The unique model of this text was printed on LinkedIn. Signal as much as get the following model in your inbox.
The phrase “Firgun” (Hebrew: ??????/ pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is a casual trendy 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, success, or well-being. Extra about Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p
18 residing ho****es had been launched up to now 3 weeks (together with 5 Thai nationals) as a part of the primary part, together with Yarden Bibas, who nonetheless doesn’t know the destiny of his spouse and two little youngsters, together with Kfir who was simply 11 months outdated when he was taken from his dwelling by armed te****ts. We should #BRINGTHEMHOME. Each final certainly one of them.
Israeli startups raised practically $700M in January, in comparison with $473M in January 2024. Regardless of the robust begin to the yr, it’s been a turbulent interval for the tech trade with a number of enterprise backed shut downs (akin to NanoLock Safety, GuardKnox , and many others) and large layoffs bulletins from Intel Company, AppsFlyer, Placer.ai and even Moon Lively. I attribute these shakeouts to the tech cycle and the relative difficulties firms face in securing progress capital (particularly in the event that they had been already overpriced). On the flip aspect, the expertise that’s changing into accessible will discover its technique to startups as staff or founders.
Within the wider tech world, it’s been a momentous week. Google unveiled it’s new reasoning mannequin, Gemini 2.0 Flash with 1M token context window. The search big stated it’s planning to spend $75 billion in AI infrastructure this yr. Hugging Face launched its new app retailer, Areas, providing 400K open supply apps. It cloned an open-source model of OpenAI’s deep analysis in 24 hours from its debut. OpenAI launched a brand new mannequin, o3 mini, pushing the frontier of cost-effective reasoning. The corporate is in talks to raised $40 billion, at $300 billion valuation (2x). Hyperlinks to China didn’t decelerate the unfold of DeepSeek AI who’s open supply R1 reasoning mannequin is now accessible on Azure, GitHub, NVIDIA NIM & Windsurf. Meta introduced EDITS, an AI video modifying app to compete with ByteDance‘s CapCut (in case it will get banned). Zuckerberg stated he plans to extend spending on AI expertise to as a lot as $65 billion this yr. Talking of Bytedance, the corporate launched OmniHuman, which is ready to create speaking movies from a single picture and it’s scarily good. Mistral AI launched Small 3, an area, open supply mannequin that might rival GPT4. In the meantime, Elon Musk began publishing how taxpayer cash was spent on the Doge X account – not everyone seems to be amused. Whereas many of the AI fundraising occurs within the US, European AI startups raised $8 billion in 2024.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Typically the questions are difficult and the solutions are easy.” – Dr. Seuss
NEW VENTURE DEALS
- Congrats Alex Bouaziz and crew Deel on elevating $300M in a secondaries transaction, valuing the platform for distant staff at at $12B!
- Properly achieved Jonathan Jaglom and crew fl? Optics on securing a $35M collection A to switch conventional lens coating with printed tech!
- Kudos Amit Flohr and crew Bigabid on elevating a $25M collection A extension to spice up gaming adtech progress!
- Approach to go Doron Fridman and crew Lowental Hybrid in your $5M seed spherical to unravel the restricted flight length of UAVs!
- Mazel tov Itamar Perlov and crew ecton.io in your undisclosed seed spherical to reinvent healthcare funds!
EXITS
NEW FUNDS
- Congratulations Gil Dibner and crew Angular Ventures on the debut of your $125M fund III to put money into Israel and Europe early stage B2B tech!
- Kol hakavod Nathan Shabot and crew LIP Ventures Boutique on the launch of your new $90M early stage fund to attach Israeli startups with LATAM alternatives!
APPOINTMENTS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
- The 2025 Israeli fintech report by Viola Ventures
- The 2025 Israeli agritech and meals tech report – by Startup Nation Central
- The 2025 Israeli digital well being and wellbeing report by Good Firm VC
- Bonus: Why put money into Israeli startups? as a result of they drive outsized returns –
GLOBAL
- The rise of Chinese language AI stars – you might have heard about DeepSeek AI however there are 6 different ‘Dragons’ – by me on VC Cafe
- The prolonged 2025 requests for startups checklist – with new updates from Y Combinator, ARK Funding Administration LLC and others
- Why firms are leaving Delaware – by Elad Gil
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Fascinating chart: high nations VC funding vs. inhabitants in 2024
To place in context, right here’s the worldwide enterprise capital funding quantity by annum (supply)
After a drop in December, January 2025 noticed an increase in personal funding to $647M, with standout rounds together with Quantum Machines ($100M), Eleos Well being ($60M), Oligo Safety ($50M), and UVeye ($41M). This displays robust world confidence in Israeli numerous innovation.
– FinTechs make up practically half of the highest 15 highest-valued personal tech firms in Israel, together with Rapyd ($15 billion), Deel ($12 billion), and Tipalti ($8.3 billion)
– FinTech stays the second-largest class in Israel’s tech ecosystem, accounting for 12% of whole capital raised in Israel in 2024
The Israeli fintech panorama was added to my 2025 Israeli startup panorama assortment on VC Cafe (supply)
The 2025 Israeli Agriculture and meals tech panorama options 115 startups working within the area. It was added to my 2025 Israeli startup panorama assortment on VC Cafe (supply)
The 2025 Israeli digital well being and wellbeing panorama showcases AI-driven diagnostics, personalised medication through genomic sequencing and 3D printing, in addition to distant affected person monitoring. It was added to my 2025 Israeli startup panorama assortment on VC Cafe (supply)
Israel boasts one of the vital lively and vibrant startup ecosystems on the planet (By Amazon Internet Companies (AWS)) (supply)
Elevated spend on AI infrastructure has pushed huge tech’s mixed capex previous $50B in current quarters.
Voice AI expertise is experiencing vital progress, notably as a consequence of advances in AI mannequin growth throughout 2024. These voice AI methods can operate as automated brokers, providing steady assist throughout numerous enterprise capabilities. They’re being deployed in a number of sectors together with:
- Customer support operations
- Human sources (notably for interviewing)
- Gross sales departments (dealing with outbound calling)
- Monetary providers (akin to debt assortment)
The rising prominence of this expertise is evidenced by a pattern at Y Combinator, the place startups centered on voice AI purposes are taking on an more and more significant slice of their startup cohorts, as famous in evaluation by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
How AI is reworking technique growth (and consulting) by McKinsey & Firm (supply)
the Agentic AI workforce is probably going about to get much more crowded (supply) – AI staff are coming
Getting from Seed to Sequence A has grow to be an extended course of and more difficult in keeping with new knowledge by Carta (principally US pattern)
Google has 5 separate companies that make greater than $30 Billion a yr
China’s DeepSeek has put the highlight on the nation’s AI growth ecosystem. Extra in regards to the rising Dragons in my weblog put up on Rising Stars In China’s AI ecosystem (supply)
Lastly, give it to the Pink Cross for profitable “Bystander of the yr” award. Satirical video by Eretz Nehederet. Watch the purple cross journey share app business.
I preserve hoping this isn’t true.
That’s all for this week. We now have lots to have fun in our “small” group. Carry on creating!
I am a former basic 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 colleges and 50 libraries within the growing world.
