Glilot Capital sees handsome returns on startup investments

Israeli venture capital fund Glilot Capital Partners was founded by Arik Kleinstein and Kobi Samboursky to invest in cybersecurity and software companies. Glilot is not so well known or talked about in the industry like Gili Raanan’s Cyberstarts, which invested in Wiz, which was sold to Google earlier this year for $32 billion as well as Cyera and Talon, and Team8, which was founded by senior figures like Nadav Zafrir and Liran Greenberg.

Despite this, the fund’s results seen by “Globes,” show that Glilot, which has raised $437 million to date, and was the first cybersecurity fund that raised money in Israel, has beaten the market and managed to produce returns for investors, even without being associated with the largest Israeli cybersecurity funds. The data, which are not publicly available, has been presented to investors for the first time, and is correct as of June 2025.

As of the first half of the year, the first fund, raised $30 million in 2011 has brought returns for investors of four times (4.02) the investment; the second fund, raised $77 million in 2015, has brought returns for investors of 1.53 times the investment, with the return on paper – including companies that have not had an exit – standing at a multiple of 2.21. The third fund, raised $110 million in 2019, returned 1.12 times on the investment in cash, or 1.68 times on paper. The fourth fund, which is considered a young fund, and whose potential has not yet been realized, returned only 14 cents on every dollar – out of the $220 million it raised, but the return on paper is a multiple of 1.67.

Raising capital from Israeli institutions

Venture capital funds jealously guard their performance data, which is generally not disclosed to the public, except in the rare cases of funds listed on the stock exchange, such as the Big Tech 50, or some of Dovi Frances’ Group 11 funds.

The reason for this stems from the public’s limited exposure to direct investments in venture capital funds – an approach generally reserved for large institutional entities, university investment funds, US union pension funds, or serial entrepreneurs with multimillion-dollar exits.

However, Israeli venture capital funds also tend to raise capital from Israeli institutions. According to the PitchBook fund database, investors in Glilot are Israeli institutional entities, the main ones being Phoenix and Menora Mivtachim, and past investors also include Bank Hapoalim, Clal, Harel, and Meitav.

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To wait years for an exit

Unlike private equity and hedge funds, venture capital funds are distinct by investing millions of dollars in startups that often have no product or revenue. These are often companies with initial revenue that are far from profitable and so are judged only after six or seven years of operation, when they “mature”, and begin to generate revenue or exit.

Glilot was the first venture capital fund raised in Israel to invest in cybersecurity companies. Among Glilot’s major exits have been the sale of Cider Security to Palo Alto Networks for $200 million, the sale of Ermetic to Tenable for $265 million and the sale of IntSights to Rapid7 for $322 million.

Glilot also sold two portfolio companies to Microsoft: CyberX for $170 million and Aorato for $200 million. It currently has several unicorns in its portfolio such as At-Bay and has invested in growth companies like Noma Security, Appcharge, ScaleOps and Guardz.

The fund has also had some failures such as the closure of IQgo and Dojo Labs and the sale of several companies at a low price: Porticor, Mintigo and YouAppi.

The fund avoids playing a role in the highest-value venture capital raisings in the industry, and does not provide benefits to member advisors as other Israeli cybersecurity funds do. This also comes at a cost, as it is also less exposed to the influx of new cybersecurity companies that have emerged in Israel.

No response to this report has been forthcoming from Glilot.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 2, 2025.

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