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It is rare to report on 11-digit startup acquisitions, not to mention multiple high-value transactions in a week. And there are more subtle signs than it looks surprisingly bright in the startup land.
The most interesting startup story of the week
This week has brought in several acquisitions, new startups and sometimes fierce rivalries.
Betting: Wiz needed serious nerves to leave Google's $23 billion offer last year, but it was worth it. Google has now agreed to purchase an additional $1 billion retention bonus, in addition to paying a record $32 billion in cash to buy a cloud security startup.
This exit will be a massive liquidity event for many, but especially for Israel-based VC Cyberstad, earning a 200x return on early investments in Wiz.
Amped: SoftBank Group will acquire chip startup Ampere Computing on all $6.5 billion cash transactions, expected to close in the second half of 2025.
Reinsurtech startup's next insurance has been acquired by Munich RE in Germany for $2.6 billion.
Synthetic Dream: Nvidia reportedly has acquired a launch greetel for synthetic data with a nine-digit price tag above the latest valuation of $320 million.
Bits and Volts: One-click Checkout Startup Volt's former CEO role is launching a new e-commerce startup. Spangle AI creates custom landing pages for shoppers based on what you search or click, as it is called.
Generalist Robots: DeepMind's leading senior research scientists left Google and created Generalist AI. It is a stealth robotics startup already backed by Nvidia, with the ambition to “make general-purpose robots a reality.”
Exchange: Shortly after the IPO submission, Swedish scale-up Klarna announced that she will become Walmart's exclusive BNPL partner rather than a positive of its competitors.
FreightNemies: Logistics Unicorn Flexport is suing two former employees who formed the cargo mate AI for a competing startup, claiming that the pair stole documents and codes they strongly deny.
HR Drama: HR Tech Company Rippling sues competitor Deel in a lawsuit that focuses mainly on employees who worked as Deel's spy. Deal denied the allegation.
Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week
EVROC CEO and Founder MattiasÅStröm.imageCredit: EVROC
This brings you to a fundraising news item that probably suggested confidence this week, somewhat unexpected.
Europe Cloud: Evroc, a Swedish startup aimed at building a “safe, sovereign, sustainable hyperscale cloud” from Europe, has raised $55 million in Series A funding.
No dilution: The Spanish HR Unicorn Factor secured $120 million from the general catalyst. This is a loan that is not worth it, whether it's stocks or venture debt.
Supported Programming: Graphite, an AI-powered code review platform, secured a $52 million Series B round led by Accel, and participated from Anthropic's Anthology Fund and others.
AI-Hungry: Food E-Commerce startup Grubmarket has raised a $50 million Series G equity round with a money post valuation of over $3.5 billion, and said it will fund implementation of more technology, including AI.
Bright: Fintech-focused VC company Ribbit Capital is raising $500 million with yet another positive signal for the sector.
Climate Investment: Climate, a derivative of Al Gore's generational investment management, has raised $175 million from Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and Calstrs.
Last but not least, it's important
Image credit: Kimberly White/Getty Image
Shortly after Y Combinator's W25 demo day and spring batch, the accelerator has already moved into the role of less-operable group partners, and is now simply a “partner honor.”