Saved the Bell bench, and other last-minute deals that close in 2024
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Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was relatively quiet in terms of startup announcements, but activity is already starting to pick up. We are also preparing for CES; If your hardware startup is present, Be sure to let us know.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
Unlike other dealmaking, M&A activity has not stopped — at least not intentionally.
Save last minute: bench, canadian accounting startup Suddenly it closed a few days agoIt will be It was acquired by HR technology company Employer.com For an undisclosed sum in a last-minute deal.
Another huge deal for 2024: World Wide Technology (WWT), a St. Louis-based technology services company, has agreed to acquire Canadian IT provider Softchoice in a massive all-cash deal With a value of approximately $1.25 billion.
Final curtain closes for 2024: French food delivery startup Epicery I stopped working after nine years. Since 2021, it has been owned by Geopost/DPDgroup, which recently sold last-mile delivery service Stuart at a significant loss.
The first huge deal in 2025: Thomson Reuters has acquired tax automation company SafeSend For 600 million dollars In an all-cash transaction.
No agreement was reached: UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) He opened an investigation into IBM’s planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorpwhich the Federal Trade Commission is already investigating.
Next competition: In that Interview with TechCrunchRobinhood CEO Vlad Tenev spoke about his company’s plans to increasingly compete with still-private prediction market startups like Kalshi and Polymarket.
Most interesting fundraiser this week
The new year’s recession had exceptions, and startups outside the US announced new funding rounds this week.
Dinner is served: Riyadh-based meal delivery startup Calo has raised $25 million Expansion outside the Middle Eastwith ambitions to go global and meet the needs of the most personalized food customization.
Artificial intelligence care: Brazilian startup Carecode, which builds AI agents for the healthcare sector, It raised a pre-funding round of $4.3 million Led by a16z and QED, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst, KDX Ventures, K50 Ventures, and Latitu Ventures.
Unified computing: Apheris, a German startup leveraging federated computing for life sciences AI use cases, She earned $8.25 million In a Series A round led by deep tech venture capital firms eCAPITAL and OTB Ventures.
The most interesting venture capital and funds news this week
Continue: Rifaat Axel $650 million for its eighth fund in India. The company that recently It deepened its focus on rural Indiawill see several of its Indian portfolio companies go public this year.
Prediction time: Twenty VCs shared their predictions with TechCrunch On enterprise technology in 2025from artificial intelligence agents to enterprise budgets. For example, Nina Achadjian, partner at Index Ventures, said she expects “more liquidity in 2025, both for M&A and public markets.”
More expectations: According to TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant, it will be 2025 The year climate technology learns to love AIThis is due to increasing computing needs that increase the demand for all kinds of innovations to reduce environmental impact.
