Olix bets photonic inference chips dethrone GPUs: $312M at $3.3B before tape-out
London's Olix builds photonic AI inference chips to escape GPU+HBM economics; it raised $312M at a $3.3B valuation in Aug 2026 before its first tape-out.
Lire le casstartups.centerUNE ARCHIVE CASESTUDIES.CHAT
Chaque entreprise
a un début.
Comment les entreprises ont démarré, trouvé leur place et affronté la suite.
Toutes les archives, dans l’appLes articles sont disponibles en anglais et en chinois simplifié. Les titres et textes conservent leur langue de publication.
Cas publiés
2,000 CAS PUBLIÉS · MIS À JOUR RÉGULIÈREMENTHubble bets AI agents, not EHR APIs, unlock medical records — YC S26, PH Launch of the Day
Seattle duo (ex-Grow, ex-One Medical) lets patients verify once; AI agents fetch records across providers — paying customers in 3 weeks, PH Launch of the Day.
Lire le casBlackBuck's trucking-digitization bet: 963k operators, flat 2024 IPO debut
BlackBuck bet India's 3.5M truck operators would adopt a digital platform for tolls, fuel, tracking and loads; 963k signed on, then its IPO listed flat.
Lire le casOpenWork bets open source beats Claude Cowork; 12.8K stars, Anthropic drops price
A 48-hour hackathon app became the open-source alternative to Claude Cowork, hit 12.8K GitHub stars, and pushed Cowork features down to Anthropic's $20 tier.
Lire le casMetaso (秘塔AI) bets China wants ad-free AI search; Ant led a ¥100M+ round at $150M
Metaso (秘塔科技) launched an ad-free 'Chinese Perplexity' in 2024 — 7M+ visits in month one, 15M by June — then took an Ant-led ¥100M+ round at $150M.
Lire le casCellivate's cell-based meat bet won a $3M TV-show boost
Cellivate built cell-based solutions for cultivated-meat makers, then beat nearly two dozen Southeast Asian startups and won about $3M in commitments.
Lire le casNatron's Sodium-Ion Bet Fails: First US Line Shuts
Natron bet on sodium-ion batteries for data centers, opened first US line, but shut down in 2025 after financing froze.
Lire le casBukalapak's warung-marketplace bet ends in a gaming pivot — $1.5B IPO to exit
Indonesia's first listed tech unicorn quit physical e-commerce in 2025 after Shopee and TikTok took the market, then turned gaming into 85% of revenue.
Lire le casFlareFlow tops US entertainment charts with Western microdramas five months after launch
COL Group's microdrama app hit #1 on US Google Play and App Store entertainment charts in Sept 2025; 10M+ downloads in 3 months
Lire le casUnacademy's buy-everything edtech bet unwinds: CEO exit, 1,300+ layoffs, back online
The $3.4B edtech unicorn bet creator-led online courses beat offline coaching; after 12 boom acquisitions, CEO exit and 1,300+ layoffs, it pivoted back online
Lire le casTauric's TradingAgents open-sources a whole trading desk
Tauric Research fully open-sourced TradingAgents, a multi-agent mirror of a trading firm — 39k stars by March, 71.4k by May 2026.
Lire le casBeyond Reach Labs bets deployable arrays unlock 10x satellite power; $350M LOIs
YC W26 startup's Flarewing arrays grow table-size to football-field-size in orbit; TechCrunch Demo Day fave, $350M LOIs, $10M seed, flight Q2 2027.
Lire le casArago bets light-powered chip JEF cuts AI energy 10x, stays GPU-compatible
Paris deep-tech startup builds hybrid photonic chip 'JEF' claiming 10x lower AI energy with GPU compatibility; $26M oversubscribed seed, July 2025.
Lire le casMyFitnessPal stayed free and bootstrapped 8 profitable years, then sold at $475M cash
Two brothers grew a free, crowdsourced calorie database into 70M users, profitable for eight years with no venture money, then sold to Under Armour for $475M.
Lire le casDunzo's quick-commerce pivot ended with Reliance writing off $200M and the app going dark
Bengaluru hyperlocal delivery pioneer Dunzo bet on 15-minute dark-store commerce, burned through funding, and shut down in January 2025.
Lire le casPazi bets 'vibe running a business' beats vibe coding: GPT Pilot team's PH #1 pivot
Pythagora pivots from GPT Pilot's open-source app builder to Pazi, an AI team that runs marketing and operations; #1 on Product Hunt July 2026.
Lire le casCreao AI bets a closed loop beats chatbots: AI builds and runs its own Agent Apps
After a September 2025 vibe-coding launch, Creao AI rebuilt around autonomous Agent Apps, hit #1 Product of the Day, and raised $25M by April 2026.
Lire le casPendulum bet a probiotic could clear clinical trials like a drug; raised $54M Series C
Pendulum built a microbiome supplement with a published clinical trial behind it, then raised $54M as Glucose Control sold out and hit 74% retention.
Lire le casReForest Latam bets drones and seed capsules make reforestation a business; $1M pre-seed
Argentine climate startup founded after a 50,000-hectare fire replaces hand-planting with drone-dropped iSeeds; $1M+ pre-seed, four countries, B Corp.
Lire le casSoum's re-commerce bet: managed trust beats Saudi classifieds
Saudi startup Soum bets verified, escrowed, delivered used-goods sales beat classifieds; $22M raised and SAR 300M+ in sales by 2025.
Lire le cas