The joint US-Israeli operation against Iran \u2014 the most significant military collaboration between the two countries in modern history \u2014 validated a thesis that Protego Ventures had been building since October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fund, one of the first in Israel to explicitly target defensetech, had already placed bets on the idea that the US-Israel alliance was evolving from a diplomatic relationship into something more structural. Founders Lital Leshem and Lee Moser imagined a technology pipeline backed by private capital, battlefield data, and a generation of founders who had seen war up close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen an Israeli company wants to sell today to the DoD, we have the mutual understanding that we stand for the same values, and we fight together,\u201d Moser said. A former Israeli diplomat and chief of staff to\u00a0Ambassador Michael Oren<\/a>, she spent years in the corridors of Congress lobbying for Israeli defense systems.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost of the entrepreneurs in Israel are graduates of elite information units\u2026 Add to that the revolution of AI and add to that what the world sees right now,\u201d she added. \u201cYou got yourself a superpower. Superpower with data from the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel\u2019s defensetech sector has long been seen as a natural evolution of cybersecurity, which in turn was born out of Israel\u2019s need to create robust security measures upon its establishment in 1948. The US-Israel alliance has been strong since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Data Point Advantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n