Startups face a recurring dilemma of whether to become a partner

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This first week of February has been busy in the geopolitical aspects and in the world of startups and VC news, with many announcements and a huge amount of capital change.

The most interesting startup story of the week

The startup took a variety of views on the recurring dilemma of whether they are partners or not. Plus, warning stories about high burn rates, and beyond the IPO.

Let’s join forces: Following Aurora’s innovation and similar partnerships, Volvo’s autonomous solutions Partnering with self-driving truck startup Waabi We will jointly develop and deploy self-driving trucks. The commercial pilot is scheduled to be released in Texas soon, with unmanned demonstrations on public roads planned at the end of the year.

Oursky and Planeave, space startups Merged to create observable spacesa new company aimed at creating next-generation telescopes.

Go solo:Robotics Company Figure AI Trading with Openai has endedinstead choose to focus on in-house AI for a “major breakthrough.” The startup is developing general-purpose humanoid robots for both commercial and residential use.

and Google’s X Weaving inherited agriculturea startup that uses AI to improve crop yields. “Moonshot Factory” emits several ventures under Astro Teller’s leadership.

take over: groove Startups building software for maintenance people, Acquisition competitor specifx Expand your dataset with repairs. The acquisition was made for a private amount and was funded in a $230 million round, which the company announced this week.

High burns: Canada-based accounting startup bench failed It was baked for $135 million Records revealed years before filing for bankruptcy.

First ipos:TechCrunch compiled the list High-tech companies that can be released this yearIt includes Karman and Voyager Technologies, which includes two space and defense technology startups released last month. The deal wasn’t on the list, Major Secondary Sales The IPO of Fintech/HR startups suggests that they were previously teased in the “2025/2026 hour window.”

Most Interesting VC and Funding News This Week

This week also brought in interesting fundraising news. Not only are they trading rounds, but they also provide new funds, and even funds.

adtech: Canadian programmatic advertising startup Stacka Dap has been featured $235 million growth funding round It will be led by Teacher Venture Growth (TVG), the investment division of the Ontario Teacher Pension Plan.

Fof: India has announced a new one $11.5 Billion Fund for Startups As part of the federal budget for 2025-26. FOF aims to have a “expanded scope” compared to previous startup funding programs, and New Delhi explores the creation of another deep technology FOF.

LLMS in India: Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of Ola billionaire, announced he will invest $230 million for Krutriman AI startup he created by pushing Indian LLM.

Deep Technology:CVC Hitachi Ventures based in Munich We secured $400 million The fourth fund will continue to target investments in Series A deep tech startups, but 55% of the capital will be reserved for subsequent investments.

Ozempic Effect: Berry Street and Fay, two startups that match nutritionists and patients; Each raised a $50 million funding roundbecause GLP-1 drugs created tail fins for nutritional counseling.

Riot! French startup riots raised a $30 million Series B round It expands its focus beyond educating employees on cybersecurity risks, and now it urges them to minimize threats. Sources say the company reached $10 million in annual revenue in 2024, following a North valuation of $170 million.

Cherries on top: German VC company Cherry Ventures We’ve collected a new $500 million fund Early and subsequent investments. The previous fund, announced in 2022, had been closed for around $312 million.

First Fund: The emblem of a European VC company based in Paris; raised $85 million For that first fund. Its typical partner previously invested in companies such as Gourmey and Sorare.

Last but not least, it’s important

European AI startups Collectively raised $8 billion in 2024According to a French AI report. The joint release of early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment firm Revaia and advisory firm Chausson Partners also revealed that 70% of its capital has been seeded in the Series B round, bringing the scene to maturity suggests that the number may increase as .