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Despite the short business week at many sites, the past few days have been packed with deal announcements and funding news, although it’s too early to know how much is pending before the US election.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
There are early signs that the IPO window could be reopened in the US, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves; Right now, we have mostly IPOs in India, mergers and acquisitions, and not-so-great news.
Subscribe later: Large-scale European company Klarna has confidentially filed IPO documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After ups and downs, the buy now, pay later (BNPL) company has reportedly seen its valuation rise again to… $14.6 billion Earlier this year.
Underwriting envy: Naspers-owned Prosus aims to take Indian fintech company PayU public in 2025. The Dutch investor is looking to shift more focus to India, where express commerce company Swiggy has just had a stellar debut IPO.
Dark web monitoring: Cybersecurity unicorn Bitsight has bought dark web security company Cybersixgill for $115 million.
Move the cursor: Anysphere, the startup behind the popular AI code editor Cursor, has acquired rival Supermaven, raising $12 million. Anysphere has reportedly received unsolicited investment offers at valuations of up to $2.5 billion.
out of power: Beleaguered battery maker Northvolt is selling some assets to Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup, but it’s unclear whether proceeds from the deal and other cost-cutting measures will be enough for the Swedish company to get through next year.
Most interesting fundraiser this week
Startups may simply be rushing to get their latest news out before Thanksgiving, but quite a few rounds have been announced this week, including some big rounds.
Writing checks: Writer has raised a $200 million Series C round at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its enterprise-focused generative AI platform.
Quiet financing: British AI startup Tessl has opened a waiting list and revealed that it has raised $125 million so far. That includes a previously undisclosed seed round and a Series A. The latter was led by Index Ventures — at a post-money valuation of $750 million, according to sources.
Scale up: ScaleOps, a New York-based cloud spend management company, has closed a $58 million Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners that will help it grow its current headcount of 60 people to more than 200 by 2026.
cash flow: French fintech company Agicap has secured $48 million in Series C funding for its cash flow management platform. The startup targets medium-sized companies and has 8,000 customers, about half of whom are in France.
Satellite service: American startup Starfish Space has raised a $29 million funding round led by major defense technology investor Shield Capital. Its goal is to launch three full-size spacecraft for service and inspection in 2026.
The most interesting venture capital and funds news this week
New horizons: VC firm Altos Ventures has raised $500 million for its latest fund, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The Silicon Valley-based investor was an early backer of Coupang and Roblox.
Step downSoftBank Vision Fund co-CEO Rajeev Misra will step down from his leadership roles after a 10-year term and will no longer have a formal role at SoftBank, the company said.
Last but not least
Station F, the popular Paris startup, has revealed its top 40 startups of the year, and almost all of them — 34 companies to be exact — use artificial intelligence. Hence Romain Delet’s prediction: “It is clear that every new startup moving forward will integrate AI in some way.”
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