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This week’s newsletter is about startups, but it is also about Big Tech companies expanding their reach, both through acquisitions and through investments.
Most interesting startup stories from the week
With tech IPOs still a rarity in the U.S., M&As dominated exit news this week. Plus, we have one new startup to track.
Blazing through public markets: Blaize, an AI chip startup founded by Intel engineers in 2011 that focuses on edge applications, went public Tuesday after announcing its intention to do so via a SPAC the day before.
Buy now, pay now: Amazon is set to buy Indian BNPL startup Axio for over $150 million, according to sources. This will help the e-commerce giant accelerate its push into financial services in India, which is one of its fastest-growing markets.
Car sales: eBay plans to acquire Caramel, a startup that helps car sellers and buyers complete the final steps of the transaction. It previously acquired Cargigi, an advertising and marketing tech company for car dealerships, as well as U.K. classifieds site Motors.co.uk.
Moody’s buys Cape: Moody’s agreed to acquire geospatial AI startup Cape Analytics for an undisclosed sum. This will give the financial services firm the ability to create a property database that it plans to use for delivering local risk insights for its insurance clients.
An idea for AGI: High-profile AI researcher François Chollet teamed up with Zapier co-founder and head of AI Mike Knoop to launch Ndea, an AI research and science lab looking to “develop and operationalize” artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Most interesting VC and funding news this week
Mammoth ambitions: Colossal Biosciences raised a $200 million Series C round of funding at a colossal $10.2 billion valuation with the equally big ambition of bringing back the woolly mammoth and two other extinct species.
Taking off: Fast-growing space infrastructure startup Loft Orbital raised $170 million in Series C funding co-led by Tikehau Capital and Axial Partners. It declined to reveal its valuation, but that’s more capital in one round than the combined $160 million it had raised to date.
Rise of avatars: Synthesia, a British startup whose AI technology helps companies build avatar-based videos, closed a Series D funding round of $180 million led by NEA at a valuation of $2.1 billion.
GPT for biology: French AI startup Bioptimus raised $41 million to develop a foundational AI model for biology, trained specifically for downstream biological applications.
Digital switch: With the ambition to become the biggest fintech startup in the healthcare industry, Berlin-based startup Nelly raised $51 million in Series B funding to help more medical practices switch to a digital workflow.
Quantum acceleration: Quantum computing startup SEEQC raised a $30 million Series A extension co-led by Booz Allen and NordicNinja to accelerate the commercial rollout of its chips and improve their capabilities.
Spinning off: Intel announced plans to spin off its corporate venture arm, Intel Capital, into a stand-alone fund, which will begin operating independently in the second half of 2025 with Intel as an “anchor investor.”
Founders and investors: Powerset, the investment program co-founded by AngelList alum Jake Zeller that operates as a sort of decentralized venture fund, will give five to 10 founders $1 million to invest in other startups.
Nvidia’s AI empire: Only a few days after TechCrunch’s roundup of Nvidia’s startup investments, another one was added: MetAI, a Taiwanese company that creates Al-powered digital twins.
Last but not least
After more than two years interviewing founders for TechCrunch’s recently ended Found podcast, Rebecca Szkutak heard her fair share of advice about startups. In this post, she shared the five recommendations that stood out the most. Some are counterintuitive — “It pays off not to be first” — and all are worth reading.
