The original version of this newsletter was published on Linkedin.
If you’re new here, 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” (which stands for being happy for someone else’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, pride, or admiration for members of our community’s accomplishments, good fortune and wins. More about Firgun and why it matters on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel, the day is marked by a Siren, in which cars pull over on the highway and everyone stands stills for a minute to remember the 6 million Jews that were slaughtered. But it seems like the words ‘never again’ or ‘never forget’ seem hollow, in light of the global rise in Antisemitism. It’s a good reminder of the importance of the State of Israel for Jews worldwide, and the fact that there are still 59 Israeli hostages held in G**a. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME ??
According to the Q1 2025 reports published in the past couple of weeks, Israeli funding reached $3.2 billion, a 12% increase from Q4 2024. It was the first quarter of growth since Q2 2024, despite a lower round count (185 rounds recorded). M&A activity soared to $35.7 billion, driven by the $32 billion purchase of Wiz and Munich Re’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Next Insurance. These high-profile transactions underscore robust global appetite for Israeli innovation and reaffirm Israel’s pivotal role in the global M&A arena.
In the global tech world, for the first time in roughly five years, OpenAI is gearing up to release an AI system that’s truly “open,” meaning it’ll be available for download at no cost and not gated behind an API. Google told employees that were previously fully remote that they should move to hybrid with 3 days a week in the office (or risk getting let go). The company reported that it’s AI summaries are now being used by 1.5 billion monthly users. Adobe announced the integration of image-generation AI models from OpenAI and Google into its Firefly app. OpenAI said it would be interested in Chrome if court orders Google spin-off. Character.AI unveiled AvatarFX for cinematic video generation. Descript launched and AI-powered agentic video editor. PlayAI launched instant voice cloning technology. krea.ai can now generate 3D environments from text/images. Higgsfield AI introduced a new Turbo model for faster and cheaper AI video generations. Tesla operating profit is down 71% and Elon said he’ll step down from DOGE in May to focus on his businesses.
Chinese AI companies continue to release powerful AI modles: Alibaba Group released a 14B-parameter open-source video model and Baidu, Inc. unveiled Ernie 4.5 Turbo, Ernie X1 Turbo, and Xinxiang, an AI agent for Android designed to assist with tasks like information analysis and travel planning. Tencent dropped Hunyuan3D 2.5, which It transforms images and text into stunning 3D models. Chinese AI agent startup Manus AI scored $75M funding by Benchmark at $500 Million valuation.
3 Interesting predictions:
- Meta‘s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, predicts that AI could make apps obsolete, shifting how people interact with technology.
- Google DeepMind‘s CEO predicts AI self-awareness within decade.
- Anthropic’s CISO predicts autonomous AI agents—each with its own account, role, and memory—will start operating as digital team members in the next 12 months. The company also launched a ‘model Welfare’ program
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
— Viktor Frankl
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congrats Adam Neumann and team Flow on raising a $100M round at $2.5B valuation to transform the rental housing experience!
- Way to go Avigdor Willenz and team Element Labs on securing a $50M series A to develop AI processors for inference!
- Well done Yoav Regev and team Sentra on securing a $50M series B to continue to scale your enterprise data security platform!
- Good stuff Guy Benjamin and team Healthee on your $50M ($30M series B and $20m in credit) to automate the mess of U.S. health benefits!
- Kol hakavod David Primor and team Cynomi on raising a $37M series B to replace CISOs with AI!
- Awesome milestone Ofer Klein and team Reco on securing a $25M series A extension to eliminate the security gap caused by the proliferation of apps, AI, identities, data, and configuration challenges!
- Kudos Shlomi Yanai and team AuthMind on securing a $19.3M seed round to to advance observability-driven identity protection across human, non-human, and Agentic AI Identities!
- Great stuff Daniel Shechter and team Miggo Security on raising 17M series A to fight cyberattacks in real time!
- Big thumbs up Amir Shiner and team RepAir Carbon Capture on securing a $15M series A extension to make carbon removal machines inspired by batteries!
- Mazel tov Itzhak Pichadze and team frontline.io on your $10M in new funding to modernise how they train, support, and maintain complex machinery!
- Nice going Shahar Peled ???? and team Terra Security on raising $8M in seed funding to expand your AI-driven penetration testing platform!
- Mabruk Roy Gottlieb and team Hopper Security on coming out of stealth with a $7.6M seed round to replace traditional Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools with a precision-focused platform that detects hidden vulnerabilities!
- Exciting news Ohad Biron and team Bagel AI on the $5.5M seed round to fix the misalignment between Product and GTM!
- Congratulations Rotem Tsabary and team LatticaAI on raising $3.25M in pre-seed funding to enable secure and private use of AI in the cloud!
- High five Ori Segal and team Cyvore on coming out of stealth with $2.5M in pre-seed funding to secure digital workspaces across Zoom, Slack, Teams and other messaging platforms!
EXITS
- Congratulations Edo Segal and team Touchcast on the acquisition of your Agentic AI platform for $500M by Infinite Reality
NEW FUNDS
- Kudos David Citron ?? and Alan Buch on the launch of tbd, a $35M pre-seed and seed fund focused on deep tech Israeli startups! Hope we get a chance to collaborate with Remagine Ventures!
APPOINTMENTS
- Congratulations Omer Levy on being promoted to Vice President at SoftBank Investment Advisers!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- The 25 most promising Israeli startups according to Globes (in English here)
- The Q1 2025 report by Startup Nation Central
- Israel’s Innovation Authority chief: Israel top for deep tech investment
- Bonus: listen to the awesome Gili Raanan on the 20Min VC podcast
GLOBAL
- From ‘catch up’ to ‘catch us’: How Google quietly took the lead in enterprise AI
- Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong
- Agency is eating the world – how we’re nearing a single person billion dollar company
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israeli startups raised $3.2 billion in Q1 2025 (including an estimate of undisclosed rounds) by Startup Nation Central
Even startups in the ‘fast lane’ are taking longer to raise…
From Seed to Series A
2.2 years
From Series A to Series B
2.5 years
From Series B to Series C
2.4 years
$1M ARR is no longer the minimum requirement for series A according to Carta
Deep tech attracted more funding than any other sector in Europe in 2024 (source: Dealroom.co)
Global rare earth deposits are not rare. The problem is that the processing of rare earth is almost fully dominated by China (source)
The Linkedin effect – so true…
Watch freed hostage Agam Berger perform for Holocaust survivors in the March of the Living in Poland
That’s all for this week, thanks for tuning in. 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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