
The unique model of this text was once revealed on LinkedIn. Subscribe to get the following version without delay to your inbox.
The phrase “Firgun” (pronounced ‘feer-goon’) is an off-the-cuff trendy Hebrew time period and idea in Israeli tradition (at first Yiddish), which describes authentic, unselfish satisfaction or satisfaction within the accomplishment of the opposite particular person. It’s the other of “schadenfreude”. Firgun is all about in truth feeling and expressing happiness, satisfaction, or admiration for somebody else’s accomplishments, just right fortune, or well-being. Extra about Firgun and why it issues on VC Cafe: https://lnkd.in/dg2a86p

Trump was once sworn in because the forty seventh US president. He selected to incorporate the households of the hos***es as the primary subject within the rite they usually stood proper in the back of Trump in his major speech. It was once onerous to not get emotional looking at Emily, Romi and Doron re-unite with their households remaining Sunday ?? (see video). Extremely courageous ladies. We predict 4 extra ladies to go back this Sunday as a part of the present ceasefire deal. We should convey all of them house so the therapeutic can start. #BRINGTHEMHOME ??
Slowly the normalcy appears to be returning to the Israeli startup ecosystem. Extra airways have resumed common flights to Tel Aviv. There are positive indicators that hostilities are winding down and Israel’s geopolitical truth is brighter than it’s been, with attainable to make bigger the Abraham accords to different nations within the area. Right here’s to hoping.
The most important information in tech this week was once the announcement of Stargate Undertaking – a $500B AI infrastructure funding plan for the United States. OpenAI is status to be the primary beneficiary, and it already stirred controversy with Elon Musk’s feedback. The corporate additionally introduced its first AI Agent, referred to as Operator, to be had to PRO customers just for now. Perplexity introduced AI-powered assistant to assist with day-to-day duties. Chinese language AI heating up festival: DeepSeek AI rocked the AI international this week with its R1 Type appearing an identical effects to OpenAI’s o1 style, simply open supply and at 5% or 10% of the price of OpenAI’s API. ByteDance additionally unveiled upgraded AI style Doubao-1.5, which surpasses OpenAI’s o1 on AIME, a benchmark comparing AI efficiency on complicated duties. Talking of, TikTok‘s US ban lasted 1 day, as President Trump granted the corporate a 75 day extension. The corporate is hoping it received’t need to promote. Google is making an investment every other $1 billion in Anthropic. The hunt massive additionally rolled out a brand new Gemini 2.0 Flash Pondering Type with complex reasoning. Google additionally offered Titans, a analysis paper detailing a unique manner that would change the transformer style utilized by LLMs lately. Are we about to look layoffs in banking? Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon says that AI can draft 95% of an S1 IPO prospectus “in mins” (vs. a workforce of 6 and weeks of labor earlier than). French Open Supply LLM Mistral AI is having a look to IPO, Spline offered Spell, a style to generate 3-D worlds. And after all, Trump signed an govt order to advertise crypto, doubtlessly expand nationwide virtual asset stockpile, led via David O. Sacks.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The golden age of The usa starts at this time. From at the moment ahead, our nation will flourish and be revered once more everywhere the sector.” –
President Donald Trump, 2025 Inauguration Speech.
NEW FUNDING ROUNDS
Congratulations Alon Joffe and workforce Eleos Well being on securing a $60M collection C to to energy proprietary behavioural well being AI era with information from actual classes.
Mazel tov Roy Tuvey and workforce Vertice for your $50M collection C to proceed scaling your SaaS spend optimisation platform!
Smartly finished Tal Mozes and workforce Mitiga for your $30M collection B to offer protection to enterprises from cybersecurity threats of their cloud environments.
Kudos Ziv Fass and workforce PACKAGE.AI for your $14M collection A to streamline remaining mile deliveries and logistics with AI!
Option to cross Matan Cohen and workforce Doti AI for your $7M seed spherical to assist enterprises securely get right of entry to and make the most of interior information!
EXITS
No longer all exits are satisfied however nonetheless an consequence. Congratulations Avi Golan and workforce Oosto (previously Anyvision) at the acquisition of your facial reputation era via City Applied sciences for $125M.
NEW APPOINTMENTS
Large congrats Mor Chen for your new position as Spouse at Greylock that specialize in early degree Israeli startups! Hope we will do a deal in combination quickly!
LINKS FOR YOUR BROWSER
ISRAEL
Why I’m bullish concerning the Israeli tech sector – via Noam Bardin, former CEO of Waze (Received via Google for $1.4 billion)
For now, Israeli officers be expecting the settlement to carry – via Jerusalem Publish
State of the cyber country 2024 document – via YL Ventures and comparable:
GLOBAL
M&A involving VC subsidized startups picked up in 2024 – via Crunchbase
Tech leaders pledge $500 billion to spend money on AI – via The Wall Side road Magazine
International Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 – via Global Financial Discussion board
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
The 2025 Israeli retail-tech startup map via Coresight Analysis and the Retail Innovation Membership was once added to my new 2025 panorama assortment on VC Cafe .
The resignation that wasn’t. Calcalist, a number one Israeli newsletter, revealed that Michael Eisenberg is leaving the VC company he helped create, Aleph, however didn’t look forward to affirmation. The thing was once deleted after he denied it on X and an apology was once issued. Globes has extra.
The proactive safety startup panorama via MMC Ventures (supply)
The quickest rising markets in 2025 revolve round AI.
That being mentioned, handiest 32% of the method leaders we surveyed have energetic genAI deployments at their organisations. (supply)
The highest 3 ache issues technique groups cite as limitations to genAI adoption are:
Safety & privateness dangers (46%)
Competing interior priorities (42%)
Felony & regulatory concerns (40%)
Reside lengthy and prosper (perhaps with a little bit of assist from AI?). The brand new longevity startup panorama revealed via CB Insights
DeepSeek R1 competitors OpenAI’s o1 in Synthetic Research High quality Index at lower price
Gaming is massive, however do you know that Roblox is the dimensions of Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation COMBINED? It reaches 50% of US families.
The agent financial system. Panorama via Felicis (supply)
Europe’s VC shakeup. The Eu VC panorama is experiencing a vital contraction, with a 30% drop in energetic price range and a considerable lower in fundraising, suggesting a shift in opposition to established avid gamers and specialised smaller companies. (supply: Sifted)
And after all, a healthy second of aid and emotion for Emily, Romi and Doron. Might all of the households looking forward to their family members get to revel in this.
We now have so much to rejoice in our “small” group. Stay on growing!
Eze is managing spouse of Remagine Ventures, a seed fund making an investment in formidable founders on the intersection of tech, leisure, gaming and trade with a focus on Israel.
I am a former common spouse at google ventures, head of Google for Marketers 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 in combination the startup ecosystem on biking demanding situations in fortify of Room to Learn. Since inception in 2012 we have now constructed 11 colleges and 50 libraries within the creating international.
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