Former NBA star turned venture capital investor Omri Casspi is making his next move in what has become a highly successful investing career: closing a $100 million raise for a new opportunity fund.
The move catapults the assets under management at Swish Ventures – the investment firm he launched just over a year ago – to $300 million, marking a critical strategic shift from early-stage seed investments to full lifecycle support of portfolio companies across all growth stages.
The new opportunity fund will target approximately eight investments in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI companies, with an average investment of $10 million per company. The fund will continue to be an active partner working closely with founders to build their businesses.
Investors in the fund include institutional investors and family offices from Israel and the US, joining previous investors who have already experienced impressive returns alongside Casspi’s Swish, including American venture capital giant Sequoia Capital.
From Early Bets to Unicorns
The move comes on the heels of significant successes at Casspi’s Swish Ventures, which he announced just last December with a $63 million seed fund – and in a remarkably short time has already notched particularly impressive investments.
Among the standout portfolio companies is cybersecurity firm Upwind, founded by Amiram Shachar, Liran Polak, Tal Zur, and Lavi Freedman (Spot.io alumni). Founded in 2022 to develop cloud application security solutions, the company has raised $180 million since inception at valuations that jumped significantly between rounds – from approximately $300 million to $900 million.
Recent reports indicate negotiations for its acquisition by American software company Datadog at a valuation of $1 billion. Casspi invested in the company at its earliest stages through his Swish fund and played a crucial role in exposing it to additional investors, including NBA star Steph Curry.
Casspi is also listed as one of the earliest investors in EON, a cybersecurity company recognized for one of the fastest growth rates in the industry. The cloud backup solutions company was founded by Ofir Ehrlich, Ron Kamhi, and Gonen Stein in January 2024 and in less than a year completed five funding rounds totaling half a billion dollars.
Last December, the company’s fifth funding round was announced – a $300 million raise at a valuation of approximately $4 billion – marking one of the most successful investment outcomes and fastest growth rates ever recorded in the global venture capital industry.
A Winning Team
Other portfolio companies in which Swish invested at early stages include Cognition, Irregular, Applied Compute, and Tenzai – all operating in the fund’s investment focus areas: AI, cybersecurity, and advanced technology infrastructure.
“We have the privilege of working with exceptional entrepreneurs building companies that transform entire industries,” Casspi said. “From day one, we built Swish around one principle: standing behind our entrepreneurs every step of the way.” “We don’t just write checks,” he emphasized. “We’re available for our companies at every moment – helping them raise capital, recruit talent, open doors, and do whatever it takes to build a great company.” According to him, the new fund will enable Swish to continue supporting companies through later growth stages and help “support advanced funding rounds and create additional investment opportunities for our investors.”
Alongside Casspi, who was selected for Forbes Israel’s 30 Under 30 list in 2016, Ori Striechman serves as Head of Technology and Investments at the fund. Striechman (27), who was selected for Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list last year, is a distinguished graduate of the elite 8200 intelligence unit and is responsible for the fund’s technology thesis and deal flow management.
After completing his military service, he began his professional career as VP of Research at Israeli cybersecurity company Cyberillium. About a year and a half ago, he made what he calls “the most important career move to date” and joined Casspi’s investment team.
