Kobi Richter

Kobi Richter was born in 1945 in Ramat Yohanan

Yaakov (Kobi) Richter was born on December 24, 1945, and grew up on Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan. He was the middle of 3 children of Kalman, a locksmith born in Ukraine, and Mira, a dairy worker born in Austria. As a teenager he swam for the Israeli national team and won bronze in the 1,500 meter freestyle at a national championship in 1963.

He joined the IDF in 1964 and served 22 years as a fighter pilot, fighting in the Six Day War, the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. During his service he earned a bachelor's degree in biology and biochemistry and in 1976 a doctorate in brain research from Tel Aviv University. In 1979 he began postdoctoral studies at MIT in artificial intelligence and brain research.

After leaving the army in 1986 he became head of development at Orbot, which he had founded with his brother Yochai and others in 1983. Orbot merged with Optrotech in 1992 to form Orbotech. He then helped found the venture capital fund Marathon and was its CEO until 1995.

In 1992 he founded Medinol with his wife Judith and Gregory Pinchasik to develop stents. In 2005 Boston Scientific paid Medinol 750 million dollars over patent violations. The couple also founded Medcon in 1993, Microtech in 2006 and Valve Medical in 2007.

From 2016 to 2019 he chaired the Darkenu movement, and in 2019 he was among the founders of Ehud Barak's Israel Democratic party. In March 2026 he was part of a group of tech entrepreneurs that bought Channel 13. He and Judith have 3 children and live in Arsuf.