The first week of 2025 has seen a flurry of activity in the startup world, with last-minute acquisitions, mega-deals, and fresh fundraises making headlines. Despite a relatively quiet start to the week, the pace picked up as the industry gears up for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

In a surprising turn of events, Canadian accounting startup Bench, which suddenly shut down a few days ago, has been acquired by HR tech company Employer.com for an undisclosed sum in a last-minute deal. This acquisition comes on the heels of another significant deal, where World Wide Technology (WWT), a tech services company based in St. Louis, agreed to acquire Canadian IT provider Softchoice in an all-cash mega-deal valued at approximately $1.25 billion.

Meanwhile, French food delivery startup Epicery ceased operations after nine years, following Geopost/DPDgroup's sale of last-mile delivery service Stuart at a significant loss. However, Thomson Reuters kicked off 2025 with a bang, acquiring tax automation company SafeSend for $600 million in an all-cash transaction.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an investigation into IBM's planned acquisition of cloud software vendor HashiCorp, which is already being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. This development could have significant implications for the industry.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev shared his company's plans to increasingly compete with still-private prediction markets startups like Kalshi and Polymarket. This move could signal a shift in the fintech landscape.

Despite the typical post-holiday slump, several startups outside the US announced fresh funding rounds this week. Riyadh-based meal delivery startup Calo raised $25 million to expand beyond the Middle East, with ambitions to go global and cater to more personalized food customization needs. Brazilian startup Carecode, which builds AI agents for the healthcare sector, raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by a16z and QED. German startup Apheris, which leverages federated computing for AI life sciences use cases, secured $8.25 million in a Series A round.

In other news, Accel raised $650 million for its eighth India fund, which will see several of its Indian portfolio companies go public this year. Twenty VCs shared their predictions on enterprise tech in 2025, including the anticipation of more liquidity in 2025, both for M&As and the public markets.

As the startup world looks ahead to 2025, it's clear that this year will be shaped by emerging trends, including the growing demand for climate tech innovations. According to TechCrunch's Tim De Chant, 2025 will be the year climate tech learns to love AI, driven by skyrocketing computing needs that drive demand for all sorts of innovations to reduce environmental impact.

As the industry continues to evolve, one thing is certain – 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for startups, with new deals, fundraises, and innovations on the horizon.