India’s Investment Landscape: A Rapid Decline

Welcome to Startups Weekly. You can get this newsletter in your inbox every Friday by signing up here. One thing’s for sure, comparing iPhones to Androids is like comparing apples to oranges. Apple has just announced that they are getting rid of their Lightning connector in favor of USB-C across many products. This has sparked a conversation about open standards versus silos. Android users have long been locked out of iMessage, but a recent app called Beeper allowed them to send iMessages to iPhone users. However, Apple quickly shut that down, drawing criticism from many, including the Senate. This serves as a reminder that startups can explode onto the scene before disappearing just as quickly. In startup news, Omidyar Network is pulling out of India after 13 years. Indian startups have raised significantly less money this year compared to previous years. Fintech company SumUp secured €285 million in funding, while Paris-based startup studio Hexa raised $22 million for its new program targeting B2B companies. Indian startup Sarvam AI, just five months old, secured a massive $41 million in funding for AI offerings. Parisian startup Mistral AI also raised a whopping $415 million. The EU has finalized a risk-based framework for regulating artificial intelligence. Early-stage startups are thriving, while scale-ups and unicorns are facing challenges. Fintechs dominated November’s new billion-dollar babies, with new unicorns emerging. Josh Claman, CEO of Accelsius, wrote about the importance of operational efficiency in startups. Techstars has paused its Austin chapter, signaling a potential shift in the city’s tech allure.