Gili Raanan is a seasoned cybersecurity investor and the founder of Cyberstarts, a venture capital fund established in 2018 to support early-stage cyber innovators. With a portfolio that includes Wiz, Armis, Island, Fireblocks, and Cyera, Cyberstarts has become a key player in advancing the cybersecurity ecosystem.
Gili’s career began in Israel’s elite Unit 8200, where he served for a decade and received the Israel Defense Presidential Prize and the Innovation Award. An engineer by training, he is known for inventing CAPTCHA and co-developing the first web application firewall (WAF), and he holds more than 10 U.S. patents in cybersecurity and enterprise software.
After founding and exiting two enterprise software companies acquired by EMC and IBM, Gili joined Sequoia Capital in 2009. As a General Partner, he led investments in cybersecurity and infrastructure across Israel’s tech landscape for nearly a decade before launching Cyberstarts.
Under his leadership, Cyberstarts has raised over $720 million across five funds and invested in 28 companies now valued at a combined $55 billion. Gili Raanan remains actively involved in guiding founders and currently sits on the boards of 10 companies. He is based in Mikhmoret, Israel, and is also a minority owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s basketball team.
