It’s #Firgun time!
The original version of Firgun was published on Linkedin. Subscribe to get the next one in your inbox.
Firgun (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is an Israeli term describing genuine, unselfish joy in someone else’s success… It’s basically the opposite of “schadenfreude”. Every week since March 2020, we celebrate the wins of our startup community. Read more about why Firgun matters. If this was forwarded to you and you’d like to subscribe, previous editions are on VC Cafe.
This week started with rockets from Iran, continued with a number of mega rounds for Israeli tech and finished with the 2026 FIFA world cup kick-off match. I spent the week in Tel Aviv and I can honestly say, Israel has a unique energy (especially in its tech sector). It’s vibrant, honest, hardworking and ambitious. I’ve enjoyed meeting founders in stealth and spending time with Remagine Ventures portfolio companies.
In the wider tech world, the defining story this week was Anthropic’s release of Claude Fable 5, a public Mythos-class model built for demanding reasoning and long-horizon agentic work, alongside the more restricted Claude Mythos 5 for approved customers. Anthropic faced backlash for initially applying hidden safeguards and rerouting some sensitive requests without making that clear to users, later admitting it had “made the wrong tradeoff.”. According to filings, Google has agreed to pay SpaceX $920M per month for access to Nvidia chips as part of a cloud-services deal that runs through mid-2029Apple used WWDC to put more substance behind Apple Intelligence; Google pushed new Gemini and open-model updates; and OpenAI reportedly continued moving toward an IPO while partnering with Visa to make agentic commerce real. Jeff Bezos’ Prometheus raised a massive $12 billion Series B at a $41 billion valuation to build what it calls an “artificial general engineer” for the physical world. OpenAI acquired Ona, a startup providing secure cloud environments for AI agents, to strengthen its Codex platform for long-running enterprise agents. KKR launched Helix Digital, a new vehicle to finance AI infrastructure with over $10 billion in committed capital, backed by NVIDIA and others. Anthropic signed multiple direct data center lease agreements as it continues to secure its own compute capacity. Other notable moves included PhysicsX raising $300M series C for aI infra to accelerate physical simulations for industrial clients, Genspark raising $100 million in a Series B extension at a $2.6 billion post-money valuation for its agentic workplace platform. The week underscored both the continued appetite for very large AI bets and the accelerating push toward production-grade agent systems and supporting infrastructure.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” — Pelé
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Now it’s official: congratulations Yotam Segev and team Cyera on securing a $600M series G at a $12 billion valuation (after securing $400M in January…) for your AI-Native data security platform!
- Well done Tomer Aharoni and team Rylo on announcing your $85M series B to develop AI-powered real-time speech and sign-language translation tools for deaf and hard-of-hearing users!
- Way to go Alon Arvatz and team PointFive on your impressive $60M series B to help companies uncover and reduce wasteful cloud and AI infrastructure spending!
- Mabruk Yossi Torati and team A Security on coming out of stealth with a $37M round for your offensive security and remediation platform to protect against weaponised AI!
- Great stuff Ron Arbel and team Aryon Security on your $25M series A for your Cloud Security Enforcement Platform for pro-active cloud security!
- Congrats Guy Arazi and team Pi Security on coming out of stealth with a $25M series A and previously undisclosed $10M seed to analyse code, cloud infrastructure and workplace communications to identify real threats!
- Kudos Assaf Henkin and team Jedify on your $24M series A to build the context layer for enterprise AI!
- Big thumbs up Ido Bronstein and team Upriver on securing a $10M seed round (and previously undisclosed $4M pre-seed) to develop AI agents that autonomously manage enterprise data!
EXITS
- No new exits were recorded this week
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES/ ISRAEL VC
- Israel’s Space-Tech Moment: From Beresheet to Space-Based AI – Space is no longer just about rockets. It is becoming infrastructure for AI, defence, climate intelligence, communications, mining, science and the next generation of computing. Israel has a real shot to play a role.
- Agentic AI: Picks and Shovels vs. the Gold Itself – Agentic AI is really two very different bets: infrastructure and vertical applications. A Remagine Ventures take on where the value sits, and why token costs, non-determinism, and security will decide who survives.
- Quantum Computing’s Venture Moment: Is Now the Right Time to Invest? – Why Israel could become one of the important startup hubs in the next computing race
ISRAEL
- 2026 H1 Israeli startup Insights report by Bank Hapoalim ??? ??????? and Dealigence – Startup funding rose 24% to $8.6B+ and total exits reached $10.5B+. in H1 2026 – there’s also been a 2.1% growth in startup employment, driven largely by sales positions and an increasing shift toward offshore hiring (75% of new jobs).
- Why I Won’t Debate Critics of Israel A note to the Making Sense Community – by Sam Harris
- 12 moonshots for Israel -an interesting new book by Judah Taub
GLOBAL
- The 2026 Deep Tech Report – data rich report on the global state of deep tech by Drumbeat Capital
- The 2026 Tech Nation Report – a overview of UK/European tech and AI by Tech Nation
- The future of work and AI – the The Wall Street Journal interviewed economists on the impact of AI on workers, productivity and more.
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israel: with shockingly few people in the U.S., Israel is the #2 origin in total for foreign Unicorn founders (source)
Interesting graphic shared by former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak – Tel Aviv ranks #4 globally in terms of AI talent density… (source)
The fraud prevention market map by CB Insights
The web games market map
Who are the Israeli and international VCs investing in Agentic AI Israeli startups in 2026? infographic by Israel VC (source)
Who is funding Israeli Quantum computing startups – another great infographic by Israel VC (learn more about the Israeli quantum ecosystem on VC Cafe )
I miss proper Apple product launches. Siri AI is the latest in this time honoured tradition
That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom to the Firgun community. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Keep on creating!
Eze Vidr
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
- Weekly Firgun Newsletter – June 12 2026 - June 12, 2026
- Quantum Computing’s Venture Moment: Is Now the Right Time to Invest? - June 9, 2026
- Agentic AI: Picks and Shovels vs. the Gold Itself - June 8, 2026
