2023 ²³
• IDF Unit 8200 alumnus — extensive network of cybersecurity founders from this unit ³
• Frequent co-investor with Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Battery Ventures ¹⁴¹⁹

Sources