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🍂 Fall is here and so is M&A season!
This week brought a flurry of headline deals: OpenAI snapped up Statsig for $1B, while Atlassian acquired The Browser Company for $610M. US tech M&A is on track for its best year since 2021🔥
OpenAI x Statsig
Statsig, founded in 2021 by former Facebook VP Vijaye Raji, was built on the insight that world-class internal tools like Gatekeeper (feature rollout), Quick Experiments (rapid testing), and Deltoid (deep metrics) supercharged product iteration at scale. Statsig productized that stack with feature management and experimentation tooling at the core, capabilities that have become more critical in the AI era. The kicker: Vijaye is now OpenAI’s CTO of Applications, signaling that OpenAI isn’t just building models, it’s building an application platform.
Atlassian x The Browser Company
Many expected OpenAI to make a bid for The Browser Company, given the company’s ambition to be the gateway to the web and take on Google in search. Instead, Atlassian stepped in. The Browser Company launched Arc, their consumer browser in 2022, and Dia their an AI-native browser this year. To the tune of $610M, Atlassian is betting that the browser is the next enterprise interface, and that Arc’s DNA can extend beyond consumers into collaboration workflows. A great exit for the NYC tech scene!
More deals across the stack
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Fivetran picked up Tobiko Data (SQLMesh + SQLGlot) to deepen its transformation layer.
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CoreWeave, fresh off its IPO, acquired RL startup OpenPipe.
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Cato Networks grabbed Aim Security to secure AI workloads.
Our takeaway?
The AI land grab is on. Incumbents are willing to pay up not just to expand capabilities, but to position themselves as the platforms in the agentic era. With large players wanting to expand their product footprint to all areas of the stack, whether its OpenAI in product testing or Atlassian with the browser, a startup focusing on their unique right to win is more important than ever.
📚 Read more news:
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WSJ: Cutting-Edge AI Was Supposed to Get Cheaper. It’s More Expensive Than Ever.
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TechCrunch: Scale AI is suing a former employee and rival Mercor, alleging they tried to steal its biggest customers
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VentureBeat: How Clay and Octave are quietly killing off traditional sales jobs
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Bloomberg: China’s DeepSeek Preps AI Agent for End-2025 to Rival OpenAI
🧵 Read more threads:
Company: Goodfire
Role: Business Development Lead
Technology: AI Interpretability
Funding: $57M from Work-Bench, Menlo Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Anthropic, and others
🌟 Company of the Week 🌟
TensorZero raises $7.3M led by FirstMark
Infrastructure / Dev Tools - Seed - New York, NY
Founders: Gabriel Bianconi, Viraj Mehta
Ordinal raises $1M led by Plains Ventures
Future of Work • Seed • Bentonville, AR
Swept AI raises $1.4M led by M25
Risk / Security • Pre-Seed • Saginaw, MI
Spike AI raises $1.9M led by Sorin Investments
Sales / Marketing • Pre-Seed • San Francisco, CA
Artificial Societies raises $3.4M led by Point72 Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Seed • London, UK
Innerworks raises $4M led by AlbionVC
Risk / Security • Seed • London, UK
Paradigm raises $5M led by General Catalyst
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Supersonik raises $5M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Sales / Marketing • Seed • Barcelona, Spain
Bench IQ raises $5.3M led by Battery Ventures and Inovia Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Seed • Toronto, Canada
Alpic raises $6M led by Partech
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Pre-Seed • San Francisco, CA
Nauta raises $7M led by Construct Capital and Predictive
Future of Work • Seed • New York, NY
Zipline AI raises $7M led by Wing VC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Mateo, CA
TensorZero raises $7.3M led by FirstMark
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Brooklyn, NY
Verdata raises $8M led by Continental Investors
Risk / Security • Series A • Atlanta, GA
Palabra AI raises $8.4M led by 776
Future of Work • Pre-Seed • London, UK
Central raises $8.6M led by First Round Capital
HR Tech • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Definite raises $10M led by Costanoa
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • Wilmington, DE
Firecrawl raises $14.5M led by Nexus Venture Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Phoebe raises $17M led by GV and Cherry Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • London, UK
Vouched raises $17M led by Spring Rock Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • Seattle, WA
Sola raises $17.5M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Collaboration / Productivity • Series A • New York, NY
Bluefish AI raises $20M led by NEA
Sales / Marketing • Series A • New York, NY
FriendliAI raises $20M led by Capstone Partners
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed Extension • Redwood City, CA
InstaLILY AI raises $25M led by Insight Partners
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Maisa AI raises $25M led by Creandum
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Aurasell raises $30M led by Next47
Sales / Marketing • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Predoc raises $30M led by Base10 Partners
Future of Work • Series A • New York, NY
Pylon raises $31M led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital
Collaboration / Productivity • Series B • New York, NY
Zed raises $32M led by Sequoia Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • Boulder, CO
Sola Security raises $35M led by S32
Risk / Security • Series A • Tel Aviv, Israel
Recall.ai raises $38M led by Bessemer Venture Partners
Collaboration / Productivity • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Functionize raises $41M led by Mumford Investments and LHH Investments
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • San Francisco, CA
HappyRobot raises $44M led by Base10 Partners
Future of Work • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Upstage raises $45M in Series B led by Korea Development Bank, Amazon, and AMD
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series B Extension • San Jose, CA
TinyFish raises $47M led by ICONIQ Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series A • Palo Alto, CA
Cato Networks raises $50M led by Acrew Capital
Risk / Security • Series G Extension • Tel Aviv, Israel
Seemplicity raises $50M led by Sienna Venture Capital
Risk / Security • Series B • Tel Aviv, Israel
Attio raises $52M led by Google Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Series B • London, UK
ID.me raises $65M led by Ribbit Capital
Risk / Security • Series E • McLean, VA
KnowledgeLake raises $65M led by Edison Partners
Collaboration / Productivity • Growth Investment • St. Louis, MO
Shift5 raises $75M led by Hedosophia
Risk / Security • Series C • Arlington, VA
Exa raises $85M led by Benchmark
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series B • San Francisco, CA
Framer raises $100M led Meritech and Atomico
Collaboration / Productivity • Series D • Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You.com raises $100M led by Cox Enterprises
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series C • Palo Alto, CA
Ontic raises $230M led by KKR
Risk / Security • Series C • Austin, TX
Sierra raises $350M led by Greenoaks Capital
Future of Work • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Anthropic raises $13B led by ICONIQ, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Lightspeed Venture Partners
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series F • San Francisco, CA
Vercel raises an Undisclosed Amount led by Accel
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Venture • San Francisco, CA
Varonis Systems acquires SlashNext for $150M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Pleasanton, CA
CrowdStrike acquires Onum for $290M
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • Madrid, Spain
Cato Networks acquires Aim Security for $350M
Risk / Security • Acquisition • Tel Aviv, Israel
Atlassian acquires The Browser Co. for $610M
Collaboration / Productivity • Acquisition • New York, NY
Thoma Bravo acquires Dayforce for $12.3B
HR Tech • Acquisition • Minneapolis, MN
CoreWeave acquires OpenPipe for an Undisclosed Amount
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Acquisition • Seattle, WA
Databricks acquires Tecton for an Undisclosed Amount
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Acquisition • San Francisco, CA
Originally published on Work-Bench. For more details, visit the source.