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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Startups Weekly: No sign of pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You'd think WWDC would cause a lull in startup news. But not in June, when everyone is eager to announce their latest deals — or even to go public. This week brought us many reminders that no startup journey is linear — but the next billion-dollar idea may only be one click away. Gong chime: Neobank Chime went public this week in one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. But the company nearly died in 2016 — until a providential check. Oh no, baby, no: Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raised criticism for its new product, Nucleus Embryo, which could let future parents pick or discard embryos based on controversial factors. Personal CRM: owner Automattic acquired Clay, a startup that had raised over $9 million in venture capital for its relationship management app, which will continue to be supported. (Trivia alert: TechCrunch has been writing about Automattic for 20 years now.) ICYMI: Brad Menezes, CEO of enterprise vibe-coding startup Superblocks, has a tip for prospective founders hoping to find a billion-dollar idea: Look at the system prompts used by existing AI unicorns. Behind this week's top deals, including some particularly large ones, you will find oversubscribed rounds and VC inbound, but also hard-earned funding and bold life decisions. Slim and fat: Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup reducing the size of LLMs, raised an unusually large Series B of €189 million (about $215 million). The company claims its 'slim' models can lower AI costs and run on all sorts of devices. Upward: Enterprise AI company Glean raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation, up from $4.6 billion in September 2024. Boiling hot: Fervo Energy landed $206 million in a mix of debt and equity from backers, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to continue work on a new geothermal power plant in Utah. Nuclear fuel: German startup Proxima Fusion secured a €130 million Series A (approximately $148 million) led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures. Last mile: Coco Robotics, a delivery robot startup backed by Sam Altman, disclosed having raised $80 million across a mix of funding events from 2021 to 2024. In March, it announced a partnership with OpenAI. Singing: Hotel guest management platform Canary locked in an $80 million Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Fidelity, and others. Fresh capital: Tebi, the new fintech startup by former Adyen CTO Arnout Schuijff, raised a €30 million round ($34 million) led by Alphabet's CapitalG for its all-in-one platform for hospitality businesses. Streamlining contracts: British AI legal tech startup Definely raised a $30 million Series B from European and North American investors to make it easier for lawyers to review contracts. Based: AI sales startup Landbase closed a $30 million Series A co-led by existing investor Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, which was one of 130 VC firms that reached out after its Series A and product launch. Shining bright: Co-founded by Jewel Burks Solomon, the former head of Google for Startups in the U.S., Collab Capital closed a $75 million Fund II focused on seed and Series A investments into healthcare, infrastructure, and the future of work. The U.S. Navy says 'welcome aboard' to new startup partnerships. This week on StrictlyVC Download, acting chief technology officer Justin Fanelli shared insights on the Navy's innovation adoption kit, as well as advice for any startups looking to work with the Navy. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Startups Weekly: No sign of pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You'd think WWDC would cause a lull in startup news. But not in June, when everyone is eager to announce their latest deals — or even to go public. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Nasdaq This week brought us many reminders that no startup journey is linear — but the next billion-dollar idea may only be one click away. Gong chime: Neobank Chime went public this week in one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. But the company nearly died in 2016 — until a providential check. Oh no, baby, no: Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raised criticism for its new product, Nucleus Embryo, which could let future parents pick or discard embryos based on controversial factors. Personal CRM: owner Automattic acquired Clay, a startup that had raised over $9 million in venture capital for its relationship management app, which will continue to be supported. (Trivia alert: TechCrunch has been writing about Automattic for 20 years now.) ICYMI: Brad Menezes, CEO of enterprise vibe-coding startup Superblocks, has a tip for prospective founders hoping to find a billion-dollar idea: Look at the system prompts used by existing AI unicorns. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Most interesting VC and funding news this week Image Credits:Fervo Energy Behind this week's top deals, including some particularly large ones, you will find oversubscribed rounds and VC inbound, but also hard-earned funding and bold life decisions. Slim and fat: Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup reducing the size of LLMs, raised an unusually large Series B of €189 million (about $215 million). The company claims its 'slim' models can lower AI costs and run on all sorts of devices. Upward: Enterprise AI company Glean raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation, up from $4.6 billion in September 2024. Boiling hot: Fervo Energy landed $206 million in a mix of debt and equity from backers, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to continue work on a new geothermal power plant in Utah. Nuclear fuel: German startup Proxima Fusion secured a €130 million Series A (approximately $148 million) led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures. Last mile: Coco Robotics, a delivery robot startup backed by Sam Altman, disclosed having raised $80 million across a mix of funding events from 2021 to 2024. In March, it announced a partnership with OpenAI. Singing: Hotel guest management platform Canary locked in an $80 million Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Fidelity, and others. Fresh capital: Tebi, the new fintech startup by former Adyen CTO Arnout Schuijff, raised a €30 million round ($34 million) led by Alphabet's CapitalG for its all-in-one platform for hospitality businesses. Streamlining contracts: British AI legal tech startup Definely raised a $30 million Series B from European and North American investors to make it easier for lawyers to review contracts. Based: AI sales startup Landbase closed a $30 million Series A co-led by existing investor Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, which was one of 130 VC firms that reached out after its Series A and product launch. Shining bright: Co-founded by Jewel Burks Solomon, the former head of Google for Startups in the U.S., Collab Capital closed a $75 million Fund II focused on seed and Series A investments into healthcare, infrastructure, and the future of work. Last but not least Image Credits:Getty Images The U.S. Navy says 'welcome aboard' to new startup partnerships. This week on StrictlyVC Download, acting chief technology officer Justin Fanelli shared insights on the Navy's innovation adoption kit, as well as advice for any startups looking to work with the Navy.
Business Mayor
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Startups Weekly: A brighter outlook, but don't get carried away
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here . Startup news this week was fairly routine — in a good way: Aside from a minor kerfuffle between Y Combinator and Google, there was no headline-grabbing drama. Just steady progress and business as usual. Image Credits:Chime With IPO plans, acquisitions, and new launches, this week offers genuine reasons for optimism and bullishness. But don't get carried away, either: We're not ready for Theranos 2.0. Interesting filing: Digital consumer bank Chime publicly filed for an IPO this week. Among other numbers, the paperwork revealed it paid around $33 million to the Dallas Mavericks as part of its marketing efforts. Neon lights: Databricks is planning to spend around $1 billion to acquire Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres, with hopes that their combined offerings will let customers more efficiently deploy AI agents (whatever those are). Catching the worm: Savings and investment startup Acorns acquired EarlyBird, an investment gifting platform for families, for an undisclosed amount. EarlyBird will shut down, and its co-founders will help build out Acorns Early, the startup's smart money app for kids. Bridging gaps: AutoUnify, the latest startup coming out of Porsche's partnership with venture studio hopes to become the Plaid of automotive retail with an API that bridges the communication gap between dealerships and service shops on one side and manufacturers and software vendors on the other. Friend or foe: Google launched its AI Futures Fund, a new initiative seeking to invest in AI startups that use DeepMind's tools. Also this week, Y Combinator released a brief accusing Google of being a 'monopolist' that has 'stunted' the U.S. startup ecosystem. Dual use: British startup Vertical Aerospace is working on a hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft that would capitalize on its position as the only European player in the space, among rising demand for home-grown defense solutions. Are you kidding? Elizabeth Holmes' partner, Billy Evans, is reportedly trying to raise $50 million in funding for a new blood-testing startup with a pitch that resembles Theranos'. Image Credits:Bestow AI was once again a recurring theme in the pitches from startups that announced rounds this week, but these companies focus on a wide range of sectors and problems. Plus, there's fresh funding for fintech and for New York-based startups. Bestowed: Insurtech startup Bestow raised a $120 million Series D, including $75 million in primary investments, to launch new products and underwriting capabilities. AMD-powered: Las Vegas-based TensorWave raised a $100 million funding round co-led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures for its data center infrastructure, which primarily relies on AMD hardware. One step ahead: Sprinter Health, a company offering at-home preventative healthcare services such as blood draws, raised a $55 million Series B round led by General Catalyst. Pan-African: Egyptian startup Nawy, Africa's largest proptech platform, secured a $52 million Series A led by Partech Africa and $23 million in debt financing to support its MENA expansion. Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are its next markets. Read More Reverse flipping – medium rare or well done? - Breakfast club: Fast-growing AI note-taking platform Granola raised a $43 million Series B at a $250 million valuation and launched a collaboration feature for teams. Fusion in a bottle: University of Wisconsin spinoff Realta Fusion obtained $36 million in fresh funding, which it plans to use to finalize the design of its Anvil prototype reactor. Talking babies: Hedra, a company helping artists produce podcasts featuring AI-generated talking babies, locked in $32 million from a16z. Fashionable: Doji, a startup hoping to make virtual apparel try-ons both fun and social, secured a $14 million seed round led by Thrive Capital it will use to improve its AI avatars. Bigger apple: New York-focused VC firm Work-Bench raised $160 million for its fourth fund, which will support seed-stage founders building enterprise software. Deeper: Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund launched a $26 million fund to back early-stage startups more meaningfully than as an angel investor. The fintech company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a March funding round. Image Credits:Eric Slesinger CIA officer turned investor Eric Slesinger may be the only American VC exclusively investing in European defense tech. In a recent episode of the StrictlyVC Download podcast, he told TechCrunch about the arguably prescient move that led him to found 201 Ventures.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startups Weekly: Mixed messages from venture capital
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week brought us mixed messages. A fresh IPO filing, but a bleak outlook for exits overall. New funding rounds, but founders frustrated over lack of capital. And in the midst of it all, some VCs are still finding ways to create liquidity and raising funding for more bullish times. In a week of contrasts, startups exhibited both confidence and insecurity, and even second-time founders weren't spared from struggles. Fearless or not: Design software company Figma filed its confidential paperwork for an IPO, ignoring the fears that made both Klarna and StubHub pause their IPO plans this month following the stock market crash triggered by tariff announcements. Figma, however, isn't worry-free: It sent a cease-and-desist letter to fast-rising "vibe coding" rival Lovable over the term "Dev Mode." Frustrated: U.K. founders expressed frustration at the widening gap between funding raised by British startups and their Silicon Valley peers. According to Dealroom, British startups raised just £16.2 billion (approximately $21.5 billion) last year compared to the approximate $73.8 billion (£65 billion) raised in the U.S. Smashed: Smashing, an AI-powered reading curation app launched last June by Goodreads' founder Otis Chandler, shut down due to disappointing growth. Suspended: BluSmart, an Indian Uber rival using EVs, apparently suspended service a day after the Securities and Exchange Board of India launched an investigation into Gensol Engineering, which shares its co-founders. Back: One month after reassuming his role as Bolt's CEO, Ryan Breslow unveiled a new 'super app' that reflects his vision for the fintech company he founded in 2014. Investigating: Rippling's efforts to serve Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz have been significantly hindered by the fact that he and his lawyer are now in the UAE, TechCrunch learned. But the company isn't giving up and is also pushing for Revolut to reveal who paid off Deel's alleged spy. Tailwinds: OpenAI is reportedly seeking to buy Windsurf for $3 billion. The startup was previously known as Codeium, whose popular AI coding assistant competes with Cursor and the like. This week brought us funding news that's hinting at better days ahead, with increased valuations and bigger funds that may no longer be the exception. Growing: Marshmallow, a British insurance startup, raised $90 million in equity and debt at a valuation slightly above $2 billion. Focusing on customers left out by traditional insurers, it boasts a million drivers insured and a profitable annual revenue run rate of $500 million. Hammered win: Hammerspace, a company that helps clients like Meta use their unstructured data, raised $100 million in funding to expand its business. The valuation is above $500 million, according to sources. New chapter: Chapter, a Medicare advisory startup co-founded by former U.S. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, raised a $75 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation. Phantom limbs: Austin, Texas-based Phantom Neuro raised $19 million to fund the next stage of development of its product, a subdermal wristband-like device that lets amputees control prosthetic limbs. Resilient: Conifer, a startup whose electric hub motors don't require rare earth elements, secured a $20 million seed round from deep tech investors. Sunny days: Arnergy, a clean tech startup backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, locked down a $15 million Series B extension to expand solar access in Nigeria. Bullish: Peter Thiel's Founders Fund completed the raise of its third growth fund. Closing at $4.6 billion, it is a big step up from its previous $3.4 billion growth fund — which could be another sign that the market has gone from bearish to bullish again. VCs need liquidity, and they often know how to find it even when there are no IPOs in sight. In the latest episode of StrictlyVC Download, Industry Ventures CEO Hans Swildens broke down the way in which firms are navigating this issue. Sign in to access your portfolio
