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Welcome to 2025! The primary half of the week was comparatively quiet when it comes to startup bulletins, however exercise is already beginning to decide up. We’re additionally gearing up for CES; in case your {hardware} startup is attending, make certain to tell us.
Most fascinating startup tales from the week
In contrast to different dealmaking, M&A exercise didn’t cease — not less than not on goal.
Final-minute save: Bench, the Canadian accounting startup that immediately shut down just a few days in the past, will likely be acquired by HR tech firm Employer.com for an undisclosed sum in a last-minute deal.
2024’s final mega-deal: World Extensive Know-how (WWT), a tech companies firm primarily based in St. Louis, agreed to amass Canadian IT supplier Softchoice in an all-cash mega-deal at a valuation of roughly $1.25 billion.
2024’s final curtain shut: French meals supply startup Epicery ceased operations after 9 years. Since 2021, it belonged to Geopost/DPDgroup, which just lately bought last-mile supply service Stuart at a major loss.
2025’s first mega-deal: Thomson Reuters acquired tax automation firm SafeSend for $600 million in an all-cash transaction.
No carried out deal: The U.Ok.’s Competitors and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into IBM’s deliberate acquisition of cloud software program vendor HashiCorp, which the Federal Commerce Fee is already investigating.
Competitors forward: In an interview with TechCrunch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev talked about his firm’s plans to more and more compete with still-private prediction markets startups like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Most fascinating fundraises this week
The brand new 12 months droop had exceptions, and startups outdoors the U.S. introduced recent funding rounds this week.
Dinner is served: Riyadh-based meal supply startup Calo raised $25 million to develop past the Center East, with ambitions to go international and cater to extra personalised meals customization wants.
AI care: Brazilian startup Carecode, which builds AI brokers for the healthcare sector, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed spherical led by a16z and QED, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, KDX Ventures, K50 Ventures, and Latitud Ventures.
Federated computing: Apheris, a German startup that leverages federated computing for AI life sciences use instances, secured $8.25 million in a Sequence A spherical led by deep tech VC corporations eCAPITAL and OTB Ventures.
Most fascinating VC and fund information this week
Protecting on: Accel raised $650 million for its eighth India fund. The agency, which just lately deepened its give attention to rural India, will see a number of of its Indian portfolio firms go public this 12 months.
Prediction time: Twenty VCs shared with TechCrunch their predictions on enterprise tech in 2025, from AI brokers to enterprise budgets. As an example, Index Ventures associate Nina Achadjian mentioned she anticipates “more liquidity in 2025, both for M&As and the public markets.”
Extra predictions: In accordance with TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant, 2025 will likely be the 12 months local weather tech learns to like AI, attributable to skyrocketing computing wants that drive demand for all kinds of improvements to cut back environmental impression.
