Israeli startup Carbyne, in which former prime minister Ehud Barak was one of the first investors but sold his shares, has been sold to US company Axon (Nasdaq: AXON), which develops technologies for emergency and rescue services. The Israeli company will be sold for $625 million cash, and it is believed that employee retention payments will be made in addition, in accordance with the time that Carbyne employees remain with the company after the acquisition.
Carbyne manages the call centers and rescue operations of security services in the US, Mexico, and Israel. One of its shareholders is David Petraeus, a former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency and US Army general. The main current investors in the company are Israeli venture capital firm Hanaco Ventures, which recently announced that it would not raise further funds, communications company AT&T, Cox Enterprises, and Axon itself, which led a $100 million investment round in Carbyne only four months ago.
Altogether, Carbyne has raised $200 million since it was founded a decade ago by Amir Elichai (CEO), Alex Dizengof, and Yony Yatsun. Lital Leshem, currently managing partner at Protego Ventures, was also one of the founding team, but she has not been active at the company since 2017. Carbyne has some 230 employees, eighty of them at its development center in Israel.
The deal is due to close in the first quarter of 2026. In Israel, Carbyne was represented in the transaction by Adv. Yair Geva and Adv. Tomer Farkash of Herzog Fox & Neeman, and Axon by Adv. Keren Lahad Rachmani and Adv. Tomer Shani of Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal In the US, Carbyne was represented by Greenberg Traurig, and Axon by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
According to the announcement by Axon, it appears that the company seeks to enter the market for emergency call centers and incident management. "This acquisition represents the next step in Axon's strategy to modernize every stage of public safety - starting at the first call for help. Carbyne's cloud-native call-handling platform powers how emergency communications centers (ECCs) receive, route, and manage incoming calls, enabling uninterrupted service, built-in resilience, and faster access to critical data," Axon states.
"By bringing together Carbyne's cloud-native call routing and Prepared by Axon's AI-driven situational insights, Axon can now deliver the most connected and intelligent 911 platform, uniting every stage from call to closure. Together, these capabilities will form Axon 911, a next-generation, fully integrated solution connecting emergency callers, dispatchers, and responders with real-time context and clarity. With these capabilities combined, Axon will provide real-time intelligence from the moment a call begins through field response, investigation in Axon Evidence, and ultimately resolution within the justice system - improving outcomes and protecting more lives in more places.
"Every year, more than 240 million 911 calls are made in the U.S., and in too many cases, vital information is lost between the call and the response,’ said Rick Smith, Axon Founder and CEO. "By uniting Axon's 30-year legacy of innovation with Carbyne's cloud-based call management platform, we're closing that gap, giving call takers and dispatchers instant visibility and connecting them directly to officers in the field. It's how we transform a call for help into the first moment of intelligence."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 5, 2025.
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