Victor Ofstein

$3B valuation and $760M raised. Here’s how Yotam Segev and Tamar Bar-Ilan achieved this just 3 years in. They didn’t build a startup. They built a defense system for the digital age. Before Cyera became a $3B company, before raising $760M from the best in the game and before defining the entire DSPM category, Yotam Segev and Tamar Bar-Ilan were deep inside Unit 8200 - Israel’s elite cyber-intelligence unit. They were: → Protecting data at a national scale. → They weren’t spitballing startup ideas. → They were running real ops and solving real threats. Years before the rest of us saw them coming. So when they launched Cyera in 2021, it wasn’t a guess. It was a mission - a platform that understands data, not just protects it. 1. Total mapping 2. Real-time visibility 3. Cloud-native security Today? Cyera is trusted by Fortune 100s, is backed by Accel, Sequoia, Redpoint, and is growing at hyperspeed. This isn’t the usual founder story. It’s what happens when military-grade precision meets category-defining execution. And they’re not building noise. They’re building the new normal. - - - - - Who else is building with this kind of depth and clarity? (Image by Ohad Kab - DADA STUDIO x YKC Media )

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The 2024 results are in - and OurCrowd is once again crowned as Israel's most active VC investor with 34 first-time deals. See the full report from IVC Data and Insights, Gornitzky GNY, KPMG Israel

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Interview on Channel 10 – The Economy Channel with Danny Roup. Boosting productivity in the Israeli economy starts with inclusive participation in the labor market. It’s not just an economic necessity – it’s a moral one.

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I added the new Israeli Proptech startup landscape by TLV Partners to my 2025 collection on VC Cafe. There are over 200+ Israeli startups operating in the proptech sector (including a number of unicorns). The new crop of AI-first startups are penetrating every layer of the tech stack - from elevating the tenant experience and enabling predictive maintenance, to construction site monitoring and delivering AI-driven infrastructure insights. Link to the CTech by Calcalist article with the commentary below.

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We don’t have enough CFOs in Israel. Over the last 20 years, I’ve met a lot of smart, driven finance leaders in Israel. People with great instincts, strong command of the numbers, and a real hunger to grow. But there’s still a gap. It’s not about capability. It’s about pipeline. Our tech ecosystem is designed to produce brilliant founders, engineers, and product leaders. But we haven’t built enough bridges from controller to CFO, from VP Finance to public company leader. And it’s time to change that. Israel is one of the best places in the world to build early-stage companies. But scaling those companies – and taking them public – requires a different skillset: - Strategic storytelling  - Building scalable forecasting models  - Working closely with GTM and product leaders  - Engaging in a board meetings  - Leading earnings calls  - Thinking about cap table strategy and capital allocation The problem is that many of Israel’s brightest finance minds are raised in accounting firms, controller offices, and public sector roles. As a result, they often miss out on experiences that build investor fluency, SaaS thinking, and global exposure. It’s hard to take a company public on the NASDAQ when you haven’t spent time in the US market, dealt with SEC compliance, or built relationships with institutional investors. In contrast, CFOs I’ve met abroad (especially in the US) are true capital allocators. Operators. Storytellers. Partners. They’ve sat in rooms with major institutional investors. They’ve been through the fire of investor pressure and post-IPO scrutiny. We have some incredible public company CFOs in Israel, but too few. And their successors haven’t always had the chance to develop alongside them. Their path to CFO still feels foggy. We can fix this. But it’ll take intention. A few practical suggestions: 1) More Mentorship Access to the CFOs who’ve been through IPOs, earnings cycles, investor calls, and late-night board negotiations. 2) A Better Bridge from Accounting to Strategy It’s not just technical skills. We need to teach financial storytelling, investor relations and capital markets fluency. 3) Less Fear, More Storytelling Some of the best finance people I know view the CFO role as a constant liability risk. It’s not. It’s a leadership opportunity. 4) Global Exposure. CFOs of Israeli companies often report to global boards, talk to US investors, and operate under US compliance standards. If you haven’t had that exposure yet, find a way to get it. Israel has no shortage of brilliant minds in finance, but if we want more great CFOs, we can’t wait for them to magically emerge. If you're a finance leader in Israel: keep going. Ask questions. Sit in on investor meetings. Push to be included in strategic conversations. Because if we want to see more Israeli companies go global and build trust on the public stage - we need more CFOs ready to grow into that role.   It won’t happen overnight, but it starts with us!

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Operations vs Strategy - which is more important? My answer has always been operations. Strategy is simply a smart operational process to figure out the right strategy. When we started the Israel Tech Mission nearly 1.5 years ago our focus was on action, operations and impact. And see impact to date: https://lnkd.in/e95Z92wZ

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Thank you to Sigalit Ben Hayoun and Yael Steinhart for inviting me to talk to Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization — and to Assaf Gilad for moderating the discussion. Time really does fly 😅 and it was a real privilege to be back to discuss just how much has changed in tech since I first started, including the recent groundbreaking new leaps into AI. What’s incredible is the pace of innovation in this field. Current market estimates range from 3-7 years until AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is achieved (AI systems surpassing human cognitive abilities). When this is achieved one can expect the pace of change to be the fastest we’ve ever seen in history 📈 Technology and AI is neutral - neither good or bad. What matters is what we (humans) choose to do with it. With good intent, AGI could help solve some of the biggest global challenges (health, longevity, climate change, scientific discovery). With bad intent, it can create even bigger global challenges with significant risks. That is why Google’s motto on AI is so important - to be “bold and responsible”. The stakes have never been higher. Hope humanity rises to the moment, does the right thing, and makes the right choices 🌍 Adding below in comments the link to the full discussion (tip: if you just want a summary, past the link directly into Gemini 🪄) #TelAvivUniversityAlumni #GoogleAI

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Just a Few Reasons Israel’s Economy is Worth Watching Right Now (Updated as of October 22, 2025): $11.9B in Tech Investment (YTD Q3 2025) Private tech funding totaled $11.9B through the first three quarters of 2025. This reflects a 13% increase year-over-year despite a sharp decline in the number of deals, as investors concentrate on fewer but larger, more strategic rounds. Investor confidence also fueled a record M&A surge of $71B YTD. Cybersecurity Powerhouse: $32B Wiz Deal + $4B Funding Google’s $32B acquisition of Wiz (signed March 2025, closing expected 2026)—the largest cybersecurity deal ever—plus $4B raised by Israeli cyber firms in 2024 (nearly double 2023's $2.4B, capturing 40% of U.S. private cyber funding), cements Israel’s global cyber leadership. 3.3% GDP Growth Outpaces US, Germany, Japan (2025) Israel’s forecasted 3.3% GDP growth (IMF October 2025) beats the US (1.8%), Germany (0.8%), and Japan (~1.0%), showing robust recovery amid high-tech exports hitting a record 57% of total exports in H1. AI Boom Fuels Jobs: 2.9% Unemployment, ~25% of Startups AI-Focused With unemployment at 2.9% (August 2025, among OECD’s lowest) and ~25% of tech startups AI-dedicated (attracting 47% of investments), Israel’s AI sector is creating jobs, not cutting them. TA-125 Index Up a Crazy 49.8% YoY Outperforming benchmarks like the S&P 500, Israel’s stock market shows crazy strong corporate earnings, with the index at 3,255 points (up 49.8% from October 2024). Shekel Among Top-Performing Currencies The Israeli shekel strengthened ~10% against the USD YTD (from ~3.74 ILS/USD at year-start to 3.30 as of mid-October), ranking among the top-performing global currencies in 2025. Strong Current Account Surplus High-tech exports and disciplined imports position Israel as a low-risk, balanced economy, with a Q2 2025 surplus of $579M and a 20-year average of ~$1.1B annually. Highest OECD Fertility Rate (~2.9) A youthful population drives long-term growth, consumer demand, and entrepreneurial energy, with Israel’s rate at ~2.9 children per woman—nearly double the OECD average of 1.5. This momentum is absolutely wild! #IsraelTech #Investing #VentureCapital #Startups #UPstartups #FinTech #Investment #Investors #AmIsraelHai #Innovation #Economy #AI #Cybersecurity #GlobalBusiness

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🌍 A straightforward message to European founders. Listen to Yoav Chelouche, Managing Partner at Aviv Venture Capital and a board member at Check Point Software, explain why Israeli startups are built for the global stage from day one. With a domestic market too small to sustain large-scale businesses, founders have no choice but to think internationally – an approach that has turned Israel into a powerhouse of global innovation. Watch the full clip below: #Israelitech #StartupNation #TechInnovation

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