It’s #Firgun time.
The word “Firgun” (Hebrew: ??????/ 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”. Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, pride, or admiration for someone else’s accomplishments, good fortune, or well-being. More about Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
I felt a knot in my stomach this week, watching the video of the tunnel where Hersh, Carmel, Alex, Eden, Or, Almog were held in inhumane conditions for for 11 months, only to be brutally mur***ed. The tunnel was located in Raf*h, under a children’s bedroom. May their memories forever be a blessing. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME, every last hostage.
Israeli startups raised $7.8 billion in funding so far in 2024, with Mergers and acquisitions reaching $9.6 billion so far this year. While the figures are slightly down from 2023, they reflect the resilience and strength of the Israeli startup ecosystem, even at a time of war. More interesting figures in the Startup Nation Central report linked below.
The world of tech AI was filled with news this week. VC investments in AI startups have reached $64.1B so far in 2024, or ~30% of total VC dollars invested. OpenAI released 01, a new series of AI models designed to spend more time thinking before they respond (capable of reasoning with impressive results). Google released an impressive new AI tool, NotebookLM, Apple launched its new iPhone 16, which comes with new AI Apple Intelligence features and the FDA approved the Hearing Aid Feature in Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, calling it the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software device, Roblox announced an open-source AI tool for 3D Environments, Hugging Face released FineVideo, a high-quality annotated video dataset with a creative commons license, Adobe announced it will launch a generative AI-powered tool will allow users to create and edit videos seamlessly using AI prompts, Mistral AI released Mistral Pixtral 12B – its first multimodal mode. Meta is on track to become the most used open source AI by the end of the year.
And so much more it’s genuinely hard to keep up…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Israel continues to draw investors seeking bold, determined solutions to global challenges. With attractive valuations and immense growth potential, the Israeli tech ecosystem remains resilient—no matter the circumstances. – Startup Nation Central: One Year of Israeli Innovation in War
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Big congrats Oded Melamed and team Quantum Source on securing a $50 million series A to advance photonic quantum computers!
- Kudos to Iranian-born, Israeli raised Sanaz Yashar and team Zafran Security on raising a $40M series B for its risk and mitigation platform to pinpoint exploitable threats in organisations!
- Way to go Haim Halpern and team Datricks on your $15M series A for your AI-powered compliance and risk management platform!
- Well done Ari Recht and team Odigos on your $13M seed extension to automate distributed data tracing in order to make it easier to detect performance issues in complex data systems using open source technologies!
- Great milestone Yuval Mandelbaum and team Discure Technologies on your $11M series A (and previously undisclosed $5M seed round) for degenerative disc disease treatment!
- Kol hakavod Daniel Lublin and team Element Security on securing a $5M seed round to help organisations manage their external attack surface!
APPOINTMENTS
- Way to go Koren Gilbai on joining Founders Fund as Partner to cover Israeli investments! Hope we get a chance to collaborate!
- Kudos Shanny Rofe on joining Remagine Ventures as our new Analyst!
- Congrats Lia Cromwell on your promotion to Partner at UpWest!
- Mazal tov Yael Leventer Nacker on joining Pitango Health as Principal!
NEW VENTURE FUNDS
- Congratulations to Shai Policker and team Edge Medical Ventures on the new $70M med-tech fund and venture studio focused on early stage Israeli startups!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
Israel:
- One Year of Israeli Innovation in War – by Startup Nation Central
- BBC ‘breached guidelines 1,500 times’ over Israel-Hamas war – The Telegraph
- Shameless plug: we published the monthly newsletter by Remagine Ventures
Global:
- Investments in Chinese startups flatlined – The Financial Times
- Can venture capital keep itself afloat? more on the lack of liquidity that is creating a VC funding crunch – The Wall Street Journal
- The current state of AI markets – a comprehensive view of where value was accrued and what’s next
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israeli VC investments in the first 9 months of 2024 reached $7.8 billion
Israeli exits in the first 9 months of 2024 reached $9.6 billion (despite the war)
Israeli web3 startup landscape by Entrée Capital. Over 100 Israeli web3 startups, 3 unicorns, attracted over $4.5 billion in capital (was added to my 2024 collection on VC Cafe)
How AI imapcts software development? report by Grove Ventures
64% of the 2024 winter batch of YC had “AI” or “AI-related” tags in their Y Combinator company profile in the company’s directory.
Interesting overview of vertical AI companies by IVP (source)
Revenue per employee. via Trung T. Phan (source)
Generative AI video is getting scarily good
Thanks for reading. There’s so much to celebrate in our “small” community. Keep on creating!
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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