The unique model of this article was printed on Linkedin.
This week’s version is devoted to Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas z”l. We’re all heartbroken. Might their reminiscences endlessly be a blessing.
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 delight within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the other of “schadenfreude”. Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, delight, or admiration for another person’s accomplishments, luck, or well-being. Extra about Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
I used to be in Tel Aviv this week and felt the influence of October 7 in each flip. I met a founder who’s sister was kidnapped (and later launched). Each practice station has been plastered with stickers, commemorating the numerous victims, the vast majority of them younger. There are nonetheless 73 Israelis held in G**a. We already know what they’re going by. We should #BRINGTHEMHOME now.
Within the wider tech world, Microsoft introduced a breakthrough in Quantum computing with their new “Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip” which leverages the world’s superconductor (a brand new state of matter) following 17 years of analysis. Relatedly, Microsoft has launched Muse as its AI mannequin to generate gameplays. Google introduced Gemini 2.0-powered AI Co-Scientist multi-agent system to assist researchers. Arc Institute and NVIDIA unveiled Evo-2, the biggest AI mannequin for genome writing. Elon Musk launched the Grok 3 household of reasoning fashions, which briefly took the highest spot, topping OpenAI’s o3. xAI has additionally launched DeepSearch, an AI agent for web-based analysis, brainstorming, and knowledge evaluation. Perplexity‘s launched a free ‘Deep Analysis’ model to compete with OpenAI’s product out there for Professional customers (for $200 a month). Perplexity additionally open sourced DeepSeek R1 model with out Chinese language censorship. The valuation of Protected Superintelligence Inc. based by Ilya Sutskever (with workplaces in CA and Tel Aviv) jumped to $30 billion in simply 6 months. OpenAI ChatGPT now has 400 million month-to-month energetic customers. ElevenLabs partnered with Spotify to launch AI voice audiobooks, competing with Audible. Meta introduced will probably be getting into the Humanoid robots area.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The profitable warrior is the typical man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Nicely completed Shalev Hulio and crew Dream on elevating a $100M sequence B (at a $1.1 billion valuation) to offer complete cybersecurity safety for governments and nationwide organisations! ?
- Huge congrats Saar Yoskovitz and crew Augury in your $75M sequence F (and new unicorn standing) to reinforce your its AI-driven options for machine well being! ?
- Kudos Ido Ben-Natan and crew Blockaid in your $50M sequence B to fight rising blockchain threats!
- Nice information Yoav Einav and crew Guidde in your $15M sequence A to scale your AI powered educational movies!
- Strategy to go Ronit Belson and crew Sawmills on popping out of stealth with a $10M seed spherical to rework telemetry knowledge administration with AI!
- Kol hakavod Arnon Heyman and IBI-Ag on securing a $6.1M seed spherical to carry pharma-inspired crop safety to farms!
EXITS
There have been no Israeli exits recorded this week
NEW FUNDS
LI NKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
GLOBAL
- The AI jobs report: what jobs are in danger and the place the chance lies – on VC Cafe
- The State of Pre-seed in 2025 – report by Carta
- US market insights report Q1 2025 – by PitchBook
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
The returns of Lightspeed have been revealed (supply)
Within the fast tempo of AI developments, efficiency gaps are closing quick by CB Insights
Grok 3 has emerged because the main non-reasoning mannequin on Synthetic Evaluation’s benchmark
The AI Brokers landsscape by Perception Companions
As competitors intensifies between Perplexity, basis mannequin firms, and Google, Perplexity is betting on deepening prosumer ordinary use in key verticals like finance and purchasing to drive development to a projected $127M in 2025 and $656M in 2026. Sacra estimates that Perplexity hit $63M in ARR on the finish of 2024, up 800% from $7M in 2023.
Humanoid robots are coming… and never simply from China.
Airplane is taking off. That’s all for this week. We now have so much to have fun in our “small” group. Carry on creating!
I am a former common 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 growing world.
