The original version of this newsletter was posted 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
It’s been 356 days since October 7th. This week’s cover image captures a poignant moment during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. It shows Kinneret Gat, 69, defiantly sticking her tongue out at a Hamas attacker, even as the community was being overrun. Tragically, Kinneret was killed shortly after this act of bravery. Her courage in the face of such terror was remarkable, far surpassing that of her assailants. May her memory be a blessing. There are still 101 Israeli hostages in G**a. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME
It’s been a tough year for Israeli startups, but they fought hard to keep their companies alive, despite dealing with war, record low venture capital volumes, and the usual challenges of running a startup. Every year, LinkedIn recognises the most in demand companies in each of the major startup hubs, but this year they failed to include Israel. After several comments, the editor said that they will add Israel and a couple of other countries next week. It’s worth mentioning that Israeli startups raised close to $9 billion in the first 9 months of 2024 and exits have exceeded over $12 billion. Salesforce spent $2.6 billion on 3 Israeli acquisitions in the past 30 days alone. Israeli startups deliver #NOMATTERWHAT.
There’s been a lot of excitement and drama in the wider tech world this week. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates for the first time since 2020, cutting the federal funds rate by 50 basis points. Mira Murati, co-founder and CTO of OpenAI announced she’s leaving as well as the company’s head of research. So far it hasn’t deterred the investors putting $6.5 billion at $150 billion valuation. OpenAI launched advanced voice mode, with insanely good quality. Jony Ive, former famed Apple designer, is collaborating with Sam Altman on a new AI-focused device to replace the phone. Meta made several major announcements in their annual Meta Connect event including a new LLama model (3.2) which has become the most used open source LLM, Meta AI available across all their apps for free, a new affordable version of their Meta Quest VR headset, but perhaps most excitingly, Meta Orion, smart AR glasses with holographic display (still not officially launched). YouTube launched a bunch of generative AI video capabilities for creators and Google made several upgrades to the impressive NotebookLM.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” – Ronald Reagan
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Ofer Smadari and team Torq on the impressive $70M series C for your AI-driven SOC analyst solution, applying automation to repetitive security related tasks.
- Way to go Ori Tamuz and team DoorLoop on your $51.6M series B for your rental property management platform!
- Kudos Izik Lavy and team GeoX Innovations on your $19M series A to analyse real estate risk from climate-related disasters!
- Well done Marina S. and team Tamnoon on your $12M Series A for your AI managed cloud security remediation startup!
- Mazal tov Gideon Lapidoth and team Enzymit on your $10M series A to for cell-free bio-production technology!
- Great news Ella Tkach-Dreazen and team Koios on your $5M seed round to detect online financial threats and manipulation campaigns against publicly traded companies!
- Awesome milestone Idan Yalovich and team Bluebricks on your $4.5M seed round to to break infrastructure code into small pieces and orchestrate them using semantic relationships!
EXITS
- Amazing outcome Gal Oron and team Zoomin for the $450M acquisition by Salesforce to transform customer service with AI!
- Kol hakavod Yaron Singer and team Robust Intelligence (now part of Cisco) on the $400M exit to Cisco for your firewall for artificial intelligence—a tool designed to protect AI from making critical mistakes.
NEW VENTURE FUNDS
- Big congrats Ben Wiener and team Jumpspeed Ventures on your new $20M fund for early stage Jerusalem-founded startups!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
From the blog (by yours truly)
- Creative automation – how AI is reshaping creativity
- AI Agents – the evolution of RPA
- Needle in the haystack – tips for founders to find the right investor
Israel:
- A startup for every victim of October 7 – Izhar Shay‘s project, Next October already selected the first 600 startups – by The Jewish News
- Despite the war, Israel holds third place in global tech investments, but growth slows. Cyber leads the charge, but stagnating employment and reliance on mature companies raise long-term concerns.
- As the Families of Murdered Hostages, Our Message to People in Power Is Simple: Act – on TIME
Global:
- Do startups have a chance vs big tech in the age of AI? History says yes…in due time
- The intelligence age – Sam Altman’s Utopian vision
- Vertical SaaS, now with AI inside
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Did LinkedIn ‘forget’ to include Israel in its Top Startups list series? Daniel Roth now said that Israel will be added next week.
A good reminder of the strength of the Israeli startup ecosystem despite its size (and conflicts). Data as of May 2024. (h/t Sam Schwartzben)
Everyone wants to be on a rocketship, until…
OpenAI‘s chain of command has been disrupted (parody)
And related (how it started vs. how it’s going)
A sad Rosh Hashanah card fitting for the times (credit: Lusha)
The new AI Agent mapping by Menlo Ventures, is featured in my big post on AI Agents on VC Cafe (see links section)
Vertical SaaS AI by Andreessen Horowitz
Is this Meta‘s iPhone moment? Could Orion’s AR glasses replace the smartphone (in due course?)
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.
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