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Startups aren’t isolated from the world. But this week, funding news felt positively uncorrelated from the overall news cycle, offering somewhat of a reprieve — or perhaps just more time to prepare to invest in “planetary and societal health,” as one new fund plans to.
Most interesting startup stories from the week
This week included an exit, a lawsuit, a disappointing sale, and a scientific controversy.
OpenAI alumni: Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati secured two new high-profile advisers with past ties to OpenAI for her new venture, AI startup Thinking Machines Lab. As for OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, he chose Google Cloud’s TPU chips to power the research conducted by his new AI startup, Safe Superintelligence.
Friends and foes: OpenAI is reportedly considering spending $500 million to acquire io Products, the AI hardware startup that Jony Ive is building with Sam Altman, although the two companies could end up partnering instead. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s quarrel with Elon Musk continues, this time with a countersuit against its former supporter.
Leaving Deel: Deel’s head of communications left the HR tech company, which is accused of planting a spy at rival startup Rippling.
Colossal or not: Colossal Biosciences claims to have resurrected the dire wolf, but scientists without ties to the company challenge the claim — and there’s still a debate over its $10.2 billion valuation and whether it’s undervalued or overblown.
Yo-yo: Lyst, the British fashion marketplace once valued at around $700 million, has been acquired for just $154 million in cash by Japan-based Zozo.
Not so solid: Banking-as-a-service startup Solid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing “significant and costly litigation.” It had raised nearly $81 million but faced a legal challenge in 2023 when Series B backer FTV Capital sued to reclaim its $61 million investment.
Most interesting VC and funding news this week
This week was a lot smoother in startup land than in the stock market, with plenty of deal and fund announcements.
Road turns: Autonomous driving startup Nuro secured a $106 million Series E at a $6 billion valuation, down from $8.6 billion in 2021. The valuation dip reflects not only market trends, but also that the company may need less capital as it pivots from delivery robots to licensing its technology.
Power to the people: Base Power, a fast-growing Texas-based home battery backup provider, raised a $200 million Series B led by Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Valor Equity Partners.
Stripe-like: Sipay, an Istanbul-based fintech startup that bills itself as “Stripe for emerging markets,” raised a $78 million Series B at an $875 million valuation to expand outside of Turkey.
Make it rain: Earned wage access startup Rain raised an all-equity $75 million Series B led by Prosus, which it plans to use to add credit card and saving products to its offering.
Watching from above: Brinc Drones, a Seattle-based police drone startup founded by 25-year-old college dropout Blake Resnick, raised $75 million in new funding led by Index Ventures.
Smoother generation: Krea, a San Francisco-based startup that helps designers and visual creatives use tooling from several generative AI models, disclosed having raised $83 million in several tranches, including a $47 million Series B.
Still hiring humans: Artisan, an AI sales agent startup known for its “Stop hiring humans” marketing campaign, raised a $25 million Series A that will help it add 22 members to its team of 35 people.
Billions under management: SignalFire locked more than $1 billion in fresh capital, bringing its total assets under management to about $3 billion. And Lerer Hippeau closed its ninth fund at $200 million, up from its $140 million eighth fund, and bringing its assets under management to $1.4 billion.
Two time’s a charm: Berlin-based VC firm Revent secured a $109 million Fund II to invest in “planetary and societal health” startups. Family-office-turned-VC DIG Ventures also raised $100 million for its second fund, which it will mostly deploy in Europe to back early-stage startups in B2B SaaS, AI, and cloud infrastructure.
Last but not least
San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie recently stated at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event that he is personally calling tech CEOs to ask how the city can be more supportive. “I’m calling entrepreneurs and saying, ‘How can we keep you here?’ or ‘How can we get you back?’” Lurie said.
