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Welcome to Startups Weekly — your hebdomadary recapitulation of everything you ca n’t miss from the existence of startups . Want it in your inbox every Friday?Sign up here .
This calendar week in startup word , we have some contrarian bet , funding fill out from all around the world , Modern VC cash in hand , and a last word of monition .
Most interesting startup stories from the week
Several stories this workweek remind us that just because something did n’t work sooner does n’t mean it is n’t deserving trying from a different slant . Plus , one M&A that gives us a breach from other WordPress news .
New wave : A new wave of desalinization startups isworking on deep - sea reverse osmosis , a engineering that ’s becoming easy to deploy and could convey savings , with projection that it could produce water using 30 % to 50 % less energy than onshore reverse osmosis .
fill the interruption : YC ’s latest batch had deal of AI startups , andsome interesting endeavour ones , but the particle accelerator has reduced its focussing on developing marketplace . In Africa , local accelerators backed by African YC alumniare taking this as an opportunitywith new programs .
Bett(h)er : WaveForms AI , a Modern audio prominent language model ( LLM ) company , hopes to make AI more personable with its own foundational models . Its founder , Alexis Conneau , is haunt with the film “ Her , ” but alsothinking intemperately about how not to make a dystopia . “ We want to do exactly the antonym of what the party in that pic does , ” he state TechCrunch .
Automatic for the bots : WPAI , a startup that build AI answer for WordPress , isgetting gain by Automattic . Its team will lead WordPress ’ AI efforts .
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Most interesting fundraises this week
With the end of the twelvemonth tight come near , this week brought us many funding rounds , so here ’s a sample that also showcases their range , both in size and in geographic dispersion .
drive off : Archer Aviation , a inauguration building perpendicular takeoff and landing ( VTOL ) aircraft , raised $ 430 million in refreshing fairness fundingthat brought its full financing to nearly $ 2 billion . Archer also closed an undivided partnership with Anduril to together with build defence aircraft .
Stealthy no more : Berlin - free-base inauguration Upvest , which makes a stock - trade API used by some of Europe ’s biggest fintech companies , raise a € 100 million Series C round($105 million ) led by once - closelipped VC firm Hedosophia .
Robot steps : Swiss robotics company Anybotics , an ETH Zürich spinout building quadruped autonomous inspection robots for industrial coating , raised another $ 60 million , bringing its Series B round of financing to a sum of $ 110 million . The upper-case letter will help it lucubrate in the U.S. , where it recently open an spot in San Francisco .
secure credentials : Flare , a Canadian menace picture management startup , close a $ 30 million Series B round of funding led by Base10 Partners . The company wants to aid SMBs and mid - market company thwart the rise of info - stealer malware , or package that collects login credential , as hap in the Snowflake incident earlier this yr .
Crossing the Channel : Aqemia , a French inauguration in the hot AI - enabled drug discovery quad , raised its second fundraise of the year : a young $ 38 million roundled by Cathay Innovation , which it will use to hire and open up an office in London .
allow VCs in : Numia , a startup from Argentina that convey offline and on-line customer fundamental interaction data into one berth , harbinger a $ 3.5 million seed roundled by Cometa . CEO Gustavo Lauria said the company is already profitable but decided to raise outside cap for the first time to reach customers that are also limited partners in speculation fund .
Most interesting VC and fund news this week
Open to confusion : The OpenAI Startup Fundraised over $ 44 million for its fifth limited intention vehicle(SPV ) , which a spokesperson said “ will be used to support a diverseness of survive portfolio companies and to make new investment . ” Despite its name , the fund says it does n’t have OpenAI as an investor but that its angel admit Microsoft and other OpenAI partners .
Paper tiger : Known for the “ spray and beg ” scheme that led it to invest in over 315 inauguration in 2021 alone , the 15th store of hedge fund Tiger performed particularly badly , withpaper losings digest at more than 15 % , according to a recent disclosure .
Last but not least
In an interview , Lead Edge Capital founding father and managing spouse Mitchell Green tell TechCrunch editor - in - chief Connie Loizos that there is“too much money chasing too few company that are overvalued . ”This makes his firm progressively steer away from distinctive venture capital deals and toward buyout - alike “ controller deals ” more ordinarily associated with private fairness . “ I also refuse to endow in companies at 100 times or 200 times or 500 metre tax revenue . That game will end badly , ” he portend .
