The original version was published on LinkedIn, subscribe there to get the next edition directly.
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
Today happens to be my birthday (and Halloween) and next week will mark 5 years since the first edition of #FIRGUN was published. These ‘milestones’ make me a bit sentimental perhaps, but they also fill me with gratitude. First and foremost for my friends and family, whom I am lucky to have as partners on this journey, but also professionally, for being able to do what I love and support Israel and Israeli startups. It’s a privilege to do what you love.
This week the Q3 2025 reports were published by Startup Nation Central and IVC Data and Insights (see links section below) and the numbers tell an interesting story: on the one hand, exits are at an all time high in 2025 (reaching $71 billion!), mainly due to the consolidation in cyber and funding is down 38% quarter over quarter. Not only in the total amount, but also the number of rounds, showing more concentration of capital into fewer deals. Case in point, Q1-Q3 funding amount is up 17.6% YoY, but the number of rounds is down 16.8% (from 697 to 580). Another interesting report was released by Battery Ventures, showing that Israeli startups have the highest ratio in the world of repeat founders (1 in 22). I’m BULLISH about the next wave of innovation coming out of Israel and excited to continue investing in pre-seed startups with Remagine Ventures.
In the wider tech world, NVIDIA became the first company to cross the $5 trillion market cap this week, with Apple and Microsoft not too far behind valued at $4 trillion. For the first time, Google crossed the $100 billion in earnings in a single quarter… OpenAI wants to join that club with a rumoured plan for a $1 trillion IPO now they’ve completed the major recapitalisation to become a for-profit company. ChatGPT’s plans to move into commerce took another step this week with the integration of PayPal in Agentic commerce. At the same time, Amazon is laying off 14,000 corporate workers… that number could increase to 30,000. AOL, the original ‘you’ve got mail’ and owner of the legendary Israeli startup ICQ is being sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5 billion. AI Avatar company Synthesia raised a fresh $200M funding round valuing the company at $4 billion after turning down acquisition offers from Adobe and Meta for a reported $3 billion. Cartesia AI released a new speech generation model, Sonic-3, and raised $100M. Fireworks AI (model hosting platform) has raised $250M Series C at a $4B valuation. xAI now launched Grokipedia, a non-woke version of Wikipedia. YouTube is launching its tool to let you use AI to search for content using your face so that you can take copyright action. Finally, Neo by 1X became the first humanoid robot for house chores to go on sale for pre-order (deliveries will start in 2026). It will set you back $20,000 and $499 a month subscription but will fold the laundry, feed the dog, empty the dishwasher and keep you company.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Don’t take anything for granted. If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.”— Kobe Bryant
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Yanai Yedvab and team Stardust Solutions on securing a $60M round for your aerosol-based geoengineering technology designed to reflect sunlight and reduce global temperatures (read about it!)
- Way to go Idan Cohen and team Reflectiz on raising a $22M series B to analyse third-party tools and open-source components to detect risky behaviour instantly!
- Well done Tal Peretz ? and team Onfire AI on your $20M seed round to help software and cloud companies identify potential customers and their specific needs in real time!
- Kudos Dan Sadot and team CyberRidge on securing a $16M series A (and a previous $10M seed round) to launch photonic encryption that turns data into optical noise!
- Mazal tov Maor Greenberg and team Spacial on your $10M seed round to automate U.S. home construction!
- Big thumbs up Yasmin Dunsky and team Wild Moose on raising a $7M seed round to help on-call developers more quickly identify the source of production incidents!
EXITS
- Way to go Ariel Cohen and team Navan on your IPO, valuing the company at $6.2 billion! Hope it was a great outcome for everyone!
- Hats off Lior Albeck and team Weavy on the acquisition by Figma for a reported $200M just a year from founding! You will forever be in my anti-portfolio, but very well done to you, backers and team!
NEW FUNDS
- Congrats Ruthi Furman and team Viola Credit on securing a new $2 billion fund for fintech debt financing!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES
- Vertical integration is the only true defensibility in AI – my latest post on how to compete when everyone is building on top of the same models
- Several new startup landscapes published on the r/startuplandscapes community in Reddit, Inc. this week!
- Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire : “Israel is ideally positioned for AI” as firm unveils $200M Seed fund. The outspoken partner says Sequoia is accelerating investments in Israel despite the war, with much of the new fund headed for Tel Aviv’s tech scene. – We concur!
ISRAEL
- The Q3 2025 Israeli tech ecosystem report by Startup Nation Central
- The Q3 2025 tech review – quarterly report by LeumiTech and IVC Data and Insights In the first three quarters of 2025, companies raised $7.57 billion in 325 deals, compared with $7.24 billion in 2024 and $5.42 billion in 2023 for the same period.
- Israel: The Land of Milk, Honey, and Serial Entrepreneurs – excellent report by Battery Ventures, HSBC and Dealigence
GLOBAL
- Global VC Defense Tech Funding Leapt 33% To $31 Billion, Driven By AI, Robotics
- The Trillion Dollar AI Software Development Stack by Andreessen Horowitz
- From Wiz to Fireblocks: Israeli-founded startups power $19.5 billion boost to New York’s economy and related: What a Mamdani mayorship would mean for Israeli tech in New York – by the excellent James Spiro who just stepped down from CTech by Calcalist and is launching a new independent publication
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Q3 2025 key highlights in Israeli tech and venture by IVC Data and Insights
The global impact of Israeli serial entrepreneurs – $75 billion of exit value in the last 5 years… (source)
A hint of what’s coming: over 1,100 Israeli entrepreneurs are currently in ‘stealth’ mode (shameless plug: come talk to us at Remagine Ventures, we’re first check investors in Israeli pre-seed stratups!) – (source)
OpenAI predicts huge revenue growth as it plans its $1 trillion IPO… (source)
Securing agentic AI – landscape by Insight Partners (source) – cross posted on r/startuplandscapes
How US billionaires stack up with the rest of the world?
Software development is changing – it’s being turbo charged with AI (analysis by A16Z – source)
You’ve heard about the browser wars… here’s the latest landscape of Browser Agent powered companies by Gradient (source)
Meet Neo, the first humanoid robot for house chores available for sale by 1X (may need to watch on Youtube directly)
That’s all for this week. Thanks for being here. I appreciate you!
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 – 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
