Venture capital investor and former NBA star Omri Casspi has raised one other $100 million for his fund Swish Ventures to put money into excessive profile Israeli unicorns like Eon, Upwind, Tenzai and Irregular and US firms like Cognition and Applied Compute.
Casspi, who has teamed up with outstanding US buyers like Peter Thiel, Joshua Kushner, Joe Lonsdale, Elad Gil and Sean Maguire, and serial entrepreneurs like Ofir Ehrlich, Amiram Shachar, and Roi Tiger, has constructed a portfolio in a brief time frame that features a giant focus of high-value, fast-growing firms. The new alternative fund will enable Swish to proceed to keep up its holdings in later levels of fund elevating for firms and profit from their continued appreciation. Casspi has a excessive proportion of unicorns in its portfolio for a enterprise capital fund that’s simply three years previous.
The fund, which was raised principally from current buyers in Swish Ventures – senior companions in outstanding enterprise capital funds, together with Sean Maguire from Sequoia – has already invested within the newest financing spherical of Eon, an Israeli unicorn that offers with knowledge backup for AI processing and raised $300 million final week at a valuation of $4 billion.
Swish additionally holds shares in Cognition AI, the US AI big that acquired the automated software program improvement engine WIndsurf, and Amiram Shachar’s Upwind Security, which was in talks to be acquired by Datadog for $1 billion, and the promising startup Tenzai, which raised $75 million final month.
Casspi’s community of connections has underpinned Swish’s achievements. It is normally the one small fund amongst giants in seed rounds. In Tenzai it invested alongside Greylock, Lux Capital and Battery Ventures and within the Israeli AI lab Irregular it invested alongside Sequoia and Redpoint.
“We obtained motivation from our entrepreneurs and in addition from the buyers to proceed investing in firms and to extend our dedication to them down the street,” Casspi tells “Globes.” “We introduced the institution of the fund and accomplished its elevating inside a couple of weeks and in a comparatively brief interval. The fund has matured comparatively quickly, however has been constructed rigorously beginning with our first fund in 2022 (the Sheva fund), and till in the present day, what guides us is to be a accomplice to our entrepreneurs, in Israel and the US.”
In the wake of this fund elevating, the entire belongings beneath administration of Casspi and his funds within the tech sector is $300 million, which incorporates the Swish seed fund, which was raised final 12 months totaling $63 million; the Sheva fund, which he based in 2022 with David Citron for $35 million; and different devoted investments outdoors the funds, that are estimated to be price about $100 million. The new alternative fund plans to make about eight investments within the fields of cybersecurity, expertise infrastructure and AI, with a mean funding of about $10 million.
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Casspi doesn’t reveal the identities of the buyers within the fund and makes do with a basic assertion: “The largest names in US enterprise capital funds and companions in funds,” however it may be estimated that his connections with prime funds akin to Founders Fund, 8VC, Sequoia, Thrive and Lux Capital helped him on this. Casspi provides that along with the common buyers in Swish, funds that have interaction in philanthropy on this planet of life sciences have additionally joined the Opportunity Fund.
According to the enterprise capital fund web site PitchBook, among the many restricted buyers in Swish are additionally serial entrepreneurs Amiram Shachar, Ofir Ehrlich, Alon Arvatz and Gal David – all of whom raised capital from the fund for his or her startups. The connection to outstanding serial entrepreneurs can be associated to the excessive focus of unicorns within the portfolio. “The principal energy of the fund for an investor who got here from basketball, with no background in startups and enterprise capital, really comes from our entrepreneurs. This is our bread and butter and is the main issue that determines. We attempt to work intently with them as a result of that is what is going to finally deliver the subsequent firms and the subsequent entrepreneurs. It’s a small business the place everybody talks to everybody else and works with top-notch funds.”
Cybersecurity and AI
Casspi, who because the founding of the fund has been enjoying within the crowded and costly subject of outstanding Israeli cybersecurity firms in addition to within the subject of Israeli serial entrepreneurs, enjoys intensive connections with the enormous funds at an attention-grabbing time. According to a report by the cybersecurity fund YL Ventures, for the primary time in Israeli tech, US funds have surpassed Israeli funds in seed investments in Israeli cybersecurity, with 44 seed spherical investments in contrast with 35 from Israeli funds. The entry of big funds like Sequoia, Greylock and Lux into such early levels of firms additionally brings with it a rise in worth and the opportunity of a bubble in Israeli cybersecurity.
“It’s a really aggressive market, however I do not know if the phrase cybersecurity bubble is right on this case,” says Casspi. “For every firm the valuation is derived from the market during which the corporate operates, the exit potential, the identification of the entrepreneurs and the adoption of the product out there. Even when the worth could be very excessive, there’s a very giant market potential and group. I started my journey in enterprise capital in 2022 when high-tech was at a low, which continued into 2023 and in the present day we see the tectonic modifications out there, the technological upheaval that permits new firms to exchange so many veteran gamers. And finally, the scale of the funding will not be an element however the progress potential of the corporate. If you invested in SpaceX, even 5% of it may give you billions.”
Casspi’s community of connections in US enterprise capital – Sean Maguire, Joshua Kushner and Peter Thiel – are near the Republican Party, economically conservative, and sympathetic to Israel. Casspi talks concerning the inflow of big American funds into Israel, and cybersecurity firms particularly. “These world funds have been investing right here because the starting of the conflict, and they’re current right here in a really excessive focus, they’re very aggressive they usually even have the flexibility to assist entrepreneurs within the US, and they’re searching for one of the best cybersecurity offers right here.
“They perceive that there’s a magic circle right here. Talents go away the military, discovered firms which are acquired, and in the present day they’re already second- or third-time entrepreneurs who discovered even higher firms. I’ve little doubt that the subsequent $100 billion AI and cybersecurity firms will come out of Israel – we see mother or father firms right here that may “disrupt” extra mature industries. Unfortunately, we see this much less within the worlds outdoors of cybersecurity and AI right here.”
Did Israel miss the AI revolution?
Casspi: “I do not suppose anybody anticipated Israel to play a outstanding function in growing giant language fashions. In this recreation, by way of capital expenditures (capex) and the competitors for expertise, the US has a outstanding place, and it’s troublesome for Israeli firms to compete with an ambition like OpenAI’s to take a position a trillion {dollars} within the subsequent 5 years, however we’re very sturdy in optimizations, functions and naturally in cybersecurity for AI. I anticipate the military, which invests closely in cybersecurity and produces wonderful cybersecurity individuals, to make a major change in the direction of AI, and it will result in Israel’s future management within the subject of knowledge facilities, power and neo-cloud.
You transfer in the correct circles within the US, however Israel was hit exhausting in Europe and the Gulf in the course of the conflict, together with by sports activities associations.
“It will not be proper for us Israelis to cancel relations with European buyers who’ve pulled away, however quite to maintain the door open, and as enterprise {and professional} firms to point out them the place they went flawed. I’m completely happy that across the desk within the firms we put money into, there’s a pro-Israel group, sitting and planning to maintain it that manner. Our buyers are very optimistic about Israel.”
Published by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on December 11, 2025.
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