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This first week of February has been busy in the geopolitical aspects and in the world of startups and VC news, with many announcements and a huge amount of capital change.
The most interesting startup story of the week
Image credit: waabi
The startup took a variety of views on the recurring dilemma of whether they are partners or not. Plus, warning stories about high burn rates, and beyond the IPO.
Force: Following a similar partnership with Aurora Innovation, Volvo Autonomous Solutions partnered with autonomous truck startup Waabi to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. The commercial pilot is scheduled to be released in Texas soon, with unmanned demonstrations on public roads planned at the end of the year.
Space Startups Oursky and PlaneWave merged to create Observable Space, a new company aimed at creating next-generation telescopes.
Go Solo: Robotics Company's diagram AI has finished its contract with Openai and instead chose to focus on in-house AI for a “major breakthrough.” The startup is developing general-purpose humanoid robots for both commercial and residential use.
And Google's X spuns Heritable Agriculture, a startup that used AI to improve crop yields. “Moonshot Factory” emits several ventures under Astro Teller's leadership.
Takeover: Xoi, a startup building software for maintenance people, has acquired competitor Specifx to expand its dataset with repairs. The acquisition was made for a private amount and was funded in a $230 million round, which the company announced this week.
High Burn: The failed Canada-based accounting startup bench burned for $135 million before filing for bankruptcy, records revealed.
Beyond IPOS: TechCrunch has compiled a list of high-tech companies that can be released this year, including two space and defense technology startups, Karman and Voyager Technologies, which were released last month. Deel wasn't on the list, but the major secondary sale suggests that the previously teased IPO The Fintech/HR startup is approaching in the “2025/2026 hour window.”
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal.ImageCredits: Aparna Jayakumar/Bloomberg/Getty Images
This week also brought in interesting fundraising news. Not only are they trading rounds, but they also provide new funds, and even funds.
Adtech: Canadian program advertising startup Staccadap has raised a $235 million growth funding round led by Teacher Venture Growth (TVG), the investment arm of the Ontario Teacher Pension Plan.
FOF: India has announced a new $1.15 billion start-up fund as part of its 2025-26 federal budget. FOF aims to have a “expanded scope” compared to previous startup funding programs, and New Delhi explores the creation of another deep technology FOF.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of India's LLMS: Ola billionaire, has announced that it will invest $230 million in Krutrim, an AI startup created with the push of India's LLMS.
Deep Tech: Munich-based CVC Hitachi Ventures has set aside $400 million for its fourth fund. This will continue to target Series A investments in deep tech startups, but 55% of the capital is reserved for follow-on investments.
Ozempic Effect: Two startups that match nutritionists and patients, Berry Street and Fay each raised a $50 million funding round as GLP-1 drugs created a tailwind for nutrition counseling.
Riot! French startup Riot raised a $30 million Series B round to expand its focus beyond educating employees on cybersecurity risks, and now tweaked it even further to minimize threats . Sources say the company reached $10 million in annual revenue in 2024, following a North valuation of $170 million.
Cherry on Top: German VC company Cherry Ventures has raised $500 million in new funds for early stages and subsequent investments. The previous fund, announced in 2022, had been closed for around $312 million.
First Fund: The Paris-based European VC company Emblem raised $85 million from its first fund. Its typical partner previously invested in companies such as Gourmey and Sorare.
Last but not least, it's important
Image credits: Andriy Onofriyenko / Getty Images
According to a French AI report, European AI startups raised $8 billion in 2024. The joint release of early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment firm Revaia and advisory firm Chausson Partners also revealed that 70% of its capital has been seeded in the Series B round, bringing the scene to maturity suggests that the number may increase as .