In early June, a missile struck the apartment of Ron Reiter, co-founder and chief technology officer of cybersecurity startup Sentra, just five minutes from the company's new headquarters in Tel Aviv. Several floors of the 44-story building were destroyed, but Sentra's operations have remained active, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Founded to protect cloud data across AI and software as a service environments, Sentra announced in April that it raised over $100 million from investors including Key1 Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, following a more than 300% year-over-year revenue increase and the addition of several new Fortune 500 clients.
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Unlike traditional infrastructure-dependent solutions, Sentra states it offers a unique protection layer that helps enterprises scale data security across multi-cloud and AI-driven environments, aligning with fast-changing business needs and complex enterprise demands.
In June, Sentra announced it was named a Customers' Choice in the 2025 Gartner Peer Insights "Voice of the Customer for Data Security Posture Management" report, earning a 4.9 out of 5.0 overall rating. Customers praised its speed, clarity, and ability to identify abandoned sensitive data.
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$100M Unicorn Dream Raised its Round While Dodging Missiles
Cybersecurity-AI startup Dream announced in February that it closed a $100 million Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Aleph, Tau Capital, Tru Arrow, and Group 11 at a $1.1 billion valuation. CEO Shalev Hulio, a former NSO Group co-founder is also a commander in the Israel Defense Forces' search-and-rescue reserves.
The Journal says that during the recent wave of conflict, Hulio was called up for military duty and has been balancing field operations with company leadership, holding team meetings each morning and customer calls in the evenings, while nearly 30 of Dream's 220 employees have also been deployed.
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"Missiles are landing in the heart of Israeli high tech," Hulio told The Journal. Tel Aviv, one of the world's leading startup ecosystems, has been a frequent target in the ongoing conflict, and five of Dream's employees have lost access to their homes due to nearby blast damage. Despite these conditions, the company reports that business operations have continued with minimal disruption.
Dream's proprietary cyber language model, a suite of AI models trained to simulate attacker and defender behavior, was developed to help governments and national cybersecurity organizations automate threat detection and response, the company said in its funding announcement.
VCs Run Deals From Bomb Shelters and Reinforced Rooms
Adi Levanon, founder and managing partner of early-stage investor Selah Ventures, continues negotiating deals while working from a reinforced room at her parents' house outside Tel Aviv, The Journal reports.
"It's very hard. But from a [venture capitalist’s] perspective, I'm even continuing [due diligence] and negotiations on a deal that I've been working on before this started; the founder and myself have been continuously texting and closing loose ends," Levanon told The Journal.
According to its website, Selah Ventures backs fintech startups in areas such as compliance, identity, GenAI, and privacy protection.
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The Journal reports that Rafael Gold, managing general partner at VentureIsrael, has been operating from a bomb shelter as well. Though flagship conferences like AI Week have been postponed, founders and investors continue pushing forward.
"Those conferences are big networking hubs for us, so it's disappointing, but in the grand scheme it's no drama," Gold told The Journal.
High-Tech Strength Turns Chaos Into Momentum
According to Dealroom, Israel is home to more than 4,500 venture-backed startups, most of which have adapted to conflict-driven disruption with speed and flexibility. In 2024, the country recorded more than $100 million in cybersecurity funding and over $414 million in enterprise software.
Jon Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, a Jerusalem-based investment startup, told The Journal that the "founders are showing grit, teams are focused, and we're still seeing new investments close across sectors from AI to climate tech."
Israel's technology sector continues to operate under emergency conditions, with founders, investors, and teams adapting operations to maintain business continuity.
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