Team8 Expands Cyber and AI Focus with New Partner Appointments, Ori Barzilay and Matthew Schoenfeld, and Accelerates Investment Activity with Five New Investments

Ori Barzilay appointed to Partner to Lead Investments in Cyber, AI, and Enterprise Infrastructure, Matthew Schoenfeld Joins as Operating Partner to Drive Portfolio Growth

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Team8 a global venture fund that builds and invests in companies across cybersecurity, data, AI, fintech, and digital health, as well as their intersections today announced the appointment of two new partners, Ori Barzilay and Matthew Schoenfeld, who join the fund’s executive teams. These appointments reflect Team8’s growing momentum in cybersecurity and AI, underlining its commitment to increasing investments at the earliest stages, scaling startups into global players, and strengthening Israel’s cyber and AI ecosystems.

In the past six months alone, Team8 has already deployed significant capital in 11 new companies and in follow-on investments across the group’s 40 other portfolio companies. Team8 currently manages over a billion dollars in assets under management and supports its portfolio companies from day one with a dedicated team of 100 experts, accelerating growth across go-to-market, talent acquisition, AI, and finance functions.

Ori Barzilay has been appointed to Partner and will lead investments in cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure, and AI. Ori joined Team8 two years ago as a Principal, working closely alongside Liran Grinberg, Team8’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner. He played a role in key Team8 portfolio investments including Port, a leader in developer experience which has raised $58 million from top funds including Bessemer and Accel, as well as Sawmills in the observability space, and a number of stealth investments, 4 in the cyber space and 1 in the AI space. Prior to Team8, Ori held the role of Senior Associate at Pitango and was a Product Manager at cybersecurity company Adaptive Shield, which was acquired by CrowdStrike for $300 million. He also specialized in energy and IoT at PDP as a Product Manager and began his career as a tech-operational intelligence officer in one of the elite IDF units, earning a badge of honor from the Military Intelligence Directorate for operational excellence. In 2024, Forbes Israel named him among its list of promising young leaders in their 30under30 List.

Matthew Schoenfeld joins as Operating Partner and will support portfolio companies with go-to-market strategy guidance in addition to helping to scale their respective Sales functions. Matthew is a veteran cyber executive with over 20 years of experience leading high- performing sales teams and building differentiated go-to-market strategies for high-growth cybersecurity startups and public companies. Previously, he was an EIR at the Silicon Valley based fund, Greylock Partners, and acted as a Board and GTM advisor to leading cyber firms, including Axonius, Awake, Lyra Health and Abnormal. His executive Operational background includes serving as President of Fortra, a private equity owned cybersecurity company valued at $1 billion, Chief Revenue Officer at Absolute Software, and SVP Sales at FireEye, where he managed annual revenues exceeding $500 million.

Liran Grinberg, Team8 Co-Founder, and Managing Partner, said, “I’m excited to announce the addition of two exceptional partners to Team8. Ori Barzilay will lead investments in cybersecurity, software infrastructure, and AI as we expand and accelerate activity in these key areas. Over the past few years, Ori has played a key role in intensifying Team8’s activities across these verticals, which has made five investments in the last two months alone, some of which were carried out even during wartime. Having worked closely with Ori over recent years, during which he has guided dozens of companies and hundreds of entrepreneurs, he has earned great respect from Israeli founders and the venture ecosystem. Ori brings deep insight, wisdom, experience, and unique interpersonal skills crucial to closely partnering with founders on their journey to build large, meaningful companies. Now, as my partner, I’m confident that Ori will go on from here to become one of Israel’s most promising investors.”

Liran added, “Matthew Schoenfeld has proven to be a secret weapon for any B2B company on its path to growth from early stage to scaling. From serving as a strategic advisor to Team8 and its portfolio companies, Matthew is now joining full-time as an Operating Partner, reinforcing Team8’s commitment to building a unique fund dedicated to delivering real value across all domains, especially in go-to-market strategy. Matthew will join Team8 and will work closely with portfolio entrepreneurs as a resource to ensure they are applying a deep /repeatable methodology and honing in on sales strategy, hiring, and channel partnerships that ensure differentiation and maximum growth. His partnership is great news for current and future portfolio companies.”

Team8 continues to grow and build a unique fund in the Israeli landscape, with deep expertise in core verticals (cybersecurity, AI, software infrastructure, fintech, and digital health), backed by an internal platform team of approximately 100 specialists across marketing, sales, talent acquisition, finance, technology, and AI. Alongside this, Team8’s Village communities unite hundreds of industry leaders from major global organizations: the CISO Village includes over 600 cybersecurity leaders focused on the US market, complemented by parallel Villages in infrastructure, data and AI, fintech, and digital health.

Amid the outbreak of conflict with Iran, Team8 hosted its flagship annual CISO Village Summit in Florida, gathering over 100 cybersecurity leaders (CISOs) from the world’s largest enterprises and 15 of Team8’s cyber portfolio companies. This summit has become one of the premier events globally for CISOs, with 100% of attendees recommending it to colleagues and naming the Team8 CISO Village Summit among their top three professional events annually, ahead of dozens of other industry conferences.