Weekly Digest: $500M+ AI rounds surge, new $1B startups emerge, and a16z doubles down on firm-building.
January ecosystem highlights — AI momentum, mega funding rounds, VC power moves, acquisitions, and must-watch interviews.
Welcome to this week’s digest — sharing the latest startup and venture news that you may have missed. It’s a big one!
To help you make sense of it all, we’ve rounded up the most talked-about startup stories from the past few weeks — broken down into these categories:
🔔 The latest trend
🗝️ Read of the week
🔍 Top tech news
💰 Startup funding news
👀 New VC funds
🤝 Acquisitions
🎤 Must-watch interviews
Let’s dive in 🚀
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🔔 The latest trend
We recently had David Haber, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz on the podcast show who recently wrote a piece that went viral around a single provocative idea: Most investors run funds. Very few build firms. What emerges is a clear worldview: the best venture firms aren’t just investors — they’re products. And the winners will be the ones that build moats that get stronger with scale. Discover how venture is changing:
🗝️ Read of the week
Discover 2025’s newest $1B startups — from AI infrastructure to vertical apps. We map the surge, spotlight the investors behind them, and point to the next breakout names.
🔍 Top tech news
Capital One acquires Brex for $5B.
Preply raises $150M in Series D funding.
Synthesia raises $200M in Series E funding led by Google Ventures at a $4B valuation.
💰 Startup funding news
LiveKit, a developer of infrastructure software for real-time AI voice and video applications has raised $100M led by Index Ventures.
AI chip startup Ricursive has raised $300M at a $4B valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
AI inference startup Baseten has raised $300M at a $5B valuation.
Inference startup Inferact has raised $150M led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
OpenEvidence has raised a $250M Series D round led by Thrive and DST and hits a $12B valuation.
PraxisPro has raised a $6M seed round from AlleyCorp to coach medical sales reps.
Another has raised a $2.5M seed round to help retailers sell excess inventory.
Humans&, a ‘human-centric’ AI startup founded by Anthropic, xAI, Google alums, raised $480M seed round.
Mews, a cloud-native hospitality management system designed to automate operations, enhance revenue, and improve guest experiences raised $300M in Series D funding.
Indian vibe-coding startup Emergent triples valuation to $300M with a $70M Series B fundraise led by SoftBank and Khosla Ventures.
Legal AI startup Ivo has raised a $55M Series B round.
AI chip startup Etched has raised $500M to take on Nvidia.
Bolna has raised a $6.3M seed round from General Catalyst for its India-focused voice orchestration platform.
Symbiotic Security has raised a $10M seed round to make AI-generated code safe. The round was led by Alven.
Mine has raised $14M Series A to launch AI money agent for young adults. The round was led by 359 Capital.
👀 New VC funds
Nik Storonsky’s QuantumLight targets $500m for second fund.
Social Leverage raises $85M for fifth seed fund.
Former Dogpound CEO Jenny Liu launches Crush It Ventures, a $5M fund to back wellness companies.
Operator-led VC firm Plural targeting up to €1bn for new fund.
Healthier Capital closes Fund 1, at $220M.
Obvious Ventures closes Fund V, at $360M.
2150 VC raises $250M to solve cities’ climate challenges.
Basis Set Ventures raises $250M for fund four.
CAA, New Enterprise Associates install Nicole Quinn & Michael Blank as Co-Heads Of VC Firm Connect Ventures.
🤝 Acquisitions
Grubhub parent acquires restaurant rewards startup Claim.
Legal AI giant Harvey acquires Hexus as competition heats up in legal tech.
Faculty — A UCL-founded AI startup has been acquired by Accenture in $1B deal.
🎤 Must-watch interviews
He Built A $1.8B AI Company With No Experience | Max Junestrand.
Forget AI: Inside the Meltdown That Made Airalo #1 eSIM Unicorn | Ahmet Bahadir Ozdemir.
The Hidden Skill Behind Every Successful Founder | Lindsay Kaplan.
The Harsh Truth About Building a Startup in the AI Era | Anish Acharya.
The AI Version of You Will Outperform You — Emad Mostaque.
How Solana Survived When Most Other Coins Fell | Anatoly Yakovenko.
Watch now!
This is a very strong digest Ollie 👏
What I appreciate most is the editorial judgment. You are not chasing novelty, you are curating signal across strategy, capital, and execution in a way that actually compounds for readers.
Love these!!!