Startup Monday: Latest tech trends & news happening in the global startup ecosystem (Issue 129- May 11)

Welcome to Startup Monday, my weekly newsletter that recaps the week in the global startup ecosystem. To have this newsletter emailed to you, you can sign up here.

Top startup news to follow this week:

1. Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence Startup xAI Reportedly Nears $18 Billion Valuation With Fresh Funding As AI Race Heats Up

TOPLINE Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is near to closing a funding round that would value the company at , Bloomberg on Thursday, funds that could boost the billionaire’s project as it works to gain ground on upstart rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic as well as see off competition from Big Tech giants including Meta, Microsoft and Google.

Details such as timing, valuation and the size of the round are still up in the air, the unnamed sources told Bloomberg, noting that deliberations on the round are ongoing.

Previous reports from and other outlets including and TechCrunch suggest Musk’s AI startup is raising $6 billion at a valuation of around $18 billion, up from reports of a deal worth around $3 billion at a $15 billion pre-money valuation due to intense investor interest. The Information

Participants in the round reportedly venture capital giant Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley titan with a long history of backing Musk’s projects, including the PayPal precursor , tunneling business , rocket venture SpaceX, as well as The Boring Company the billionaire’s efforts to take over Twitter, now X, in 2022. supporting

Investors are reportedly being sold on Musk’s track record at Tesla and SpaceX, as well as company links to Musk’s social media platform X, a source of data that can be used to train large language models underpinning products like the Grok chatbot.

2. Cloud Security Firm Wiz Raises $1B At $12B Valuation

The round — announced as the industry’s RSA Conference is getting underway in San Francisco — could be another sign of investors coming back to the cybersecurity space. Cyber startups are coming off their , and late last month best funding quarter in three quarters -backed data security firm had a . successful IPO

Founded in 2020, Wiz has raised $1.9 billion, per the company.

That dollar figure is the highest since Q1 last year, when similar startups raised just less than $2.9 billion in 228 deals. However, the Q1 2024 dollar figure represents a 69% increase from the previous quarter, when cyber startups raised just $1.6 billion in 148 deals.

3. Cybersecurity trends in 2024

How innovation and investments in cybersecurity and AI are driving the CISO agenda and priorities for SaaS businesses.

Cybersecurity has long been in the limelight of the cloud economy, but it is growing into one of the most promising sectors of innovation and traction across private and public markets. Today Chief Information and Security Officers (CISOs) are sought after C-Suite leaders as they play critical roles in supporting a company’s growth and maintaining trust across customers, partners, and employees. And as long-time investors in the industry, we’ve witnessed breakout names such as Wiz, , the fastest growing SaaS company and as role models showcasing what’s possible within the cybersecurity cohort. Axonius, one of tech’s latest Centaurs ($100M+ ARR),

Both public and private cybersecurity businesses have generally performed well within recent years, particularly in comparison to the broader tech market.

Cybersecurity’s momentum in the public market

Public cybersecurity companies have reached unprecedented market capitalizations, with notable examples including ZScaler at $26 billion, Fortinet at $49 billion, and Crowdstrike at $71 billion. For the first time, Palo Alto Networks has exceeded a market capitalization of $100 billion, marking a significant milestone in the industry.

Historically, cybersecurity spending was just a fraction of total IT expenditure, resulting in smaller cyber-only companies. The continued growth in this sector is promising for entrepreneurs supporting the industry and for CISO leaders who are integral to their organizations, as they often report directly to the boards of their companies and are increasingly at the helm of the entire IT function.

At Bessemer Venture Partners, our analysis shows that public cloud cybersecurity companies are outperforming their counterparts in the public cloud sector. Cybersecurity companies exhibit higher multiples, largely because they tend to operate more efficiently and grow at a faster pace. Additionally, the growing emphasis on security has made cybersecurity budgets more robust and resilient compared to other enterprise spending, further fueling the growth of these companies.

4. $450M for Noname, two billion-dollar rounds, and good news for crypto startups

Speaking of M&A, Wiz is another name in the cybersecurity space that could go shopping, thanks to its recent $1 billion fundraise . It intends to buy both wounded unicorns and hot, smaller startups to bolster its business. The company is now valued at $12 billion, which is a lot . (Wayve also , but is focused on the self-driving space instead of security.) raised north of $1 billion

We also saw Monzo snag $190 million more , bringing its full-year fundraising score to more than $600 million. Meanwhile, in the States, and Oyo’s been TikTok is fighting a potential ban at a fraction of its prior worth. trying to raise new capital

5. 97212 Ventures announces $20M fund giving Israeli tech founders access to the NYC ecosystem

The VC is a first-time fund providing capital for Israeli startups to establish a presence in New York City with a requirement that founders must move there within 18 months.

“Israel has unique tech talent and this moment, when securing venture capital funding is particularly tough for early-stage startups in Israel, offers unique opportunities for us to access top innovations that have the potential to become unicorns,” said Eyal Bino, Founding Partner. “This new fund serves as a complete plug-in for Israeli entrepreneurs looking to build global startups by giving them capital, guidance, and instant access to the entire NYC tech ecosystem including senior advisors, design partners, potential partners, and customer introductions.”

New York has established itself as somewhat of a hub for Israeli tech companies, with more than 450 companies headquartered in the city and 30 Israeli unicorn companies based there.

97212 Ventures is a first-time fund providing capital for Israeli startups to establish a presence in New York City with a requirement that founders must move there within 18 months. It invests in B2B enterprise technologies, digital health, and wellness, as well as sectors where digital transformation tech is critical — such as fintech, prop-tech, and logistics. 97212 Ventures has already invested in 14 startups including Remepy, Beti, and Ritual, among others.

It is backed by a group of investors, founders, and operators including Co-founder and Managing Partner of Magma Ventures Modi Rosen, Managing Partner at Contour Ventures Owen Davis, Managing Partner at Bullpen Capital Paul Martino, and Founder and CEO of Resident, Ran Reske.

6. Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform with 150M transacting users, raises $275M

The new funding is part of a larger financing round that is likely to include secondary transactions and balloon to over $500 million, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Meesho has successfully captured the attention of value-conscious Indians with its attractively priced, diverse and unbranded assortment of goods. The startup’s value proposition appears to be resonating well with low- to mid-income customers, who form the bulk of India’s consuming class.

7. Triomics raises $15M Series A to automate cancer clinical trials matching

For cancer patients, medicines administered in clinical trials can help save or extend lives.

, a generative AI startup, claims it can significantly reduce the time it takes doctors to match patients with trials.

Doctors’ recommendations are often key to getting patients enrolled. However, busy oncologists and nurses often lack the time to learn about all the clinical trials that may be right for their patients.

Since most clinical trials have complex criteria, there are often dozens of factors such as stage of cancer, mutations and previous treatments for eligibility. Medical staff often need hours to manually review a patient’s medical record to find a fitting clinical trial. But due to a shortage of oncology professionals, many cancer patients aren’t offered to participate or they miss their eligibility window.

Triomics was founded by former MIT biotech researcher Sarim Khan and AI scientist at Adobe Hrituraj Singh. The pair, who have been friends since college, decided to build Triomics in 2021 after realizing that advances in generative AI and LLMs could help extract data from electronic health records (EHR) to help find appropriate clinical trials for cancer patients in minutes instead of hours.

8. Zurich-based mimic grabs €2.3 million to further develop a collaborative robot with humanoid hands

Spinning out from the research university ETH Zurich, mimic was founded by researchers Elvis Nava, Stefan Weirich,Stephan-Daniel Gravert and Benedek Forrai in 2024. The founding team were working at the intersection of robotics and AI under Professor Robert Katzschmann’s Soft Robotic Labs when they became increasingly convinced that the latest developments in large scale generative AI models would upend a multitude of industries, beyond just language and image generation. The team set out to develop a foundation model for robotic manipulation and quickly realized how much value their idea held to revolutionize the way robotics fit into our everyday lives and economy.

Today, global labour shortages are rocking businesses across multiple sectors and employers are struggling to find, hire and retain workers. Against the backdrop of a pronounced shift in work preferences, like reduced hours and enhanced flexibility to work from home, lab or shortages are especially severe in the case of menial, repetitive, and demanding manual tasks. mimic plans to ease these shortages with dexterous, human-like robotic hands that fit seamlessly into existing manual labour workflows, driven by state-of-the-art AI models trained directly from human demonstrations.

9. London-based Wayve raises almost €1 billion in Series C to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence

Embodied AI represents the next frontier of AI innovation, going beyond Generative AI and large language models. The integration of Embodied AI into vehicles and robots will lead to a paradigm shift in how machines interact with and learn from human behavior in real-world environments. This innovation holds tremendous potential to enhance the usability and safety of autonomous driving systems, empowering them with the intelligence to confidently navigate situations that do not follow strict patterns or rules, such as unexpected actions by drivers, pedestrians, or environmental elements.

Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve, said: “At Wayve, our vision is to develop autonomous technology that not only becomes a reality in millions of vehicles but also earns people’s trust by seamlessly integrating into their everyday lives to unlock extraordinary value. This significant funding milestone highlights our team’s unwavering conviction that Embodied AI will address the long-standing challenges the industry has faced in scaling this technology to everyone, everywhere.”

Founded in 2017, Wayve has emerged as a trailblazer in the field of Embodied AI for autonomous driving. Notably, Wayve was the first to develop and test an end-to-end (e2e) AI autonomous driving system on public roads. This pioneering effort paved the way for an industry-wide shift towards AI, coined ‘AV2.0’. Through their long-standing work, Wayve has successfully developed foundation models for autonomy, similar to a ‘GPT for driving,’ that can empower any vehicle to perceive its surroundings and safely drive through diverse environments.

10. Milan-based edtech Futura raises €14 million Series A to make the world learn faster and better

Milan based, an AI-powered education company, announced today that it has successfully raised €14 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Eurazeo, with participation from existing investor United Ventures and new investor Axon Partners Group. This funding will enable Futura to accelerate its mission of making the world learn faster.

Futura, founded in 2020 by Andrea Chirolli, Francesco Salvatore, and Lorenzo Pinto, has developed an innovative algorithm that personalizes and optimizes students’ learning trajectories. This algorithm replicates the experience of working with a highly skilled private professor, resulting in impressive outcomes. Students using Futura have a 3.5 times higher chance of passing tests compared to traditional learning methods.

Since raising €1.8 million in seed funding in 2022, Futura has experienced significant growth, with revenues tripling each year and achieving profitability. With the newly acquired €14 million in Series A funding, Futura aims to expand its reach throughout Europe and develop new products, after initially focusing on medical school entrance test preparation. The company’s goal is to become the next Italian unicorn.

Futura’s mission is rooted in the belief that traditional education methods are outdated and cannot keep up with the potential of modern technology. The company views AI as a game-changer in the edtech space, enabling personalized learning at scale and at an affordable price, thereby making education more accessible to all. Futura’s innovative algorithm optimizes students’ learning trajectories by selecting the next best action for everyone, effectively tailoring the study method to their unique needs.

Moreover, the algorithm automatically addresses students’ inquiries, making customer support more efficient and faster. To further enhance the learning experience, Futura has developed “Alice”, an AI-powered virtual tutor that uses large-language models to generate customized explanations and learning materials, tailored to each student’s level, knowledge, and learning style.

Futura is confident that its product will significantly impact education and help the next generation of learners multiply their learning speed. The company is well-positioned to lead the charge in this new era of edtech, making education more personalized, efficient, and accessible to all.

Futura plans to use the acquired funding to further invest in their technology and AI, expand into new business lines, and grow their team across Europe. The company is particularly focused on hiring in Italy and Spain and plans to double their team size within the year.

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