VC Angle Weekly Briefing #38: ElevenLabs Raises €500M & SpaceX Acquires xAI
VC Angle Weekly Update #38
Hey - welcome to the thirty-eighth edition of VC Angle Weekly Updates! We’re moving weekly briefings to Sundays from now on.
As always, we're keeping tabs on what actually matters across 🇪🇺 European tech, as well as relevant global tech news. If something broke the news this week and it's worth your time, it's probably below. Scroll on for the deals, reads, and reports you'll want on your radar.
In This Edition:
ElevenLabs raises $500M, eyes IPO
SpaceX acquires xAI for $250bn
Mundi closes €750M for Kembara Fund
Fundraising now demands traction over MVPs
US unicorns staying private longer
⏱️ 2:47 Reading Time
💥 Main Events Past Week
ElevenLabs raises $500M Series D at $11bn valuation, building towards IPO
ElevenLabs raised $500M in a Series D led by Sequoia, valuing the AI voice generator at $11bn. The valuation triples from its January 2025 Series C when it raised $180M at $3.3bn, bringing total raised to $781M across five rounds. CEO Mati Staniszewski says the company is building towards an IPO after closing 2025 with over $330M in ARR.
SpaceX acquires xAI for $250bn, values combined entity at $1.25tn
SpaceX acquired xAI for $250bn, valuing the combined company at $1.25tn. The deal boosts SpaceX’s valuation to $1tn from its recent $800bn secondary sale, while xAI’s $230bn valuation is based on its recent $20bn funding round. Shares in the merged entity are priced at $527, with xAI shares converting to SpaceX stock at roughly 7:1.
Mundi Ventures closes €750M for Kembara Fund I, targets European Series B gap
Spain-based Mundi Ventures closed €750M for Kembara Fund I, its fifth and largest fund targeting deep tech and climate Series B and C rounds. The fund could reach €1.25bn at final close and plans initial checks of €15M to €40M across 20 companies, with follow-ons up to €100M per company.
📰 Other News
BottleCap AI, a startup Harry Stebbings claimed has “the largest upside in his investing career”, has raised a $7.5m seed led by 20VC as well as europe's top founders [See here]
BAE Systems launches incubator to commercialise defence tech [See here]
A16Z VC to founders: “You shouldn’t stress over insane ARR numbers!” [See here]
Europe must keep control of key technologies, says EU commissioner [See here]
Macron responds to X going crazy over his €30M AI investment announcement: “France ranked first among countries attracting foreign investment to build data centers”
Emmanuel Macron@EmmanuelMacron“This clown wants to make France an AI leader with €30M.” €30 million → to attract and support around forty top-tier international researchers. They chose France for its values and its commitment to science. Sometimes it’s too slow…
2:22 PM · Feb 7, 2026 · 3.03M Views2.62K Replies · 1.89K Reposts · 20.3K Likes
👇🏼 Read some of our previous weekly reports to stay in the loop with 🇪🇺 European tech news:
💶 Where Funds Went (Or Will Go)
Startups
🇪🇸 Biorce — $52M | AI platform for clinical trial design + execution.
🇬🇧 Incard — £10M | Financial platform for high-growth digital companies (Series A).
🇬🇧 Polaron — $8M | AI materials-science intelligence.
🇬🇧 Veremark — $26M | Background screening / HR platform expansion.
🇫🇷 UBEES — €8M | Regenerative pollination / beekeeping for agriculture expansion.
🇫🇷 MyC — €10M | Digitises medical operations for complex worksites.
🇪🇸 BCAS — €30M (debt) | Flexible student financing.
🇵🇱 ElevenLabs — $500M | AI audio generation (Series D).
🇩🇰 Pluto.markets — $6M | Markets/investing product backed by notable founders.
🇫🇷/🇱🇺 R3 Robotics — €20M | Automating EV battery/EV dismantling at scale.
🇬🇧 Lawhive — $60M | Consumer legaltech; expanding toward the US.
🇩🇪 Gardia — €8.5M | Mobile emergency system for seniors (Series A).
🇬🇧 Bound — $24.5M | FX hedging / automated FX risk management (Series A).
Venture Funds
🇨🇭 Constructor Capital — $110M | Closed Fund I (science-first founders).
M&A 🤝
🇸🇪 Soundtrack → Tunify + Ambie — undisclosed | Acquired two music-for-business players to scale locally with global reach.
🔍 Reads & Reports
The old playbook of raising $1M+ on rough MVPs with vanity valuations might be dead. Investors now want systematic, data-driven operations proving capital efficiency and actual traction.
US unicorns staying private at unprecedented scale, creating liquidity gap
Almost 800 US unicorns founded in 2020-2025 remain private one year after reaching unicorn status, compared to 332 from 2010-2019. By year three, 575 unicorns from the recent cohort are still private, nearly triple the 206 from the previous decade.
Only 11 unicorns founded in 1999-2009 remained private at the three-year mark. The shift happens because of abundant private capital, desire to avoid public market scrutiny, frozen IPO markets, and contractual terms from higher post-money valuations, creating capital recycling issues as trillions remain locked in private portfolios.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week.
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