2024 SC Awards Finalists: Investor of the Year  

Merlin Ventures invests exclusively in enterprise cybersecurity software companies, with a particular focus on identifying and investing in Israeli startups. In 2023, Merlin Ventures invested in three cybersecurity startups: Tamnoon, Cynamics and a stealth startup yet to be announced. In addition, since June of 2023, four of Merlin Ventures’ portfolio companies have been acquired. This includes Dig and Talon, which were both acquired by Palo Alto Networks for a combined value of nearly $1 billion.

Companies come to Merlin Ventures because it is unlike any other venture capital fund. In addition to funding, Merlin provides infrastructure for market readiness, cybersecurity engineering expertise, and go-to-market muscle for all portfolio companies, helping them penetrate and pursue some of the largest markets in the world, including the U.S. government. Merlin Ventures’ community of over 300 security executives opens up access to the cybersecurity market, connecting CISOs and innovative startups together for bi-directional information exchange. This approach enables Merlin to invest ahead of the curve while also ensuring startups are able to gain a more complete understanding of the market needs.

NightDragon focuses on the cybersecurity, safety, security, and privacy industries. The vast majority of that portfolio is focused on cybersecurity investments, including 9 cybersecurity companies in the NightDragon Growth I portfolio (out of 13 total companies), including iboss, Immuta, Interos, Mezmo, Onapsis, SafeGuard Cyber, ThriveDX and vArmour. Additionally, NightDragon has at least two advisory relationships in cybersecurity, including ThreatConnect and Dataminr. The company also counts more than 15 cybersecurity investments from previous fund vehicles in its portfolio, including Claroty, SAM Seamless Networks, and Source Defense. Exits from previous vehicles include FireEye, ForgeRock, Forescout Technologies, Mandiant, JASK, ObserveIT, RiskSense, and Phantom.

Cybersecurity stands as a core pillar of the NightDragon portfolio and the company’s mission. The NightDragon portfolio includes more than 69% cybersecurity companies, including 9 of the 13 companies invested in as part of the $767 million NightDragon Growth I fund. Additionally, the firm has advisory relationships with multiple additional cybersecurity companies, including ThreatConnect and Dataminr, and more than 15 cybersecurity investments from previous fund vehicles in its portfolio.

In 2023, Ten Eleven Ventures deployed more than $100 million. Cumulatively, the firm has raised $1 billion, and it has all gone exclusively to security startups. Ten Eleven can support founders at all stages of their journey, whether at the start of the relationship or as follow-on in subsequent investment stages. The firm did this for many companies in 2023. Ten Eleven focuses on the ambitions of the entrepreneurs and operators within its portfolio. By asking the right questions, facilitating experience sharing between portfolio companies, and making introductions, Ten Eleven aims to help them build the strongest company in less time with less capital.

The startup teams use Ten Eleven’s financial support for product development, as well as to enhance their credibility and visibility to attract customers and strategic partnerships. Ten Eleven works to empowering them to expand their market reach, and fortify global digital defenses against emerging cyber risks.

WestCap has investments in several innovative companies that are disrupting the economics of cybercrime and protecting national security, including Dragos, Bishop Fox and HUMAN Security. WestCap sees cybersecurity as one of the largest addressable markets in all of software, driven by emerging threats and new challenges. WestCap takes a hands-on approach to helping high-potential companies scale and navigate challenges with the expertise of a team of more than 60 operating professionals who have experience developing technology companies through various economic cycles.

WestCap has invested more than $250M in high-growth cybersecurity companies, a reflection of the importance of the category. The firm actively deploys capital and is eager to meet cybersecurity entrepreneurs. Its team serves as trusted advisors to CISOs across the firm’s portfolio. For example, WestCap’s Cyber Practice Lead and CISO Christian Schnedler has spent more than 17 years in cyber defense, working for IBM and IDEMIA. Schnedler oversees WestCap’s cyber advisory board composed of security leaders across WestCap’s portfolio and CISOs of publicly-traded companies. WestCap’s cybersecurity investment lead, Ryan Benevides, helps founders navigate stages of critical growth and uncover untapped opportunities through a hands-on approach to business development.

YL Ventures has $800M under management, dedicated to investing in early stage cybersecurity startups. The company’s dedicated value-add strategy dictates that it invests only in a handful of extraordinary startups throughout each fund’s lifecycle and support them across all aspects critical to building a strong foundation for industry dominance. 2023 investments include Gutsy – $51M seed; Aim Security – $10M seed; Grip Security – $41M Series B; Spera Security – $10M seed (later acquired by Okta); Miggo Security – $7.5M seed; and the seed round of a cybersecurity startup in the DLP space, still in stealth.

Investing in cybersecurity for over a decade now, YL Ventures has focused on the cybersecurity sector, which continues to perform exceptionally well despite market challenges. The firm has a track record of seeding cybersecurity unicorns such as Axonius and Orca Security and several of its portfolio companies such as Twistlock, Medigate and Spera have been successfully acquired by high-profile, global industry leaders including Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Claroty, and Okta. Beyond its seed stage investments, YL Ventures allocates capital within existing funds towards continuous investment in portfolio companies’ follow-on rounds. A significant milestone indicative of our strategy’s performance was in 2022 when PitchBook ranked YL Ventures 8th out of over 250 venture capital firms in its Global Manager Performance Score League Tables.