Swish Ventures is the latest venture fund of former NBA athlete Omri Casspi. Casspi has raised $60 million to be invested in early-stage cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI startups. The plan by Swish Ventures is to back 10 companies, investing $5 million to $7 million per deal. 

Casspi Takes on a Proactive Role

Sheva Capital, a $36 million fund, was the first fund that Casspi started. It launched in 2022. Swish Ventures is the second fund launched by Casspi. Now that Sheva’s portfolio investment period has concluded, Casspi says he is now managing Sheva’s portfolio as well as Swish Ventures. Casspi plans to continue overseeing both funds.

“I’m fully hands-on continuing the growth of our companies, but we will not be raising another fund under Sheva,” Casspi said. 

Swish Ventures investors include several founders who were backed by Sheva. These include EON founder Ophir Ehrlich, Upwind’s founder Amiram Shachar, and PointFive’s co-founders Gal Ben-David and Alon Arvatz. Sequoia Capital is an anchor investor and joins other institutional investors. 

Focusing on Cybersecurity, Cloud Infrastructure, and AI

Swish Ventures will follow a similar premise to Sheva and plans to concentrate on seed investments. According to Casspi, Swish Ventures will focus on “startups led by seasoned entrepreneurs who have the potential to build market-defining companies.” While Sheva had a broad scope, which included fintech, web3, and cybersecurity startups, Swish Ventures will prioritize cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and AI. This reflects investor interest in these areas, particularly in Israel and the United States—both countries where Casspi has concentrated his investments.

In the first six months of 2024, the cybersecurity sector drew in more than half of the venture capital raised by Israeli startups, according to Startup Nation Central. Israel’s strength in cybersecurity is well-known.

Israel has an affinity for second-time builders in this space, as seen with companies like Wiz and EON. Wiz is well known for turning down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google. In 2015, Wiz founders sold Adallom, their former startup, to Microsoft. EON, meanwhile, reached unicorn status a year after its founding. Its founders sold their previous startup, CloudEndure, to Amazon in 2019. Casspi has invested in Wiz with his own money, and Sheva counts EON among its portfolio companies.

Athletes Shifting to New Role as Investors

Casspi is the former captain of Israel’s national basketball team and the first Israeli to play in the NBA. He is also one of a few athletes who are now venture capitalists. The latest sports figure to enter the venture capital world is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. Serena Ventures is run by tennis star Serena Williams, Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns runs 35V, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors owns Penny Jar Capital, and 4x NBA champion Andre Iguodala is the owner of Mosaic General Partnership.

According to Casspi, his firms have about $125 million in assets under management. Upwind is also included among the startups in Sheva’s portfolio. Upwind recently confirmed its $900 million valuation. Among its investors is Stephen Curry’s Penny Jar. Sheva’s portfolio also includes PointFive, whose founders raised $36 million and sold a previous company to Rapid7.

Casspi says, “We are launching Swish at a time when the importance of the high-tech sector to Israel is maturing. The industry continues to bring foreign investments into the country. We are hands-on working with entrepreneurs on building large and global Israeli companies. The high-tech sector serves as an ambassador for Israel during these challenging times. The network of connections within the industry enabled us to initiate the visit of Elon Musk to Israel, one of the most influential people in the world.”

Dana Alexandrovich is joining Swish Ventures as an operating partner. She was previously the COO of Microsoft in Israel from 2021 onward and led sales operations across the Middle East and Africa.