Startups Weekly: It’s buying season

In this week's edition of Startups Weekly, we explore the bustling activity in the startup ecosystem, where acquisition announcements and funding rounds are capturing headlines. One of the notable transactions featured Israeli firm Cellebrite, which has completed its acquisition of mobile testing startup Corellium for a substantial $170 million in cash, with an additional $20 million converted to equity at the deal's closure. This marks a significant expansion for Cellebrite. IBM also made waves by acquiring Seek AI, an innovative platform that enables natural language queries about enterprise data. This technology is anticipated to enhance Watsonx AI Labs, IBM's newly launched AI accelerator based in New York City. Meanwhile, data governance company Collibra has acquired Raito, a startup that has raised $4 million to date, aimed at helping businesses manage data access for employees and customers. Both companies are based in Brussels, highlighting the growing tech landscape in Europe. In a strategic move to compete with Nvidia's dominance in AI hardware, AMD has acquired Brium, a stealth startup focused on AI software optimization. Additionally, Snowflake announced its intentions to acquire Crunchy Data, a startup specializing in building with Postgres, although details regarding the valuation, estimated to be around $250 million, remain undisclosed. In other news, Scale AI has brought on board the team from Pesto AI, which is shutting down after raising over $8 million to assist companies in recruiting developers remotely. Conversely, Airtime, a video startup founded by Phil Libin, has laid off a significant number of staff, deciding not to retain them for its next phase. On the cybersecurity front, Indian grocery startup KiranaPro confirmed it was the victim of a significant hack last May, resulting in the loss of all its data. Legal disputes are also heating up, as HR tech startup Deel has accused rival Rippling of corporate espionage, adding another layer of tension in the competitive landscape. Amidst these challenges, funding continues to flow into innovative startups. Defense tech company Anduril successfully raised a remarkable $2.5 billion in a Series G round, which included a $1 billion investment from Founders Fund, doubling the company’s valuation to $30.5 billion. AI coding assistant developer Anysphere has also made headlines, raising $900 million at a staggering $9.9 billion valuation, while Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, secured $650 million in Series E funding at a pre-money valuation of around $9 billion. Furthermore, Singapore-based insurtech Bolttech completed a $147 million Series C round at a $2.1 billion valuation. Israeli chip startup Speedata raised $44 million in Series B to develop analytics processing units (APUs) that aim to accelerate AI workloads. Irish fintech startup Nomupay has locked in a $40 million Series C investment from SoftBank’s SB Payment Service, with plans to expand its operations into Asia. Lastly, Obvio, which utilizes AI to enhance road safety, raised $22 million in a Series A round led by Bain Capital Ventures. PitchBook data reveals that from February to May of this year, North American AI startups attracted an impressive $69.7 billion in venture capital, dwarfing the $6.4 billion in Europe and $3 billion in Asia. Investors like Elad Gil are now seeking opportunities in traditional businesses that can leverage AI for reinvention and growth.