Walmart, Barclays, SoftBank Among Investors In Team8’s New $85M Cybersecurity Fund

Team8, an Israeli cybersecurity think tank and company creation platform founded by veterans of the elite IDF intelligence unit 8200, has launched a second fund of some $85 million to build cybersecurity and data companies over the next five years.

New investors in the fund include Walmart, Softbank, Scotiabank, Barclays, and Airbus, in addition to existing backers M-12, Microsoft’s venture-capital arm, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Cisco, and Nokia.

Team8 has launched a number of successful cybersecurity companies including Illusive Networks, which develops deception tech to detect hacking attacks, Claroty, which provides advanced solutions to secure critical infrastructure systems, Hysolate, a creator of a “hybrid” endpoint architecture technology, and Sygnia, a military-grade cyber consulting and incident response company set to be acquired by Temasek for a reported $250 million.

Team8 is headed by Nadav Tzafrir, and operates in Tel Aviv and New York City. The foundry has raised $260 million since its founding in 2014, and employs over 350 people.

“Rogue states, hackers, terrorists and criminals are intent on wreaking physical, financial and societal havoc and catastrophic damage on governments, corporations and individuals,” Schmidt, said in a statement quoted by TechCrunch. “As data continues to proliferate and our technical capabilities expand, cyber attacks and wars will increase in number and intensity.”

A Team8 spokesperson told TechCrunch that the foundry “will continue to focus on the enterprise, but not necessarily just defense.”

“We’re currently working on zero-trust networks for multi-cloud environments, secure on-ramping of blockchain, safe collaboration on sensitive data; and rethinking how machine learning can significantly impact the business. These are designed with built in security, data science, and intelligence, to allow companies to prosper and not be inhibited by security controls” the spokesperson wrote.