The original version of this newsletter was published on Linkedin.
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
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light is taking place next week (starting the day after Xmas). It’s not the most religious holiday, but at the core story of Hanukkah, Judaism celebrates miracles, succeeding against the odds. I sincerely hope that the talks taking place in Cairo, will deliver us just that. It’s time to #BRINGTHEMHOME NOW.
I want to take a moment to thank you, the readers of this newsletter for spending your precious time reading, commenting, liking and sharing. It keeps me energised. I also want to congratulate the Israeli tech ecosystem, who despite a very challenging year, continued to deliver, didn’t give up and even broke new records in exits. From the founders who chose to start companies this year against the odds, to the new funds that managed to attract capital despite the news, and to all the participants in the Israeli tech ecosystem in Israel and abroad – keep on creating!
In the wider tech world, it’s been a momentous week. Google launched a new ‘reasoning’ model, Gemini 2.0 Flash, and announced it will launch an ‘AI search mode‘ to compete with new rival chatbots. There have been some BIG rounds. Databricks secured a new $10B funding round at a $62B valuation and Perplexity raised $500M at $9 billion valuation. NVIDIA introduced the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit, a $249 compact generative AI supercomputer that delivers significant performance gains at half the previous model’s price. SoftBank‘s Masayoshi Son announced plan to invest $100B in US businesses over the next four years. The Genesis physics engine is an open source model capable of creating 4D dynamical worlds based on real physics. Midjourney has released “Moodboards”. KLING AI launched v1.6, a new text to video model that achieved 195% improvement compared to the previous model. Microsoft announced that GitHub Copilot is now available for everyone free in VS Code. OpenAI‘s ChatGPT is now available on Whatsapp (just add +1 (800) 242-8478 to your contacts!) and ChatGPT web search is available to all.
It’s the end of the year, but news in the tech world isn’t slowing down, perhaps the opposite. This however, will be the last #FIRGUN edition for 2024. I’ll take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza and festive season. Here’s to wishing for more miracles and a calmer, happier and more productive 2025.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” –
William Arthur Ward
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Big congrats Dean Leitersdorf and team Decart on raising a $32M series A (at a reported $500M valuation) just three months after coming out of stealth with your (this was previously wrongly reported as a $25M round).
- Well done Ofir Tahor and team justt on raising $30M series C to help retailers deal with chargebacks!
- Great job Avihai Sodri and team Antidote Health on securing a $22M series B to advance AI Telehealth and ACA plans.
- Awesome news Tal Shahar and team Atlas Invest on your $11M to provide real estate developers with a bridge financing platform!
- Kol hakavod Talia Cohen Solal and team NeuroKaire (formerly Genetika+) on securing a $10M round to advance precision medicine tools in mental health!
- Kudos Offer Yehudai and team Arya on your $8.5M series A to help US couples maintain relationship satisfaction over time!
- Good stuff Ronel Veksler MD, PhD and team Promise Bio on securing an $8.3M seed round for your precision medicine tool!
EXITS
- Big congrats Itamar Ben Hemo and team Rivery on the $100M acquisition by Boomi for your data integration platform!
- Way to go Yaniv Nissenboim and team Hexagate on the acquisition of your web3 security platform by Chainalysis for an undisclosed sum!
NEW FUNDS
- Kudos Eitan Reisel and team vgames on your new $142M fund III to invest in global gaming companies! Hope to get a chance to collaborate with Remagine Ventures soon!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- I was fortunate to open the 2025 VC Survey series for Calcalist ??????? and provide my 2024 recap and predictions for 2025 (also posted on VC Cafe)
- The 2024 exits report by PwC is impressive and still doesn’t include some of the exits announced this week!
- Israel launches new programs to address AI talent shortage. Initiatives aim to bring 200 global AI experts to Israeli startups within three years to sustain tech innovation.
GLOBAL
- Why VCs are upbeat about 2025 – by Crunchbase
- The Age of Quantum Software Has Already Started – by The Wall Street Journal
- 2025 US venture capital outlook – by PitchBook
SPECIAL: THE MOST POPULAR VC CAFE POSTS IN 2024
Check out some of our most read posts of VC Cafe in 2024:
- January – Israeli startup landscape collection 2024
- February – How the pre-seed round made a comeback in 2024
- March – Tel Aviv is the most productive startup ecosystem according to report
- April – Generative AI: opportunity or the end of media as we know it?
- May – Everybody is talking about AI agents and Automation
- June – 2023-2024 SaaS Benchmarks
- July – Generative AI is giving a boost to the Creator economy
- August – The dark side of Generative AI is here already
- September – AI Agents: the evolution of RPA
- October – The booming Voice AI landscape: a VC perspective
- November – The AI services revolution: Why VCs are betting big on Agentic AI
- December – 2025 in media and entertainment tech – startups building in this space (in stealth or starting out) – please reach out!
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israel’s top 2024 venture capital rounds (by yours truly) (as published by Calcalist ???????)
AI automation and agents market map and state of the market by Insight Partners (source)
Prospecting is going to look radically different in just a few months, not to mention in the years ahead. – the future of AI SDRs according to Sapphire Ventures (source)
18 Companies Selected From Thousands of Applicants Receive Funding, Access to Anthropic Technology including Claude Credits and Menlo Ventures’ Company-Building Expertise by the $100M Anthology Fund (source)
It’s been a good year for European fundraising – European VCs have raised $31B in new funds, the 2nd highest on record. But they’re still chronically outraised by US peers by Dealroom.co
Earlier this month, US companies passed the 2023 venture fundraising figure. Notably, primary funding has rebounded more quickly than bridge rounds, which is likely a positive sign for the ecosystem.
What does 2025 hold? there’s reason to be optimistic that capital will flow more freely next year.
The opportunity in vertical AI – a new frontier of industry-specific AI applications that’s poised to reshape how businesses operate (by Greenfield Partners – source)
Ethical AI startup landscape by MMC Ventures (source)
Don’t count Google out of the AI race – Google Gemini’s market share among developers went from ~5% in September to >50% market share last week (per @OpenRouterAI)
LPs equally open to both established players and new entrants with innovative fund propositions by Coller Capital (source)
Secondary markets are hitting record levels in 2024 by Bloomberg
Donald Trump was selected to Person of the Year 2024 by TIME (source)
Genesis Project Demo – An Open source Generative AI video model based on physics, and can run on your local computer (source)
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
