ICYMI News Roundup
October ecosystem highlights — startups, venture trends, M&A moves, and must-watch interviews.
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This week’s sponsor: Vanta
Knowledge Gaps = Security Gaps
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The startup ecosystem is evolving so much (and fast)
The startup ecosystem is shifting fast. The AI bubble is in full swing, $100M ARR is the new badge of honor over unicorn status, CEOs are stepping down, new VC funds are emerging, and acquisitions are heating up.
To help you make sense of it all, we’ve rounded up the most talked-about startup stories from the past month — broken down into these categories:
💰 Startup Funding News
👀 New VC funds
🔍 Wider tech news
🤝 M&A Deals
🎤 Must watch interviews / podcasts
Let’s dive in 🚀
💰 Startup Funding News
The Prompting Company raises $6.5M from Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator and others to help products get mentioned in ChatGPT and other AI apps. Founded by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline, and Albert Putra Purnama.
Start getting mentioned in ChatGPT and other AI apps here!
Mem0 raises $24M from Peak XV Partners and Y Combinator. Founded by Taranjeet Singh.
Mercor raises $350M.
Adam raises $4.1M led by TQ Ventures to turn viral text-to-3D tool into AI Copilots. Founded by Zach Dive and Aaron Li.
Bevel raises $10M Series A from General Catalyst for its AI health companion. Founded by Grey Nguyen, Aditya Agarwal and Ben Yang.
Deel hits $17.3B valuation after raising $300M. Founded by Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang.
Flint AI raises $5M from Accel to use AI to autonomously build and update websites. Co-founded by Michelle Lim.
Oslo-based Riff - the vibe coding platform designed for enterprise-grade applications raises $16M Series A led by Northzone.
Synthesia raises $200M.
Jack & Jill raises $20M led by Creandum to bring conversational AI to job-hunting.
General Intuition lands $134M seed to teach agents spatial reasoning using video game clips. The round was led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst.
👀 New VC funds
Sequoia Capital unveils $950M in new early-stage funds.
🔍 Wider tech news
Sweden is killing it with tech companies. Just in the last few months, these local startups have raised:
Strawberry raises $6M from General Catalyst and others.
Vesence raises $9M led by Emergence Capital.
Grasp raises $7M for investment banking automation.
Epiminds raises $6M, a new startup using agentic AI to streamline marketing.
Encube emerges from stealth with €19 million to reshape hardware development.
Farang raises €1.5 million to launch outperforming AI models.
Standab charges ahead with €3.6 million for Europe-wide micromobility network.
Read our recent piece on The Nordics Startup Ecosystem which outlines why the region is one to watch for startups!
In other news…
NVIDIA becomes the first public company worth $5 trillion!
Grammarly rebrands to Superhuman. (Superhuman was recently acquired by Grammarly.)
Bending Spoons acquires AOL. Founded by Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, Luca Ferrari and Francesco Patarnello.
Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images.
Luminar is cutting jobs, losing its CFO, and warning of a cash shortage.
Navan IPO tumbles 20% after historic debut under SEC shutdown workaround.
TS Anil steps down as Monzo’s CEO.
🤝 M&A Deals
Figma acquires AI-powered media generation company Weavy.
🎤 Must watch podcast interviews
The Untold Story About The Female Steve Jobs
Tyler Shultz — grandson of former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz — shares his story of working with Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos.
Spotify’s Early Investor Shares His Blueprint for Outlier Founders
PJ Pärson from Northzone helped spark Spotify. Now he’s revealing how the next generation of founders will redefine everything.
Inside YC’s Hottest Startups
We meet the hottest YC startups from the Summer ’25 batch for office hours to discover what they’re building, their biggest mistakes, and early wins.
How Colin Matthews Built AI Apps Insanely Fast with Vibe Coding
Learn how to build apps lightning-fast and finally launch those ideas you’ve been sitting on.
Lucy Guo: The Youngest Self-Made Billionaire Told Us THIS
The co-founder behind Scale AI, who later founded creator economy startup Passes, which raised millions within weeks.
This Is How AI Will Reshape Startups Forever
How Carta is shaping the future of private equity — and what founders should know about the AI boom.
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Wow, forgot most of this! Thanks for resurfacing!