AI Startups Choose London
SpaceX IPO, YC Demo Day, Startup Funding News, Acquisitions and more.
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Hey readers!
Welcome back to your regular tech digest — a quick snapshot of the most important tech news from the past few weeks.
This edition covers:
🗝️ Key trends: UK lands a roster of AI companies
🔍 Top tech news
💰 Startup funding highlights
👀 New VC funds
🤝 Acquisitions
🎤 Must-watch interviews
and more… let’s dive in.
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🗝️ Key trends: AI startups choose London as their European hub
London’s position as Europe’s AI hub keeps strengthening.
Recently, a new wave of AI startups announced major expansions in the capital — including n8n, ElevenLabs, Lovable, Legora and Cursor — building on earlier moves from OpenAI and Anthropic.
As competition for talent, customers and ecosystem density intensifies, London is increasingly becoming the city where European AI companies choose to scale. With recent political developments in the UK, there is hope that future leadership continues to build on London’s momentum and reinforce its position as Europe’s leading AI hub.
🔍 Top tech news
SpaceX finally went public!
YC Spring Demo Day took place last week. If you missed the day, see the full batch here.
💰 Startup funding highlights
Poland invests $11M into ElevenLabs.
European startup NEURA Robotics raised $1.4B to develop collaborative robots.
Odyssey, a world model AI startup founded by self-driving vehicle pioneers raised a $310M Series B round at a $1.45B valuation led by Natural Capital.
Pramaana Labs raised $27M Seed from Khosla Ventures to bring formal verification to AI.
Sarvam recently became India’s newest AI unicorn with its latest $234M funding round led by HCLTech.
NewCore which authenticates, govern, and controls AI agents raised $66M Seed led by Cyberstarts.
Orbio, automates hiring and onboarding for frontline workers raised $21M Series A led by Dawn Capital.
Theker raised $85M led by CRV to build the factory robot that doesn’t specialize in anything.
Trading platform Fomo raised $75M Series B from Index Ventures and USV.
Voice AI startup Bland raised $50M Series C from Dell Technologies Capital after being rejected by 180 investors.
👀 New VC funds
The Chainsmokers’ VC Firm Mantis is raising a $100M fund.
Seedcamp raised $320M for their seventh fund.
Play Ventures raised $140M to invest in gaming.
Base10 raised $850M to fund early-stage AI-focused founders.
Anti Fund closed its oversubscribed $100M Growth I fund.
CAA, TPG form $250M holding company to acquire businesses led by YouTubers and other creators.
🤝 Acquisitions
SpaceX to acquire AI coding startup Cursor for $60B.
Salesforce acquired Intercom (now branded as Fin) for $3.6B.
Warner Music acquired AI attribution startup Sureel AI.
DeepL acquired Mixhalo for live-event audio streaming and translation.
L’Oreal to acquire majority stake in Indian beauty startup Innovist.
OpenAI acquired German startup ONA.
Elastic agrees to buy CRV-backed Deductive AI for up to $85M.
Databricks acquired cyberattack detection startup Panther.
AMD buys data center memory optimization startup Mext.
🎤 This week on the NEW ECONOMIES Podcast
Why email never died — and why Superhuman is betting on voice, AI, and the future of work
Rahul Vohra, founder of Superhuman and now CEO of Superhuman Mail inside the newly formed Superhuman group, joins NEW ECONOMIES on why email remains the most important layer of modern work, how AI is transforming productivity beyond the inbox, and why distribution and focus matter more than technical moats in the age of infinite software.
Previous episodes include:
Replit's President & Head of AI | Michele Catasta
Inside Mercury's Founding Story | Co-Founder & CEO Immad Akhund
Inside Gusto's Founding Story | Co-Founder & CTO Eddie Kim
We Had to Reimagine Nextdoor | CEO & Co-Founder Nirav Tolia
5 Grand Slam Champion Maria Sharapova: Tennis Icon | Entrepreneur | Investor | New Media Creator
How Many $10 Billion Startups Will There Be? | Eric Hippeau
Will AI Models Ever Compensate Creators? | Tony Stubblebine
No More Traditional School Teachers | Joleen Liang
Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on the company’s turnaround story.
Dan Shipper on why traditional coding workflows are breaking.
Colin Angle on the $1.7B founder failure story.
David Haber (a16z) on the future of venture capital.
Emad Mostaque on AI systems replacing personal productivity.
Watch and subscribe now!
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