Main news of startups and venture investments for September 27, 2025: record AI rounds, new unicorns in fintech, M&A deals, and a revival of IPOs. Analysis of key trends for investors and funds.
The global startup and venture capital community is closing September on a high note. In recent days, record funding rounds have been recorded in the field of artificial intelligence and related technologies, several fintech startups have achieved unicorn status, and major corporations are announcing new venture funds. Simultaneously, the exit market is reviving: several tech companies are successfully going public, and the industry is witnessing a series of notable acquisitions of startups by major players. Below are the details of key events in the venture market over the week.
Large investments in AI and robotics
The artificial intelligence sector continues to attract major investments, confirming the ongoing boom around AI technologies:
- Nscale (UK) raised $1.1 billion in its second funding round. Norwegian Aker ASA was the lead investor, contributing $285 million for a 9.3% stake. The funds will be used for accelerated data center construction (including a partnership with OpenAI in Arctic Narvik). The round also included participation from Nokia, NVIDIA, Dell, Fidelity, and other strategic investors, highlighting the level of trust in infrastructure AI projects.
- Mistral AI (France) secured €1.7 billion (approximately $2 billion) in a Series C round, led by the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML. This deal increased the valuation of the promising generative AI model developer to €11.7 billion, making Mistral one of the most valuable AI startups in Europe. ASML and NVIDIA's participation in the round reflects Europe's ambition to strengthen its technological sovereignty in AI and compete with leaders from the U.S. and Asia.
- Figure (USA), a startup focused on creating humanoid robots, raised over $1 billion in a Series C round with a post-round valuation of approximately $39 billion. Parkway VC was the leader, with participation from Brookfield, NVIDIA, Intel Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and others. This unprecedented valuation level for a private startup demonstrates investors' confidence in the potential of humanoid robots and deeptech developments at the intersection of AI and robotics.
- Modular (USA), a developer of a platform for universal launching of AI applications on various chips, raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion. The round was led by US Innovative Technology with participation from DFJ Growth, GV (Google Ventures), General Catalyst, and Greylock. The startup, founded by alumni from Apple and Google, offers a "neutral" software layer for AI operation on chips from different manufacturers, challenging NVIDIA's dominance. The investments will help Modular scale up and expand from AI inference support to the model training market, potentially broadening the competitive landscape in the AI hardware market.
Fintech: new unicorns and digital currencies
Significant events also occurred in the fintech sector, signaling high activity from venture capital and traditional financial institutions:
- Tide (UK), a digital banking service for small businesses, raised $120 million in a strategic investment round led by TPG. The company's valuation after the deal reached $1.5 billion, formally granting Tide unicorn status. Earlier last year, Tide had already raised $100 million (lead investor – Apax Partners) at a valuation of $650 million, and the new round will accelerate international expansion, increase product development, and invest in its own AI-based solutions.
- A consortium of nine large European banks (including ING, UniCredit, SEB, Raiffeisen, etc.) announced a joint initiative to create the first pan-European stablecoin pegged to the euro. The project's goal is to launch a digital currency, compliant with MiCA regulations, for instant 24/7 payments across the European Union by 2026. The banks position this move as a response to the dominance of dollar-pegged stablecoins and a vital aspect of Europe's strategic autonomy in payments.
- Fnality International, a fintech platform for interbank blockchain settlements, raised $136 million in a funding round (approximately £100 million). The project, supported by several global banks, is developing infrastructure for rapid payments and securities settlements using central bank digital currencies. New investments will accelerate the implementation of the system in various jurisdictions and bring closer the launch of commercial services aimed at improving the efficiency of traditional financial markets.
- The largest European neobank Revolut announced a plan for global expansion: the company is investing £10 billion (approximately $13 billion) in development over the next five years. Revolut aims to increase its customer base from 65 to 100 million users and enter more than 30 new markets by 2030. As part of this strategy, around £3 billion will be invested in expanding its presence in the UK, with the remaining funds allocated for international growth. The announcement of such substantial investments indicates the fintech giant's commitment to solidifying its leadership and readiness to inject significant capital for growth, although Revolut remains a private company and one of the most valuable European fintech firms.
TravelTech and other industry trends
In addition to AI and fintech, venture investments continue to flow into various industry projects that integrate technologies into traditional economic sectors:
- WeTravel (USA/Netherlands), a platform for organizing group travel using AI tools, raised $92 million in a Series C round led by Sapphire Ventures. Founded in 2014, WeTravel simplifies tour booking, payment management, and logistics for travel operators. The new capital will allow the startup to develop additional AI features for automating complex workflows in the tourism industry. The raising of such a large round underscores the growing interest of investors in the TravelTech sector, which is increasingly integrating artificial intelligence – similar deals earlier this year included booking service Klook ($100 million) and eSIM platform Airalo ($220 million).
- In medical technology, a significant round was also noted: New York-based startup Inspiren, developing an AI platform for smart homes for the elderly and care centers, received $100 million in Series B investments (the leading round was conducted by Insight Partners). Inspiren’s solutions combine patient safety monitoring, care planning, and workforce analytics into a single intelligent system for operators of nursing homes. The new funding will help expand technology implementation and confirmed investor interest in innovations at the intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence.
- Activity is also being observed in other niches. For instance, in the B2B software solutions for business sector, startup Flox (New York) raised $25 million in Series B to develop a unified software development platform. In EdTech, Singapore-based startup Anthology closed a $40 million round to scale its online learning platform. These examples demonstrate that investors are willing to support promising projects across a wide range of sectors – from tourism and healthcare to corporate software and education – if they offer technological innovations and growth potential.
New venture funds and corporate investments
Investors' desire to capitalize on the market upturn is reflected not only in funding startups but also in launching new funds and increasing available capital:
- The new fund Touring Capital, established by alumni from SoftBank Vision Fund and Microsoft M12, announced a final close at $330 million. The fund will focus on early-growth stages and investments in software with elements of AI. The oversubscription of the first fund of Touring Capital indicates sustained interest from limited partners (LPs) in venture strategies, especially those oriented toward artificial intelligence and B2B services.
- Sanofi Ventures, the corporate venture arm of pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, received an additional $625 million funding from its parent company. Thus, the total amount of managed funds by Sanofi Ventures reached $1.4 billion. The new capital will be directed towards supporting biotech and digital health startups – from seed stages to pre-IPO rounds. Against the backdrop of caution among traditional venture funds in biotech, Sanofi and several other large pharmaceutical corporations are increasingly positioning themselves as lead investors in rounds, filling the financing gap and gaining early access to breakthrough technologies for their R&D.
- Separately, in private equity, mega-funds are notable: for instance, American PE firm Ridgemont Equity Partners announced the closing of a new fund amounting to $3.975 billion (exceeding the target level). Furthermore, investment companies Stonepeak and KKR are attracting multibillion-dollar resources in funds aimed at infrastructure and new markets in Asia. These cases demonstrate that despite the turbulence of recent years, large institutional investors are willing to invest substantial capital in long-term funds, thereby creating "dry powder" for future deals and maintaining liquidity in the venture capital and PE markets.
Mergers and acquisitions: major deals of the week
The M&A market has also revived – several large companies announced the acquisition of promising startups, integrating new technologies and products:
- OpenAI made one of its largest deals by acquiring the startup Statsig for approximately $1.1 billion (in stock exchange). Statsig is a developer of a platform for A/B testing and product analytics, and its founder Vijey Radji will become the new CTO of OpenAI's applied products division. The deal is intended to accelerate the development of new features in the ChatGPT ecosystem and other OpenAI applications, demonstrating the company’s readiness to invest in expanding its capabilities through acquisitions.
- Workday, a leading developer of corporate software, announced the purchase of the Swedish startup Sana Labs for $1.1 billion. Sana specializes in an AI platform for learning and knowledge management. Integrating Sana's solutions will significantly enhance Workday's products in HRTech and corporate learning with the help of AI, and this deal marks the third acquisition of an AI startup by Workday in the past year – a telling trend of how large players are ramping up their AI competencies through acquisitions.
- Atlassian agreed to acquire New York-based startup The Browser Company (creator of the Arc and Atlas browsers) for $610 million in cash. This move marks Atlassian's entry into the web browser market: the company plans to create a "work browser" of the next generation based on the startup's products, optimized for cloud corporate applications and integrated with Atlassian's tools. It has been reported that both OpenAI and search startup Perplexity expressed interest in The Browser Company, reflecting the intense competition among tech giants for promising teams in the field of AI-oriented browsers.
The return of activity in the IPO market
After a prolonged pause, the public offerings market for tech companies shows signs of revival. In mid-September, a high-profile IPO of ticket marketplace StubHub took place: the company raised about $800 million, selling 34 million shares at $23.50 each (the midpoint of the announced range), resulting in a valuation of around $8.6 billion. StubHub's debut on the New York Stock Exchange became one of the largest tech listings of the year and the culmination of years of preparation (the startup filed for an IPO back in 2021). Initial trading was volatile, reflecting investor caution, but the mere fact of a successful placement indicates the opening of an "IPO window" for large venture-backed companies.
Notably, the week prior, a number of other unicorns went public – a total of about six companies, including Swedish fintech giant Klarna, collectively raising over $4 billion. This made that week the busiest for IPOs in the American market since 2021. Experts note that the appetite for new placements is gradually returning: following StubHub, IPOs of other well-known startups from the "unicorn" list are anticipated. Among the potential candidates for the public market are online bank Chime, social network Reddit, Israeli fintech platform eToro, and a cloud provider for AI computing CoreWeave – their exits could occur in late 2025 or 2026 under favorable market conditions. Thus, closing the third quarter, the venture market demonstrates a balanced upturn: investors are once again actively financing breakthrough companies, and liquidity windows for capital exits are beginning to open, promising a revival in the upcoming year.
