Enterprise Weekly #497: Early Optimism for 2025
Work-Bench is an enterprise software VC firm leading Seed rounds. If you are or know anyone thinking about founding an enterprise software startup — we’d love to meet! Please reach out to chat. 📩
And we’re off to the races. Welcome back, everyone!
There’s early optimism for the year ahead with over 75% of CEOs anticipating economic improvements in the first half of the year, potentially spurring increased hiring and M&A activity.
The VC space reflects this momentum, with $184B invested in 2024 in North America (a 21% increase from the previous year). To no surprise, AI startups led the charge, capturing an estimated 62% of funding in Q4. And as AI unicorns mature, we’re also seeing more funding going into later-stage deals, including mega rounds from Databricks, OpenAI and Anthropic (who is also in talks to raise more at a $60B valuation).
Tech leaders are feeling bullish, and it shows in how they're embracing AI and where money is flowing. All signs point to 2025 being a year where companies put AI to work 💪
Lastly, our thoughts are with everyone affected by the LA fires. For those in need or looking to donate, here is a list of resources.
🗓️ Join more Work-Bench events:
January 28th: Cofounder & Founding Engineer Dating for current founders, future founders, and software engineers looking to jam on what they're working on
📚 Read more news:
AP: The ‘Worst in Show’ CES Products Put Your Data at Risk and Cause Waste
Business Insider: Tech Leaders Share Their Predictions for 2025
TechCrunch: Inside The Wild Fall and Last-Minute Revival of Bench
TechCrunch: OpenAI Is Losing Money on Its Pricey ChatGPT Pro Plan
TIME: How OpenAI’s Sam Altman Is Thinking About AGI and Superintelligence in 2025
📚 Read more (th)reads:
Kelley Mak on security’s swing between prevention and detection/response
Equal Ventures on predictions for 2025 that are NOT about AI
2025 marks 12 years of Work-Bench! As we head into our next chapter with $375M AUM, we are growing our small, but mighty team across 2 key roles: Head of Growth and Researcher.
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Deep Vector raises $1.5M led by Aperture Venture Capital and InsurTech NY
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY
Co-Founders: Scott Knowles (CEO), Wesley Janse van Rensburg (CTO)
Hamming.ai raises $3.8M led by Mischief
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Fazeshift raises $4M led by Gradient Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA
StruxHub raises $4M led by Brick and Mortar Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Jentic raises $4.1M led by Elkstone
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • Dublin, Ireland
Dataships raises $7M led by Osage Venture Partners
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Dublin, Ireland
Mindgard raises $8M led by .406 Ventures
Risk / Security • Venture • London, UK
Jones raises $15M led by NewSpring Capital
Future of Work • Series B • New York, NY
Boon raises $20.5M led by Marathon and Redpoint Ventures
Future of Work • Seed & Series A • San Francisco, CA
PrettyDamnQuick raises $25M led by Peakspan Capital
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
OnPay raises $63M led by Carrick Capital Partners
HR Tech • Series B • Atlanta, GA
Anysphere raises $100M led by Thrive Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • San Francisco, CA
DDN raises $300M led by Blackstone
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Venture • Chatsworth, CA
Cymulate acquires CYNC Secure for $10M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Tel Aviv, Israel
1Password acquires Trelica for an Undisclosed Amount
Future of Work • Acquisition • Cambridge, UK
Contentstack acquires Lytics for an Undisclosed Amount
Sales / Marketing • Acquisition • Portland, OR
Coralogix acquires Aporia for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • San Jose, CA
Darktrace acquires Cado Security for an Undisclosed Amount
Risk / Security • Acquisition • London, UK