Friday, July 12, 2024

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups.

This week we're looking at an AI startup that wants to help people get creative with video; Kudos, which raised $3 million to help get rid of diaper rash; and VCs backing other VCs.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits: Helsing

Investors keep pouring dollars and euros into startups that can help protect the world from aggressive nations. Helsing, a defense startup that uses AI to improve battlefield decisions, has raised €450 million ($487 million). Some of that money will go toward a new entity in Estonia to protect the Baltic states from its dangerous neighbor, Russia. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Helsing’s valuation jumped from $1.85 billion last year to $5.4 billion. Meanwhile, some U.S. venture funds with defense tech strategies are arming themselves with new types of investors: veterans and ex-Department of Defense officials.

Speaking of soaring valuations, the latest numbers from PitchBook data show that startup prices have hit an all-time high in 2024. Is it time to rejoice about the end of the downturn? Not so fast. Turns out that prices are up only for the best companies. Everyone else is still struggling to raise capital or is finding a way to obfuscate poor valuations.

Turning AI foe into friend: While Hollywood artists may be nervous about AI tech stealing their livelihoods, DreamFlare, a startup founded by a document filmmaker and an ex-Googler, wants creators to make more content and a nice income with AI. The studio will help animation artists work alongside an experienced creative team on story development and then will distribute the videos through its online platform.

Draw your anxiety away: Fears of war and the possibility of AI replacing people’s jobs are only adding to the existing mental health crisis. Scribble Journey created an app that helps users explore their emotions through art therapy.

Most interesting fundraises this week

Image Credits: Alma

The U.S. is short on tech and other high-skilled professionals. Importing that talent from abroad is one of the answers. But getting a work visa approved by the U.S. Department of State may not be just a function of limited slots. Immigration lawyers sometimes give wrong advice to individuals looking to work in the country. The Kyrgyzstan-born, Harvard-educated Aizada Marat founded Alma, an AI-powered legal tech startup that speeds up and simplifies the visa obtainment process for technologists, founders and researchers.

Sending money abroad: Nala, an African payments startup, raised a $40 million Series A round led by Acrew Capital. The huge round shows that international remittances could be a huge business.

Data-powered diagnoses: Busy doctors don’t always have time to review every data point in a patient’s chart, occasionally leading to missed diagnoses. Regard, a startup that just raised $61 million at a $350 million valuation, does this for physicians with the help of AI.

Bye-bye, diaper rash: Baby not sleeping well? He or she may hate the feeling of plastic on the bends of their diaper. Give Kudos, a startup that lines its diapers with 100% cotton and raised $3 million, a try.

Most interesting fund news this week

Index Ventures restocks: Brand name funds seem to have no problem raising huge funds these days. Index Ventures announced $2.3 billion in fresh capital. The firm’s fundraise is slightly smaller than its previous vintage, but Index says it’s an appropriate amount for the current market.

Look to the stars: German-based Alpine Space Ventures has raised a $184 million (€170 million) fund to invest in companies serving the space industry in the U.S. and Europe.

VCs backing VCs: Kearny Jackson raised a $65 million third fund from pre-seed and seed B2B SaaS and fintech infrastructure startups. The firm’s LPs include Sequoia, Bain Capital Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Marc Andreessen.

Last but not least

Arianna Huffington teamed up with Sam Altman on a new health coaching startup, Thrive AI Health. The company is backed by Huffington’s wellness company Thrive and the OpenAI Startup Fund. The startup will offer an AI-powered assistant that nudges people to lead a healthier lifestyle. The question is, of course, will it be as successful as a human coach in getting individuals to exercise and eat their vegetables? Another question is how much funding Thrive AI Health received to develop its capabilities.