Overview
Hex-Rays SA develops binary analysis and reverse engineering software for the cybersecurity market from Rue Rennequin Sualem in Liege. Ilfak Guilfanov created IDA in 1990; DataRescue commercialised it as IDA Pro in 1996, and Guilfanov founded Hex-Rays in 2005, with the company taking over IDA development in January 2008. The product line covers IDA Pro, IDA Home, IDA Free, IDA Classroom and IDA Pro OEM, alongside decompilers, the Private Lumina add-on, the Teams add-on and training courses. IDA disassembles code across more than 60 processor architectures and produces pseudocode for further analysis. Documented use cases include malware analysis and digital forensics, vulnerability research and penetration testing, dynamic analysis and debugging, automotive security, interoperability and intellectual property protection. Revenue passed 20 million EUR in 2020, after average annual growth of 23% over the preceding decade. In October 2022 a consortium led by Smartfin, with co-investors SFPIM and SRIW, acquired the company; terms were not disclosed and Guilfanov reinvested in the new structure. Guilfanov and the employees are today the largest shareholders of Smartsec SA, the parent company of Hex-Rays SA. Guilfanov is founder and CTO. The team numbers more than 50 developers, engineers and analysts, and three IDA releases shipped during 2025.
Funding history
- 2022 buyout: Consortium led by Smartfin with co-investors SFPIM and SRIW acquired Hex-Rays; terms undisclosed and founder Ilfak Guilfanov reinvested
Stated facts & numbers
- Founded: 2005
- Headquarters: Liege, Belgium
- Founder and CTO: Ilfak Guilfanov
- Employees: 50+
- Products: IDA Pro, IDA Home, IDA Free, IDA Classroom, IDA Pro OEM, decompilers, Private Lumina add-on, Teams add-on, training
- Customer logos: Microsoft, Apple, Google, FireEye, SANS
- Revenue (2020): more than 20M EUR
- Owners: Smartsec SA, held by Guilfanov and employees with Smartfin, SFPIM, Wallonie Entreprendre and Philippe-Alexandre Leroux
- Enterprise number: BE 0873.473.914
- Head of engineering: Arnaud Diederen
Key people
In the news
- IDA 9.5 is here: more platforms, more agentic power. → 3 new decompilers: Android Dalvik, Infineon TriCore and Qualcomm Hexagon → IDA MCP and Assist for AI-driven reverse engineering → Recursive decompilation across call graphs → IDA Home now includes 11 cloud decompilers instead of 2, at the same price → And much, much more It’s one of our biggest releases yet. Active license holders can download it now from the Download Center. https://lnkd.in/eqXT-VrH
- Hex-Rays has completed its acquisition of HexAI. The HexAI team has joined Hex-Rays to bring IDA technology into its agentic platform for cybersecurity research. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eN7xgySs
- IDA 9.5 brings better DriverKit support for reversing Apple drivers: • Types for every DriverKit SDK from 19 to 25 • Classes, layouts and vtables recovered, including private-framework classes • Kernel calls named, even in stripped drivers and arm64 kernelcaches 👉 https://lnkd.in/ehPSudG6
- IDA 9.5 adds a licensing API. Everything the License Manager dialog does is now available from code, in the C++ SDK, IDAPython and IDA Domain. Handy for plugins, headless scripts and shared-license pipelines. 👉 https://lnkd.in/endkDft2
- The upcoming IDA 9.5 adds 3️⃣ new decompilers and will deliver 🔟 platform updates. The new decompilers: ◾ Android DEX ◾ Infineon TriCore ◾ Qualcomm Hexagon 👉 Read the full blog to see the rest of the updates: https://lnkd.in/eGByTStW
- The IDA 9.5 Beta is live! ◾ IDA MCP: official, free and open source, with ~20% fewer tokens than conventional function-calling IDA MCPs ◾ Assist: an AI harness built for reverse engineering, without leaving IDA ◾ New decompilers for TriCore, Hexagon and Android DEX/ODEX ◾ Recursive decompilation ◾ Major Apple Kernel Cache and DriverKit improvements ◾ A new Malware Analysis add-on ◾ And more... Beta Program members can download it now from the Download Center. Not enrolled? Join from your customer portal. https://lnkd.in/eqn4VnUy
- AI agents can now work in IDA, using the official IDA MCP server. IDA MCP is free and open source. It's model-agnostic, so you can use any capable LLM, running locally or in the cloud. What's different: → Code Mode: a small set of tools, with agents working through IDAPython. That uses ~20% fewer tokens than popular alternatives → IDA Nexus: many agents and humans on the same IDBs, with changes showing instantly in the IDA GUI (and vice versa) → Runs headless with idalib for large-scale pipelines, and fully local for air-gapped
- The 2026 IDA Plugin Contest is officially open! Got an idea for a plugin that could make reverse engineering faster, smarter, or just more fun? Now's your shot. Submissions are open through November 30, with winners announced mid-January. Build with C, C++, Python, or idalib. And since our SDK is now open-source, IDA Free users can jump in too. Up for grabs: cash prizes up to $5K, free IDA licenses, recognition in the community, and more. Full rules + prize breakdown: https://lnkd.in/g4-78Gy6
Open roles
- R&D Engineer — Security PlatformOct 2, 2026
Backers
Smartfin
Belgian VC firm focused on tech and deep tech, founded and led by Jurgen Ingels.
Related profiles
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