It’s #Firgun time.
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 particular person. 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
I felt a knot in my abdomen this week, watching the video of the tunnel the place Hersh, Carmel, Alex, Eden, Or, Almog have been held in inhumane circumstances for for 11 months, solely to be brutally mur***ed. The tunnel was positioned in Raf*h, below a kids’s bed room. Could their recollections endlessly be a blessing. We should #BRINGTHEMHOME, each final hostage.
Israeli startups raised $7.8 billion in funding to date in 2024, with Mergers and acquisitions reaching $9.6 billion to date this yr. Whereas the figures are barely down from 2023, they replicate the resilience and power of the Israeli startup ecosystem, even at a time of conflict. Extra fascinating figures within the Startup Nation Central report linked beneath.
The world of tech AI was crammed with information this week. VC investments in AI startups have reached $64.1B to date in 2024, or ~30% of complete VC {dollars} invested. OpenAI launched 01, a brand new sequence of AI fashions designed to spend extra time pondering earlier than they reply (able to reasoning with spectacular outcomes). Google launched a powerful new AI instrument, NotebookLM, Apple launched its new iPhone 16, which comes with new AI Apple Intelligence options and the FDA authorized the Listening to Support Function in Apple’s AirPods Professional 2, calling it the “first over-the-counter listening to assist software program machine, Roblox introduced an open-source AI instrument for 3D Environments, Hugging Face launched FineVideo, a high-quality annotated video dataset with a inventive commons license, Adobe introduced it’ll launch a generative AI-powered instrument will permit customers to create and edit movies seamlessly utilizing AI prompts, Mistral AI launched Mistral Pixtral 12B – its first multimodal mode. Meta is on observe to grow to be probably the most used open supply AI by the top of the yr.
And a lot extra it’s genuinely exhausting to maintain up…
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Israel continues to attract traders searching for daring, decided options to international challenges. With enticing valuations and immense development potential, the Israeli tech ecosystem stays resilient—regardless of the circumstances. – Startup Nation Central: One 12 months of Israeli Innovation in Battle
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Large congrats Oded Melamed and workforce Quantum Supply on securing a $50 million sequence A to advance photonic quantum computer systems!
- Kudos to Iranian-born, Israeli raised Sanaz Yashar and workforce Zafran Safety on elevating a $40M sequence B for its danger and mitigation platform to pinpoint exploitable threats in organisations!
- Solution to go Haim Halpern and workforce Datricks in your $15M sequence A on your AI-powered compliance and danger administration platform!
- Properly completed Ari Recht and workforce Odigos in your $13M seed extension to automate distributed information tracing in an effort to make it simpler to detect efficiency points in complicated information methods utilizing open supply applied sciences!
- Nice milestone Yuval Mandelbaum and workforce Discure Applied sciences in your $11M sequence A (and beforehand undisclosed $5M seed spherical) for degenerative disc illness therapy!
- Kol hakavod Daniel Lublin and workforce Factor Safety on securing a $5M seed spherical to assist organisations handle their exterior assault floor!
APPOINTMENTS
NEW VENTURE FUNDS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
Israel:
- One 12 months of Israeli Innovation in Battle – by Startup Nation Central
- BBC ‘breached pointers 1,500 instances’ over Israel-Hamas conflict – The Telegraph
- Shameless plug: we printed the month-to-month e-newsletter by Remagine Ventures
World:
- Investments in Chinese language startups flatlined – The Monetary Instances
- Can enterprise capital hold itself afloat? extra on the shortage of liquidity that’s making a VC funding crunch – The Wall Road Journal
- The present state of AI markets – a complete view of the place worth was accrued and what’s subsequent
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
Israeli VC investments within the first 9 months of 2024 reached $7.8 billion
Israeli exits within the first 9 months of 2024 reached $9.6 billion (regardless of the conflict)
Israeli web3 startup panorama by Entrée Capital. Over 100 Israeli web3 startups, 3 unicorns, attracted over $4.5 billion in capital (was added to my 2024 assortment on VC Cafe)
How AI imapcts software program improvement? report by Grove Ventures
64% of the 2024 winter batch of YC had “AI” or “AI-related” tags of their Y Combinator firm profile within the firm’s listing.
Attention-grabbing overview of vertical AI corporations by IVP (supply)
Income per worker. by way of Trung T. Phan (supply)
Generative AI video is getting scarily good
Thanks for studying. There’s a lot to have fun in our “small” neighborhood. Carry on creating!
I am a former basic 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.
