Startups Weekly: Founders are raising less, but deals are still going strong!

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This week showed more optimism among startups than in other corners of the world, with entrepreneurs feeling confident enough to acquire other companies, raise fresh funding, and even say no to more money.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Not quite four weddings and a funeral, but almost.

Hinged: Hinge Health, a virtual physical therapy startup that uses technology to help treat chronic musculoskeletal conditions, filed to go public and is hoping to raise up to $500 million through this offering.

Fervor: Fervo Energy, a well-funded startup that is working with Google on a first-of-its-kind geothermal power plant, is reportedly planning to IPO in the next two years.

Picked: Peak.ai, a startup founded in Manchester, England, that builds “decision-making” AI, was acquired by UiPath, the now public robotic process automation (RPA) company. Peak had raised $121 million, including a $75 million round backed by SoftBank in 2021.

Butterfly effect: Manus, the “agentic” AI platform launched by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, is generating a ton of buzz, although some early users warned it is no panacea. But the butterfly effect is still there: Browser Use, one of the tools powering Manus, is also going viral.

Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

The end: Swedish battery manufacturing startup Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in Sweden this week. It had already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. in November.

Most interesting VC and funding news this week

Plenty of deals, but also another week in which the round’s size won’t tell you the round’s letter.

Ditto: San Francisco-based startup Ditto raised an $82 million Series B at a $462 million post-money valuation to make sure corporate clients can access data on edge devices even when connectivity is unstable.

Good karma: Nirvana, an AI-based insurance platform that uses telematics data to build and manage insurance policies for truckers, raised an $80 million Series C round of funding at an $830 million post-money valuation.

BI: Omni, a business intelligence platform that helps organizations better analyze their data, closed a $69 million Series B round. The company also expects its annual recurring revenue to triple this year, increasing from nearly $10 million.

Pentesting: Pentera, a cybersecurity startup founded in Tel Aviv but now based in Boston, raised a $60 million Series D at a valuation over $1 billion. It plans to use the funding for M&A and product development.

Problem zolved: Zolve, a neobank for highly skilled foreigners moving to the U.S. without credit history, raised $51 million in equity for its Series B round. It also secured $200 million in debt and plans to enter new geographies.

New name, new money: Estonia-based startup Blackwall, formerly known as BotGuard, raised a €45 million Series B round to protect SMBs from malicious online traffic via midmarket hosting platforms and other service providers.

Predictive maintenance: Indian startup Infinite Uptime, which helps factories optimize equipment usage thanks to a sensor-based predictive maintenance solution, raised a $35 million Series C funding round to expand into the U.S. and other markets.

Italians do it better? Early-stage Italian VC firm Vento is launching a €75 million fund to back Italian startup founders, including those living abroad. This is Vento’s second fund; its portfolio already includes some 100 startups.

Last but not least

A New Trend at Y Combinator’s Demo Day

According to a regular attendee, Y Combinator’s latest Demo Day showcased a noticeable “vibe shift.” Investor Terrence Rohan, who has been investing in Y Combinator since 2010, observed that founders are now intentionally raising less money, despite VC interest. This has sparked debates on whether this is a good strategy.