TBD VC unveils $35M venture fund to back Israeli deep tech startups

TBD VC, a new early-stage venture capital firm, has announced a $35 million fund to back deep tech Israeli founders at the pre-seed and seed stages, both in Israel and around the globe.

The fund launch comes amid a new wave of breakout Israeli tech stories, including Wiz’s recent $32 billion acquisition by Google and Next Insurance’s $2.6 billion exit — reinforcing the country’s strength in building successful tech companies.

Yet, according to TBD founders David Citron and Alan Buch, the earliest stages of company formation remain underserved.

TBD is actively investing and expects to back about 20 companies from this fund with a sector agnostic focus, however double-clicking in enterprise AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and software enabled defense-tech.

TBD will lead pre-seed rounds with roughly $1 million checks and occasionally participate in seed rounds alongside other investors. The fund’s LP base includes institutional investors, family offices, and successful technology entrepreneurs, and the firm is already actively deploying capital.

“We’re not looking for momentum rounds or hype cycles — we’re here for the deeply technical founders building real companies from day one,” said Citron, who is based in Tel Aviv. “That’s where value is created, and conviction matters most.”

Citron brings over a decade of VC experience with international VCs, most notably with Rocket Internet, where he focused on pre-seed investing in Israeli startups for the German giant. Over his career, Citron invested in dozens of Israeli startups across cybersecurity, infrastructure, enterprise software and consumer apps.

His investments included CyberX (acquired by Microsoft), WalkMe, Voca.ai (acquired by Snap), Flow Security (acquired by Crowdstrike), Frontegg, Faye, Boards.com, Eon.io (dubbed as Israel’s “next Wiz”), Upwind, and PointFive.

“We’re not trying to be everything to everyone,” Citron added. “We are pre-seed specialists, first time founder-first, and relentlessly execution driven.”

In an interview with GamesBeat, Citron said that TBD VC will focus on investing in enterprise software, cybersecurity and deep tech. He is thinking about how to use technologies like game engines to build the framework for digital twins in the enterprise, and that prospect could be interesting. But Citron said his firm is not going to focus on game investments.

“There’s obviously a lot of business in Israel in the gaming realm, but I’m mostly an infrastructure investor and we’re trying to stick to what we know,” he said.

Citron was born and raised in Israel and he served in the military in the Special Forces as a combat medic. He joined the venture capital industry upon being discharged, and he has been a VC for the past 13 years.

“Enterprise and cybersecurity is a large chunk of the deal flow in Israel,” he said. “I’ve been an early stage investor, but I really became passionate about pre-seed when I was working with Rocket Internet, which assigned me to do pre-seed in the Israeli ecosystem. That was amazing. Before that, there were no pre-seed investors in Israel.”

Citron’s cofounder, Alan Buch, leads from New York and brings a global wealth and alternative investment management perspective.

With more than 15 years of experience— recently managing investments at a $4 billion multi-family office with investments in tech companies such as Spotify, SpaceX, and Hive AI at their earlier stages—and a past life as a professional race car driver, Buch sees early-stage investing through a unique lens. He used to compete as a racecar driver across Europe, and he is also an avid tennis player.

“Startups and racing have more in common than you’d expect,” said Buch, in a statement. “It’s all about strategy, timing, instinct—and knowing exactly when to push.”

In addition to general partners on both sides of the Atlantic with deep early-stage expertise, TBD’s portfolio companies also benefit from a global network of 45+ venture partners, including senior operators from Github, American Express, Epic Games, and Netflix, who help founders with product and go-to-market strategy, with the clear goal of reaching commercialization as soon as possible.

“Israel is still the best place to find technical founders,” said Citron. “But the next generation is global — and we’re building a firm that meets them where they are.”

“Early-stage Israeli founders don’t need tourists — they need operators who move fast, build trust, and unlock opportunity,” Buch added. “TBD is built for that.”

This is Citron’s second fund, as the first one was also a $35 million fund and it was a top performer, with two-times return so far to date. Prior investments from the earlier fund included Upwind.io, Pointfive.co and Eon.io. But no investments from the second fund are public yet, Citron said.

“With the latest acquisitions, everybody’s talking about how Israel is bigger and better than ever. At the pre-seed level, being the first check into a startup is super exciting,” Citron said. “We hope this will be a big moment for Israeli enterprise startups.”

Citron acknowledged it’s been difficult with the war in Gaza, but he noted that he is optimistic about his focus on the tech sector.