Skinos Ventures

Website

Email: letsbuild@skinos.vc

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Yishay Yovel - General Partner

Shlomo Kramer - Strategic Advisor & Foundational Investor

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Skinos Ventures invests at the intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, targeting companies where AI is being used to reimagine security categories or address threats that legacy approaches can no longer handle. The fund's thesis centers on the view that AI is forcing a full reevaluation of attack surfaces, risk profiles, and operating models, and that AI-native founders who harness this shift while managing its risks will define the next generation of the industry.

Skinos Ventures has raised $26 million for its debut fund, the vast majority of it from Shlomo Kramer as the foundational investor. The fund plans to make five investments at the Seed and Series A stages, deploying checks of approximately $2.5 million at each stage. So far, it has invested in two startups: Spectrum Security (AI-native threat detection) and one company still in stealth mode.

Leadership

Yishay Yovel is the Founding General Partner of Skinos Ventures. A Cato Networks veteran who served as both CMO and Chief Strategy Officer, Yovel previously held executive marketing positions at Trusteer (VP Marketing, acquired by IBM) and Imperva (Sr. Director, Product Marketing), and has over 25 years of experience in marketing and product management across enterprise security. He was a key architect behind the rise of the SASE category at Cato Networks.

Shlomo Kramer, Strategic Advisor and Foundational Investor, co-founded Check Point Software Technologies in 1993, the pioneers of the first commercial firewall, and Imperva in 2002, the innovator of the web application firewall, before co-founding Cato Networks in 2015, the leader in SASE. He has made early investments in highly successful enterprise software companies including Palo Alto Networks, Trusteer, Gong, and numerous others.

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Investment Strategy

Skinos invests at Seed and Series A in AI-native cybersecurity companies, with checks of approximately $2.5 million per stage. The fund's differentiated value proposition is deep operational involvement: beyond the financial investment, the fund takes a hands-on approach working with founders in key areas such as marketing, sales strategy, and organizational roadmap, leveraging experience gained at Cato, Imperva, Trusteer, and Check Point. The fund targets a concentrated portfolio of approximately five companies.

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Notable Investments

Spectrum Security, an AI-native threat detection platform that automates threat detection at machine speed, which raised $19M in seed funding led by TechOperators alongside Skinos Ventures and others.One additional company currently in stealth.

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Notable Exits (Shlomo Kramer's track record)

• Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP), co-founded 1993, pioneered the commercial firewall
• Imperva (NASDAQ: IMPV), co-founded 2002, pioneered the Web Application Firewall; IPO and later acquired
• Cato Networks, co-founded 2015, created the SASE category; has raised over $1 billion at a ~$5 billion valuation and has explored a potential IPO, though a listing has been repeatedly delayed
• Early investments: Palo Alto Networks, Trusteer (acquired by IBM), Gong

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Other

Skinos is effectively a conviction fund, small, concentrated, and built around the specific expertise of its two principals rather than a broad platform strategy. Its limited partner base is anchored almost entirely by Kramer personally, making it operate with characteristics of both a family office and a specialist fund.

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