As European startups proceed to look for signs of lasting market confidence that goes beyond the hype surrounding AI firms, Atomic — one in every of the region’s best-known and largest enterprise capital firms — has raised more cash for investments that would indicate how the market is de facto moving. The VC has closed $1.24 billion in latest funding to support early-stage and growth-stage startups across the region.

London-based Atomico is describing it as its “largest fundraising ever,” although technically it’s two pools of cash. “Atomico Venture VI” is weighing in at $485 million for firms mostly in Series A (with a number of put aside for seed), while a separate $754 million fund — called “Atomico Growth VI” — is earmarked for Series B pre-IPOs.

Raising and allocating money from separate funds is typical for many enterprise capital firms today, but Atomico closing two separate funds, led by separate teams, is notable. The firm has historically leaned toward earlier rounds of funding while delving into later stages when it is sensible. Now, it’s preparing to focus just as much on the later stages of a startup’s journey with a dedicated fund.

The move could also indicate some trepidation amongst some investors who’re hesitant to take a position money in young firms ahead of a profit. By setting things up this fashion, Atomico can more easily bring in more risk-averse limited partners (LPs) by allowing them to funnel money into tried-and-tested businesses slightly than backing a single fund that would include anything from seed to Series F.

The news comes amid a worldwide recession in the enterprise capital market, a trend to which Europe has not been immune.

One of the things Atomico has built a popularity for in the investment world is its annual research reports on the state of the European tech ecosystem, which focus specifically on how the enterprise capital segment of the market is doing. Its latest report was a somber read, noting that, amid the continued slowdown, European startup funding halved in 2023, driven by aspects including geopolitical events, inflation, and rates of interest. It also found that market and investment data were skewed in 2021 and 2022, which (because of Covid-19) saw significant outliers for revenue, funding, and valuations because of increased demand for certain varieties of technology, amongst other things.

European VC funding last 12 months in fact, it was barely higher than before the pandemicAn optimist would interpret this as an indication that the tech market could also be in higher shape than the darker data might suggest. Data for Q2 2024 could I support this thesisin addition to a slew of latest funding from several distinguished VC firms in the region. In May, Accel announced a brand new $650 million tranche for early-stage startups, while Balderton recently unlocked $1.3 billion in two latest funds—$615 million in early-stage and $685 million in growth.

Deficiency

Atomico’s latest fund outperforms its previous one by greater than 50%. But Atomico’s sixth fund stands out for its two distinct focuses—something that can also unwittingly tell a story about where investors’ heads are headed, provided that one in every of the funds fell wanting Atomico’s funding goal. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last 12 months, Atomico sought 600 million dollars AND $750 million for enterprise capital and growth funds respectively – because of this while Atomico barely exceeded its growth goal, it missed it by almost 20% for enterprise capital funds.

On the one hand, it makes more sense for Atomico to place additional cash into later-stage firms, provided that its investment portfolio has grown over time — firms that were once early-stage are actually in full-scale mode, requiring more cash than ever. On the opposite hand, failing to satisfy its funding goal for earlier-stage startups suggests that fewer investors are willing to back young firms than Atomico had hoped.

Atomico says it has already made about 21 investments in each funds, including several from Atomico Growth VI in its portfolio, including DeepL and Pelago, and led Corti’s Series B round. Earlier in the round, Atomico Venture VI invested money in Neko Health, Ben, Dexory, Deeploi, Striesand Laker, dating back to the fund’s first launch in early 2022.

Elon Musk has denied reports that considered one of his corporations, Tesla, is in talks to share revenue with one other company, xAI, in order that it might use the startup’s artificial intelligence models.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal wrote: that under a proposed deal described to investors, Tesla will use xAI models in its driver-assistance software (referred to as Full Self-Driving, or FSD). The AI ​​startup will even help develop features just like the voice assistant in Tesla vehicles and software for its humanoid robot Optimus.

Writing on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk said He had not read the WSJ article, but described the report’s summary as “inaccurate.”

“Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with xAI engineers that have helped accelerate the achievement of unsupervised FSD, but there is no need to license anything from xAI,” he wrote. “xAI models are gigantic, contain most human knowledge in a compressed form, and could not run on a Tesla vehicle’s reasoning computer, nor would we want them to.”

Musk founded xAI as a competitor to OpenAI (which he co-founded but ultimately left). TechCrunch reported earlier this yr that as a part of xAI’s $6 billion funding round, the startup presented a vision by which its models could be trained on data from Musk’s various corporations (Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X), and its models could then improve technology at those corporations.

Tesla shareholders sued Musk over the choice to launch xAI, arguing that Musk transferred talent and resources from Tesla to an organization that is definitely a competitor.

Warpa young New York-based payroll startup has found itself within the highlight as a consequence of controversial posts on an account related to the corporate.

On Thursday, a user with the nickname Vittorio wrote on X: “I like white people more, they do more, they are better at their roles, I need to climb the Kardashev scale, I will let black people run and play basketball.”

The account profile contained a badge indicating that “Vittorio” was related to Warpwhose software focuses on automating tax compliance across states and was a part of the winter 2023 cohort at Y Combinator. The badge is something X (formerly Twitter) created as a part of its X for Business program in 2022 and is usually awarded to employees, but Warp appears to be rolling it out more broadly as a part of an unconventional marketing strategy.

Indeed, when the outcry inevitably erupted, it focused not only on “Vittorio” but additionally on Warp, who later he withdrew his post as “misguided,” adding: “We believe excellence can come from anywhere.”

The company added that Vittorio “was never an employee of Warp” and said it had removed his partner badge.

The post and Vittorio’s account have since been deleted. Warp also said it was “restricting partner badges more broadly, limiting them to a smaller group of people we know personally.”

The company didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s email looking for more details about its relationships with affiliates, a few of whom defended the unique post. (One, “Pico Paco,” he said “Vittorio did nothing wrong” and that it was only a “PR crisis” it looks prefer it’s losing its affiliate symbol too.)

Earlier this week, author Gergely Orosz he complained that his entire X channel was filled blue highlighted Warp-affiliated accounts “posting what appear to be ‘engagement bait’” — not only knowingly controversial political beliefs, but additionally mimicking posts which are clearly intended to go viral.

Orosz speculated that Warp was pursuing a brand new kind of promoting strategy: “Give that partner badge (that most companies use for employees, for example) to ‘trendy’ accounts that will draw attention to Warp and promote it.”

IN now deleted postWarp CEO Ayush Sharma wrote that “free speech is essential” and that Warp is “comfortable taking risks but also open to feedback.”

When one other user suggested that this meant Warp was comfortable with racism, Sharma replied“no, i’m mainly talking about all those people who say “why are you giving people warp badges” – we’re fine with trying/experimenting with anything, and like i said, we’re always open to feedback.”