Israeli Entrepreneur Balances Startup Launch with Raising Four Young Children
Efrat Rapoport, 36, is embarking on her second entrepreneurial venture, June AI, with her previous co-founders. The startup, founded in late 2025, recently announced a significant pre-seed funding round of $20 million, led by Time Ventures, the private investment fund of Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, with participation from Michael Dell and George Kurtz. This funding is notable for its early stage. Rapoport's career trajectory is particularly striking as she is raising four children aged four months to five years old concurrently with building her new company. Her youngest child even has a dedicated space in the office and has accompanied her on business trips.
June AI aims to streamline the complex and costly integration of AI into large enterprises. Rapoport explained that while companies often invest heavily in core systems like CRM and inventory management, implementing AI into these existing structures can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. June AI utilizes AI agents to perform the necessary customizations, enabling faster and more effective AI adoption. The company's approach involves deep scanning of existing systems to identify areas for AI-driven improvement, guided by a proprietary 'recipe' and AI agents.
The strong investor backing, including Benioff, stems from Salesforce's acquisition of Rapoport's previous AI transcription startup, Bonobo AI, in 2019. Benioff maintained contact and expressed immediate interest in leading the funding round for June AI. Rapoport previously served as CEO of Salesforce's Israeli development center from 2022 to 2024, overseeing 700 employees, a role she took on with one child and during her eighth month of pregnancy, intentionally limiting her tenure to two years.
Rapoport acknowledges the immense demands of her dual role, stating she has outsourced non-child-related tasks to maximize her time with her children. She emphasizes that her ability to manage both a demanding startup and a young family is facilitated by significant support systems and financial capacity. Looking ahead, June AI's ambition is to become the standard for how companies integrate AI into their operations, reaching millions of users and fundamentally changing business processes.
Her journey includes a background in a technological unit of the IDF's intelligence corps (Unit 8200) and advanced studies in computational neurobiology. Rapoport also pursues creative outlets, having released two albums on Spotify and performing her own music, which she finds essential for problem-solving in her business endeavors. The founding team, including Rapoport, Barak Goldstein, Idan Zitiat, and Ohad Chen, has worked together for nearly a decade since their first venture, Bonobo AI.
