The original version of #FIRGUN was published on LinkedIn. Subscribe to get the next edition in your inbox.
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
Shana tova v’chatima tova to those who celebrated! 153 out of 193 countries represented in the UN have recognised Pal****ne as a sovereign state, in what is seen by Israeli’s (and Ha**s leaders) as a reward for the Oct 7 attacks. During the holiday a Houthi drone hit a busy hotel in Eilat and just yesterday a rocket was fired from Yemen to Israel. You’ll hear almost zero coverage of it in the news. There are still 48 hostages held in G**a and we must #BRINGTHEMHOME.
In the wider tech world, NVIDIA is investing $100 billion (with a B) into OpenAI which will in turn lease Nvidia chips. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Pulse, which Sam Altman called ‘his favourite feature so far’. Also OpenAI is looking for an ads chief. If the Terminator 2 plot line becomes reality, remember this week Google DeepMind announced ‘the dawn of agentic robots‘ (aka Gemini Robotics 1.5 and Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5). The end to the TikTok saga in the US – TikTok’s U.S. operations would be run by a new joint-venture company with ByteDance owning 20% and all US data handled by Oracle. Larry Ellison is likely to stay the richest person in the world for some time – Oracle raises $18B in year’s 2nd-biggest bond sale as AI spending surges and OpenAI partnered with SoftBank Investment Advisers and Oracle to build 5 US data centres in the next 5 years in a $400BN investment commitment. Apple and Intel Corporation have reportedly discussed working more closely together. The bromance is over: Microsoft integrates Anthropic‘s Claude into Copilot, alongside OpenAI’s models. Say cheese: Instagram hit 3 billion users. Alibaba Group unveiled Qwen3-Omni, open-weight multilingual AI model (works in 119 languages). President Trump signed an executive order that will force new H1B sponsoring companies to pay $100,000 per new visa term, potentially hurting startups. The European tech ecosystem sees it as a big opportunity to retain talent. Crypto is far from dead: Kraken, a 14-year-old cryptocurrency exchange, raised a $500 million round at a $15 billion valuation. Spotify will start labelling AI content to cut down on spam. Meta is launching Vibes, a new feed in the Meta AI app for short-form, AI-generated videos. Microsoft looks to build AI marketplace for publishers.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
It’s been a quiet week in terms of announcements due to the Rosh Hashana holiday, but never the less:
- Great news Chen Amit and team Tipalti on securing a $200M and reaching $200M in ARR!
- Congrats Amnon Shashua and team AAI Technologies on an undisclosed round of funding for your AI lab and new unicorn status! ?
- Kudos Roy Cohen and team Fetcherr on your $42M series C to help airlines and other industries make real-time pricing and inventory decisions!
- Way to go Ron Efroni and team Flox on your $25M series B to create better software development environments!
EXITS
- Congratulations Yuval Man and team DigitalOwl on your acquisition by Datavant estimated at $200M!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
REMAGINE VENTURES/ VC CAFE
- The Real Reasons VCs Pass on Your Startup (And What They Won’t Tell You)
- The Crucial Question Startup Founders Must Ask When They Start Selling
- Which barriers still block Agentic AI adoption?
ISRAEL
- Israel unites against hollow recognition of Palestine, but PM could be pushed too far
- The 50 most influential Israeli AI leaders according to TLV Partners
- Mapping the 70 Israeli startups shaping the future of semiconductors, AI, and computing
GLOBAL
- AI agents can now pay one another with new protocol by Google – this could unlock more seamless commerce via LLMs
- Anthropic Economic Index report: Uneven geographic and enterprise AI adoption
- The future of the $4 trillion a year services industry with AI – by General Catalyst
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
The Israeli semiconductor landscape by Earth & Beyond Ventures maps 70 startups that raised over $5.5 billion, powering the future of AI – it was added to my VC Cafe 2025 landscape collection and the r/startuplandscapes community on Reddit, Inc.
There are many more Israeli startups operating in New York… here’s how they represent in recent report by 97212 Ventures (source)
How professional services firms are building their AI Agent strategies by CB Insights
The latest Pew Research Center study is a wake-up call: nearly half of Americans now get news from social media and for people under 30, it’s almost universal. (source)
The main reasons why AI projects fail (by RAND) more in my blog post on this topic
How are developers using AI? AI-assisted Software Development’, finding adoption of the tech has surged to 90% among developers, but confidence in AI outputs remains surprisingly low. Inside the 2025 DORA report (source)
The humanoid robots are coming. Figure is looking to raise $1 billion. How will they affect the economy? (source)
The OpenAI master plan – every industry they are entering or competing in (source)
Thanks for tuning in. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Keep on creating.
Eze Vidra
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
