YL Ventures

YL Ventures

YL Ventures operates from Mill Valley and Tel Aviv as a venture capital firm exclusively dedicated to cybersecurity. The firm focuses on Israeli founders from the earliest stages, providing a bridge to the US enterprise market. Its model is built on a combination of deep domain expertise, an in-house CTO, and an advisory board of leading chief information security officers who help shape product roadmaps, validate technology, and accelerate customer acquisition for portfolio companies. The firm's strategy spans seed, early-stage, and growth investments, with a portfolio concentrated on enterprise security infrastructure, cloud security, data protection, and the emerging layer of AI-native security. YL Ventures writes initial checks at inception and reserves significant capital for follow-on rounds, often leading or co-leading financings. Confirmed positions include Native, an AI runtime security and application detection and response platform that raised $42 million, and an active portfolio covering cloud security control planes, AI pentesting, agentic development security, and non-human identity management. The firm deploys primarily into Israel but structures investments to support go-to-market execution in North America. YL Ventures manages $800 million in total capital. The firm was recognized by PitchBook as a top-10 cybersecurity venture capital investor in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2025, it published its State of the Cyber Nation report, an annual analysis of the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem, reinforcing its role as an information node for enterprise buyers and co-investors. YL Ventures does not operate a separate philanthropic foundation or multi-family office structure. What distinguishes YL Ventures structurally is its deep coupling of investment capital with an operational advisory apparatus that functions like an outsourced early go-to-market team. Rather than relying on generalist networks, the firm embeds its portfolio companies with a dedicated network of practicing CISOs who serve as design partners and reference accounts — a sourcing and validation moat that is difficult for broader venture platforms or corporate venture arms to replicate in a specialist security context.