Welcome to Startups Weekly \u2014 your weekly recap of everything you can\u2019t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday?<\/em> Sign up here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Startup life is a story of births and deaths. This week confirmed this, and it confirmed that unicorn rounds are not dead.<\/p>\n As happens often in the startup world, it\u2019s been a week of beginnings and endings.<\/p>\n Thinking machines<\/strong>: Thinking Machines Lab, the new AI startup of former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, came out of stealth<\/a> this week, without confirming how much it may have raised from VCs. Meanwhile, Ilya Sutskever\u2019s startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI)\u00a0is\u00a0reportedly raising around $1 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Humane killing<\/strong>: Humane, the hardware startup behind the flawed AI Pin, announced that most of its assets have been acquired by HP<\/a> for $116 million.<\/p>\n Money back guarantee<\/strong>: San Francisco-based startup Future Family launched a new IVF insurance product<\/a> in the United States that could refund prospective parents if treatment doesn\u2019t succeed after two rounds.<\/p>\n Low battery<\/strong>: Former Silicon Valley darling Nikola Corp. filed for bankruptcy<\/a> this week. The hydrogen electric trucking startup failed to find a buyer or secure additional funds to maintain operations.<\/p>\n We thought the days of counting unicorns were behind us, but not so much. Plus, legal AI is hot, and looming budget cuts inspired a new biotech venture fund.<\/p>\n Quadricorn<\/strong>: Austin-based defense startup Saronic raised a $600 million Series C<\/a> to build an autonomous ship factory, also quadrupling its valuation to $4 billion from its last round.<\/p>\n New horn<\/strong>: Six months after raising a $150 million Series C at a $1.25 billion post-money valuation, AI coding startup Codeium is in talks to raise a new round led by Kleiner Perkins at a $2.85 billion valuation<\/a>, sources told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joining the club<\/strong>: Hightouch, a startup co-founded by a former engineering manager at Segment that provides AI-powered marketing tools, closed an $80 million Series C round at a $1.2 billion valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Augury, whose AI-based hardware detects malfunctions in factory machines, secured $75 million in equity funding<\/a> as part of a Series F round that it is still closing. CEO and founder Saar Yoskovitz said this was an up-round valuing the startup at over $1 billion.<\/p>\n After the billion<\/strong>: After raising $1 billion to date<\/a> since 2015, fintech Varo closed on $29 million out of the $55 million Series G it has been hoping to raise. Its CEO and founder, Colin Walsh, also recently announced he was stepping down.<\/p>\n Halfway<\/strong>: Sanas, which leverages AI to change call center workers\u2019 accents in real time, closed a $65 million funding round<\/a>, valuing the company at over $500 million.<\/p>\n Legal AI<\/strong>: AI-powered legal tech startup Luminance raised $75 million in a Series C funding round<\/a> that follows several other deals closed by competitors, confirming the space is heating up.<\/p>\n New fund<\/strong>: Amid uncertainty on funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Altitude Lab\u2019s Pre-seed Venture Fund will consider investing $100,000 to $250,000<\/a> in biotech startups that were qualified for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the NIH.<\/p>\n Andreessen Horowitz may have $45 billion in assets under management, but Marc Andreessen isn\u2019t \u201cchomping at the bit to take the firm public.\u201d<\/a> Speaking on this week\u2019s Invest Like the Best podcast, a16z\u2019s co-founder discussed his goal of building it into an enduring company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nMost interesting startup stories from the week<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Most interesting VC and funding news this week<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Last but not least<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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