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Itamar Ben Hemo did not need to join the war. At the age of 49, the Israeli tech entrepreneur was well outside the range of mandatory service. But after last year Attack of the 7th of October from Hamas, Ben Hemo signed up as a reservist, convinced that his combat experience as a paratrooper in Lebanon in 2006 made him valuable to his country.
In January, during what was supposed to be a quick mission to Gaza to help a wounded soldier, Ben Hemo says he remembers hearing a shot and feeling a searing pain. He had been hit by a bullet that escaped his protective vest. Many organs were damaged.
Ben Hemo was taken to the hospital. He remembers thinking he couldn’t do it.
While Ben Hemo was recovering, the tech industry was in the midst of a rapid generational upgrade due to artificial intelligence. Businesses of all shapes and sizes continued to look for ways to integrate technology into customer service, marketing and sales.
Rivery, which Ben Hemo helped start in 2019, plays directly into that theme, specializing in software integration through AI. Through Ben Hemo’s hospital, surgeons and rehabilitation, Rivery continued to operate, serving customers with the reassurance of other company executives.
Last week, about 11 months after Ben Hemo was hospitalized, his startup was bought from a Pennsylvania-based cloud software company called Boomi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Boomi CEO Steve Lucas tells CNBC it was “in the neighborhood of $100 million.”
Lucas describes Boomi as “Google It translates to business,” taking the different types of software a company uses, regardless of programming language, and integrating everything into a single operating system. What makes Rivery so attractive, he said, is that it helps advance the software integration in real time in the cloud using AI to analyze different types of data sets.
During his three-month recovery, Ben Hemo held company meetings and spoke to investors from his hospital bed.
Palestinians check the damage at the site of Israeli attacks on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 29 in 2023.
Mohammed Salem | Reuters
“To me, someone with that kind of strength has what it takes to make the software work,” Lucas said.
Rivery has about 100 employees and 450 customers from all over the world. Ben Hemo said he had been approached by several other suitors but was not looking for a deal until Boomi sent an email to his investors. Major backers include Entrée Capital, State of Mind and Tiger Global Management.
Lucas said developments in AI are happening so quickly that if companies are slow to adopt the technology properly, the risks are existential.
“If you’re a CEO and you don’t think about how your company can have AI-driven business units, you could be the next Blockbuster,” Lucas said, referring to the death of the once dominant video rental service.
Lucas says that adding Rivery to Boomi will allow the combined company to keep the AI on track, and when it goes off track, it will be able to recognize this and bring in a human to quickly resolve any service issues. client is emerging.
“Without incomplete or scattered data, there is no AI,” said Ben Hemo. “We found a way to solve this as information comes in, interpreting and organizing it for customers.”
Steve Lucas, CEO of Boomi
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However, Lucas says he is well aware of the risks of making a significant investment in Israel.
A war that started more than 14 months ago with the invasion of Hamas is not over. Israel is still the target of missiles from Gaza and ballistic missiles from as far as Yemen. More than 100 hostages taken by Israel remain in captivity, and it is unclear how many are still alive.
In Gaza, the human toll in life and financial costs is incalculable, but Hamas says more than 40,000 people have been killed. Images of the region suggest that very few buildings remain intact due to the ongoing war.
“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t take the risks of doing business in Israel into account,” Lucas said. “But some of the best technology in the world is coming out of Israel.”
Shortly after Ben Hemo was hit, another Rivery employee, Itay Galea, was killed on duty in northern Israel, where the country was fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. Galea, a 38-year-old reserve officer, was given equity in Rivery so that his surviving family would benefit from the Boomi deal.
According to the Israel Innovation Authority, which is part of the Israeli government, about 15% of tech workers left their jobs to join the army because of the war. Foreign investors have held back on purchases and investments.
But there are signs of recovery.
A recent report by PwC Israel shows that total exits from Israeli start-ups eclipsed 2023 and the average deal size is now above 2022 numbers. Rotem Eldar of Israeli venture firm 10D has said: “2024 fundraising numbers are now starting to line up with pre-war numbers.” A 10D report showed that cyber security companies are the biggest area of focus for investors.
Since the October 2023 attack on Israel, the stock market has soared.
Israel’s stock market has also seen a recovery, with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange more than doubled from its October 2023 lows.
For Ben Hemo, the sale to Boomi marks his second successful exit as CEO and founder. He says he is now fully recovered from his injuries.
“I have the energy to do this,” he said. “I’m so excited, everyone understands the gift of this opportunity.”
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