NSO Group Technologies Ltd.

The company that makes Pegasus, the NSO Group, is notoriously secretive. The Israeli firm sells sophisticated hacking tools to governments, militaries, and intelligence agencies — and it tries to keep such a low profile it even changes its name on a regular basis. NSO Group was founded in late 2009 by serial entrepreneurs with ties to the Israeli government. Headquartered in Herzelia, Israel, NSO Group was founded in Dec. 2009 by Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio. A third founder, Niv Carmi, left the company shortly after its inception and left Lavie and Hulio as majority shareholders. The San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in NSO for $120 million in 2014, though its operations remained in Israel. The firm separated from Francisco Partners in early 2019; NSO Group is now owned and run by its original founders and management, in partnership with the European private equity firm Novalpina Capital.