This Week in Startups: Contrarian Bets, Global Funding, and a Word of Warning
This week's startup news highlights contrarian approaches, diverse funding rounds, new VC funds, and a cautionary message.
Contrarian Approaches
- Desalination startups are exploring deep-sea reverse osmosis for potential energy savings.
- African accelerators are filling the gap left by YC's reduced focus on developing markets. Exxon Mobil's carbon capture initiative could further support this growth.
- WaveForms AI aims to create personable AI with its own foundational models, diverging from dystopian narratives.
- Automattic's acquisition of WPAI strengthens WordPress's AI capabilities.
Funding Highlights
- Archer Aviation secured $430 million, bringing its total funding to nearly $2 billion.
- Upvest raised a €100 million Series C round.
- Anybotics raised $60 million, expanding its Series B to $110 million.
- Flare closed a $30 million Series B round to combat info-stealer malware.
- Aqemia raised $38 million, planning expansion to London.
- Numia announced a $3.5 million seed round.
VC and Fund News
- The OpenAI Startup Fund raised over $44 million for its fifth SPV.
- Dimension Capital raised a $500 million fund for tech and life sciences investments, potentially impacting AI drug discovery like Optum's AI chatbot.
- Tiger's 15th fund reported significant paper losses.
Cautionary Advice
Lead Edge Capital's Mitchell Green warns of overvalued companies and unsustainable valuations, echoing concerns about market bubbles like those seen with Databricks's high valuation.