Protego Ventures Closes $125 Million Fund I to Accelerate Early-Growth Israeli Defense Companies

Coinciding with portfolio company XTEND's IPO, the $125 million fund allows Protego to deploy capital into Israel's most promising early-growth defense companies as global security spending hits record highs

TEL AVIV-YAFO, Israel, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Protego Ventures, the first and largest dedicated defense fund in Israel, today announced the final close of its Fund I at $125 million. Protego backs early-growth Israeli defense companies at the stage where capital and strategic access matter most, identifying battlefield-proven Israeli innovations and positioning them for commercial scale globally.

Global defense budgets have grown 50% over the past decade, and with conflicts worldwide driving record demand – defense tech VC dealmaking hit $19.8 billion in Q1 2026 alone – governments are actively seeking battlefield-tested solutions they can deploy immediately. Until Protego, no dedicated venture fund existed connecting Israel's most promising early-growth defense companies with the global capital and networks required to scale. Protego has closed that gap, combining financial discipline with deep defense-sector expertise and a partner network spanning the US Department of Defense, NATO allies, Elbit, IAI, Lockheed Martin, and Army Futures Command.

"Protego was built on the conviction that many of the best defense companies in the world are being built right now, in Israel, under real operational demands, iterating according to real frontline conditions, for real customers," said Protego Co-founder Lital Leshem. "That feedback loop produces technologies that are faster, leaner, scalable and more flexible than almost anything developed through traditional procurement channels. The free world is defending itself, and smart capital is following."

Fund I's portfolio spans the full spectrum of modern defense technologies, from autonomous systems and agentic AI to critical infrastructure sensing and contested-environment navigation. Every company in the portfolio has moved from development to deployment faster than many in the traditional defense industry thought possible, winning contracts and customers in some of the world's most challenging operational environments. Protego is accelerating what's already working, providing the capital, the partner network, and the market access to turn Israeli defense innovation into globally scaled success stories.

Protego's first portfolio company, XTEND, embodies the very features Protego is designed to accelerate: Israeli-born innovation, battlefield validation, and global scale. Its AI-driven XOS operating system enables intuitive control of tactical drones and robots, with no prior flight experience required, and is fully operational within the IDF, US DOD, SOCOM, and allied forces across Singapore, Germany, Canada, and England. Protego led XTEND's $70 million Series B round, and the autonomous robotic platforms company has since gone public on the New York Stock Exchange at a $1.5 billion valuation, trading under the ticker XTND.

Other portfolio companies include:

• ASIO: pioneering autonomy, enhanced situational awareness, and resilient navigation for manoeuvring forces in complex, contested environments — solving the coordination and communication challenges of joint multi-force operations through proprietary edge navigation and interoperability technology. One of the company's most notable customers is U.S. defense technology company Anduril, which is establishing operations in Israel. ASIO executives have met with Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey during his visits to Israel, and are  expected to supply components for Anduril's unmanned aerial vehicles.
• Prisma Photonics: turning existing fiber-optic cables into large-scale, AI-powered sensors for monitoring critical infrastructure, including power grids, pipelines, and secured perimeters, across thousands of kilometers, without additional hardware – detecting and classifying threats in real time.
• Rilian: building AI that thinks like a practitioner, deploying into mission-controlled environments and turning hard-won operational expertise into a permanent, compounding asset.

"What we kept hearing from founders was that generalist investors didn't understand their business, and defense-focused investors didn't understand the Israeli security ecosystem," said Protego Co-founder Lee Moser. "There was real capital flowing into defense globally, but it wasn't reaching the companies that deserved it most — the ones that had already proven their technology under the toughest operational conditions, with genuine customers, in some of the most demanding arenas in the world. We built Protego to bridge that gap, and the close of Fund I combined with our portfolio companies tremendous achievements in just a short period of time demonstrates that this combination is exactly what the market needed."

With Fund I closed, Protego will soon turn its attention to Fund II, which will expand the firm's investment footprint into the United States,  targeting early-growth American defense companies and deepening Protego's presence across the US defense ecosystem, where accelerated procurement reform, record R&D budgets, and sustained geopolitical demand are creating exactly the conditions Protego was built for.

To learn more, visit https://www.protego.vc/

About Protego Ventures

Protego Ventures is the first and largest dedicated defense fund in Israel, backing early-growth companies building the next generation of AI, sensors, drones, and autonomous systems. Co-founded by Lital Leshem and Lee Moser — veterans of IDF intelligence and US-Israel defense relations — the fund combines privileged access to Israel's defense ecosystem with partnerships spanning Elbit, IAI, Lockheed Martin, and US Army Futures Command. Protego is a defense VC redefined, from the country that redefined defense. Learn more at protego.vc.

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SOURCE Protego Ventures