Israeli startups announced more than $1.4 billion in funding this week, led by Wonderful, Upwind, HiBob and Lyte. The latest #FIRGUN also covers major exits, a new $250 million Israeli fund and the biggest developments across global technology and AI.
Wonderful’s $5 billion valuation is not simply a bet on AI agents. It is a bet that the company can turn its deployment advantage into the independent operational layer that makes enterprise AI governed, measurable and reliable.
Israel is exceptionally good at producing founders and technology, but America remains the dominant platform for turning startups into global companies. With 70% of Israeli-founded unicorns built in the US, the data points towards a dual-centre model: Israeli R&D combined with American headquarters, customers, capital and commercial leadership.
Not every AI task needs the largest or most expensive model. Model routing promises to match each request with the right model based on accuracy, cost, speed and privacy, but it also introduces a new control point with its own security risks, commercial conflicts and potential for lock-in.
Alice raised $140 million as AI security emerged as this week’s central theme, while Israeli companies pursued acquisitions across payments, agritech and cybersecurity. Globally, Nvidia’s reported $12.9 billion Hugging Face deal highlighted the accelerating consolidation of the AI stack.
For Israeli startups, entering the US is not simply about opening an office. It requires a focused commercial beachhead, sustained founder involvement, the right first US hire and a repeatable land-and-expand motion. This practical playbook covers the decisions that matter most, from New York versus Silicon Valley to hiring, culture, customer acquisition and investor expectations.
After years of limited venture activity, Israeli EdTech may be entering a new chapter. The founders of Moovit and Outbrain are joining a growing group of entrepreneurs using AI to reimagine tutoring, personalised learning, reading and what students can create.
Israeli tech funding remained quiet, but exits heated up with more than $670 million in announced acquisitions. Globally, capital continued to pour into AI infrastructure, chips, video and physical AI as concerns around governance and agent security intensified.
AI may live in the cloud, but the cloud is running out of places to live. As power, water, land and regulation constrain traditional data centres, compute is moving into containers, converted warehouses, power stations, ships and even orbit.
When an autonomous agent escaped a cyber test and broke into Hugging Face, it exposed a security model built for humans, not machines
Frontier AI labs are raising billions on the strength of elite teams, expensive compute and the promise of AGI, often before proving product-market fit or revenue. As founders and researchers move rapidly between rival labs, investors must ask whether they are funding durable companies or temporary collections of highly portable talent.
What ANY.RUN’s investigation into North Korean IT workers teaches founders about hiring, access and trust
Weekly Firgun Newsletter
Join founders and investors reading the weekly Firgun newsletter by Eze Vidra.
