Gili Raanan

Gili Raanan (; born 1969) is an Israeli venture capitalist and former founder of multiple software companies. Raanan started Sanctum in 1997, the company that created the Web application firewall AppShield and the web application penetration testing software AppScan. He later started NLayers which was acquired by EMC Corporation. He was a general partner at Sequoia Capital, the founder of Cyberstarts, and board member at Wiz, Adallom, Onavo, and Moovit, Snaptu.

Biography Gili Raanan was born in Kfar Saba, Israel. He served in Unit 8200 for ten years. He earned a Bachelor of Computer Science In 2002 from the Tel Aviv University, he received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Recanati School of the Tel Aviv University.

Business career Raanan started Sanctum in 1997, and created AppShield, a web application firewall and AppScan, a web application penetration testing tool.

Raanan later started NLayers in 2003 which was acquired by EMC Corporation pioneering the science of Application discovery and understanding.

Venture capitalist In 2009 Raanan joined Sequoia Capital in Israel as a General Partner. In 2018 Raanan founded Cyberstarts, Raanan was an early investor in Wiz, leading its seed round in 2020. In March 2026, Google completed its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, which Forbes described as Google's largest acquisition and the largest-ever acquisition of a venture-backed startup

Raanan is a seed investor in a number of Cybersecurity companies such as Fireblocks, Noname, Island.io, Armis and Adallom. These companies tend

Honors In 2026 Raanan was honored as one of the 14 torchbearers in the national Israeli Independence Day ceremony. In 2026, Forbes ranked Raanan fourth on its Midas List, his second appearance on the list. Forbes credited his ranking in part to his 2020 seed investment in Wiz.