Less than three years after being named the NBA’s 2023 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion, the league’s all-time three-point leader has begun quietly pouring tens of millions into tech ventures owned and operated by Israeli spies.
This article was originally published by ¡Do Not Panic!
American basketball star Stephen Curry is investing in tech startups run by former IDF operatives who were integral to building Israel’s digital architecture of apartheid and genocide.
Curry, considered one of the sport’s all-time greats and who positions himself as an advocate for social justice, has invested in the companies, both run and staffed by former Israeli spies, through his venture capital firm Penny Jar Capital.
Curry has made these investments alongside Israeli venture capital firms which are also deeply embedded in Israel’s intelligence establishment, and American venture capital funds connected to the Zionist lobby.
Zafran Security
Zafran Security, which Curry’s firm backed in a $30 million funding round in 2024, is run by Sanaz Yashar, an Iranian raised in Tehran who was recruited as a teenager by Israel and spent 15 years as a spy within Unit 8200, the arm of the IDF which intercepts and hacks communications. Her time in the IDF encompassed numerous assaults on Gaza, including the 2014 bombardment of the territory which killed over 2,200 Palestinians and the 2018-19 March of Return which saw Israeli snipers murder hundreds and deliberately maim thousands.
Yashar’s co-founders at the cybersecurity start-up, Ben Seri and Snir Havdala, are also former Israeli intelligence officers. Havdala served for a decade in Unit 8200, while Seri served in Unit 81 which is focused on building the offensive cyber weapons that Israel uses against the Palestinians, Iran and others. Yashar, Seri and Havdala were all awarded prizes for their IDF work.
Curry has invested in Zafran alongside the US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, whose partner Shaun Maguire is a pro-Israel fanatic and racist. Maguire organized Starlink access for the IDF, has spent two years making racist comments about Muslims, and in December falsely accused a Palestinian of the mass shooting at Brown University. Sequoia is the lead investor in Zafran and has investments in more than 60 other Israeli death-tech companies founded by ex-IDF.
Curry is also invested in Zafran alongside another US venture firm, Menlo Ventures, and Israeli firm Cyberstarts.
Menlo has made numerous investments in Israel and last year partner Mark Siegal, on a trip to Israel, said, in comments which reveal why so many US venture firms invest in Israel, that “the Israeli tech ecosystem is critical to Israel’s survival” and that he sees it as “almost a duty as a Jew to make sure this ecosystem continues to thrive.”
Curry’s other co-investor in Zafran, Cyberstarts, was founded by Gili Raanan, a senior figure in Israel’s military intelligence establishment. Raanan spent 15 years in Unit 8200 and was awarded one of Israel’s top prizes for IDF veterans, the presidential defense prize, for his role in creating Israel’s apartheid infrastructure.
Upwind
The other Israeli cyber company financially backed by Curry is cloud-security startup Upwind, founded by Amiram Shachar, Lavi Ferdman, and Liran Polak, who all met while serving in the IDF’s Mamram unit. Mamram is the computing arm which builds and maintains all the software for the Israeli military, and through which all signals intelligence is processed. Shortly after founding the firm, the three former Mamram agents hired chief operating officer Tomer Hadassi, a Unit 8200 veteran.
In an October 2023 LinkedIn post, Upwind said that ‘many’ of their team in Israel had been drafted as reservists to participate in the genocide of Gaza. On LinkedIn last year, Upwind CEO Shachar posted a picture of himself with Curry.
Curry’s Penny Jar Capital first invested in Upwind in 2023 when the Israeli company raised $50 million, and earlier this week Penny Jar participated in a much larger funding round of $250 million, alongside Silicon Valley-based Bessemer Partners. The partner at Bessemer who led their investment in Upwind is Adam Fisher, a joint US-Israeli citizen who called on Israel to “pound Gaza with an unprecedented response” after October 7th. Fisher has also collaborated with the IDF, denied the scale of death in Gaza and made numerous racist statements on social media.
One of the biggest investors in Upwind is Greylock Partners, which last year appointed Unit 8200 veteran Mor Chen to lead its Israel investments. Chen had previously been head of the 8200 accelerator, a special Israeli government-funded unit responsible for converting Unit 8200 apartheid technologies into commercially viable products.
Both Zafran and Upwind are headquartered in the US with R&D operations in Israel. The majority of staff at both firms, according to LinkedIn bios, have served in Israeli military intelligence.
Casspi and “Zionism 2.0”
Curry is also investing in Upwind alongside his former Golden State Warriors teammate Omri Casspi, an Israeli basketball player who, after his retirement, founded a venture capital firm to invest in Israeli start-ups and IDF spin-outs. Casspi’s firm has also received investment from Sequoia Capital. Casspi, who has said his goal is to help build “Zionism 2.0,” organised Elon Musk’s visit to Israel in November 2023, where he met Netanyahu, and has been a vocal cheerleader for Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
While Curry has never said anything about the genocide of Gaza, in 2023 his wife Ayesha has posted a donation appeal from the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund to her 7.8 million followers. And while he has been silent over Gaza, Curry has modelled himself as an advocate for equality and justice, speaking up about racism and joining numerous NBA and other social justice projects. He is also a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party and acted as the co-chair for a Michelle Obama voting initiative. Curry also responded to the murder of Alex Pretti by saying it was “beautiful” to see people protesting in response.
Yet when it comes to Israel, Curry, like so many celebrities who align themselves with pro-social causes, aligns his politics and his finances with racism, apartheid and mass murder. He may feign rhetorical support for anti-ICE protestors, but he aligns himself materially with a military that trains the ICE and Border Patrol agents who murder US citizens.
Cultural influencer
Curry’s financial backing for Israeli security state spin-outs has not gone unnoticed in Tel Aviv. Show Faith by Works, an Israeli propaganda and intelligence operation targeting US churchgoers with pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian messaging, last year listed Curry as a celebrity who could be hired to reproduce pro-Israel messages.
Curry’s investments demonstrate how Israel’s security establishment co-opts high-profile cultural influencers to provide the country, and its military-derived technology, with legitimacy. Investing in the digital creators of apartheid and genocide helps normalize Israel, the IDF and the horrors it inflicts daily on the Palestinians. Zionists know this very well, which is why billions in US venture capital flows to Israeli technologies and their IDF founders every year.
And now Curry, despite his condemnations of racism and grandstanding as an advocate for social justice, is teaming up with open racists to invest in technologies derived from apartheid and genocide.
Curry’s investments also help bring Israeli intelligence deeper into the digital fabric of the US, with Zafran and Upwind software used by multiple Fortune 500 companies. And in a recent post, Upwind founder Shachar said the company will soon be added to the US government’s list of certified cyber security providers.
Given Israel’s history of spying on the US, and the already significant access ex-Israeli spies have to critical digital systems, this story raises further questions about the security of digital and cloud systems in the US.
The previously unreported story of Curry’s ties to Israel and his connections with Israeli military intelligence underscores once again how pervasive Zionist influences are in the west, and how Zionist networks purposefully cultivate influential cultural figures.
Curry’s Israeli relationships also highlight the fake progressivism of so many Democrats who decry racism and inequality then collaborate with one of the most racist, unequal societies on Earth.
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