Message From The Team
The last month saw Israel stand strong and resilient in the face of momentous challenges. As one of the largest tech organizations in the world, the IDF successfully demonstrated breakthrough capabilities that were in development for decades. This helps explain how - despite war and a global decline in tech funding - Israeli founders graduating from the IDF raised close to $8 billion across 577 rounds over the last 12 months, matching the total from the previous year. M&A activity also remained solid at almost $10 billion over the year, reflecting continued investor confidence in Israel’s long-term potential. Amidst challenging days, our heart goes out to those in distress. Read more
Sector Spotlight
The academic and scientific research publishing market, valued at over $25 billion annually, is monopolized by a dozen leading journals. These journals handle upwards of 2.5 million submissions per year but their processes are riddled with inefficiencies, taking an average of 6-12 months to publish new research. This month, six major publishers were hit with a federal antitrust lawsuit, accused of exploiting scholars’ labor and monopolizing access to research. The lawsuit sheds light on a broken system where researchers provide free peer reviews and sign over intellectual property rights, only for publishers to sell the results back to universities and research corporations at exorbitant prices. Oneof our latest investments is in an Israeli startup poised to disrupt this antiquated industry by building and leveraging a specialized Large Language Model (LLM) trained specifically for peer review at the heart of science and discovery. Read more
Portfolio News
- Regulus Cyber was selected to showcase its world-leading, counter-drone solution at the Association of the U.S. Army 2024. Read more
- Faye was recognized as one of the world’s 50 most promising insurtech startups by CB Insights—and the only one in the travel category. Read more
- Dataloop expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to advance its AI model development platform with a new Gemini integration. Read more
- Darrow showcased how its AI platform uncovered $5 billion in legal claims at the LF Dealmakers Summit in New York. Read more
- Astrix Security launched and hosted the inaugural Non-Human Identity Security Conference in New York. Read more
- F2 made a new investment in a startup that is set to disrupt the academic and scientific research publishing industry.
What We Are Reading
Silicon Valley’s Hot Talent Pipeline Is an Israeli Army Unit | The Wall Street Journal
OpenAI Co-Founder’s New Safety-Focused AI Startup Raises $1 Billion, Opens R&D Center in Israel | The Times of Israel
Playtika Acquiring Israeli Gaming Startup SuperPlay for up to $2 Billion | Globes
Salesforce Acquires Israeli Data Company Own for $1.9 Billion in Cash | Calcalist
Darrow’s [F2 II] AI System is Helping Lawyers Fiind Legal Needles in Data Haystacks | Calcalist
The Threat to Open AI is Growing | The Wall Street Journal
