Entrepreneurship and Startup News Globally in August 2025

Global Entrepreneurship and Startup Updates

Global funding slump: August 2025 saw global venture funding fall to ≈ US$17 billion, marking the weakest monthly total in ~8 years.
Late-stage funding was particularly hard hit, contracting by over 40% compared to the previous month, as investors prioritized profitability and challenged inflated valuations.
AI Funding Dominance: AI companies led global startup funding in August, totaling $4.8 billion Crunchbase News.
Unicorns minted: Only 4 new unicorns were created in August 2025 — Field AI, Kriya Therapeutics, Framer, Decart — spanning sectors like AI, biotech, design tools, and logistics optimisation.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised ~$863 million in a Series B2 round (US, fusion energy).
Framer, the design & prototyping platform, hit a $2 billion valuation with ~$100 million funding in August.

Techstars August update: In its August 2025 blog, Techstars reported that 7 accelerator programs had open applications, 5 portfolio companies secured new funding, and 2 were acquired.
“5 Interesting Startup Deals”: A Crunchbase column in August spotlighted deals including a sewing-robot startup raising $20 million (SoftWear Automation) among other early-stage AI, biotech, manufacturing deals.
Sector shifts: Clean technology / cleantech saw reduced corporate-backed funding in the U.S., which is pushing more cleantech capital toward Europe.
Automation and Robotics See Strategic Investment: There was a continued and strategic focus on automation technologies, including robotics and automated manufacturing, highlighting a key industry trend for investors. Deals focused on these areas were frequently noted in the venture capital roundup for the month.

Country Specific Entrepreneurship and Startup News

Brazil

QI Tech (Brazil) closed a $63 million Series B extension to expand its financial infrastructure / payments / credit / anti-fraud offerings.

Columbia

Colombia: The “Youth Startup Academy” in Colombia held from 26–30 August had 16 Colombian entrepreneurs pitching to join COMEUP 2025 (a major Korean startup event) as part of cross-border ambitions.

Denmark

Acembee (Copenhagen, Denmark) — AI energy-management for construction sites. Raised €1.1 million seed funding to build its platform that monitors energy use (from sensors, bills etc.), generate real-time sustainability & compliance reports.

India

Maharashtra state policy: On ~5 August, the Maharashtra cabinet approved a new Maharashtra Startup, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy 2025, aiming to create 50,000 startups and 125,000 entrepreneurs over 5 years. It includes a ₹500 crore “Maha-Fund” for early stage support, micro incubators, regional innovation hubs, etc.
LIB Startup Awards, Bihar: The LIS (Let’s Inspire Bihar) initiative held a Startup Summit August 24 in Patna, honoring 21 startups (each given ₹21 lakh) that had significant growth or employment impact.
State-level push in Karnataka: At the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, Karnataka’s minister announced efforts to promote entrepreneurship beyond Bengaluru, with focus on Tier II cities (Mysuru, Dharwad, Tumkur, etc.).
Enmovil (Hyderabad, India) — AI-enabled supply chain / logistics startup. Raised US$6 million in a Series A round led by Sorin Investments, with Capria Ventures, Twynam also participating.
DPDZero (Bengaluru / India) — Fintech startup focusing on AI-based debt recovery / collections. Secured US$7 million in a Series A round.
Kiwi (Bengaluru, India) — A “buy now, pay later” credit platform using India’s UPI payments system. Raised US$24 million in Series B.
NBEC 2025 (National Bio Entrepreneurship Competition), Bengaluru — ~16 biotech startups and 6 student teams awarded ~Rs 40 crore in cash/investment opportunities. Projects included AI-enabled cancer drug work, liver-on-chip, biodegradable batteries etc.
Lemon Ideas – Innopreneurs Global Startup Contest (India) — 12th edition launched in Nagpur with multilingual pitching (including Hindi) and a Juniors track. Expecting 1,200+ registrations from India + 15 other countries.
Urban Company won the Startup of the Year at the Economic Times Startup Awards, recognized for its international expansion and profitability as a technology-driven home services provider[economictimes].
Vistaar Financial Services raised a notable $164 million for MSME lending, strengthening grassroots entrepreneurship by extending loans to small and medium enterprises[businessoutreach].
VoltRide secured $25 million to advance electric vehicle infrastructure, underscoring investor interest in sustainability and mobility startups in India[way2world].
DataSphere raised $50 million in SaaS funding, emphasizing deep tech and global competitiveness for Indian startups in August[way2world].
Medial won the Shark Tank contest in August, highlighting the growing role of professional networking platforms within Indian entrepreneurship[way2world].
Molbio Diagnostics made headlines with a ₹200 crore IPO, energizing investor sentiment in India’s healthtech sector[way2world].
NariHarvest a women-led startup, secured a $12 million seed round, illustrating a strong trend towards gender-inclusive capital among Indian startups[way2world].
Altum Credo Home Finance raised $19.5 million from British International Investment to provide housing loans to low-income buyers in urban and semi-urban India. The startup focuses on increasing housing affordability for first-time buyers[businessoutreach].

Latin America

Unicorns & valuations: Several Latin American unicorns (e.g. in Mexico, Brazil) featured in an August 2025 “Top unicorns in Latin America” list, reflecting their regional influence and maturity.

Mexico

VC funding shifts: Some visual data reporting noted that for the first time in 13 years, Mexican startups raised more than Brazilian ones in a quarter (though that refers to Q2 2025 vs earlier).

Mongolia

Mongolian fintech AND Global secured $21.4 million in a Series B, backed by IFC and others.

South Africa

Top deals & geography: South Africa was a dominant recipient, accounting for more than half of the inflows to African startups in August.

Turkey

Turkish fintech “Midas” raised $80 million Series B, marking one of the largest fintech financings in Turkey in August.

United Kingdom

H.I.G. capital & Kantar Media: A transaction involving Kantar Media closed on 4 August 2025 (H.I.G Capital acquiring) — while not strictly a startup, it’s relevant to media/analytics and corporate innovation.
UK scaleups cohort: Tech Nation announced a new cohort of high-growth scaleups (Future Fifty) with international ambitions, employing over 2,100 people and raising >£1.4 billion collectively.

United States

Eight Sleep funding: (as above, placed in global section) – the $100 million raise is U.S.-based.
FieldAI (Irvine, California, US) — Focused on “robotics AI” / embodied intelligence: physics-first foundation models for robotics across domains. Raised US$405 million (late-stage) for scaling global deployments and R&D.
Techstars FounderCon return: It was announced that Techstars’ FounderCon would return to Boulder, Colorado, September 15–17, 2025, drawing founders, investors and mentors globally.
Chip / AI funding in U.S.: In August, AI/semiconductor startup Groq secured a $640 million Series D — part of a broader trend of U.S.-based chip startups attracting strong capital while global funding dipped.
U.S. cleantech pullback: Corporate-backed funding to U.S. cleantech startups dropped to its lowest quarterly share in four years (in Q2 2025), signaling a tougher funding climate for green energy / climate tech.
Munify: The cross-border neobank founded by Microsoft and Uber alumni raised $3 million in seed funding, including investment from Y Combinator Tech Startups.
Protégé: The New York-based startup operating a secure data exchange platform for AI model training closed a $25 million Series A round led by Footwork Tech Startups.
SetPoint Medica: The California-based medical device startup secured $140 million in new financing, including a $115 million Series D round, to bring its rheumatoid arthritis therapy to U.S. patients Tech Startups.
U.S. Venture Capital : Funding to U.S.-based startups increased significantly in 2025 to 68% of global venture capital, driven by billion-dollar-plus deals for American AI companies Crunchbase News.
Databricks: The San Francisco-based data analytics company raised $1 billion at a $100 billion valuation in an oversubscribed round co-led by Thrive Capital and Insight Partners, bringing total funding to nearly $20 billion Tech Startups.
The U.S. venture-backed company exit market showed signs of a rebound, with values for billion-dollar acquisitions rising year-over-year. While IPOs were still cautious, the overall M&A activity was up, with major deals like Alphabet’s planned acquisition of Wiz and HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks (deals announced earlier in the year but often discussed in August reports) indicating strong consolidation in the enterprise tech space.

Uzbekistan

Uzbek fintech “Uzum” raised ~$70 million, bringing its valuation to approx. $1.5 billion.

Regional Entrepreneurship and Startup Developments

Africa

Overall funding / deal count: African startups raised ≈ US$93 million across 33 disclosed deals in August, making it one of the slower months in 2025 so far.
- Some sources report 39 startups raising a total of US$187.6 million (though that figure appears to include deals of all sizes or broader estimates)
- U.S. investors remained active in African deals, contributing to disclosed flows of ~$215.1 million in August.
Grant / support programs:

• A guide to grants and startup support in August 2025 listed multiple opportunities (grants up to ~$66,000) for African innovators.

• The FINCA Ventures Prize competition awarded US$400,000 across six African startups tackling poverty/impact-themed solutions (though the award announcement was reported in September).

Ecosystem programs: The “Greentech Africa 2025” accelerator (for sustainable / climate tech startups) continued to support startups from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa.

Asia & Central Asia / Middle East