It’s #Firgun time!
The original version of #Firgun was published on Linkedin. Subscribe for free to join 7,400 readers and 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. In November #FIRGUN officially celebrated 5 years. See my update on what I’ve learned from writing Firgun and what keeps me going. I’m happy to share another milestone this week: it’s been 21 years (!) since I started my blog, https://www.vccafe.com.
The geopolitical landscape underwent a seismic shift this week following the dramatic U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro, a move seen by many as a preemptive strike to dismantle Iran’s primary strategic foothold and drone-tech hub in the Western Hemisphere. As the Trump Administration moves to secure Venezuela’s energy assets and curb Hezbollah’s regional influence, the shadow of Iran’s proxy warfare remains most painfully felt in Gaza. Amidst these global power plays, the humanitarian mission for the families continues; Ran Gvili is the last Israeli hostage body left in Gaza, a hero who fought terrorists on October 7, 2023, and treated wounded who managed to escape the Nova party. We must #BRINGHIMHOME to finally bring closure to his family and ensure that no one is left behind.
In Israeli tech and venture, the first week of 2026 signals a red hot Israeli M&A market: it’s not even 10 days into January and there are several rumours swirling about mega-deals: Papaya Global is in talks about getting acquired for $3.5B-$4.5B, NVIDIA is in advanced talks to acquire AI21 Labs for $2-3 billion, Cisco is apparently looking into acquiring cyber startup Axonius for $2 billion, AppsFlyer (who recently shared it reached $500M in ARR) is in talks to be acquired by Apollo Global Management, Inc. for a reported $2-$3 billion and Fortissimo Capital for a reported $2 billion, Palo Alto Networks is in negotiations to acquire one year old Koi for a reported $400 million and the list goes on. If you add up deals that were announced but not yet closed (like Google‘s acquisition of Wiz), 2026 is looking like very auspicious year for Israeli exits and liquidity. It’s good for everyone: the asset class, employees, the country’s GDP and frankly, the acquirers!
In the wider tech world, this first week of 2026 was defined by staggering capital injections as xAI officially closed its massive $20 billion Series E funding round, doubling its valuation to $230 billion to scale its “Colossus” supercluster. Not to be outdone, Anthropic is reportedly finalizing a $10 billion raise at a $350 billion valuation, signalling a pre-IPO frenzy among frontier lab investors. At CES 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang sparked a “ChatGPT moment for physical AI” by launching the Alpamayo family of open-source reasoning models for autonomous vehicles and the next-gen Vera Rubin chip architecture. Samsung Electronics dominated hardware headlines with the debut of its commercial-ready Galaxy Z TriFold and a world-first 6K glasses-free 3D monitor. Microsoft continued its infrastructure blitz with a $2.1 billion data center proposal for AI and a massive $17.5 billion commitment to sovereign AI in India, while Amazon countered with a $35 billion facility expansion plan. In the humanoid space, Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics announced a landmark partnership to integrate Gemini-class reasoning into the Atlas robot for industrial production. Intel Corporation launched its next gen AI PCs. LMArena more than tripled its valuation to $1.7 billion following a $150 million funding round tied to its AI model comparison and evaluation platform. Finally, Meta expanded its wearable dominance by introducing “Teleprompter” and handwriting features for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, while DeepSeek AI disrupted the efficient-model space with its new “mHC” architecture for ultra-low-cost scaling. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, in collaboration with physicians for a health and wellness tailored experience.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“By the end of 2026, most people will experience AI less as a destination and more as something that quietly sits inside whatever they are already doing.” — Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Yotam Segev and team Cyera on your impressive $400M Series F (at a $9 billion valuation) for your AI data security platform!
- Big kudos Itay Efraim, Dor Aharonson and team Spirit, for raising a $50M seed round (at $400M valuation) just three months from inception (while in stealth mode!)
- Well done Karny Ilan, MD and team Feminai on securing an undisclosed seed round for your breast cancer testing patch technology!
EXITS
- Congratulations Amnon Shashua and team Mentee Robotics on the $900M acquisition by Mobileye to power the future of humanoid robotics with computer vision!
- Way to go Amir Balaish and team Wenrix on the acquisition by Etraveli Group for a reported $200M-$300M
- Big mazal tov Tal Zackon and team TRES Finance on the acquisition by Fireblocks for a reported $130M
NEW FUNDS
- Big mazels Judah Taub and team Hetz Ventures on the new $140M fund IV to invest in early stage Israeli cyber AI infra and data startups! I hope we can find our first one to collaborate on with Remagine Ventures in 2026!
- Congrats Dorit Dor, Maya Racine Netser and team Qbeat Ventures on announcing your $20M first closing for a Quantum Computing dedicated early stage fund to invest in both Israeli and global startups in the space!
APPOINTMENTS
- Kudos Matan Lamdan on joining Striker Venture Partners as general partner responsible for Israel and committing to invest half of your new $165M in Israeli cyber and AI startups!
- Warm congrats Héléna C. on joining the talented team at Jibe Ventures as Partner to invest in Israeli early stage B2B startups!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
REMAGINE VENTURES/ VC CAFE
- Vertical AI in 2026: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – with all the talks about an AI bubble, it’s looking more like an LLM bubble, and what will likely stay is vertically integrated AI solutions.
- 2026 AI VC predictions – the year of the “Agentic Employee” – I’ve read dozens of 2026 AI predictions by leading US VCs so you don’t have to – I organised them by AI infrastructure, AI agents and applications. This post is on ?
- Kudos to our portfolio company @
ISRAEL
- Nvidia CEO presents almost all-Israeli supercomputer – At CES in Las Vegas Jensen Huang unveiled the Rubin platform that combines six chips with an Israeli pedigree.
- K shaped recovery? According to a new analysis by altshare, which aggregates anonymized data from thousands of Israeli and international technology companies, capital is returning selectively, concentrating in fewer sectors, fewer companies, and fewer people. The result is a market that is no longer frozen, but far less forgiving.
- Tech employees in Israel got a $2 billion windfall in 2025 – Taken together, even before a single new deal is signed or any stock rises, employees in the local high-tech sector are expected to receive an additional NIS 6 billion ($1.9B) before taxes following the three major exits of 2025.
GLOBAL
- 21 lessons from 14 years at Google by Addy Osmani – a great read for both founders and tech employees
- A year ago, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said the ‘ChatGPT moment’ for robotics was around the corner. Now he says it’s ‘nearly here.’ But is it?
- The coolest announcements from CES 2026 – The Verge has a live feed worth scrolling through
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Results of a survey across dozens of Israel-based VC investors about 2025 investment sectors. Cyber and AI are still at the very top with Quantum in third place. By Fusion VC
IVC’s analysis reveals a trend of an increase in the involvement rate of serial entrepreneurs in the establishment of new technology companies, and a decrease in the involvement of new entrepreneurs. (source:
AI captured close to 50% of all global funding in 2025, up from 34% in 2024. All told, funding to AI increased more than 75% year over year from the $114 billion invested in 2024. (source: Crunchbase)
It’s not just that funding is going to AI. The share of AI startups across various sectors in the US is on the rise as well.
According to data by SVB published by Carta (mainly based on US data) – The median ARR at a Series A is now ~$2.8M. Here’s the breakdown:
2021 Median: $1M-ish | 2024 Median: $2.3M | 2025 Median: $2.8M (up 22% year over year)
Iran brought the Internet in the country down to suppress the riots against the Islamic regime. In the meanwhile, prominent Iranian entrepreneurs and executives (including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said they are prepared to invest aggressively in the Iranian market once the Ayatollah regime falls)
The Lego Smart Play system – a new platform of interactive bricks with smart tags and interactive figures to bring the creations to life with dynamic sounds and lights. (source)
That’s all for this week, thank you for reading.
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 – March 6 2026 - March 6, 2026
- Weekly Firgun Newsletter – February 27, 2026 - February 27, 2026
- The Rise of the Personal AI Agent - February 26, 2026
