Weekly Digest: Software Invades Sports, AI Rounds Explode, and Fresh VC Capital Floods In
January ecosystem highlights — AI momentum, mega funding rounds, VC power moves, acquisitions, and must-watch interviews.
This week alone, startups raised billions, AI companies pushed past $4.5B valuations, and software brands quietly began locking up the world’s biggest sports teams.
To help you make sense of it all, we’ve rounded up the most talked-about startup stories from the past week — 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
I posted a few months ago about a mega interesting trend that is happening right now…
Young(ish) software companies are entering sports as brand partners and many more have entered the race since my last post with the latest being 👇
Deel → Premier League with Arsenal Football Club
Revolut → F1 with Audi F1
ElevenLabs → F1 with Audi F1
Airwallex → F1 with McLaren Racing
Spotify → FC Barcelona
Shopify → Shopify Racing powered by TWOth
Nexo → F1 with Audi F1
Why this is worth watching:
1) Instant global brand recognition.
2) Borrowed trust from the world’s biggest teams.
3) A very public signal to competitors.
4) This is a land grab — once these partnerships are taken, latecomers are locked out.
Expect many more still-young software companies to enter sports in 2026.
🗝️ Read of the week: The AI Design Playbook for Startups
Four frameworks every startup needs before embedding AI into their product — because AI is rewriting the rules of product strategy, but the teams breaking out aren’t the ones chasing the newest model.
🔍 Top tech news
Upwind raised $250M led by Bessemer Venture Partners at a $1.5B valuation to continue building ‘runtime’ cloud security.
Standard Nuclear raised $140M led by Decisive Point as nuclear power enters its gold rush era.
The Sidemen, one of the biggest creator groups, have announced the launch of Sidemen Productions, a new creator-led production company.
💰 Startup funding news
Redwood Materials raised $425M Series E led by Eclipse as AI power needs rise.
Checkbox raised $23M Series A led by Touring Capital to become the front door for in-house legal teams.
Aikido Security raised $60M Series B led by DST Global, at a $1B valuation to unify application security.
Decagon raised $250M Series D led by Coatue and Index Ventures pegging the company to a $4.5B valuation.
Brickanta raised $8M Seed led by Northzone for AI construction tools.
As vet bills jump 40% in recent years, startup Snout raised $110M Series A ($10M Venture & $100M Debt) for its ‘membership’ model to defray costs.
Zocks raised $45M Series B from Lightspeed, to become the AI assistant for financial advisors.
Matic is reimagining the next generation of fully autonomous, helpful, and elegant home robots has raised $60M as per the co-founders’ announcement today.
Mesh has officially entered the fintech unicorn club after raising $75M in a Series C funding round led by Dragonfly.
Rogo raised $75M Series C led by Sequoia to scale AI finance platform.
Outtake, a cyber startup that works with OpenAI, AppLovin and Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, raised $40M Series B led by ICONIQ.
👀 New VC funds
Voyager Ventures, an early-stage VC firm investing across Europe and the US, has closed its third fund at $275m.
b2venture closes €150M Fund V to back Europe’s next-Gen tech leaders.
Daphni closes €260m early-stage fund for science-first deeptech startups.
VC firm 2150 raises €210M fund to solve cities’ climate challenges.
🤝 Acquisitions
Apple acquires Israeli audio AI startup Q.ai.
AI data-labeling startup Handshake has acquired data label-auditing startup Cleanlab.
🎤 Must-watch interviews
Andreessen Horowitz General Partner: Venture Capital’s Future | David Haber.
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!
Don't be surprised if Capital allocation suddenly shifts to space Technologies, physical AI, ambient Computing and Robotics in the next 18 months. A really fascinating turn is about to take place in emerging Technologies.