Startup land wasn’t as quiet this week as you might’ve expected

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This week probably wasn’t the best one to make any type of big announcement. But when it comes to startups, there are quite a few contrarians, leaving us with some interesting stories to report on, despite the U.S. election news cycle.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Some election news — and non-news — on our menu this week, but also an M&A and a shutdown. In other words, business as usual.

AI night: Perplexity was arguably the other election night winner. While most AI labs sat this election out, and Grok appeared to struggle, Aravind Srinivas’ AI startup provided reliable insights and maps through its election information hub.

No big change in the weather: Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the Inflation Reduction Act. Startups have broadly benefited from this climate-focused legislation, either directly or indirectly through its effects on investment and customer demand.

Bowing out: Agtech startup Bowery Farming, once a unicorn after raising more than $700 million, is ceasing operations, according to PitchBook. The New York-based vertical farm company conducted multiple rounds of layoffs in 2023.

Fresh ink: Veteran Latvian on-demand printing companies Printful and Printify are merging. They will eventually adopt a new company that hasn’t been disclosed yet; deal terms weren’t disclosed, either.

Most interesting fundraises this week

While deal count and dollar volume were lower than usual, some startups braved U.S. election noise and announced fresh funding rounds this week.

Car race: Chinese autonomous driving technology startup DeepRoute.ai raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor. The startup hopes to quickly roll out its automated driving systems before Tesla takes advantage of the pathway China opened for Full-Service Driving (FSD).

Keys in hand: MoradaUno, a Mexico City-based startup that simplifies the apartment rental process, raised a $5.6 million Series A round co-led by Cometa and Flourish Ventures. 

Zero to one: Dash0, a Datadog challenger founded by former Instana CEO Mirko Novakovic and teammates, raised a $9.5 million seed funding round led by Accel, with participation from Dig Ventures, the investment firm of MulesSoft founder Ross Mason.

Fresh air: Transaera raised $8.2 million in seed funding for its dehumidification solution using a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS). The capital will help the company make more DOAS pilot units and install them on commercial buildings.

Leaving the underworld: Robotics startup Ulysses emerged from stealth and announced a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital. The startup is using autonomous underwater robots to plant seagrass on the ocean floor.

Most interesting VC and fund news this week

Crossover: Coatue Management is raising $1 billion for future investments in AI-focused companies, according to Bloomberg. The hedge fund invested in more than 170 VC-backed companies in 2021 before slowing down its pace, but it hasn’t stopped backing startups.

Faber closes: Lisbon-based VC firm Faber made a €31 million first close of its third fund, for which it aims to raise €60 million (about $64.2 million) to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups in Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, with a focus on deep tech, AI, robotics, and biotech.

Last but not least

We already knew that fundraising in the post-ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) era was hard. Now we are also finding out that there’s no magic revenue number to unlock a Series A round. As Greylock partner Corinne Riley said onstage at Disrupt, there’s no set milestone that VCs will request: “What we’re looking for is actually the quality of the ARR [annual recurring revenue], and not the quantity of ARR.”