Israeli Startup PointFive Appoints Akiva Cates as VP of Marketing
Israeli startup PointFive appoints Akiva Cates as VP of Marketing and Partnerships to scale its cloud and AI infrastructure optimization platform globally.
Israeli startup PointFive, which raised $60 million in a Series B round led by Accel in June, has announced the appointment of Akiva Cates as Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships. Cates, who joined the company as its first go-to-market employee during the seed stage, will lead the company's marketing operations. Simultaneously, he will continue driving strategic partnerships with cloud providers and technology partners while joining the company's executive management.
Leadership and Growth Strategy
At PointFive, Cates worked closely with the founders from the earliest days, initially focusing on business development and later serving as VP of Business Development and Partnerships. In this capacity, he built the company's partnership ecosystem from scratch, encompassing major cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, alongside global integrators and US resellers, transforming it into a primary growth engine for the firm.
Prior to joining PointFive, Cates spent nearly 15 years in management and strategy roles at Bank of America and Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from Bar-Ilan University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.
Navigating AI and Cloud Costs
The appointment comes as organizations worldwide rapidly scale their use of AI agents and models, often struggling to track expenditures and returns. PointFive developed TokenShift, a control plane designed for enterprise AI agents that provides visibility, governance, and efficiency over token and model usage, complemented by an agentic FinOps platform that identifies and remediates cloud, data, and AI waste.
"Akiva was one of the first people to join PointFive, built our partnership network from the ground up, and knows our customers, partners, and market inside out," said Alon Arvatz, co-founder and CEO of PointFive. "Organizations everywhere are looking for ways to control their AI spending, and marketing plays a critical role in leading this discourse."
Founded in 2023 by Alon Arvatz, Gal Ben-David, and Amir Khazaz, PointFive develops infrastructure efficiency platforms. The company currently employs over 100 people across Tel Aviv, London, and the United States, having raised a total of $96 million from investors including Accel, Index Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Entrée Capital.
