Some of Stephen Curry’s former Golden State Warriors teammates have found success after basketball. Andre Iguodala moved into venture capital and player leadership, while Shaun Livingston transitioned into business and an NBA front-office role. But one former teammate has quietly built something very different.

Omri Casspi spent just one season in Golden State. Now, years after leaving the NBA, the former forward is running a venture capital firm with about $800 million in assets under management.

Swish Ventures just raised its largest fund yet, bringing in $250 million from investors that include Sequoia Capital, U.S. institutional investors, and several American universities. The new fund will focus on early-stage companies, mainly at the seed and Series A levels, and plans to back about 12 businesses with an average investment of roughly $20 million.

That is a long way from where Casspi started. He grew up in Yavne, Israel, about 20 miles south of Tel Aviv. He made his professional debut with Maccabi Tel Aviv at 17 in 2005. Four years later, the Sacramento Kings selected him 23rd overall, making him the first Israeli player to reach the NBA.

The 38-year-old went on to play for seven NBA teams and averaged 7.9 points per game. Yet his time in Golden State left a mark that had little to do with his numbers.

The 2017-18 campaign was his only year with the Warriors. But the experience exposed him to a world he would eventually enter full-time. He saw former teammates Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala were among the teammates discussing investments and startups around the Warriors.

At the same time, Bay Area entrepreneurs and venture capitalists started becoming part of Casspi’s business world.

“I had this idea in my head in one way or another, but it became more serious when I played for Golden State in San Francisco in 2018,” Casspi said in a 2024 interview. “I saw friends like Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant building investments—one in venture capital, another in media, and another in a family office. I started getting to know San Francisco’s business community and decided that ‘when I grow up,’ I wanted to do it full-time.”

Before Casspi later teamed up with the venture opportunity, his playing career took him back to Israel.

The former Warriors player’s path to success

Casspi earned about $18 million in NBA salary before his playing career took him back to Israel. He retired from professional basketball in 2021, but the transition into investing had already begun. In 2022, he launched Sheva, a $36 million fund focused on early-stage startups.

Two years later, Casspi teamed up with Ori Streichman and launched Swish Ventures. The firm raised upwards of $60 million for its initial Swish fund, targeting startups in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and AI. The strategy has since produced some major wins.

Cognition, Eon and Upwind are among the companies tied to Swish’s portfolio, with several investments reaching billion-dollar valuations. The portfolio figures show that Swish Ventures has moved well beyond its early-stage beginnings.

The firm has invested in about 20 companies, with almost half of them reaching unicorn status, meaning valuations of at least $1 billion. That track record gives Casspi credibility as an investor and highlights how quickly his business has grown since leaving basketball.

Casspi’s NBA career may not have ended with the same spotlight that followed some of his former teammates. But the lessons he picked up around Golden State gave him a glimpse of what was possible beyond basketball.

Now, with Swish Ventures managing roughly $800 million, Casspi has become an investor with a growing track record of his own.