VC Cafe

JANUARY 3, 2024

During these nearly two decades, I’ve had the extraordinary privilege of being a front-row witness to Israel’s incredible startup scene. I’ve seen the explosion of new unicorns created, from cybersecurity pioneers to AI disruptors and billion dollar revenue gaming startups.

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Paul Graham’s recent essay, Founder Mode , describes the mindset that founders need to adopt to navigate the early stages of building a startup, and how they’re different than ‘manager mode’ which is traditional management/corporate best practices. Riches in Niches.

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VC Cafe

MAY 14, 2024

The generative AI market is exploding globally, with venture capitalists pouring $12.8 billion into startups in just the first quarter of 2024, according to Pitchbook data. Israel is positioning itself as one of the potential leading hubs for generative AI globally. million), consumer ($422.5

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VC Cafe

JULY 11, 2024

creator economy startups, with investments in the first half of this year already matching the total raised throughout the entirety of 2023. creator startups secured an impressive $692.7 The trend extends globally, with creator startups worldwide raising approximately $767.9 million in funding.

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VC Cafe

JANUARY 29, 2024

2023 was a rough year for Venture Capital and for startups, and it might get even worse. I believe there are a lot of problems need solving, my outlook is longer term and I invest in new companies (most of the startups that Remagine Ventures II will invest in don’t yet exist). In many ways, Edward is right.

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

We must #BRINGTHEMHOME During November, Israeli startups raised over $750M and we saw the creation of a new Unicorn (more on Eon below). Great stuff Dean Leitersdorf and team Decart on your $25M series A (weeks after a $21M seed) at a $500M valuation , to pioneer scalable, cost efficient generative AI training!

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

Well done Assaf Rappaport and team Wiz on your undisclosed round of funding to continue the journey of as the fastest growing Israeli startup in history! Way to go Itamar Golan and team Prompt Security on your $18M series A to help companies secure their generative AI tools! Kudos Yehuda Niv and team Spines on your $16.5M

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Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 2, 2024

He's been an SEO specialist to Fortune 500 companies and venture backed startups around the world for two decades. His clients include global brands such as Citizen Watch, ExxonMobil and bva. AI is part of that story. Dale (03:16): Yeah, so Perplexity is one of many generative AI search engines.

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VC Cafe

JANUARY 17, 2023

billion on 78 generative AI deals —almost as much as was invested in all of the previous 5 years combined, according to PitchBook data. According to a new industry report by Skyquest , AI will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy, with $6.6 The global generative AI market was valued at USD 8.12

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

So much has happened in the generative AI space globally, and in Israel since we published the previous version of the Israeli generative AI landscape, back almost exactly five months ago. So far in 2023, generative AI startups raised $16 billion, according to Dealroom. billion, a 2.5x

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VC Cafe

JULY 7, 2023

I was interviewed by TheMarker (Hebrew only) on why Israeli startups haven’t been part of the mega funding rounds in AI. I thought it’s a good timing to elaborate on where I see opportunities for Israeli startups in this rapidly growing space. billion, a 73% YoY drop, according to a new report by Viola.

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VC Cafe

MARCH 14, 2025

Cohere debuted Command-A , a generative AI model aimed at complex enterprise tasks that can run on minimal compute. billion and Sony is experimenting with AI-powered characters on Playstation. Great stuff Noam Maital and team Darwin AI on your $5M seed round to build the secure AI hub for governments! on your $7.5M

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VC Cafe

OCTOBER 20, 2024

As competition heats up, plowing money into foundation model startups is fraught with risk. Iuri Struta , S& P Global ( source ) I was listening to Bret Taylor , the founder and CEO of Sierra, former co-CEO of Salesforce, ex CTO of Facebook and current chairman of OpenAI on the 20VC podcast.

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VC Cafe

DECEMBER 27, 2022

The event was a get together for the Israeli ecosystem: startups, corporates, investors and academics in the gaming space. Israeli startups are mainly known for their prowess in cyber or semiconductors, but over the past few years, the country has also become a gaming powerhouse. Israeli gaming startups generated $8.6

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VC Cafe

MAY 1, 2023

Android may have a larger global market share, but Apple’s loyal customer base, strong brand, and profitable ecosystem made it the clear winner. We are seeing some of this play out in the generative AI space, where the cloud providers are active investors to attract future revenue. Where does this leave us?

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

Readers of VC Cafe will know that I’m a big fan of startup landscape s. A new report by F2 Venture Capital, Google Cloud and Deloitte Israel shines a spotlight onto the buzzing emerging AI landscape in Israel so I couldn’t resist covering it. Startups leveraging AI attracted over 60% of all capital raised in 2023.

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VC Cafe

OCTOBER 2, 2023

A bright spot is emerging in early-stage funding, signaling renewed investor risk appetite and startup momentum. The revival of seed funding is an encouraging sign of a return to startup growth after a period of caution. If the seed funding resurgence continues, it could mark a turning point for the startup ecosystem.

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Yesterday was Halloween (also my birthday) and Israeli startups have certainly received a lot of ‘candy’ As if in a parallel universe to the war, over the past week alone Israeli startups raised over $500M in investments. Will the Israeli startup ecosystem overcome them? We must #BRINGTHEMHOME. absolutely.

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VC Cafe

AUGUST 17, 2024

The report emphasises the urgency of investment in startups and education for underrepresented populations to secure one of the main sources of tax revenue. In the wider tech world, Google launched Pixel 9, its first AI powered phone and a new image generator, Imagen3 , criticised for being too censored. for its defence tech.

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VC Cafe

JULY 29, 2024

In the tech world, Israeli startup Wiz turned down the $23 billion acquisition offer from Google and opted for going public instead. The CrowdStrike global outage is estimated to have cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4bn. To add more heat, Microsoft launched generative AI search results for Bing.

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VC Cafe

JUNE 28, 2024

Despite the war in Israel over the past 9 months, both the rate of capital raising and exits of Israeli cyber startups in the first half of 2024 were the highest since 2021. Global: From VC Cafe : consumer startups still got Mojo! since April, more than all Energy startups have raised in 2024. BRINGTHEMHOME.

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VC Cafe

JANUARY 10, 2024

In November 2022 I published a post titled “ generative AI will go mainstream when it goes from playful to useful “, and I think you will agree that this transition is in full swing. 2023 was the year generative AI went mainstream The pace of advancement in generative AI has been astounding.

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VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Ori Goshen of AI21 Labs reveals what is broken in Enterprise AI and what’s needed for the next phase. Gigi Levy-Weiss predicts that the next 10 years will be all about the AI Agent Economy GLOBAL Accelerating Europe report (part 1 of 3) by Dealroom.co Lots of data here. Keep on creating.

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VC Cafe

OCTOBER 18, 2022

Venture capital is down 36% globally QoQ and a lot of startups face an uncertain future. However, there are still opportunities for startups to raise money in a down market. Startups need to be prepared to pitch their businesses in a down market and show how they will be successful despite the current conditions.

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 9, 2024

In this post, I collated some of the latest research published on Agentic AI , with the aim to share knowledge, primarily with founders, about what can be built in this space. Companies such as Israeli startup Weavy.ai , which caters to professional designers. Sapphire Ventures created a dedicated landscape for AI powered design tools.

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VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

New details about the real costs of training the model (much higher) and the source of the data (distilled from OpenAI against the T&Cs) are slowly surfacing, but it’s clear that Chinese AI startups are here to stay. Baichuan AI is pivoting toward specialized AI models for finance and healthcare.

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Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 1, 2024

2- For a life purpose that aligns with my values Photo Credit: Silvija Meilunaite I have been running a successful fashion startup for eight years and loved it, but my values and priorities have changed. That’s why I started Craggle, to simplify and streamline the home loan process using cutting-edge Generative AI.

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Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

2- To live my life purpose that aligns with my values Photo Credit: Silvija Meilunaite I have been running a successful fashion startup for eight years and loved it, but my values and priorities have changed. That’s why I started Craggle, to simplify and streamline the home loan process using cutting-edge Generative AI.

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

Israeli startups raised $7.8 While the figures are slightly down from 2023, they reflect the resilience and strength of the Israeli startup ecosystem, even at a time of war. More interesting figures in the Startup Nation Central report linked below. More interesting figures in the Startup Nation Central report linked below.

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

We must #BRINGTHEMHOME It’s been a tough year for Israeli startups, but they fought hard to keep their companies alive, despite dealing with war, record low venture capital volumes, and the usual challenges of running a startup. Israeli startups deliver #NOMATTERWHAT. Salesforce spent $2.6 Well done Marina S.

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VC Cafe

OCTOBER 25, 2024

We must #BRINGTHEMHOME It’s been a slower news week in Israeli startups due to the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. NEW FUNDS Congratulations Gili Raanan and team Cyberstarts on the new (and fourth) $60M fund to invest in seed stage Israeli cybersecurity startups! AI companies have reached a combined value of $9 trillion.

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VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2024

In July 2024, Israeli startups raised $703 million in 28 deals, more than double the amount raised in July 2023 (before the war). In the wider tech world, Generative AI startups raised $14.4B of global venture capital volume. In the wider tech world, Generative AI startups raised $14.4B

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VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

It’s only been a bit over a month since the start of 2025 past year has witnessed seismic shifts in technology, from breakthroughs in generative AI to emerging solutions in climate tech and healthcare. This is an extension of the previous list with new sources and startup requests. You can find the 2024 RFS list here.

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VC Cafe

AUGUST 30, 2024

It’s not every day that an Israeli startup gets acquired for over $1 billion, but it happened last week when Johnson & Johnson acquired Israeli startup V-Wave for $1.7 NEW FUNDS Congratulations Amikam Norkin and team Ace Capital Partners on launching a new fund focused on military tech startups!

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

I pointed him to a couple of recent reports that showed that Israeli startups raised 35% more in the first nine months of 2024, than the equivalent period in 2023 (pre-war). All of this AI usage is creating a power problem: nearly half of AI data centres may lack enough power by 2027, according a report by Gartner.

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

But while there is an ongoing war for the past 11 months, startups continue to innovate and make progress. The cover of the newsletter this week is dedicated to gaming, as Israeli startup SuperPlay was acquired by Playtika for $700M (with an earn out potential reaching up to $1.9 billion based on milestones).

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View from Seed

MAY 2, 2024

Among these are the Lean Startup Method, Business Model Canvas, and Design Thinking*. Of the respondents, 70% acknowledged employing generative AI tools at some stage of their entrepreneurial journey, with chatbot assistants being the most popular tool mentioned (including ChatGPT and Claude). Survey of 10 HBS entrepreneurs.

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