A Look Back at 2025 with Hetz Ventures

If anything, this was the year to keep moving.

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For Israeli founders, teams, and investors alike, the environment in 2025 remained complex and uneven. But one thing has been clear for a while: there’s no use waiting for ‘perfect conditions’ - not on the best day, and certainly not heading into this year.

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Let's take our annual look back for a sense of where we're heading in 2026.

Cyber & Data, Front and Center

As momentum returned in 2025, cyber and data weren’t just active categories - they were the ones setting the pace. But, hey - this has been the center of our gravity at Hetz for years, and this past year reflected that focus clearly. Maybe the airline miles alone can account for some of that: the team hosted 25+ founder/exec/investor events and gatherings across the US, Europe and Israel in the last 12 months.

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Cybersecurity: Conviction pays off

Throughout the year, leading on cyber continued to be a core focus, and as market confidence returned, we were happy to see the impact of long-term conviction became visible.

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Our nickname for Q3 - the ‘Summer of Cyber’ - emerged naturally, marking a concentrated stretch of progress across the Hetz cyber portfolio: Prompt Security was acquired by SentinelOne. BlinkOps announced its Series B. Tonic Security came out of stealth. 

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Alongside portfolio momentum (more on that below), we remained deeply present across the global cyber ecosystem, from RSA to BlackHat, staying closely connected to founders, CISOs, and security leaders shaping the next generation of the category.

Data & Infrastructure: Plugging Israel into the stack

In 2025, Hetz became the only Israeli VC partnered with both Snowflake and Databricks on exclusive programs for early-stage companies. These partnerships created direct, ongoing pathways between Israeli startups and two of the most influential data platforms globally - opening doors to product feedback, partnerships, and real-world enterprise exposure.

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Rather than one-off initiatives, these programs were built as durable infrastructure for data founders: sustained access, hands-on engagement, and long-term relationships with the teams shaping the modern data stack.

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By the end of the year, the Hetz Data Program for data and AI infrastructure startups includes both exclusive and collaborative partnerships including: 

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Less Noise, Better Conversation

During a year where noise returned faster than clarity, we stayed focused on fewer, better conversations and creating space for founders and operators to speak directly to one another.

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Throughout 2025, Hetz continued to invest in long-form, practitioner-led dialogue around how cyber, data, and AI companies are actually built - through our data podcast, close-up founder sessions, expert-led 'teardowns' and hosted discussions.

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Portfolio Momentum: What building with conviction looks like

For us, the year reinforced something we’ve long believed: durable companies are built through cycles, not around them. Many of the milestones reached this year were years in the making - the result of early technical ambition, close partnership with founders, and steady execution well before conditions felt ‘easy.’ At the same time, we continued to invest actively at the early stage, backing new teams across cybersecurity and data/infra and doubling down on existing portfolio companies as they grew. 

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- We welcomed six new portfolio companies in 2025.

- Collectively, our portfolio raised more than $500M throughout the year.

- A major highlight was Prompt Security’s acquisition by SentinelOne to advance GenAI and agent security.

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Other exits include, Infinipoint acquired by Outpost24 to expand identity security capabilities and Revrod, acquired by Torq to power next-gen security ops.

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Plus, significant momentum for our active portfolio: 

• Majestic Labs raised $100M, advancing a new generation of AI-native infrastructure for building and operating intelligent systems.
• Opti raised a $20M Seed round working to tame identity sprawl with an AI-native approach to enterprise identity security.
• BlinkOps announced its $50M Series B, accelerating its momentum in security automation.
• Tonic Security came out of stealth, introducing a new approach to cloud and application security.
• Flox announced its $25M Series B, continuing to build a modern, open foundation for data science and machine learning teams.
• Gomboc AI announced its Seed, tackling cloud security backlogs with deterministic AI that prioritizes risk-validated remediation.
• Aligned closed its Series A, helping revenue teams run more effective, data-driven sales processes.
• Runhouse emerged from stealth, focused on simplifying how developers build, deploy, and scale AI workloads.
• Faireez raised its seed round, rethinking how residential services are delivered through technology and operational excellence.
• Jones announced its Series B, expanding its platform for modern insurance and risk management.

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Looking Ahead at 2026

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re finding ourselves more energized than ever in our 8 years since launching. Momentum has returned to the ecosystem: We’re meeting focused and experienced founders, finding that our global partners are paying closer attention, and seeing that our thesis continues to prove itself: Israeli cyber, data, and infrastructure companies are continuing to play an outsized role in shaping what comes next.

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At Hetz, we enter the new year ready to work harder and move even faster. Interested in working together this year? Follow along and get in touch.

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