Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of all the things you’ll be able to’t miss from the world of startups. Need it in your inbox each Friday? Enroll right here!
Regardless of the quick workweek in lots of places, the previous few days have been filled with deal bulletins and funding information, though it’s too early to inform how a lot was simply on maintain earlier than the U.S. election.
Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week
There are early indicators that the U.S. IPO window could reopen, however let’s not get forward of ourselves; for now, we principally have IPOs in India, M&As, and not-so-great information.
IPO later: European scale-up Klarna confidentially filed IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC). After ups and downs, the purchase now, pay later (BNPL) firm reportedly noticed its valuation rise again to $14.6 billion earlier this yr.
IPO envy: Naspers-owned Prosus goals to take Indian fintech PayU public in 2025. The Dutch investor seems to be to shift extra focus to India, the place quick-commerce firm Swiggy simply made a stellar IPO debut.
Darkish net monitoring: Cybersecurity unicorn Bitsight purchased darkish net safety specialist Cybersixgill for $115 million.
Transferring the cursor: Anysphere, the startup behind widespread AI-enabled code editor Cursor, acquired competitor Supermaven, which had raised $12 million. Anysphere reportedly acquired unsolicited funding presents at valuations of as much as $2.5 billion.
Out of energy: Beleaguered battery producer Northvolt is promoting some property to Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup, however it’s unclear whether or not deal proceeds and different cost-cutting measures shall be sufficient for the Swedish firm to get by means of the approaching yr.
Most attention-grabbing fundraises this week
Startups could merely be speeding to publicize their newest information earlier than Thanksgiving, however there have been fairly just a few rounds introduced this week, together with some massive ones.
Writing checks: Author raised a $200 million Collection C spherical at a $1.9 billion valuation to develop its enterprise-focused generative AI platform.
Quiet funding: British AI startup Tessl opened up a waitlist and disclosed it raised $125 million to this point. This features a beforehand undisclosed seed spherical and a Collection A. The latter was led by Index Ventures — at a $750 million post-money valuation, in keeping with sources.
Scaling up: ScaleOps, a New York-based cloud spend administration firm, closed a $58 million Collection B funding spherical led by Lightspeed Enterprise Companions that may assist it develop its present 60-person headcount to greater than 200 by 2026.
Money stream: French fintech firm Agicap secured $48 million in Collection C funding for its cash-flow administration platform. The startup targets midsized corporations and has 8,000 prospects with round half of them in France.
Satellite tv for pc service: U.S. startup Starfish House raised a $29 million spherical of funding led by main protection tech investor Defend Capital. Its objective is to launch three full-size satellite tv for pc servicing and inspection spacecraft in 2026.
Most attention-grabbing VC and fund information this week
New heights: VC agency Altos Ventures raised $500 million for its newest fund, in keeping with SEC filings. The Silicon Valley-based investor was an early backer of Coupang and Roblox.
Stepping down: The co-CEO of SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund, Rajeev Misra, will step down from his management roles after a 10-year tenure and can now not have an official position at SoftBank, the corporate mentioned.
Final however not least
Station F, the enduring startup campus in Paris, disclosed its prime 40 startups of the yr, and nearly all of them — 34, to be exact — use AI. Therefore Romain Dillet’s prediction: “It’s clear that every new startup going forward will incorporate AI in some way.”
