Silicon Valley-based YL Ventures, a seed stage VC that invests in Israeli tech, has closed its third fund, YLV III, at $75 million.
The over-subscribed fund was originally tipped for $60 million. It will be helmed by managing partner Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf at the firm’s Silicon Valley office with supports from its Tel-Aviv offices.
YL Ventures will invest in two to three companies a year, leading rounds of $2-3 million, in sectors like cybersecurity, enterprise software, autonomous vehicles, drones, and VR/AR.
Cybersecurity is considered one of the biggest sectors it can invest in, according to Leitersdorf, with the sector expected to surpass $170 billion in the next four years. Israel is already well versed in the security space with a number of high-profile companies, investments, and plenty of graduates.
“Israel is a well-known powerhouse for cybersecurity and related technological innovation. We are able to harness that expertise to expand into new sectors that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, big data and robotics, all of which are highly relevant to our new fund,” said Leitersdorf. “While remaining extremely selective, we can vet ideas fast, devote substantial attention to helping our companies scale, and provide a lot of value post-investment.”
As part of this security focused strategy, YL Ventures has appointed former SAP chief security officer Justin Somaini as an advisor.
YL Ventures has previously invested in Twistlock, Karamba Security, and FireLayers.
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