Welcome to Startups Weekly – Summary every week everything you need to miss from the startup world. Want to put it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
Is hype good or bad? This week we've seen the startups on both sides of the fence. And being on the good side guaranteed a big funding round.
The most interesting startup story of the week
Image credit: Proxima Fusion
As the week approaches the end, it's time to tally the pros and cons.
Sparkle Points: Peer-reviewed journal highlights plans from German startup Proxima Fusion, lending new reliability to the concept and design of a work fusion power plant that can be reliably operated on a continuous basis.
OOPS Points: Y Combinator has deleted posts about the demo from YC W25 Company Optifye.ai. The startup claims to be building “AL performance monitoring for factory workers,” but others call it “sweated as a service.”
Breakthrough Point: Palo Alto-based startup Inception claims to have developed a leading diffusion-based language model (DLM). The already existing diffusion models are primarily used to create images, video and audio, but Inception hopes to compete with LLM.
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
Image credit: Ilya Melnikov/Quantum Machines under license.
This week, some startups have secured particularly large funding rounds at each stage, and have new funds ready to roll out in the growth stage.
Record Round: Israeli startup quantum machinery has secured one of the largest funding rounds ever raised in a $170 million Series C led by PSG Equity, along with participation from Intel Capital, Red Dot Capital Partners and existing investors.
Full Circle: Shop Circle, a suite of e-commerce apps, has raised a $60 million Series B round that also funds the acquisition of Aiden, an AI-powered “guided sales” software maker.
Magic Arms: Polish startup Nomagic, which manufactures robotic arms for logistics operations, has raised a $44 million Series B, led by VC ARM, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). We plan to use some of our funds to reach our North American customers.
Magic Touch: Taktile, a New York-based startup that helps Fintechs build automated decision workflows, has closed its $54 million Series B led by Balderton Capital with participation from Index Ventures, Tiger Global, YC, Prosus Ventures and the Visionaries Club.
Idea Relay: The Relay raised a $35 million Series A round led by London-based VC Multipurpose, reducing energy consumption and relying on e-bikes, bringing a “assetless” last-mile parcel delivery model from Asia to Europe.
Love: Lovable, the rapidly growing app-building AI platform coming out of Sweden, has secured $15 million in a round led by Creandum. He also said it reached $17 million in annual recurring revenue after scaling to 30,000 paying customers who spent just $2 million.
Europe's Growth: Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has shut down Europe's first $1.9 billion fund to deepen its presence in the region and acquire new stakes in medium-sized software companies across the continent.
Cambridge Growth: Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), a UK fund that invests solely in ecosystems around Cambridge University, has launched an opportunity fund of $126 million.
Last but not least, it's important
Image credits: Anna Fedorenko / Getty Images
This week marks the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This spurred a wave of Ukrainian double use and defense technology startups innovating both inside and outside the battlefield, and TechCrunch rounded up some here.
Last week's newsletter included an error. Augusty first achieved unicorn status in 2021.