Key takeaways
- Four companies, Wonderful, Upwind, HiBob and Lyte, accounted for more than $1.18 billion of the approximately $1.4 billion raised by Israeli and Israeli-founded startups this week.
- Israeli tech’s momentum extended beyond funding, with Sweep acquired by ServiceNow, LightSolver entering the public markets through CollPlant and XTEND beginning trading on the NYSE.
- Globally, competition accelerated across frontier AI models, infrastructure and M&A, accompanied by increasingly large funding rounds and valuations.
It’s #Firgun time!
The original version of this newsletter was published on LinkedIn to 8,400 subscribers.
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.
There was a lot to celebrate in our “small” community this week. Israeli startups announced approximately $1.4 billion in funding in the first three days of September, more than twice the $577.5 million raised during the entire month of August. Wonderful, Upwind Security Lyte and HiBob accounted for more than $1 billion between them, but the breadth was equally encouraging: capital also went into AI security, defence technology, self-healing infrastructure, consumer cybersecurity, smart toys and executive productivity.
In the wider tech world, OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, its first model to reach a “Critical” cybersecurity threshold, while Anthropic released Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1, Google introduced Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber, Meta launched Muse Voice Transcribe, World Labs unveiled its Atlas 3D world model and Microsoft introduced MAI-Transcribe-2. In M&A, Palo Alto Networks reportedly paid $500 million for Console and ServiceNow reportedly agreed to acquire Israeli startup Sweep for hundreds of millions. Mega-rounds continued as Crusoe reportedly raised more than $3 billion at a $30 billion valuation, Thinking Machines Lab discussed raising $5 billion to $6 billion at more than $40 billion, Cognition reportedly sought $1 billion at $47 billion, Fluidstack raised $1.5 billion at $18 billion and AfterQuery reached a reported $3.2 billion valuation. Finally, John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as CEO of Apple , Uber and Wayve launched London’s first commercial robotaxi service, Google introduced the Gemini-powered Google Pics design suite, and the FTC and 22 US states sued Amazon over alleged hidden advertising surcharges.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Glory is being happy. The glory is not winning here or winning there.”
Rafael Nadal
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NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge congratulations to Bar Winkler, Roey Lalazar and the Wonderful team on raising a $550 million Series C at a $5 billion valuation to create the AI operating system for agents in the enterprise!
- Congrats to Amiram Shachar and the Upwind Security team on raising $300 million at a $3.8 billion valuation to help enterprises identify and prioritise the cloud threats that pose the greatest risk!
- Mazal tov to Ronni Zehavi and the HiBob team on raising $166 million at a $3.2 billion valuation to help organisations manage their people, workforce data and, increasingly, AI agents through its Bob platform!
- Kudos to Alexander Shpunt and the Lyte team on raising $165 million at a $1.6 billion valuation to develop advanced perception technology that helps autonomous machines understand and interact with the physical world!
- Congratulations to Yair Saban the Air team on emerging from stealth with $50 million to build a preventative security layer that protects enterprises from malicious tools and extensions connected to AI agents!
- Well done to Udi Oster and the AITAN team on raising $41 million to take its combat-tested autonomous drone systems and edge-AI technology to Israel’s allies around the world!
- Great milestone Amos P. and the Guardio team on raising $40 million at a $1.1 billion valuation to protect consumers from increasingly sophisticated online scams, identity theft and AI-powered cyber threats!
- Mabruk to Itai Gafni and the Huskeys team on raising $27 million to bring an agentic AI layer to web application firewalls and help enterprises defend against attacks initiated by autonomous agents!
- Awesome news Shahar Abuhazira and team Easy Aerial Inc. on securing a $20M series B to scale their tethered drones for aerial surveillance and defense!
- Kol hakavod to Udi D. and the Particula team on raising $15 million to expand its portfolio of connected physical games, including GoCube, GoChess and licensed products based on major entertainment franchises!
- Congratulations to Ishay Yaari and the DataAgent team on emerging from stealth with a $10 million pre-seed round to build AI agents that detect and autonomously repair failures inside cloud infrastructure!
- Good stuff Haran Cohen Hillel and team Newlight on securing a $9M seed round to power large commercial vessels with hydrogen!
- Huge congrats to Nir Sabato and the Catch team on raising a $5 million seed round to build an AI executive assistant that autonomously manages scheduling, travel, correspondence and other administrative work!
- Big thumbs up Michael Assraf and team Flamingo on coming out of stealth with $4.5M in seed funding to build an open, AI-native infrastructure layer for IT and security serving MSPs!
EXITS
- Big congrats Ido Gaver and team Sweep on the acquisition by ServiceNow in a deal estimated at hundreds of millions to build AI agents that can work across enterprise platforms including ServiceNow, Salesforce and HubSpot!
- Well done to Ruti Ben-Shlomi and team LightSolver on its acquisition by Nasdaq-listed CollPlant for an undisclosed sum, providing a public-market route for its laser-based computing technology!
- Congrats to Aviv Shapira the XTEND team on beginning trading on the NYSE following its merger with @JFB, at an opening valuation of approximately $1.5 billion!
NEW FUNDS
- Congratulations Omri Casspi, Ori Striechman and team Swish Ventures on securing a new $250M fund to invest in 12 or so Israeli startups in cyber, AI, defense and infrastructure!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
REMAGINE VENTURES/ VC CAFE/ ISRAEL VC
- Wonderful’s $5B Bet to Own the Enterprise AI Layer – Wonderful’s real opportunity is not simply connecting agents, but owning the operational layer that turns unpredictable models into governed, measurable enterprise work.
- Why Israeli Unicorns Are Built in America – Seventy percent of Israeli-founded unicorns were built in the US. Israel can remain the engine room, but America increasingly needs to be part of the original design.
- The Right Model for the Job – Model routing could reduce inference costs and improve performance, but it also creates a powerful new control point in the AI stack.
ISRAEL
- Israeli startups raised $1.16 billion in the first two days of September – Nine rounds made the opening of September one of the busiest funding periods in recent Israeli tech history.
- Anduril appoints former Israeli Air Force commander Amiram Norkin to lead its Israel activity – A significant vote of confidence in Israel’s defence-technology ecosystem.
- Venture capitalist Oren Zeev’s sharp warning: why Israeli startups must incorporate in the US – “I’ve never met a founder who regretted a US incorporation, and I often meet founders who regret an Israeli incorporation”, claims Zeev against the common practice of startup incorporation in Israel
GLOBAL
- The State of Enterprise Software 2026 – SVB examines AI’s impact on software funding, pricing, M&A and the shift from seat-based subscriptions to usage and outcomes.
- The State of AI in the Enterprise – Deloitte finds that many organisations are using AI for surface-level productivity, while a smaller group is redesigning products and core processes around it.
- AI capital expenditure could exceed the cost of railways and the internet combined – PwC estimates cumulative AI investment could approach $32 trillion by 2050.
- Bonus: The current state of humanoid robotics – A grounded assessment of the generalisation, reliability and long-task challenges that robotics still needs to solve.
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
An interesting, if perhaps unsurprising finding, by Dealroom.co -70% of unicorns created by founders from Israel were built in the US – I went deeper in my VC Cafe post on ‘why Israeli unicorns are built in America‘.
It was a huge week for Israeli startups, so I naturally made a small infographic in the spirit of #FIRGUN – funnily enough, 30 mins later it was already obsolete as new rounds were announced! (source)
All the Israeli startups that raised funding in August and the funds who backed them, as published on Israel VC this week! (source)
According to the H1/2026 Tech Review by IVC and LeumiTech, multinational companies continue to expand their R&D presence in Israel. During the first half of 2026, 15 new multinational centers opened, while 8 closed, leaving a positive net balance of 7. This continues a pattern visible throughout the past decade, with openings consistently outnumbering closures despite considerable fluctuations in activity. Israel is currently home to 575 active multinational R&D centres. by IVC Data and Insights
AI security is very hot right now. Here are the companies that are on the M&A radar, according to CB Insights (source)
European AI category leaders according to Headline (source)
2026 has already produced more European exit value than 2024 and 2025 combined: $65B so far, compared with $52B across both full years. Source: Dealroom.co
Finally, why is Chinese open-source AI a threat to American AI companies… by Bloomberg News
That’s all for this week. 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 – September 4 2026 - September 4, 2026
- Wonderful’s $5B Bet to Own the Enterprise AI Layer - September 3, 2026
- Why Israeli Unicorns Are Built in America - September 2, 2026
