Friday, November 15, 2024

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

Despite the short workweek in many locations, the last few days have been crammed with deal announcements and funding news, although it is too early to tell how much was just on hold before the U.S. election.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits: Daniel Harvey Gonzalez / Getty Images

There are early signs that the U.S. IPO window may reopen, but let's not get ahead of ourselves; for now, we mostly have IPOs in India, M&As, and not-so-great news.

IPO later: European scale-up Klarna confidentially filed IPO documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After ups and downs, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) company reportedly saw its valuation rise back to $14.6 billion earlier this year.

IPO envy: Naspers-owned Prosus aims to take Indian fintech PayU public in 2025. The Dutch investor looks to shift more focus to India, where quick-commerce company Swiggy just made a stellar IPO debut.

Dark web monitoring: Cybersecurity unicorn Bitsight bought dark web security specialist Cybersixgill for $115 million.

Moving the cursor: Anysphere, the startup behind popular AI-enabled code editor Cursor, acquired competitor Supermaven, which had raised $12 million. Anysphere reportedly received unsolicited investment offers at valuations of up to $2.5 billion.

Out of power: Beleaguered battery manufacturer Northvolt is selling some assets to Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup, but it is unclear whether deal proceeds and other cost-cutting measures will be enough for the Swedish company to get through the coming year.

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Most interesting fundraises this week

Image Credits: Starfish Space

Startups may simply be rushing to publicize their latest news before Thanksgiving, but there were quite a few rounds announced this week, including some big ones.

Writing checks: Writer raised a $200 million Series C round at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its enterprise-focused generative AI platform.

Quiet funding: British AI startup Tessl opened up a waitlist and disclosed it raised $125 million to date. This includes a previously undisclosed seed round and a Series A. The latter was led by Index Ventures — at a $750 million post-money valuation, according to sources.

Scaling up: ScaleOps, a New York-based cloud spend management company, closed a $58 million Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners that will help it grow its current 60-person headcount to more than 200 by 2026.

Cash flow: French fintech company Agicap secured $48 million in Series C funding for its cash-flow management platform. The startup targets midsized companies and has 8,000 customers with around half of them in France.

Satellite service: U.S. startup Starfish Space raised a $29 million round of funding led by major defense tech investor Shield Capital. Its goal is to launch three full-size satellite servicing and inspection spacecraft in 2026.

Most interesting VC and fund news this week

Image Credits: Altos Ventures

New heights: VC firm Altos Ventures raised $500 million for its latest fund, according to SEC filings. The Silicon Valley-based investor was an early backer of Coupang and Roblox.

Stepping down: The co-CEO of SoftBank Vision Fund, Rajeev Misra, will step down from his leadership roles after a 10-year tenure and will no longer have an official role at SoftBank, the company said.

Last but not least

Image Credits: Saviko / Gamma-Rapho / Getty Images

Station F, the iconic startup campus in Paris, disclosed its top 40 startups of the year, and almost all of them — 34, to be precise — use AI. Hence Romain Dillet's prediction: "It's clear that every new startup going forward will incorporate AI in some way."