Friday, May 16, 2025

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

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.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

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 UP.Labs, 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'.

Most interesting VC and funding news this week

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.

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 formally than as an angel investor. The fintech company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a March funding round.

Last but not least

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.