Latest from Anna Heim
With €50 million to invest, Italian Founders Fund looks for entrepreneurs with global ambitions
While funding for Italian startups has been growing, the country still ranks eighth in Europe by VC investment, according to Dealroom. Newly created Italian Founders Fund (IFF) hopes to help…
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje’s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Anna will be covering for him this week. Sign up here to…
SoftBank-backed grocery startup Oda lays off 150, resets focus on Norway and Sweden
It’s not just instant-delivery startups that are struggling. Oda, the Norway-based online supermarket delivery startup, has confirmed layoffs of 150 jobs as it drastically scales back its expansion ambitions to…
Less than one year after its iOS launch, French startup ten ten has gone viral with a walkie talkie app that allows teens to send voice messages to their close…
Iceland’s startup scene is all about making the most of the country’s resources
With fewer than 400,000 inhabitants, Iceland receives more than its fair share of tourists — and of venture capital.
Unity co-founder David Helgason’s next act: Gaming the climate crisis
In an interview at his home near Reykjavík, the entrepreneur-turned-VC shared thoughts on his ventures and the journey that led him from Unity to climate tech, a homecoming of sorts.
China’s $47B semiconductor fund puts chip sovereignty front and center
China has closed a third state-backed investment fund to bolster its semiconductor industry and reduce reliance on other nations, both for using and manufacturing wafers — prioritizing what is called…
Félix Pago raises $15.5 million to help Latino workers send money home via WhatsApp
Remittances from workers in the U.S. to their families and friends in Latin America amounted to $155 billion in 2023. With such a huge opportunity, banks, money transfer companies, retailers,…
Spanish startups reached €100 billion in aggregate value last year
Venture investment into Spanish startups also held up quite well, with €2.2 billion raised across some 850 funding rounds.
The biggest French startups in 2024 according to the French government
The French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy as of this year, Marina Ferrari, revealed this year’s laureates during VivaTech week in Paris. According to its promoters, this fifth…
Aplazo is using buy now, pay later as a stepping stone to financial ubiquity in Mexico
Four-year-old Mexican BNPL startup Aplazo facilitates fractionated payments to offline and online merchants even when the buyer doesn’t have a credit card.
Israeli startup Panax raises a $10M Series A for its AI-driven cash flow management platform
High interest rates and financial pressures make it more important than ever for finance teams to have a better handle on their cash flow, and several startups are hoping to…
Featured Article
How European disability tech startups are leveraging AI
Making life better for people with disabilities is a laudable goal, but accessibility tech hasn’t traditionally been popular among VCs. In 2022, disability tech companies attracted around $4 billion in early-stage investments, which was a fraction of fintech’s intake, for example. One reason is that disability tech startups are often…
Solo GP fund Andrena Ventures hopes to carry startup talent onto its next challenges
Gideon Valkin’s solo VC firm Andrena Ventures is raising $12 million from backers, including several VCs and entrepreneurs, and made its first investment into AI startup Nustom.
Chilean instant payments API startup Fintoc raises $7 million to turn Mexico into its main market
Fintoc’s API lets online businesses accept instant payments coming directly from the customer’s bank account. This method, known as A2A, offers an alternative to credit card transactions.
Y Combinator alum Matterport is being bought by real estate juggernaut CoStar at a 212% premium
The transaction represents a premium of a whopping 212% over Matterport’s last closing share price before the deal was announced on April 22.
Seraphim Space launches second VC fund with 9 investments already under its belt
Following its first close with limited partners, including Eutelsat, the early-stage fund will build a global portfolio of 30 startups that will be backed at the seed and Series A…
Finmid raises $24.7M to help SMBs access loans through platforms like Wolt
finmid is building an embedded finance product that targets that relationship between marketplaces and sellers, and raised a Series A round to further build out its product and enter new…
Y Combinator’s latest cohort had only one LatAm startup in large part because of AI
Brazilian startup Salvy, a mobile carrier for businesses, was the only company based in Latin America in Y Combinator’s latest batch, the accelerator confirmed to TechCrunch.
Rubrik’s IPO filing reveals an AI governance committee. Get used to it.
Rubrik, the data management company that filed for IPO this week, has an AI governance committee, per its IPO filing. The detail is worth noting because it could soon be…
Belgian computer vision startup Robovision eyes US expansion to address labor shortages
Robovision has raised $42M to industrialize deep learning tools and make them more accessible to businesses that are not tech companies at their core.
Autism Impact Fund closes $60M first fund and broadens its scope
AIF still has resources in its first fund to do a “handful” more deals as well as follow-on investments.
Boutique startup studio super{set} gets another $90 million to co-found data and AI companies
While super{set} is backed by external investors, some of its capital comes from founding managing partners Tom Chavez and Vivek Vaidya, who previously co-founded Krux and sold it to Salesforce.
French deep tech spinout Diamfab crystallizes hopes for diamond semiconductors to support green transition
Its long-term goal is to make more efficient semiconductors with a lower carbon footprint, while supporting what its CEO refers to as “the electrification of society,” starting with transportation.
GoStudent, the online learning platform, says it’s now profitable
In a market that no longer favors growth at all costs, GoStudent’s €3 billion valuation and global expansion may belong to the past. However, the Austrian tutoring platform reshaped quickly.
Frontline Ventures raises $200M targeting B2B startups straddling the Atlantic
The sum will be split roughly evenly between two funds, Frontline Growth and Frontline Seed. The seed fund will favor European ventures, while the growth fund is focused on American…
With backing from NATO Innovation Fund, OTB Ventures will invest $185M into European deep tech
OTB Ventures’ new $185 million fund for deep tech in Europe will mostly be deployed at the Series A stage; but up to 10% could be allocated to seed funding,…
As European dynamism gathers momentum, Elaia and partners double down with new deep tech fund
Elaia’s third deep tech seed fund, DTS3, is double the size of the two previous funds, and signals the momentum that is forming around an emerging concept: European dynamism.
French startup Nijta hopes to protect voice privacy in AI use cases
France-based startup Nijta, whose flagship product Voice Harbor anonymizes voices for AI, raised €2 million in funding from various sources, including deep tech VC fund Elaia.
Leonardo DiCaprio backs YC alum SolarMente to democratize solar power in Spain
Barcelona-based clean tech startup SolarMente recently added Leonardo DiCaprio to its cap table, hence becoming the actor’s and activist’s first investment in the country.