# Roey Eliyahu

> Roey Eliyahu is the Israeli-born CEO and co-founder of Salt Security. A programmer from childhood and former Israeli military cybersecurity team leader, he co-founded the company with Michael Nicosia in 2016. His work spans API discovery, security posture management and attack prevention, with an expanding focus on AI agents and the systems they access.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Salt Security
- **Organizations:** Salt Security, Eshkol College, Cigol Digital Systems, Israel Defense Forces
- **Nationality:** Israeli
- **Education:** The Open University of Israel
- **Known for:** Named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list., Co-founded Salt Security, which raised a $140 million Series D at a $1.4 billion valuation in February 2022., Led Salt when it was a 2019 RSA Innovation Sandbox finalist and a 2020 Gartner Cool Vendor in API Strategy.

## Career timeline

- **Age 9** — Began programming in Israel.
- **Age 11** — Began working as a freelance developer.
- **Age 18** — Entered an Israeli military cybersecurity unit; later led security-system development.
- **Before 2016** — Co-founded Eshkol College and worked on security projects at Cigol Digital Systems.
- **2016** — Co-founded Salt Security with Michael Nicosia; Y Combinator lists Salt in its Winter 2016 batch.
- **2020** — Salt announced a $20 million Series A in June. In December, Eliyahu was named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list.
- **2022** — Salt raised a $140 million Series D led by CapitalG at a $1.4 billion valuation.
- **2026** — Continued leading Salt as its API security work expanded into agentic security.

## Achievements

- Named to the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list.
- Co-founded Salt Security, which raised a $140 million Series D at a $1.4 billion valuation in February 2022.
- Led Salt when it was a 2019 RSA Innovation Sandbox finalist and a 2020 Gartner Cool Vendor in API Strategy.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — In an October 1 interview, explained the risks of AI agents chaining actions through tools, APIs and credentials.
- **2026-10** — Salt released its State of Agentic AI and API Security 2H 2026 research on October 13, combining more than 380 survey responses with production telemetry.
- **2026-10** — Salt Labs disclosed a resolved Manus vulnerability showing how a malicious email could lead an AI agent to execute code and reach connected accounts.

## Links

- Website: https://salt.security/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roey-eliyahu-78391b85/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/roey-eliyahu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-20