Announcing Our New Fund: UpWest Fund IV

Today, we are thrilled to announce the closing of our new, oversubscribed fund: UpWest Fund IV, a $70m fund designed to lead the first investment round for Israeli founders breaking into the US market.

Our 10 years of experience actively investing in 87 startups has taught us many lessons. Most importantly, this experience has informed our future journey, crystallizing what we always knew mattered most in our work: staying the course, thinking long-term, investing in relationships and providing value.

Although this fund is three times the size of our previous fund and we already transitioned away from the accelerator model, we remain firmly committed to supporting the very early days of a startup’s journey, backing exceptional Israeli founders breaking into the US market. We continue to believe in our first-check approach to help supercharge new companies, and are now leading both pre-Seed & Seed rounds. Our initial check will range from a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars, with meaningful reserves for follow-ons.

Partnering with determined founders solving hard problems

Over the years we have built the largest portfolio of Israeli startups headquartered in the US, with over 40 companies establishing their headquarters across the country. We were fortunate to be the first institutional investors in companies such as SentinelOne, Honeybook, Stampli, Imubit, Codefresh, CyCognito, and many more. These companies have gone on to raise over $2B in follow-on funding and employ thousands of people around the world.

In our new fund, we will continue to remain domain-agnostic, investing in Cybersecurity, Fintech, Dev Tools, Future of Work, Digital Heath, B2B, B2C, and many other domains. In fact, we already began deploying capital and have led Seed rounds in four promising (and still stealth) startups across various sectors.

More than anything else, partnering with these gritty founders is what keeps us running. We help our founders through the ups & downs, the late nights & early mornings, serving as their guide and sounding board as they scale their startups. We are proud to be deeply involved in the long-term journey, from connecting our portfolio companies to >90% of their Series A capital to acting as HR when needed in supporting hiring, and handling “special projects” when challenges inevitably pop up. We continue to be in awe of our founders, and can’t wait to back the next generation of entrepreneurs with our new fund.

Expanding our team and our Israeli presence

With a growing portfolio of companies, we began thinking strategically about scaling the UpWest team. While we have been deeply entrenched in the Israeli tech ecosystem, our expanded approach to investing demanded the presence, network and leadership we found in Assaf Wahrhaft, who joined us as our Partner in Israel back in 2019.

Assaf has over 20 years of experience in the tech world, most recently as Partner at Viola Credit (part of the Viola Group). Prior to that, he held various positions including product management at iMDsoft, a leading digital health company that was later acquired by TPG Growth.

Led by Assaf and Lia Cromwell, our Principal who joined us in 2017, our expanded Israeli presence and Tel Aviv office enable us to provide hands-on support for portfolio companies’ Israeli teams, develop stronger & ongoing dealflow access, and continue to build relationships with Israeli investors and VCs.

Building on an exceptional track record

When we first started UpWest, we were joined by a handful of believers — 12 investors to be exact — who enthusiastically stood behind us with their advice, experience and checks. We will always appreciate their trust and conviction in our journey from day one. Our Fund I investors were founders, angel investors and tech executives from Silicon Valley and Israel, and nearly all of them backed us in our future funds. We took a lot from this experience, as we continue to back new founders with the same mindset: the desire to be the first check and join the long journey ahead.

Our first fund investors have seen significant returns over the years. However, 2021 was an exceptional year with the successful SentinelOne IPO, the largest cybersecurity IPO to-date, where UpWest was the very first investor in this standout company. This resulted in the fund ranking in the top 1% of all global funds, with other success stories in this fund such as HoneyBook still forming.

Our second and third funds are quickly following in our first fund’s footsteps, with several breakout companies already on the near horizon: Stampli continues to make waves with the launch of its digital card and its recent $50M Series C; Imubit came out of stealth earlier this year to announce $50M in total funding; and external attack surface management company CyCognito has emerged as a category leader.

Building on these successes, we feel appreciative that our new Fund IV is backed by investors from the US, Israel, Europe and Asia. Among them are fund-of-funds, pension funds, banks, endowments, family offices, as well as notable tech founders and CEOs. We feel grateful to have in this fund many of the same investors who backed us when UpWest was in its infancy, operating above a sandwich shop across the street from Stanford University.

Building a fund is about building a community

We were fortunate to lean hard into the community aspect of our work from day one, and we want to thank everyone who has been instrumental to our journey.

First, our startup founders, who inspire us every day and whose leadership and resilience constantly guide us. Second, our fund investors, who have supported and guided us in scaling the fund while remaining true to who we are. Finally, all the partners, advisors, mentors and supporters who have been with us from the very beginning. Most notably, Liron Petrushka, who is still an integral part of everything that we do.

Here’s to partnering with a new generation of entrepreneurs as UpWest enters its second decade of investing!

Interested in talking to us? Email any of us directly or at hello@upwest.vc

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