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Welcome to Startups Weekly – your weekly digest of everything you can’t miss in the startup world. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Register here.
The week after Thanksgiving is usually packed with announcements, and this year was no exception. Blame it on the holiday season, but we’d go so far as to say that many of the funding round announcements were truly impactful.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
This week brought us a new company to keep track of, salary insights, a group of recent YC graduates, and more.
New page: Three members of Google’s NotebookLM team left the company to create their own startup, following in the footsteps of AI pioneer François Cholet.
Pay gaps: Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm that specializes in venture-backed startups, shared insights into the average salary for early employees and confirmed that the Bay Area continues to achieve higher numbers. There, very senior engineers enter startups with salaries ranging from $180,000 to $235,000, compared to $160,000 to $210,000 in other fields.
Arm wrestling: Fitness startup Ladder, which recently raised $105 million in Series B funding, cited similarities between its strength training app and Peloton’s new Strength+ app, turning it into a marketing and advertising opportunity of its own.
Earl’s return: As announced, Y Combinator’s most recent Demo Day for its Fall 2024 startup class was held in person.
Most interesting fundraiser this week
This week we have funding news on several startups solving big problems, and one that allegedly makes popcorn.
Clean atmosphere: Heirloom Carbon has secured $150 million in Series B funding to help scale carbon capture technology.
Heart health: Cleerly, a cardiovascular imaging startup, is applying artificial intelligence to detect coronary artery disease early and has raised a $106 million Series C extension round to continue working toward this mission.
Fight cancer: Orakl Oncology, a French spin-off laboratory that combines data and biology to deliver new drugs to cancer patients, has raised nearly €15 million to date, including non-dilutive funding from Bpifrance and, most recently, an equity round led by European venture capital fund Singular.
fire-fighting: Named after Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, FireDome, a startup that uses projectiles filled with fire retardant to stop wildfires, has raised a $3 million seed round led by Third Sphere and Gravity Climate.
Popcorn time: According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner are looking to raise $10 million for Kholoud, a consumer startup rumored to be a protein popcorn brand.
The most interesting venture capital and funds news this week
Register again: Former NBA athlete Omri Casspi has raised $60 million for his new venture fund, Swish Ventures, which will back cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence startups. The Israeli player previously launched a $36 million Shiva Capital fund, the investment period of which has expired.
Go public: Dutch investment group Prosus expects five potential IPOs from its Indian portfolio over the next 18 months. This would represent a significant share of the 20 Indian startups looking to go public in 2025.
Time to finance: French venture capital firm Daphni has teamed up with partners to launch Time4, a fund aiming to raise €100 million and a mandate to invest in entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds and impactful projects.
Last but not least
Leonardo Bancic, investment director at Voyager Ventures, and other climate technology investors are cautiously optimistic about the policy changes being considered by a second Trump administration. These would not be universally detrimental to the sector, and some could even benefit climate technology, TechCrunch has heard.
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