TEL AVIV, Israel– Barak Schoster Goihman, a technology entrepreneur and operator who was the co-founder and CTO of Bridgecrew*, an open-source, developer-first cybersecurity startup acquired last year by Palo Alto Networks, has joined Battery Ventures as a venture partner to help lead investing efforts in its Israel office and fund companies with global reach.
Schoster joins Battery as the 39-year-old firm begins deploying its latest investment funds, capitalized at a combined $3.8 billion. Battery opened its first office in Israel in 2007 and has partnered since then with companies across various technology sectors, including enterprise infrastructure, development tools, B2B applications, cybersecurity, fin-tech, advanced materials and semiconductors. Coordinated with the closing of its newest fund, the firm recently relocated its Israel office to Sarona, Tel Aviv.
Since the acquisition of Bridgecrew—the company behind the popular open-source tool Checkov—Schoster has been working from Israel as a senior director at Palo Alto Networks leading developer advocacy; open-source, product-led growth (PLG) initiatives; and architecture efforts related to DevSecOps inside the company’s Prisma Cloud business, of which Bridgecrew is a part.
“We are thrilled to welcome Barak to Battery and to add a smart and well-networked operator to our team,” said Scott Tobin, senior partner at Battery. “We got to know Barak initially through our investment in Bridgecrew’s Series A round; we were consistently impressed by him as a dynamic CTO and could not be happier that he’s decided to remain in the Battery family as a full-time investor.”
Added Dharmesh Thakker, a Battery general partner based in Silicon Valley who led Battery’s Bridgecrew investment: “Barak is a true pioneer in building large, open-source communities enabling product-led growth within the cybersecurity industry–first at Bridgecrew and then Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma. We welcome him to our software team and are excited to continue to back promising Israeli startups and help them expand their go-to-market operations on a global scale.”
In his new role, Schoster will focus on infrastructure investments in areas including cybersecurity, open-source software, DevOps, cloud infrastructure and data/machine learning. He will be a full-time member of the global investment team and will work closely with colleagues in the U.S. and Israel. In Tel Aviv, the current team includes Scott Tobin; Battery Partner Shiran Shalev; and Battery investment-team members Adi Dangot Zukovsky, Lior Mallul and Nikki Hassan.
“I am so impressed by Battery’s track record of partnering with innovative tech companies not just in Israel, but around the globe, and am humbled to join the team,” said Schoster. “Battery has supported some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs, and it is a privilege to be part of the team that will help build the next generation of innovative companies.”
Earlier in his career, Schoster was a software architect and data engineer at startup Fortscale, which was acquired by RSA Security. Prior to that, he worked as an engineering team leader focused on big data and machine learning in the Israel Defense Forces.
