New US venture fund bets big on Israel, promising millions for fledgling startups

US-based venture fund Striker Venture Partners, which recently raised $165 million, announced on Monday that it is entering the Israeli market to bet on the next generation of AI and cybersecurity startups in the country.

San Francisco-based Striker said the fresh capital will be invested into 10 young startups, five of which will be in Israel. The fund is looking to cut checks ranging from $5 million to $30 million each for young, early-stage startups in the areas of cybersecurity and AI, which have been getting the lion’s share of investor attention lately.

Striker was founded late last year by veteran investor Max Gazor, a former senior partner at US venture capital fund CRV, and Matan Lamdan, an investor at CRV. Lamdan, who manages the fund’s investments in Israel with a focus on cybersecurity, served for a decade in various roles in the Israeli army’s intelligence unit 8200 and the Intelligence Directorate.

“The fund’s advantage is our ability to make large investments at the pre-revenue stage while only committing to a small number of companies,” said Lamdan. “We deeply believe in the Israeli ecosystem and will invest up to half of our fund in Israel as a testament to this.”

Striker said the fund has led an investment in recent days into an unnamed early-stage Israeli cybersecurity company developing technology that will enable organizations to safely adopt AI tools and applications.

The foray into the Israeli market comes as foreign funds have resumed pumping major money into Israeli cybersecurity and AI startups, after two years of war that had dampened investor confidence in Israel-based startups.

However, there have also been concerns following reports showing heavy concentration by investors in AI and cybersecurity, with weaker interest in other fields.

Over the course of 2025, investments in cyber and AI-related companies accounted for 70 percent of the total capital raised, according to a recent report.

Foreign investors maintained their dominant role in the Israeli tech ecosystem last year, accounting for 60% of total investors, led by prominent US funds including Insight Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Blackstone, according to data compiled by Startup Nation Central.

Striker said it has nabbed commitments for the $165 million fund from 10 leading institutional entities in the US. Unlike most US funds, Striker will partner with companies at the earliest stages of inception to back founders with a relatively large capital injection and help them with team building and initial idea formulation, the fund said.

Striker said its investment model is geared to create starting conditions for each startup that will increase their chances of success in transitioning from no revenue to $1 million, and also help raise additional funding.

“Some might say that making only 10 investments increases the fund’s risk level, but we believe the actual situation is the opposite – the focus allows us to be ‘All In’ and contribute decades of cumulative experience in establishing companies from the zero-revenue stage to a combined value of tens of billions of dollars,” said Gazor. “Our American advantage as a fund is also reflected in the network of connections with CISOs [chief investment security officers] and with other American funds that will enter for investments at later stages.”