Striker Ventures Partners, a U.S.-based venture capital fund founded in 2025 in San Francisco, announced on Monday that it is launching operations in Israel and plans to invest up to half of its fund in Israeli companies.
The fund’s first investment in Israel remains undisclosed, with Striker saying only that it involves a stealth-stage Israeli cybersecurity and artificial intelligence company.
Striker raised $165 million in October and has appointed Matan Lamdan as its Israeli partner. Lamdan specializes in cybersecurity investments. The fund was founded by Max Gazor, formerly a senior partner at CRV, one of the world’s oldest and most active venture capital firms. Most of Striker’s partners are CRV alumni, including Lamdan.
Striker operates under an investment model that is uncommon in Israel. The fund plans to invest in just 10 companies, with individual investments ranging from $5 million to $30 million. All portfolio companies will be at very early stages, pre-seed, seed or Series A, and will have no revenue at the time of investment. Five of the 10 companies are expected to be Israeli.
The fund focuses exclusively on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence and specializes in identifying founders and teams before their technology is proven, and sometimes before it exists at all. This contrasts with larger U.S. funds that typically invest hundreds of millions of dollars in more mature companies.
Striker says its main contribution comes at the earliest stages, when teams are being formed and ideas are taking shape. Investment partners work closely with portfolio companies, helping guide them toward growth.
Lamdan will lead Striker’s cybersecurity investments and oversee Israeli deals. He spent about a decade in Israel’s Unit 8200 and most recently served as chief of staff to the head of Military Intelligence. Earlier in his career, he worked as an investigative researcher for the television program “Uvda.”
After completing his studies at Stanford University, Lamdan joined CRV, where he participated in investments in Israeli companies including Vega Security, Astrix, SevenAI and Trail Security, which was later acquired by Cyera.
“It looks like very different chapters in my career,” Lamdan said. “People tell me: you were an intelligence officer, then a journalist, then an investor. But I think there’s a common thread, the ability to find the signal in the noise, whether it’s critical intelligence, the core of a story or the next founding team.”
Gazor said the idea behind Striker was to build an entire fund around an investment strategy that proved successful at CRV.
“After 15 years of making exclusively pre-revenue investments, I realized this style is extremely effective at the seed stage,” he said. “It can also work very well in Israel, where most innovation and investment happen early.”
Asked how Striker differs from large U.S. funds active in Israel, Gazor said the focus is on teams rather than products.
“We decided we don’t need a massive fund for this,” he said. “We can write large checks like the biggest funds, but invest in a way that has already proven very successful for our team.”
Lamdan said institutional investors in the United States were comfortable with the risk, despite the fund investing in only 10 companies.
“Raising the funds took about six weeks,” he said. “That reflects not just the strategy, but the fact that we’ve proven we can execute it.”
Israel’s startup sector has shown signs of recovery over the past year, with increased venture investment and a growing presence of large U.S. funds. Many have appointed Israeli partners to strengthen ties with local startups.
Lamdan said Striker’s focused model is well-suited to Israel.
“Early investment is a way to reach teams before valuations rise,” he said. “The risk is entering too early without real expertise in company formation. That’s exactly what we bring. This is all we’ve ever done, and our track record speaks for itself.”
He said the fund is prepared to invest up to half its capital in Israeli companies and expects to complete several more deals this year, primarily in cybersecurity but also in other areas aligned with the fund’s strategy.