This Week in Israeli Venture: AI defense heats up, M&A accelerates, and the layoff wave gets sharper

May 29, 2026 5 curated links

Israeli tech had one of those weeks that captures the market’s current contradiction. On one side, capital is still flowing into high-conviction categories like defense-tech, AI commerce, biotech and agentic enterprise software. On the other, the pressure on large Israeli tech employers is intensifying, with AI disruption and the strong shekel forcing a painful reset in headcount and operating models. The takeaway: Israeli tech is not slowing down, but the bar for who gets funded, acquired, or hired has clearly moved.

Deals Ynetnews

Airis Labs emerges from stealth with $60M for AI defense intelligence

Airis Labs, founded in 2023 by national security veterans and enterprise technology leaders, emerged from stealth with $60 million in total funding, including a $31 million Series B led by PSG Equity. The company turns unstructured visual data from drones, CCTV, body cameras, smartphones and social media into structured intelligence for government and public-safety use cases. It already has teams in the US and Israel and plans to double headcount this year.

Exits Ctech

Strategic M&A continues: Bluewhite, BioProtect and Yess

The M&A market is increasingly strategic and AI-driven. Large incumbents are buying small, specialist Israeli teams to accelerate autonomy, agents, robotics and category-specific AI capabilities.

Talent Ctech by Calcalist

Black Thursday: Israeli tech reels as Wix, Amdocs, Rapyd and SentinelOne cut jobs

This week’s darker signal was the escalation in layoffs across major Israeli tech employers. CTech reported that Wix, Amdocs, Rapyd, SentinelOne and Minute Media all announced or were reported to be planning cuts within hours of each other. Wix is cutting roughly 20% of its workforce, about 1,000 jobs, while Amdocs is reportedly set to lay off about 3,000 employees globally, including hundreds in Israel.

Markets Forbes

Israeli VCs features in Forbes 2026 Midas List

Congrats Gili Raanana, Lior Susan and Avi Eyal on being recognised!

Markets Dealroom

The Global Tech Ecosystem Index 2026

Tel Aviv ranks #7 in global champions (the world’s largest tech ecosystems) and #5 in Density ranking of global tech ecosystems