Ido Yablonka

Former NBA player Omri Casspi has raised $60 million in seed capital to invest in early-stage startups and companies founded by Israeli serial entrepreneurs developing technologies in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence. - by Frederic Eger/Sharon Wrobel/TOI - Photo: Then Memphis Grizzlies forward Omri Casspi in action during an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers, December 2, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP/Matt Slocum) Swish Ventures is Casspi's second seed venture capital fund after stepping onto the court of tech investments two years ago following his retirement from professional basketball as the first Israeli player to break through in the NBA. The new fund hopes to invest $5 million to $7 million in about 10 startups each. Among Swish’s investors are venture capital fund Sequoia, Israeli and US institutional investors, and more than 25 serial entrepreneurs, including EON founder Ophir Ehrlich, PointFive founder Gal Ben-David, Upwind co-founder Amiram Shachar, Granulate (sold to Intel) co-founder Asaf Ezra, and Armis founders Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael. The fund manages a total of $125 million in assets. Casspi said the new fund received $172 million in commitments from investors despite launching during a challenging period in which Israel remains entangled in a multi-front war. He said the new fund received $172 million in commitments from investors — though he decided not to expand the size of the financing round. In November last year, about a month after war broke out with the Hamas terror group, Casspi put his own money in the game to help bring tech billionaire Elon Musk to Israel. During the visit, Musk met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog and toured Gaza border communities ravaged by the Hamas terror group’s devastating onslaught on October 7, which killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Casspi emphasized that the visit shows how the “high-tech sector serves as an ambassador for Israel during these challenging times.” He also partnered with Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta and a board member of some of the largest companies in the US, to expose facts about Hamas’s crimes that she has shared worldwide. Through the industry’s network, they had the privilege of participating in raising significant donations for the rehabilitation of communities in the Gaza perimeter. Investors are showing resilience in the tech ecosystem, despite concerns following the October 7 attack. The amount of capital directed towards Israel is likely higher than ever, with international firms leading 40 seed rounds in 2024. Tal Brody, a former captain of Israel's national basketball team and a senior adviser at Cukierman & Co., is serving as Israel's ambassador of goodwill. The tech ecosystem's response and resilience have been surprising, and the former captain of Israel's national basketball team is following in the footsteps of other athletes.

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There is something very special about monday.com, ironSource, Yotpo, Lemonade, Fiverr, Playtika, and the other B2B startups that were founded in the early 2000s. They built the playbook that the current Israeli startup ecosystem stands on. I would love to interview these founders: Eran Zinman & Roy Mann CEO monday.com Tomer Tagrin. CEO Yotpo Tomer Bar-Zeev CEO ironSource Micha Kaufman ceo Fiverr Daniel Schreiber CEO Lemonade Or any founders that built from the early 2000s and still building. If someone can make an intro or ask them directly to come on the Founder StorieZ Podcast I would greatly appreciate it 🙏

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Steve Jobs' Legacy vs. Apple Today: Would He Agree? As Apple faces allegations of sending employee donations to organizations with ties to the Israeli army and illegal settlements, one must ask: Would Steve Jobs, the visionary who revolutionized technology, stand by Apple's current actions? A recent report revealed that Apple fully covers wages for employees who go to serve in the Israeli military, directly supporting the atrocities taking place in Gaza. These donations reportedly fund military activities and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite Apple's stated commitment to human rights. With accusations of human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings against Palestinians, Apple’s actions stand in stark contrast to the values Jobs championed. Would Jobs have allowed his company to perpetuate such horrors, or would he have used his platform for justice and compassion? It's time to reflect: How did we go from innovation and humanity to enabling genocide? #Apple #SteveJobs #CorporateAccountability #HumanRights #BoycottApple #WarCrimes #FreePalestine #EndApartheid https://lnkd.in/gBj-Wnbm __________________      ____________________    __________________ ENTITY (noun): A force or organization so devoid of humanity that it systematically commits atrocities and hides behind shallow justifications, a symbol of destruction, violence, and pure evil that must be eradicated from the human collective. DO NOT ask me again if I condemned October 7th!!! #BlockTheEmbassies United Nations International Criminal Court International Court of Justice (ICJ) INTERPOL United Nations Office at Geneva World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

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Is it shopping season for Israeli technology? The recent surge in M&A activity in Israel is the most significant sign of hope and optimism I’ve seen since October 7th. It demonstrates the potential of Israeli tech and the faith placed in it by top global companies. When technology leaders choose to further expand into Israel and acquire local teams, you know financial outlooks are positive. In cybersecurity - often the poster-child of Israeli tech - we’ve seen five acquisitions in quick succession totaling more than $1Bn. Flow Security by CrowdStrike (~$200M), Avalor Security, a Zscaler Company ($350M), Gem Security (acquired by Wiz) ($350M), Silk Security by Armis ($150M) and Entitle by BeyondTrust (~150M). All are led by exceptional individuals, well done! Perhaps more telling is the emerging AI industry. Last week NVIDIA announced its acquisition of two companies for a combined value of $1Bn. Congratulations RunAI ($700M) and Deci AI ($300M). Mainstream media is so focused on the voices of a racist minority calling for boycotts and divestments that they fail to capture actual news. Antisemites might yell the loudest, but the actions of multinational corporations speak louder than words. I am optimistic about the future. Are you?

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These are the 15 Israeli growth stage startups that have grown fastest in the past 6 months. All these companies are in the 151 to 500 employee category. The data is based on headcount data that we collect at Aption and is one data point that feeds our company insights and #EquityPooling clustering models Unsurprisingly a lot of cyber, dev ops and deep tech names here #1 daily.dev at 491% growth 🚀 🚀 #2 Port IO at 220% 🚀 #3 Particula at 120% 🔥 #4 Exodigo at 97% #5 Tailor Brands at 60% #6 Cyera at 55% #7 Hello Heart at 51% #8 Anyword at 50% #9 Candex at 39% #10 Pinecone at 39% #11 Paragon at 36% #12 Silverfort at 33% #13 Jones Software at 30% #14 Fullpath at 29% #15 Atera at 27%

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Whisper-Medusa Released: aiOla’s New Model Delivers 50% Faster Speech Recognition with Multi-Head Attention and 10-Token Prediction Israeli AI startup aiOla has unveiled a groundbreaking innovation in speech recognition with the launch of Whisper-Medusa. This new model, which builds upon OpenAI’s Whisper, has achieved a remarkable 50% increase in processing speed, significantly advancing automatic speech recognition (ASR). aiOla’s Whisper-Medusa incorporates a novel “multi-head attention” architecture that allows for the simultaneous prediction of multiple tokens. This development promises to revolutionize how AI systems translate and understand speech. The introduction of Whisper-Medusa represents a significant leap forward from the widely used Whisper model developed by OpenAI. While Whisper has set the standard in the industry with its ability to process complex speech, including various languages and accents, in near real-time, Whisper-Medusa takes this capability a step further. The key to this enhancement lies in its multi-head attention mechanism; this enables the model to predict ten tokens at each pass instead of the standard one. This architectural change results in a 50% increase in speech prediction speed and generation runtime without compromising accuracy. Read our take on Whisper-Medusa: https://lnkd.in/gM6wCQeW Model: https://lnkd.in/gr6iPQS3 GitHub: https://lnkd.in/gvRAxncP aiOla

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Israeli tech is at a crossroads On the one hand, we see a surge in tech, particularly with AI. On the other hand, we're dealing with a decrease in economic activity and a potential shift in the job market While it's true that the current situation in the country has led to a decrease in economic activity, we must also consider the impact of AI on the job market. Companies may be using the current economic climate as a cover to transition to AI-driven operations, a move that isn't typically popular… The rapid development of AI, such as OpenAI's GPT-3, suggests that we may see a big shift in the job market sooner than anticipated. While this is great for efficiency, it also raises concerns about job security, and the future of jobs Furthermore, the job market, especially in the tech sector, is becoming increasingly competitive There are fewer jobs than there are people looking for work. This issue is particularly pronounced in the Haredi community, where job opportunities are even scarcer. The community faces additional challenges, including bias and a lack of experience. Most training programs today don't offer job experience or placement, leaving individuals to navigate the job market on their own Given these circumstances, #entrepreneurship emerges as a viable path… knowing how to run a business and possessing skills that can't be easily replicated by AI can be a real advantage Along with those challenges, another major question is… is Israel a conducive environment for setting up a business?   The Israeli government's stance towards businesses, particularly #startups, plays a big role in shaping the country's economic landscape. High taxes and stringent regulations can deter entrepreneurs, pushing them to relocate their businesses to countries like the US This trend is worrying… as startups and new businesses are the key drivers of economic growth. A decrease in the number of companies not only reduces job opportunities but also hampers growth The government's role in fostering a supportive environment for businesses cannot be overstated Initiatives to ease regulations, provide tax cuts, and offer support can significantly enhance the business landscape, encouraging entrepreneurs to establish and grow their businesses in Israel While it's true that thriving businesses may not always equate to more jobs, particularly because of #AI, they do contribute to economic growth. The profits generated by these businesses can be reinvested into the economy, catalyzing further growth The next few years in this country are about striking a balance between embracing tech, entrepreneurship, and ensuring job security, as well as creating an environment conducive for building businesses What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the Comments section below Safra-Tech Calcalist כלכליסט CTech by Calcalist #startupnation #artificialintelligence #israelunderfire

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Adam Fisher partner Bessemer Venture Partners has some of the biggest exits in Israel Wix, Fiverr, Mellanox, and has invested in some of the best companies. So I was super curious what are the practice reps that he does or did to become the best. And it's a combo of skill & luck. Link to the full episode in the comments.

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Companies need the ability to scale up—and down—as needed. Thank you, CTech by Calcalist for hosting me! From COVID-19 to security threats, global issues have pushed many companies—especially in Israel’s high-tech sector—to rethink how they operate. And it's been a wild ride growing ScaleOps during these times. There's been a major shift towards flexible employment models like outsourcing and freelancing. And we had to rise to the challenge to provide top-notch outsourced expertise to over 200+ clients over the years—becoming HubSpot and Salesforce partners, hiring and training a winning team of #RevOps and Marketing ops experts, and navigating market changes along the way. Outsourcing isn’t just a cost-cutting measure. It’s about staying agile, accessing top-notch skills, and focusing on what really matters to your business. Hiring externally used to have a bad rap, but that’s old news. Today, it’s seen as a smart strategy to navigate uncertainty and come out on top. What do you think? -- ScaleOps™ • A RevOps Company

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Regardless of your company's stage, size, industry, or location, every founder and CEO aims to provide the best customer service. This is especially crucial for insurance companies, whose customers seek quick and easy resolutions after accidents or property damage. Israel based startup, Five Sigma - AI-Native Claims Management, recognized the problem and is trailblazing claims management, infusing advanced Native AI capabilities into its Claims Management System in collaboration with Google Cloud. Five Sigma is a cloud-native, vertical SaaS claims management solution designed specifically for property & casualty insurance companies to revolutionize claims handling, maximize their potential, create high-performing claims organizations, reduce loss costs, maintain compliance, and most importantly, provide exceptional customer experience. I’m proud that Five Sigma is using Google Cloud’s technology to disrupt the insurance industry with AI, speed up insurance claims and provide business success and continued innovation to their customers. Congrats Oded Barak, Michael Krikheli, Dror Sholomon and team on your incredible product. #Google #GoogleCloud #CloudForIsrael

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Amazing news for Israel, but maybe not so great news for the Israeli tech scene? Ilya Sutskever Raises $1 Billion for his New AI Venture! Bottom Line: Ilia Sutskever, one of OpenAI’s co-founders, has raised $1 billion for his new company, which aims to develop Super-Intelligence—an AI that can outperform human cognitive tasks with much (much) greater intelligence and efficiency. Just three months after announcing his new venture—Safe SuperIntelligence (which I wrote about previously) — it was revealed just a few days ago that Sutskever, a former Israeli and one of the brightest minds in the industry, has secured $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation. The funding round, of course, includes some of the most renowned investors in the world (Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and others). Sutskever founded the venture alongside @Daniel Levy, who worked with him at OpenAI, and investor @Daniel Gross. Pay attention to the word *Safe* in the company's name—it’s a core part of the mission these entrepreneurs have set for themselves. Sutskever says the company is laser-focused on one goal: creating the "holy grail" of AI research—Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—which would be capable of performing any cognitive process humans can, including language processing, voice recognition, vision, understanding context, decision-making, and more. You can check out their minimalist website for more about their mission. Great news for Israel: The development center will be based both in Israel and Palo Alto. Slightly less great news for the local tech scene: A well-funded company is about to recruit top researchers, scientists, and developers locally.  Bigger picture — this is a big wow for all of us here in Israel. Israeli researchers - new job opportunities will soon be posted! #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AGI #SuperIntelligence #IsraelTech

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ICI Fund was ranked among the Most Active Foreign VC Funds investing in Israel! 🎉🍾 ICI Fund strongly believes in the #Israeli #startup ecosystem and will continue to invest in incredible Israeli #entrepreneurs with #AI solutions that are #securing our #future. In 2024, ICI Fund invested in: 1. Feminai, led by Karny Ilan, MD, Shani Klein and Gal Yanuka; 2. Rangers.ai, led by Ayelet Biger-Levin; 3. Reborn Medical, led by Shir Kashi 4. UrbanMix, led by Sharon Yavo Ayalon and Daphna Levine 5. Stay tuned! In process 💪 ICI Fund is planning to invest in at least two additional companies by the end of 2024. We focus on #preseed stage #investments. If your vision includes transforming a critical industry, securing our future, and improving the world—and you possess the unwavering determination to make it happen—we'd love to connect with you. Let's meet! #BringThemHomeNOW!

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While I'm glad to see the The Wall Street Journal publish this, is it really new news? Israeli entrepreneurs have been leading the cybersecurity market for years. 8200 is a big reason for that, but it is also the broader ecosystem that has been built up around it. Experienced entrepreneurs, VCs that understand the market (like Merlin Ventures!) and buyers that have come to expect world-class capabilities from Israeli startups. It's a big part of why we built the Israeli Startup Advisory Network (ISAN) with our partner Josh Cohen - to help further foster connectivity between US security executives and the innovation coming from the Israeli startup community. Israel has delivered so many amazing companies already, and yet we continue to see new innovations coming out every day. The cyber expertise from 8200 is only the beginning. Wrap in the experience gained by building companies over the last decade, along with so many brilliant technologists applying new AI capabilities to the hardest problems in cyber, and maybe the WSJ isn't so far off - Israel's startup market is just getting started! https://lnkd.in/gAyb5gwF #IsraelTechDelivers #NoMatterWhat Shay M. Tav Spector-Levi Almog G. Julie Arndorfer Andrew Smeaton Aya Shaharabani

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2023 was a tough year for Israeli startups. After a few slow quarters, the Israeli startup ecosystem is starting to show signs of recovery and stability. According to the latest tech review for Q1 2024 (by LeumiTech and IVC Data and Insights): - Israeli startups raised $1.74 billion in Q1 2024, just 1% below Q1 2023 - Q1 2024 had more seed rounds than each of the 3 previous quarters in 2023 - Cyber dominated in M&A and large rounds Link to the my post (and the report) in the first comment 👇

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The only way to build a startup is with investors. This is what every Israeli grows up hearing in the news success stories of founders who raised millions to build their startup. You have an idea, maybe an MVP, and some design partners—then you have to raise money to make it. When we finally had the idea for Dondy we pitched it to an investor at a conference for young entrepreneurs at Tel Aviv University. The investor liked it and asked for a presentation. We created our first presentation and sent it over... and never heard back. A week later, we saw that monday.com Startup for Startup community was hosting a one-on-one event with investors. We met a great investor there and pitched our presentation for the first time. He gave us some important tips: 1. Talk to experienced people in the industry. They’ll refine your idea and guide you toward the right audience. 2. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and your idea to other entrepreneurs. No one’s going to steal your idea, and everyone’s eager to meet young founders. 3. People can be skeptical—don’t take it personally. 4. Be prepared to get a lot of “no.” It's a tough process. 5. Focus more on angel investors in the industry than on venture capitalists. Each one might invest $100K and bring in friends. 6. Clearly explain the "why now" and how you're different from competitors. And the tip I'll remember for the rest of my life: 7. "Take everything I say, divide by 17, and take the square root." He also told us he thinks we can raise funds with a $3M valuation. (For us as first-time founders, it seemed like a lot.) We took his advice and hit the ground running! The next two weeks were all about meeting as many founders and investors as we could from our sector. On the image: Inbal, our co-founder and CFO, and I preparing for our first investor pitch.

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🚨 24-hour countdown! 🚨 Tomorrow, we're pulling back the curtain on how Israeli startups can ace #SOC2 compliance without breaking a sweat. And it’s all happening in Hebrew! Ready to see how Scytale can transform your compliance game? Join us for a live demo with Matan Ephron, our compliance solutions consultant, who’ll walk you through: • The must-know secrets of SOC 2 compliance for Israeli companies • A foolproof roadmap to SOC 2 compliance • A live tour of our platform that automates the SOC 2 process  • Expert tips on how we handle your audit-readiness from start to finish Don’t miss this chance to get ahead of the game. Set your alarms and get ready to level up your compliance game with us. 🚀 See you tomorrow! Register here: eu1.hubs.ly/H0cm8sn0

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Google's BIGGEST acquisition: Israeli cybersecurity company Wiz. Despite recent doubts, Israel's tech scene is thriving. VCs and big tech see this too. Remember when Intel announced its $25 BILLION chip factory in Israel in late December 2023? It's clear—Israel is still a hotbed for innovation and talent. Here are the stunning reported facts: - Wiz boasts about $500 million in ARR, making this deal’s multiples mind-blowing. - It reached $100m in revenues ONLY 18 months after launch. - Just two months ago, they raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation. This deal is a massive win for the global tech ecosystem. It injects much-needed liquidity (a great point made by Harry Stebbings) and boosts Israel's tech landscape during a difficult time for the country. The skeptics can step aside. Israel remains one of the best places in the world to build, invest in and acquire tech companies. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ UPDATE JULY 23, 2024: Reports that Wiz has turned down the acquisition offer! Relevant article in the comments #startups #venturecapital #investing #Israel

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And it’s not even September yet! *** Exciting times for the Israeli startup scene. In just two days, there have been at least 4 announcements from startups closing funding rounds, and more great news from VCs raising funds to invest in Israeli founders. Here are some shoutouts 👏 👏 Nagish raised $11M to make communication accessible for the deaf. Vee - AI For Good’s May Piamenta raised $7M to redefine nonprofit management. Enso’s Mickey Haslavsky raised $6M for AI agents to streamline daily tasks and save SMBs thousands of dollars. Dono raised $3.7M to help verify homeownership with AI. Also: Meitav - מיטב בית השקעות raised $3.7M to invest in tech startups. EISN 8200 and 8200 Impact launched a cohort for wartime startups. Please add more in the comments if I missed anyone. It’s more than just resilience; we know how to deliver, no matter what.

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Last week Bria was ranked #20 of the most promising startups in Israel, kudos to the team! It is a long journey to build a startup. At 8 years old, I fell in love with mathematics, and at that point, I knew that's what I'd get my PhD in. That passion not only shaped my academic path but also ignited my interest in visual technologies and AI, which led me to pursue a PhD in computer vision. During my studies, I began to realise just how much the future of content would change with AI coming into the mix. Fast-forward to 2020, during COVID and before the Gen AI hype, I combined my understanding of how visuals can be generated with AI and the valuable enterprise experience I gained in my previous role at Trax Retail, to co-establish an AI startup called BRIA. We had one simple goal: To make it easy for any individual and company to generate the exact visuals needed for any use. Our key objective in helping you achieve this is to ensure that we provide you with a transparent, open, and responsible AI platform trained solely on licensed data, no public figures and deep fake, no privacy infringement. And in a world where more than 43% of people don't trust companies to use AI morally, Responsible AI use has never been more important. In building BRIA, we've been able to help businesses all over the world scale their content development process. And what gets me even more excited is that we've been able to partner with different creators to ensure that their creativity is respected, rewarded, and isn't pirated. We trained our own high quality foundation models and built the core tools of Generative AI so everyone can use it. The journey so far has been anything but linear, and I'm eager to continue sharing the innovative features we're developing, discuss the critical importance of Responsible AI, and explore how you can leverage our platform to its fullest potential. Join us as we pave the way for a new era of content creation, where innovation meets integrity.

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