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Israeli VC and Cyber Startups See Capital Influx

Swish Ventures closes $250M Fund III, Upwind reaches $3.8B valuation, and Blackstone backs AI bot defense.

Signalpoint TeamBrief

Startup

Serial founders with proven exits are securing monster valuations — showing growth capital is concentrating heavily into top-tier Israeli cybersecurity leaders.

BackgroundUpwind was launched in 2022 by Spot.io founder Amiram Shachar, whose previous firm was acquired by NetApp for $450M in 2020. The startup develops real-time protection tools that monitor cloud software as it runs.

Points
  1. Bessemer Venture Partners led the financing alongside TCV, Salesforce Ventures, and Swish Ventures, underscoring strong syndicate alignment among top global growth funds.
  2. Upwind's platform uses AI to map cloud runtime environments and stop automated attacks before systems are breached, targeting an enterprise security market shifting toward real-time defense.
  3. The $300M influx contributed to a broader $1.16B capital surge into Israeli startups during early September, driving a sharp recovery in total tech deal volume.
SourcesCTech: Upwind raises $300 million, more than doubles valuation to $3.8 billion in five month (opens in new tab)

Startup

US institutional LPs are putting fresh capital into Israeli seed funds — proving international investors still view local cyber and defense founders as top-tier returns.

BackgroundSwish Ventures is a Tel Aviv venture firm founded by former Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi. The firm has built a high-performing portfolio since its founding, with eight startups reaching unicorn status including Cognition AI and Upwind.

Points
  1. The fund plans to write check sizes averaging $20M into approximately 12 Seed and Series A technology companies, focusing heavily on early-stage Israeli founders.
  2. Institutional backers include Sequoia Capital, US pension funds, university endowments, and Israeli financial firms, signaling sustained foreign confidence in Israeli innovation.
  3. Investment focus areas span government technology, defense platforms, and agentic artificial intelligence tools, aligning venture capital with urgent national security needs.
SourcesIsrael Defense: Omri Casspi Raises $250 Million for Swish Ventures' Third Fund (opens in new tab)The Times of Israel: Omri Casspi raises $250m for his venture capital firm (opens in new tab)

Startup

Wall Street's largest private equity giant is backing edge defense against AI scrapers — signaling that automated bot traffic has become a major enterprise risk.

BackgroundAutonomous AI agents are increasingly used by bad actors to scrape enterprise networks and exploit web application vulnerabilities at scale. Edge security startups build defensive shields directly at network entry points to block this traffic.

Points
  1. Huskeys was established in 2025 by IDF Unit 8200 veterans Itai Gafni and Roy Weisfeld, drawing on military intelligence experience in perimeter defense.
  2. The technology secures edge web infrastructure from malicious automated scripts disguised as legitimate enterprise traffic, neutralizing scraping before it impacts server performance.
  3. Participating backers included Zscaler Ventures, Okta Ventures, Merlin Ventures, and Skinos Ventures, forming a strategic coalition of major cloud security ecosystem players.
SourcesThe Times of Israel: US giant Blackstone invests in Israeli cyber startup tackling malicious AI web traffic (opens in new tab)CTech: Blackstone leads $27 million investment in Israeli cyber startup Huskeys (opens in new tab)

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