{"id":69454,"date":"2025-05-02T21:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T21:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/69454\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T21:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T21:47:09","slug":"startups-weekly-drama-or-game-changer-you-decide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/69454\/","title":{"rendered":"Startups Weekly: Drama or game-changer? You decide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Startups Weekly \u2014 your weekly recap of everything you can\u2019t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week was low on M&A and IPO news, but there was still some drama to follow, if that\u2019s your thing \u2014 and more importantly, some worthy startups getting funded.<\/p>\n

Most interesting startup stories from the week<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ChristineImage Credits:<\/strong>Bloomberg \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

From frivolous to more serious, there was no shortage of legal startup developments this week.<\/p>\n

Clued up<\/strong>: Startups launched products such as \u201cTruely\u201d to catch people using viral AI cheating app Cluely<\/a>, but the startup says it is ready to stay one step ahead with hardware products that will make it even harder to detect.<\/p>\n

Besieged<\/strong>: Troubled fashion startup CaaStle is facing new lawsuits and allegations<\/a> after its founder was accused of financial misconduct.<\/p>\n

Figure it out<\/strong>: Hot robotics startup Figure AI sent cease-and-desist letters<\/a> to at least two brokers who run secondary marketplaces, demanding that they stop marketing the company\u2019s stock.<\/p>\n

Still fighting<\/strong>: Imaguru was Belarus\u2019 first startup hub. Now its founders are in exile but continue their mission<\/a>, with hubs in Warsaw and Madrid supported by European institutions.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 5\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tBOOK NOW
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Serial drama<\/strong>: Deel officially agreed to be served legal papers<\/a> in the lawsuit initiated by its rival Rippling over alleged spying.<\/p>\n

Flawed<\/strong>: A mysterious London-based investor asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge to stop the sale of EV startup Canoo\u2019s assets<\/a> to its CEO, calling it a \u201cflawed\u201d process.<\/p>\n

Most interesting VC and funding news this week<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:<\/strong>under a IXI (opens in a new window)<\/a> license.<\/p>\n

If all the startups that announced funding rounds this week reach their goals, the world might be a better place. Plus, some funds are ready to back even more entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

Casting a net<\/strong>: Cast AI, a startup building tools to optimize workloads for AI and automated tasks, raised a $108 million Series C<\/a> to fuel its R&D and geographic expansion.<\/p>\n

Strong run<\/strong>: Lightrun, an Israeli startup whose AI-enabled observability platform helps debug code, locked in a $70 million Series B<\/a> co-led by new backer Accel alongside previous investor Insight Partners.<\/p>\n

Legal tech<\/strong>: Supio, a startup that uses AI to automate data collection and analysis for legal teams, raised a $60 million funding round<\/a> led by Sapphire Ventures.<\/p>\n

Bold vision<\/strong>: IXI, a Finnish startup hoping to bring autofocus to prescription glasses, raised $36.5 million<\/a> from Amazon Alexa Fund and others to work on its first commercial product.<\/p>\n

B2B trade<\/strong>: Nuvo, a San Francisco-based startup whose platform facilitates purchasing of physical goods between businesses, raised a $34 million Series A<\/a> from Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital.<\/p>\n

And OmniRetail, which aims to facilitate B2B e-commerce across Nigeria and West Africa, raised a $20 million Series A<\/a> co-led by Norwegian development finance institution Norfund and Nigerian VC firm Timon Capital.<\/p>\n

Early detection<\/strong>: Japanese startup Craif, a Nagoya University spinout that uses microRNA to develop AI-powered early cancer detection software, raised a $22 million Series C<\/a> to fuel its expansion and R&D.<\/p>\n

Ballooning<\/strong>: Near Space Labs, a startup whose balloon-based aerial imaging platform can have dual-use applications, secured a $20 million Series B<\/a> led by Bold Capital Partners, a VC firm founded by Peter Diamandis.<\/p>\n

Hot<\/strong>: Glacier, a startup behind a robot-enabled recycling fleet already deployed in several U.S. cities, secured a $16 million Series A<\/a> led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, with participation from Amazon\u2019s Climate Pledge Fund.<\/p>\n

Not broken<\/strong>: Kintsugi, an AI sales tax startup named after the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery, raised $15 million from tax technology solution provider Vertex and $3 million from existing investors at a $150 million post-money valuation<\/a>, up from $80 million in November.<\/p>\n

No more burping<\/strong>: Hoofprint Biome, a startup slashing methane emissions by modifying cattle\u2019s microbiome, raised a $15 million Series A<\/a> led by SOSV.<\/p>\n

U.K. upside<\/strong>: Volution, a U.K.-based VC investing in fintech, AI, and SaaS startups, launched a new $100 million fund<\/a> to double down on its thesis.<\/p>\n

One-up<\/strong>: European entrepreneur-focused platform EWOR launched its own \u201cfounder fellowship,\u201d<\/a> committing approximately $68 million to the initiative, which will compete with Harry Stebbings\u2019 fellowship Project Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last but not least<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:<\/strong>Neo<\/p>\n

You may not have heard of Ali Partovi, but those in the know have. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate has an impressive multi-decade-long track record that spans founding and exiting several startups and early investing in tech giants. He now leads 8-year-old venture firm Neo, whose early funds are performing exceedingly well<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Startups Weekly \u2014 your weekly recap of everything you can\u2019t miss from the world of startups.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094],"tags":[51,3134,18587,18588,16,15,3141],"class_list":{"0":"post-69454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-newsletters","11":"tag-startups-weekly","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-venture-capital"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114440440688430306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}