It’s #Firgun time!
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In case you’re new here, the word “Firgun” (Hebrew: ??????/ 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 the concept of Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
Israelis don’t have a problem with the Iranian people—in fact, there’s a long and rich history of Persian-Jewish friendship. The real threat comes from Iran’s extremist regime, which has openly called for Israel’s destruction while funding terror across the Middle East and racing toward nuclear capabilities. In recent weeks, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and explosive drones at Israel, yet the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rebounded to record highs—a remarkable vote of confidence. Investors seem to be betting on the end of the Iranian threat and the dawn of a new chapter: one where the regime is defanged and peace and prosperity can flourish between Israel and its neighbours.
I’ll just share a couple of stories from my small portfolio of Israeli tech startups: one company had a co-founder drafted to reserve service and their office was hit by a rocket. They continue to raise money and work with design partners. A key team member in another startup had all of his house windows shattered from a rocket blast and has been sleeping in the car in an underground parking. They outsourced some of the development to Eastern Europe so they don’t slow down on their product roadmap. Needless to say, for all the parents in the group, schools have been cancelled and in some cases moved to Zoom, and they are woken up by sirens several times a night. Somehow, Israeli founders continue to re-write the definition of ‘Resilience’ in startups. Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention that there are still 52 Israeli host**es held in G**a. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME ??
In the wider tech world, Mark Zuckerberg is on a spending spree to secure top AI talent for Meta. He apparently tried to buy the $32 billion priced Safe Superintelligence Inc., was turned down by Ilya Sutskever, and has reportedly proceeded to hire the CEO Daniel Gross, PhD… On that note Sam Altman said that Meta tried (and failed) to poach OpenAI’s talent with $100M offers. He also added that humanity nears “gentle singularity”. WhatsApp has over 2 billion users, and from this week started to introduce ads in the app. Midjourney has launched v1, its first AI video generation model. SkyReels open-sources SkyReels V2 It’s the world’s first open-source infinite-length video generation model. MiniMax open-sources the world’s longest context window reasoning AI model. HeyGen launched Product Placement with Avatar IV. Now you can put anyone and any product with realistic voice.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The strength of the Jewish people does not lie in its sword, but in its spirit.” -Ariel Sharon
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge congrats Ariel Assaraf and team Coralogix on your $115M series E and new unicorn status to scale AI-driven observability and launch agentic assistant ‘Olly’!
- Kudos Adam de la Zerda and team Visby Medical on securing a $55M investment round for your lab-grade home device for STI testing!
EXITS
- Way to go Maor Shlomo, solepreneur founder of Base44 on the acquisition by Wix for $80M, only six months after launch! At the time of the acquisition, Base44 had 250K users, $3.5M in revenue (profitable) and no other investors or employees!
- Well done Idan Vlodinger and team Statement on your acquisition by Tipalti for an estimated $35M-$45M. Statement developed an AI-powered platform for global cash flow management, designed to help businesses gain real-time clarity and control over their financial operations.
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES
- We sent out the Remagine Ventures monthly pulse newsletter this week packed with updates on new investments and our portfolio companies – I invite you all to subscribe to get the next one directly in your inbox!
- The creator economy in 2025: Powered by People, Accelerated by AI – I rounded up the latest on the creator economy, and how AI is turbo charging content creation, but not yet replacing people…
- Vibe coding is fast and powerful, but not flawless – in the wake of the Base44 acquisition by Wix, I looked at the vibe coding ecosystem: what it unlocks, but also where it falls short.
- Loneliness epidemic is driving adoption of AI Companions – Is technology causing social isolation or alleviating it? There’s a 2400% rise in searches for “AI Girlfriends” in the last two years alone.
ISRAEL
- Israeli startup hub under missile fire – the The Wall Street Journal brings the stories of several Israeli entrepreneurs and investors
- Why did Israel attack Iran? Excellent post by Roey Tzezana (in Hebrew, so use the X translate button!) based on The Economist “Inside the spy dossier that led Israel to war“. I also recommend “While the world slept, Israel drew a line“.
- Amid Iranian missile strike, Israeli stock market surges to 52-week high but also the stock exchange building was hit by an Iranian rocket…
GLOBAL
- The Atlantic explains the espionage and cyber tactics behind recent events in the Middle East in How Israel surprised Iran
- ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study –
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Amidst ballistic rockets being fired from Iran, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange TA-35 Index has bounced back to a record high and continues to climb.
At this week’s Paris Air Show, organisers made the controversial decision to hide Israeli exhibition booths behind black walls — a move that backfired by drawing even more attention to the fact that the showcased military technology was being actively battle-tested in real time between Tel Aviv and Tehran.
An interesting new startup landscape and thesis by Andreessen Horowitz – AI video creation (even though it’s missing Hour One, which is now part of Wix) – source
Dawn Capital shared an interesting map of the startups innovating in the IP value chain, and why this area is ripe for disruption with AI (source)
AI Platform Citation Patterns: How ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity Source Information – The most cited websites by ChatGPT according to Profound (source)
Watch Andrej Karpathy, the former director of AI at Tesla, give a masterclass on how software is changing in the era of AI, to Y Combinator AI school
Finally some comic relief – The memes about the Mossad activity in Iran keep coming… (for more)
One more funny tweet for good measure. This time by Adam Fisher…
Wishing everyone in Israel a quiet and peaceful weekend. Thanks for tuning in.
There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community. Keep on creating!
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
- Weekly Firgun Newsletter – April 10 2026 - April 10, 2026
- New Firgun Newsletter – April 3 2026 - April 3, 2026
- $3.1 Billion Under Missile Fire: What Q1 2026 Tells Us About Israeli Tech’s Real Resilience - March 31, 2026