Gili Raanan

Gili Raanan is a leading cybersecurity-focused venture capitalist and the founder of Cyberstarts, an premier early-stage VC firm investing in leading cybersecurity innovators. Since founding Cyberstarts in 2018, Gili has been instrumental in the early success of category-defining companies such as Wiz, Armis, Island, Fireblocks, Cyera, Transmit Security, and Upwind. Gili Raanan’s expertise in cybersecurity stems from his service in Israel’s elite Unit 8200 intelligence unit, where he was honored with the Israel Defense Forces Presidential Medal and the Innovation Award. As a technologist and entrepreneur, Gili is recognized as the inventor of CAPTCHA and played a foundational role in the creation of the web application firewall. His name appears on more than 10 U.S. patents across cybersecurity and application management. Before founding Cyberstarts, Gili launched two successful startups, Sanctum and nLayers, which were acquired by IBM and EMC, respectively. He later served as VP of Strategy at EMC and in 2009 joined Sequoia Capital as a General Partner, where he led investments in Israel’s emerging tech landscape with a focus on security and infrastructure. Under Gili Raanan’s leadership, Cyberstarts has raised over $720 million across five funds, with a portfolio now valued at more than $55 billion. The fund has backed multiple companies through significant exits, including Noname Security, Axis, Bionic, and Avalor. Gili currently sits on the Board of Directors for more than 10 Cyberstarts portfolio companies. In recognition of his ongoing impact in venture capital and cybersecurity, Gili was named #24 on the 2025 Forbes Midas List and ranked #3 on the Seed List. Gili Raanan lives in Mikhmoret, Israel, and is also a minority owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv’s professional basketball team.