Hex-Rays, a Belgian company renowned for its reverse-engineering software IDA Pro, is set to acquire the Israeli startup HexAI, formerly known as Ventris, in an estimated deal between $30 million and $35 million. Founded in 2025 by the 25-year-old Elon Gliksberg, HexAI has worked quietly on a pioneering operating system aimed at equipping AI agents for security research tasks. The startup, which consists of a small team of six, has not sought external funding, and Hex-Rays intends to inject resources into enhancing its presence in Israel.
Elon Gliksberg's journey into programming and cybersecurity began in middle school, where he initially created hacks for video games. During high school, he developed multiple applications for his peers, including a ride-sharing app reminiscent of Uber, which helped students organize transportation after getting their licenses. His technical journey continued in Israel's Unit 8200, where he took on leadership roles for various projects.
Post-military service, Gliksberg joined a startup as its first employee, aiming to gain insights into the industry before venturing into his own enterprise. He has authored several technical papers and conducted vulnerability research that uncovered significant security weaknesses in services run by major corporations, earning acknowledgments and rewards for his disclosures.
With the growing use of AI agents, Gliksberg recognized a significant opportunity to leverage these technologies for security research, leading to the establishment of HexAI. The goal was to enhance the measurability of the research process and ensure that the results could be independently verified. Amit Schendel, who had previously worked alongside Gliksberg in Unit 8200, later took on the role of Chief Technology Officer at HexAI.
HexAI caters to both governmental and commercial clients, both in Israel and abroad. The company has reported that clients benefit from not only an increase in the overall quality and volume of security findings but also significant reductions in the costs associated with AI models. Notably, these improvements can be achieved by utilizing openly available models rather than depending on premium systems from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
The platform empowers security researchers to design and run their research workflows, evaluate their efficacy, and authenticate their results. It specializes in analyzing both source code and binary files to uncover known vulnerabilities, including those associated with Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) as well as zero-day vulnerabilities and malware.
Researchers can customize workflows to meet their specific needs, evaluate their accuracy, and continually refine their approaches. In addition to user-generated workflows, HexAI provides pre-built options that undergo ongoing development and testing against industry standards and common goals in security research. Some workflows are even capable of autonomously enhancing other research processes.
Gliksberg emphasized, “Rather than depending on generic agents that function independently, which can be pricey and inconsistent, our users can concentrate on their specific research objectives, assess performance, and validate outcomes. They have the flexibility to create workflows tailored to their requirements, dictate agent functionality, and iterate on results. Furthermore, they can utilize our pre-existing workflows that our research teams continually refine without needing to construct everything from scratch.”
The platform is optimized for extensive research initiatives and efficient use of AI tokens. It possesses the versatility to function in air-gapped environments that keep systems isolated from outside networks—an invaluable asset for organizations engaged in sensitive security research that cannot be shared with external services.
Through acquiring HexAI, Hex-Rays aims to broaden its capabilities in AI-driven security research and tackle a wider array of cybersecurity challenges. With 35 years of expertise in reverse engineering, Hex-Rays is well-positioned to utilize its flagship product, IDA Pro, which allows researchers to analyze software even when the source code is not accessible.
