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Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was relatively quiet in terms of startup announcements, but activity has already started to pick up. We’re also gearing up for CES; if your hardware startup is participating, be sure to let us know.
The most interesting stories of the beginning of the week
Unlike other deals, M&A activity didn’t stop — at least not on purpose.
Last minute save: Bench, the Canadian accounting startup that abruptly shut down a few days ago, will be acquired by HR technology company Employer.com for an undisclosed sum in a last-minute deal.
The last mega-deal of 2024: World Wide Technology (WWT), a technology services company based in St.
Closing of the final curtains of 2024: French food delivery startup Epicery has shut down after nine years. As of 2021, it was owned by Geopost/DPDgroup, who recently sold last mile delivery service Stuart at a significant loss.
The first mega-deal of 2025: Thomson Reuters bought tax automation company SafeSend for $600 million in an all-cash transaction.
No deal done: The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into IBM’s planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp, which the Federal Trade Commission is already investigating.
Competition ahead: In an interview with TechCrunch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev talked about his company’s plans to increasingly compete with still-private prediction market startups like Kalshi and Polymarket.
This week’s most interesting fundraiser
The fall of the new year had exceptions, and startups outside the US announced new rounds of funding this week.
Dinner is served: Riyadh-based meal delivery startup Calo raised $25 million to expand beyond the Middle East, with ambitions to go global and cater to more personalized food customization needs.
AI which: Brazilian startup Carecode, which builds AI agents for the healthcare sector, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by a16z and QED, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, KDX Ventures, K50 Ventures and Latitud Ventures.
Federated computing: Apheris, a German startup leveraging federated computing for AI life sciences use cases, secured $8.25 million in a Series A round led by deep tech VC firms eCAPITAL and OTB Ventures.
The most interesting VC and funding news this week
Continuing on: Accel raises $650 million for its eighth fund in India. The firm, which recently deepened its focus on rural India, will see several of its Indian portfolio companies go public this year.
Forecast time: Twenty VCs shared with TechCrunch their predictions for enterprise technology in 2025, from AI agents to enterprise budgets. For example, Index Ventures partner Nina Achadjian said she foresees “more liquidity in 2025, both for M&A and public markets.”
More predictions: According to TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant, 2025 will be the year climate technology learns to love AI, due to massive increases in computing needs driving demand for all kinds of innovations to reduce environmental impact.
