Software dealmaking is so hot in Israel right now that an Israeli VC fund notched its first exit before it had even wrapped up fundraising. Team8, which just raised $365 million to back seed and Series A companies, co-led a $48 million fundraise for Tel Aviv-based Koi late last year out of a new $265 million fund for seed and Series A startups. In April Koi, whose software aims to prevent risks from AI agents, sold to Palo Alto Networks for about $400 million. Exits like Koi helped the firm’s managing partners, who include Sarit Firon and Liran Grinberg, raise the firm’s latest fund alongside a new $100 million vehicle for follow-on investments.
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Team8, which just raised $365 million to back seed and Series A companies, co-led a $48 million fundraise for Tel Aviv-based Koi late last year out of a new $265 million fund for seed and Series A startups. In April Koi, whose software aims to prevent risks from AI agents, sold to Palo Alto Networks for about $400 million.
Exits like Koi helped the firm’s managing partners, who include Sarit Firon and Liran Grinberg, raise the firm’s latest fund alongside a new $100 million vehicle for follow-on investments.
The 12-year-old firm’s limited partners—pension funds, funds of funds and family offices across the U.S. and Europe—are increasingly looking for “the best bets to make in the Israeli market” given the brisk pace of dealmaking overseas, Firon said in an interview.
The $265 million fund primarily focuses on cybersecurity, software infrastructure, fintech and digital health startups started by Israeli founders. The fund aims to lead and co-lead rounds with $5 million to $15 million checks, the pair said. Team8 manages almost $2 billion in assets across eight funds, investing in early-stage companies as well as helping incubate new ones.
From left, Team8's Ori Barzilay, Sarit Firon, Liran Grinberg, and Hadar Siterman Norris. Photo by Omer Cohen.
It’s one of several new funds targeting Israeli entrepreneurs after landmark acquisitions of Israeli-founded startups, including Google’s $32 billion buyout of Wiz and ServiceNow’s $7.75 billion takeover of Armis. These include hardware focused Deep33 Ventures and new early stage firm SkyBeam Venture Partners. Meanwhile, Wiz-backer Cyberstarts is planning to raise a new seed fund after raising a $380 million fund for mature startups last year, we reported in June.
“Predicting or building technologies is not necessarily the hardest thing today,” Grinberg said. “But understanding the enterprise context and the demand and the challenges that enterprises face is the thing that founders are in need of the most.”
Grinberg co-founded the firm after serving in the cyber and data division of Unit 8200, the intelligence agency of the Israeli Defense Forces, and previously worked at fintech startup eToro.
Firon previously worked at Israeli VC firm Cerca Partners, after working at P-Cube, a provider of Internet protocol platforms that was acquired by Cisco in 2004, and serving as the chief financial officer at MediaMind, which was acquired by Digital Generation in 2011.
Here’s what else is going on…
Anton Levy’s Layer Global Raises $1.1 Billion
Anton Levy, the former co-president and chair of the global technology group at General Atlantic, has raised more than $1.1 billion for his inaugural fund, a sign that he has been able to compete with some of the biggest names in venture and growth equity during a challenging environment for first-time fund managers.
The fundraise was Layer Global’s first close, indicating the size of the fund will likely increase with subsequent closes, according to an August investor letter obtained by The Information. Layer Global has completed three investments, two of which—Cognition AI and Base Power—have been disclosed. A third will be announced in the coming weeks, according to a person with knowledge of the fund’s activity.
At Layer Global, Levy is seeking investments in companies generating at least $50 million to $100 million in annual revenue with growth rates of 100% or more, according to the person. Those targets represent companies in early growth stages than those backed by Levy at General Atlantic, where he invested in Facebook, Slack, Snap, Uber, and ByteDanceat points when they were already large enough to go public.
“We believe this is a uniquely compelling moment to pursue that mission, as AI reshapes the technology landscape faster than prior platform shifts and enables exceptional companies to reach scale earlier than ever before,” Levy wrote in the letter. “With our first close complete, we are now beginning to put that mission into practice.”
The average growth rate for revenue across the portfolio during the quarter Layer Global invested was about 1,000% year over year, according to the letter.
Levy has been competing for limited partner money from some of the industry’s best known investors. Just this year, Andreessen Horowitz raised more than $15 billion across several funds, while Thrive Capital raised $10 billion and Founders Fund raised $6 billion.
With those recent fundraisings, the three firms raised more than 40% of what the entire venture industry raised in the first half of this year, PitchBook data shows. But the number of funds raised by new managers for the first half was on pace for its lowest level since 2016.
At his new firm, Levy has tapped a growing network of operational partners who can also help companies in various subject matters.
The firm has signed Julius Genachowski, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama, as an advisor, according to the letter.
Layer Global also signed up a trio of current chief technology officers as advisors: Matt Thomlinson of Electronic Arts, Matt McDole of State Farm, and Shawn Malhotra of Rocket Companies, the letter said.
Layer Global said it had hired two more people, including Lauren Rakower as general counsel and chief compliance officer, and Dylan Roston, a senior associate who joined from Apax, a middle market private-equity firm. The firm now employs 15 people plus Levy, according to the person with knowledge of the fund.
Layer Global’s fundraising push, according to the person familiar with the fund, will continue through at least the end of the year.
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