Cris Neckar

About

I spent the first decade of my career breaking the world’s most secure systems, the next decade building them, and now I invest in the founders who are defining the future of them. As a Partner at Two Bear Capital, I invest in deep tech and cybersecurity startups at the Seed and Series A stages. I partner with founders tackling critical problems in data sovereignty, AI infrastructure, and secure computation. My investment thesis is simple: I back technical founders who want a lead investor who can actually read their code, understand their threat models, and help them scale from a technical breakthrough to a market leader. My perspective on risk is rooted in offensive security and applied cryptography. Before moving into venture capital, I co-founded Divergent Security, an elite offensive security firm where I led high-impact vulnerability research and red teaming. Our team was instrumental in uncovering NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and securing the infrastructure of top-tier tech enterprises. Earlier in my career, I was a foundational member of the Google Chrome Security Team, helping build the structures that evolved into Project Zero and Google’s broader OSS security initiatives.

Experience

Education