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For first time readers: the word “Firgun” (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is an informal modern Hebrew term and concept in Israeli culture (originally Yiddish), which describes genuine, unselfish delight or pride in the accomplishment of the other person. It’s the opposite of “schadenfreude” (which stands for being happy for someone else’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, pride, or admiration for members of our community’s accomplishments, good fortune and wins. More about Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
The BBC amplified a blood libel started by the UN and later apologised. Two staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were murdered by a shooter outside of the Jewish Museum. They were about to get engaged and were attending an event to discuss how multi-faith organizations can work together to bring humanitarian aid to war-torn regions like Gaza. These are just the latest escalations in the rising Antisemitism globally. Meanwhile, 58 Israeli hostages remain in Ga**. A third of them are believed to be alive. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME NOW.
In the wider tech world, it’s been a momentous week. Google announced a number of new products as part of Google I/O 2025. Most notable is ‘AI Mode‘ rolling out in the US – the search experience is changing from sending traffic to more chat based interface. Here’s everything Google announced this week including the incredible new Imagen 4 and Veo 3 video model, Project Mariner web browsing agent, Project Astra for real time visual search, Project Aura, new smart glasses powered by AndroidXR real time video dubbing etc. OpenAI announced that the company has acquired Jonny Ive’s startup IO for $6.5 billion in stock and that he will be joining the company to create “a new generation of AI powered computers” (the actual device is a mystery). The company also announced the launch of Codex, its AI coding automation agent. Anthropic released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 both hybrid models with near instant responses and extended thinking. There’s one problem: the model tried to blackmail the engineers that threatened to shut it down. Microsoft released new GitHub Copilot agent. MiniMax dethroned OpenAI and ElevenLabs with its new AI speech model Speech-02-HD. ElevenLabs launched AI soundboard SB-1, enables users to create any sound effect. Apple finally lets Fortnite returns to the app store and further delays its AI features in Siri… NVIDIA announced its new capabilities to power humanoid robots over the cloud. Jensen announced a new research centre in Shanghai and managed to reverse the US chip ban. Mistral AI launched Devstral, an open-weight coding model.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When without resources, depend on resourcefulness.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge congrats Yotam Segev and team Cyera on securing a $500M (!) Series E and on doubling your valuation to $6 billion for a data security platform!
- Well done Amnon Shashua and team AAI Technologies on your $25M rumoured seed round to “develop reasoning models that will perform processes and make decisions like human experts.”
- Kudos Ido Gaver and team Sweep on your $22.5M series B to expand your agentic AI layer for salesforce!
- Impressive stuff Gigi Levy-Weiss, Yiftach Shoolman and team LINE5 on your $20M seed round for a stealth defence tech startup!
- Congrats Victor Vaisleib and team Wi-Charge on your $20M series C for your long-range wireless power technology!
- Way to go Ittai Dayan and team Rhino Federated Computing on your $15M series A to scale federated AI across regulated industries!
EXITS
- Congrats Lee Kappon and team Suridata on the acquisition by Fortinet for a reported ‘tens of millions’ of your AI-powered platform to protect SaaS apps.
- Kudos Neta Meidav and team Vault, a Diligent Brand by Diligent for an undisclosed sum of your platform to evolve the way misconduct, financial crime and ESG violations get reported and resolved at work!
- Well done Or Lakritz and team StructShare on your acquisition by Trimble Inc. for an undisclosed sum!
APPOINTMENTS
- Congrats Lee Ben-Gal on joining lool ventures as investor!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES
- Building a Startup in the Age of AI: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t – “There’s never been better to be an entrepreneur” is often repeated (by investors mainly). While its true in many categories, there are a few nuances in the age of AI.
- Israel’s AI paradox – global powerhouse at a crossroads – new rankings and reports place Israel as one of the top AI hubs globally, but challenges are mounting
- Big funding does not equal guaranteed success – several VC-backed startups shut down recently, serving a good reminder that funding is not a replacement to product market fit
ISRAEL
- Nvidia grows its Israel footprint with $27M office expansion in Tel Aviv – this most likely signals more Israeli startup M&A is planned…
- Welcome to the Global Intifada – the killing of the soon to be engaged staffers in Washington DC should serve as an alarm on the rise of antisemitism. by Bari Weiss
- Israel launches project to build the first National AI Supercomputer
GLOBAL
- The Global Tech Index 2025 by Dealroom.co places Israel as one of the top startup hubs, but also ranks Paris ahead of London…
- How to make money in venture – excellent podcast with Josh Kopelman on what’s changed in venture
- 99% of AI startups will be dead by 2026 – a controversial read by Srinivas Rao – “The playbook today is simple: slap a UI on GPT, call it specialized, and hope the user doesn’t look behind the curtain. But that’s not infrastructure. That’s camouflage”
NEWS FOR YOUR BROWSER
Tel Aviv ranked as of the top AI hubs globally according to new report by Dealroom (source). Dive deeper on the state of Israel’s AI ecosystem in “Israel’s AI Paradox” on VC Cafe.
AI and ML are the only bright spots in a lackluster venture market right now by PitchBook (source)
This visual pissed off a lot of European investors. The Wall Street Journal lays out Europe’s tech malaise, showing how risk aversion, regulation, and slow capital are driving top founders—and the next wave of AI innovation—straight to the U.S. (source)
The evolving “data stack” tools in an AI world from Hitachi Ventures (source).
SaaS startups in 2025 report by Carta (source). About 24% of 2 founder teams lose a founder by year 4.
The tight race for model supremacy (source) – OpenAI still leads frontier AI race, but Google, Anthropic closing gap
Where are VCs placing their bets in AI based on a recent survey (source)
This State of Talent Report by SignalFire – entry-level hiring is collapsing, elite AI labs are hunting and locking in top talent (Anthropic has 80% retention!), and Big Tech is slowing GTM hiring to prioritise technical roles. (source)
The impact of coding automation – take a look at the software development job posts in the US over time…
Google’s partner first agentic AI strategy by CB Insights
How many Americans make $1M dollars a year?
Information overload right now is real…
That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community. Keep on creating!
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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