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Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was comparatively quiet by way of startup bulletins, however exercise is already beginning to choose up. We’re additionally gearing up for CES; in case your {hardware} startup is attending, ensure to tell us.
Most fascinating startup tales from the week
Unlike different dealmaking, M&A exercise didn’t cease — at the least not on objective.
Last-minute save: Bench, the Canadian accounting startup that instantly shut down a couple of days in the past, can be acquired by HR tech firm Employer.com for an undisclosed sum in a last-minute deal.
2024’s final mega-deal: World Wide Technology (WWT), a tech companies firm primarily based in St. Louis, agreed to accumulate Canadian IT supplier Softchoice in an all-cash mega-deal at a valuation of roughly $1.25 billion.
2024’s final curtain shut: French meals supply startup Epicery ceased operations after 9 years. Since 2021, it belonged to Geopost/DPDgroup, which lately offered last-mile supply service Stuart at a major loss.
2025’s first mega-deal: Thomson Reuters acquired tax automation firm SafeSend for $600 million in an all-cash transaction.
No finished deal: The U.Okay.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into IBM’s deliberate acquisition of cloud software program vendor HashiCorp, which the Federal Trade Commission is already investigating.
Competition forward: In an interview with TechCrunch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev talked about his firm’s plans to more and more compete with still-private prediction markets startups like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Most fascinating fundraises this week
The new 12 months hunch had exceptions, and startups outdoors the U.S. introduced contemporary funding rounds this week.
Dinner is served: Riyadh-based meal supply startup Calo raised $25 million to increase past the Middle East, with ambitions to go international and cater to extra customized meals customization wants.
AI care: Brazilian startup Carecode, which builds AI brokers for the healthcare sector, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed spherical led by a16z and QED, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, KDX Ventures, K50 Ventures, and Latitud Ventures.
Federated computing: Apheris, a German startup that leverages federated computing for AI life sciences use circumstances, secured $8.25 million in a Series A spherical led by deep tech VC companies eCAPITAL and OTB Ventures.
Most fascinating VC and fund information this week
Keeping on: Accel raised $650 million for its eighth India fund. The agency, which lately deepened its deal with rural India, will see a number of of its Indian portfolio firms go public this 12 months.
Prediction time: Twenty VCs shared with TechCrunch their predictions on enterprise tech in 2025, from AI brokers to enterprise budgets. For occasion, Index Ventures companion Nina Achadjian mentioned she anticipates “extra liquidity in 2025, each for M&As and the general public markets.”
More predictions: According to TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant, 2025 would be the 12 months local weather tech learns to like AI, on account of skyrocketing computing wants that drive demand for all kinds of improvements to scale back environmental impression.
