Why We Continue to Double Down on Upwind

With today's news of Upwind's $250M Series B round, I've been reflecting on how fortunate I’ve been to have had the opportunity to work closely with its founder, Amiram Shachar. Our partnership goes back to his first company, Spot, which we backed early on and was later acquired by NetApp for $450M. When Amiram went on to start Upwind, we were excited to partner with him again as both an investor and board member. Since then, we've leaned in at every opportunity, providing both capital and unwavering support to a founder, team, and company we believe in deeply.

I've had a front-row seat to Amiram's leadership across both companies. He has always led with conviction and clarity. What's deepened over time is the depth of his operating approach: how deliberate he is about priorities, the high bar he sets for the team, and his focus on building something that lasts. His long tenured team members that span both companies — Tomer, Tal, Lavi, Nadav, Dan, Aviv, Johnny, and more — have continued to grow and operate at a world-class level. All of that discipline shows up in the way Upwind has grown and in how the product has taken shape.

From the start, we believed cloud security would move towards runtime. For years, the industry relied on static views of cloud environments, producing large volumes of findings without enough context about what actually mattered. As cloud environments have become more dynamic, it is clearer than ever that the static approach is falling short.

Upwind was built for the AI and realtime era.

By focusing on realtime visibility from their runtime focus, it highlights the risks that are actually reachable and relevant. For security teams, that means less noise, clearer prioritization, and faster response. 

This is where the cloud security market is headed. Enterprise buyers are more thoughtful and their teams are strained for time. They want to get to the point, and understand what risks actually matter in their cloud environments.

We saw this thinking play out recently when one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated enterprise AI companies conducted a deep evaluation of cloud security providers and ultimately chose Upwind. That decision stood out not just because of the customer’s profile, but because of the rigor behind it — a deep, technical assessment that reinforced how well Upwind's runtime-first approach holds up under scrutiny.

As the company has scaled, the team around Amiram has continued to grow stronger. Bringing in leaders like Max Stevens to build the go-to-market organization, and Rinki Sethi to deepen security leadership, reflects a company preparing thoughtfully for its next phase. They're supported by a company culture that's highly execution-oriented, with a clear focus on building a durable business. 

With this new round, Upwind will continue to invest in go-to-market and further development of the platform. The opportunity is significant. Upwind has the market leading runtime platform in the largest cybersecurity market. We’re excited to see what the team accomplishes next and proud to continue the journey alongside them.

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