Startup brief
Early-Stage Capital Surges in Tel Aviv Hubs
Local startups draw $148 million for AI-native cybersecurity, NeuroAI brain models, and anti-swarm defense platforms.
Startup
Cybersecurity startup Oak emerged from stealth with a record-setting $60M seed round — the massive raise reveals intense venture appetite for Israel's AI-native network security platforms.
BackgroundModern enterprise networks suffer from fragmented access tools that fail to secure machine-to-machine connections. Oak's founding team has a record of multiple successful exits, giving them unique leverage in the venture market.
- The financing round represents one of the largest seed rounds ever raised by an Israeli cybersecurity company, signaling deep investor confidence in local tech founders despite broader geopolitical tensions.
- Oak plans to aggressively hire engineers for its Tel Aviv R&D hub to scale its development of AI-driven permission tools, competing directly for scarce regional talent.
- The platform is designed to govern access credentials across human employees, external contractors, and autonomous AI agents, addressing a critical security gap in automated corporate workflows.
Startup
NeuroAI pioneer Hemispheric raised $52M to deploy its brain foundation model — the diagnostic platform could establish the first physiological standard for psychiatric evaluation.
BackgroundPsychiatric diagnostics have historically relied on subjective surveys and symptom evaluations, lacking clear physiological biomarkers. Hemispheric has developed a platform to translate complex electrical brain activity into objective clinical diagnostics.
- The Descartes foundation model was trained on more than 250,000 hours of non-invasive EEG and behavioral clinical data, creating an unprecedented physiological dataset for cognitive analysis.
- Patients wear a lightweight dry-electrode EEG headset for 15 minutes to evaluate conditions like PTSD, depression, and cognitive decline, potentially bypassing months of costly psychiatric evaluations.
- Co-founder Gidi Littwin previously co-founded RealFace, the facial recognition startup acquired by Apple in 2017 to build Face ID, bringing proven high-stakes exit experience to the venture.
Startup
Defense startup Skapion secured a $36M seed round for swarm-drone defenses — the massive raise shows capital is rapidly shifting into localized, real-time tactical air protection.
BackgroundCheap coordinated drone swarms and fiber-optic FPV threats have transformed modern battlefield dynamics, outmaneuvering traditional missile defense arrays. Skapion operates its primary research and development hub out of Ramat Gan, Israel.
- The company was co-founded by Brig. Gen. Pini Yungman, the founding architect of Rafael's legendary Iron Dome system, lending immediate institutional credibility to the startup's technology.
- Skapion's system detects and engages drone threats entirely without standard cloud systems, ensuring immunity to electronic jamming and allowing field units to operate in completely disconnected environments.
- The deal highlights a major surge in local defense-tech startup funding, which has captured billions in recent capital allocation as regional conflict accelerates tactical hardware deployment.
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