M&As and AI are in the spotlight, but there’s still capital left for quick commerce and more | TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here.

This week brought reassuring signs that dealmaking is still happening on both sides of the table. New unicorns are being minted, and more capital is flowing into AI, but deals are also coming from some unexpected directions.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

AI news was plentiful this week, but also varied, from large and small M&As to new launches.

AI portfolio: Typeface, a generative AI unicorn, purchased two companies to expand its enterprise offering: New York City-based Treat, which uses AI to create personalized photo products, and Narrato, an Australian AI-powered content creation and management platform.

AI again: Global HR company Workday bought AI-powered contract management platform Evisort, adding to its AI-related acquisitions. The companies didn’t disclose the price tag, but Evisort had raised $155.6 million in capital and debt.

FinOps FTW: IBM acquired Kubecost, a Kubernetes cost optimization startup, as its name suggests. This is another sign of the ongoing rise of FinOps, which may also be boosted by the need to lessen the cost and impact of GenAI.

Only you: Recently launched SocialAI is a social network with a big twist — it is filled with bots, and that’s on purpose. Founder Michael Sayman told TechCrunch that his goal was for users to be able to bounce ideas off a diverse community of AIs.

Most interesting fundraises this week

This week was also busy on the dealmaking front, and some of the capital went to sectors and places you might not necessarily expect.

Flying solo: Quick commerce app Flink raised $150 million, including $115 million in equity. The near-unicorn was once an acquisition target of competitors but is now seeking to forge its own path, with a focus on Germany and the Netherlands.

On alert: New York-based startup Intezer raised $33 million to make sure security teams aren’t overwhelmed by alerts. Using AI, the startup helps them with not only triaging, but also with investigation, which it does much faster than a human would, CEO Itai Tevet said.

Getting permits: NYC-based GreenLite raised a $28.5 million Series A round to facilitate construction permitting. Its co-founders don’t come from the construction sector but previously worked at Gopuff, which got its own taste of dealing with permits when it tried to launch a ghost kitchen network across the U.S. 

Tailwinds: Armenian B2B SaaS startup EasyDMARC raised a $20 million Series A round of funding to simplify email security and authentication. The company facilitates the adoption of a technical standard that Google and Yahoo will soon make mandatory for bulk email senders.

Most interesting VC and fund news this week

Accelerating: Salesforce Ventures announced at Dreamforce that its San Francisco-based AI fund would once again double in size and reach $1 billion, a significant acceleration compared to the $5 billion total deployed in its first 15 years.

Decacorn fund: Insights Partners is nearing a whopping $10 billion fundraise for its 13th fund, according to the Financial Times, which also noted the recent sales of two Insight portfolio companies, Own and Recorded Future.

Builders: Proptech venture firm Era Ventures raised $88 million for its first fund, which will be deployed in startups from seed to Series B. Its portfolio includes Honey Homes, a subscription service for handymen that has raised $21.35 million in venture funding to date.

Last but not least

In a recent episode of the Equity podcast, J.P. Morgan’s Head of Startup Banking Ashraf Hebela discussed his recent Startup Insights report and what it might take to create a unicorn in 2024. He also touched on the hot topic of “Founder Mode.”