page_title: Gilad Japhet
section_title: MyHeritage
hierarchical_section_title: Gilad Japhet / MyHeritage
caption_attribution_description: English: Original MyHeritage office in the village of Bnei Atarot, Israel
context_page_description: Gilad Japhet is an Israeli entrepreneur and genealogist. He is the founder and CEO of MyHeritage, a high-tech company that has developed a platform for preserving family history and creating family trees. It also offers DNA testing.
context_section_description: Japhet became interested in family history in the wake of a school project at the age of 13. After  interviewing  his mother, genealogy became his hobby. In 2003, he created a simple software  for family trees that became the basis of MyHeritage, a platform  for building  multi-lingual family trees. Based on software he created for his own use, he decided to launch a start-up focused on genealogy. The company, eventually named MyHeritage, started out in his home in Moshav Bnei Atarot near Tel Aviv. As the number of  employees grew, it moved to other premises in the moshav. Since 2012, MyHeritage has been  headquartered in Or Yehuda.
  The company uses a wide range of technologies to assist family history research, including face detection, semantic analysis, and DNA testing. MyHeritage's database of more than 9 billion records continues to grow and increase public awareness of genealogy. MyHeritage offers free tools for creating family trees, thereby making genealogical research accessible to the general population. The website has over  40 million family trees  in 42 languages.
  At the end of 2016, the company launched a genetic DNA testing service with home kits.
  In 2017, the company reported record revenues of $133 million.
  On Israel's  70th Independence Day, the company was chosen for inclusion in the book Inventing Every Morning Anew,  which lists the 70 most prominent inventions and innovations in the history of the state.
caption: First MyHeritage office, Bnei Atarot
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