Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of every thing you possibly can’t miss from the world of startups.
This week we’re acquisitions of small startups, two new unicorns, wearable AI units, and VCs who’re supporting Kamala Harris. Let’s get into it.
Most fascinating startup tales from the week
With the IPO market just about useless, we are able to’t assist however observe what’s happening with the opposite sort of exit: mergers and acquisitions. Though they don’t seem to be all the time the outcomes founders or buyers have been hoping for, we certainly are listening to of extra startups promoting themselves.
Canva’s attracts on Leonardo: Graphic design platform Canva has picked up generative AI-powered picture creation startup Leonardo.ai, which raised almost $39 million in enterprise capital since its founding two years in the past. Whereas we don’t know the way a lot Canva paid for Leonardo, we do know that the design large is busy constructing out its AI stack, and Leonardo is one other piece of that puzzle. Learn extra
Airtable acquihires Dopt: There’s a warfare for AI expertise as of late. That’s why collaboration firm Airtable determined to purchase such expertise wholesale. This week, it acquired Dopt, a startup specializing in AI-powered onboarding. At its new house, the Dopt staff might be tasked with creating varied AI capabilities and can maybe work on Airtable’s not too long ago launched Airtable Cobuilder, an AI-driven app creation device. Learn extra
Clutch grabs on to Plaiced: 4-year-old Clutch, a market connecting creators with companies, has raised $2 million from buyers, together with Precursor Ventures, and at one level had greater than 200 creators on the platform and a 3,000-person waitlist. However the highway ultimately obtained powerful. The startup restructured itself and laid off employees to succeed in profitability. Nonetheless, the startup’s co-founder determined that Clutch’s greatest path ahead is to promote itself to on-line social community Plaiced. Learn extra
Bending Spoons scoops up WeTransfer: Bending Spoons, an Italy-based tech firm identified for buying well-known however struggling startups like Evernote and Meetup, has made one other buy — file switch service WeTransfer. The 15-year-old WeTransfer was contemplating a public debut in 2021 however withdrew its plans when the IPO window closed in early 2022. Learn extra
Most fascinating fundraises this week
It’s a motorcycle, it’s a taxi, it’s a unicorn: Rapido, an Indian bike-taxi startup, has achieved unicorn standing with a $120 million led by WestBridge Capital. The funding exhibits that Rapido is encroaching on India’s long-standing mobility Uber and Ola duopoly. Learn extra
Flo Well being raises $200 million: The fertility-focused interval monitoring app has raised a Collection C led by Common Atlantic at a $1 billion valuation. TechCrunch chatted with Flo’s co-founder and CEO Dmitry Gurski concerning the newest funding, girls’s well being and issues in between. Learn extra
Combating loneliness with AI: It could really feel like one thing out of a science-fiction e book or a “Black Mirror” episode, however Harvard dropout Avi Schiffmann is satisfied that fixed companionship is one in all AI’s killer use circumstances. He constructed a tool known as Buddy, which is a necklace that all the time listens to an individual and responds through SMS. Buddy, which is priced at $99 and anticipated to be out there in January 2025, has raised $2.5 million in VC funding at a $50 million valuation from buyers, together with Caffeinated Capital’s Raymond Tonsing, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, and Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Learn extra
Bee too: Wearable AI {hardware} that listens and interacts with its proprietor has yet one more entrant, Bee. Based by former Twitter staff, the corporate has raised $7 million to develop an AI assistant that may take notes, floor contextual reminders and construct lists. Learn extra
Knowde takes a reduce: Sequoia-backed Knowde raised $60 million in a spherical that values it decrease than the $500 million valuation it garnered in 2021. The corporate, a market to purchase chemical substances and uncooked components, based by a former DuPont chemist, has now raised greater than $150 million in complete enterprise funding. Learn extra
Most fascinating VC and fund information this week
VCs for Kamala: With the 2024 presidential election simply months aways, many VCs are selecting sides — publicly. This week, Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla and Mark Cuban have pledged to vote for Kamala Harris. They created a bunch known as VCsForKamala and are utilizing the web site to solicit donations for the present vp. As of this writing, 645 enterprise capitalists have pledged their help for Harris. Learn extra
Prepare dinner leaves Tiger: Over the past couple years, Tiger World has had a number of high-profile departures, resembling software program funding lead John Curtius and Scott Shleifer, who moved on to the function of an adviser. The most recent exodus comes from companion Alex Prepare dinner, who targeted on lots of Tiger’s India investments. Learn extra
Moxxie raises third fund: Fundraising is hard for rising VC corporations, however Moxxie Ventures defied the chances by simply surpassing its fundraising goal for its third fund. The underrepresented founder-focused agency, which is led by Katie Jacobs Stanton, a seasoned investor with a robust community, has secured $95 million in recent capital. Learn extra
Final however not least
Utilized Instinct, an autonomous automobile software program startup, raised a $250 million Collection E just a few months in the past. Now the corporate has bought $300 million in a secondary sale, including Constancy Administration & Analysis Firm to its lengthy record of current buyers, which embrace Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Mary Meeker’s progress fund Bond. Learn extra