Weekly #FIRGUN Newsletter - Special edition 3

For the third week I'm sharing a special edition of the #Firgun newsletter. Normally, you'd expect to see much more about cool developments in generative AI and the latest news in tech, but these are not normal times.

It's been 20 days since Hamas led a massacre against 1,400 Israelis. Many of them have been buried last week, entire families killed in their homes. It's been truly heartbreaking. Thousands of wounded are in hospitals and 224 Israeli hostages are still held in Gaza, including 30 children.

Our first priority needs to be to #BRINGTHEMHOME NOW.

The barbarity of the attacks is beyond words. I collected some of the testimonies of foreign reporters who attended the screening of raw footage collected by the IDF from bodycams, dashcams, cctv and the victim's phones. It will send chills down your spine.

But in this newsletter I try to focus on the positive, and spread more light, and that's what we shall do. Yotam Gutman coined an expression that is being used (sadly) in Israeli startups these days - "War Life Balance". We won't let terrorists win.

These are not 'normal' times. Israeli cities are still under daily rocket fire and most startups have multiple employees called to reserve duty in the front lines. But despite the war, Israeli entrepreneurs have the grit and perseverance that have made them successful in the world stage, and we at Remagine Ventures and many others in our ecosystem will continue to support Israeli startups #NoMatterWhat

NEW FUNDRAISING ROUNDS

• Congratulations Dan Amiga and team Island on your $100M series C on a $1.5 billion valuation for an enterprise secured web browser!
• Way to go Ido Ben-Natan and team Blockaid on coming out of stealth with a $27M series A and previous $6M seed round to boost Web3 cybersecurity!
• Well done Raviv Pryluk and team PhaseV on your $12.5M seed round to improve clinical trials success rate with AI!
• Kudos Eran Zahavy, Ph.D. and team ADOR Diagnostics on your $7.5M series B to improve infectious disease lab diagnostics!

NEW FUNDS

• Safedome is mounting emergency funding for early stage Israeli startups that raised less than $250K
• The Israel Innovation Authority announced a 400M nis fast track funding for early stage startups

LEADERS SPEAKING AGAINST ANTISEMITISM AND TERROR

In a time when many are silent in the face of antisemitism and fail to condemn terrorism I want to give props to leaders in the tech and venture industry who speak up:

• Shaun Maguire - see tweets
• Josh Wolfe - see tweets
• Mark Suster - see tweets
• David Marcus - see tweets
• Satya Nadella - read his interview: Microsoft CEO responds to anti-Israel demonstrations at universities, says Hamas terrorist attacks must be 'condemned in the strongest possible ways'
• Jensen Huang - see video below

• Martin Varsavsky - see tweets
• Palmer Luckey - see tweets
• Jeff Morris Jr. - interesting especially on the 'weaponisation' of TikTok to poison the minds of GenZ

And many more that go above and beyond. Here's a list of companies that publicly condemned Hamas Terrorist attack on Israel

Earlier this week, I was quoted by The Jewish News on the need for more business and technology leaders to take a stand against terrorism and antisemitism .

The conversations your Jewish friends are having:

It's been particularly alarming to see the rise of antisemitism in University Campuses, especially in the US. I hope the donors are watching and will act accordingly. Please continue reporting incidents and sharing on social media.

This is how these students sound:

Indeed, Never again is now.

I truly hope for better days.

Shabbat shalom,

Eze Vidra