Former NBA athlete Omri Casspi has raised $60 million for his latest venture fund, Swish Ventures, which invests in early-stage cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI startups. The fund plans to support 10 companies, investing between $5 million and $7 million in each deal.
Swish Ventures is Caspi's second fund, following the launch of Sheva Capital, a $50 million fund in 2022. Caspi said he now manages Sheva's portfolio now that the investment period has ended. “While I am fully committed to continuing to grow the company, I have no intention of raising any new capital under Sheva,” Caspi told TechCrunch, explaining his role overseeing both funds.
Several Sheva-backed founders are now investors at Swish Ventures, including EON founder Ofir Ehrlich, Upwind founder Amiram Shachar, and Point Five co-founder Includes founders Gal Ben-David and Aron Arvatz. They join other institutional investors. Sequoia Capital is the fund's anchor investor.
Caspi said Swish Ventures will follow a similar path to Sheba and focus on seed investments in “start-up companies led by experienced entrepreneurs with the potential to build market-defining companies.” Ta. But Swish Ventures has narrowed its focus to cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI. This is a shift from Sheva's broader remit, which includes fintech and Web3 in addition to cybersecurity startups.
The move reflects growing investor interest in cybersecurity and AI, particularly in Israel and the United States, where Mr. Caspi has focused his investments.
Israel is particularly known for its strength in cybersecurity, with more than half of the venture capital raised by Israeli startups in the first half of 2024 going into this sector, according to Startup Nation Central. Caspi has invested his personal funds in Wiz, and Eon is a portfolio company in Sheva.
Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA and a former captain of the Israeli national basketball team, is just one of several athletes who are now venture capitalists. Just last week, Giannis Antetokounmpo became the latest athlete to enter the venture capital world. Specifically, Serena Williams runs Serena Ventures, Kevin Durant owns 35V, Stephen Curry owns Penny Jar Capital, and Andre Iguodala owns Mosaic General Partnership.
Mr. Caspi claims his company manages approximately $125 million in assets. Other startups in Sheva's portfolio include Upwind, which has reached a valuation of about $900 million, and PointFive, whose founder previously sold the company to Rapid7 and raised $36 million.
Swish adds Dana Alexandrovich as an operating partner. Prior to his current role, he served as COO of Microsoft in Israel since 2021, leading sales operations across the Middle East and Africa.