Team8 is an Israel-based venture firm that builds and invests in companies that specialize in cybersecurity, data, fintech, and digital health. To learn more about the firm, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Team8 VP of Marketing Asaf Azulay.
Asaf Azulay’s Background
Azulay is the VP of Marketing of Team8. Prior to joining the firm, he was the Chief Marketing Officer of Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel’s largest banks, and the creator of the BIT payment app. Azulay also served as a representative of the bank to the UAE and Bahrain, and he held a seat on Hapoalim’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee where he led many diversity and social inclusion activities. In previous positions, Azulay provided strategic consulting services for numerous tech companies and non-profit organizations.
Core Focus
In parallel to making investments in areas where they have domain expertise, Team8 employs a unique foundry venture model that is centered around co-founding and building companies together with exceptional entrepreneurs. “We pride ourselves on providing founders with a unique tool kit to maximize the probability of their success,” said Azulay. “Team8 Group, which was founded in 2014, has roots in Israel’s elite Technology and Intelligence military unit, 8200, so our first foundry was established to build cyber security startups. In 2020 – after having refined our company-building model – we decided to replicate our success in cyber and expand to fintech, and in 2022 we opened our first digital health foundry. Over the years, Team8 has built an outstanding reputation as the venture partner of choice for talented entrepreneurs who are looking to co-build companies, and who want more than just an investor.”
Biggest Milestones
When I asked Azulay about the firm’s biggest milestones, he noted that in just over 8 years, they have built 15 companies and invested in 16. “In the company-building realm, we’ve had a number of significant milestones, especially among the first cohort of startups built in our cyber foundries. Of these, two have reached unicorn status (Claroty and Visible Risk), and five have been acquired: Curv (acquired by PayPal), Sygnia (acquired by Temasek), Portshift (acquired by Cisco), Hysolate (acquired by Perception Point), and Illusive (acquired by Proofpoint),” added Azulay. “The fintech foundry is still quite new but we’re proud to have had some early successes. April, an embedded tax company launched in early 2022, raised its $30 million Series A round just six months later. And our newest foundry company 40Seas, a cross-border trade financing platform for supply chain businesses, launched earlier this year with seed funding and a $100 million credit facility from international shipping giant ZIM. In terms of the firm’s investment track record, the majority of early-stage companies backed by us have gone on to secure follow-on funding rounds.” Azulay also pointed out that another Team8 milestone revolves around the success of the firm’s CISO Village, which is a global network of cybersecurity industry professionals who play a key role in guiding our ideation and company-building processes. And the most recent milestone – of which they are particularly proud – is the Founders Village, a new Team8-led initiative aimed at bringing together an exclusive group of top-notch founders from all over the world to support and empower one another, exchange knowledge and experiences, and promote authenticity, diversity, and inclusion in the global startup community.
Differentiation From Other Firms
“I would say our signature company-building model is what sets Team8 apart from other firms. Our formula entails maintaining an extremely high level of discipline to de-risk processes and make them repeatable. In our ideation track we invest a lot of resources to identify industry problems and propose solutions. We then conduct an intense validation process to test our thesis,” Azulay responded. “Once we’re confident about an idea, we partner with the best entrepreneurs in the world to co-found a company with us and work together to find product market fit and embark on a path to profitability.”
Azulay also acknowledged that achieving fantastic results starts with a passion for making an impact, as well as a lot of domain expertise. “I’m fortunate to work with an incredible team of Managing Partners, including some of Israel’s most accomplished intelligence leaders, unicorn founders, and industry executives. They play a key role in guiding and overseeing our company-building endeavors, as does our incredible staff of 80 in-house operators who provide our startups with hands-on support for everything from marketing, business development, and R&D to HR and finance. We also lean on our network of industry partners to identify pain points and validate ideas. In some cases, members of this network turn into design partners, customers, and even investors in our companies,” Azulay pointed out.
Learnings From the Founders Village
The Founders Village was launched at the end of February and the firm was extremely pleased to host more than 100 tech founders from around the globe at their launch event. This two-day “unconference” was a huge success in large part due to the caliber of founders who attended but also their sponsors like AWS, Meta, KPMG, and others.
“The event itself took place at a gorgeous venue overlooking the Dead Sea, and the agenda was filled with lots of intimate conversations around personal and professional topics led by the participants themselves, a magical format we’ve been embracing for years. The gathering and content were carefully curated and designed to inspire and reinvigorate participants’ creativity through memorable experiences, and create a playground for founders to build deep bonds and discussions,” Azulay said about the event. “We were quite certain – perhaps because of the current market environment – that bringing together an exclusive group of tech founders from different industries would be impactful, but we were completely blown away by the participant feedback we received. I believe we underestimated how much value founders would find in forming meaningful connections with their peers. The entrepreneurial journey is not easy. It can be lonely at the top. And in these challenging times, there’s no doubt that collaborations and support systems make all the difference. In parallel, the Founders Village has reinforced our conviction that successful company building entails helping entrepreneurs to acquire knowledge, make connections and acquire the tools they need to succeed.”
Future Goals
When I asked Azulay about the firm’s future goals, Azulay replied:
“Team8 started as a venture group committed to building and investing in companies that aim to solve big industry problems, make an impact in the world, and provide value to our investors. Despite the market downturn, our mission has not changed. Looking forward, and in addition to announcing some exciting launches and funding rounds later this year, we intend to grow our network of industry partners, including the CISO Village discussed earlier. We also can’t wait to roll out more relationship-building initiatives around the Founders Village, and we’re thrilled to have just launched an exclusive CDO Club in late March. This network is composed of a dedicated community of global data executives and experts who will help us build companies at the forefront of data technologies and data-driven decisions.”
