Hyped: Global - 30 July 2025

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TL;DR:

• UK Startup funding drops by almost a quarter in H1 - Sifted

• Google failed to warn 10 million of Turkey earthquake severity - BBC News

• 12 European Robotics Startups to look out for according to Investors - Sifted

Germany: Biggest AI acquisition in Europe as Cognigy sells for nearly $1billion 

US customer service giant NiCE has paid almost $1bn to acquire Dusseldorf-based Cognigy in what is Europe’s biggest AI acquisition to date.

NiCE is paying $995 million in a move aimed at strengthening its AI-powered customer experience platform, CXone and wants to “Set a New Standard” for AI in Customer Experience.

Founded in Germany, Cognigy enables enterprises to deploy AI agents that can interact across channels and languages, including for clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Nestlé, and Lufthansa Group. The company is expected to grow annual recurring revenue by 80% in 2026, reaching a run rate of $85 million.

‌Why should you care: The move is the latest in a string of deals struck by American industry leaders scooping up promising European tech companies. Last summer, US chipmaker AMD bought Finland’s Silo AI for $665m. In May this year, tech giant Salesforce acquired London-based Convergence for an estimated $200m.

TL;DR:

• AI unicorn Lovable taps Australia’s Build Club for ‘vibe code’ training course - SmartCompany 

• HR Tech platforms go to battle as Seek accuses Employment Hero of misusing customer data - AFR

• LaunchVic seeds 7 VC funds in $3.75m boost to Victoria’s startup ecosystem - Startup Daily 

Australia: Venture funding in Queensland up 37% to $417 million in FY2025

According to the Queensland Venture Capital Report released this week by Cut Through QIC, the Sunshine State saw healthy growth in its VC funding last financial year. With 76 venture and angel deals and 33 accelerator rounds announced.

The figure is still way down on the $1.3 billion raised in FY2022, a record high for the State, though the positive news is that this does mark the ecosystem’s strongest performance since the market correction in FY2021.

You can read the report in its entirety here.

‌Why should you care: The Queensland Startup Ecosystem is Australia’s third biggest, behind New South Wales (Sydney) and Victoria (Melbourne). Though it’s home to some of the country’s biggest unicorns including Safety Culture and GO1. For it to ever compete with its southern counterparts, there’s going to need to be an increase in venture funding and this is a positive sign!

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TL;DR:

• Egyptian voice AI startup PlayAI acquired by Meta - Disrupt Africa

• Google’s $37M AI investment in Africa targets farms and forgotten languages - Techpoint Africa

South Africa: Visa launches its first data centre in Africa and it’s in Johannesburg

Unveiled during the recent US presidential visit to Africa, this facility marks Visa’s second global data centre after Singapore. It enhances VisaNet’s capabilities by decreasing latency for African transactions, ensuring higher service reliability, and bolstering compliance with local data laws.

This data centre is part of a larger strategic commitment: Visa is channelling R1 billion (~$56.9 million) into African digital growth initiatives over the next five years, including fintech partnerships, infrastructure development, and capacity-building efforts.

“Africa is experiencing an explosion in digital payments, and our Johannesburg data centre is designed to meet that demand while aligning with local regulatory expectations,” said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

Why should you care: The data centre comes at a pivotal moment for South Africa’s fintech scene. Providers like Ozow, Stitch, and Yoco are driving growth in mobile banking, open APIs, and payment gateways. A local data hub means faster transaction settlements, better resilience, and more space for innovation.

Want to hear more about African Tech? We highly recommend our good friend Caleb Maru’s Tech Safari newsletter, you can subscribe here 

TL;DR:

• Amsterdam-headquartered Recharge gets acquired by Singapore’s Coda - Backscoop

• MakeMyTrip launches platform for Indians to book more than 200,000 activities across 130 countries - Indian Startup News 

China: DeepSeek’s AI dominance in China challenged by Alibaba’s Qwen and rising rivals

DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence models are the most commonly used products of its kind in China, but the company is quickly losing market share to rivals in the highly competitive AI market, according to a cloud computing service provider and the SCMP.

DeepSeek, which commanded over 99 per cent of open-source AI model usage on Chinese cloud computing platform PPIO in the first quarter, saw its share decline to about 80 per cent in June, according to data released by the service provider late last week.

Meanwhile, the Qwen models from Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post, had gained significant traction, PPIO said. At its peak in late May, use of Qwen models on the platform surpassed that of DeepSeek products, reaching 56 per cent.

Why should you care: China’s AI competition remains intense: the country now boasts over 1,500 AI models, with many start-ups striving to enhance the efficiency and user-friendliness of their open-source offerings. In contrast, DeepSeek has remained silent about its highly anticipated next-generation models. 

TL;DR:

• Waymo taps Avis to manage robotaxi fleet in Dallas - Techcrunch

• Lack of M&A and IPOs drives global secondary market to new record in Canada - Betakit 

Brazil: Nestle, Barry Callebaut join forces to support reforestation startup

Nestle SA has partnered with Barry Callebaut to support re.green, a reforestation project designed to span 30 years that involves planting 3.3 million trees of native species from the coastal Atlantic rainforest of Brazil in the country’s northeastern state of Bahia.

Both companies said they will work with re.green to plant 11 million trees across 8,000 hectares (19.8 million acres), which would in turn generate 880,000 carbon credits.

They also will work together to restore 6,000 hectares (14.8 million acres) in the states of Bahia and Para, most of which will be converted into agroforestry systems with cocoa. Nestle said it will fully fund the re.green project and cover 60% of costs for the Barry Callebaut project.

Why should you care: The projects are part of Nestle’s larger goal of planting 200 million trees by 2030 in regions where it sources various ingredients such as coffee, cocoa and milk and aligns with the company’s goal of becoming net zero by 2050.

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