Team8: The Build-and-Invest Platform Founded by Unit 8200 Alumni
Team8 is the Israeli build-and-invest platform founded in 2014 by Nadav Zafrir, Israel Grimberg, and Liran Grinberg — three former Unit 8200 commanders. Combines VC investment with company-building and the largest CISO advisory network of any Israeli venture platform.
Team8 is the Israeli build-and-invest platform founded in 2014 by Nadav Zafrir, Israel Grimberg, and Liran Grinberg — three former commanders of Israeli military intelligence Unit 8200 — that combines venture-capital investment with company-building operations under a single roof. Team8 does not operate as a conventional fund. It builds companies from thesis to founding team to first commercial customers alongside its capital deployment, and it operates with the largest CISO advisory network of any Israeli venture platform. Portfolio companies include Illusive Networks, Sygnia, Hysolate, Curv (acquired by PayPal), and the broader cyber-and-fintech cluster the group has anchored since 2014. In December 2024, Zafrir stepped out of the day-to-day at Team8 to become CEO of Check Point Software Technologies — succeeding Gil Shwed — while remaining a Team8 Managing Partner. The dual position placed Team8 at the center of the Israeli cyber institutional layer.
What Team8 does
Team8 combines three interlocking functions inside one operating platform: a venture fund that invests in cyber, fintech, and data infrastructure companies; a company-building foundry that identifies category thesis, recruits founding teams, and stands up new companies from inside the platform; and an enterprise CISO village that brings the world's largest chief information security officer network into structured advisory and customer-development relationships with the portfolio.
The foundry function is what distinguishes Team8 from a conventional venture firm. Rather than backing founders who arrive with their own thesis, Team8 develops the category thesis in-house, then recruits the founding team — often from within its own alumni network and the broader Unit 8200 diaspora — and provides the operating infrastructure through the first 18 to 24 months of company life. The model reduces the founder-search risk that defines conventional early-stage venture and replaces it with thesis-selection risk.
Founders and leadership
Nadav Zafrir, former commander of Unit 8200 (IDF Military Intelligence signals intelligence division), served as Team8's CEO from founding in 2014 through December 2024. He remains a Managing Partner while serving as CEO of Check Point Software Technologies. Israel Grimberg and Liran Grinberg, both former Unit 8200 senior officers, co-founded the platform alongside Zafrir. The founding team's shared operational background produced the density of the CISO relationships that anchor the platform's commercial value proposition.
The CISO village
Team8's CISO advisory network is the largest of its kind operating from Israel. It includes chief information security officers from Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, and government-adjacent operators. Portfolio companies use the network for product-development validation, first-customer conversations, and go-to-market positioning. The commercial value the CISO network provides has been material to Team8's ability to build category leaders — the companies benefit from structured access to enterprise buyers years before they would otherwise reach that customer layer.
Portfolio
Notable Team8 companies include Illusive Networks (deception technology, later acquired by Proofpoint), Sygnia (incident response, acquired by Temasek), Curv (digital asset custody, acquired by PayPal in 2021), Hysolate (endpoint isolation, acquired by Perception Point), Portshift (cloud-native security, acquired by Cisco), and Claroty (industrial cybersecurity). The portfolio spans cyber (the founding vertical), fintech, and data infrastructure — with cyber remaining the dominant thesis exposure.
Position in the Israeli cyber cluster
Team8 sits inside the small group of Israeli venture platforms that have institutional gravitational pull inside the country's cybersecurity industry. Alongside Cyberstarts (Gili Raanan), YL Ventures (Yoav Leitersdorf), and Glilot Capital (Kobi Samboursky), Team8 is one of the four dedicated cyber-anchored Israeli venture platforms. Zafrir's transition to Check Point CEO in December 2024 made Team8 the single most institutionally connected of the four to the operating layer of Israeli listed cybersecurity.
Primary Sources
Team8 corporate communications; Nadav Zafrir Check Point CEO announcement (December 2024); Israeli Unit 8200 alumni network public materials; portfolio company transaction disclosures (Curv-PayPal, Portshift-Cisco, Sygnia-Temasek).
