Inside Kela: The Israeli defense-tech startup backed by Sequoia and the CIA
With top-tier investors and elite military talent, Kela aims to transform modern warfare with AI-driven command systems.
The buzz around the Israeli startup Kela has refused to die down for more than six months. It began as a secret project, for which a group of senior figures in the local high-tech industry left their jobs, and gained further attention when no Israeli venture capital fund was granted access. Instead, the American Sequoia fund single-handedly provided the entire initial investment of $11 million. A few weeks later, the American Lux fund, which had never invested in Israel before, led a second funding round of $28 million. Alongside Sequoia and Lux, In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s startup investment arm, also invested in Kela after one of its partners visited Israel during the war and met with some of the company’s founders.
On Monday, a few official details about Kela were revealed alongside an extensive article in the Wall Street Journal about the Israeli defense-tech sector. However, much about Kela remains undisclosed. For example, it is unclear whether the company has any customers or who they might be. It has only been stated that the funds raised will be used to "expand the deployment of the platform to American security agencies and other Western militaries."
In a conversation with Calcalist, Hamutal Meridor, one of the founders and president of Kela, shed some light on the company’s activities while keeping key details confidential. Meridor, the daughter of Dan and Liora Meridor and the sister of Shaul Meridor, who previously headed the Finance Ministry's Budgets Department, explained: “The need for the product Kela is developing arose immediately after October 7. The company was officially established in July 2024, and we recruited the country’s top talent, many of whom are eager to contribute to the development of security technologies. We already have 25 employees—half from technology units like Unit 81 and half from combat roles in patrol and commando units. Many of them left lucrative jobs in cyber, and many realized during their reserve duty that they wanted to work in this field.”
All of Kela’s employees are based in Israel. Meridor, a graduate of Unit 8200, previously managed Palantir’s Israeli operations—a company that develops combat management systems and has garnered significant interest since its IPO on Wall Street. In recent years, she was a partner at the Vintage investment fund. Kela’s CEO is Alon Dror, a graduate of the Talpiot program who served for about a decade in the defense sector, first as tank commander and later in roles at the Directorate of Defence Research & Development where he was awarded the Israel Defense Prize. Other co-founders include Jason Manne, an aeronautical engineer with a decade of experience in weapons development in the Israeli Air Force and the Intelligence Corps’ elite Technology Unit (Unit 81). and Omer Bar-Ilan, an experienced engineer and serial entrepreneur who previously led the algorithms team at Rafael.
Despite Kela’s short existence, it already has a working product, though Meridor remains tight-lipped about customers. The company describes its offering in broad terms: an open platform that enables Western militaries to rapidly and securely integrate innovative commercial technologies into military systems.
“The product is essentially an operating system that can connect to various software and hardware components such as sensors and radars, allowing for the development of command-and-control or decision-making applications,” Meridor explained. “The system is designed for soldiers in the field while also supporting command-and-control management from headquarters. Beyond the technology itself, which integrates with all internal military developments, our key advantage is rapid deployment. The initial use cases are defensive in nature, and considering Israel’s current security situation, it’s clear that none of our borders are truly secure. We need as many effective solutions as possible. Our mission is not just about business—it’s also about Zionism.”
Kela’s system collects information from a variety of sources, processes it in real-time, and presents it through a unified command interface, providing full oversight of all connected systems and resources. Its AI capabilities assist in data analysis, pattern recognition, and generating actionable insights for commanders, enabling rapid and accurate responses to threats. The system’s open and modular architecture allows militaries to integrate new technologies flexibly and securely without requiring extensive modifications to existing systems.
Kela has emerged as a flagship company in Israel’s booming defense-tech sector, which has gained momentum since the war. The conflict in Ukraine, and more recently former President Trump’s controversial statements suggesting the U.S. might abandon Ukraine—interpreted by some as a signal for Europe to boost its own defense spending—have further fueled interest in such technologies. The events of October 7 demonstrated how guerrilla groups, traditionally viewed as technologically limited, can exploit commercial technologies such as sensors, drones, and communication systems to gain immediate tactical advantages, challenging conventional military strategies that rely on heavy, complex systems. Western militaries are now seeking solutions that enable the rapid adoption and deployment of new technologies.
In a post about Kela published yesterday by Sequoia, the firm stated that the company’s goal is to "leverage Israel’s unique cadre of “technowarriors” to help defend the Western world order." The post also revealed that Kela’s initial focus is to upgrade Israel’s internal defense capabilities, with a long-term vision of positioning the country as a global hub for security technologies and a strategic asset for NATO and the United States. Sequoia’s partners, who led the investment in Kela, recounted that in April 2024, they met for breakfast with Meridor and Dror. Their interest in the project was so strong that the meeting extended throughout the day and concluded with an $11 million investment.
