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This week was alleged to be a brief one within the U.S., because it began with a vacation. However Inauguration Day saved some founders busy, and the next days introduced us greater than their justifiable share of startup information.
Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week
This week reminded us that not all gross sales are created equal, and that it’s typically price wanting past the value tag. Plus, there have been authorized troubles for an AI decacorn.
No divvy: Divvy Houses, a rent-to-own startup backed by a16z, is promoting to a division of Brookfield Properties for about $1 billion. Nevertheless, some shareholders might not see a dime from the sale.
Magnificence on the market: Shopper items big Hindustan Unilever agreed to purchase Peak XV-backed Indian skincare startup Minimalist for about $342 million — greater than the $300 million valuation it reportedly sought in a fundraising try final yr.
Large markdown: AI-powered parking platform Metropolis acquired pc imaginative and prescient firm Oosto for a fraction of what the startup had raised thus far. Previously referred to as AnyVision, it had misplaced backers over its know-how being utilized in controversial surveillance purposes.
Authorized conflict: Valued at $13.8 billion final yr, Scale AI is dealing with its third employee lawsuit of 2025, with contractors claiming they suffered psychological hurt from writing prompts about disturbing content material. A spokesperson for Scale AI mentioned it had “quite a few safeguards in place.”
Most attention-grabbing VC and funding information this week
Collection B rounds introduced this week assorted tremendously in dimension, with a few of these exceeding different Collection C rounds. And for corporations that don’t fairly really feel like going public but, there are nonetheless extra letters within the alphabet.
Pre-IPO letters: Information analytics platform Databricks closed a $10 billion Collection J fairness funding spherical at a $62 billion valuation, with a further $5.25 billion in debt financing. Meta is backing the corporate as a strategic investor.
From cat to unicorn: Neko Well being, the Swedish body-scanning startup co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel Ek, and whose identify means “cat” in Japanese, raised a $260 million Collection B spherical of funding at $1.8 billion post-money.
Cash to maneuver: Lindus Well being, a startup backed by Peter Thiel and Creandum that’s at present transferring its HQ from the U.Ok. to the U.S., secured a $55 million Collection B spherical to “repair the damaged medical trial business.”
Spending much less: AI-powered SaaS spend administration platform Vertice raised a $50 million Collection C spherical of funding led by Lakestar, at a valuation near $500 million, in keeping with sources.
Indian robotics: Indian-based autonomous cellular robots startup Ati Motors raised a $20 million Collection B to develop internationally. The U.S. already dominates Ati’s revenues, and the corporate hopes to additional profit from demand for robotics manufactured exterior of China.
Crypto crypto crypto: Capitalizing on crypto’s comeback, AngelList and CoinList teamed as much as launch crypto particular goal autos and crypto roll-up autos that can let crypto founders increase capital utilizing crypto cash.
Final however not least
AI continues to be pink scorching, however there are at all times subsectors that VCs are extra eager about. To determine which varieties of AI startups they’d most prefer to again this yr, TechCrunch rounded up some findings from our latest survey of 20 enterprise VCs. In brief: Assume corporations, not options.
