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This week was supposed to be a short one in the US, as it started with a holiday. But inauguration day kept some founders busy, and the following days brought us more than their fair share of startup news.
The most interesting start-up stories from the week
This week reminded us that not all sales are created equal, and that it often pays to look beyond the price tag. Plus, there were legal issues for a Decacorn AI.
There is no match: Divvy Homes, a rental-to-own startup backed by A16Z, is selling to a division of Brookfield Properties for about $1 billion. However, some shareholders may not see a dime from the sale.
Beauty for sale: Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever agreed to acquire Indian leather startup Peak XV Minimalist for about $342 million—more than the $300 million valuation it reportedly sought in a fundraising effort last year .
Great sign: AI-powered parking platform Metropolis acquired computer vision company Oosto for a fraction of what the startup had raised so far. Formerly known as AnyVision, it had lost supporters for its technology being used in controversial surveillance applications.
Legal conflict: Valued at $13.8 billion last year, Scale AI is facing its third worker lawsuit of 2025, with contractors claiming they suffered psychological harm from writing requests related to disturbing content. A spokesman for Scale AI said it had “numerous safeguards in place”.
The most interesting VC and funding news this week
The Series B rounds announced this week varied widely in size, with some exceeding other Series C rounds. And for companies that don’t yet feel like going public, there are still more letters in the alphabet.
Pre-IPO papers: Data Analytics Platform Databricks closed a J$10 billion equity financing round at a $62 billion valuation, with an additional $5.25 billion in debt financing. Meta is supporting the company as a strategic investor.
From cat to unicorn: Neko Health, the Swedish body-scanning startup co-founded by Spotify’s Daniel EK, whose name means “cat” in Japanese, raised a $260 million Series B funding round to $1.8 billion after money.
Money to move: Lindus Health, a Peter Thiel and Creandum-backed startup currently moving its headquarters from the UK to the US, secured a $55 million Series B round to “fix the broken clinical trial industry.”
By spending less: AI SaaS expense management platform Vertice raised a $50 million Series C funding round led by Lakestar at a valuation close to $500 million, according to sources.
Indian Robotics: Indian-based autonomous robot startup ATI Motors raises $20M Series B to scale internationally. The US already dominates ATI’s revenue, and the company hopes to further benefit from demand for robotics made outside of China.
Crypto crypto crypto: Capitalizing on the Crypto comeback, Angellist and Coinlist teamed up to launch crypto special purpose vehicles and crypto flip vehicles that will allow crypto founders to raise capital using crypto coins.
Last but not least
AI is still red hot, but there are always subsectors that VCs are more interested in. To get a sense of what types of AI startups they’d like to back this year, TechCrunch rounded up some findings from our recent survey of 20 enterprise VCs. Short: Think companies, not features.
