Anthropic acqui-hires Runhouse team in share-based deal
“Anthropic is looking very, very closely at the Israeli market,” says Hetz Ventures partner and Runhouse investor, Guy Fighel.
Anthropic has acquired AI startup Runhouse, whose founding team includes an Israeli entrepreneur and which counts Israeli fund Hetz Ventures among its investors. The deal, conducted primarily in shares, was completed at a relatively modest valuation. However, according to Guy Fighel, partner and head of AI at Hetz Ventures, it signals Anthropic’s growing interest in the Israeli market.
“The company is looking very, very closely at the Israeli market,” Fighel told Calcalist.
Anthropic is one of the leading artificial intelligence companies globally. Its AI model, Claude, is widely used by businesses, and its focus on enterprise customers is seen as providing a more stable business model compared with rivals such as OpenAI, which has recently shifted toward enterprise offerings after initially targeting consumers.
In recent months, Anthropic’s expansion into cloud-based tools and enterprise capabilities has had a noticeable impact on software markets, contributing to declines in shares of companies operating in overlapping sectors.
Runhouse was founded in 2023 by Donny Greenberg, based in New York, and Josh Lewittes, based in Israel, who served as CTO. The company, which employed around 10 people in a fully distributed structure without a central office, developed a platform for managing and allocating computing resources for organizations building or working with AI models.
“Anyone building models needs these capabilities,” said Fighel. “These are the picks and shovels of the ecosystem. The technology improves efficiency in managing model training, which is critical for a company like Anthropic that continuously trains and refines its models.”
In October, Runhouse raised a $5 million Seed round led by Work-Bench, with participation from Hetz Ventures. The acquisition was finalized several weeks ago but is only now being disclosed.
According to estimates, the deal is considered an acqui-hire, with the primary value lying in the founders and team rather than in intellectual property or customer base. “This is very rare talent in their field,” Fighel said. “Anthropic wants to bring that expertise in-house and prevent competitors from accessing it.”
The transaction was completed in Anthropic shares, which have been on a strong upward trajectory. As a result, the effective value for founders and investors has already increased since the deal closed and could rise further if the trend continues.
Fighel added that the acquisition reflects Anthropic’s longer-term interest in Israel. “There is technological talent here that they are watching very closely,” he said. “Because of the war, they avoided coming here physically. There were plans for conferences and deeper engagement in Israel that were postponed. If conditions continue to stabilize, we expect to see that activity resume in the coming year.”
