Weekly #FIRGUN Newsletter - Special edition #8

It's been 55 days since the barbaric attacks by Hamas which killed over 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240 people to Gaza.

This week we lived through the "Hudnah", or truce in Arabic. For 7 days, Hamas and the IDF agreed to pause to exchange hostages for prisoners (most were convicted on attempted murder of Israelis) and allow massive quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The truce was broken yesterday by two Hamas terrorists from East Jerusalem who stepped out of their car heavily armed, and shot dead 3 Israelis (including a pregnant woman) at a bus stop in Jerusalem, and wounded another 11. Hamas took responsibility for the attack.

A sigh of relief this week for the families that got back their loved ones, mainly women and children who were taken hostage on October 7th. The pictures of family reunions, mothers hugging their children for the first time in 50 days, didn't leave a dry eye in Israel. With that said, there are still 137 hostages held in Gaza, including 17 women as well grandfathers, fathers, brothers, sons. Their state is unknown. I can only imagine the nightmare their families are living through. We must #BRINGTHEMHOME NOW!

NEW FUNDING ROUNDS

• Congratulations Shani Vaza-Wahrmann and team Candex on your $45M series B to streamline vendor administration and payments across 42 countries!
• Mazal tov Nir Dremer and team CapitalOS on coming out of stealth with $39M in funding ($9M seed and $30M in debt) to empower platforms with embedded spend management!

APPOINTMENTS

• Congratulations Hila Zigman on being appointed General Partner at Cyberstarts!

EXITS

• Well done Nir Altschuler and team CartiHeal on the $330M acquisition by Smith+Nephew
• Kudos Ziv Segal and team Opster (acquired by Elastic) on the acquisition by Elastic for undisclosed terms

MISCELLANEOUS

• Respect Avi Eyal , founder of Entrée Capital for topping the 2023 Midas List in Europe and Middle East! Congrats also to Gili Raanan , Gil Dibner , Laurel Bowden and Michael Eisenberg who made it onto the prestigious ranking.
• 英伟达 announced that the first phase of the Israel-1 supercomputer was completed two months ahead of schedule. This machine is meant to lead AI operations and advance local R&D initiatives.

• Later this month, I'm delighted to support what I consider to be a very important mission - 40 Israeli startups will come to London in a delegation led by Amir Yaron, Governor of the bank of Israel. Also speaking will be Izhar Shay, an experienced VC investor and former Israeli Technology Minister who sadly lost his son Yaron on October 7. Izhar's call for founding new startups in memory of every life lost is a poignant reminder of our capacity to respond to adversity with innovation and strength.The summit will unite economic, investment, and technology leaders from Israel, led by Professor Amir Yaron, Governor of the Bank of Israel. There will also be tracks for cybersecurity, AI and Climate tech.?The event is by invitation only, but investors can apply to attend here.
• A survey by Anthony Goldbloom , founder of Kaggle Data science (acquired by Google) found that TikTok is a meaningful driver of a surge in antisemitism. Spending at least 30 minutes a day on TikTok increases the chances a respondent holds antisemitic or anti-Israel views by 17% (compared with 6% for Instagram and 2% for X). Read the analysis here.

• This week the world lost 99 year old investor guru Charlie Munger, and 100 year old Henry Kissinger who once told PM Golda Meir: "Golda, you must remember that first I am an American, second I am Secretary of State and third I am a Jew.'' Meir replied: ''Henry, you forget that in Israel we read from right to left."

MEDIA OF THE WEEK

Fixed it for you, BBC News

And more (albeit satiric) on how BBC covers the news in Israel (credit Reshef Shay)

Father of 9 year Emily Hand on her return from captivity

Elon Musk in conversation with Israel's president Herzog, concluding his trip to Israel this week

Families of the hostages that remain in Gaza speak up

How the Oakland city council responded when a member asked to include a condemnation of Hamas in the call for ceasefire (hard to believe)

Senator Marco Rubio responds to calls for a ceasefire in Gaza

Finally, a non Israel related piece, check out the State of Europe startup report that came out this week https://stateofeuropeantech.com/

That's all for this week. Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend and hope we can transform this tragedy to a rebirth and renewal. For that, we will need everyone's help.

Eze Vidra