israel-defense-prize
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Ido Ben-Natan
Ido Ben-Natan is the co-founder and CEO of Blockaid, a blockchain security company that protects crypto wallets, apps and users from scams and onchain exploits in real time. A veteran of Israel's Unit 8200 and the Office of the Prime Minister, where he led a cyber security R&D team and won the Israel Defense Prize, he launched Blockaid in 2022 to bring nation-state defensive expertise to Web3. The company is trusted by Coinbase, MetaMask, Kraken, Uniswap and Stellar, and has raised roughly $89 million from investors including Ribbit Capital, Sequoia, GV and Greylock.
Yair Frastai
Yair Frastai is the co-founder and CEO of VerAI Discoveries, a Boston-based company using proprietary AI to find concealed mineral deposits buried under covered terrain. A former Israeli Intelligence special operations officer and Israel Defense Prize recipient turned mining-sector executive, Frastai built VerAI in 2020 with longtime partner Amitai Axelrod to attack what he calls mining's biggest problem: only 1 in 1,000 exploration projects ever becomes a mine. VerAI reads raw geophysical signals from deep underground with machine learning, and has raised roughly $39 million to date, including a $24M Series B led by Insight Partners in 2025.