Michael Kaufman is Co-Founder and CEO of Covenant, a defense tech startup developing the Anthem long-range, heavy-payload weapon system designed for mass production at a fraction of the cost of legacy systems.

An American-Israeli entrepreneur, Kaufman studied at The Wharton School and built his career as an investor at Thiel Capital, Peter Thiel's investment firm, where he backed landmark companies in the defense and deep tech space.

Kaufman identified a critical gap in Western long-range strike capacity and co-founded Covenant in 2024 with CTO Ofir Dayan, a veteran of Israel's Iron Dome program, to address the rapid depletion of precision munitions in modern conflicts.

Under Kaufman's leadership, Covenant raised over $250 million across three rounds from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, Aleph, and Lightspeed, achieving a unicorn valuation exceeding $1 billion.

Covenant has conducted over 200 Anthem flight tests, opened a 105,000-square-foot production facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, and secured contracts with the U.S. Army and Navy, with serial production targeting 5,000 missiles annually.