INNOVATION

A cutting edge Israeli cybersecurity firm and a U.S.-based, 172-year old mutual life insurance company. A match made in heaven?

That's the kind of question that New York Life Ventures (NYL Ventures), the company's venture capital (VC) arm, routinely answers as part of its mission: providing New York Life (NYL) with access to the remarkable technologies and opportunities available in the start-up community.

Since launching in 2012, NYL Ventures has created a niche for itself as both an investor and a partner to the start-up community, according to Joel Albarella, the group's head. "There's a deeply embedded demand for new technologies in the insurance space, and we offer start-ups both financial resources to grow, and strategic counsel to help position themselves for long-term success."

In the case of the cyber security firm, Skycure, NYL Ventures first invested with the company, now a leader in mobile threat defense, in 2014. Prior to the direct investment, the team had developed a strong relationship with Skycure. This included carrying out a successful proof of concept—a basic demonstration that showcases the viability of an idea—and NYL making the decision to become a Skycure customer.

In the years following, NYL Ventures continued to invest in Skycure, alongside several leading venture capital funds, helping to provide the firm with the resources needed to fund R&D, business development and talent.

"The ability to work with NYL as both an investor and a client is what set NYL Ventures apart from other potential partners," said Skycure CEO and co-founder Adi Sharabani. "It allowed us to expedite real-world testing and approval processes, working hand in hand with NYL's own technology teams. The feedback from that process has been critical to our development."

Armed with both the strategic insights and financial resources from the partnership, Skycure soon became an integral security feature in NYLs own shift to mobile as the technology was introduced at an enterprise level to protect employees' mobile devices from cyber attacks across multiple attack vectors such as physical, malware, network and vulnerability exploits.

Skycure also experienced an impressive growth trajectory externally as well. Seeing the opportunity for valuable synergies, Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), a global leader in cyber security, acquired Skycure in July 2017.

For NYL Ventures, the acquisition marked an important milestone as it demonstrated the team's ability to deliver strategic value that supported a start-up's journey to an ideal outcome, in additional to strategic and financial returns to NYL.

Start-up entrepreneurs, media, conference organizers and other inquiries can be directed to Kevin Maher of the External Communications team at kevin_b_maher@newyorklife.com and (212) 576-6955.

Learn more about NYL Ventures at: www.nylventures.com.

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