The bench was saved by the bell, and some of the last ones closed in 2024

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Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was quiet in terms of launch announcements, but work has already begun. We are also preparing for CES; if your original hardware is available, Be sure to let us know.

Very interesting news to start the week

Unlike other sales, M&A activity has not stopped – not on purpose.

Save for the last minute: Bench, Canada’s accounting founders they closed suddenly a few days agowill be taken by HR tech company Employer.com for an undisclosed price in a last-minute deal.

2024 the last mega-deal: World Wide Technology (WWT), a technology company based in St. Louis, has agreed to buy Canadian IT company Softchoice in an all-cash deal. at a cost of approximately $1.25 billion.

Final block for 2024: French grocery delivery grocery he stopped working after nine years. From 2021, it was owned by Geopost/DPDgroup, which recently sold last mile delivery firm Stuart at a huge loss.

First round of 2025: Thomson Reuters has acquired tax services firm SafeSend for $600 million in general currency trading.

There is no agreement: The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an investigation into IBM’s plans to acquire cloud software vendor HashiCorpwhich the Federal Trade Commission is already investigating.

The competition is ahead: in a interview with TechCrunchRobinhood CEO Vlad Tenev talked about his company’s plans to compete more with the still-private marketplaces like Kalshi and Polymarket.

Very interesting money this week

The new year’s recession was different, and startups outside the US announced new funding this week.

Dinner is served: Riyadh-based food startup Calo raised $25 million spread throughout the Middle Eastwith ambitions to go global and fulfill your personalization needs.

AI that: Brazilian startup Carecode, which develops AI assistants for the healthcare sector, raised $4.3 million in seed capital led by a16z and QED, backed by Endeavor Catalyst, KDX Ventures, K50 Ventures, and Latitud Ventures.

Federated computing: Apheris, a German startup that supports AI computing applications in the life sciences, earned $8.25 million in a Series A round led by deep tech VC firms eCAPITAL and OTB Ventures.

The most interesting VC and investment news this week

To continue: Accel was raised $650 million for its eighth India fund. The firm, which recently expanded its focus to rural Indiawill see several of its Indian companies go public this year.

Time to predict: Twenty VCs shared with TechCrunch their predictions on Enterprise tech in 2025from AI assistants to business budgets. For example, Index Ventures partner Nina Achadjian said she expects “a lot of investment in 2025, both M&As and public markets.”

Many predictions: According to Tim De Chant of TechCrunch, 2025 will be year of weather technology learns to love AIdue to the increasing needs of computers that drive the need for various products to reduce environmental pollution.