Our 500th Edition of Enterprise Weekly 🎉
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. 📩
The buzz panic around DeepSeek continues as the entire tech world weighs in and the stock market is taking notice. Love it or hate it (looking at you, NVIDIA), DeepSeek has officially claimed the #1 spot on the iPhone App Store.
Why does it matter? DeepSeek challenges the idea that model performance is purely dictated by compute scaling laws. Now, OpenAI and Meta must rethink how to drive down inference costs. For startups? This is a game-changer. With inference now cheaper than ever, leveraging third-party models just got a whole lot more accessible. Linking to some extra resources we found interesting:
Additionally, this week Danny published insights from a survey of 30 investors on what it takes to be ‘Series A eligible’ today. For much of the past decade, $1M ARR was the unofficial benchmark for early-stage startups to reach Series A. But with shifting market dynamics—ZIRP, post-pandemic corrections, and the AI boom—investor expectations have risen. While exceptions exist, here’s what he found:
ARR for a STANDARD raise = $1M - $1.5M
ARR for an EXCEPTIONAL raise = $2M - $3M
YoY growth for a STANDARD raise = 3x
YoY growth for an EXCEPTIONAL raise = anywhere from 4x-10x
Especially living in the AI boom, fast growth alone isn’t enough—investors want efficiency, retention, and a compelling long-term story, and are prioritizing metrics including:
Margin Profiles: AI costs are high, but margins (as inference costs continue to decrease) are expected to improve over time.
Revenue Durability: AI startups must move beyond niche use cases to find stickier, more durable workflows.
Customer Concentration: Investors are willing to accept some risk here if deals can command high ACVs.
Retention: Customer health and renewals are increasingly more important in an AI-native world.
AI Narrative: Clear differentiation vs. incumbents are essential.
Company: SKUSafe
Role: Senior Software Engineer
Technology: Nutritional Analysis, Formulation, and Specification Management Software
Funding: Unannounced
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
Applied Labs raises $4.2M led by Abstract
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY
Co-Founders: Michael Woo (CEO), Soham Waychal (CTO)
Origami Agents raises $2M led by Y Combinator
Sales / Marketing • Seed • San Francisco, CA
MarkeTeam.ai raises $3M led by Ocean Azul Partners
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Delve raises $3.3M led by Y Combinator, General Catalyst and Others
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Athenic AI raises $4.3M led by BMW i Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Rynse raises $5M led by Autotech Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • Los Angeles, CA
Zelt raises $6M led by Nauta
HR Tech • Seed • London, UK
Final Round AI raises $6.9M led by Uncork Capital, Ritual Capital and Others
HR Tech • Seed • Palo Alto, CA
WiseLayer raises $7.2M led by Canaan Partners
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY
Aligned raises $8M led by JAL Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Remote
Tradeverifyd raises $8M led by Silicon Road VC and Bread & Butter Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • Bozeman, MT
Lanai raises $10M led by Juxtapose
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series A • Palo Alto, CA
Oumi raises $10M led by Venrock and Obvious Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Seattle, WA
Basetwo raises $11.5M led by AVP
Future of Work • Series A • Toronto, Canada
Hypori raises $12M led by UBS, AE Industrial Partners and Others
Risk / Security • Series B • Reston, VA
Unwrap raises $12M led by Scale Venture Partners
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Santa Barbara, CA
Clutch Security raises $20M led by SignalFire
Risk / Security • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
HockeyStack raises $20M led by Bessemer Ventures Partners
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Nue raises $20M led by Inovia Capital
Sales / Marketing • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Optable raises $20M led by TELUS Global Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Montreal, Canada
Token Security raises $20M led by Notable Capital
Risk / Security • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
Formance raises $21M led by PayPal Ventures and Portage
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • New York, NY
Paxton raises $22M led by Unusual Ventures
Future of Work • Series A • Bend, OR
Atomicwork raises $25M led by Khosla Ventures and Z47
Future of Work • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Conifers.ai raises $25M led by SYN Ventures
Risk / Security • Venture • Tel Aviv, Israel
SuperOps raises $25M led by March Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • Dallas, TX
Iplicit raises $31.1M led by One Peak
Future of Work • Private Equity • London, UK
Stratus raises $32M led by Radian Capital
Future of Work • Series B • Larkspur, CO
Finout raises $40M led by Insight Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • New York, NY
Tive raises $40M led by World Innovation Lab and Sageview Capital
Future of Work • Series C • Boston, MA
Oligo Security raises $50M led by Greenfield Partners
Risk / Security • Series B • Tel Aviv, Israel
Mercor raises $75M led by Felicis
HR Tech • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Tenable acquires Vulcan Cyber for $150M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Tel Aviv, Israel
NinjaOne acquires Dropsuite for $252M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Melbourne, Australia
JumpCloud acquires Stack Identity for an Undisclosed Amount
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Menlo Park, CA