From a Rockies “Safari” to the US Market: How Merlin Builds Cybersecurity Companies | Special Interview
Shay Michel, Managing Partner at Merlin Ventures, speaks with Cybertech about the people behind the technology, the surprising venture partner, and why AI will only increase the cyber market
The Merlin Ventures team. Photo: Tammy Bar-Shay
Four days in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains alongside cybersecurity founders, CISOs, investors and industry leaders – but without suits or presentations. There are hikes, fly fishing, long drives together and, of course, conversations about cybersecurity, technology and business. This is the “Cyber Safari,” the annual flagship event of Merlin Ventures — a U.S.-Israeli venture capital firm specializing in cybersecurity, investing in early-stage companies and helping them enter the U.S. market. The event, which started four years ago with around 60 participants, has grown to approximately 150 this year, with a waiting list.
“We wanted to do something different, have fun, enjoy the people we work with and really get to know them,” says Shay Michel, Managing Partner at Merlin Ventures, in an interview with Cybertech. “There’s something special about being with people in an informal setting — spending two hours on a bus together, going fishing or hiking, climbing a mountain together. In the business world, you can schedule a 30-minute or, at most, one-hour meeting and try to cover the entire world in it. When you spend four days together, you really get to know people.”
According to Michel, that is exactly what the fund wanted to create: not another event where people exchange business cards, but a community. “It was amazing to see that the WhatsApp group from the first Safari, four years ago, is still active today. And even in this year’s group, although the Safari is already over, everyone is still messaging constantly.”
The Safari may be the most colorful expression of Merlin’s approach to building companies. Behind it lies a clear business model: bringing the knowledge and experience it has accumulated in the U.S. market directly to its portfolio companies.
Shay Michel. Photo: Tammy Bar-Shay
Merlin Group, the fund’s sister company, has been operating in the U.S. cybersecurity solutions market for more than 30 years. “Merlin is very good at selling cybersecurity products in the United States at significant scale,” Michel says. “It has accumulated a tremendous amount of knowledge about how to do this at scale.” That knowledge is put to work by a team that helps portfolio companies enter the U.S. market, from developing their sales strategy to working directly with customers.
“Each company has a dedicated team working with it, so you really feel like you’re part of an American company helping you expand in the United States very quickly and professionally,” Michel says. “At some point, we had an internal joke that we felt more like American resellers than just another VC.”
This model also shapes the way Merlin evaluates the companies it invests in. For Michel, technology is only the starting point.
“We invest in people — good people. That’s the fund’s motto. The product we take to market is never the one we started with. And it’s always the entrepreneur who takes it all the way. We look for entrepreneurs who can navigate the ship from Port A to Port B. Along the way, there are storms, tsunamis, huge waves and things you need to navigate around. Only a good entrepreneur can deal with that.”
That is why not every great technology company is necessarily an investment for Merlin.
“We’ve encountered many companies that we thought were amazing, but the team wasn’t equipped to lead the company, or we didn’t believe in the team, and we had to say no. In Merlin’s philosophy, the first thing is the people.”
“The Technology Barrier Has Dropped Dramatically”
One person who embodies this approach is Lior Suchard, the international mentalist who serves as a Venture Partner at the fund. Suchard has been with Merlin since 2015, and Michel emphasizes that his involvement is not a marketing gimmick.
“Lior sits down with entrepreneurs and works closely with them. He has an incredible ability to take complex things and simplify them, and to teach entrepreneurs to think outside the box when they present to large organizations.”
For Michel, an entrepreneur’s ability to explain an idea, read the room and change the way they present themselves is particularly important in the U.S. market — and especially now, as AI is dramatically shortening the path from an idea to a product. “The technological barriers have dropped dramatically, and so has the time it takes to build a product. Today, you can get to a POC almost immediately,” he says.
As a result, the advantage is increasingly shifting from the technology itself to the ability to bring it to market. Michel explains that this is where another of Merlin’s advantages lies. It is not simply about raising capital, but about raising capital from a group with a significant U.S. go-to-market platform.
Michel believes AI will only strengthen the need for cybersecurity.
“I think AI will make the cybersecurity world much more challenging, and that we’ll actually see more companies in the sector, not fewer. Attackers are adopting AI at a much faster pace than defensive teams, and we have to keep up,” he says, comparing the current moment to the transition organizations made to the cloud. “When the cloud arrived, cybersecurity was what enabled organizations, banks and large companies to adopt the technology with confidence, trust. I think cybersecurity will play a similar role with AI now.”
That thesis is reflected in Merlin’s growing investment activity. Last year, the fund raised $85 million, above its original $75 million target, and invested in around 10 companies. About half have already raised follow-on rounds at higher valuations. In early 2026, the fund led a $140 million Series D raised by cybersecurity company Torq.
Merlin is now preparing for another fundraising round and recently moved into larger offices in Tel Aviv. “For an American fund, to take a large space in Israel for its entrepreneurs is itself a statement,” Michel says. “The message is that we’re here to stay and grow.”
And there is one more intriguing detail: Michel hints that Merlin will soon unveil a new initiative in Israel. He is not yet willing to say what it will be — only promising that it will be “an interesting surprise.”