Photo of Amit Karp, Partner

Amit Karp

Partner
Israel

Roadmaps

Biography

Amit Karp is a partner in Bessemer’s Israel office where he focuses on investments in the region and throughout Europe. Amit led Bessemer’s Seed or Series A rounds in Axonius, Torq, Firebolt, Zoomin, Legit Security, Appwrite, Astrix Security, Qogita, Sentra, Otonomo, and Netdata. He was also closely involved with Bessemer’s investments in Yotpo, Hibob, Cloudlock, Cloudinary, and Habana Labs.

Prior to venture capital, Amit was a senior associate in McKinsey & Company, advising companies on projects related to technology strategy. Earlier in his career, Amit was a developer and then Product Manager at an e-commerce search and merchandising solutions startup Mercado, now part of Adobe Software.

Amit holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

Portfolio Highlights

View All Companies

Getting to know Amit

 

Sparking wonder

At age seven, Amit and his family moved from Israel to the US. It was the first time he ever boarded a flight and ventured outside Tel Aviv. When he arrived, he was unable to speak English, and found the school, food, and even the number of TV channels both disorienting and wondrous. That year of total culture shock expanded his worldview and ignited his appreciation for traveling, trying new things, and looking at things with fresh eyes.

Man and his father standing in front of the Colosseum
Amit with his father

Amit’s biggest role model is his dad, a former jet fighter pilot turned prominent venture capitalist who funded companies in Israel’s nascent startup scene in the 1990s. Though being a VC seemed like an exciting career, Amit viewed it as something you retired into. Amit majored in computer science and then became a developer and product manager at a startup after he graduated. Later, after receiving his MBA from MIT and doing a stint at McKinsey, Amit became an investor too — coming full circle by backing startups just like his father.

two men in front of company sign at Axonious headquarters
Axonius Co-founder and CEO, Dean Sysman and Amit

Amit became interested in cybersecurity after witnessing the challenges of IT asset management firsthand during a project at McKinsey in 2012. So, naturally, when he met the Axonius team a few years later, their mission to solve “asset management for cybersecurity” resonated instantly. Impressed by Axonius’ founding team and innovative solution, Amit decided to lead their Series A in early 2019, back when they had only a handful of customers and $400,000 in ARR. Just five years later, Amit witnessed the team’s meteoric growth as they scaled their business to over $100M in ARR (you can read about Axonius’ path to $100M here).

 

 

“A good predictor of a startup’s success is how fast it moves.”

two men in front of company sign at Torq headquarters
Amit and Torq Co-founder and CEO, Ofer Smadari

Amit is a caring, trusted, and radically candid advisor to founders and startup teams. When challenges arise, he’s always right there in the trenches with founders, offering strategic guidance and emotional support.

A year after Amit invested in StackPulse’s seed round, the team noticed changes in the market and started wondering if DevOps automation was still the right path forward. Amit — who backs founders rather than the company’s initial idea —encouraged them to take time to reflect on their future direction. With Amit’s full support, the team ultimately decided to pivot and focus on a bigger and better opportunity in cybersecurity. They went all in, rebranding to Torq and eventually growing rapidly as a no-code automation platform for security and operations teams.

Family posed in front of large rock mesa in the American Southwest

Amit has a passion for traveling and immersing himself in new cultures around the world. After completing his military service, he embarked on a life-changing six-month backpacking trip across South America, which ignited his love for exploration. Recently, Amit and his family spent a year abroad in the United States, where they visited landmarks and many National Parks.

Portfolio Companies

Indicates Enduring

Torq

Cybersecurity Enterprise Israel
Close Info Window

Torq

Torq is a no-code automation platform for security and operations teams. Frontline security professionals use Torq's easy workflow designer, limitless integrations and pre-built templates to deliver stronger security in minutes. Teams use Torq to accelerate threat response, automatically remediate risks, and automate away manual security tasks.

Visit Website

Investors

Amit Karp

Founded

2019

Partnered

2020

Roadmaps

Cybersecurity Enterprise Israel

Articles

hands typing on keyboard in front of monitor
Cybersecurity startup trends of 2022
 cybersecurity trends 2024 graphic image for atlas
Cybersecurity trends in 2024

Insights & News

In the News