Protego Ventures closes $125 million fund for Israeli defense tech
The fund focuses on early-growth companies with battlefield-proven technologies and plans to expand into the US with its second fund.
Protego Ventures, a defense-focused fund founded by Lital Leshem and Lee Moser, has completed a $125 million raise for its inaugural fund.
Protego is Israel's largest dedicated defense-tech fund. It invests in early-growth-stage companies that have already begun selling their products and whose technologies have been proven in battlefield or operational environments.
The fund raised $70 million at its initial closing and has now completed the fund with an additional $55 million.
Protego helps portfolio companies expand into international markets by connecting them with business partners, investors and defense customers around the world. Its portfolio covers areas including autonomous systems, AI, critical infrastructure sensing and navigation in environments where communications and GPS may be disrupted.
Leshem served for 11 years in the IDF and the intelligence community. She was a co-founder of Carbyne and later worked in US business development and investments across the defense, aviation and cybersecurity sectors.
Moser is a venture capitalist and an executive at AnD Ventures. She previously served as chief of staff to Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, and helped expand BlackRock's operations in Israel.
Protego's first portfolio company was XTEND, which develops autonomous robotic systems used by the IDF, the US Department of Defense, US Special Operations Command and allied forces in countries including Singapore, Germany, Canada and the UK. Protego led XTEND's $70 million Series B round. The company recently went public on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of $1.5 billion and trades under the ticker XTND.
Another portfolio company, ASIO, develops systems designed to help maneuvering forces navigate, maintain situational awareness and coordinate with one another in complex and contested environments. Its technology is designed to address navigation and coordination challenges when GPS or communications are disrupted, and has been integrated into Anduril's systems.
Protego has also invested in Prisma Photonics, which turns existing fiber-optic cables into large-scale sensors capable of monitoring power grids, pipelines and secured sites spanning thousands of kilometers. Using AI, the system detects and classifies events and threats in real time without requiring additional hardware to be installed along the lines.
Another portfolio company, Rilian, develops AI systems designed to execute cyber tasks using existing security tools, including in isolated or restricted computing environments. The system captures and preserves the operational knowledge accumulated by security teams and uses it to perform subsequent tasks.
The fund's strategy is based on investing after companies have moved beyond the development stage and have begun deploying their technologies and winning customers. Protego says this allows it to focus on companies that have already demonstrated demand for their products while helping them expand internationally.
With its first fund now closed, Protego plans to launch Fund II with an expanded investment focus in the US. The firm says it intends to target early-growth American defense companies while building its presence in the US defense ecosystem.
"Protego was built on the conviction that many of the best defense companies in the world are being built right now, in Israel, under real operational demands, iterating according to real frontline conditions, for real customers," said Protego Co-founder & Managing Partner Lital Leshem. "That feedback loop produces technologies that are faster, leaner, scalable and more flexible than almost anything developed through traditional procurement channels. The free world is defending itself, and smart capital is following."
"What we kept hearing from founders was that generalist investors didn't understand their business, and defense-focused investors didn't understand the Israeli security ecosystem," said Protego Co-founder Lee Moser. "There was real capital flowing into defense globally, but it wasn't reaching the companies that deserved it most, the ones that had already proven their technology under the toughest operational conditions, with genuine customers, in some of the most demanding arenas in the world. We built Protego to bridge that gap, and the close of Fund I combined with our portfolio companies tremendous achievements in just a short period of time demonstrates that this combination is exactly what the market needed."
