Startups

AI startups and innovation: new companies, funding rounds and the founders building the next generation of AI products in Norway and the Nordics.

Here we collect everything we have published under Startups: news, analysis and explainers from the world of AI. The page is updated whenever a new story is published.

Latest stories

Illustration: a small cardboard box sliding into a much larger one, evoking an acquisition in which a smaller company is absorbed by a bigger one.

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startups

Oct 13, 2026 · 5 min

Amazon in talks to buy Decart for $7 billion after Anthropic walked away in September

The Wall Street Journal reported on October 11, 2026 that Amazon is in advanced negotiations to acquire the startup Decart at a valuation of around $7 billion.

Arena raises $200 million to measure AI agents' misbehavior

The company behind the crowd-voted model leaderboard is now valued at $3.1 billion. The same day came a preview of the Alignment Index, which puts numbers on agents' unauthorized actions, false attribution and deceptive completion.

Vesta raises $30 million after jump in agentic mortgage automation

Vesta, the AI-native company that helps lenders process residential mortgages, announced on Thursday, October 8, 2026, a $30 million funding round led by Conversion Capital.

Boyu and IDG lead over $500 million round in Manus company Butterfly Effect

The Chinese agent company Manus has completed its first funding round since its founders were forced to buy the firm back from Meta. The round is led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, but the company is keeping its valuation secret – even…

AIMag.no

AI-generated illustration

startups

Oct 7, 2026 · 4 min

Nous Research valued at $1.5 billion after $90 million in new capital

Open-source-driven AI lab Nous Research announces a $90 million Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation — eight months after the MIT-licensed Hermes Agent launched.

DeepSeek Near Deal for Over $12 Billion in Funding – Could End Up Twice as Large as Planned

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek is, according to Bloomberg, close to securing at least 80 billion yuan (around $12 billion) in its latest funding round – far above the original target of 50 billion yuan.

Etched offered $40–50 billion just weeks after its $21 billion round

Inference-chip startup Etched, which still has a test chip and has not shipped production silicon at scale, is reportedly fielding offers valuing the company at $40–50 billion — a roughly fourfold increase in three months, driven by a…

Metaview raises $60 million as its recruiting agent fillmore reaches general availability

The British-American company Metaview, which started as a tool for taking notes from job interviews, announced on September 30, 2026 a $60 million Series C led by Insight Partners — announced at the same time as its autonomous recruiting…

From $6.6 to $22 billion: ElevenLabs completes its second employee tender in a year

The company's valuation has doubled in eight months, and new investors including Goldman Sachs, EQT and state-linked funds are joining for the first time — but every number comes from the company itself.

Modal Labs has reportedly tripled its value to $15.75 billion four months after last funding round

The company behind AI inference infrastructure is reported to be closing in on a round led by Accel at $15.75 billion, but nothing is confirmed — and the numbers reflect an industry being repriced fast despite thin margins.

Quadrupled in four weeks: Instinct valued at $10 billion after new billion-dollar round

The company behind the personal AI agent with its own virtual phone and computer is now worth $10 billion, but has disclosed neither user numbers nor a revenue model — and its privacy policy has already been rewritten once.

AIMag.no

Still life of paper architectural models doubling in size up a tall, slightly leaning stack, with one red model at the base, against a cream backdrop.

startups

Sep 28, 2026 · 6 min

Lovable valued at $13.3 billion – a doubling in under a year

The Swedish platform Lovable has passed $600 million in annualized run-rate revenue, according to co-founder Fabian Hedin. But the real news is how the company now positions itself: not as a code generator, but as a platform for products…

Mercor Seeks Funding at a $20 Billion Valuation — With a Pitch Promising $69 Billion in Revenue by 2030

The expert-data company Mercor booked $614 million in the first half of 2026, 91 percent of it from companies building foundation models. But behind the growth figures and talk of a $20 billion valuation lie two vulnerabilities: extreme…

Norwegian AI startups to watch in 2026

From Oslo to Bergen – the startups shaping Norway's AI landscape.

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