Hi everyone,

This week in Israeli tech was about identity in every sense: sovereign AI for governments, workforce identity for AI agents, runtime protection for autonomous systems, and access governance for the AI era.

Israeli and Israeli-founded startups announced roughly $401 million in funding this week, led by Dream’s $260M Series C at a $3B valuation, NewCore’s $66M stealth launch, Turnout’s $35M Series A, Limitless Labs’ $20M Series A, Mars Security’s stealth launch, Tenet Security’s $6M seed, and Kimba’s $6.5M launch.

The exit/liquidity side was just as active. 1Password acquired Apono for a reported $250M-$300M, SailPoint acquired Entro Security for a reported $200M, Western Union acquired GMT for about $70M, and NextVision’s founders sold $200M worth of shares. Call it $520M-$570M in acquisitions, or $720M-$770M in total liquidity if you include the NextVision secondary sale.

The pattern is clear: as companies deploy agents, automate workflows and give software more access to sensitive systems, the enterprise security stack is being rebuilt around non-human actors. Israel is showing up exactly where the market’s anxiety is highest: identity, access, runtime control, threat detection and national-scale cyber defence.

Globally, the AI story was less about chatbots and more about infrastructure, cost control and physical-world intelligence. Odyssey raised $310M for world models, CuspAI reportedly raised $400M for AI materials discovery, and Databricks launched tools to help enterprises control runaway AI spend as agent usage grows.

This week on VC Cafe, I wrote about three connected venture themes: why small tickets can matter when access is scarce, why strategic buyers are back in Israeli M&A, and why the modern GTM stack for AI-native startups is becoming a signal system, not just a bigger sales machine.

And for this week’s #FIRGUN quote, I chose:

Recent articles

Weekly #FIRGUN Newsletter – June 19 2026 This week’s #FIRGUN celebrates new Israeli funding rounds from Dream, NewCore, Turnout, Limitless Labs, Mars Security, Tenet Security and Kimba, plus acquisitions by 1Password, SailPoint and Western Union, and a new $200M corporate fund from monday.com. Read article

The Modern GTM Stack for AI-Native Startups The old SaaS GTM playbook was built for a slower buyer journey. AI-native companies need a leaner, signal-led system that connects intent, product usage, outbound, inbound, CRM context and customer success. Read article

Israeli Startup M&A in H1 2026: Strategic Buyers Are Back From Apple, Nvidia and Cisco to Mobileye, Fireblocks, 1Password and SailPoint, the first half of 2026 shows that Israeli tech remains high on the global M&A agenda. Read article

The Power of Small Tickets: When “Getting In” Matters More Than the Model Ownership matters in venture. But in a market where capital is concentrating into fewer companies, access may matter even more. Read article

Chart of the week

The new Israeli Energy Tech landscape was added to my 2026 Israeli startup landscape collection on VC Cafe​

Thanks for reading and for being part of the VC Cafe community.

Eze Vidra