It’s #Firgun time.
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 satisfaction within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the other of “schadenfreude”. Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, satisfaction, 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
Yahya Sinwar, a key determine behind the deadliest terror assault on Israel, is useless. His demise may mark a big shift within the ongoing struggle. Sinwar orchestrated the bloodbath of over 1,200 Israelis on October seventh and whereas his demise brings some closure, the 101 hostages stay a precedence. We should proceed to do the whole lot we will to #BRINGTHEMHOME.
Through the first 9 months of 2024 Israeli startups raised $7.4 billion in 330 offers. The variety of new Israeli unicorns is rising once more after lowering since 2021. In Q1–Q3/2024, six new Israeli unicorns have been created, in comparison with solely 4 in the entire of 2023. M&A within the first 9 months of 2024 reached $12.9 billion(!). It’s loopy to assume that each one of this occurred throughout a struggle, might it quickly end.
This week in tech, Elon Musk’s SpaceX completed a historic feat, catching a 19-story tall rocket booster (aka Tremendous Heavy booster), in mid-air with Mechazilla chopsticks (see video beneath). It’s a large milestone of the best way to Mars. NVIDIA launched a brand new open supply 70B mannequin that beats GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet and a new visible mannequin that’s 15x quicker than flux. Adobe launched its Firefly AI video mannequin, Google launched new options for its more and more in style NotebookLM. Perplexity now lets customers search their inner recordsdata alongside net content material.
Completely satisfied Sukkot to everybody who’s celebrating. In line with Judaism, it’s a commandment to rejoice on this vacation, so let’s attempt!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Change is the regulation of life. And those that look solely to the previous or current are sure to overlook the longer term.” –
John F. Kennedy
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Congratulations Zohar Einy and workforce Port IO in your $35M collection B to remodel the developer expertise with a portal that brings your entire workforce collectively.
- Option to go Itamar Kunik and workforce Monogoto in your $27M collection A to supply software-defined connectivity providers that simplify the connection course of for organisations and builders!
- Great things Dan Bratshpis and workforce INSHUR on elevating $19M in a brand new spherical of funding to verify insurance coverage protection is truthful and accessible for on-demand financial system drivers!
- Properly accomplished Yehuda Vidal and workforce Lidwave in your $10M seed spherical in your 4D coherent Lidar-on-chip expertise that treats mild as a wave, relatively than utilizing conventional photon counting!
- Kudos Omri Dekalo and workforce Ubeya in your $10M collection A in your versatile workforce administration market for occasions!
- Mazal tov Sharon Barr and workforce Early in your $5M seed spherical in your Take a look at AI agent, robotically producing working assessments to assist builders detect and repair bugs early within the improvement cycle!
- Kol hakavod Tal Borenstein and workforce Maintain on securing a $2.7M seed spherical in your open-source alert administration & AIOps Platform!
EXITS
- Large congrats to Zohar Vittenberg and workforce Path Safety, developer of Information Loss Prevention tech, which was acquired by Israeli unicorn Cyera for $162M BEFORE popping out of stealth!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
Israel:
- Israeli tech assessment Q3 2024 – report by IVC Information and Insights
- ? The digital memorial venture of October seventh – a formidable documentation, bringing the testimonies of Israelis that skilled that day. By KAN – Israeli Public Broadcasting Company
- Israel financial retrospective – report by Jefferies
World:
- ?? The booming Voice AI panorama – a VC perspective – by me on VC Cafe
- These 10 Charts Present Startup Funding Downturn Continues Regardless of AI’s Ascent – by Crunchbase
- State of AI report 2024 – by Air Road Capital
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
U.S. acquisitions dominated Israeli M&A deal-making in Q1-Q3/2024, with a complete deal sum of $8.5 billion (throughout 41 offers). 16 mega-M&As (bigger than $100m) have been made by U.S. acquirers, in comparison with 10 offers in your entire 2023. Learn the complete report by LeumiTech and IVC.
Israel ranks ninth within the 2024 World AI index by Tortoise Media (supply)
Accel’s 2024 Euroscape – a listing of the their prime 100 AI and Cloud corporations rising from Europe and Israel. Nice to see so many Israeli startups represented (supply)
An excerpt from the State of Crypto report 2024 – by Andreessen Horowitz
A number of corporations try to assist customers seize their mind with AI. A16Z put a brief listing. (supply) – Notably lacking: Israeli startup Kai.ai
A pleasant infographic of AI gross sales instruments by Capgemini.
A historic second in house exploration. The 400ft rocket blasted off at dawn, finishing its combat, and separated its first stage booster, which was caught again on the pad to applause from the workforce. Learn extra right here
Somebody created the final word dishonest machine by connecting ChatGPT to a Texas Devices calculator
The picture beneath is satirical. But it surely’s unhappy that I must inform you that.
That’s all for this week, thanks for studying.
There’s rather a lot to rejoice in our “small” neighborhood! Carry on creating!
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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 assist of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have constructed 11 colleges and 50 libraries within the creating world.
