Guy Podjarny

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Israeli-born British technology entrepreneur; co-founder and chairman of Snyk; founder of Tessl; Unit 8200 veteran

Guy Podjarny

Image Guy Podjarny.png
Guy Podjarny (Snyk board page)
Born March 1979 Israel
Nationality British (Companies House officer register); Israeli and Canadian (Companies House PSC register)
Residence United Kingdom
Occupation Technology entrepreneur and angel investor
Known for Co-founder and chairman of Snyk; founder and CEO of Tessl; co-founder of Blaze
Website guypo.com

Guy Podjarny (born March 1979) is an Israeli-born British technology entrepreneur and Unit 8200 veteran. He co-founded the developer-security company Snyk in 2015, was its chief executive until 2019, and has chaired its board since March 2026. He is also founder and chief executive of the London-based AI software start-up Tessl.[1][2] Companies House records him as born in March 1979, of British nationality and resident in the United Kingdom.[3]

Before Snyk he worked in application security at Sanctum, Watchfire and IBM, co-founded the web-performance start-up Blaze, and was chief technology officer of Akamai Technologies' web experience business.[4][5] He is an angel investor, including in the Israeli start-ups Helios and env0, and a director of the charity Disrupt Foundation.[6][7][8]

Early life and Unit 8200

Podjarny told The Decibel Podcast that he was "born and raised in Israel to two Argentinian parents" and grew up in Kfar Saba. He described going through military-intelligence screening and a six-month course, and said: "I guess people know about the 8200 unit. There are some subdivisions within it... I was kind of well-positioned as a programmer, as a developer. And then, yeah, I spent the next kind of four-and-a-half years in the army." He went on to be a guide on the course.[4] Verdict reported that he "first cut his teeth in the realm of cybersecurity during his military service when he served at the famous Israeli unit 8200", ending "his stint with 8200 in 2001".[9]

Globes reported in 2021 that Snyk "was founded in 2015 by Guy Podjarny, Assaf Hefetz and Danny Grander – all graduates of the Israel Defense Forces 8200 intelligence unit".[10] Podjarny said he found his co-founder Danny Grander through his past networks, describing him as someone "who I've sort of served with in the army".[4]

Sanctum, Watchfire and IBM

Podjarny said that "coming out of the army, I worked for an Israeli startup that got acquired by a Canadian startup", moved to Ottawa, and that "that company got acquired by IBM later on".[4] Elsewhere he described spending "about a decade in AppSec, and through three acquisitions of Sanctum - they got acquired by Watchfire and they got acquired by IBM".[11] Watchfire bought the products and intellectual property of Sanctum, an application-security company founded by Gili Raanan and Eran Reshef, in 2004.[12] The Ottawa Citizen reported that Podjarny was "also a Watchfire alumnus" and that he "left IBM in January" 2010.[13]

Blaze and Akamai

Podjarny co-founded Blaze with Mike Weider, "the founder of Watchfire and my boss in IBM".[11] On 8 February 2012 Akamai Technologies announced that it had bought Blaze Software Inc. "in a cash transaction".[14] TechCrunch reported that Podjarny "became CTO for the company's web experience business after the acquisition, where he remained until he helped launch Snyk in 2015".[5] Podjarny described that business as "the web performance business, so about half of Akamai". He said he moved to London with Akamai in 2014, left on 1 July, and incorporated Snyk on 9 July.[4]

Snyk

Snyk was founded in 2015 by Podjarny, Assaf Hefetz and Danny Grander.[10] Companies House records Podjarny as a director of Snyk Limited from 9 July 2015 to 17 January 2025, and again from 27 March 2026.[15] In July 2019 Peter McKay, an early investor and "an old friend of Podjarny", replaced him as chief executive. In March 2021 the company raised $300 million at a $4.7 billion valuation.[10] According to Snyk, Podjarny remained president and a board member until early 2025, then became an adviser, and rejoined the board as chairman in March 2026.[1] The move followed McKay's announcement in February 2026 that he would step down as chief executive.[16]

Tessl

Podjarny announced Tessl on 6 July 2024.[17] In November 2024 TechCrunch reported that Tessl had raised $125 million across seed and Series A rounds. The Series A was led by Index Ventures, and GV and Boldstart had co-led the seed round. TechCrunch put the valuation at $750 million, and said Snyk had last been valued at $7.4 billion, in 2022.[2] Companies House lists Podjarny as a director of Tessl AI Limited since 29 February 2024.[18]

Angel investments

Podjarny describes himself as "an angel investor".[19] Published reports name him as an angel investor in two Israeli start-ups:

  • Helios: TechCrunch listed "Guy Podjarny (co-founder of Snyk)" among the angel investors in its $5 million seed round in 2022.[6] Snyk bought Helios in January 2024.[20] Its co-founder Eli Cohen is described by Snyk as "an alumnus of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200".[21]
  • env0: its April 2020 funding announcement named "angel investors including Guy Podjarny of Snyk" and said Podjarny would join the company as an adviser.[7] Globes described its chief executive Ohad Maislish as a former graduate of a technology unit in the Prime Minister's Office.[22]

Disrupt Foundation

Companies House lists Podjarny as a director of Disrupt Foundation (company 13738626, registered charity 1198872) since 11 November 2021.[8] The company was incorporated on that day as The Pod Foundation and changed its name to Disrupt Foundation in March 2022.[23][24]

Companies House also lists Podjarny as a person with significant control of the foundation, notified on 11 November 2021, with "more than 50% but less than 75%" of the voting rights. The only other person with significant control is his fellow director Gal Podjarny, with "more than 25% but not more than 50%". The control register gives his nationality as "Israeli,Canadian", whereas his director appointments record him as British.[25][3]

The foundation's accounts for 2025 list Podjarny as chair. They describe Guy and Gal Podjarny as "a Preference Member and Ordinary Member respectively" and say that "Trustees are appointed by the Preference Member during his lifetime and thereafter by the Ordinary Member/s". The two other trustees are Jonathan Brinsden and Einat Podjarny, whose name is spelt "Einat Podjrany" in the filings.[24]

Companies House appointments

UK company appointments of Guy Podjarny (born March 1979)
Company Number Role Appointed Resigned
Snyk Limited (Snyk) 09677925 Director 27 March 2026 –
Tessl AI Limited (Tessl) 15532364 Director 29 February 2024 –
Disrupt Foundation 13738626 Director 11 November 2021 –
Snyk Limited (Snyk) 09677925 Director 9 July 2015 17 January 2025

Source: Companies House.[3]

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Snyk, Snyk Board Snyk (Snyk-side), accessed 21 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ingrid Lunden, Tessl raises $125M at $500M+ valuation to build AI that writes and maintains code TechCrunch, 14 November 2024, accessed 21 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Companies House, Guy PODJARNY: personal appointments Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Jon Sakoda, Guy Podjarny, founder of Snyk: building conviction on a contrarian bet The Decibel Podcast (transcript), accessed 21 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ron Miller, Snyk snares $7 million investment to help developers secure open source code TechCrunch, 6 March 2018, accessed 21 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Frederic Lardinois, Helios wants to tame the microservices development chaos TechCrunch, 29 June 2022, accessed 21 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 env0, env0 Introduces Self-Service Cloud Management Platform Business Wire (press release, env0-side), 21 April 2020, accessed 21 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Companies House, DISRUPT FOUNDATION (13738626): officers Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
  9. ↑ Eric Johansson, Snyk’s founder on DevSecOps, a $4.7bn valuation and IPO plans Verdict, 9 August 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Uri Berkovitz, Snyk raises $300m at $4.7b valuation Globes, 10 March 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Adam Stacoviak, From acquisition to full conviction with Guy Podjarny, Founder of Snyk Founders Talk (podcast transcript), no. 71, 3 July 2020, accessed 21 October 2026.
  12. ↑ InfoWorld, Watchfire buys application security company Sanctum InfoWorld, 26 July 2004, accessed 21 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Vito Pilieci, Watchfire founder starts new web venture Ottawa Citizen, 8 November 2010, accessed 21 October 2026.
  14. ↑ Akamai Technologies, Akamai Acquires Blaze PR Newswire (press release, Akamai-side), 8 February 2012, accessed 21 October 2026.
  15. ↑ Companies House, SNYK LIMITED (09677925): officers Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
  16. ↑ CTech, Snyk’s CEO steps aside, arguing the AI era demands a different kind of leader Ctech, 22 February 2026, accessed 21 October 2026.
  17. ↑ Guy Podjarny, Announcing Tessl, the AI Native Development Startup Tessl (Tessl-side), 6 July 2024, accessed 21 October 2026.
  18. ↑ Companies House, TESSL AI LIMITED (15532364): officers Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
  19. ↑ Guy Podjarny, About Guypo guypo.com (personal website), accessed 21 October 2026.
  20. ↑ Globes correspondent, Snyk buys Israeli runtime data co Helios Globes, 16 January 2024, accessed 21 October 2026.
  21. ↑ Snyk Labs, Eli Cohen – Director of Technology Incubation Snyk Labs (Snyk-side), accessed 21 October 2026.
  22. ↑ Yasmin Yablonko, "יש הרבה הזדמנויות בשוק. ארגונים מחפשים להוזיל עלויות" ("There are many opportunities in the market. Organisations are looking to cut costs"), Globes (Hebrew), 22 April 2020, accessed 21 October 2026.
  23. ↑ Companies House, DISRUPT FOUNDATION (13738626): company overview Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Disrupt Foundation, Trustees' report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 (filed at Companies House 16 September 2026), Disrupt-side, accessed 21 October 2026.
  25. ↑ Companies House, DISRUPT FOUNDATION (13738626): persons with significant control Companies House, accessed 21 October 2026.
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