“Israelis will come to Texas and feel like they’re rockstars.” The rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment may be rising in the U.S., but Startup Nation still has a friend in America’s Lone Star State. Read more

Israel’s judicial overhaul turmoil threatens economic growth, investment. Israel’s economy may face ratings downgrades, falling foreign investment and a weaker tech sector if turmoil arising from the government’s contentious judicial reforms continues. Read more

Morningstar removes Vesttoo report that claimed suspected fraud could reach $5-10 billion. The rating agency released a report on Thursday estimating that the the total size of outstanding transactions on Vesttoo are between $5-10 billion, which the Israeli company said “cannot possibly be realistic.” Read more

Voia raises $3 million to bring Hollywood production quality to every phone. The founders include serial entrepreneurs who sold companies to Twitter, VMWare and IBM, and past executives from Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Read more

Boarding Pass | With the help of Lewandowski and Modric, Skillset provides youngsters with a platform to improve their game. The company has raised €1.5 million ($1.65 million) for its e-learning platform helping young people improve their physical fitness. Read more

“Bard is not intended to provide factual answers. Bard is a companion for creative tasks.” Adi Mayrav Gilady, a product manager in Google’s research division, delves into the intricacies of the innovative AI chatbot, the challenges and triumphs in training Bard in Hebrew, and sheds light on the efforts to make it as bias-free and creative as possible. Read more

Twitter suing Bright Data, demands it stops scraping. X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, is claiming that the Israeli company “scrapes and sells millions of records from X Corp.’s X platform, in blatant violation of X Corp.’s terms of service.” Read more

Potential exposure to Vesttoo collateral estimated at between $5-10 billion – Morningstar. The fraud came to light when one of the letters of credit on the platform was found to be fake, leading to a comprehensive review of all LOCs on the Israeli company’s platform. Read more

Meta’s double-digit growth the perfect response to critics. It may not be the most innovative and original company around, but it is among the best at identifying trends and possibilities, and it is also shameless enough to blatantly copy what it needs from other companies and quickly implement it in its services. Read more

Opinion | Ethics of LLMs in investments: dos and don’ts. Roy Geva Glasberg and Lee Moser, Managing Partners of AnD Ventures, discuss the rise of large language models (LLMs) in the investment world – the benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations. Read more

CrowdStrike in negotiations to acquire cyber startup Bionic for $200-300 million. Microsoft has also recently explored the possibility of acquiring the Israeli company, which develops a platform that helps IT, operations, and security teams to operate and protect applications more efficiently. Read more

Gil Shwed: “I don’t know if today I would register Check Point in Israel.” “I have been keeping my opinions to myself for 30 years. I wish that if I voiced my opinion it would make a difference to someone, unfortunately it will not have an effect,” the CEO of Check Point added. Read more

EssilorLuxottica acquires Nuance Hearing for tens of millions of dollars to integrate hearing aids into fashionable eyeglasses. The world’s largest eyewear group and maker of Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses said it plans to leverage the Israeli startup’s technology to embed high-quality hearing tech into eyewear. Read more

Trustmi raises $17 million for end-to-end payments security platform. The Israeli startup has developed a product that assesses the safety of financial transactions, warns against suspected fraud in real-time, and identifies potential flaws in the process that may result from human error. Read more

Israeli tech entrepreneurs ring opening bell at NYSE, protest judicial overhaul. Guy Franklin, the founder and CEO of Israeli Mapped in NY, was the bell ringer alongside the NYSE President, Lynn Martin, and Israeli startup CEOs including Assaf Rappaport from Wiz, Adam Singolda from Taboola, Ori Goshen from AI21, Merav Bahat from Dazz, Amir Hever from UVeye, and more. Read more

Morgan Stanley cuts Israel sovereign credit to “dislike stance”, Moody’s warns of “significant risk.” There is “a significant risk that political and social tensions over the [judicial reform] will continue, with negative consequences for Israel’s economy and security situation,” Moody’s wrote. Read more

Thales acquiring cybersecurity company Imperva for $3.6 billion. The French giant is purchasing the Israeli-founded company from private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which paid $2.1 billion for Imperva five years ago. Read more

Cybersecurity startup Deep Instinct laying off 15% of team. The company will be parting ways with 46 of around 300 employees, including 19 in Israel. Read more

Blackstone investing $10 million in cybersecurity startup Adaptive Shield. The financial giant is already a client of the Israeli startup, and this deal is part of a strategic agreement between the two companies to integrate the cyber company’s technology into Blackstone’s operations. Read more

Vesttoo scandal aftershocks still rocking insurance sector. Clear Blue Insurance Group and Obsidian Insurance Holdings are among those to have been affected by the alleged fraud that took place on the Israeli startup’s platform. Read more

Brevel completes $18.5 million Seed round to develop alternative protein from microalgae. The Israeli startup’s technology combines sugar-based fermentation of microalgae with high light concentrations at industrial scales to produce a protein that will be incorporated by food manufacturers into plant-based products. Read more