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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
The first speaker of Calcalist ??????? Mind the Tech London was Galia David, the mother of Evyatar David. We’ve all seen his videos, starved in a tunnel, a shadow of the person he once was. It’s hard to imagine how it feels for her and the 48 other families waiting for their loved ones for over 713 days. We must not forget the ho***ges and we must #BRINGTHEMHOME ??
This week opened with the Prime Minister’s “Sparta Speech“, which he has since mostly retracted and corrected, but it was perhaps also a wake up call. In Europe, countries are threatnening to pull out of the Eurovision is Israel participates, in Spain, the last leg of cycling race of ‘La Vuelta’ was cancelled due to Pro-Pale****e protestors and 4,000 Hollywood actors signed a petition saying they will not work with Israeli firms. Isolation is not strength, and Israeli tech is not its government. It’s our duty, the investors and entrepreneurs to build strong bridges. More about it in my latest post (see links section below).
In the wider tech world, NVIDIA‘s AI chips have just been banned by the Chinese government… Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled Meta newest AI-powered glasses with a Ray-Ban frame – they will retail for $799. Can anyone compete with the iPhone? Nothing raised another $200M to try… OpenAI structured a deal with Microsoft that enables it to become ‘for-profit’ again. TikTok reached a deal that will enable it to continue operating in the US, but 80% of the ownership will be US-based. A UK startup called Quantum Motion built the first quantum computer using standard chips. Google, now that it’s been allowed to keep its browser, is adding agentic capabilities to Chrome. Grok, the chatbot by xAI has 64M monthly users. While Anthropic‘s Claude is the most popular coding Agent, Grok’s speed and price are being noticed. YouTube unveiled a number of new AI tools for creators. DX a developer productivity platform that raised less than $5M, was acquired by Atlassian for $1 billion. OpenAI released research on AI models deliberately ‘Scheming’. The IPO window is opening again: Israeli founded startup Navan confidentially filed for IPO Lendbuzz seems to be next. Finally, Decart launched Lucy Edit, the first foundation model for text-guided video editing for API users.
I will take the opportunity to wish everyone who’s celebrating early next week – Shana tova u Metukah and chatima tova! May you have a healthy, peaceful and prosperous year.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Kites rise higher against the wind, not with it”
Sir Winston Churchill
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Dan Lahav and team Irregular (formerly Pattern Labs) for coming out of stealth with an impressive $80M seed round to establish a frontier security lab on a mission to protect the world in the era of increasingly capable AI!
- Big congrats Tal Kollender and team Remedio (formerly GYTPOL) on your $65M first round of funding since founding six years ago, to scale your autonomous cybersecurity platform!
- Way to go Shay Sandler and team vega.io on coming out of stealth with a $65M seed + series A to gain full secOps coverage!
- Well done Shahar Peled and team Terra Security on securing a $30M series A to empower security teams with Agentic-AI-powered continuous penetration testing!
- Mazel tov Itai Hirsch and team Turnout on your $21M seed extension to cut paperwork and speed up disability and tax claims!
- Great stuff Aviram Hassan and team MetalBear on your $12.5M Seed round to accelerate AI-era software testing!
- Kudos Ariel Zamir and team Ray Security on your $11M seed round to launch predictive data protection!
- Way to go Raz Rotenberg and team Fabrix Security on your $8M seed round for your AI agents for identity security!
- Good job Beatrice Chemla and team IMMA Health on securing $2.5M seed funding to bring at-home ultrasound to IVF patients!
EXITS
- Congrats Rohan Palekar and team 89bio on the acquisition of your fatty liver treatment by Roche for up to $3.5 billion!
NEW FUNDS
- Kol hakavod Kobi Samboursky, Arik Kleinstein and team Glilot Capital Partners on securing $500M for 2 new funds focused on Israeli cybersecurity and AI startups! -hope we will soon find a deal to collaborate on with Remagine Ventures!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
REMAGINE VENTURES AND VC CAFE
- Israeli tech won’t follow Sparta’s fate – my thoughts following the Prime minister’s Sparta speech and the importance of building bridges
- It was a pleasure to speak at Mind the Tech London with the Dream Team startup delegation!
- In case you’re not yet subscribed, join my new reddit community r/startuplandscapes
ISRAEL
- $82 billion and counting – a new generation of cyber exits by CTech by Calcalist
- Why Israeli Startups Are Betting on ‘Services as Software’ and How AI Is Closing the Last Mile – by Grove Ventures
- Israeli universities alumni rank high in US high-tech capital funding list
GLOBAL
- It’s Time For A B2C Comeback In the Age of AI by Cowboy Ventures
- AI’s UI Problem Is Actually A New Era of Software – by Menlo Ventures
- Mark Zuckerberg has begun his quest to kill the iPhone
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Service as a software Israeli startup map by Grove Ventures (source)
Most promising Israeli startups 2025, according to N12 News Israel (source) – congrats to the nominees!
Tel Aviv University and Technion – Israel Institute of Technology amongst included in ranking of Universities producing most startup founders
Israeli tech sector snapshot by Jefferies
Top countries using Anthropic‘s AI (note: Claude code is considered the best coding agent)
OpenAI just released the largest-ever report on how consumers are using ChatGPT. It looks at millions of (anonymized) messages over the last 3 years to analyze usage evolution over time. (source)
Slowly but surely, IPOs are making a much needed comeback… next up is Navan.
Finally from my team and I at Remagine Ventures – Shana tova u metukah!
That’s all for this week. Thank you for tuning in. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Keep on creating!
Shana tova and hatima tova,
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
