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From stealth startup acquisitions to large startups, and from fundraising Series A to Series G rounds, buyers and investors were made for a busy news cycle.
The most interesting startup story of the week
This week must have seemed like the best time for companies to announce their latest startup acquisition.
Unlocked: The company acquired unlocked Mobile Testing Startup Corellium from Israeli telephone company Cellebrite for $170 million in cash.
Suggested Discovery: IBM has acquired Seek AI, an AI platform that allows users to ask questions about enterprise data using natural language. The technology is set up to be an important part of IBM’s new NYC-based AI accelerator, Watsonx AI Labs.
Data Access: Data Governance Platform Colibra has acquired Raito. Raito is the startup that has raised $4 million so far to date to help businesses manage which employees and customers have access to internal data. Both Colibra and Wright are based in Brussels.
Challenger: AMD has acquired Brium, a stealth startup focused on AI software optimization.
Crunchy: Snowflake has revealed plans to buy Crispy Data, a startup that will help businesses build with Postgres. Cloud Data Platform Company declined to comment on the valuation of the transaction, but sources estimated it to be around $250 million.
No more Plague: Data Label Startup Scale AI hired a team behind Pesto AI.
Hmm: Airtime, the video startup for Evernote founder Phil Libin, has fired dozens of employees. The company, formerly known as MMHMM, raised nearly $135 million in venture capital in several early stages.
Pain: Indian grocery startup Kiranapro confirmed it was hacked last May. All that data was wiped out by the attack.
The legal battle continues: HR Tech Startup Deel has accused rivals of hiring employees who spent six months impersonating customers, but Rippling has released an amended complaint regarding corporate spy accusations against Deel.
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
This week, money has once again gone uphill, but some funds have also been sent to startups who are hoping to challenge market leaders, expand internationally and make roads safer.
Lucky Lucky: Andrill, a defense technology startup, raised a huge $2.5 billion Series G round, including a $1 billion investment from the founder’s fund, doubled to $30.5 billion in the process.
Move Cursors: Anysphere, the maker of AI coding assistant cursors, has raised $900 million at a valuation of $9.9 billion. Sources say the company outpaces its recurring revenue of $500 million a year.
Brain Chips: Neuralink, Elon Musk’s Brain Computer Interface Startup secures a $650 million Series E, reportedly of around $9 billion.
Insured: Bolttech, a Singapore-based Insurtech Company specializing in embedded insurance, has completed a $147 million Series C at a $2.1 billion valuation.
APUS vs GPU: Speedata, an Israeli chip startup competing with NVIDIA, has raised a $44 million Series B.
From Ireland to Japan: Irish fintech startup NOMUPAY is locked into a $40 million Series C from SB Payment Service (SBPS), a subsidiary of Japanese Telco giant Softbank Corp.
Drive with Care: Obvio is a startup that detects unsafe driving using AI and cameras installed at the Stop Sign, raising a $22 million Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Richest Slices: Between February and May, North American AI startups raised $69.7 billion in venture capital in 1,528 transactions, well over $6.4 billion (742 deals) in Europe and $3 billion (515 deals) in Asia.
Last but not least, it’s important
Elad Gil began investing in AI startups like Perplexity and Harvey before most VCs realized this trend. Now he is betting on traditional businesses that will help AI reinvent and give him a more advantageous position.