The original version of this newsletter was published on Linkedin.
It’s #Firgun time.
The word “Firgun” (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
Israel’s top business publication Calcalist and Bank Leumi held Mind the Tech in London this week, where Michael Levy, the brother of Israeli hostage Or Levy spoke about the hardship that their family (including Or’s 3 year old son Almog) and over 100 other families have been living through since Oct 7. Their loved ones are being held in G**a with no information on their status, no Red Cross visit. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME Now!
This week was a bit crazy in Israel, with a series of mysterious blasts hitting H**bo**h in an operation that seems to be taken out of a movie script. But while there is an ongoing war for the past 11 months, startups continue to innovate and make progress. The cover of the newsletter this week is dedicated to gaming, as Israeli startup SuperPlay was acquired by Playtika for $700M (with an earn out potential reaching up to $1.9 billion based on milestones). This brings the exits of Israeli startups in the first 9 months of 2024 to over $12 billion so far, exceeding 2023 figures. It’s another testament that Israeli startups deliver #NOMATTERWHAT.
It’s been also a packed week of news in the wider tech world. OpenAI in on course to raise $7 billion at $150 billion valuation (and on course to do $3.4 billion in revenue this year). Microsoft and BlackRock are teaming up for a new $100 billion AI infrastructure fund. Apple started shipping the new iPhone 16 (with Apple Intelligence in beta) and Snap Inc. has released some new AR glasses. YouTube is offering creators access to VEO, new AI video models created by Google DeepMind, Salesforce announced it’s going ‘all in’ on AI agents and AI avatars and Amazon is integrating new AI video features for the creation of ads. Last but not least Lionsgate announced a partnership with Runway to bring AI into Hollywood filmmaking. ByteDance introduced Seed-Music, a Suno-like music generation system. The EU appointed its first EU Commissioner for Startups amidst and published a report by Mario Draghi on the future of EU competitiveness.
On a side note, I’m happy to share that the #Firgun newsletter just crossed 5,500 subscribers. It’s been my labor of love since the beginning of Covid, and it always warms my heart when I meet people who read the newsletter and say a nice word. If you know of someone who can benefit from it, please share it with them. Let’s dive in to the founders and investors who made an impact in Israeli tech this week.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Innovation often emerges not in times of peace, but in moments of adversity, when creativity becomes a necessity for survival.”— Anonymous
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Daniel Barel and REE Automotive on securing a strategic investment of $45M to scale new electric delivery vehicle platform!
- Way to go Itai Tevet and team Intezer on raising $33M series C for your Autonomous SOC Platform to tackle cybersecurity threats with AI!
- Well done L.D. Salmanson and team Cherre on the $30M series C for your real estate data analytics and management platform!
- Kudos Adi Perry and team with on securing a $10M seed round to turn cities into communities with generative AI!
- Congrats on the milestone Leor Ceder and team Payouts.com on raising an $8M seed extension (bringing the total round to $12.1M) for an AI-powered solution that enables businesses to automatically manage payments and vendor relationships!
- Big thumbs up Oshri Cohen and team Cybord on raising an $8.7M series A for your visual analytics analytics platform focused on the electronic component manufacturing process!
- Good news Kfir Nissim and team Pickommerce AI Robotics on securing a $3.4M seed round to upgrade warehouses with robotic piece-picking solution!
- Mazel tov Alon Zieve and team Aption on securing $2.4M in seed funding to enable founders, employees, and equity holders in private companies to efficiently reduce concentrated exposure in a single startup by pooling assets with other promising companies!
EXITS
- Big congrats Gilad Almog and team SuperPlay on the $700M acquisition by Playtika! It’s a testament to the massive potential of gaming talent in Israel.
NEW FUNDS
- Kudos Gilli Cegla on the launch of UNICAMEL, a $10M venture fund focused on early stage Israeli startups!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
Israel:
- A summary of my Mind the Tech panel on AI and investing Israeli startups by CTech by Calcalist
- Israel’s Unit 8200: From Stuxnet to Hezbollah—A legacy of cyber mastery: Tech which moves in the shadows and the role it plays in Israeli tech
- More about the pagers…
Global:
- The new report on EU competitiveness
- State of the markets H2 2024 – by Silicon Valley Bank
- Have we reached peak human? It feels like a line has been crossed
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Old but gold – ranking of foreign undergraduate programs by the number of US unicorn founders (by Ilya Strebulaev)
Big trouble ahead for struggling unicorns. According to SVB’s state of the market report, nearly 30% of US unicorns are unprofitable with declining year-over-year sales.
Deloitte’s Q3 2024 State of GenAI in Enterprise Report reveals some compelling insights. Majority of organizations (70%) have moved 30% or fewer of their GenAI experiments into production. ROI from Generative AI is a rising concern.
The EU has a competitive problem. It faces a shrinking share of the global economy (source)
Reasons teens say they’ve use generative AI for
Nike‘s new CEO Elliott Hill started in the company 32 years ago as an intern!
That’s all for this week. There’s a lot 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.
- Weekly #FIRGUN Newsletter – Dec 20 2024 - December 20, 2024
- 2025 In Media and Entertainment Tech - December 19, 2024
- My 2025 VC Survey: A Recap and Some Predictions - December 18, 2024
