Gili Raanan

Gili Raanan is an Israeli venture capitalist and former founder of multiple software companies. Raanan started Sanctum in 1997, the company that created the Web application firewall AppShield and the web application penetration testing software AppScan. He later started NLayers which was acquired by EMC Corporation. He was a general partner at Sequoia Capital, the founder of Cyberstarts, and board member at Wiz, Adallom, Onavo, and Moovit, Snaptu.

Biography

Gili Raanan was born in Kfar Saba, Israel. He served in Unit 8200 for ten years. He earned a Bachelor of Computer Science In 2002 from the Tel Aviv University, he received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Recanati [Graduate School of Business Administration|Recanati School of the Tel Aviv University].

In 2009 Raanan joined Sequoia Capital in Israel as a General Partner. In 2018 Raanan founded Cyberstarts, which is an early stage VC focused on Cybersecurity. Raanan is a seed investor in a number of Cybersecurity companies such as Fireblocks, Wiz, Noname, Island.io, Armis and Adallom. These companies tend to be staffed with Unit 8200 veterans.
In June 2024 the Israeli business news outlet Calcalist published an investigation into Cyberstarts' business practices, writing that "points worth tens of thousands of dollars are awarded to Chief [information security officer|CISO]s of organizations for deepening relationships with the fund's portfolio companies, aiding their growth" and "mutual oral understanding is that the progress in accumulating points also involves purchases." Raanan and the fund responded by saying that "No CISO received compensation for purchasing products."