Excalibur Fund Managers

Managing Partners Gilad Shany and Carlos Estefan lead investment decisions. Shany brings operational and intelligence-community experience from Israel's defense technology sector, while Estefan oversees fund structuring and European institutional relationships. The firm's investment committee likely draws on the cross-border expertise of its distributed team, given the multi-jurisdictional nature of its deal flow.

No. While the firm's venture thesis is anchored in Israeli dual-use technology talent, Excalibur sources and supports companies across Israel, Portugal, the broader EU, and the United States. Its Portuguese fund domicile specifically enables European startups with defense-aligned IP to access the firm's capital and transatlantic scaling network.

Excalibur uses Lisbon as its European regulatory and operational headquarters, which doubles as a soft-landing platform for Israeli startups entering the EU market. The firm has publicly framed its Portuguese presence as a gateway for portfolio companies to engage with EU innovation programs and defense funding mechanisms, particularly under Horizon Europe (per CTECH, 2022).

The firm leverages Managing Partner Gilad Shany's network within Israel's cybersecurity incubators and intelligence-adjacent venture circles, combined with Carlos Estefan's European institutional relationships. This dual channel gives Excalibur access to startups that emerge from government-affiliated technology programs in Israel, alongside deep-tech clusters in Portugal and the broader EU.

Public record indicates European family offices, institutional allocators, and public-sector innovation funds form Excalibur's LP base. The European fund structure in Portugal is specifically designed to accommodate LPs that prefer regulated EU vehicles over direct exposure to standalone Israeli venture funds, addressing a known compliance barrier.

Excalibur targets early-stage companies, typically seed and Series A rounds. The dual-use thesis requires engagement before companies have fully defined their commercial-versus-government product paths, positioning the firm as a formative-stage investor rather than a growth-capital provider.

Not solely. While the firm seeks dual-use technologies with defense or critical-infrastructure applications, it explicitly supports the commercial scaling of that IP into enterprise and allied-government markets. The Portuguese office structure is built to help these companies access civilian EU technology programs alongside defense procurement channels.