Israeli protection tech firm Kela Applied sciences — based within the wake of the October 7, 2023, onslaught — has acquired AI startup Pelanor, its first acquisition, because it builds a army working system tailor-made for the trendy battlefield.
Monetary particulars of the deal weren’t disclosed, however the worth is estimated at about $20 million to $30 million, in response to reviews within the Hebrew press.
Tel Aviv-based Pelanor was based on the finish of 2022 by Israeli military intelligence elite group Unit 8200 alumni Matan Mates (CEO), Ido Kotler (CPO) and Yotam Tanay (CTO). The startup has developed an AI-based platform that tracks, manages and reduces cloud computing bills for corporations by routinely detecting redundant prices.
Pelanor says the platform traces each greenback to its supply and analyzes its enterprise worth, enabling groups to make strategic spending choices.
“With this acquisition, we’re including 15 very proficient engineers with wonderful expertise and one of many strongest groups on the market at present with cloud and AI experience,” Kela co-founder Hamutal Meridor informed The Occasions of Israel.
Kela got here out of stealth in March this 12 months with a mission to equip Western militaries with a software program platform designed to facilitate the adoption and integration of economic applied sciences resembling tablets, sensors and radars into present army methods.
The protection tech startup was based in July 2024 by Meridor, who additionally serves as president, alongside CEO Alon Dror, serial entrepreneur and engineer Omer Bar-Ilan and aeronautical engineer Jason Manne.
Illustrative: A Rafael laser interceptor system, in a handout photograph issued by the protection agency on June 4, 2025. (Rafael Superior Protection Techniques)
Meridor is a veteran of the IDF’s intelligence Unit 8200, a former associate on the Israeli tech fund, Classic Funding Companions, and beforehand served because the Israel head of US information evaluation firm Palantir.
Dror graduated from the military’s prestigious Talpiot coaching program, after which served within the protection institution for over a decade — first as a tank commander after which at Mafat (Israel’s Directorate of Protection R&D), the place he gained the Israel Protection Prize.
Manne has 10 years of expertise in weapons improvement for the Israeli Air Power, and Bar-Ilan is the previous head of algorithm improvement at Rafael Superior Protection Techniques.
Earlier this 12 months, the startup raised funds from two US enterprise capital corporations Sequoia Capital and Lux Capital, alongside IQT, the US Central Intelligence Company’s funding arm.
The founders’ imaginative and prescient is to transform Israel right into a protection tech hub for Western militaries. Kela stated it’s gearing as much as apply and compete for protection contracts within the US and by Western militaries in Europe, to broaden the platform’s deployment.
The enlargement plans come as some European governments are canceling arms offers with main Israeli protection contractors, together with Elbit Techniques and Rafael Superior Protection Techniques, on account of rising criticism over the nation’s conduct in the course of the ongoing battle in opposition to the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
