Thoma Bravo's $6.4B Medallia acquisition just became a total loss. Lenders including Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo took control after the company could not service $3B in debt against $200M earnings. This is the second major PE-backed SaaS equity wipeout in 18 months, and the list of similar deals at risk is long.
Enterprise software grabbed 52% of all VC funding in 2025, up from 29% average over the prior decade. Total enterprise software VC hit $263B, a 64% jump year-on-year. The top 20 deals claimed 41% of all funding, with 14 rounds over $1B, including OpenAI's $110B round.
Meta is cutting 10% of its workforce: 8,000 redundancies plus 6,000 unfilled roles. The company is redirecting spend toward AI infrastructure and top-tier engineering talent. Cuts hit May 20, with marketing and ad ops teams particularly exposed as Meta automates advertising tools.
Australian data firm Techboard tracked 1100 startups that raised capital in 2025. Only 379 deals got announced publicly. The other 750 raises, worth unknown billions, never hit the news. For sales teams prospecting startups, two-thirds of your potential pipeline is invisible if you rely on Crunchbase or press releases.
Syenta closed a $36 million Series A led by Playground Global and the National Reconstruction Fund. The Sydney-based chip maker is commercialising tech that cuts chip packaging steps by 40%, aiming for production in 2027. Worth noting: this is a hardware play, not a sales tool, but watch for enterprise AI chip vendor hiring as they scale into the US market.
New Zealand consumer insights platform Ideally closed a $13.4M Series A led by Shearwater Capital, valuing the 18-month-old startup at $83M. The company counts Google, Telstra, and DoorDash as clients and has raised over $21M since launching in August 2023. US revenue is up 350% since opening a New York office earlier this year.
Canva is pushing its IPO to 2027, citing a business model shift to AI-based pricing. The Sydney-based company last valued itself at $65 billion in a secondary sale. Co-founder Cliff Obrecht says they are IPO-ready but want the AI transition locked in before going public.
Phonely, founded by University of Melbourne AI researchers, closed a $22M Series A at $139M valuation. The AI receptionist platform now handles millions of calls monthly. One customer replaced 350 agents in a month. Another drove $14M in insurance sales in four months via the platform.
Seven ANZ startups closed $71.8 million in funding this week. Phonely, a University of Melbourne AI spin-out, led with a $22.3 million Series A. Y Combinator doubled down after backing the virtual receptionist startup in 2024. Worth watching: enterprise customers co-invested, signaling product-market fit.
Four male founders just exited for $1.6 billion selling GLP-1 weight loss subscriptions, mostly to women. CEO Tim Doyle stands to net $160 million. Female health tech founders are asking: where's the scrutiny that hit Flo's all-male team?
Auckland-based fund admin software company Caruso closed a $9.3 million Series A at an $80 million valuation. The company is scaling headcount to 80+, with Sydney office doubling to around 40. Revenue grew 400% year-over-year, with $80 billion in assets under administration across 80+ fund managers.
The Sydney fintech postponed its ASX listing, citing Middle East war volatility. Directors opted for a private raise that values the business at $750m, down from the $850m IPO target. Another SaaS company choosing private capital over public markets in 2025.