Senpai Technologies
Israeli open-source intelligence and avatar-surveillance firm; member of the Intellexa alliance
| Senpai Technologies
| |
|---|---|
| Trade name | Senpai |
| Logo |  Senpai logo, as published by VARINDIA in 2019 |
| Type | Private limited company (Israel), registration no. 515385748; legal name S.N.P. Technologies Ltd (according to SMEX) |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founder(s) | Roy Shloman, Eric Banoun, Guy David, Omri Raiter and Jonathan Lampert |
| Headquarters | Israel |
| Industry | Open-source intelligence (OSINT); surveillance technology |
| Services | RogueEye OSINT and "virtual HUMINT" avatar system |
| Parent | Intellexa group (from 2018 or 2019, according to SMEX and the Atlantic Council) |
Senpai Technologies (Senpai Technologies Ltd) is an Israeli surveillance-technology company that developed RogueEye, a system for collecting and analysing open-source intelligence using networks of fake social-media profiles, or "avatars". It was founded in 2016 by Roy Shloman, Eric Banoun, Guy David, Omri Raiter and Jonathan Lampert.[1] In 2019 it joined the Intellexa alliance led by Tal Dilian.[2][3] Ctech reported in 2020, from court documents, that Senpai had supplied RogueEye to Malaysia's intelligence service for use against opposition activists before the 2018 election.[1]
According to a 2025 report by the digital-rights organisation SMEX, the company's legal name is S.N.P. Technologies Ltd (Israeli registration number 515385748), and it has changed its name at least twice, being known as Hexatone Ltd as of 2025.[4]
RogueEye
Ctech described RogueEye as a system that "collects information on people from openly available online sources, such as social networks, and cross-references and analyzes it to produce intelligence reports for secret services, police forces, militaries, and business entities", using "a network of avatars (fake social network profiles) that follow the target and extract information through direct interaction with them". It reported that, although Senpai said its system collected only publicly available data, correspondence submitted to court showed that RogueEye also analysed data from phones infected with spyware.[1]
Amnesty International's Security Lab described the Intellexa alliance's "Automated Active Avatars" platform, used to manage fake accounts that "can be used to social engineer a target into opening a 1-click link", as "related to the RogueEye system originally deployed by Intellexa alliance member Senpai".[5]
Clients
Ctech reported, citing court documents, that in April 2018 Senpai signed a $1.5 million deal, code-named "Project Magnum", to supply the Malaysian Special Branch with a system intended to surveil opposition political activists before the May 2018 election. Because Israel and Malaysia have no diplomatic relations, the deal was signed through a Cypriot company, Kohai Corp. Ltd, which Ctech said two Senpai shareholders had set up as a front for such deals. In a June 2019 email quoted by Ctech, Roy Shloman wrote that after the election the client's "objectives changed … from political investigations to more criminal-terror investigations".[1]
According to the same documents, Senpai had negotiated with the Sultanate of Oman and had provided services in Mexico, Ecuador, Gabon, Angola, Kenya, Indonesia and Singapore. Ctech put its deals since 2016 at more than $9 million, and reported that in May 2019 Eric Banoun listed prospective Malaysian and Omani contracts in WhatsApp messages with Tal Dilian.[1]
Intellexa
Ctech noted that in May 2019 it had been reported that Senpai planned to join the Intellexa consortium, hoping to form an alliance that could compete with companies such as NSO Group and Verint.[1] An Intellexa announcement, republished by VARINDIA, said that Senpai, described there as "the developer of the premium OSINT Solutions from Cyprus", had joined "Intellexa – The Intelligence Alliance" on 28 May 2019, and that its OSINT system had become part of Intellexa's "Network Intelligence" product line.[2] Amnesty International listed Senpai among the members named in the press release announcing the alliance, and described it as one of the Intellexa group's main companies, "a specialist in open-source intelligence and the creation of virtual avatars".[5]
Accounts differ on when Tal Dilian took control. The Atlantic Council said he added Senpai to the group in 2019, while SMEX said he acquired it in 2018.[3][4] The Atlantic Council noted in 2024 that US sanctions had not yet covered Senpai Technologies Ltd.[3] Citizen Lab describes Senpai as "part of the Intellexa consortium".[6]
Founders' dispute
In October 2019 Jonathan Lampert, Eric Banoun and Roy Shloman sued their co-founders Guy David and Omri Raiter in the Tel Aviv District Court, alleging that they had "stole[n]" the company. According to the lawsuit, as reported by Ctech, David and Raiter each held 35 per cent and the three plaintiffs 9 per cent each. The plaintiffs alleged that Tal Dilian, brought in as an investor at David and Raiter's suggestion, "completed their ousting" and withheld their compensation, after they had agreed to sell him their shares at a valuation of $12 million. Dilian's lawyers did not reply to a request for comment, and David and Raiter could not be reached.[7] Ctech later reported that the parties had signed a confidential settlement in April 2020 and asked the court to cancel the lawsuit, and that Senpai's activity had been frozen.[1] Haaretz also referred to the 2019 dispute between Banoun and Dilian over Senpai.[8]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Tomer Ganon and Hagar Ravet, Israeli Cyber Startup Senpai Helped Malaysia's Corrupt Leader Spy on Opposition, Ctech, 28 May 2020, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Senpai Technologies is now a part of the Intellexa Intelligence Alliance, VARINDIA, 2019 (republishing Intellexa's announcement), accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jen Roberts, Trey Herr, Emily Taylor and Nitansha Bansal, Markets Matter: A Glance into the Spyware Industry, Atlantic Council, 22 April 2024, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 SMEX, Click, Load, Kill: A Look into the Cyberweapon Industry in the WANA Region, SMEX, 2025, pp. 52–53, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Amnesty International Security Lab, Predator Files: Technical deep-dive into Intellexa Alliance's surveillance products, 6 October 2023, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Bill Marczak et al., How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware, Citizen Lab, 15 October 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Meir Orbach, The Cyber Company, the Former Officer, and the Lost Money, Ctech, 17 October 2019, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Gur Megiddo, 'Send $3 Million or I'll Expose You': A Businessman, a Filmmaker and an Alleged Israeli Spyware Deal Gone Awry, Haaretz (English edition of a TheMarker investigation), 2 March 2024 (archived copy), accessed 22 October 2026.