Gili Raanan (born 1969) is an Israeli venture capitalist and one of the inventors of

CAPTCHA A CAPTCHA ( , a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. The term was coined in 2003 b ...

(US patent application with 1997 priority date ), the WAF ( web application firewall) and many other inventions in the fields of application security and discovery. Raanan started Sanctum in 1997, and invented the first Web application firewall AppShield and the first Web application penetration testing software AppScan. He later started NLayers which was acquired by

EMC Corporation Dell EMC (EMC Corporation until 2016) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, clo ...

pioneering the science of Application discovery and understanding. He is an investor and a General Partner at Sequoia Capital, the Founder of Cyberstarts, and was a board member at Adallom, Armis Security, Onavo, Moovit, Innovid (NYSE:CTV) and

Snaptu Snaptu pronounced "snap tu", previously known as Moblica was a free Israeli-made mobile application platform that ran on virtually every type of Internet-enabled mobile phone. It allowed the user to access popular services, varying from social net ...

Biography

Gili Raanan was born in Kfar Saba,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. He earned a Bachelor of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

In 2002 from the Tel Aviv University, he received a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

degree from the Recanati School of the Tel Aviv University.

Business career

Raanan started Sanctum in 1997, and invented the first Web application firewall AppShield and the first Web application penetration testing software AppScan. As part of the research on Application Security Raanan co-invented

, as described in the patent application "The invention is based on applying human advantage in applying sensory and cognitive skills to solving simple problems that prove to be extremely hard for computer software. Such skills include, but are not limited to processing of sensory information such as identification of objects and letters within a noisy graphical environment". Captcha early

Raanan later started NLayers in 2003 which was acquired by

pioneering the science of Application discovery and understanding.

Venture capitalist

In 2009 Raanan joined Sequoia Capital in

as a General Partner. Raanan was a board member at Adallom, Onavo and

. In 2018 Raanan founded Cyberstarts which is an early stage VC focused on

Cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

. Raanan is a seed investor in a number of fast growing Cybersecurity companies such a
FireblocksWizNonameIsland.ioArmis
and Adallom.

Philanthropy

In 2010 Raanan was one of the early contributors to

SpaceIL SpaceIL is an Israeli organization, established in 2011, that competed in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) contest to land a spacecraft on the Moon. SpaceIL successfully launched its '' Beresheet'' lander on 22 February 2019 at 01:45 UTC; it en ...

Beresheet ''Beresheet'' ( he, בְּרֵאשִׁית, ''Bərēšīṯ'', "In the beginning"; Book of Genesis) was a demonstrator of a small robotic lunar lander and lunar probe operated by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. Its aims included insp ...

, Israel’s privately funded, engineered and launched mission to the Moon’s surface.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raanan, Gili Living people 1969 births Israeli inventors