The unique model of this article was revealed on LinkedIn.
In the event you’re new right here, the phrase “Firgun” (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is an off-the-cuff fashionable Hebrew time period and idea in Israeli tradition (initially Yiddish), which describes real, unselfish delight or pleasure within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the alternative of “schadenfreude” (which stands for being completely satisfied for another person’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, pleasure, or admiration for members of our group’s accomplishments, success and wins. Extra about Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
It’s exhausting to consider that it’s Passover once more this weekend, and the theme of going from bondage to freedom goes to be pertinent in Jewish folks’s thoughts’s across the Seder desk. There are nonetheless 59 hostages held in bondage, within the tunnels of G**a for 551 days. We should #BRINGTHEMHOME ?? I wish to want all of the readers of Firgun who’re celebrating Passover peace and pleasure with their households and should all our hostages be returned quickly to their very own family members.
Q1 2025 stories are out. In keeping with IVC Knowledge and Insights Israeli startups raised $2.22 billion in 102 identified rounds (curiously Startup Nation Finder quoted $3.2B in non-public funding throughout 185 rounds). 5 mega offers (over $100M) comprised 40% of whole funding. M&A in Q1 2025 reached $1.8 billion in 27 offers, 10% of all annual exits made in 2024 (once more right here, SNC quotes a better quantity – $3.9B throughout 37 M&A offers — marking the best variety of offers because the starting of 2023). Neither determine consists of the $32 billion acquisition of Wiz which is predicted to conclude in Q2.
Within the wider tech world, it’s been a busy week. The markets made an astonishing in the future bounce following President Trump’s suspending the tariff’s for 90 days, however raises China’s tariff to 125%. Google made a bunch on bulletins in Cloud Subsequent 2025, together with Ironwood, a brand new chip (subsequent gen TPU), Agent2Agent protocol and far more. Meta launched the new open-source LLaMa 4.0 with an enormous token window, however Deep Cogito‘s new open-source fashions high efficiency charts NVIDIA‘s Nemotron Extremely outperforms DeepSeek at half the dimensions, Amazon Nova Reel now creates 2-minute AI movies. Talking of AI, Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly elevating a $20B AI-focused fund — its largest ever — to double down on US-based growth-stage startups. Runway‘s Gen-4 Turbo generates movies in 30 seconds. ElevenLabs launched MCP Server with AI voice integration.
QUOTE(s) OF THE WEEK
“If there’s one factor Jewish folks agree on… please inform me what it’s” – Seth Mayers
and likewise
“Hope just isn’t optimism. It’s the perception that although we will’t see the longer term, we will nonetheless construct it.” — Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Denny LeCompte and staff Portnox on securing a $37.5M sequence B in your Zero belief entry management resolution!
- Approach to go Shahar Azulay and staff groundcover on elevating a $35M sequence B in your information observability enterprise platform!
- Effectively finished Yair Kuznitsov and staff Anecdotes on asserting a $30M sequence B extension to construct the world’s first Compliance OS!
- Kudos Gal Yosef and staff Bliss Aesthetics on finishing a $17.5M seed spherical to convey AI for beauty surgical procedure clinics!
- Mazel tov Ariel Deshe and staff TrialKit on elevating a $4.3M seed spherical to offer defence attorneys with discovery instruments to successfully signify their shoppers!
EXITS
- Congratulations Shy Datika and staff INX on the acquisition by Republic for a reported $60M. INX supplies regulated buying and selling platforms for digital securities and cryptocurrencies.
APPOINTMENTS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- Israeli tech Q1 2025 report by IVC Knowledge and Insights
- The newest evaluation of the Israeli defence and homeland safety tech that includes 312 firms (by Startup nation central – see map in part under)
- The brand new Stanford College 2025 AI index report is out, and look Israel is main in AI expertise by geo space
GLOBAL
- The way forward for AI tooling is interoperable – on MCP and Agent2Agent by me on VC Cafe
- North American startup funding quantity spiked in Q1 2025, however deal depend is down – by Crunchbase
- Collaboration not disruption is vital to start-up success in Asia, say teachers, by the Monetary Occasions that includes “Startup Capitalism“, the most recent e-book by my higher half Robyn Klingler-Vidra
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
AI expertise focus by geo space based on Stanford AI index report 2025 – (supply)
Additionally international non-public funding in AI ranks Israel #5 (US, China, UK, Canada, Israel) – 2025 AI international index report
Israelis startup fundraising stats for Q1 2025 (based on IVC Knowledge and Insights and LeumiTech)
New Israeli Defence and HLS (homelands safety) startup panorama by Startup Nation Central was added to my 2025 Israeli panorama assortment (half 1 and half 2 under – function 312 firms supply)
The median valuation for Seed-stage AI startups in Q1 2025 stood at $14 million, with median funding ranges at $5.1 million. These figures signify a notable step down from 2024’s peak intervals, based on information by altshare (supply) additionally value seeing the abstract right here.
A deep dive into AI tooling and MCP by Andreessen Horowitz (supply) additionally included in my newest weblog publish on the subject revealed yesterday
One other fascinating panorama by A16Z and their newest thesis on AI Avatars (we at Remagine Ventures invested in Hour One featured in Enterprise… in 2019) (supply)
Knowledge 3.0 within the Lakehouse period – fascinating panorama on the fashionable information stack by Bessemer Enterprise Companions (supply)
It’s getting more durable for startups to ‘graduate’ to sequence A – reminder to preserve money and by no means maintain your eyes of burn and margins. Solely 17% of seed-stage firms from 2022 have secured a Sequence A after two years. That’s one of many lowest commencement charges in current historical past.
North American enterprise funding +119% YoY to $82B in Q1 50% of the whole funding got here from the OpenAI ($40B) deal. (supply)
However fewer firms are getting funding… North American enterprise deal quantity -48% YoY in Q1 to 1,688 offers
That’s all for this week, thanks for studying. There’s quite a bit to have fun in our “small” group. Carry on creating!
I am a former normal accomplice 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 assist of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have constructed 11 faculties and 50 libraries within the growing world.
