# Ophir Gaathon

> Ophir Gaathon is the co-founder and CEO of DUST Identity, a Massachusetts deep-tech company that sprinkles microscopic, industrial diamond dust onto physical objects to give them an unclonable fingerprint. A Columbia-trained applied physicist who once chased the quantum properties of diamonds for computing, he turned that research into an identity layer for the physical world, used across defense, aerospace, automotive and luxury supply chains. Backed by Kleiner Perkins, Airbus Ventures, Lockheed Martin and Castle Island Ventures, his company has raised more than $50M and works on problems originally posed by DARPA.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at DUST Identity
- **Organizations:** DUST Identity, Diamond Nanotechnologies, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Education:** PhD, Applied Physics, Columbia University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads DUST Identity, creator of the Diamond Unclonable Security Tag (DUST)., Took the company from inception through its first DARPA contracts into commercial deployment., Raised more than $50M across seed, Series A and Series B rounds from top-tier investors.

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Meets Jonathan Hodges and Dirk Englund at Columbia University while researching the quantum characteristics of diamonds.
- **2011** — Founds Diamond Nanotechnologies and serves as CEO for roughly seven years, developing the diamond-materials technology that underpins DUST.
- **2018** — Co-founds DUST Identity, an MIT spin-off with DARPA support, and raises a $2.3M seed round.
- **2019** — Closes a $10M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins with Airbus Ventures and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
- **2023** — Announces a $40M Series B led by Castle Island Ventures and a partnership with Oxygen Esports for authenticated sports collectibles.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads DUST Identity, creator of the Diamond Unclonable Security Tag (DUST).
- Took the company from inception through its first DARPA contracts into commercial deployment.
- Raised more than $50M across seed, Series A and Series B rounds from top-tier investors.
- Holds several patents in diamond-materials technology.
- Authored over 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers (per The Org).
- Built technology adopted across defense, aerospace, automotive, luxury goods and cosmetics supply chains.

## Latest updates

- **2023-12** — DUST Identity announced a $40M Series B led by Castle Island Ventures, with Amex Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Airbus Ventures and 8VC, plus a partnership with Oxygen Esports.

## Links

- Website: https://dustidentity.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ophirgaathon
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dustidentity
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMqyRS-Nuk

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ophir-gaathon
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-10