It might be surprising, but OpenAI is still considered a startup, which is why it often takes the spotlight. However, there were other notable stories this week.
BillionAI: OpenAI raised $6.6 billion, pushing its valuation to $157 billion. Additionally, it secured a $4 billion credit line and introduced a new interface. While it's reported that OpenAI discouraged investors from supporting competitors like Anthropic and xAI, the company hasn’t confirmed these claims. Interestingly, Anthropic recently hired Durk Kingma, an OpenAI co-founder, for a remote position.
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Clone controversy: Y Combinator faced backlash for supporting PearAI, an AI code editor. The CEO of PearAI later apologized for copying an open-source project, also backed by Y Combinator, without proper credit and a mishandled license.
Livestream shopping: Whatnot, a livestream shopping platform, announced its gross merchandise volume (GMV) exceeded $2 billion this year, signaling ongoing interest in live commerce within the U.S.
Noteworthy funding rounds this week
Some companies prefer to keep their fundraising efforts discreet, and others even operate underwater.
Deep dive: AI coding startup Poolside secured $500 million in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, along with contributions from eBay and Nvidia. CEO Jason Warner mentioned that this enabled the company to activate 10,000 Nvidia GPUs for training future models.
Cooling off: Immersion cooling startup Submer, based in Barcelona, raised $55.5 million to expand its customer base. Its technology is already being used by large enterprises such as hyperscalers and telecom firms.
AI sales bots: 11x.ai, which creates AI-driven sales bots, secured approximately $50 million in Series B funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Stealth mode: Cloud backup startup Eon emerged from stealth and revealed it had already achieved a $750 million post-money valuation after raising funds across three rounds, including $77 million in Series B.
Another stealth move: Series, a platform for AI-powered game development, quietly raised $28 million in Series A funding, with investors like Netflix, Dell, and Andreessen Horowitz on board.
Key venture capital and fund news this week
Trimmed down: CRV, a well-established venture firm, returned $275 million from its $500 million late-stage Select fund to investors, citing overvaluation of mature startups. Similarly, India’s Peak XV scaled back its fund size and fees due to concerns about market overheating.
New launch: Former Y Combinator and Twitter executive Ali Rowghani is starting a new venture firm, Maxq, with plans to raise $250 million for its first fund.
NY expansion: Index Ventures is aiming to grow its New York presence by hiring an additional investor and expanding its local team with three or four more members over the next year, according to partner Shardul Shah.
In closing: Speaking to TechCrunch global managing editor Matt Rosoff, New York investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan shared his views ahead of the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt. He believes more founders should consider selling their companies.
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