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Key people at Matias Ventures.
Matias Ventures operates as a family office, investing in early-stage startups. The firm concentrates on companies solving significant problems within artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. With over 80 investments and multiple successful acquisitions, Matias Ventures partners strategically with founders developing future technological solutions.
Founded in 2020, Matias Ventures was established by the father-son team, Yossi Matias and Michael Matias. Yossi Matias, a Vice President at Google and head of Google Research, provided deep AI expertise. Michael Matias, a Stanford CS alumnus and from Israel's Unit 8200, contributed entrepreneurial and early-stage investment experience, backing impactful technology.
The firm serves founders of early-stage technology companies, particularly those innovating in AI and cybersecurity. Matias Ventures aims to foster ventures that tackle meaningful problems with advanced technology. Its vision centers on cultivating a robust ecosystem of disruptive startups, actively shaping critical next-generation technologies.
Key people at Matias Ventures.
# High-Level Overview
Matias Ventures is an Israel-based early-stage venture capital fund founded in 2020 that focuses on investing in deep technology companies with a mission to create positive global impact.[2] The firm specializes in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, though it maintains flexibility to invest across adjacent technology domains.[1] Operating from Herzliya and Tel Aviv, Matias Ventures has built a portfolio of 21 companies and has demonstrated successful exit activity, including the acquisition of portfolio company Entitle by BeyondTrust for $140 million in April 2024.[1] The fund's investment philosophy centers on identifying early-stage startups leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve meaningful problems, positioning itself as a bridge between academic innovation and commercial viability in the Israeli tech ecosystem.
Matias Ventures was established in 2020 by Yossi Matias and Michael Matias, two founders with exceptional pedigrees in technology and entrepreneurship.[2] Yossi Matias brings deep expertise from his tenure as Vice President of Search and AI at Google, giving him insider knowledge of how transformative AI technologies are developed and deployed at scale.[3][4] Michael Matias, who studied computer science at Stanford and served in Israel's elite 8200 intelligence unit, brings both technical rigor and operational experience from the Israeli startup ecosystem.[3][4] This combination of Silicon Valley credibility and Israeli tech ecosystem expertise positioned the founders to identify and support breakthrough deep technology ventures at their earliest stages. The fund's creation reflected a strategic opportunity to capitalize on the convergence of AI advancement and cybersecurity challenges, while maintaining a broader mandate to support any deep technology venture with genuine impact potential.
The fund's primary differentiator lies in its founding team's exceptional credentials. Yossi Matias's background as a Google AI executive provides direct access to insights about emerging AI trends and connections within the global tech leadership ecosystem. Michael Matias's Stanford education and Israeli military intelligence background create bridges to both academic innovation centers and the operational startup community.
While the fund maintains concentrated expertise in AI and cybersecurity—two of the most capital-intensive and technically demanding sectors—it deliberately avoids rigid sector constraints.[1] This balanced approach allows the team to pursue exceptional opportunities outside their core focus areas while maintaining deep domain knowledge where it matters most.
The fund has already achieved meaningful liquidity events, with the Entitle acquisition representing a $140 million exit.[1] This early success validates the fund's investment thesis and provides portfolio companies with a proven pathway to acquisition by established security vendors.
Unlike generalist venture funds, Matias Ventures explicitly targets companies building deep technology—ventures requiring significant R&D, novel algorithms, or breakthrough scientific approaches rather than incremental software improvements. This specialization attracts founders with genuine technical innovation and filters for companies with defensible competitive advantages.
Matias Ventures operates at a critical inflection point in the global technology landscape. The fund's emphasis on AI and cybersecurity reflects two of the most consequential technology trends of the 2020s: the acceleration of artificial intelligence capabilities and the escalating sophistication of cyber threats. By concentrating on deep technology solutions, the fund positions itself to capture value from the infrastructure layer—the foundational tools and platforms that enable downstream applications.
The Israeli location is strategically significant. Israel has emerged as a global hub for cybersecurity innovation and AI research, with a unique combination of academic excellence, military-grade technical talent, and entrepreneurial culture. Matias Ventures leverages this geographic advantage while the founders' international networks—particularly Yossi Matias's Google connections—enable portfolio companies to access global markets and capital.
The fund's impact-oriented mission also reflects a broader shift in venture capital toward stakeholder capitalism and sustainable technology development. By explicitly seeking companies that "make a positive impact on the world," Matias Ventures appeals to founders motivated by more than financial returns and attracts institutional capital increasingly focused on ESG considerations.
Matias Ventures is well-positioned to become a significant player in deep technology venture capital, particularly as AI and cybersecurity continue to command disproportionate capital allocation and strategic attention. The fund's early exit success suggests strong pattern recognition and operational support capabilities that will likely attract higher-quality deal flow.
The firm's future trajectory will likely depend on several factors: the ability to scale beyond the founders' personal networks, the performance of portfolio companies in navigating AI regulation and market consolidation, and whether the fund can maintain its deep technology focus while competing against better-capitalized generalist firms. As AI commoditizes and cybersecurity becomes increasingly critical infrastructure, Matias Ventures' early positioning in these domains could prove prescient.
The broader question for the fund is whether it can evolve from a successful early-stage investor into a multi-stage platform that supports portfolio companies through growth and exit. The Entitle acquisition demonstrates the fund can identify acquisition targets attractive to strategic buyers—a capability that will be essential as portfolio companies mature and face the choice between independence and acquisition.
