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In case you’re new here, 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 the concept of Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
We cannot forget about the Israeli h***ages. Today the remains of Ilan Weiss z”l were recovered but there are still 49 that need to be brought home. It’s time. #BRINGTHEMHOME NOW.
It was a quiet week in terms of announcements in Israeli tech as we approach the end of August and the return of kids to school (yeay!).
That being said, it was a big week in global tech and AI. Google‘s Nano Banana, aka Gemini Flash 2.5 image editing is available for everyone and it broke the Internet with its cool use cases. Speaking of image editing, Meta signed a multi million dollar partnership with Midjourney to bring their advanced image and video models for consumers, after it found their own models were lagging. SpaceX successfully landed Startship, it’s biggest vessel, on its 10th attempt after a year of mishaps. NVIDIA reached record sales of $46.7 billion last quarter, up 56% from the equivalent period last year. Apple is releasing a foldable iPhone in September and Google’s Gemini might be powering Siri! Parents of teen that tragically committed suicide are suing OpenAI for failing safeguards. Microsoft launched new voice models MAI-Voice-1. Character.AI unveiled new open source models.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.” – Henry David Thoreau
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Well done Noah L. and team Tzafon on coming out of stealth with a $9.3M pre-seed round (by xAI and OpenAI angels) to launch a consumer AI agent assistant!
- Kudos Oren Zilberman and team Vanilla Vida on your $3.5M series A extension to produce sustainable vanilla!
EXITS
- Kudos Dan Bodner and team Verint on the $2 billion acquisition by Francisco Partners!
- Big congrats Itay Mesika and team Axiom Security on your acquisition by Okta in a transaction estimated at $75M-$100M in stock and cash!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE / REMAGINE VENTURES
- Mapping the Israeli Spatial Computing Landscape in Q3 2025 – a new landscape, created by our Remagine Ventures summer Intern, Matan Gal, maps 85+ startups in spatial computing that collectively raised over $3.1 billion in disclosed funding.
- What it takes to win in GenAI consumer tech – the top 100 consumer AI fifth edition was published by A16Z (see link below) and it inspired me to question what it takes for breakthrough products to emerge in consumer.
- Did you join my new Reddit community r/startuplandscapes? 7 new landscapes were published this week alone! by Bessemer Venture Partners, Norwest, Dealroom.co, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures etc.
ISRAEL
- Israel’s cyber frontier 2025 – report on the rising of AI cybersecurity in Israel by Deloitte
- The Defence Tech revolution is here – excellent podcast with Josh Wolfe and Dan Senor
- Nvidia’s Israeli network: The $7 billion bet that built a $30 billion business
GLOBAL
- The next billion dollar startups by Forbes, including Israel’s Decart
- The 100 most influential people in AI in 2025 – by TIME (including Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Shaashua).
- State of the markets H2 2025 – report by SVB
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
The Israeli Spatial Computing landscape Q3 2025 (by Remagine Ventures) was added to my 2025 collection on VC Cafe (source)
According to IVC Data and Insights, Israeli Deep Tech companies raised $597 million in 22 deals in H1 2025, compared to $536 million in 51 deals in the whole of 2024.
Israeli GenAI enabled cybersecurity solutions landscape (source)
Yes EU can! The top 100 EMEA companies that exceeded $100M in revenue (by Dealroom.co) – source – also see on Reddit!
Shout out to the Israeli representatives on the list TravelPerk, Deel, Snyk, Celonis
From “Hello, World” to “Hello, AI”: Software engineering has leapt from human–AI collaboration to orchestration — and now toward full autonomy. A new landscape for Software 3.0 by Bessemer Venture Partners (source)
The AI Agent tech Stack by CB Insights has a great taxonomy. Shout out to the Israeli startups included Tavily AI21 Labs Pinecone Lasso
The top 50 GenAI mobile apps by Monthly active users – created by Andreessen Horowitz) – source. Related: What it takes to win in GenAI consumer tech on VC Cafe
The 2025 Intelligent Applications by Madrona is here. Now in its fifth year, the IA40 recognizes the top private companies shaping the future of applied AI, from foundational infrastructure to full-stack intelligent applications. (source)
Attention was never enough: The rise of hybrid LLMs – an overview of hybrid AI models by AI21 Labs
That’s all for this week. Thank you 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.
- Weekly Firgun Newsletter – February 27, 2026 - February 27, 2026
- The Rise of the Personal AI Agent - February 26, 2026
- Pre-Seed Is Stronger than ever, but less startups are getting funded - February 25, 2026
