Key takeaways
- Israeli funding stayed strong this week: Buildots raised $130M and became a new unicorn, while five more rounds closed, including Remagine portfolio company Keewano's $12M seed to build KeewanoDB, a database designed for how AI agents reason over event data.
- Exit activity showed model and platform companies shopping for specialized capability: OpenAI acquired Israeli camera-tech startup GLASS Imaging for over $300M, and Ondas Autonomous Systems bought GATE Technologies for $205M.
- Model providers kept pushing into applications built on top of their own infrastructure. Google shipped Gemini 3.8 Live, Anthropic launched Claude Docs and Claude Slides plus a tool for financial advisors, and OpenAI introduced Astra for Law, reinforcing the question in this week's VC Cafe post: what happens to your vertical AI startup when your infrastructure supplier becomes your competitor.
- Infrastructure capital kept flowing at scale even as policymakers started drafting guardrails: Crusoe raised $3.9B and CoreWeave launched a $3B convertible debt offering, while the US House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act on data-centre electricity costs and the EU advanced its Kids Act on youth social media access.
- Consolidation reached the foundation model layer itself, with Cohere and Aleph Alpha agreeing to merge into a $20B enterprise AI business, a sign that mid-tier LLM players are combining forces rather than competing head-on with the US hyperscalers
It’s #Firgun time!
The original version of this newsletter was published to 8,400 subscribers on Linkedin. Sign up for free to get the next edition in your inbox.
Firgun (pronounced “feer-goon”) is the Hebrew word for taking genuine pleasure in someone else’s success. Every week since March 2020, we’ve made time to celebrate the people building, creating and moving our startup community forward. If this was forwarded to you, you can find previous editions on VC Cafe.
As we approach Yom Kippur, there’s an opportunity to pause and reflect on the year behind us, the choices we’ve made and how we want to show up for others in the year ahead. In a community that spends so much time looking forward to the next milestone, I hope we also make time to appreciate the people who help us along the way. That’s part of the spirit of Firgun: recognising someone else’s efforts and taking pleasure in their success. Wishing our community a peaceful new year, with health, healing and more reasons for hope. Gmar chatima tova to everyone observing.
On a personal note, it was a special week for our portfolio company Keewano , which emerged from stealth with $12 million in seed funding. We co-led the company’s pre-seed round at Remagine Ventures , and we’re proud to support the team as they introduce KeewanoDB to the world. More on their announcement below.
In the wider tech world, the model providers continued moving into the applications built on top of them. Google introduced Gemini 3.8 Live and Live Extended Thinking, expanding its voice-agent capabilities. Anthropic announced Claude Docs and Claude Slides alongside a unified chat and Cowork interface, following its launch of Claude for Financial Advisors. OpenAI introduced Astra for Law, combining its model with legal research capabilities. These moves are directly relevant to the question I explored in my latest post: what happens when your AI infrastructure provider wants your customers? The hyperscalers’ infrastructure needs kept growing. Amazon signed a backup-power supply agreement with Generac , with initial deliveries expected to total $2.4 billion in 2027–28, while Google , NVIDIA and Emerald AI launched an alliance to make AI data centres more flexible in their electricity consumption. The funding numbers were substantial too: Crusoe raised $3.9 billion at a valuation of nearly $31 billion, coding-agent startup Factory raised $200 million at a $5 billion valuation, and CoreWeave launched a proposed $3 billion convertible debt offering. M&A and policy provided plenty of headlines of their own. OpenAI reportedly acquired Israeli-founded camera-technology startup GLASS Imaging in a deal valuing it above $300 million, while Cohere and Aleph Alpha signed a merger agreement to create a $20 billion enterprise-AI business. In Washington, the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would require states to consider standards addressing the electricity costs associated with data centres. It has not become law. In Europe, the proposed Kids Act would restrict social-media access for children, including a ban for under-13s. Meanwhile, Microsoft opened consultation on a draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct, bringing questions of human control and responsibility into the discussion alongside capability and growth.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge congratulations to Roy Danon, Yakir Sudry and the Buildots team on raising $130 million series C and achieving a new unicorn status to help construction teams track progress and prevent delays using AI! ?
- Mazal tov to Eran Barak, Itai Schwartz and the MIND team on raising a $72 million Series B, to protect sensitive enterprise data as employees and AI agents move it between systems!
- Kudos to Amir Frenkel, Dan Barak and the Noetive team on emerging from stealth with a $41 million seed round to bring AI into factories, logistics, energy and other physical operations!
- Well done to Roy Mor and the Loora team on raising a $22 million Series B to make personalised English tutoring more accessible through AI!
- Kol hakavod to Dror Zerem and the FIZE Medical team on announcing the first close of a planned $20 million Series B to advance fluid monitoring and AI-guided care for critically ill patients!
- A special firgun to Mark Kardashov Dima Karger , ? ? Pavel Bibergal , Vitaly Bukhovsky and the Keewano team on announcing $12 million in seed funding, to build a database designed around how AI agents use and reason over event data!
EXITS
- Big congrats Ziv Attar and team GLASS Imaging on the $300M acquisition by OpenAI!
- Kudos GATE Technologies on the $205M acquisition by Ondas Autonomous Systems for your Electronic Safe & Arm Devices (ESADs) and advanced electronic fuzing solutions!
NEW FUNDS
- Congrats Dvash Group and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the launch of a new $50 million deep-tech venture capital fund dedicated to commercialising early-stage academic research from Yissum | The Hebrew University Tech Transfer Company into global spinoffs.
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES/ ISRAEL VC
- Your AI infrastructure provider wants your customers. My latest VC Cafe post examines how model providers are moving into vertical and agentic AI applications, competing for customers alongside the startups using their infrastructure. What will customers continue paying you for when your supplier offers more of the same capabilities?
- Who Keeps AI Safe When Everyone Has an Incentive to Go Faster? My earlier post this week explores alignment, accountability and the tension between racing to develop AI and making it trustworthy.
- Keewano’s launch, in the founder’s own words. Dima Karger shares the thinking behind KeewanoDB and the team’s journey out of stealth.
ISRAEL
- ChatGPT advertising opens to Israeli businesses. Israeli advertisers can now access Ads Manager. This concerns advertiser access; @OpenAI has not announced when users in Israel will start seeing ads.
- ScaleUp House announces its first cohort. Firgun to Hilla Ovil-Brenner and the team for supporting Israeli companies with global expansion, leadership and fundraising. The cohort includes Guidde , Brandlight , BloomX and Tevel Technologies.
- Israeli Cancer Technology Shows Early Promise Against Inoperable Pancreatic Tumors– the deadliest form of cancer, an Israeli breakthrough brings hope
GLOBAL
- The State of Consumer AI 2026 – this report examines consumer adoption, spending and emerging uses of AI, with a market map spanning eight categories by Menlo Ventures.
- The Supply Chain of the New Industrial Age – The gap between the ambition of the hardware being designed and the reality of the supply chain being asked to build it is a major constraint of this industrial moment. We are shipping super advanced tech at a rapid pace, but have to wait 6 months for components. Interesting read by Greenfield Partners
- The threat intelligence report by Anthropic – Detecting and countering misuse of AI: September 2026
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Foreign CVCs continue to lead first investments in Israeli tech, according to the IVC H1/2026 Investors Report. During the first half of 2026, foreign CVCs made 32 first investments, compared with 12 by Israeli CVCs. Most foreign activity came from outside the US, with 25 first investments by non-US CVCs and 7 by US CVCs.
The state of scaling by ICONIQ benchmarking on what’s considered hyper growth and how long it takes to get from $1M ARR to $100M ARR for the best companies out there.
The consumer AI market map by Menlo Ventures (source)
Comparing AI assistants by various parameters – source
The 10 most common tasks for AI in the enterprise according to an interesting report by Prosus (source)
The reindustralisation stack by Greenfield Partners (source)
That’s all for this week. There’s a lot to celebrate in our “small” community! Wishing you a peaceful weekend, a meaningful Yom Kippur and a year of health, growth and good news. 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 – September 18 2026 - September 18, 2026
- Your AI infrastructure provider wants your customers - September 17, 2026
- Who Keeps AI Safe When Everyone Has an Incentive to Go Faster? - September 15, 2026
