PiggyGPT

Private companiesCovered

Kela

Tel Aviv, Israel · Founded 2024

Kela builds an open-architecture command-and-control platform that connects sensors, drones, radars and weapons from different suppliers into one operational picture. Its customer is Israel’s Ministry of Defense, where its systems guard border outposts, and with eyesAtop it won the tender for the command platform of the IDF’s attack-drone fleet in July 2026.

Profile

What it builds and who buys it

  • ·Kela’s platform collects data from many sources, processes it in real time and presents it in one command interface with control over the connected systems and assets.Calcalist (Ctech), Mar 17, 2025
  • ·The company describes itself as a secure, open platform for integrating commercial and military systems in service of Western defense.Kela (company site)
  • ·Chief executive Alon Dror compares the command-and-control system to Android: a platform on which different suppliers build systems that connect to it.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·Sequoia wrote in March 2025 that the product was live in the field with multiple active projects, seven months into building.Sequoia Capital, Mar 17, 2025
  • ·Most of its activity is with Israel’s Ministry of Defense, and Globes reported in May 2026 that it works only with the Israeli security establishment.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·Globes reported that Kela grew within a year from one border outpost to a high double-digit number, winning outposts on the Jordanian border in the eastern-border tenders and expanding on the northern border.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·Kela recorded revenue of about $20 million in 2025, Dror said on a podcast, as Globes reported.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·Globes reported, citing sources, that Kela signed contracts worth more than $50 million in 2025.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·The company has opened a factory in southern Israel that produces, among other things, ammunition.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·It integrates armed drones and mini-UAVs into its system, both its own and those of foreign makers.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·In January 2026 Kela took exclusive rights to sell, integrate and deploy Starling’s Pathfinder X, a fixed-wing vertical take-off drone, to the IDF and Ministry of Defense forces, integrated into its own system as a drone-in-a-box.Globes, Jan 20, 2026
  • ·In July 2026 Kela and eyesAtop won a Ministry of Defense tender to provide, exclusively, the autonomous command-and-control platform for the IDF’s Digital Bat attack-drone program. Kela supplies the open architecture and eyesAtop the drone-control software.Calcalist (Ctech), Jul 14, 2026
  • ·In September 2025 Kela bought Pelanor, an Israeli company with about 15 staff that built AI software for analysing cloud spending.Calcalist (Ctech), Sep 28, 2025
  • ·Globes reported that Kela sometimes prices well below its rivals to win initial projects, funded by its latest round.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·It had about 25 employees, at offices in Tel Aviv, when it emerged from stealth in March 2025.Globes, Mar 17, 2025
  • ·It employed 65 people before the Pelanor acquisition in September 2025.Globes, Sep 28, 2025
  • ·It had about 150 employees by May 2026, Globes reported.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·Its founders have said they aim to become the fourth prime contractor of Israel’s defense industry, after Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries, Globes reported.Globes, Jun 17, 2026
  • ·The company is considering expanding into the US market.Globes, Jun 17, 2026

Founders and leadership

  • Alon DrorCo-founder and chief executive

    A graduate of the Talpiot program. He served about a decade in Israel’s defense establishment, first as a tank commander and then at the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, where he won the Israel Defense Prize.Calcalist (Ctech), May 13, 2025

  • Hamutal MeridorCo-founder and president

    A graduate of Unit 8200. She managed Palantir’s operations in Israel and was a partner at Vintage Investment Partners.Calcalist (Ctech), Mar 17, 2025

  • Jason ManneCo-founder and vice president of product

    An aeronautical engineer with a decade of weapons development in the Israeli Air Force and the Intelligence Corps’ Unit 81.Globes, May 5, 2026

  • Omer Bar-IlanCo-founder and vice president of R&D

    An engineer and serial entrepreneur who led the algorithms team at Rafael. Sequoia credits him with work on Iron Dome.Sequoia Capital, Mar 17, 2025

Prospects, after the May 2026 round

Prepared by PiggyGPT, as of Oct 15, 2026

  • ·Israel’s Ministry of Defense is the customer on file. Globes reported about $20 million of revenue in 2025 and more than $50 million of contracts signed that year, The revenue figure is the chief executive’s, from a podcast, and the contracts figure is from unnamed sources.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • ·The July 2026 Digital Bat award makes Kela, with eyesAtop, the provider of the IDF’s attack-drone command platform. No value for the contract is on file.Calcalist (Ctech), Jul 14, 2026
  • ·Globes reported a $200 million round at $1.2 billion in May 2026, about $300 million raised in under two years and about 150 employees. Calcalist reported the same round at a $1 billion pre-money. The company has announced neither figure.Globes, Jun 17, 2026
  • ·All its business on file is in Israel. The US market is under consideration, with no US customer cited.Globes, Jun 17, 2026
  • ·For the acquisition read, Globes reported that Anduril’s founder considered buying Kela and that the founders rejected the offer. Kela declined to comment. Lux Capital is both a Kela investor and an early Anduril investor. The posture is reported.Globes, Jun 22, 2026

A summary of what the figures on this page add up to, prepared by PiggyGPT from the record on file and its cited sources. Not the Street's view, and not advice.

Funding

Last valuation

$1.2B

Post-money, Funding round, reportedGlobes, May 5, 2026

Last round or tender

$200Mraised

Funding roundGlobes, May 5, 2026

Led by Stripes and D1, with Sequoia, Lux Capital, Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt, as Globes reported from a source close to the deal while the round was completing. The company has not announced it, and no cited source names the series. Calcalist reported the same day a $200 million raise at a $1 billion pre-money valuation, led by Stripe and D1 Capital Partners. Globes in June 2026 described the round as done at $1.2 billion and put total funding at about $300 million.

Latest revenue figure

$20M

Annual revenue, reported, Dec 31, 2025Globes, May 5, 2026

Valuation to revenue

60.0x

$1.2B (May 5, 2026) over $20M (Dec 31, 2025)

Post-money valuation by round

$0$200M$400M$600M$800M$1B$1.2B$1.4BAug '25Feb '26Aug '26$1.2B Funding round
DateRoundRaisedPost-money
May 5, 2026Funding roundLed by Stripes and D1, with Sequoia, Lux Capital, Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt, as Globes reported from a source close to the deal while the round was completing. The company has not announced it, and no cited source names the series. Calcalist reported the same day a $200 million raise at a $1 billion pre-money valuation, led by Stripe and D1 Capital Partners. Globes in June 2026 described the round as done at $1.2 billion and put total funding at about $300 million.$200M$1.20Breported
May 13, 2025Funding roundFrom existing investors only: Sequoia, Lux Capital and In-Q-Tel. The company declined to comment, and no cited source names the series. Calcalist put total funding at $100 million after it. Globes reported in September 2025 that the round was at an estimated valuation of $200 million.$60M$200Mreported
Mar 18, 2025Series ALed by Lux Capital, its first investment in an Israeli company, with In-Q-Tel and angel investors. The company announced it with the seed round on March 17, 2025, for $39 million in total. The day recorded is Calcalist’s report the next day, which says Lux led the round a few weeks after the seed.$28M—
Mar 17, 2025SeedLed by Sequoia Capital and announced with the Series A when the company emerged from stealth. Sequoia’s own post calls it a $10 million seed round. The day recorded is the announcement.$11M—

Primary capital across the rounds on file: $299M

Revenue

Annual revenue. Each figure as the source stated it.

Fewer than two dated figures on file to plot; the table carries what there is.

As ofFigureMeasure
Dec 31, 2025$20MreportedAnnual revenueAbout $20 million for 2025, by chief executive Alon Dror on a podcast he hosts, as Globes reported.

Secondary venues

  • Clarity (formerly Hiive)public page seen Oct 15, 2026

    Clarity Price $31.00, as of Oct 15, 2026

    Listed as Kela Technologies. Clarity calls the figure a model-derived indicative estimate calculated daily; the page dates it no further than a "last updated" line reading August 28, 2026, so the day recorded is the day seen. Last match, bids and asks are behind sign-up.

  • Caplightpublic page seen Oct 15, 2026

    No price on the public page.

    Listed as Kela Technologies. No public MarketPrice; historical pricing is behind a login, and the page shows only Caplight’s last-round figures, a $1.2 billion estimated valuation. A second Caplight page, caplight.com/company/kela-defense, lists the same company as Kela Defense.

A venue is listed when its public page named the company on the date shown. A price is the figure that page showed, under the venue’s own name for it and dated as the venue dated it; it is a level the venue publishes, not a trade. Nothing is recorded from behind a login.

Reads

Acquisition: Reported

A named outlet reported talks or an approach. A report is a fact about the press, not a prediction.

Prepared by PiggyGPT, as of Oct 15, 2026

Signals

  • Mar 17, 2025Kela emerged from stealth with $39 million from a Sequoia-led seed and a Lux Capital-led Series A. In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s investment arm, also invested.Globes, Mar 17, 2025
  • May 13, 2025Kela raised $60 million more from its existing investors, Sequoia, Lux Capital and In-Q-Tel, Calcalist reported.Calcalist (Ctech), May 13, 2025
  • Sep 28, 2025Kela made its first acquisition, buying the Israeli cloud-cost software company Pelanor for shares and cash at a price Globes estimated at $20 million to $30 million.Globes, Sep 28, 2025
  • Jan 20, 2026Kela took exclusive rights to sell, integrate and deploy Starling’s Pathfinder X autonomous drone to the IDF and Ministry of Defense forces, Globes reported.Globes, Jan 20, 2026
  • Feb 20, 2026Kela presented to Anduril founder Palmer Luckey during his visit to Israel. Calcalist reported that the visit was organized by Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital, an early Anduril investor, and that Luckey was exploring partnerships and acquisitions among Israeli defense companies.Calcalist (Ctech), Feb 20, 2026
  • May 5, 2026Globes reported Kela completing a $200 million round at a $1.2 billion valuation, led by Stripes and D1.Globes, May 5, 2026
  • Jun 17, 2026Globes reported that Luckey considered acquiring Kela during his visit and that the founders rejected the offer, wanting to build an independent company. Kela declined to comment.Globes, Jun 17, 2026
  • Jun 22, 2026Globes reported that Anduril plans its own operations and factory in Israel, and repeated that Kela’s founders refused a sale at this time.Globes, Jun 22, 2026
  • Jul 14, 2026Kela and eyesAtop won the Ministry of Defense tender for the command-and-control platform of the IDF’s Digital Bat attack-drone program, beating Ondas, Calcalist reported.Calcalist (Ctech), Jul 14, 2026

Named counterparties

  • AndurilGlobes reported that Palmer Luckey considered acquiring Kela during his early-2026 visit to Israel and that the founders rejected the offer. Lux Capital, which led Kela’s Series A, is an early Anduril investor and organized the visit.Globes, Jun 17, 2026

Counterparties are named for a cited reason: a partnership, an investment, or a stated appetite. Naming is not a forecast.

A summary of what the figures on this page add up to, prepared by PiggyGPT from the record on file and its cited sources. Not the Street's view, and not advice.

Sources

Researched Oct 15, 2026