YL Ventures leads $8M Seed Round in Eureka to Secure Data in the Cloud

Today, we at YL Ventures are thrilled to announce the launch of Eureka, a cloud data security posture management platform that will enable enterprises to reimagine the way they approach data hygiene. Co-founded by Liat Hayun and Asaf Weiss, Eureka’s $8M seed round was led by YL Ventures and included participation from a wide swath of industry experts, including: Edna Conway (VP, Security & Risk Officer, Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure at Microsoft), David Hannigan (Director of Product Security Assurance at Google Cloud), Andy Ellis (Former CSO at Akamai Technologies), Ryan Gurney (Former CSO at Looker), Maarten Van Horenbeeck (CISO at Zendesk), Assaf Rappaport (CEO at Wiz), and Ben Bernstein (Former CEO at Twistlock, acquired by PANW).

Test Driving a Partnership

Working closely pre-investment with the entire YLV team over the course of several months, Liat and Asaf rigorously tested multiple hypotheses in their efforts to identify an opportunity that both quenched their thirst for solving seemingly impenetrable problems and registered as a top priority for a security community inundated with buzzwords and point solutions. “Data Security” is a massive category, and identifying the right entry into such a competitive space required several cycles of feedback and analysis. Liat and Asaf methodologically led this process with impressive patience and skill, tirelessly digging their way to a core problem that appealed both to those in search of a solution today and those thinking about the long term way to approach data hygiene in the cloud. Already excited to work with the team, this “dry run” only further instilled our confidence in their maturity and leadership skills.

I’d also like to mention how humbling it was to see the broad efforts of my YLV colleagues in support of this ideation process. Our team (now 20 in size!) worked its hardest out of a genuine excitement to partner with such a uniquely qualified team. While the contributions are too numerous to list all here, I’d be remiss not to call out the research from our own Naama Ben Dov and Yonit Wiseman, as well as the extraordinary effort put forth by Michael Cortez to support Liat and Asaf in a countless number of ways; from product strategy sessions with our CISO-in-Residence, Ryan Gurney, to deep-dive backchannel sessions with our Advisors, Michael embodied YLVs commitment to value-add investing. Looking back, it's fair to say that Liat and Asaf inspired our team in a way that brought out the very best we have to offer.

I often marvel at how lucky we are at YLV to have the privilege of supporting amazing entrepreneurs through this part of their journey. It's something we do not take for granted.

Eureka's Vision

Eureka’s approach is remarkable in its brilliantly simple value proposition: discover and classify sensitive data, while leveraging a unified, platform-agnostic policy engine to continuously monitor and manage risk across the entire enterprise. With cloud adoption increasing (and cloud data stores proliferating), security teams must account for the spread of sensitive information. As Liat and Asaf dove into the intricacies of this problem space, they were able to formulate an approach that secured six verbal commitments for design partnerships from top tier U.S. customers. It’s rare to see such eagerness and commitment from CISOs at the raw ideation stage, but the team’s efforts began to bear fruit before a single line of code was even written. I’ve never seen anything quite like it!?

Not only does Eureka’s platform inherently reduce risk (at its core - it is a true enterprise security solution), it also streamlines the operationalization of cloud data. Eureka will enable organizations to leverage their data more freely and efficiently, while maintaining comprehensive visibility of the company’s cloud footprint for security teams. Liat and Asaf aren’t simply helping CISOs reduce the risk associated with their data – they are achieving this in a way that will drive core business value for its customers.

Take it from a longtime friend of YLV, Dave Hannigan, who said: "The reality of adopting cloud is you will end up with a multi-cloud strategy. One of the greatest worries security professionals have when moving their sensitive data to the cloud is understanding what data is where, and being able to ensure the appropriate controls are in place to protect it. Eureka is focusing on this challenge: Enabling companies to securely put their data in cloud environments AND making that easier on the engineers, security teams and compliance teams to manage it. All from a simple platform with outsized impact. It’s game-changing." Truly remarkable - and easier said than done, no doubt! Luckily, we’ve partnered with the perfect duo to execute on this vision.

Outstanding Leadership

I must also take a step back and acknowledge how thrilling it has been to work through this process with entrepreneurs as special as Liat and Asaf. Looking back on the team’s journey to founding Eureka, there were certainly highs and lows as they scoured the market for the right opportunity. The process was, in fact, great validation for YLV as to the type of leaders that Liat and Asaf are. Never allowing lazy assumptions to drive decisions and always open to critical feedback, this duo identified a problem, derived a solution, orchestrated a business plan, and hit the ground running. I had a front row seat to a masterclass in critical thinking, which has already translated into elite execution.

Liat has already proven herself a highly skilled and capable leader throughout her career. She is a powerhouse, combining incredible domain expertise with leadership skills and charisma that inspires people to listen and follow. Moreover, while we often meet extraordinary people from Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem, the reputation that this team come to us with is particularly stellar. Having worked together in an elite IDF cybersecurity unit, each has won the prestigious Israel Defense Prize, and both have thrived in critical leadership positions at some of the industry’s most important security organizations. Sometimes, I can’t believe that these are the kinds of people I get to collaborate with every day.

I cannot wait to see what the road ahead holds for Eureka - and we are honored to play a supporting role in this wonderfully exciting journey!