Friday, January 31, 2025

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

The aftermath of DeepSeek's launch was arguably the biggest tech story of the week, especially for anyone keeping a close eye on public markets. But private companies, too, made headlines.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits: Voi Technology

In startup land, even a small profit is newsworthy and could lead to tomorrow's IPOs. In the meantime, we look at an M&A and some mission-driven startups fighting fire.

Scooting along: Swedish shared micromobility startup Voi reported its first profitable year. While modestly cash-positive, these 2024 results put the scooter and e-bike company in a better position to explore an IPO in upcoming years.

Merging humanoids: OpenAI-backed Norwegian robotics startup 1X acquired Kind Humanoid, whose three-person team had started working with high-profile designer Yves Béhar in 2024.

On track: French health insurance startup Alan revealed that it generated approximately $525 million in revenue in 2024 and confirmed its goal to reach profitability by 2026.

Firefighters: In the aftermath of Southern California's recent devastating fires, TechCrunch's Tim De Chant rounded up startups that help measure and mitigate wildfire risk.

Most interesting VC and funding news this week

Image Credits: Mike Kane/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Some significant rounds were announced this week, but perhaps even more interestingly, we saw some sizable valuation increases.

Hot like fusion: Nuclear startup Helion raised a $425 million Series F round of funding to help build a fusion reactor for Microsoft. This new round is smaller than the previous one, but valuation increased to $5.245 billion.

Perking up: Barcelona-based corporate travel management platform TravelPerk closed a $200 million Series E round of funding at a $2.7 billion valuation — almost twice its previous $1.4 billion valuation.

Quantum race: With $104 million in Series B funding, French startup Alice & Bob secured one of the larger rounds for a quantum computing startup in Europe.

AI against cancer: Quibim, a Spanish startup that's developing AI models for medical imaging, raised a $50 million Series A round of funding to double down on its U.S. expansion plans. Its flagship product, QP-Prostate, focuses on prostate cancer detection.

Challenging Autodesk: Motif, a startup developing architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) software, secured $46 million in seed and Series A funding to challenge its founders' former employer, Autodesk, with a next-generation design platform for buildings.

Bigger target: Regulatory filing revealed that 8VC, the Austin-based VC firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is hoping to raise around $1 billion for its sixth fund. Its previous flagship vehicle closed at $880 million in 2023.

Taking it to 11: ElevenLabs, which works in the AI audio field, announced that it raised $180 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at $3.3 billion post-money. Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ Growth are co-leading investment.

Last but not least

Image Credits: Stefan Herrick / Getty Images

Apologies for ending on a negative note, but data suggests that 2025 will be another brutal year of startup wind-downs. However, AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli provided a more positive outlook, noting that these figures "are still very low relative to the number of companies that were funded across both years."