Itamar Ben Hemo did not have to go to war. At 49, the Israeli tech entrepreneur was well outside the mandatory service area. But after the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, Ben Hemo signed up as a reservist, believing his experience as a paratrooper in Lebanon in 2006 made him valuable to his country.

Ben Hemo says he remembers hearing a gunshot and feeling a searing pain during what was supposed to be a quick mission to Gaza to help a wounded soldier in January. He was hit by a bullet that escaped his protective vest. Several organs were damaged.

Ben Hemo was taken to the hospital. He remembers thinking he might not make it.

While Ben Hemo was recovering, the tech industry was in the midst of a rapid generational shift due to artificial intelligence. Companies of all shapes and sizes continued to look for ways to integrate technology into customer service, marketing and sales.

Rivery, which Ben Hemo co-founded in 2019, addresses this topic head-on and specializes in software integration through AI. Throughout Ben Hemo’s hospitalization, surgeries and rehab, Rivery continued to operate and serve clients with the reassurance of other company leaders.

Last week, about 11 months after Ben Hemo was hospitalized, his startup was purchased by a Pennsylvania-based cloud software company called Boomi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Boomi CEO Steve Lucas told CNBC that it is “approximately 100 million US dollars”.

Lucas describes Boomi as “Google Translate for Business takes the many different types of software a business uses, regardless of programming language, and integrates everything into a single working system. What makes Rivery so attractive, he said, is that it helps advance 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.

“To me, anyone with this strength has what it takes to make software work,” Lucas said.

Rivery has about 100 employees and 450 customers from around the world. Ben Hemo said he was approached by several other suitors but wasn’t looking for a deal until Boomi emailed his investors. Key early backers included Entrée Capital, State of Mind and Tiger Global Management.

Lucas said developments in AI are happening so quickly that the risks are existential if companies are slow to properly adopt the technology.

“If you’re a CEO and you don’t think about how your company can have entities controlled by AI companies, you could be the next Blockbuster,” Lucas said, referring to the decline of the once-dominant video rental service.

Lucas says the addition of Rivery to Boomi will allow the combined company to keep the AI ​​on track, and if it goes off track, it will be able to detect it and bring in a human to address any occurrence Quickly resolves customer service issues.

“Without incomplete or scattered data, there is no AI,” said Ben Hemo. “We found a way to solve this problem by interpreting the incoming information and organizing it for customers.”

Still, Lucas says he is well aware of the risks of making a significant investment in Israel.

A war that began more than 14 months ago with the Hamas invasion is not yet over. Israel is still the target of rockets from Gaza and ballistic missiles from Yemen. More than 100 hostages kidnapped from Israel remain captive and it is unclear how many are still alive.

In Gaza, the number of lives lost and the financial cost are incalculable, but Hamas claims that more than 40,000 people have been killed. Images from the region suggest that very few buildings remain intact due to the ongoing war.

“I would be lying if I said we didn’t consider the risks of doing business in Israel,” Lucas said. “But some of the best technology in the world comes from Israel.”

Shortly after Ben Hemo was hit, another Rivery employee, Itay Galea, was killed while on duty in northern Israel, where the country was fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. Galea, a 38-year-old reserve officer, received shares in Rivery so his surviving family will benefit from the Boomi deal.

According to the Israel Innovation Authority, part of the Israeli government, about 15% of tech workers left their jobs to join the army because of the war. Foreign investors held back with takeovers and investments.

But there are signs of recovery.

A recent report from PwC Israel shows that the total number of Israeli startup exits has surpassed 2023 and the average deal size now exceeds 2022 numbers. Rotem Eldar of Israeli venture firm 10D said: “Fundraising numbers for 2024 are now starting to converge with pre-war numbers.” A report from 10D showed that cybersecurity companies are the biggest focus for investors.

The Israeli stock market has also seen a recovery, with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange more than doubling from its lows in October 2023.

For Ben Hemo, the sale to Boomi marks his second successful exit as CEO and founder. He says he has now fully recovered from his wounds.

“I have the energy to do it,” he said. “I’m so excited, we all understand the gift of this opportunity.”

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