YL Ventures

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YL Ventures
IndustryVenture Capital Firm
Founded2007
FoundersYoav Leitersdorf
John Quigley
HeadquartersSan Francisco and Tel Aviv
Websitewww.ylventures.com

YL Ventures is an American-Israeli venture capital firm that specializes in seed stage cybersecurity investments.[1]

Investment Firm[]

YL Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm led by managing partner Yoav Leitersdorf,[2] who founded the firm with John Quigley in 2007, along with Israel and U.S. partners Ofer Schreiber and John Brennan.[1][3] The firm has headquarters in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, and features an advisory board of over 100 venture advisors.[4][5] A main focus of YL Ventures is to introduce Israeli cybersecurity start-ups to the American market and develop a U.S. customer base.[6][1]

Venture Advisory Board[]

In 2018, YL Ventures established its Venture Advisory Board. In 2021, the Venture Advisory Board includes over 100 global CISOs and cybersecurity executives from Fortune 100 and high-growth companies such as Microsoft, Intuit, Zscaler, Kraft Heinz, Netflix, Nike, Samsung Electronics, Box, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Markel Corporation, Optiv, GSK, HashiCorp, Atlassian, Ross Stores, Burberry, Campbell Soup Company, CyAlliance, Juniper Networks, GrubHub, NHL, Nielsen and others.[5] The Venture Advisors assist YL Ventures in vetting investments and provide ideation support to entrepreneurs during the due diligence process before the investment occurs. They also help the firm’s portfolio founders define their product development, product-market fit and go-to-market strategies.[5]

CISO-in-Residence[]

In 2019, YL Ventures inaugurated the full-time CISO-in-Residence role. The CISO-in-Residence works directly with entrepreneurs pre and post investment, supporting their ideation processes, highlighting greenfield opportunities, validating their propositions, refining go-to-market strategies, and optimizing their early-stage success in closing paying customers.[7] Roger Hale served as YL Ventures’ first CISO-in-Residence.[8] In 2020, Sounil Yu took the role[9] and in 2021, Ryan Gurney replaced him.[10]

Finances[]

As of 2020, YL Ventures manages over $300 million across four funds,[11] including a $135 million fund raised in 2019[12] and a $75 million fund raised in 2017.[13]

Exits[]

Company Field Description Exit Year Exit Details
Medigate Healthcare IoT Security Dedicated Healthcare IoT Security Platform 2021 Acquired by Claroty for $400M[14]
Build Security Authorization Policy Management Identity & access management platform 2021 Acquired by Elastic for an undisclosed amount[15]
Axonius Unified Visibility & Control Of Endpoint Devices Cybersecurity asset management platform 2021 Acquired by ICONIQ Growth, Alkeon Capital, DTCP, and Harmony Partners for $270M[12]
Twistlock Virtual Container Security Enterprise platform for cloud native workloads 2019 Acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $410M[16]
Upstream Commerce Online Retail Intelligence Retail pricing optimization and intelligence 2018 Acquired by Walmart (Flipkart) for an undisclosed amount[17]
Hexadite Cybersecurity Orchestration and Automation Automated incident response solution 2017 Acquired by Microsoft for $100M[18]
Seculert Cloud-based Malware Protection Attack detection and analytics platform 2017 Acquired by Radware for an undisclosed amount[19]
Firelayers Cloud Access Security Broker IT protection for cloud applications 2016 Acquired by Proofpoint for $55M[20]
BlazeMeter Performance Testing JMeter and performance testing platform for DevOps 2016 Acquired by CA Technologies for $90M[21]
Clicktale Web Analytics Customers experience analytics platform 2013 Acquired by Amadeus Capital
AcceloWeb Web Acceleration Pioneer and leader in browsing experience optimization 2011 Acquired by Limelight Networks for an undisclosed amount[22]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c "YL Ventures, a specialist in Israeli cybersecurity startups, has closed its fourth fund with $120 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  2. ^ "Yoav Leitersdorf: YL Ventures' founder and fighter". CTech. Calcalist. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  3. ^ Brennan, John (2020-08-13). "Navigating the critical step of making your first cybersecurity sales hire". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
  4. ^ "Ryan Gurney joins YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence". Security Magazine. 16 June 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Ryan Gurney, Ex-Googler, Joins YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  6. ^ "YL Ventures closes $75 million fund to bring Israeli startups to the US". Tech Crunch.
  7. ^ FinSMEs (2019-10-29). "YL Ventures Adds Roger Hale as CISO-in-Residence". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  8. ^ Orbach, Meir (2019-10-29). "Cybersecurity Veteran Roger Hale Joins Venture Capital Firm YL Ventures". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  9. ^ FinSMEs (2020-04-08). "Sounil Yu Joins YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  10. ^ CTech (2021-06-15). "Ryan Gurney, ex-Googler, joins YL Ventures as CISO-in-Residence". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
  11. ^ Orbach, Meir (2021-03-09). "YL Ventures makes massive profit selling holdings in cybersecurity startup Axonius for $270 million". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  12. ^ a b "YL Ventures didn't wait for the IPO, and sold stake in Israeli Unicorn". Geektime. 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  13. ^ "YL Ventures closes $75 million fund to bring Israeli startups to the US". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  14. ^ "Claroty Buys Startup Medigate, Raises $400M From SoftBank".
  15. ^ "Elastic acquires build.security for security policy definition and enforcement". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-09-13.
  16. ^ "Palo Alto Networks to acquire container security startup Twistlock for $410M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  17. ^ Leitersdorf, Yoav (2018-09-30). "Why Flipkart Is Acquiring Israel-based Upstream Commerce". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  18. ^ "Microsoft to buy Israeli security firm Hexadite, sources say for $100M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  19. ^ "Radware Acquires Threat Detection firm Seculert | SecurityWeek.Com". www.securityweek.com. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  20. ^ "Proofpoint buys cloud security co FireLayers". Globes. 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  21. ^ "CA Technologies to acquire Israeli startup BlazeMeter for $90 million". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  22. ^ "Limelight Buys Web And Application Acceleration Technology Startup AcceloWeb". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
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