Cybersecurity · VC Firm

Team8

Tel Aviv venture foundry and VC ($1.5B AUM) rooted in Israeli cyber; its sole quantum bet is Classiq, co-led at Series A in 2021 and followed through the record $110M Series C in May 2025.

Active Tel Aviv, IsraelFounded 2014

Investment thesis

Tel Aviv and New York venture group founded in 2014 by alumni of Israel's Unit 8200, running a dual model: a venture-creation foundry that co-builds companies from scratch and a venture-capital arm (Team8 Capital) investing at Seed and Series A. Manages $1.5B in AUM across cybersecurity, software infrastructure, fintech and digital health; closed roughly $500M in new vehicles in March 2024, including Team8 Capital II ($235M).

Its single quantum exposure is Classiq, the Israeli quantum software company: Team8 co-led the $10.5M Series A in January 2021 (with Wing Capital), then followed on in the $33M Series B (February 2022) and the $110M Series C led by Entrée Capital (May 2025), the largest quantum software round to date. Team8 was not named in Classiq's November 2025 strategic up-round (AMD Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, IonQ).

Leadership transitioned after co-founder Nadav Zafrir became CEO of Check Point in December 2024; Executive Chairman Yuval Shachar and co-founder Liran Grinberg now lead the firm, with former NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers as operating partner.

For quantum founders: a cyber-rooted backer that entered via software abstraction (not hardware) and has shown four years of follow-on discipline on one asset rather than a quantum portfolio strategy.

Anti-thesis

The patterns that trigger a fast no with this fund.

  1. One quantum asset, no quantum thesis: Classiq is Team8's only quantum position across 59 portfolio companies; there is no stated quantum mandate in any of its funds
  2. Cyber/CISO lens, not physics: the foundry's ideation engine and the Team8 Village network are built around enterprise security and IT buyers; a quantum hardware or sensing company falls outside its sourcing and validation machinery
  3. Follower since 2022 in quantum: Team8 co-led only the 2021 Series A; Entrée Capital led the seed and the Series C, and Team8 was absent from the November 2025 strategic round
  4. Leadership churn: founder and figurehead Nadav Zafrir left to run Check Point in December 2024; the quantum relationship predates the current leadership configuration
  5. Stage drift risk for new entrants: fresh capital (Team8 Capital II, 2024) targets Seed/Series A in cyber, data/AI, fintech and health; a new quantum seed deal would have to beat those four core domains for allocation

Notable quantum portfolio

Full portfolio
Classiq Technologies

Frequent co-investors