As the year draws to a close, startups don’t pause

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With only so many days left in the year, there was plenty of startup news to round up since last Friday, despite a short workweek in the U.S. due to Thanksgiving. Oh, and thanks for reading us, by the way.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits:J Studios

If you are looking for weekend reads, here are some recent insights worth digging into. 

On the clock: The timing of ServiceTitan’s IPO may not entirely be due to market conditions. Details show that the software company was on the clock to go public, and there might be more of these, VCs told TechCrunch.

Salary benchmarks: U.S. government contracting database USASpending.gov reveals the total compensation that defense tech startup Anduril pays its top employees. While there are some technicalities to breaking it down by year, the gist is that it pays really, really well.

New faces: Scaling startups stands as a big priority of the European Union’s new top team, which includes three lawmakers in charge of key tech policy areas. This includes Ekaterina Zaharieva, who will be the EU’s commissioner for startups, research and innovation.

Attack of the clones: It’s not just AI code editors: Y Combinator often backs startups that are building similar products, data analysis startup Deckmatch found out. The research also reveals other interesting insights on the kinds of startups YC tends to accept.

Most interesting fundraises this week

Image Credits:Eyewa

Fundraising season is not over yet, and deals of all sizes were once again announced this week.

DTC eyewear: Eyewa, a company that sells a wide range of eyewear products through a direct-to-consumer e-commerce and retail platform across five Mideast markets, secured a $100 million Series C round led by General Atlantic.

Cradle of love: Cradle, a startup that applies AI to protein design, raised $73 million to build out its labs and team. Launched in 2022, it previously raised a $24 million Series A round in 2023.

Shopify for gaming: Israeli startup Appcharge, which sees itself as a kind of “Shopify” for gaming and gives game developers more monetization options, raised $26 million. The round was led by Nordic VC Creandum at a $100 million valuation.

Voice clones: PlayAI, a Y Combinator alum that clones voices on command, closed a $21 million seed round co-led by 500 Startups and Kindred Ventures to invest in its generative AI voice models and voice agent platform.

Bye, Dr. Google: Roon raised a $15 million round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Firstmark, with participation from past investors Sequoia Capital and TMV. Now valued at $68 million, the health tech startup aims to replace “Doctor Google” with video-based Q&As from doctors.

Most interesting VC and fund news this week

Image Credits:Patrick McDermott / Contributor / Getty Images

Build your legacy: Basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo launched a VC firm. Called Build Your Legacy Ventures, it will focus on sports and entertainment investing, according to reports.

Cyber accelerator: Early-stage fund Cleo Capital announced the launch of a cybersecurity accelerator that will back up to 10 pre-seed and seed startups. Each of these will receive $250,000 in exchange for 7% equity and their participation in this remote 12-week program.

Last but not least

Image Credits:abzee / Getty Images

Latin America fintech will be worth watching in 2025, with 2024 figures showing that the market is starting to turn around. “I believe the region is underfunded coming out of the [post] 2021 correction,” QED Investors partner Mike Packer told TechCrunch.