Omri Casspi's Swish Ventures Closes $250M Fund III, Hits $800M AUM
TL;DR
Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA, has closed a $250 million third fund for Swish Ventures, the seed and Series A firm he founded in early 2025, taking the firm to roughly $800 million in total assets under management in under two years. Swish III will back around a dozen companies at an average check near $20 million, concentrated in cybersecurity, cloud and AI infrastructure, physical AI, defense, and government technology. The firm has already backed 20 companies since inception, eight of which have reached unicorn status, including Cognition AI and EON, with a combined portfolio valuation reportedly above $60 billion. It's one of the fastest AUM run-ups by a solo-founder-led fund in recent memory, and it says as much about the current AI infrastructure and defense-tech financing environment as it does about Casspi himself.
Key Takeaways
An athlete-to-VC story with real fund mechanics behind it, not just a celebrity wrapper. Casspi's NBA career (2009-2019, including a title with the Golden State Warriors) is the hook every outlet leads with, but the fund progression here, roughly $60 million for Fund I in late 2024, $100 million for Fund II about a year later, and now $250 million for Fund III, is a conventional, well-sequenced step-up curve. Each fund roughly doubled the last, which is the kind of cadence institutional LPs like to see before they lean in harder, and Sequoia Capital, US pension funds, and university endowments reportedly did exactly that for Fund III.
The reported $800 million AUM figure is a portfolio-markup number, not a sum of committed capital. Add up the three funds as publicly reported, roughly $60M plus $100M plus $250M, and you get around $410 million in actual dollars raised from LPs. The gap to $800 million in AUM is almost certainly unrealized appreciation on paper stakes in companies like Cognition AI and EON, both of which have seen valuations rocket well past where Swish likely entered. That's a legitimate way to report AUM, but founders and LPs evaluating the firm should understand the number reflects portfolio marks, not dry powder.
The thesis is narrow and increasingly crowded: AI infrastructure plus dual-use and government tech. Cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, physical AI, defense, and gov tech is exactly where a large share of 2026's venture dollars are concentrating, from Sequoia's own AI bets to a wave of defense-focused funds launched over the past 18 months. Swish isn't creating a new category here, it's competing directly with well-capitalized incumbents for access to the same hot rounds, which makes its stated edge, being genuinely hands-on with a small number of portfolio companies, the thing worth watching rather than the sector list itself.
Concentration is the explicit strategy, and it cuts both ways. With roughly 20 companies funded across three vehicles and Fund III targeting only about a dozen more, Swish is playing a high-conviction, low-volume game, reinforced by Casspi's own framing that the firm wants "few investments a year, real concentration and partnership." That model can produce outsized returns when the picks are right (eight unicorns out of twenty bets is an unusually strong hit rate on paper), but it also means the fund's entire return profile rides on a handful of names continuing to compound, with far less diversification cushion than a typical seed portfolio of 40-60 companies would provide.
Fund Overview
Fund Name: Swish III (Swish Ventures)
Fund Size: $250 million
Stage: Seed and Series A, with the firm also playing in opportunistic follow-on rounds via its earlier Opportunity Fund
Check Size: Roughly $20 million average per company
Geography: Israel and the US, per publicly reported portfolio and LP base
Focus: Cybersecurity, cloud and AI infrastructure, physical AI, defense technology, and government technology
Key LPs: Sequoia Capital, US pension funds, American university endowments, and family offices from Israel and the US (as reported; not confirmed via a Swish-published LP list)
Why This Fund Matters
Swish Ventures' rise is a useful data point on how fast a well-networked solo GP can now scale AUM when the underlying portfolio is compounding in an AI-driven markup environment. Two years ago this was a $60 million debut seed fund from a first-time manager whose main credential outside sports was angel-investing instincts. Today it's being covered by Forbes, Globes, and the Jerusalem Post as an $800 million platform with Sequoia as an LP, which is a faster institutional validation arc than most first-time managers see even in strong vintages.
The sector concentration also matters beyond Swish itself. Cybersecurity and AI infrastructure have been the two most reliably fundable categories through 2025 and 2026 regardless of broader market softness, and physical AI plus defense/gov tech is the newer leg emerging fast behind them. A fund that can point to Cognition AI and EON in its portfolio, both companies that have become poster children for the current AI infrastructure supercycle, has a credibility asset that's hard to buy with marketing. That's precisely why LPs who missed the first wave of AI infrastructure winners are willing to back a three-year-old manager at this size.
There's also a talent-pipeline story worth noting. Ori Striechman, Swish's Head of Technology and Investments, came up through Israel's 8200 intelligence unit, the training ground behind a disproportionate share of the country's top cybersecurity founders and operators. Pairing that technical sourcing network with Casspi's athlete-and-celebrity distribution (access to founders, LPs, and media that a typical 27-year-old operating partner wouldn't have on his own) is a genuinely differentiated combination, not just a novelty pairing.
The risk sits in exactly the place the firm is proudest of: concentration. A 20-company portfolio with eight unicorns sounds like a hit-rate any seed investor would sign up for, but unicorn status on paper is not liquidity, and a fund this concentrated has enormous single-name exposure to whether Cognition AI, EON, and a handful of others keep their valuations intact through the next markdown cycle. If even two or three of the marquee names correct hard, the $800 million AUM figure (and the story built around it) looks very different.
The Team
Omri Casspi founded Swish Ventures in early 2025 and serves as its founder and sole managing partner. He was the first Israeli player in NBA history, drafted in 2009 and playing a decade in the league, including a championship run with the Golden State Warriors, before transitioning into technology investing; he was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2016 during that career. Public reporting consistently identifies Casspi as the fund's sole managing partner, with no additional named General Partners disclosed alongside him.
Ori Striechman holds the title of Head of Technology and Investments at Swish, not a General Partner title, and should be described accordingly. He is an alumnus of Israel's Unit 8200 signals-intelligence corps, previously served as VP Research at Cyberillium (since acquired), and was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in 2025 at age 27. Public sources name no other investment team members beyond Casspi and Striechman, so this fund's decision-making bench, at least publicly, appears to be genuinely small relative to its AUM.
Early Portfolio
Across roughly 20 investments since the firm's founding, Swish's most frequently cited portfolio companies include Cognition AI (the AI coding-agent company), EON (cloud data resilience and cybersecurity, reported around a $4 billion valuation), Upwind (cloud security, reported to have drawn acquisition interest near $1 billion), Applied Compute, Irregular, Tenzai, PointFive, Wonderful, Long Lake, Glow, and Turnout. Eight of these are reported to have reached unicorn status, and the combined portfolio is cited at over $60 billion in aggregate valuation. Note that these are third-party-reported figures rather than numbers published directly by Swish, so treat specific valuations as approximate.
What This Means for Founders
If you're building in cybersecurity, cloud/AI infrastructure, physical AI, or dual-use defense and government tech, and you're raising a seed or Series A round in the $10-30 million range, Swish is now a check that comes with real distribution: Sequoia as a co-investor relationship, a portfolio full of category-defining AI infrastructure names for warm intros, and a founder (Casspi) whose personal network spans sports, media, and Israeli tech in a way few operating partners can replicate. Given the roughly-a-dozen-deals-per-fund pace, though, this is a highly selective process, not a spray-and-pray seed fund, so expect deep diligence and a genuine partnership expectation if you get the check.
The flip side for founders to weigh: a two-person disclosed investment team backing a $250 million vehicle means less bandwidth per portfolio company than the "we're available at every moment" pitch might imply once the fund is fully deployed across a dozen new bets on top of the existing 20. Ask directly who your actual day-to-day partner will be and how deployed the team already is before you optimize for the brand name on the cap table.
Fund Momentum Take
The Casspi story is genuinely compelling, and unlike a lot of celebrity-adjacent VC vehicles, this one has actual fund performance data (eight unicorns from twenty checks, if the reporting holds up) rather than just star power to point to. The step-up from $60 million to $100 million to $250 million in under two years is aggressive but not reckless on its face, since each raise appears to have followed real portfolio markups rather than pure narrative momentum.
Our bet is that Swish's next twelve months are a genuine test of whether concentrated, celebrity-adjacent seed investing can keep outperforming at $800 million in reported AUM, or whether the model was really a two-year window of being early to AI infrastructure and defense tech before the field got crowded. The $800 million figure itself deserves a healthy dose of skepticism from anyone reading it as "dollars under management" rather than "portfolio value including markups," and we'd treat any LP conversation about Fund IV with that distinction explicitly on the table.
We'd also flag that public reporting here leans heavily on a small number of Israeli and US business outlets plus Casspi and Striechman's own LinkedIn announcements, with no Swish-published fund letter or LP list that we could independently verify. The core facts, fund sizes, AUM, and portfolio names, are corroborated across multiple independent outlets, so we're confident in the shape of the story; specific dollar valuations on individual portfolio companies should be treated as approximate until Swish publishes its own numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Swish Ventures raised in total?
Swish has raised three funds since late 2024: a roughly $60 million Fund I, a $100 million Fund II, and now a $250 million Fund III, for approximately $410 million in total committed capital across the three vehicles.
Why is Swish Ventures' AUM reported at $800 million if it only raised about $410 million?
The $800 million figure reflects assets under management including unrealized appreciation on portfolio holdings, not just the cash LPs committed. Several Swish portfolio companies, including Cognition AI and EON, have seen valuations climb sharply since Swish invested, which drives the AUM figure well above cumulative fund size.
What does Swish Ventures invest in?
The firm focuses on seed and Series A companies in cybersecurity, cloud and AI infrastructure, physical AI, defense technology, and government technology, typically writing checks around $20 million and targeting a small number of highly concentrated bets per fund rather than a broad portfolio.
Who runs Swish Ventures?
Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA, founded the firm in early 2025 and is its sole managing partner. Ori Striechman serves as Head of Technology and Investments; public reporting names no additional General Partners.
Has Swish Ventures had any exits?
No exits have been publicly reported as of this fund close. Several portfolio companies, including Upwind, have reportedly drawn acquisition interest, but no completed exit has been confirmed in the coverage of this raise.
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