Cellebrite DI Ltd. is an Israeli digital forensics company headquartered in Petah Tikva that provides tools for law enforcement agencies as well as enterprise companies and service providers to collect, review, analyze and manage digital data. Their flagship product series is the Cellebrite UFED.
Cellebrite's largest shareholder is Sun Corporation, which is based in Nagoya, Japan. Cellebrite has fourteen offices around the world including business centers in Washington, D.C., Munich, and in Singapore. In 2021, the Cellebrite company was valued at approximately $2.4 billion.
History
Cellebrite was established in Israel in 1999 by Avi Yablonka, Yaron Baratz, and Yuval Aflalo. Ron Serber joined Cellebrite in 2001, and Yossi Carmil joined in 2004. They served as co-CEOs from 2005 until Ron Serber left the company in 2020. Carmil retired as CEO in 2024 and the position is held by Thomas Hogan.
Cellebrite first manufactured hardware and software offering compressive phone-to-phone data transfer devices, contact synchronization, and content transfer tools for mobile phones, intended for use by wireless carrier sales and support staff in retail stores.
In 2007, Cellebrite established an independent mobile forensics division aimed at producing digital forensics and intelligence tools for use by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, military branches, corporate security and investigations, law firms, and private digital forensic examiners. In the same year, Cellebrite was acquired by FutureDial Incorporated and one of its major shareholders, Sun Corporation in Japan.
In 2017, Cellebrite's Mobile Lifecycle division was rebranded as Mobilogy, which produces hardware and software for phone-to-phone data transfer, backup, mobile applications electronic software distribution, and data analysis tools. In 2019, Israeli Growth Partners (IGP) invested $110 million in Cellebrite. In January 2020, Cellebrite announced the acquisition of US-based BlackBag Technologies, Inc., a forensics company with a focus on computer forensics. The acquisition allowed Cellebrite to expand its digital intelligence solution offerings to include data collection tools from computers.
In April 2021, Cellebrite announced plans to go public via a merger with TWC Tech Holdings II Corporation, a blank check firm. With the merger, Cellebrite becomes a publicly listed company on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol, "CLBT". The pro forma implied equity value of Cellebrite post-merger is approximately $2.4 billion. In July 2021, a group of civil society organizations signed a letter arguing that the company should not be allowed to go public before demonstrating compliance with human rights. In August 2021, Cellebrite announced the completion of the merger. The Nasdaq ticker symbols were renamed to CLBT and CLBTW on the announcement day.
In July 2024, Cellebrite announced that it was acquiring Cyber Technology Services, a cybersecurity company based in Tyson's Corner, Virginia and licensed to work on federal projects with maximum security clearance. In June 2025, Cellebrite acquired Corellium, a Delray Beach, Florida -based startup specializing in virtualized mobile device environments for security research, for $200 million. The deal included $150 million in cash, $20 million in restricted stock, and up to $30 million in performance-based cash tied to unspecified milestones over two years.
Subsidiaries BlackBag Technologies, Inc.: U.S-based subsidiary Cellebrite Asia Pacific Pte Ltd: Singapore-based subsidiary Cellebrite Federal Solutions: U.S.-based subsidiary Cellebrite Global Training Headquarters: U.S.-based subsidiary Cellebrite GmbH: Germany-based subsidiary - registered in October 2008 Cellebrite UK Limited: UK based subsidiary
Technology Cellebrite's products are classified as "dual-use civilian services," and not security-related, a distinction, which it is argued allows them to operate without serious oversight from the Israeli government.
In 2007, Cellebrite introduced the first version of their Universal Forensic Extraction Device (or UFED), a portable tool capable of extracting the contents of a cell phone, which became popular with law enforcement agencies around the world. In 2019, Cellebrite announced a new version of their flagship UFED product called UFED Premium. The company claimed that it can unlock iOS devices including those running iOS 12.3 and Android phones such as the Galaxy S9.
In 2021, Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, pointed to several vulnerabilities in Cellebrite's UFED and Physical Analyzer software that allowed for arbitrary code execution on Windows computers running the software. One exploit he detailed involved the UFED scanning a specially formatted file, which could then be used to execute arbitrary code on the computer running the UFED. Marlinspike wrote that the code could then "[modify] not just the Cellebrite report being created in that scan, but also "all previous and future generated Cellebrite reports" from all previously scanned devices and all future scanned devices in any arbitrary way." Marlinspike also found that Cellebrite software was bundled with out-of-date FFmpeg DLL files from 2012, which lacked over 100 subsequent security updates. Windows Installer packages, extracted from the Windows installer for iTunes and signed by Apple, were also found, which he said raised legal concerns. Cellebrite responded that the company "is committed to protecting the integrity of our customers' data, and we continually audit and update our software in order to equip our customers with the best digital intelligence solutions available." The report by Signal followed an announcement by Cellebrite in 2020 that it had developed technology to crack encrypted messages in the Signal app, a claim the company later retracted and downplayed. The announcement by Marlinspike raised questions about the integrity of data extracted by the software, and prompted Cellebrite to patch some of the vulnerabilities found by Signal and to remove full support for analyzing iPhones.
In 2026, Cellebrite forensic tools had been used alongside spyware deployment in at least one documented case in Serbia involving device unlocking and surveillance activities.
Law enforcement and government assistance Bangladesh The software has been sold to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in Bangladesh. After a connection between Cellebrite and the extrajudicial killings of the RAB was reported in 2021, Cellebrite announced they would cease selling products to the organization. It is likely the RAB can continue to use existing Cellebrite products they have already purchased.
Belarus and Russia Cellebrite's UFED program was used to persecute the democratic opposition in Belarus and Russia; Vladimir Putin used the technology against his political opponents for many years. In March 2021, after finding out that technology was used in the Lyubov Sobol affair, a Jerusalem activist filed a lawsuit against the company in the Supreme Court of Israel. The company announced the termination of cooperation with Russia and Belarus shortly afterward. Nevertheless, in 2023, the phone of Dmitry Ivanov, an anti-war activist, was accessed by the FSB via Cellebrite products. In June 2026, Citizen Lab reported that Russian authorities had used Cellebrite forensic tools to access the iPhone of activist Andrey Pivovarov in June 2021, several months after Cellebrite said it had ended its contract with Russian government customers. The report said the tools were used to extract and analyze data from messaging apps including WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber, while Cellebrite said any post-March 2021 use in Russia was unauthorized and involved hardware sold before the company cut ties.
Botswana In May 2021, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that police in Botswana used a UFED device sold by Cellebrite to extract data from the phone of journalist Oratile Dikologang, the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People's Daily News website after a senior office ordered that his device be searched for information about "offensive" Facebook posts.
Brazil In March 2021, the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State opened an investigation into the mysterious death of 4-year-old Henry Borel. The boy's stepfather Jairinho and his mother Monique Medeiros were arrested for obstructing the investigation into the boy's death and were being investigated for homicide. Rio de Janeiro police used Cellebrite devices to extract deleted WhatsApp messages between Jairinho, Medeiros, and Henry's nanny, which the department described as "essential technical evidence" for the case.
European Union In 2019, Cellebrite advertised their products as an effective way to control immigration from refugees in the European Union, saying that 77% of refugees arrived in Europe without documentation, although 43% had a smartphone.
Hong Kong In August 2020, MIT Technology Review reported that Cellebrite sold its services to the Hong Kong Police Force for use in unlocking phones of detained demonstrators during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. As of October 7, 2020, the company announced that it would stop selling its solutions and services to customers in Hong Kong and China as a result of a change in U.S. regulations. However, in 2021 The Intercept said that the software was still being sold to China.Mara Hvistendahl, "Chinese police kept buying Cellebrite phone hackers after the company said it ended sales," The Intercept, August 17, 2021
Jordan
A Citizen Lab forensic analysis found that Jordanian authorities have used Cellebrite to extract data from the phones of political activists and civilians without their consent, due to their involvement in the protests in support of Palestinians in Gaza between late 2023 and mid-2025.
Latvia In 2024, the State Revenue Service (VID) of Latvia acquired Cellebrite software for €427,270 to combat tax evasion and the shadow economy. The software enables the analysis of financial information and electronic records, facilitating data collection and correlation studies during targeted control measures. Cellebrite is used to extract data from iOS and Android devices, limited to specific entities identified as high-risk for tax evasion, requiring physical access by tax inspectors.
Morocco In 2020, the DGST used Cellebrite to extract the data from the iPhone of the investigative journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi.
Myanmar In 2021, the New York Times reported that Myanmar's state budget included MacQuisition, a forensic software product made by a Cellebrite subsidiary, BlackBag Technologies, that is used to extract data from Apple computers. Court documents also showed that police in Myanmar reported using Cellebrite forensic technology to obtain data from the phones of two Reuters journalists, who were tried and convicted in 2018 for publishing evidence of the Rohingya massacre in Myanmar in 2017. A spokesperson for Cellebrite said that Cellebrite stopped selling to Myanmar in 2018 and that BlackBag had not sold to Myanmar after being acquired by Cellebrite in 2020.
Philippines The Philippines government under president Rodrigo Duterte was a purchaser of Cellebrite, and the company trained many of the country's government bodies, including some involved in the thousands of extrajudicial killings of the Philippine drug war. According to journalist Antony Loewenstein, Cellebrite cannot claim ignorance of its involvement in the killings.
Saudi Arabia