Hex Rays
AcquiredFounded 2005 · 41 employees on LinkedIn · 1 known investors
Hex-Rays develops IDA, a binary analysis tool used by cybersecurity professionals for reverse engineering, malware analysis, and vulnerability research across multiple processor architectures. The platform supports dynamic debugging, pseudocode generation, decompilation, and team collaboration features.
Also known as Hex-Rays · Hex-Rays SA
Founders & leadership
Hex Rays was founded in 2005 by Ilfak Guilfanov.
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Hex-Rays SA is a Belgium-based software company focused on binary code analysis technology for the IT security market. Its flagship product line is IDA (the Interactive Disassembler), which generates assembly language from machine-executable code, supports analysis across more than 60 processor architectures, and can act as a debugger for Windows PE, macOS Mach-O and Linux ELF executables. The Hex-Rays Decompiler, originally an IDA extension, converts native processor code into readable C-like pseudocode, and IDA's decompiler is described as one of the most widely used decompilation frameworks, with IDA itself characterized as a de-facto industry standard for disassembly and static binary analysis.
The product family spans IDA Pro, IDA Home, IDA Free, IDA Classroom and IDA Pro OEM, complemented by add-ons for collaboration and metadata management: Private Lumina (a self-hosted Lumina metadata server) and Teams (a collaboration add-on revised around Git-native version control and shared analysis of the same binary). Additional capabilities include deobfuscation, IDC and IDAPython scripting for automation, and a community plugin ecosystem. Hex-Rays also runs training courses, a beta program, a bug bounty, a plugin contest, CTF sponsorship, a classroom program and a reseller partner network.
Typical applications cited by the company and coverage include malware analysis and digital forensics by CERT agencies, vulnerability research and penetration testing, intellectual property protection, automotive security, interoperability work, IT security audits, bug bounty programs, virus sample investigation and commercial off-the-shelf software validation.
Founding story
Ilfak Guilfanov began working on IDA in 1990 and initially distributed it as shareware, with the first release dated 21 May 1991. In 1996 the Belgian company DataRescue took over development and commercialized it as IDA Pro, releasing the first GUI version, IDA Pro 4.0, in 1999. Guilfanov founded Hex-Rays in 2005 to develop the Hex-Rays Decompiler extension for IDA.
Business model
Hex-Rays sells proprietary licensed software for binary analysis, sold to organizations, individuals and education providers directly and through reseller partners such as E-SPIN, which provides consulting, supply, training and maintenance for enterprise, government and military customers. Paid add-ons (Private Lumina, Teams) and training courses supplement the core product line.
Software licensing on a paid subscription basis: the full version of IDA Pro is sold via paid annual subscription, and IDA Home is offered as a named annual subscription license priced at $365 per year, while IDA Free (limited to x86) is distributed at no cost. The Hex-Rays Decompiler was historically offered as an IDA plug-in at extra cost. Training courses, including on-demand video-based IDA Pro starter training, are also sold.
Traction
Product releases and adoption indicators include IDA's continued release cadence (9.0sp1 as of December 2024, 9.4 in July 2026), use by CERT agencies and cybersecurity teams for malware analysis and vulnerability research, and reported significant revenue growth over the ten years preceding the 2022 acquisition.
Latest developments
Recent activity includes the IDA 9.4 release adding Dyld Shared Cache infrastructure, Swift analysis and Pathfinder; a revised Teams add-on centered on Git-native versioning and collaborative reversing; an on-demand video-based IDA Pro starter training course; and planned participation in the Las Vegas 'Hacker Summer Camp' events in August 2026.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
IDA is widely described as the de-facto industry standard for program disassembly and static binary analysis, and its decompiler as one of the most popular decompilation frameworks. Coverage of the 2022 acquisition characterized Hex-Rays' revenues as having significantly increased over the preceding decade and the company as holding market-leading technology in software reverse engineering.
Breadth of processor and file-format coverage (60+ architectures, including legacy and embedded targets), a mature decompiler producing C-like pseudocode alongside disassembly, interactive annotation workflows, scripting and automation via IDC/IDAPython, and collaboration features through the Teams and Private Lumina add-ons that allow shared analysis and self-hosted control of metadata.
Technology
IDA disassembles compiled programs into assembly, automatically annotating cross-references between code and data, function locations, stack frames, calling conventions and reconstructed data types, with interactive editing to refine the output. It is written in C++ and runs on Windows (x86 and ARM), Linux x86 and macOS (x86 and Apple silicon). It recognizes executable formats including PE/COFF, ELF, Mach-O, NLM, LC/LE/LX, NE, MZ, OMF and raw binaries, and supports instruction sets ranging from x86, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, RISC-V and Itanium to embedded and legacy families such as Motorola 68k, Z80, MOS 6502, Atmel AVR, Microchip PIC and various DSPs. Debugging support includes remote Windows, Linux and macOS debug servers, GDB, a Bochs plug-in, an Intel PIN-based debugger and a trace replayer. Extensibility is provided via IDC scripts and IDAPython (bundled since version 5.4), plus community plugins; recent releases added Dyld Shared Cache infrastructure, Swift analysis and Pathfinder.
Go-to-market
Direct online sales and downloads from the company's site with tiered product editions and pricing for organizations, individuals and education providers, supported by a global reseller partner network. Community and developer engagement is used to widen adoption through a free edition, community plugin ecosystem and plugin contest, a beta program, bug bounty, CTF sponsorship and classroom programs, a blog and newsletter, training courses, and presence at industry events such as the Las Vegas 'Hacker Summer Camp' conferences.
Cybersecurity professionals and teams, including malware analysts, digital forensics and CERT agencies, vulnerability researchers and penetration testers, automotive security engineers, and enterprise, government, military and academic users; lower-priced editions target reverse engineering hobbyists, students and occasional private users.
Geography
Headquartered in Liège, Belgium, with customers among cybersecurity teams worldwide and distribution through regional resellers; investors in the 2022 transaction include Belgian federal (SFPIM) and Walloon regional (SRIW) public investment vehicles.
History
Founded in 2005 by Ilfak Guilfanov, Hex-Rays assumed development and support of DataRescue's IDA Pro in January 2008. In May 2020 the company launched IDA Home alongside IDA Pro 7.5. In May 2021 it introduced a new corporate identity, logo and website coinciding with IDA's 30th anniversary. In October 2022 a consortium of investors led by Smartfin, with co-investors SFPIM and SRIW, acquired the company, with Guilfanov reinvesting a substantial amount. IDA release 9.4 shipped in July 2026, following version 9.0sp1 as of December 2024.
Risks & controversies
Security coverage notes that Hex-Rays was previously the victim of a targeted attack. The nature of disassembly precludes total accuracy and substantial human intervention is required to interpret IDA output. The company also operates in a market where free reverse engineering tools have been released, including an NSA tool made freely available and an open source tool released by BlackBerry.
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsThe Teams collaboration add-on for IDA Pro was revised to focus on version control and team collaboration, including Git-native versioning.
IDA release 9.4 introduced a new Dyld Shared Cache infrastructure, Swift analysis and Pathfinder, among other changes.
Hex-Rays was acquired by a consortium of investors led by Smartfin, a European venture capital and private equity investor managing approximately EUR 380m in assets, with co-investors SFPIM (the Belgian federal holding and investment company) and SRIW (the Walloon regional investment company). Founder Ilfak Guilfanov reinvested a substantial amount in the new structure. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hex-Rays announced a new corporate identity, logo, color palette and revamped website as part of IDA's 30th anniversary.
Hex-Rays introduced IDA Home, a lower-cost edition based on the IDA Pro engine for hobbyists, students and private users, with 32/64-bit analysis, IDAPython scripting with Python 3, a local or gdbserver debugger, one processor family of choice and Lumina server access, at $365 per year.
$365 source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- Hex Rayshex-rays.com · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Hex Rays do?
- Belgian developer of IDA, a disassembler, decompiler and debugger used for binary analysis and reverse engineering.
- Who founded Hex Rays?
- Hex Rays was founded by Ilfak Guilfanov in 2005.
- Who are Hex Rays's investors?
- Hex Rays's investors include SmartFin.