Venture capital firm YL Ventures GP Ltd. has closed its fourth fund at $120 million. Specializing in seed-stage investing in Israeli cybersecurity startups, the fund is the first YL Ventures has raised since 2017 and brings the total capital under management for the firm to $260 million.

The YLV IV fund will follow in the footsteps of previous YL funds in that it will invest in a concentrated portfolio of what it considers top-tier seed stage cybersecurity companies out of Israel. The fund will target a total of just 10 companies.

Usually co-investing alongside leading U.S. venture capital firms such as Bessemer Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, ICONIQ Capital and TenEleven Ventures, YL Ventures has an evaluation process that taps into a venture advisory board. The board includes an impressive range of security professionals from leading companies.

Advisory board members include Andy Ellis, chief security officer at Akamai Technologies Inc.; Adam Ely, deputy chief information security officer at Walmart Inc.; Brooks Evans, director of security at Netflix Inc.; David Hannigan, head of security at Spotify AB; George Kurtz, chief executive officer & founder of CrowdStrike Inc.; and Sherry Ryan, CISO at Juniper Networks Inc.

Prominent exits for YL Ventures include Twistlock Ltd., acquired by Palo Alto Networks Inc. for $410 million; Hexadite Ltd., acquired by Microsoft Corp. for $100 million; Blazemeter, acquired by CA Technologies; and FireLayers Ltd., acquired by Proofpoint Inc.

“As with previous funding efforts, the YLV IV fund will be extremely selective, investing in only the most promising Israeli startups tackling the biggest cybersecurity challenges facing the industry,” YLV IV fund head and YL Ventures Managing Partner Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf (pictured, second from right), said in a statement. “We then go the extra mile to make our portfolio companies successful, nurturing nascent technologies and products, and leveraging our hard-won network of CISOs and C-suite executives in the U.S.”

Photo: YL Ventures