Cyber billionaire Shlomo Kramer backs new $26 million cyber fund focused on AI startups
Skinos Ventures, managed by Yishay Yovel, launches with plans to invest in early-stage cyber companies.
A new venture capital fund focused on cybersecurity investments is launching operations in Israel. The fund, called Skinos Ventures, has raised $26 million, the vast majority of it from serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer, who is a strategic advisor and foundational investor.
Kramer, one of the founders of Check Point, is considered one of the most active angel investors in the cybersecurity industry. Over the years, he has invested in companies including Palo Alto Networks and numerous other startups.
The new fund will be managed by Yishay Yovel, who serves as General Partner. Yovel shaped go-to-market and corporate strategy at Kramer’s Cato Networks, where he served as chief marketing and strategy officer. He previously held executive marketing roles at Imperva and Trusteer. Notably, Yovel was a key architect behind the rise of the SASE category.
Skinos Ventures plans to make five investments at the Seed and Series A stages in companies operating at the intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The fund intends to invest checks of $2.5 million at each stage. So far, it has already invested in two startups: one operating in stealth mode and another called Spectrum.
According to Yuval, the fund’s distinguishing feature, beyond effectively serving as a kind of Kramer family office, is its focus on helping entrepreneurs develop marketing and product strategies.
"We've spent our careers building cybersecurity companies from the ground up. We know what founders go through because we've been through it ourselves,” said Yishay Yovel, General Partner at Skinos Ventures. “Our motto is Builders for Builders: it means we don't just write checks and disappear. We're in the room working alongside founders to think through the key decisions that are essential to the success of their ventures. We’ve taken companies from ideas to multi-billion dollar outcomes, and we want to put that experience to work for the next generation of Israeli cybersecurity startups."
