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It’s #Firgun time.
The phrase “Firgun” (Hebrew: ??????/ pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is a casual fashionable Hebrew time period and idea in Israeli tradition (initially Yiddish), which describes real, unselfish delight or pleasure within the accomplishment of the opposite individual. It’s the alternative of “schadenfreude”. Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, pleasure, 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
It’s been 405 days since October seventh 2023. The injuries nonetheless run deep, not only for Israelis however to Jews worldwide, as they see the alarming rise in Antisemitism. The pogrom we noticed in Amsterdam, near the 86 12 months anniversary of Kristallnacht, introduced again painful reminiscences of Jewish individuals beneath assault. There’s nobody that feels this ache greater than the hostages and their households. For therapeutic to start, we should #BRINGTHEMHOME
A good friend, profitable entrepreneur who took an organization public, requested me for assistance on a presentation he was giving in regards to the financial resilience of Israel. I pointed him to a few current stories that confirmed that Israeli startups raised 35% extra within the first 9 months of 2024, than the equal interval in 2023 (pre-war). Given the circumstances, it’s nothing in need of unbelievable, I’d say.
Within the wider tech world, there’s quite a bit occurring. Let’s begin with Saudi Arabia who’s planning a large $100 billion AI challenge and the EU slapping Meta an $840M over abusive practices in FB market. All of the AI giants are reportedly dealing with challenges in constructing extra superior AI. Bitcoin topped a document of all time at $87,000, Chinese language gaming large Tencent reported 47% surge in earnings from gaming and AI, and Perplexity is nearing $500M funding spherical at $9 billion valuation because it began introducing advertisements. All of this AI utilization is creating an influence drawback: practically half of AI knowledge centres could lack sufficient energy by 2027, in accordance a report by Gartner. I don’t principally point out smaller rounds of US startups, however check out Odyssey which raised $18M sequence A this week. They’re providing extraordinarily sensible generative world-building fashions, skilled on the real-world (captured with a futuristic trying digital camera).
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
It’s good to be a SEEKER, however ultimately It’s important to be a FINDER. After which it’s nicely to offer what You could have discovered, a present into the world for whoever will settle for it.”
?Richard D. Bach (1970) from JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL
NEW VENTURE ROUNDS
- Congratulations Man Podjarny and group Tessl in your spectacular $125M in funding unveiled ($25M seed and $100M sequence A) on your AI coding platform!
- Superior milestone Amiram Shachar and group Upwind Safety on securing (no pun meant) a $100M to guard cloud infrastructure in actual time!
- Properly completed Yodar Shafrir and group ScaleOps – Cloud-Native Optimization on securing a $58M sequence B to scale your hands-off method to cloud optimisation!
- Kudos Alon Arvatz and group PointFive in your $20M sequence A to trace cloud utilization throughout a number of clouds to optimise prices!
- Technique to go ?Asaf Yanai and group Alison.ai on securing a $13.3M seed spherical (an $8.2 seed extension) to scale your AI-based video advert optimisation!
- Nice stuff Man Piekarz and group Panjaya.ai on popping out of stealth with $9.5M in seed funding to launch your AI-based dubbing platform!
- Mazal tov David Talinovsky and group Bluespine on popping out of stealth with a $7.2M seed spherical to assist self-insured employers handle medical overbilling!
EXITS
APPOINTMENTS
NEW FUNDS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- Israel’s AI startups dominate tech funding panorama. AI firms secured practically half of the overall tech funding in Israel, a hanging determine on condition that AI startups comprise simply 30% of the broader tech ecosystem.
- Startups select to remain in stealth, greater than ever earlier than by Sophie Shulman for Calcalist ??????? (I agree with this and 5 of the investments we remodeled the summer time selected to remain in stealth mode for now)
- Google, Amazon set to compete in tender for Israel’s AI supercomputing platform:
GLOBAL
- OpenAI and others search new path to smarter AI as present strategies hit limitations
- State of personal markets Q3 2024 by Carta
- “I feel 2025 goes to be the 12 months that agentic methods lastly hit the mainstream.”
NEW on VC CAFE
- The AI Companies revolution: Why VCs are betting massive on Agentic AI
- Kindling Early B2C Development: Attending to 1,000 Customers
- ICMYI: My 2024 Israeli startup Panorama Assortment
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
One other unhappy milestone reached. #BRINTHEMHOME NOW!
Surprising alert from the Israel Ministry of Diaspora Affairs identifies 3 European nations/areas wherein Jews are at “very excessive danger” for bodily violence (supply)
The seed client VC market map by Headline – Remagine Ventures is unfortunately lacking, however however value a share! (supply)
In case you had been questioning who wrote probably the most patents on generative AI… check out the chart under (from a report by Wipro)
Y Combinator says we’re within the “Golden age of constructing” of their newest ‘request for startups’ put up. Ben Lang did an excellent job summarising it in a single sheet. (supply)
Attention-grabbing market map of Gen AI use instances in training by Edtech Insiders (supply)
RIP to RPA – how AI Brokers are altering automation by Andreessen Horowitz (supply)
The median time between major rounds has lengthened significantly over the previous 2 years. For some time the usual 18-24 months recommendation held fairly true (see the blue space within the under chart) however these days that’s outdated.
Attention-grabbing chat between Sam Altman and Gerry Tan on how you can construct the long run and simply how shut we’re to AGI…
Lastly, I’ll be at Slush in Helsinki subsequent week for the primary time. I’m trying ahead to assembly outdated pals and making new connections.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for studying. There’s quite a bit to rejoice in our “small” neighborhood! Carry on creating.
I am a former normal companion 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.
