Defending Russia’s EU neighbors | TechCrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of all the things you possibly can’t miss from the world of startups. Enroll right here to get it in your inbox each Friday.

This week we’re an AI startup that desires to assist individuals get inventive with video; Kudos, which raised $3 million to assist do away with diaper rash; and VCs backing different VCs.

Most attention-grabbing startup tales from the week

Traders preserve pouring {dollars} and euros into startups that may assist defend the world from aggressive nations. Helsing, a protection startup that makes use of AI to enhance battlefield selections, has raised €450 million ($487 million). A few of that cash will go towards a brand new entity in Estonia to guard the Baltic states from its harmful neighbor, Russia. Based on Bloomberg’s sources, Helsing’s valuation jumped from $1.85 billion final yr to $5.4 billion. In the meantime, some U.S. enterprise funds with protection tech methods are arming themselves with new sorts of buyers: veterans and ex-Division of Protection officers.  

Talking of hovering valuations, the most recent numbers from PitchBook knowledge present that startup costs have hit an all-time excessive in 2024. Is it time to rejoice concerning the finish of the downturn? Not so quick. Seems that costs are up just for the perfect corporations. Everybody else continues to be struggling to boost capital or is discovering a approach to obfuscate poor valuations.

Turning AI foe into pal: Whereas Hollywood artists could also be nervous about AI tech stealing their livelihoods, DreamFlare, a startup based by a doc filmmaker and an ex-Googler, desires creators to make extra content material and a pleasant revenue with AI. The studio will assist animation artists work alongside an skilled inventive group on story improvement after which will distribute the movies by means of its on-line platform.

Draw your nervousness away: Fears of struggle and the potential of AI changing individuals’s jobs are solely including to the prevailing psychological well being disaster. Scribble Journey created an app that helps customers discover their feelings by means of artwork remedy.  

Most attention-grabbing fundraises this week

The U.S. is brief on tech and different high-skilled professionals. Importing that expertise from overseas is without doubt one of the solutions. However getting a piece visa authorized by the U.S. Division of State is probably not only a perform of restricted slots. Immigration attorneys typically give improper recommendation to people trying to work within the nation. The Kyrgyzstan-born, Harvard-educated Aizada Marat based Alma, an AI-powered authorized tech startup that accelerates and simplifies the visa obtainment course of for technologists, founders and researchers.

Sending cash overseas: Nala, an African funds startup, raised a $40 million Sequence A spherical led by Acrew Capital. The massive spherical exhibits that worldwide remittances might be an enormous enterprise.

Knowledge-powered diagnoses: Busy docs don’t all the time have time to evaluation each knowledge level in a affected person’s chart, often resulting in missed diagnoses. Regard, a startup that simply raised $61 million at a $350 million valuation, does this for physicians with the assistance of AI.

Bye-bye, diaper rash: Child not sleeping effectively? She or he might hate the sensation of plastic on the bends of their diaper. Give Kudos, a startup that traces its diapers with 100% cotton and raised $3 million, a strive.

Most attention-grabbing fund information this week 

Index Ventures restocks: Model identify funds appear to have no downside elevating large funds lately. Index Ventures introduced $2.3 billion in recent capital. The agency’s fundraise is barely smaller than its earlier classic, however Index says it’s an applicable quantity for the present market.

Look to the celebs: German-based Alpine Area Ventures has raised a $184 million (€170 million) fund to put money into corporations serving the area trade within the U.S. and Europe.

VCs backing VCs: Kearny Jackson raised a $65 million third fund from pre-seed and seed B2B SaaS and fintech infrastructure startups. The agency’s LPs embrace Sequoia, Bain Capital Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Marc Andreessen. 

Final however not least

Arianna Huffington teamed up with Sam Altman on a brand new well being teaching startup, Thrive AI Well being. The corporate is backed by Huffington’s wellness firm Thrive and the OpenAI Startup Fund. The startup will supply an AI-powered assistant that nudges individuals to steer a more healthy life-style. The query is, after all, will it’s as profitable as a human coach in getting people to train and eat their greens? One other query is how a lot funding Thrive AI Well being obtained to develop its capabilities.