Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of every thing you’ll be able to’t miss from the world of startups.
This week we’re acquisitions of small startups, two new unicorns, wearable AI gadgets, and VCs who’re supporting Kamala Harris. Let’s get into it.
Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week
With the IPO market just about lifeless, we are able to’t assist however observe what’s occurring with the opposite sort of exit: mergers and acquisitions. Even although they don’t seem to be at all times the outcomes founders or traders had been hoping for, we certainly are listening to of extra startups promoting themselves.
Canva’s attracts on Leonardo: Graphic design platform Canva has picked up generative AI-powered picture creation startup Leonardo.ai, which raised practically $39 million in enterprise capital since its founding two years in the past. While we don’t understand how a lot Canva paid for Leonardo, we do know that the design large is busy constructing out its AI stack, and Leonardo is one other piece of that puzzle. Read extra
Airtable acquihires Dopt: There is a conflict for AI expertise as of late. That’s why collaboration firm Airtable determined to purchase such expertise wholesale. This week, it acquired Dopt, a startup specializing in AI-powered onboarding. At its new dwelling, the Dopt workforce will likely be tasked with creating numerous AI capabilities and can maybe work on Airtable’s not too long ago launched Airtable Cobuilder, an AI-driven app creation instrument. Read extra
Clutch grabs on to Plaiced: Four-year-old Clutch, a market connecting creators with companies, has raised $2 million from traders, together with Precursor Ventures, and at one level had greater than 200 creators on the platform and a 3,000-person waitlist. But the street finally bought robust. The startup restructured itself and laid off workers to succeed in profitability. Still, the startup’s co-founder determined that Clutch’s greatest path ahead is to promote itself to on-line social community Plaiced. Read extra
Bending Spoons scoops up WeTransfer: Bending Spoons, an Italy-based tech firm identified for buying well-known however struggling startups like Evernote and Meetup, has made one other buy — file switch service WeTransfer. The 15-year-old WeTransfer was contemplating a public debut in 2021 however withdrew its plans when the IPO window closed in early 2022. Read extra
Most attention-grabbing fundraises this week
It’s a motorcycle, it’s a taxi, it’s a unicorn: Rapido, an Indian bike-taxi startup, has achieved unicorn standing with a $120 million led by WestBridge Capital. The funding reveals that Rapido is encroaching on India’s long-standing mobility Uber and Ola duopoly. Read extra
Flo Health raises $200 million: The fertility-focused interval monitoring app has raised a Series C led by General Atlantic at a $1 billion valuation. TechCrunch chatted with Flo’s co-founder and CEO Dmitry Gurski concerning the newest funding, ladies’s well being and issues in between. Read extra
Combating loneliness with AI: It might really feel like one thing out of a science-fiction e book or a “Black Mirror” episode, however Harvard dropout Avi Schiffmann is satisfied that fixed companionship is one in all AI’s killer use circumstances. He constructed a tool referred to as Friend, which is a necklace that at all times listens to an individual and responds through SMS. Friend, which is priced at $99 and anticipated to be accessible in January 2025, has raised $2.5 million in VC funding at a $50 million valuation from traders, together with Caffeinated Capital’s Raymond Tonsing, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, and Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Read extra
Bee too: Wearable AI {hardware} that listens and interacts with its proprietor has yet one more entrant, Bee. Founded by former Twitter staff, the corporate has raised $7 million to develop an AI assistant that may take notes, floor contextual reminders and construct lists. Read extra
Knowde takes a reduce: Sequoia-backed Knowde raised $60…
