The US IPO window has not yet reopened, but startups are taking what they can

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Despite a short work week in many areas, the past few days have been full of deal announcements and funding news, although it’s too early to tell how much money has been put on hold ahead of the US election.

Interesting start-up news of the week

There are early signs that the US IPO window may reopen, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves; meanwhile, we often have India IPOs, M&As, and not-so-good news.

IPO later: European scale-up Klarna has privately filed IPO documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After ups and downs, the buy-now, pay-later company (BNPL) reportedly saw its valuation rise to $14.6 billion earlier this year.

He is jealous: Naspers-owned Prosus aims to take Indian fintech PayU public by 2025. The Dutch investor seems to be shifting more focus to India, where the fast-growing e-commerce company Swiggy recently made its first stellar IPO.

Monitoring the dark web: Cybersecurity unicorn Bitsight bought dark web security specialist Cybersixgill for $115 million.

Moves the cursor: Anysphere, the startup behind the popular AI-powered code editor, has acquired rival Supermaven, which had raised $12 million. Anysphere has reportedly received unsolicited investment offers valued at up to $2.5 billion.

It’s out of power: Little-known battery maker Northvolt is selling some assets to Lyten, a Silicon Valley battery startup, but it’s unclear whether the proceeds and other cost-cutting measures will be enough to see the Swedish company through next year.

Interesting fundraising this week

Startups may be rushing to announce their latest news before Thanksgiving, but there were quite a few rounds announced this week, including some big ones.

Writing checks: The author raised a $200 billion Series C round at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its business-focused AI productivity platform.

Silent funding: British AI startup Tessl opened a waiting list and revealed that it has raised $125 million so far. This includes previously undisclosed interest and Series A. The latter was led by Index Ventures – at a post-money valuation of $750 million, according to sources.

To raise up: ScaleOps, a cloud computing company based in New York, has closed a $58 million Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners that will help grow its current workforce of 60 people to more than 200 by 2026.

Cash flow: French fintech company Agicap has secured $48 million in Series C funding for its cash flow management platform. The startup is aimed at medium-sized companies and has 8,000 customers, almost half of them in France.

Satellite service: US startup Starfish Space has raised $29 million in funding led by major defense technology investor Shield Capital. Its goal is to launch three full-sized satellite flights and test spacecraft by 2026.

Very interesting VC and fund news this week

A new high: VC firm Altos Ventures raised $500 million in its latest fund, according to an SEC filing. The Silicon Valley-based investor was an early backer of Coupang and Roblox.

He came down: The co-CEO of SoftBank Vision Fund, Rajeev Misra, will step down after 10 years and will no longer have an official role at SoftBank, the company said.

Finally

Station F, the iconic startup campus in Paris, has revealed its top 40 startups of the year, and almost all of them – 34, to be exact – use AI. Hence Romain Dillet’s prediction: “It is clear that all new startups moving forward will incorporate AI in some way.”