June 2025 Update
1. Linear Becomes a Unicorn With an $82 Million Series C
Spot: Developer-first project-management platform Linear hits a $1.25 billion valuation after a round led by Accel.
Linear, which simplifies issue tracking and product road-mapping for software teams, has closed an $82 million Series C that also drew backing from 01A, Sequoia, Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund. The company now serves more than 15,000 paying customers—including OpenAI, Scale AI and Perplexity—and is widely touted as an Atlassian challenger.
CEO Karri Saarinen says the fresh capital will bankroll enterprise-grade features and expansion into larger customer segments. Operating with an 80-person, fully remote team, Linear tripled its profit in 2024, and its new “work-with-AI” modules position artificial intelligence as a virtual team-mate, shortening development cycles and offering a model for hybrid “human + AI” organisations.
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2. Indian Start-ups Raise $390 Million in a Single Week
Spot: From 9 to 14 June, 19 companies attracted record funding, led by fintech, defence tech and AI ventures.
Indian Startup News reports that online brokerage Groww topped the charts with a $200 million pre-IPO Series F. It was followed by CRED ($72 million), FlexiLoans ($43.6 million), defence-electronics firm Sanlayan ($21.5 million) and deep-tech player Vecmocon ($18 million). The week’s total outpaced the previous one by 78 percent.
The spread of cheques highlights India’s diversifying start-up scene: early-stage AI outfit Roomstory.ai raised a $340 k seed round, while sports-tech, food-service and gaming studios secured seven-figure sums for the first time. Investors, seeing a healthier exit climate, are shifting from “high-valuation + rapid scale” plays toward businesses already edging toward profitability.
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3. African Tech Funding Tops $1 Billion Year-to-Date
Spot: Egypt alone captured 31 percent of the continent’s inflows as May deals reached $254 million.
According to the “Africa: The Big Deal” report, 36 African start-ups picked up a combined $254 million in May, lifting the January–May tally to $1.05 billion. The largest round went to Egypt-based prop-tech platform Nawy, which secured $75 million in growth capital from Partech.
Though the number of deals fell slightly, average cheque sizes grew, indicating stronger demand for scale-stage companies. Fintech and health-tech continued to dominate, with South Africa’s safety-tech firm AURA closing a $15 million Series B. Analysts now believe 2025 could surpass the $3 billion mark, fuelled by the Egypt–Nigeria–South Africa corridor.
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4. EU Launches €300 Million “EIC STEP Scale-up” Fund for Deep Tech
Spot: New programme will supply €10–30 million equity tickets, plugging Europe’s late-stage funding gap.
On 12 June the European Commission unveiled the first four finalists—Multiverse Computing (quantum-AI), HyImpulse (orbital launch), Dronamics (cargo drones) and Classiq (quantum software)—who stand to share €90 million in equity. The STEP Scale-up budget is €300 million for 2025 and is slated to rise to €900 million by 2027.
Officials say the initiative targets Series B-C rounds of €50–150 million, a range where European deep-tech firms often struggle to secure capital. Awardees receive the coveted “STEP Seal”, unlocking bespoke acceleration services, investor matchmaking and heightened EU-wide visibility—an attractive pathway for digital founders aiming to scale without leaving the continent.
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5. CodeLaunch Canada 2025 Offers Equity-Free Spotlight in Toronto
Spot: Finalists set to pitch on 25 June for a $50 k cash prize and sizeable in-kind hackathon packages.
CodeLaunch blends live pitching with a 48-hour coding marathon, creating what organisers dub “venture-tainment”. Limited to Canada-based founders, the accelerator takes no equity, yet provides professional developer squads from Improving to co-build MVPs during the 22–23 June hackathon.
Winners walk away with $50,000 in cash plus tens of thousands of dollars in software, legal and marketing services, while every 2025 finalist gains entry to the CodeLaunch World Championship in Dallas this November. The equity-free model, heavy on mentorship and PR exposure, offers early-stage digital start-ups a low-risk springboard into North America’s investor network.
Sources
1. Reuters – “Atlassian competitor Linear raises funding at $1.25-billion valuation.” 10 Jun 2025.
2. TechCrunch – “Atlassian rival Linear raises $82M at $1.25B valuation.” 10 Jun 2025.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/10/atlassian-rival-linear-raises-82m-at-1-25b-valuation/
3. YourStory – “IPO-bound Groww reports 3X jump in FY25 profit, raises $200M at $7B valuation.” 13 Jun 2025.
https://yourstory.com/2025/06/ipo-bound-groww-reports-3x-jump-fy25-profit-raises–200m-7b-valuation
4. The Economic Times – “Groww triples FY25 profit to Rs 1,819 crore; closes fresh funding at $7 billion valuation.” 13 Jun 2025.
5. Africa: The Big Deal (Substack) – “May 2025 – Another good month.” Jun 2025.
https://thebigdeal.substack.com/p/may-2025-another-good-month
6. European Commission – “New companies put forward for major investments under the EIC STEP Scale-up scheme.” 12 Jun 2025.
7. European Innovation Council – “STEP Scale Up: Funding opportunities.” Accessed 16 Jun 2025.
https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/step-scale_en
8. CodeLaunch – “CodeLaunch Canada 2025 Startup Accelerator Competition – Event Information.” Accessed 16 Jun 2025.