Awz Ventures: The Canadian-Israeli Defense and Homeland Security VC

Awz Ventures is the Toronto- and Tel Aviv-headquartered defense-technology, homeland-security, and dual-use venture platform founded in 2016 by Yaron Ashkenazi — a former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) VIP-protection officer — together with Canadian real-estate investor Edward Sonshine, founder and chairman of the board of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust. The firm now manages approximately $500 million across four funds and 30-plus portfolio companies. The Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper, Canada's 22nd Prime Minister, serves as Advisory Committee President. Awz's 2020 partnership with MAFAT — the Israeli MOD's Directorate of Defense R&D — anchors the firm's Awz X-Seed early-stage vehicle. Portfolio: Pentera (cyber unicorn), Classiq (quantum computing), Ashkelon semiconductor fab.

Founding — Ashkenazi and Sonshine, 2016

Awz Ventures was launched in 2016 by Yaron Ashkenazi and Edward Sonshine. Ashkenazi, the founder and managing partner, serves as the operational lead; Sonshine, the founding partner and chairman of the board, brings the Canadian institutional and family-office LP base that anchors the fund's capital stack. Founding partners named alongside Ashkenazi and Sonshine include Avi Libman and Josh Gutenberg, together with Canadian institutional investors Howard Tanenbaum and Kenny Finkelstein as general-partner backers of the first fund.

The firm operates from offices in Toronto, Tel Aviv, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The founding thesis — dual-use security and intelligence technology invested through a Canadian-Israeli capital structure — has held across four funds and the platform's expansion into growth-stage and early-stage vehicles.

The Ashkenazi founder profile — Shin Bet VIP protection

Ashkenazi served for a decade in the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) VIP Protection Division, leading teams that protected several Israeli prime ministers — including Yitzhak Rabin — and President Shimon Peres. He holds an LL.B. from England and is a registered lawyer in Israel. The Shin Bet security-service background is the operational foundation for Awz's thesis: the founder profile carries institutional relationships across the Israeli security and intelligence agencies, which the firm has translated into deal flow across cyber, quantum, aerospace, robotics, and homeland-security technology.

The Shin Bet-to-venture-partner arc parallels the broader Israeli senior-security-officer transition pattern into venture-fund leadership. The distinguishing feature for Awz is the specifically homeland-security-and-intelligence framing — as distinct from the cyber-only framing that anchors 8200-alumni funds like Team8.

The MAFAT partnership and Awz X-Seed

In 2020 Awz signed a strategic partnership with MAFAT — the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Directorate of Defense Research and Development, then led by Brig. Gen. (Res.) Dr. Danny Gold. The partnership underpins Awz X-Seed, an early-stage vehicle that invests at pre-seed and inception stages into security-and-intelligence-adjacent Israeli companies, with initial checks in the $3–$5 million range. Awz X-Seed's Tel Aviv hub provides office space, business-development support, and access to Awz Ventures' international offices in Canada, the US, and the UAE for portfolio companies pursuing international market access.

Public reporting has identified Awz X-Seed's deal-sourcing collaboration with MAFAT, Mossad, Shin Bet, and elite Israeli military-intelligence units. The category emphasis at launch — cloud security, quantum, aerospace, deep-tech, robotics, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity — has held across subsequent deployment.

The Canadian institutional LP base and Harper advisory role

The distinguishing feature of Awz Ventures inside the Israeli defense-tech venture layer is the Canadian institutional and family-office LP base — an LP profile that no other Israeli defense-tech venture fund replicates. Chairman Edward Sonshine founded RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (one of Canada's largest REITs) and oversaw its growth from sub-CA$100 million enterprise value at the January 1994 IPO to Canada's largest REIT footprint at exit. Sonshine formerly served as a director of the Royal Bank of Canada.

The Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper, the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, serves as Advisory Committee President and partner. Additional advisory members include Tamir Pardo (former Mossad head), Ehud Schneerson (former Unit 8200 commander), and former IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, who joined the firm in December 2024. Ron Lubash — previously head of the Prisma investment house — is a fund partner.

Portfolio and category positioning

The Awz portfolio spans approximately 30 companies with a reported portfolio-value figure of ILS 2.5 billion. Named portfolio companies include Pentera — the Israeli automated-security-validation unicorn — and Classiq, the Tel Aviv quantum-computing platform. Category emphasis across the platform runs through cloud security, quantum computing, aerospace, deep-tech, robotics, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity — a category spread that reflects the dual-use foundation of the fund's thesis and the operational range of the MAFAT and security-agency relationships that anchor deal flow.

In November 2025 Awz announced plans for a NIS 5 billion (approximately $1.6 billion) semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ashkelon, developed in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Economy, MAFAT, and the Ashkelon Municipality. The 70,000-square-meter facility is intended to serve as a national semiconductor foundry — a scale of infrastructure commitment that positions Awz beyond the boundaries of a conventional venture fund and into strategic-technology-infrastructure territory alongside the country's existing Intel and Tower Semiconductor fabs.

Fund architecture — four funds, growth and early-stage vehicles

Awz Ventures operates four funds across the platform's operating history: an initial fund launched in 2016 alongside the Ashkenazi-Sonshine partnership, subsequent growth-stage vehicles, the 2021 Awz X-Seed early-stage vehicle anchored by the MAFAT partnership, and a series of follow-on vehicles. Publicly reported figures place total assets under management at approximately $500 million, with Awz X-Seed structured to raise approximately $75 million every 18 months for successive cohorts of 15 portfolio companies. Awz X-Seed initial check size runs $3 million to $5 million, with follow-on participation from the growth-stage funds and third-party co-investors.

Awz X-Seed was launched with Daniel Mak — a Canadian high-tech investor who joined Awz as a General Partner in 2019 — alongside two Israel-based General Partners: Roni Alsheich, former Deputy Director of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), and Sharon Gal, a senior Israeli defense-technology figure. The bench structure — Canadian investment operators paired with senior Israeli security-service alumni — is the operational expression of the firm's Canada-Israel positioning.

Position in the Israeli defense-tech venture layer

Awz Ventures sits inside the growing layer of Israeli defense-technology venture funds that has expanded across the post-October 7 window. That layer includes Ace Capital Partners — the Harel Insurance-anchored aerospace and defense vehicle founded in 2024 by MG (Ret.) Amikam Norkin and BG (Ret.) Shimon Tsentsiper. The two funds differentiate on stage, LP base, and thesis: Ace at Series A/B with a domestic-insurer anchor and IAF-officer founder profile; Awz across pre-seed through growth, with a Canadian institutional LP base and Shin Bet-and-Mossad advisory bench.

Primary Sources

Awz Ventures corporate materials (awzventures.com). Calcalist / Ctech, "Canada's Awz Ventures raises $82.5 million for a joint fund with the Israeli Ministry of Defence," August 12, 2021. Globes, "Canada's Awz raises $75m to invest in Israeli security tech," August 12, 2021. Israel Hayom, "Canadian VC firm to invest millions in Israeli defense startups," August 13, 2021. Calcalist / Ctech, "Former IDF chief Aviv Kohavi joins VC Awz," December 2, 2024. Times of Israel, "Specialized chip plant to be built in Ashkelon," November 13, 2025. INSS Yaron Ashkenazi profile.

Related Olam coverage

Ace Capital Partners: The Israeli Air Force Commander's Defense-Tech Venture Fund (olam.business/ace-capital-partners). Inside Israel's $14.8 Billion Defense Export Year (olam.business/inside-israels-14-8-billion-defense-export-year). Team8: The Build-and-Invest Platform (olam.business/team8). Israeli VC: Pitango, Aleph, Vintage, Glilot, NFX, Team8 — Who's Leading What (olam.business/israeli-vc-pitango-aleph-vintage-glilot-nfx-team8-whos-leading-what). Who Funds Israel: The Venture Capital Fund Map (olam.business/who-funds-israel-the-venture-capital-fund-map).