Friday, August 23, 2024

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups.

Despite it being summer, this week was rich with announcements. Let's dive in.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits: Niharika Kulkarni / NurPhoto / Getty Images

No two businesses are the same, and that's good news: As we saw again this week, it opens up space for companies to try opposite approaches, join forces or challenge leaders.

Focus or not: In one of India's recent largest tech M&As, food delivery heavyweight Zomato disbursed $244.1 million to acquire the entertainment ticketing business of Paytm, which has been refocusing on its fintech core. In contrast, Zomato is diversifying in an effort to become a one-stop destination for dining and entertainment options.

Firefighting: FireHydrant, a startup that helps site reliability engineers find, resolve and prevent issues, acquired competitor Blameless as a stepping stone toward end-to-end incident management. FireHydrant did not share the purchase price, but it indicated that it also got an undisclosed amount of additional funding at the time of the acquisition.

Busy schedule: Dropbox has acquired AI-powered scheduling tool Reclaim.ai. Founded in 2019, the startup plans to continue developing its product following the acquisition. In a video, Reclaim.ai's founders said the whole team of 22 people is joining Dropbox; financial terms weren't disclosed.

New launches: A new generation of rocket companies is rising to challenge SpaceX. As TechCrunch space and defense reporter Aria Alamalhodaei noted, SpaceX being the undisputed leader in launch "has not cowed a growing number of competitors, who say they can bring much-needed supply and competitive pressure to the market, something that benefits the industry at large."

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Most interesting fundraises this week

Image Credits: Grafana Labs

Large funding rounds this week weren't just about AI; there was some open source, blockchain, construction tech and defense tech mixed in, too.

Up arrows: Grafana Labs, whose dashboards help enterprises visualize and analyze data from their infrastructure services, is now valued at over $6 billion following what the open source company described as an extension to its 2022 Series D round. The new funding comes from a primary and secondary transaction led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and worth $270 million, with proceeds going to the open source company and some of its stockholders.

IP vs. AI: PIP Labs, the parent company behind startup Story, raised an $80 million Series B round from a16z's crypto division and others to build an "IP blockchain" that will help content owners track and monetize IP in the age of AI.

Military ops: Virginia-based startup Defcon AI has raised a $44 million seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners to help the U.S. Department of Defense optimize logistics. Having earned around $15 million in government contracts so far, the company is in the process of certifying its software to handle classified, secret information.

Building blocks: Trunk Tools, a startup that provides automation tools to organize unstructured construction documentation, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round led by Redpoint. The company will use the cash to grow its team and develop new services such as its recently launched construction worker incentive program, CEO Sarah Buchner told TechCrunch.

Most interesting VC and fund news this week

Image Credits: Bolt

In lieu of cash: Fintech startup Bolt hasn't yet closed the $450 million funding round that its eyebrow-raising letter to investors alluded to. The London Fund CEO Ashesh Shah gave more context to TechCrunch on why his firm might be participating, and how: with marketing credits, at least partly.

Planetary health: According to an SEC filing, life sciences investor BEVC is raising a $25 million fund aimed at climate-related startups. This would mean following in the footsteps of RA Capital and Flagship Pioneering, which similarly broadened their remit beyond human health.

Last but not least

Image Credits: Getty Images

Getting acqui-hired is more frequent than publicized, and it isn't always a bad deal, founders and investors told TechCrunch. In the current market, the alternative would be to run out of money and shut down. Getting nabbed by another company "is often not as poor an outcome for founders and key staff as it initially seems," TechCrunch's Marina Temkin found out. By joining under these circumstances, they typically leapfrog new hires in terms of pay and equity, which is an incentive to remain on board.