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YC companies founded by ex-Israel Defense Forces people

22 Y Combinator companies with a founder who worked at Israel Defense Forces before.

Updated weekly, last on November 9, 2026. Roster from Y Combinator's public directory.

Hiring the mostlast 60 days
17 roles
GuestyW14
  1. 2D-ID2
  2. 3Salt Security1
See all 5
Fastest growingteam, 6 months
+29%
ConntourW25
  1. 2Wild Moose+22%
  2. 3Salt Security+4%
See all 5
Shrinkingteam, 12 months
−3%
GuestyW14
See all 1
Raised the mostlast 12 months
$13.5M
HypercoreS21
  1. 2Conntour$7M
See all 2
Companies
22
Active
13
Hiring, last 60 days
5
Open roles, 60 days
22
People on these teams
1,637
Showing 22 of 22 companies
CompanyBatchTeam6 mo12 moOpen rolesTotal raisedLast round
The management platform for the short term rental industry.
W14808−3%−3%17$411MSeries F$130M, Apr 2024
Protects organizations from getting breached through their APIs.
W16208+4%+6%1$271MUndisclosed round$140M, Sep 2022
The first digital payment experience company, built for B2B.
S20149+1%+6%1$437MDebt$350M, Nov 2022
Enable creators and developers to generate realistic AI personas
S17147−9%+6%2$47.9MSeries B$25M, Mar 2022
Neema is an app for unbanked workers, which provides a checking…
W17Inactive143+3%+13%0$19.3MUndisclosed round$17.7M, Dec 2021
Enterprise-Grade OpenTelemetry
W2335 +21%0$13.5MSeries A$13M, Sep 2024
Trust Center platform that scales customer security reviews
S20Acquired33−13%−35%0$53.1MSeries B$33M, Apr 2024
Loan management software for private lenders
S2130+3%+76%1$13.6MSeries A$13.5M, Feb 2026
Query mission-critical video
W2522+29%+69%0$14.4MSeed$7M, Mar 2026
The Modern Pricing Engine for Retail
W23Inactive170%0%0SeedApr 2023
Automating root cause analysis with generative AI
W2311+22%+57%0$7.5MSeed$7M, Oct 2025
AI copilot for real-estate sales teams, powered by proprietary data
W229−10%−18%0Pre-seedMar 2022
Recover failed subscription payments to increase retention and LTV
S227−12%−12%0SeedOct 2023
AI cybersecurity for financial institutions' digital assets
S264  0
ApolloShield is a system that detects unwanted drones and drives them…
S164 −20%0$2.6MSeed$2.5M, Apr 2018
Datree prevents Kubernetes misconfigurations from reaching production
W20Inactive3  0$11MSeed$8M, Feb 2020
Weav is the universal API for commerce platforms
W20Acquired2  0$4.5MSeed$4.3M, Apr 2021
NeoWize created a new type of machine learning algorithm and uses it…
S16Acquired2  0$120KYC investment$120K, Aug 2016
Discover novel defense related materials/molecules.
F261  0
The Gen AI evaluation and curation platform
W23Inactive1  0$500KYC investment$500K, Apr 2023
Turning HR data into actionable insights
W21Acquired1  0$2.8MSeed$2.7M, Mar 2024
Metapacket is the first selective web gateway that stops malware by…
S16Inactive  0SeedAug 2016

How this works

1. The roster

Every launched company in YC's public directory, with its batch, status, industry and location. New companies show up the week YC lists them.

2. The numbers

Each company is matched to Crustdata by its website. Crustdata adds team size and its change over 6 and 12 months, open roles from job postings, reported funding, and founders' past employers.

3. The lists

Hiring the most counts distinct roles posted in the last 60 days. Growth needs 10+ people today, shrinking 20+ a year ago, so tiny teams do not top the lists. Rebuilt every week.

Built with Crustdata. Get your own API key and build your own.

The numbers on this page come from three Crustdata API calls. Crustdata tags 5,000+ companies with Y Combinator as an investor; swap the filter for any investor, industry or headcount range and track your own list, with founders' work emails one call away.

  • Company search for team size, growth and funding
  • Job search with a count by company, for who is hiring and for what
  • A watch that re-runs the search weekly and sends only what changed
# 1. every company with Y Combinator as an investor
curl https://api.crustdata.com/company/search \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $CRUSTDATA_API_KEY" \
  -H "x-api-version: 2025-11-01" \
  -d '{
    "filters": { "field": "funding.investors",
                 "type": "in", "value": ["Y Combinator"] },
    "fields": ["basic_info.name",
      "headcount.total", "headcount.growth_percent",
      "funding.total_investment_usd"],
    "limit": 100
  }'

# 2. open listings per company, last 60 days (limit 0 = counts only)
curl https://api.crustdata.com/job/search \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $CRUSTDATA_API_KEY" \
  -H "x-api-version: 2025-11-01" \
  -d '{
  "filters": { "op": "and", "conditions": [
    { "field": "company.basic_info.company_id",
      "type": "in", "value": [...] },
    { "field": "metadata.date_added",
      "type": "=>", "value": "2026-08-24" } ]},
  "limit": 0,
  "aggregations": [{ "type": "group_by",
    "field": "company.basic_info.company_id", "agg": "count" }]
}'

# 3. the same company filter as a weekly watch: POST /watch/company/search

Questions about ex-Israel Defense Forces founded YC companies

How many ex-Israel Defense Forces founded YC companies are there?

22 Y Combinator companies have a founder who worked at Israel Defense Forces; 13 are active.

Which ex-Israel Defense Forces founded YC companies are hiring?

5 companies posted roles in the last 60 days, led by Guesty (17 roles), D-ID (2 roles) and Salt Security (1 roles). 1 mark themselves as hiring on YC's directory.

Which ex-Israel Defense Forces founded YC companies are growing fastest?

By team growth over 6 months (10+ people): Conntour (+29%), Wild Moose (+22%) and Salt Security (+4%).

Which ex-Israel Defense Forces founded YC companies raised the most?

Largest latest rounds in the last 12 months, after their YC batch: Hypercore ($13.5M) and Conntour ($7M).

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