It’s #Firgun time!
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In case 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 delight within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the other of “schadenfreude” (which stands for being completely satisfied for another person’s misfortune). Firgun is all about genuinely feeling and expressing happiness, delight, or admiration for members of our neighborhood’s accomplishments, luck and wins. Extra concerning the idea of Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p. In November #FIRGUN formally celebrated 5 years. See my replace on what I’ve discovered from writing Firgun and what retains me going. I’m completely satisfied to share one other milestone this week: it’s been 21 years (!) since I began my weblog, https://www.vccafe.com.
In Israeli tech this week, following a decade-long decline, new firm creation is lastly trending upward, with roughly 800 startups based in 2025, in comparison with 700 in 2024. That’s a great signal. More and more additionally, the capital is concentrating into high-impact ventures; notably, seed rounds exceeding $20M greater than doubled in 2025. This theme of aggressive, quality-driven development is personified by business big Examine Level Software program , which simply introduced the acquisition of three Israeli startups: Cyata, Cyclops Safety , and Rotate, to bolster its AI and MSP capabilities.
Within the wider tech world, Anthropic secured a $30 billion funding spherical at a roughly $380 billion valuation anchoring a recent period of mega-AI capital flows, intensifying the race with OpenAI for AI dominance in 2026. OpenAI and Anthropic are additionally drawing unconventional twin help from prime VCs whilst their battles form the broader generative AI panorama. NVIDIA’s deepening AI ecosystem offers, with ambitions to make investments billions into OpenAI and broader partnerships, underscore the central function of compute and {hardware} within the sector’s subsequent part. Amazon $200 billion deliberate funding geared toward scaling its cloud and machine-learning footprint introduced the inventory down massively. Alphabet Inc. is shut behind, committing as much as $185 billion to AI as its Gemini App reaches a milestone 750 million month-to-month energetic customers. Microsoft has disclosed that just about half of its future cloud development is now tied on to its partnership with OpenAI, elevating new questions about platform interdependence.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The Solar will rise and set regardless. What we select to do with the sunshine whereas it’s right here is as much as us. Journey properly.”? Alexandra Elle
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
- Huge mazal tov Shay Sandler and crew Vega on elevating $120M collection B simply 5 months after your collection A to concentrate on decentralized, in-place safety knowledge evaluation!
- Congrats Imri Marcus and crew Brandlight on securing a $30M collection A to assist manufacturers develop their publicity in LLMs!
- Nicely executed Ofer Klein and crew Reco on elevating a $30M collection B to safe AI adoption of AI SaaS apps and brokers!
- Method to go Benjamin Segal and crew Matia on securing a $21M collection A to construct AI-friendly knowledge infrastructure!
- Kol hakavod Eddie Dovzhik and crew Lema AI on securing a $20M collection A on your enterprise provide chain safety!
- Kudos Shahar Man and crew Backslash Safety on elevating your $19 million Sequence A as AI vibe coding reshapes cyber danger!
- Huge props Eldad Postan-Koren and crew WINN.AI on securing an $18M collection A to convey real-time AI steerage to gross sales groups!
- Congratulations Yaniv Shimoni and crew Take2 AI on elevating a $14M collection A to deploy autonomous AI brokers in healthcare hiring
- Spectacular milestone Avner Bendheim and crew Tenna Techniques on saying your $13.5M seed spherical to show present sensors right into a real-time protect in opposition to jamming and spoofing!
- Congrats Tali Gross and crew Dono on elevating a $6.5M seed spherical to modernize U.S. property information with AI
EXITS
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
VC CAFE/ REMAGINE VENTURES
ISRAEL
GLOBAL
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
The Israeli AI Infrastructure panorama printed by TLV Companions was added to my 2026 Israeli startup panorama assortment on VC Cafe. (supply) Shoutout to Remagine Ventures portfolio firm TroupAI (stealth).
We’re simply getting began. Israel is the world chief in Unicorns per GDP. Whereas the US and China have the very best whole variety of unicorns, adjusting for Gross Home Product reveals a distinct image. Israel takes the highest spot with 11 unicorns per $100B GDP, adopted carefully by Singapore (10). Israel’s management is pushed by the historic ‘Yozma’ initiative. Through the use of public funds to de-risk overseas funding, the federal government catalyzed the creation of a non-public VC market. (supply: Ilya Strebulaev)
In line with IVC Information and Insights, an estimated 750 to 800 new firms had been established in 2025, up from round 700 in 2024. This marks a turning level after greater than a decade of long-term decline within the variety of new startups launched every year. (supply)
Actuality: prime seed valuations haven’t grown as quick as prime seed exits.
2015 seed: pay $10M, exit at $20B in 2025.
2025 seed: pay $35M, exit at $80B in 2035
AI is shifting FAST. Take a look at the progress from gemini 3 deepthink we’re beginning to see the sorts of leaps we related to enormous pre trains on a 3 yr timeline each month. (supply)
The collection A crunch continues to be right here. In line with knowledge by Carta overlaying 12,249 seed rounds raised from Q1 2018 through Q3 2025, solely 30% of startups managed to lift a collection A two years after closing a seed since Q3 2021 (learn: for 70% of startups, a 2 yr runway for seed is just not sufficient to safe a collection A). For instance: throughout the This fall 2019 cohort of seed rounds, 32.6% had made it to Sequence A after 2 years. (supply)
What are the instruments that enterprise is keen to pay for in AI? that is primarily based on survey outcomes of 300 execustive (CEO/Head of AI/Eng/Product/CRO/CFO) at software program firms really delivery AI & requested which instruments are actually being utilized in manufacturing. (supply within the hyperlinks part and my highlights are right here). 70% of firms are constructing vertical AI functions
European VC hits post-2021 excessive as funding +5% YoY to €66B on AI, defence offers +35% YoY in AI-related offers to €23.5B in 2025. (supply)
How a lot ARR do it is advisable increase a seed spherical? The reply is $0.0 million…or $3.6 million ? The income figures for rounds are a wide range – I assume the reply for founders is ‘it relies upon’ primarily based on knowledge by Silicon Valley Financial institution and Carta
That’s all for this week. Thanks on your consideration. There’s quite a bit to have a good time in our “small” neighborhood! Carry on creating!
Eze Vidra
I am a former common 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 colleges and 50 libraries within the growing world.
