Israeli artificial intelligence startup Jounce has been acquired by Red Hat, the open-source software subsidiary of IBM, in a deal estimated at $20 million, Calcalist has learned. The acquisition comes just one year after Jounce’s founding and includes employee retention incentives and milestone-based payments. The companies did not disclose the official purchase price.
Founded in stealth mode in 2024, Jounce developed a platform for deploying, running, and monitoring complex AI systems, with an emphasis on flexibility, security, and cost-efficiency. Its modular architecture offers over 10,000 deployment options and dynamically adapts to different workloads and service-level objectives, making it easier for organizations to operationalize AI at scale.
The startup was backed by a $2 million Seed investment from Pitango First.
Jounce was founded by three seasoned Israeli entrepreneurs with deep roots in AI and cloud infrastructure: Dr. Roy Nissim, CEO, age 28, is a graduate of the elite Talpiot program and Unit 8200. He holds a PhD in computer science and an MBA, and has more than a decade of experience in AI and supercomputing. Jonathan Zarecki, CPO, is a graduate of Psagot and Unit 8200, with a master’s degree in computer science and extensive experience managing and developing AI systems. Aviran Badli, CTO, is a graduate of Atuda and Unit 8200, with a background in engineering and an MBA. He previously led MLOps teams of over 50 people and oversaw infrastructure projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We were able to reach a working, high-quality solution at record speed and began initial sales and installations with large customers,” said Nissim. “But as we entered the market, it became clear that customers were looking for a more holistic solution. We realized the best way to scale would be to partner with a strong, established player—so we connected with IBM.”
He added: “Artificial intelligence is developing at an unprecedented pace—but without the right infrastructure, it becomes cumbersome, expensive, and insecure. Jounce solves this from the ground up.”
According to Nissim, the acquisition will enable Jounce’s platform to be integrated into Red Hat’s cloud and open-source systems, allowing the technology to reach a global customer base across industries such as defense, finance, healthcare, and enterprise tech.
Red Hat, best known for its enterprise Linux and hybrid cloud offerings, was acquired by IBM in 2018 for $34 billion—the tech giant’s largest acquisition to date.