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Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want this in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.
This week’s newsletter is about startups, but it’s also about Big Tech companies that are expanding their reach, through acquisitions and through investment.
Most interesting startup stories from the week
With tech IPOs still rare in the US, M&As dominated the exit news this week. Plus, we have a new startup to keep an eye on.
Burning in the public markets: Blaize, an AI chip startup founded by Intel engineers in 2011 that focuses on edge applications, went public on Tuesday after announced its intention to do so through a SPAC the day before.
Buy now, pay now: Amazon is set to buy Indian BNPL startup Axio for more than $150 million, according to sources. This will help the e-commerce giant accelerate its push into financial services in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets.
Car sales: eBay planning to get Caramela 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 UK classifieds site Motors.co.uk.
Moody’s bought a Cape: Moody agreed acquisition of geospatial AI startup Cape Analytics for an undisclosed amount. This will give the financial services company the ability to create a database of property 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 Ndeaan AI research and science lab that looks at the “development and operation” of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Most interesting VC and funding news this week
Big ambition: Raised Colossal Biosciences a $200 million Series C round of funding at a whopping $10.2 billion valuation with equally grand ambitions to bring back the woolly mammoth and two other extinct species.
Removal: 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 disclose its valuation, but that is more capital in a single round than the combined $160 million it has raised so far.
Elevation of avatars: Synthesia, a British startup whose AI technology helps companies create avatar-based videos, closed a Series D funding round of $180 million led by the NEA at a cost of $2.1 billion.
GPT for biology: The French AI startup Bioptimus raised $41 million to develop a basic 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 Nelly raised the startup $51 million in Series B funding to help many medical practices transition 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.
Circling: Intel announced plans to ditch its corporate venture armIntel 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 founded by AngelList alum Jake Zeller that acts as a kind of decentralized venture fund, will provide five to 10 founders. $1 million to invest in other startups.
Nvidia’s AI empire: Just a few days after TechCrunch’s roundup of Nvidia startup investmentsone more added: YEARa Taiwanese company that creates Al-powered digital twins.
Last but not least
After more than two years of interviewing founders for TechCrunch’s recently concluded Found podcast, Rebecca Szkutak has heard her fair share of advice about startups. In this posthe shares five top recommendations. Some are counter-intuitive – “It’s good not to be first” – and all are worth reading.
