Israeli Cyber Startup Ventris Acquired for Tens of Millions

Ventris, an Israeli cybersecurity startup founded less than a year ago by 25-year-old Eilon Gliksberg, has been acquired by Belgian company Hex-Rays. The deal, which was not officially disclosed, is estimated to be worth $30-35 million. Ventris developed a system for operating artificial intelligence agents for security research, enabling researchers to define workflows, measure agent performance, and verify findings. The system assists in identifying security vulnerabilities, malware, and backdoors by analyzing source code and binary files, and can operate offline. The company stated that governmental and business clients in Israel and globally are already using the system, reporting improvements in the quality and quantity of security findings while reducing AI costs. Gliksberg, who began programming in middle school and served in Unit 8200, founded Ventris to address a perceived gap in how AI agents were used for security research. Amit Shandel, who served with Gliksberg in 8200 and is Ventris's CTO, also joined the company. All six Ventris employees will continue with Hex-Rays, which plans to hire additional vulnerability researchers and developers. Hex-Rays, a developer of reverse engineering tools like IDA Pro, aims to expand into AI-based security research with this acquisition and plans to invest in Ventris's technology and its Israeli operations.