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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 Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
This week marked the “Shavuot” holiday in the Jewish calendar, which celebrates the giving of the Torah and the harvest season. With the remains of two Israelis recovered in a special operation this week in G**a, 56 Israeli hostages remain. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME ??
In the wider tech world, the fallout between Elon Musk and Trump has seen Tesla stock lose $34 billion in a single day. It’s not over yet and it ain’t pretty. The AI movement isn’t truly global, at least when it comes to money. VCs invested $69.7 billion in North American AI startups between February and May this year, compared to just $6.4 billion in Europe, and $3 billion in Asian startups, per PitchBook. OpenAI is being forced by the courts to save all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats. This week, ChatGPT launched ‘Record Mode‘ offering automatic transcription for Microsoft Teams. OpenAI is also working on an ambient computing layer that won’t require a screen to interact. ElevenLabs launched Batch Calling feature as well as Multimodal Conversational AI that can process text and voice simultaneously. Anduril Industries has reportedly raised $2.5 billion (at $30.5 billion valuation) and is partnering with Meta on defence tech… Hugging Face has released an open AI model for robotics that can apparently run on a single consumer GPU or a MacBook. Chinese AI assistant Manus AI launched Prompt-to-Video Tool as well as Manus Slides, to create presentations from a prompt. Apple‘s Siri AI assistant struggles with hallucinations. Captions Unveils Mirage Studio for AI Video creation. Google Drive Adds Gemini AI for Videos. Mistral AI releases a vibe coding client, Mistral Code. Luma AI unveiled Modify Video Tool. Wispr Flow launched a Multilingual Dictation App. TechCrunch is closing down its operation in Europe. Microsoft Launches Bing Video Creator (Sora on Bing).
The list goes on, but we’ll keep it short this week!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congrats Benny Lakunishok and team Zero Networks on your $55M series C to simplify last mile security challenges with microsegmentation!
- Congratulations Adi Gelvan and team Speedata.io on your $44M series B to compete with Nvidia on a chip designed to accelerate data analytics!
- Well done Eran Barak and team MIND on your $30M series A to tackle data loss prevention with automation!
- Way to go Merav Kirshner and team COLUGO – Air Solutions on your $8.5M first round of funding to scale electric drones beyond defence!
EXITS
- Congrats Hagai Zyss and team Autotalks on the acquisition by Qualcomm for a reported price of around $100M after a two-year delay!
- Well done Eli Edry and team AudITech on the acquisition of your compliance automation capabilities by Scytale for a reported $15M!
APPOINTMENTS
- Congrats Dor Knafo on joining Cyberstarts as the newest general partner to invest in early stage Israeli cybersecurity!
NEW FUNDS
- Congratulations Shay Michel, Seth Spergel and team Merlin Ventures on your new $75 million Israel-focused fund, aiming to accelerate growth-stage cybersecurity startups and help them penetrate U.S. and global markets!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES
- Could GEO overtake SEO as the primary driver of web traffic? – as LLM usage grows, and AI agents perform actions for users, it’s becoming important for brands to understand how they appear to LLMs. I’ve done some research and we made an investment in Aigency in this space at Remagine Ventures
- Mobile app monetisation – choosing the right model –The biggest monetisation killer is introducing subscriptions before proving users return three or more times per week. Ninety percent of founders do this because subscriptions feel like “real” business models, but they’re the hardest to make work.
- Why I still take cold pitches (And You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Send One) – Not every cold pitch will lead to a meeting. And not every meeting will lead to a term sheet. But when it works — it’s magic. Like in the case of our latest Remagine Ventures investment (in stealth).
ISRAEL
- Four warning signs that reveal the true state of Israeli high-tech – summary of a report by RISE Israel (formerly SNPI) by CTech by Calcalist
- Israeli Unicorns Dashboard – a new free resource by IVC Data and Insights – the label ‘unicorn’ is questionable for many who haven’t raised new capital since 2022…
- Investing in Israeli consumer and entertainment tech – this post is by Will Ventures but needless to say – we at Remagine Ventures concur!
GLOBAL
- Mary Meeker is back with a 340 page report on the state of AI (check out pages 30-36 to get a sense of the speed of progress)
- Rethinking Venture Capital – This 134 pages report report argues that venture capital is undergoing a structural transformation—from a niche, high-risk asset class to institutional-grade strategic infrastructure
- Europe’s VCs Seek Glimmers of Growth Amid the Gloom – the atmosphere at SuperReturn by Bloomberg
Out of the 30 most promising cybersecurity startups in 2025 (according to Notable Capital), 11 are from Israel (source)
On the topic of ‘best companies’ list, Enterprise 30 by Wing Venture Capital featured the 30 most promising enterprise tech startups in 2025 – Wiz and Island made the list (source)
Net favourability towards Israel reaches new lows in key Western European countries – sentiment analysis of online media analysis by YouGov
The $140B market research industry is getting rearchitected by AI. Research by Andreessen Horowitz (source)
When it comes to LLMs Meta collects more than double the average of data compared to its peers
The most valuable companies in May 2025
Vertical AI applications are the most popular investment theme in AI according to new PitchBook report (source)
Find startup ideas – With all the vibe coding tools available, you might be looking for startup ideas inspiration – this new tools by Greg Isenberg could be for you (source)
ChatGPT has overtaken Wikipedia based on a study by GWI (source)
Software founders keep more ownership than deep tech counterparts (source)
Google has a sizeable lead in text-to-video quality, according to Artificial Analysis (source)
Finally, I agree with this line by Fred Wilson about the need to take ‘Leaps of Faith’. It’s true for venture capitalists, but equally for founders who need to take risks to achieve something that initially may seem hard or even impossible. Here’s to more Leaps of Faith that work out! (source)
That’s all for this week. Thank you for reading.
We have a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Keep on creating!
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 – May 15 2026 - May 15, 2026
- Is Anything Fundable Anymore, Apart From Deeptech? - May 14, 2026
- Tiny Episodes, Big Business: The Israeli Startups Betting on Micro-Dramas - May 12, 2026
