Friday, March 7, 2025

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups.

Sometimes problems are just that: problems. But often, they are also fodder. This week brought us a mix of startups facing adversity, sometimes of their own doing, and others that are thriving.

Most interesting startup stories from the week

Image Credits: Ramp

Some startups racked up revenue and contracts; others racked up lawsuits.

Ramping up: Fintech startup Ramp more than doubled its annualized revenue to $700 million. In a recent secondary share sale, it also nearly doubled its valuation to $13 billion.

Bang a gong: Revenue prediction startup Gong surpassed $300 million in annualized revenue, putting the AI company on the path to a potential IPO.

Mach speed: Mach Industries, a defense tech startup backed by Sequoia, landed a contract with the U.S. Army and has plans for its first factory, its 21-year-old founder Ethan Thornton said.

Boomerang: After years of controversy, including a now-settled legal battle, Ryan Breslow is once again the CEO of Bolt, the fintech company he founded, which was once valued at $11 billion.

One lawsuit: Passes, a direct-to-fan monetization platform for creators that raised a $40 million Series A led by Bond Capital in 2024, has been sued for allegedly distributing child sexual abuse material.

Another lawsuit: One board member of climate-friendly fintech startup Aspiration plead guilty to wire fraud and one co-founder was arrested for allegedly conspiring to defraud investors, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Most interesting VC and funding news this week

Image Credits: Pauline Pham / Dust

Several startups announced large rounds this week — in AI as usual, but also in different categories that help others navigate hairy situations.

AI maker: Anthropic raised a $3.5 billion Series E led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation.

AI partner: Turing, which contributes to the building of LLMs, raised a $111 million Series E led by Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad at a $2.2 billion valuation.

HR competition: Indian HR unicorn Darwinbox raised $140 million to expand internationally and challenge competitors like Deel.

Counter drones: U.S. defense tech startup Epirus raised a $250 million Series D to counter drone swarms. Germany-based Alpine Eagle secured around $10.96 million in funding for its airborne solution to the same problem.

Avoiding volatility: Tel Aviv-based startup Grain emerged from stealth with $50 million in funding to help businesses hedge against FX volatility.

Navigating tariffs: With cross-border trading barriers in the spotlight, Swap raised $40 million to build tools that help merchants deal with tariffs and other hurdles.

Avoiding chemo: New York-based startup Ataraxis AI raised a $20.4 million Series A to predict the cancer outcome of individual patients and whether chemo can be avoided.

Larger fund: Thirty-year-old firm Foundation Capital, an early backer of Solana and Cerebras, raised an 11th flagship fund of $600 million — 20% more than its predecessor.

Last but not least

Image Credits: Getty Images

Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, has no patience for growth at all costs and what he calls the "rot economy," but don't mistake this for tech hate. In a recent episode of the Equity podcast, he argued there's an opportunity for startups to do better than Big Tech in putting users first.