IL Tech in NY“I find the Israeli startup ecosystem to be a fast-paced, caring, and supportive community of entrepreneurs”
IL Tech in NY
“I find the Israeli startup ecosystem to be a fast-paced, caring, and supportive community of entrepreneurs”
Steve Leightell, Lead Investor at Georgian, joined CTech for its IL Tech in NY series, in collaboration with Israeli Mapped in NY.
“Personally, I find the Israeli startup ecosystem to be a fast-paced, caring, and supportive community of entrepreneurs, who are competitive but support each other through common learnings,” said Steve Leightell, Lead Investor at Georgian. “As a North America-based firm, I think it takes genuine commitment, effort and deep knowledge to succeed in winning the right to work with the leading Israeli firms.”
As Lead Investor at Georgian, Leightell looks for teams with a drive and passion to dominate large markets. He has been with Georgian since inception and has been operating and investing in tech for nearly 30 years.
“It has required us to really understand the Israeli tech and startup scene, get to know the community of entrepreneurs and investors and invest in building long-term relationships face-to-face in Israel,” he continued. To date, Georgian has invested in eight companies based in Israel, and Leightell has led investments in five of those companies, including Siemplify, NoName, Armis, Island, and Cyera.
You can learn more about the VC below.
Fund ID
Name and type of VC: Georgian – We typically invest at Series B, C or D and write checks of $20-75M into B2B software companies. We are currently deploying capital out of Growth Fund VI and our Alignment Fund II. Our value-add comprises our AI Lab and Customer Success and Community teams, which work with our investment team in sourcing and diligencing companies and supporting portfolio companies post investment. Our AI Lab is comprised of 20+ machine learning (ML) professionals, full stack engineers, data scientists and researchers, who work with portfolio companies’ R&D and product teams in the use and exploration of ML, generative AI and AI more broadly. Additionally, our Customer Success team supports portfolio companies in their US and global go-to-market, partnership planning, M&A and exit planning activities. Cybersecurity has been and continues to be a key focus area for us and we have invested in several cyber companies including 41st Parameter (exited), Armis, Cyera, DefenseStorm, Devo, eSentire, Flashpoint, Island, NoName (exited), RiskIQ (exited), Siemplify (exited) and Trusona. Steve Leightell is a Lead Investor and partner at Georgian. Georgian is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and invests primarily in the US, Canada, and EMEA.
Main fields of investment: Georgian invests in B2B software companies and has investments across the US, Canada, and EMEA. Our investment strategy is informed by our thesis areas, which represent our views on how key technology trends are changing the way in which software businesses are built and value is created. We seek to identify these trends ahead of the market, source companies that we believe are well-positioned to take advantage of these technologies and support our portfolio companies as they navigate these shifts. Our current thesis areas are: Applied AI, which includes generative and agentic AI, along with more traditional machine learning techniques such as anomaly detection; Conversational AI, which includes voice AI; and Trust, which we see as a strategic differentiator for software companies.
Names of managing partners: Georgian was founded in 2008 by three software entrepreneurs, Justin LaFayette, Simon Chong, and John Berton. Georgian’s Lead Investors are Steve Leightell, Emily Walsh, Margaret Wu, and Russell Moore.
Year of founding/start of NY operations: Georgian was founded in Toronto in 2008 and has been investing in companies based in the US, Canada and EMEA since inception.
Total sum of investments/size, number of funds: 5 active Growth funds focused on:
- High-growth business software companies with strong unit economics seeking to disrupt large markets.
- Fund VI targets investments in companies at the Series B, C and D rounds.
- Median investment amount/Average investment in startups: US$20M-$50M initial checks typically leading in Series B, C and D rounds.
General background on the organization, its managers, its founders and partners: Founded in 2008 and based in Toronto, Georgian invests in high-growth B2B technology companies and builds with them via our AI Lab to help companies scale faster. We seek to identify and accelerate leading growth-stage B2B companies in our thesis areas of Applied AI, Conversational AI, and Trust. Georgian’s AI Lab team works with portfolio companies to address growth-stage product and go-to-market challenges.
The AI Lab, a team of 20+ highly technical ML engineers and scientists, brings practical experience in working with ML models along with insights gained from working across an active portfolio of 45+ companies on various AI opportunities and challenges through 1-1 engagements (secondments, hackathons, advisory with a focus on value to the customer), Transferred Learnings (bootcamps, educational webinars), and AI research.
After we complete these projects, we aim to share what we learn with the broader AI community through thought leadership, open-source toolkits around emerging AI techniques, and the AI Lab’s Transferred Learnings community, which connects over 1,000 AI scientists and engineers working in B2B software.
What types of Israeli startups/entrepreneurs are you interested in?
At Georgian, we focus on investing in growth-stage B2B software companies across a number of different verticals, and typically seek to lead a Series B, C or D round. I personally focus a lot of my time on cybersecurity and have backed several Israeli entrepreneurs in the space, such as the founders of Armis, Island, Cyera, NoName, Siemplify. With help from our AI Lab, we are able to “go deep” into the latest machine learning capabilities and understand how a cyber platform is able to pragmatically harness technologies in areas like device identification, anomaly detection, threat detection and process automation.
Why invest in an Israeli company in New York? What advantages do such companies have? How is the New York market different from the Israeli market?
We have a history of investing in Israeli entrepreneurs based both in Israel and New York (and other cities in the US and Canada). We typically see businesses managing operations in both Israel and New York by the time they reach the growth stage. Likewise, in our view, companies that have a presence in both regions can engage with global prospects and customers and access global talent. On the latter, I have observed the “followership” that surrounds leading Israeli founders, which helps in attracting and retaining both R&D talent as well as top go-to-market talent.
How do Israeli entrepreneurs/startups differ from their local counterparts?
In my experience, Israeli entrepreneurs make no small plans. Instead, they want to build iconic companies that make (or disrupt existing) markets using the leading technical resources from Israel while hiring the top US go-to-market talent. The Israeli teams I have worked with are also able to assemble a depth of the talent that, in my view, is hard to match.
Personally, I find the Israeli startup ecosystem to be a fast-paced, caring and supportive community of entrepreneurs, who are competitive but support each other through common learnings.
As a North America-based firm, I think it takes genuine commitment, effort and deep knowledge to succeed in winning the right to work with the leading Israeli firms. It has required us to really understand the Israeli tech and startup scene, get to know the community of entrepreneurs and investors and invest in building long-term relationships face-to-face in Israel. It has also helped that we have worked hard to build our own internal capabilities around cyber through our in-house Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CoE), which helps us to maintain our point of view on key cybersecurity markets. It also allows us to assist Israeli companies on security and AI product opportunities.
How do you assess the risk involved in investing in Israeli companies in the current situation?
All investments have risks. We identify and regularly assess the risks associated with any investment, including investments that may carry certain geopolitical risks.
Are there global trends that influence your decisions to invest in Israeli high-tech?
While we are not exclusively focused on cyber opportunities in Israel, it certainly is a core focus for me. The threat of increasing losses due to cybercrime and the growing risks of AI-enabled cyber attacks are factors in my interest in continuing to look closely at what Israeli entrepreneurs are working on with regard to cyber.
We are in the midst of the AI revolution. Do Israeli companies have an advantage in this sector, or is there actually room for improvement?
I do think that the depth of engineering talent found in Israel gives Israeli companies a potential advantage in bringing well-engineered AI products to market quickly. Again, I believe it comes down to culture, drive and a “think big” attitude. The companies I have been lucky enough to work with are not afraid to iterate on products and have a “fail fast but learn” mindset. That does not mean making hasty decisions on underlying technology, rather it appears to be part of the Israeli engineering culture to experiment, test and change course quickly if desired results are not happening. In my view, these are important factors for quickly adopting new AI technologies.
Suggestions for Israeli entrepreneurs on what to do in New York:
- If you like to stay fit… run the Jackie Onassis Reservoir, or like, Sivan Tehila of Onyxia, paddleboard the Hudson!
- Spend a team offsite on Governors Island
- Buy a Canada Goose jacket for your first NY winter!
Suggestions for Israeli entrepreneurs on what not to do in New York:
- Don't ignore the great Israeli restaurants in town… Eat at 12Chairs, Miznon, Port Said, Dagon, Barbounia…and many more.
- Don’t get on the train until everyone else has gotten off!
Examples of 2-3 of your most successful investments:
A few examples of Israeli companies that we have invested in and exited are Siemplify, Risk IQ, and NoName.
2 View gallery
Georgian Networking Brunch in Ra’anana, Israel, February, 2025.
Left to Right: Moran Cohen (OpenWeb), Reut Meirson (Darrow), Adam Zawel (Georgian), Miriam Bodinger (Darrow), Persha Valman (formerly at Chorus), Assaf Ironi (Darrow), Jonah Abramowitz (Island), and Keren Golani (Armis)
(Georgian Partners Growth LP.)
