Top Startup Acquisitions and Funding Highlights This Week

The startup world buzzed with activity this week as multiple high-profile acquisitions and funding rounds were announced, signaling a dynamic market eager to innovate and expand. From stealth startups to established firms, buyers and investors moved swiftly to secure strategic assets and fuel growth.

Major Startup Acquisitions

Israeli phone unlocking firm Cellebrite acquired mobile testing startup Corellium for $170 million, including $20 million in equity. This move strengthens Cellebrite’s foothold in mobile security and testing technologies.

IBM’s acquisition of Seek AI integrates natural language querying capabilities into its Watsonx AI Labs, enhancing enterprise data accessibility and accelerating AI innovation.

Data governance platform Collibra acquired Raito, a startup focused on managing employee and customer data access, reinforcing Collibra’s leadership in data security and compliance.

AMD’s acquisition of stealth AI software optimization startup Brium signals a strategic challenge to Nvidia’s dominance in AI hardware, highlighting intensifying competition in this space.

Snowflake’s planned acquisition of Crunchy Data, a Postgres-focused startup, estimated around $250 million, underscores the growing importance of cloud data platforms integrating open-source database technologies.

Funding Highlights and Market Movements

Defense tech startup Anduril secured a massive $2.5 billion Series G round, doubling its valuation to $30.5 billion, reflecting strong investor confidence in defense innovation.

Anysphere, creator of AI coding assistant Cursor, raised $900 million at a $9.9 billion valuation, surpassing $500 million in annual recurring revenue and showcasing the booming AI developer tools market.

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup, raised $650 million at a $9 billion valuation, highlighting growing interest in neurotechnology.

Singapore-based insurtech Bolttech completed a $147 million Series C at a $2.1 billion valuation, emphasizing embedded insurance’s rising role in fintech.

Israeli chip startup Speedata raised $44 million to develop analytics processing units (APUs) aimed at accelerating AI and data workloads, positioning itself as a challenger to Nvidia.

Irish fintech Nomupay secured $40 million from SoftBank’s SB Payment Service to expand internationally, particularly in Asia, highlighting fintech’s global growth trajectory.

AI startup Obvio raised $22 million to deploy AI-powered cameras on stop signs for detecting unsafe driving, illustrating AI’s expanding role in public safety.

Between February and May 2025, North American AI startups attracted $69.7 billion in venture capital, dwarfing Europe’s $6.4 billion and Asia’s $3 billion, underscoring the region’s dominance in AI investment.

These developments reflect a vibrant startup ecosystem where strategic acquisitions and massive funding rounds fuel innovation in AI, data governance, fintech, and defense technologies. The competition to lead in AI hardware and software is intensifying, with new players challenging established giants.