# Shay Michel

> Shay Michel is a seed investor at Merlin Ventures (Tel Aviv) backing Cyber Security and Computer. See 11 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Merlin Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/merlin-ventures)
- Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Total investments: 11
- Last investment: Apr 2026
- Lead investor: 36%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaymichel
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/shaymichel
- Website: https://x.com/shaymichel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaymichel

Shay Michel is a seed investor at Merlin Ventures in Tel Aviv focused on Cyber Security and Computer. Shay Michel is based out of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv and is the Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures and also serves as the Board of Directors of Copperhelm. Shay previously worked at toDay.Ventures as Founder and Managing Partner.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cyber Security | 5 | 45% |
| Computer | 4 | 36% |
| Cloud Security | 3 | 27% |
| Network Security | 3 | 27% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 3 | 27% |

11 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 6 | 55% |
| Series A | 5 | 45% |
| Series D | 1 | 9% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Israel | 6 | 55% |
| United States | 3 | 27% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Copperhelm | Copperhelm focused on cloud-native cybersecurity. | $7M | Seed | Apr 23, 2026 |  |
| Above Security | Above Security provides cybersecurity services focused on threat detection, risk management, and compliance support for organizations. Its offerings include managed security services, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and incident response to help identify and address security risks. The company also delivers security operationscenter capabilities that monitor and analyze network activity to detect potential threats. In addition, it supports governance, risk, and compliance programs by helping organizations align with regulatory requirements and security frameworks. Its services are designed to assist businesses in maintaining visibility over their systems and improving overall security posture. | $50M | Series A | Mar 23, 2026 |  |
| Native | Native Security is a cloud security control plane for enterprises. It translates security outcomes into native cloud controls, simulates deployment impacts, and maintains alignment as environments change. The platform enforces security at the architectural level across multi-cloud setups. | $31M | Series A | Mar 17, 2026 |  |
| Torq | Torq is a no-code automation platform for security and operations teams. With Torq, frontline security professionals can easily create automated flows that help them respond to threats faster, remediate risks automatically, and deliver better security to their teams. Torq liberates security teams from the manual burden of managing threat detectionand remediation on a large scale. It ensures seamless communication and collaboration among all systems, enabling them to work together harmoniously. | $140M | Series D | Jan 11, 2026 |  |
| Fabrix Security | Fabrix Security builds AI Agents designed specifically for identity security. With identities multiplying across SaaS, cloud, and on-prem environments, Fabrix equips IAM teams with the intelligence to make confident, explainable access decisions – right at the moment of decision. By infusing AI into identity security, Fabrix closes today’s biggestgap: visibility and intelligence. It enhances existing IAM workflows with speed, consistency, and accuracy, cutting through the chaos of manual, context-less decision-making. From user access reviews and access requests to full identity lifecycle management, Fabrix delivers intelligent, scalable, and proactive identity security. | $8M | Seed | Sep 11, 2025 |  |
| Clutch Security | Clutch Security provide security teams with comprehensive, clear, and actionable tools for Non-Human Identity security. | $20M | Series A | Jan 29, 2025 |  |
| Native | Native Security is a cloud security control plane for enterprises. It translates security outcomes into native cloud controls, simulates deployment impacts, and maintains alignment as environments change. The platform enforces security at the architectural level across multi-cloud setups. | $11M | Seed | Jan 01, 2025 |  |
| Tamnoon | Tamnoon develops a state-of-the-art cloud security platform to empower security teams and manage cloud risks effectively. By harnessing the power of AI combined with human expertise, the company empowers security teams and equips organizations of all sizes with exceptional cloud protection capabilities. | $12M | Series A | Sep 25, 2024 |  |
| Clutch Security | Clutch Security provide security teams with comprehensive, clear, and actionable tools for Non-Human Identity security. | $8.5M | Seed | Jul 30, 2024 |  |
| Veriti | Veriti is a unified security posture management platform that integrates with your security solutions and proactively identifies and remediates potential risks and misconfigurations to maximize security while ensuring business uptime. | $18.5M | Series A | Nov 01, 2022 |  |

10 of 11 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lightspeed-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Ballistic Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ballistic-ventures) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Insight Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/insight-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Evolution Equity Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/evolution-equity-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Norwest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/norwest-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Merlin Ventures

VC Fund · Fairfax, United States

Merlin Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity companies. The firm provides infrastructure for market readiness, cybersecurity engineering expertise, and go-to-market muscle for all of its partners. Merlin Ventures is based in Tysons, Virginia.

3 contacts available at Merlin Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seth Spergel | Managing Partner & Co-Founder | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/seth-spergel |
| Shay Michel | Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shay-michel |
| Andrew Smeaton | Chief Information Security Officer-in-Residence | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andrew-smeaton-50d2 |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Shay Michel invest in?

Shay Michel invests primarily in Cyber Security, Computer and Cloud Security startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 11 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Israel. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Shay Michel last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Shay Michel closed in Apr 2026. Shizune tracks 11 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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