The unique model of this text was printed on Linkedin.
Should you’re new right here, the phrase “Firgun” (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is a casual fashionable Hebrew time period and idea in Israeli tradition (initially Yiddish), which describes real, unselfish delight or satisfaction within the accomplishment of the opposite individual. It’s the other of “schadenfreude” (which stands for being joyful for another person’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, satisfaction, or admiration for members of our neighborhood’s accomplishments, success and wins. Extra about Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
Completely happy 77th Independence anniversary to Israel —Yom Ha’atzmaut ??. It’s a second of celebration and satisfaction for a nation constructed on resilience, innovation, and unity. However the pleasure comes only a day after Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, a solemn time to honour fallen troopers and victims of terror. This highly effective transition from grief to celebration is marred by the 59 Israeli hostages nonetheless held in Gaza. We should #BringThemHome ??
Israeli startups raised $531M in April 2025 throughout 20 introduced rounds. April was additionally the month of Israel’s greatest exit of all time, Wiz, which made multi billion exits look small as compared. As Israel celebrates it’s 77th anniversary, it’s clear that Israeli startups are resilient and right here to remain. However however, it’s a difficult interval by all means, domestically (safety, political, financial, expertise flows) and globally (tariffs, VC slowdown).
Within the wider tech world, Apple vs. Epic Video games authorized battle took a significant flip this week as Apple was compelled to drop its charges on out of the app retailer transactions, nice information for app builders worldwide. Amazon launched Nova Premier, the corporate’s most superior AI mannequin but — designed to each deal with advanced duties and in addition act as a “trainer” to fine-tune smaller fashions to match its capabilities. Anthropic launched Integrations, permitting Claude to attach with distant MCPs to combine further instruments — alongside new analysis capabilities like net help. Microsoft simply launched three new reasoning-focused, open-weights fashions in its Phi household — which outperform bigger rivals at advanced reasoning duties whereas being sufficiently small to run on telephones and laptops. In response to CEO Satya Nadella, 30% of the code at MSFT is AI generated! OpenAI provides buying and is rumoured to announce large partnership with Shopify. Forecasts Income Topping $125 Billion in 2029 as Brokers, New Merchandise Achieve. Google locations advertisements inside chatbot conversations with AI startups. The corporate additionally up to date its music AI sandbox. Duolingo CEO mentioned that the corporate can be ‘AI first’ and that it plans to switch contractors with AI. The corporate already launched 148 programs powered by AI. Meta launches new standalone Meta AI social community earlier than chatgpt turns into one. IBM is investing $150bn in US manufacturing over the following 5 years.
Right here’s the newest in Chinese language AI:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“For Israel was not created with the intention to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It’s the little one of hope and the house of the courageous. It may well neither be damaged by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the defend of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom; and no space of the world has ever had an overabundance of democracy and freedom”
President JFK (speech in August 1960)
(supply)
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Ilan Peleg and staff Lightrun on the $70M collection B to deliver AI-powered real-time remediation to enterprise software program!
- Solution to go Or Eshed and staff LayerX Safety in your $11M collection A extension as browser safety turns into the brand new entrance line in enterprise defence!
- Mazel tov Matan Gavish and staff Factify on popping out of stealth with $10.3M in seed funding to boost the safety and usefulness of digital paperwork (and perhaps change PDFs!)
- Kudos Steve Sibulkin and staff BioLumic in your $8.3M collection B extension to speed up a brand new class of non-GMO seed traits!
EXITS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- The 50 most promising Israeli startups – the annual rating by Calcalist ???????
- How fintech is reshaping ecommerce – fascinating examine by Viola Ventures
- The ultimate report on the Presidential Process Drive on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias by Harvard College – spoiler: there’s quite a lot of institutionalised antisemitism
GLOBAL
- The highest 100 AI startups in response to CB Insights
- How Individuals Are Actually Utilizing Gen AI in 2025 – replace to the 2024 examine by Harvard Enterprise Evaluation
- AI is altering how Silicon Valley builds startups – a highlight on Gamma – I’m going in depth on this in my ‘Nano Unicorns’ piece on VC Cafe (under)
VC CAFE
- Nano Unicorns within the Making – how AI native startups are scaling revenues with tiny groups – by me on VC Cafe
- Founders want to regulate to longer cycles between rounds – should you’re pondering that your seed spherical will final for two years, you would possibly get into bother – additionally by me on VC Cafe based mostly on information from Carta
- ICYMI: The way forward for AI tooling is interoperable – on Agent to Agent communication and MCP
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israel’s inhabitants surpassed 10 million for the primary time in 2025. Listed here are just a few different fascinating information from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics ????? ??????? ?????????? (supply)
How fintech is shaping ecommerce, report by Viola Ventures
Previous however gold.
International enterprise is in a recalibration – Q1’25 enterprise fundraising numbers are out by the Nationwide Enterprise Capital Affiliation. Simply 87 funds closed, elevating $10B whole.
The most important problem stays liquidity. The shortage of liquidity in enterprise means fewer funds are elevating cash (and subsequently, it is going to begin to affect startup funding).
GDP contracts in Q1 for 1st time since 2022 as imports surge
-0.3% in GDP in Q1 as a result of monumental pre-tariffs import surge, properly under the typical progress of ~3% within the prior 2 years.
+1.8% in client spending, the weakest since mid-2023.
The AI 100 by CB Insights (that includes a number of Israeli startups) Decart BRIA AI Orca AI
The highest use instances for GenAI in 2025, and the way habits have been altering in the middle of a yr
Startup valuation pulse test throughout rounds based mostly on information from Carta analysing 1084 rounds prior to now 6 months
????
* $15.2M median valuation
* 78% are underneath $25M
?????? ?
* $48.9M median
* A few third of rounds on this stage are valued from $50M-$99M
?????? ?
* $115M median
* Huge distribution per normal (Sequence B is usually everywhere). 8% underneath $25M, 6% over $500M
?????? ?
* $254M median
* Greater than half cross the $250M mark, however the decrease finish is fragmented
?????? ?
* $545M median
* 50% of rounds cross half a billion in valuation
Open supply toolkit for constructing AI brokers (supply)
Sensible ideas for college kids within the Age of AI by Stanford College
That’s all for this week. There’s lots to have a good time in our “small” neighborhood! Carry on Creating!
I am a former normal associate at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google’s first bodily hub for startups.
I am additionally the founding father of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing collectively the startup ecosystem on biking challenges in help of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have constructed 11 faculties and 50 libraries within the creating world.
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