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This week in startup information, we’ve some contrarian bets, funding rounds from all all over the world, new VC funds, and a last phrase of warning.
Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week
A number of tales this week remind us that simply because one thing didn’t work earlier doesn’t imply it isn’t price making an attempt from a distinct angle. Plus, one M&A that offers us a break from different WordPress information.
New wave: A brand new wave of desalination startups is engaged on deep-sea reverse osmosis, a expertise that’s changing into simpler to deploy and will deliver financial savings, with projections that it may produce water utilizing 30% to 50% much less vitality than onshore reverse osmosis.
Filling the hole: YC’s newest batch had loads of AI startups, and some attention-grabbing enterprise ones, however the accelerator has lowered its give attention to growing markets. In Africa, native accelerators backed by African YC alumni are taking this as a chance with new applications.
Bett(h)er: WaveForms AI, a brand new audio massive language mannequin (LLM) firm, hopes to make AI extra personable with its personal foundational fashions. Its founder, Alexis Conneau, is obsessive about the film “Her,” but in addition considering onerous about how to not create a dystopia. “We want to do precisely the opposite of what the company in that movie does,” he advised TechCrunch.
Computerized for the bots: WPAI, a startup that builds AI options for WordPress, is getting acquired by Automattic. Its crew will lead WordPress’ AI efforts.
Most attention-grabbing fundraises this week
With the tip of the yr quick approaching, this week introduced us many funding rounds, so right here’s a pattern that additionally showcases their vary, each in measurement and in geographic distribution.
Taking off: Archer Aviation, a startup constructing vertical takeoff and touchdown (VTOL) plane, raised $430 million in contemporary fairness funding that introduced its complete financing to almost $2 billion. Archer additionally closed an unique partnership with Anduril to collectively construct protection plane.
Stealthy no extra: Berlin-based startup Upvest, which makes a stock-trading API utilized by a few of Europe’s greatest fintech firms, raised a €100 million Collection C spherical ($105 million) led by once-secretive VC agency Hedosophia.
Robotic steps: Swiss robotics firm Anybotics, an ETH Zürich spinout constructing quadruped autonomous inspection robots for industrial purposes, raised one other $60 million, bringing its Collection B spherical of financing to a complete of $110 million. The capital will assist it increase within the U.S., the place it just lately opened an workplace in San Francisco.
Sturdy credentials: Flare, a Canadian risk publicity administration startup, closed a $30 million Collection B spherical of funding led by Base10 Companions. The corporate needs to assist SMBs and mid-market firms thwart the rise of info-stealer malware, or software program that collects login credentials, as occurred within the Snowflake incident earlier this yr.
Crossing the Channel: Aqemia, a French startup within the scorching AI-enabled drug discovery house, raised its second fundraise of the yr: a brand new $38 million spherical led by Cathay Innovation, which it would use to rent and open an workplace in London.
Letting VCs in: Numia, a startup from Argentina that brings offline and on-line buyer interplay information into one place, introduced a $3.5 million seed spherical led by Cometa. CEO Gustavo Lauria mentioned the corporate is already worthwhile however determined to lift exterior capital for the primary time to achieve prospects which are additionally restricted companions in enterprise funds.
Most attention-grabbing VC and fund information this week
Open to confusion: The OpenAI Startup Fund raised over $44 million for its fifth particular goal car (SPV), which a spokesperson mentioned “will be used to support a variety of existing portfolio companies and to make new investments.” Regardless of its title, the fund says it doesn’t have OpenAI as an investor however that its backers embody Microsoft and different OpenAI companions.
New dimension: Dimension Capital raised an oversubscribed $500 million fund to maintain on investing on the intersection of tech and life sciences. Portfolio firms embody AI biotech firms Chai Discovery and Enveda Biosciences.
Paper tiger: Identified for the “spray and pray” technique that led it to spend money on over 315 startups in 2021 alone, the fifteenth fund of hedge fund Tiger carried out significantly poorly, with paper losses standing at greater than 15%, in accordance with a current disclosure.
Final however not least
In an interview, Lead Edge Capital founder and managing associate Mitchell Inexperienced advised TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos that there’s “too much money chasing too few companies that are overvalued.” This makes his agency more and more steer away from typical enterprise capital offers and towards buyout-like “control deals” extra generally related to personal fairness. “I also refuse to invest in companies at 100 times or 200 times or 500 times revenue. That game will end badly,” he predicted.
