It’s #Firgun time!
If you’re new here, welcome! Happy to share this week we crossed the 8,000 subscribers mark!
The original version of #FIRGUN was published on LinkedIn. Subscribe to get the next edition 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.
Tech layoffs are nothing new, and blaming AI alone is too simplistic. However, the current wave hitting Israel, driven by factors like a weak US Dollar, is too large to ignore, leaving thousands facing an uncertain job market. Just in recent weeks the following companies announced layoffs: Wix, AI21 Labs, Rapyd, Lightricks, ZoomInfo, Intuit, Meta, Minute Media, eToro, Pentera, SentinelOne, BigID and many more. But Israeli tech is resilient and built for pressure. Now is the time for our community to shine. Whether by sharing job leads or referring talent, each of us has the power to make a difference and support one another.
In the wider tech world, Anthropic has just raised $65bn in Series H funding at a $965bn post-money valuation, becoming one of the quickest companies to achieve a $1 trillion valuation. Anthropic outpaced OpenAI in revenue while spending 4x less on compute. The industry just crossed a staggering milestone, with over 100,000 global tech layoffs recorded so far this year, heavily concentrated in a “May Mayhem” that saw Meta slash 10% of its workforce, alongside major cuts at Cisco, PayPal , and ClickUp as giants and startups alike aggressively restructure around automation. Cognition raised a $1 billion Series D to push Devin into more enterprise coding workflows. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative unveiled a new AI world model for drug discovery. Robinhood now lets AI agents trade stocks automatically… OpenAI‘s foundation will spend $250m on research into AI’s impact on the economy. In space related news, NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration has unveiled plans for living and working on the moon by 2032, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin suffers a major setback as its Glenn Rocket exploded on the launchpad yesterday.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I am a believer in Israel… I think this is an extraordinary country filled with very, very extraordinary people.”— Dame Helen Mirren, speaking in Jerusalem, 2016
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Kudos Omri Yoffe and team Vi on completing a $145M raise at $1.64B valuation to launch a suite of AI Agents for Healthcare, Life Sciences, and Wellness Enterprises!
- Congratulations Noam Friedman and team Airis Labs on coming out of stealth with $60M in funding (including the most recent $31M series B) to make the world’s visual data machine readable!
- Great news Kerry Nelson and team BlueWind Medical on your $47.8M financing to accelerate Revi, your patient-centric solution for urgency urinary incontinence!
- Well done Halim Jubran and team Phytolon on raising a $23.6 million Series B to scale natural food color production!
EXITS
- Mazel tov Itay Barnea and team BioProtect on the acquisition by Olympus Corporation for a reported $230M for your implant to protect healthy tissue from radiation damage during prostate cancer treatment!
- Congrats Ben Alfi and team Bluewhite on the acquisition of your AI-powered ground autonomy platform by Fuse, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems for an undisclosed sum!
- Way to go Sagi Eliyahu and team Tonkean on the acquisition by Coupa for an undisclosed sum for your AI-powered workflow automation!
- Well done Iddo Peleg and team Yonalink on the acquisition of your clinical trial data collection platform by Veeva Systems for an undisclosed amount!
- Good stuff Jonathan Bregman ? and team Yess on the acquisition of your AI Agents tech platform for an estimated $8M-$10M by Amdocs!
APPOINTMENTS
- Congrats Meir Slobodov on joining Viola Credit as Managing Director and head of Israel!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES/ ISRAELVC
- The Layoff Wave Reaches Israeli Tech – A strong shekel, AI disruption and the end of the 2021 org chart are forcing a reset, but Israeli tech has been here before
- The Bar Has Moved: Venture’s New Software Dichotomy – AI coding tools are making software faster and cheaper to build. That does not make software startups easier to fund.
- AI Agents Are Coming for Workflows – Agents are moving from demos into SMBs and enterprises, but many of the startups building them may be more vulnerable than they look.
ISRAEL
- AI washing’ masks true drivers behind Israeli tech layoffs and hiring freezes – Ynet Global
- Israel’s economy is booming, Its endless wars help explain why – by The Economist
- Israel’s elite military units built a tech powerhouse. Now the state wants a share – by CTech by Calcalist
GLOBAL
- The Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2026 – by Dealroom.co
- Avoiding Death on the Yellow Brick Road – Why The App Layer Isn’t Dead – by Andreessen Horowitz
- The Developer Habits report 2026 – by Cursor
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Tel Aviv ranks #7 in global champions (the world’s largest tech ecosystems) and #5 in Density ranking of global tech ecosystems (see links section for source)
Over 100,000 tech employees were laid off globally since the beginning of 2026, according to Layoffs.fyi
Several new Fund profiles added to Israel VC this week including: Universe Partners, Lightshield Ventures, AI10 Ventures, Startpoint Capital and more. For the full directory, visit israelvc.com
There’s been a wave of layoffs announced in Israeli tech in the past couple of weeks, and more are on the way… (source)
Looking for a job? Here are Israeli startups that raised $20M or more since the start of 2026… (source)
The top 100 countries in terms of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) – source
Global Traveltech landscape by i5 Capital (source)
Agentic commerce: The rise of the delegated buyer by Bessemer Venture Partners – source
AI productivity impact by use-case – ICONIQ (source)
That’s all for this week, thank you for tuning in. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Keep on creating!
Eze Vidra
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 29 2026 - May 29, 2026
- The Layoff Wave Reaches Israeli Tech - May 28, 2026
- The Bar Has Moved: Venture’s New Software Dichotomy - May 27, 2026
