Two or three founders, at least one of whom has already sold a company or served in an elite technology unit. That is the profile of most teams that raised a seed round in Israel in the past year.
We reviewed all 120 seed and pre-seed rounds by Israeli companies announced publicly between late October 2025 and late October 2026, and the backgrounds of the 318 founders behind them. In 55% of the companies, at least one founder has a prior exit or a background in 8200, 81 or Talpiot. The median round was $10 million, and 12 companies raised $40 million or more in their seed round.
| By the numbers | |
|---|---|
| Verified seed and pre-seed rounds | 120 |
| Founders | 318 |
| Median seed round | $10M |
| Companies with a founder who has exited before | 28 (23%) |
| Companies with a founder from 8200, 81 or Talpiot | 49 (41%) |
| Cybersecurity companies | 47 (39%) |
Where the money went: sectors and round sizes
Cybersecurity remains the largest sector with 47 rounds, 39% of the sample. Next come AI applications and vertical software, from real estate and construction to sports and sales, with 26 rounds, and AI infrastructure, data and developer tools with 19. Deep tech, defense and climate recorded 12 rounds, health and bio 11, and fintech 5.
Most rounds fall between $5 million and $20 million: 69 of the 99 rounds with a disclosed amount. 12 rounds were $5 million or less, and 18 were above $20 million, of which 12 were $40 million or more.
| Round size | Number of rounds |
|---|---|
| Up to $5M | 12 |
| $5M to $10M | 39 |
| $10M to $20M | 30 |
| $20M to $40M | 6 |
| $40M and above | 12 |
The same names also recur on the investor side. According to the round announcements, TLV Partners led or co-led seven rounds in the sample, Hetz Ventures six, Team8 five and Glilot Capital four. Team8 and Glilot also co-led Jazz's Series A, which was announced together with its seed.
A prior exit is worth money
28 of the companies, almost a quarter of the sample, were founded by entrepreneurs who had already sold a company or taken one public. They raised a median seed of $13 million, against $10 million for everyone else. At the top the gap is sharper still: five of the 12 largest seed rounds, those of $40 million or more, went to such teams.
The standout example is Tenzai, which raised a $75 million seed in November 2025. Pavel Gurvich and Ariel Zeitlin previously founded Guardicore, sold to Akamai in 2021 for $600 million. Shai Morag, who sold Secdo to Palo Alto Networks in 2018 and Ermetic to Tenable in 2023, raised $60 million for Oak in July. Omer Kaplan and Tomer Bar-Zeev, co-founders of ironSource, raised $58 million for ZyG in March. Zohar Alon, founder of Dome9, sold to Check Point in 2018, raised $66 million for NewCore in June (the amount includes a $16 million pre-seed and an extended seed).
The pattern holds at more modest amounts too. Nitzan Shapira and Ran Ribenzaft, founders of Epsagon, which was sold to Cisco, raised $34 million for Harmony. The three founders of Indegy, sold to Tenable in 2019, raised $20 million for Opti.
On the other hand, 77% of the companies raised without a documented exit on the team, and some reached the top. Factify raised $73 million in January with a single founder, Prof. Matan Gavish of the Hebrew University. Enigma raised $71 million with two 8200 alumni. In these cases investors were buying research and technical depth.
The year's 12 largest seed rounds, and who is behind them
| Company | Amount ($M) | Month | Sector | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axonica Labs | Up to 80 (50 raised), pre-seed | October 2026 | AI chips | Assaf Touboul, formerly of Qualcomm |
| Tenzai | 75 | November 2025 | Cybersecurity | Guardicore founders |
| Factify | 73 | January 2026 | AI for documents | Prof. Matan Gavish, Hebrew University |
| Enigma | 71 | July 2026 | AI | 8200 alumni |
| NewCore | 66 | June 2026 | Cybersecurity | Zohar Alon, founder of Dome9 |
| Oak | 60 | July 2026 | Cybersecurity | Shai Morag, founder of Secdo and Ermetic |
| Corma | 60 | August 2026 | Cybersecurity | Alon Pluda, with a team of 8200 veterans |
| ZyG | 58 | March 2026 | AI for e-commerce | ironSource co-founders |
| Spirit | 50 | January 2026 | Cybersecurity | Talpiot and 8200 alumni |
| AIR Security | 50 (in two seed rounds) | September 2026 | Cybersecurity | 8200 alumni |
| Cylake | 45 | March 2026 | Cybersecurity | Nir Zuk, founder of Palo Alto Networks, and Udi Shamir, a SentinelOne co-founder |
| Noetive | 41 | September 2026 | Industrial AI | Amir Frenkel, formerly of Google, Meta and Amazon |
8200 and Talpiot: the cybersecurity pipeline
In 49 companies, 41% of the sample, at least one founder served in 8200, 81 or Talpiot, according to press coverage, official announcements or their LinkedIn profile. 66 founders listed service in 8200, 24 are Talpiot graduates and 12 served in 81. In cybersecurity the share jumps to 62%, 29 of 47 companies. In the other sectors it stands at 27%.
Often the whole team comes from the same unit. Jazz's four founders are 81 veterans, and in March the company announced an $18 million seed together with a $43 million Series A. Spirit's three founders finished the same Talpiot cohort and served in 8200, and raised $50 million. At Opti, Dux and Upriver, every founder is a Talpiot graduate.
And this is probably an undercount: some founders do not list their military service publicly, and some write only "intelligence" without naming a unit.
Yesterday's acquisitions produce today's founders
Among previous employers, two names stand out: Intel and Check Point. In 11 companies a founder worked at Intel, and in 10 a founder worked at Check Point. Next come Palo Alto Networks with 7, and Microsoft and Wix with 6 each.
Many of these ties were formed through an acquisition. Guy Eisenkot joined Palo Alto Networks with the sale of Bridgecrew, and left to found Baz. Opti's founders and Shai Morag joined Tenable with Indegy and Ermetic, Harmony's founders joined Cisco with Epsagon, and Efrat Rapoport and her team joined Salesforce with Bonobo AI before founding June AI. According to their LinkedIn profiles, the founders of Guardicore, Indegy, Dome9 and Bridgecrew stayed at the acquirer for two and a half to three and a half years, and then set out again.
The next cycle is already here: Wiz alumni are behind four companies in the sample, Enigma, Frame Security, Mate Security and Rig Security.
Small teams, and labs outside cybersecurity
The typical team has two or three founders. That describes 87% of the 109 companies whose full founding team we could verify. A handful raised with a single founder, among them Factify and Tangos AI.
Outside cybersecurity, which accounts for 39% of the rounds, the starting point is more varied, and often it is the lab. In 12 companies a founder is a researcher or professor. Q-Factor, which raised $24 million for quantum computing in April, was founded in part by Prof. Ofer Firstenberg and Prof. Nir Davidson of the Weizmann Institute and Prof. Yoav Sagi of the Technion. Cassidy Bio, which raised $8 million, counts among its founders Prof. Ayal Hendel, a gene-editing researcher at Bar-Ilan University.
The bottom line
The data points to a seed market that prefers managed risk: a founder who has done it before, a team from the same unit, or research that is hard to copy. Still, 45% of the companies in the sample raised without a documented exit or a documented elite unit. For founders who arrive without one of these cards, the takeaway is to sharpen the story: an edge you can explain in one sentence, a team of two or three with a clear split of roles, and angels and advisors who have already taken a company to an exit.