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This week we showed more optimism among startups than any other corner of the world. The entrepreneurs were so confident they bought other companies, raised fresh funds, and even said no to money.
The most interesting startup story of the week
Image credit: Hinge Health
It's not four weddings and funerals, but most of them.
Hinge: Hinge Health, a virtual physiotherapy startup that helps treat chronic musculoskeletal conditions using technology, is open to raise up to $500 million through this offering.
Fervor: Fervo Energy is a funded startup working with Google at its first geothermal power plant, and is reportedly planning an IPO over the next two years.
Choice: Building “Decision-making” AI Peak.ai, a startup founded in Manchester, UK, has been acquired by Uipath, the current public robot process automation (RPA) company. Peak raised $121 million in 2021, including a $75 million round backed by SoftBank.
Butterfly Effect: Manus, the “agent” AI platform launched by the Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has generated a ton of talk, with some early users warning that it's not a panacea, written by TechCrunch's newly appointed AI editor, Kyle Wiggers. But the butterfly effect is still there. Using the browser is also viral for one of the manu-powered tools.
End: Swedish battery manufacturing startup Northvolt filed for bankruptcy this week in Sweden. In November, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
Image credit: Same as above
There are lots of deals, but there are other weeks when the round size doesn't tell you the round letter.
Ibid: San Francisco-based startup Ditto has raised a $82 million Series B with a post-money valuation of $462 million, allowing corporate clients to access data on edge devices even when connectivity is unstable.
Good Karma: Nirvana, an AI-based insurance platform that uses Telematics data to build and manage insurance contracts for truck drivers, has raised a $80 million Series C round with a $830 million post-money valuation.
BI: Omni, a business intelligence platform that helps organizations improve data analytics, has shut down its $69 million Series B round. The company also expects its annual recurring revenue to triple this year, up from nearly $10 million.
Pentesting: Pentesting: Pentera is a cybersecurity startup founded in Tel Aviv but now based in Boston, raising a $60 million Series D with a valuation of over $1 billion. The funds will be used for M&A and product development.
Zolve in question: Zolve is a highly skilled foreign neobank moving to the US without a credit history, raising $51 million in shares for the Series B round. It also plans to secure $200 million in debt and enter the new region.
New Name, New Money: Estonia-based startup Blackwall, formerly known as Botguard, has raised a Series B round of 45 million (approximately $49.2 million) to protect SMBS from malicious online traffic through mid-market hosting platforms and other service providers.
Predictive Maintenance: Indian startup Infinite Uptime helped factories optimize equipment use thanks to sensor-based predictive maintenance solutions, raising $35 million Series C funding to expand into the US and other markets.
Will Italians make it better? The early stage Italian VC company Vento is launching a 75 million euro fund to support the founders of Italian startups, including those living abroad. This is Vento's second fund. Its portfolio already includes around 100 startups.
Last but not least, it's important
Image credit: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
Y Combinator's latest demo day shows a “shift in atmosphere” according to regular attendees. Terrence Rohan, a fund investor who has been investing in Y Combinator since 2010, said it is common for them to be able to raise less money intentionally, not because of the lack of interest in VCs. It sparked this debate on whether this is a good idea or not.