Techmeme River
Techmeme River
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
8:50 AM
A look at the dispute between Muslim marriage matchmaking app Muzmatch, which has 5M global users, and Match, which says Muzmatch benefits from a similar name
Financial Times
8:10 AM
CaptivateIQ, a no-code service for creating sales commission plans, raises a $100M Series C at a $1.25B valuation, after raising a $46M Series B in April 2021
TechCrunch
7:40 AM
Chinese smartphone sales fell 9% YoY in Q4 2021 as full-year sales dropped 2% YoY; Apple became China's top vendor in Q4 after six years with 23% marketshare
Counterpoint Research
7:00 AM
How hacker Joe Grand used a fault-injection attack to crack a Trezor One hardware wallet to recover $2M in cryptocurrency for two friends who forgot the PIN
The Verge
6:15 AM
DappRadar: the ~150 active DeFi-related apps hold ~$107B in user funds, down $30B from the start of 2022, as the overall crypto market sags
Bloomberg
5:55 AM
UK-based quantum cryptography startup PQShield, spun out from Oxford's research labs, raises a $20M Series A led by Addition
TechCrunch
5:50 AM
Huawei launches its foldable P50 Pocket and flagship P50 Pro in the UK and Europe, but not the US, running Android without Google services and 5G
CNET
5:45 AM
EU General Court overturns a record €1.06B fine for Intel, levied in 2009 over allegedly squeezing out AMD, saying the EU made key errors
Bloomberg
5:35 AM
After reports of AirTags being used for stalking, Apple releases a Personal Safety User Guide, covering AirTags alerts, information for Android users, and more
9to5Mac
5:25 AM
Spanish e-commerce delivery service Paack, which offers software tools that integrate with robotics, raises a €200M Series D led by Vision Fund 2
TechCrunch
5:20 AM
Klarna launches its Visa-based Klarna Card in the UK, expanding on Sweden and Germany where it has 800,000 users; the card includes Klarna's “Pay in 30” feature
CNBC
5:15 AM
Sources: China's state-backed chipmaking company Tsinghua Unigroup has abandoned memory projects in two cities as US sanctions limit access to vital components
Nikkei Asia
5:10 AM
Sources: Amazon has abandoned its much-maligned campaign of paying warehouse employees to share positive messages on social media after embarrassing backfires
Financial Times
5:05 AM
Live events service Fever raises $227M led by Goldman Sachs at a $1B+ valuation as it plans an IPO
Bloomberg
4:25 AM
Crypto exchange FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, raises $400M at an $8B valuation from Paradigm, SoftBank, and others, its first outside funding
The Block
2:45 AM
A survey of 100 IT firms with 5,000+ employees: 65% say that they or their employees were approached to help ransomware hackers establish insider access
BleepingComputer
2:10 AM
The immediate threat of attackers mass exploiting Log4Shell was averted because the severity of the bug galvanized digital and security communities into action
Sophos News
1:45 AM
Poland-based Infermedica, whose AI tools offer symptom analysis and patient triage, raises a $30M Series B led by One Peak, bringing its total funding to $45M
TechCrunch
1:20 AM
President Biden backs consumers' right to repair and acknowledges the anticompetitive practices of electronics manufacturers
VICE
12:55 AM
Manila-based GrowSari, which helps Filipino MSMEs to digitize, offer bill payments, launch e-commerce stores, and more, raises $45M from KKR
TechCrunch
12:30 AM
Researchers find a 12-year-old vulnerability in Polkit that local attackers can use to gain root privileges on all major Linux distributions; an exploit is out
BleepingComputer
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
11:50 PM
Satya Nadella says Microsoft Teams topped 270M MAUs in the December quarter, up from 250M MAUs in July 2021
GeekWire
11:25 PM
SparkCognition, which uses AI to help companies predict outcomes, optimize processes, and prevent cyberattacks, raises a $123M Series D at a $1.4B+ valuation
VentureBeat
11:15 PM
Ryan Wyatt, YouTube's gaming head who oversaw big deals to poach Twitch's star streamers, leaves to grow Ethereum scaling startup Polygon's developer ecosystem
The Verge
11:00 PM
Self-driving shuttle startup May Mobility, which operates 25 vehicles in nine cities including Arlington, Texas, and Hiroshima, Japan, raises an $83M Series C
Bloomberg
10:35 PM
Twitter: governments made 43,387 content removal demands from a record 196,878 accounts in H1 2021; 95% came from Japan, Russia, Turkey, India, and South Korea
Reuters
9:30 PM
Domain Money, a stock and crypto trading app with actively managed investment strategies, launches with $33M from Bessemer Ventures, Marc Benioff, and others
Bloomberg
9:05 PM
The IMF's board urges El Salvador to strip Bitcoin of its status as legal currency due to its large risks, a major obstacle to the country's $1.3B loan request
Bloomberg
8:35 PM
Activision Blizzard declines to voluntarily recognize a union formed by 34 QA testers at Raven Software, after failing to reach an agreement with the CWA
Washington Post
7:30 PM
Sources: Meta-backed Diem Association is talking to investment bankers about selling its IP to return capital to investors and giving its engineers a new home
Bloomberg
6:25 PM
Samsung announces its Galaxy Unpacked “The Epic Standard” event will be held virtually on February 9 at 7am PT, where it's expected to unveil the Galaxy S22
Engadget
6:20 PM
Sources: Microsoft will keep Activision Blizzard agreements for three new Call of Duty games on PlayStation in the next two years, but long-term plans are hazy
Bloomberg
5:50 PM
OpenSea launches a new listing manager to mitigate a UI issue that let attackers flip NFTs at below-market rates, which it says was “not an exploit or a bug”
CoinDesk
5:15 PM
Microsoft's cloud revenue grew 32% YoY to $22.1B in Q2, with Intelligent Cloud revenue of $18.3B, up 26% YoY, and Azure and other cloud service revenue up 46%
Wall Street Journal
4:06 PM
Microsoft Q2: revenue of $51.7B, up 20% YoY, net income of $18.8B, up 21% YoY, Windows OEM revenue up 25%, LinkedIn revenue up 37%, and Surface revenue up 8%
Microsoft Investor Relations
3:55 PM
Verizon says a third of its wireless customers now use 5G phones, following aggressive deals and discounts to push new devices
CNET
3:35 PM
The FTC and Fashion Nova reach a $4.2M settlement over allegations that the fast-fashion clothing site suppressed product reviews of less than four stars
New York Times
2:55 PM
Google's three years of security updates for its older phones like 2018's Pixel 3 is planned obsolescence; new Pixels get five years of support vs. iPhones' ~6
VICE
2:00 PM
London-based Sylvera, which uses ML to analyze visual data like satellite imagery to boost accountability for carbon offsetting projects, raises a $32M Series A
TechCrunch
1:30 PM
Internal Pentagon doc: Microsoft's HoloLens-based Army goggles, part of a program started in 2018 now worth $22B, are behind schedule and not yet combat ready
Bloomberg
12:30 PM
Review of Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake-H Core i9-12900HK, tested in a 17-inch MSI Raider GE76 laptop: excellent outright performance
AnandTech
12:05 PM
The US Commerce Department says the global chip shortage will stretch into at least H2 2022, based on information from 150+ companies in the chip supply chain
Bloomberg
11:00 AM
Indian smartphone shipments hit a record 162M in 2021, up 12% YoY, led by Xiaomi at 40.5M, Samsung at 30.1M, Vivo at 25.7M, Realme at 24.2M, and Oppo at 20.1M
Canalys
9:35 AM
Dremio, whose business tools streamline and curate data, raises a $160M Series E led by Adams Street Partners, after a $135M Series D in January 2021
TechCrunch
9:30 AM
Scratchpad, a SaaS productivity workspace built on Salesforce, raises a $33M Series B led by Craft Ventures, following a $13M Series A in February 2021
VentureBeat
9:25 AM
In a YouTube creator update, Susan Wojcicki defends hiding dislikes, discusses adding NFT support, says creators making over $10K/year jumped 40% YoY, and more
Variety
8:25 AM
Union officials say nearly half of the 6,143 Amazon workers eligible to vote in Bessemer, Alabama are new; ballots in the re-do election are due on March 28
Bloomberg
8:10 AM
Google shutters FLoC, its controversial ad tech for replacing third-party cookies, and proposes Topics, which categorizes the sites users visit into 300+ topics
TechCrunch
8:01 AM
Brazil-based Creditas, which offers insurance, loans, and a used-car marketplace, raises a $260M Series F at a $4.8B valuation, up from $1.75B in December 2020
Financial Times
7:30 AM
Tunis- and London-based InstaDeep, which offers decision-making AI to businesses, raises a $100M Series B, following a $7M Series A in May 2019
TechCrunch
7:25 AM
Tencent fired 70 people and banned 13 companies for bribery and embezzlement in 2021 as part of an anti-graft campaign in line with China's tech sector scrutiny
CNBC
7:15 AM
Autonomous sidewalk delivery robot startup Starship Technologies raises €50M from the European Investment Bank, following a $40M Series A in August 2019
TechCrunch
7:10 AM
Julian Lennon plans to auction off NFTs of Beatles and John Lennon items, including handwritten notes for Hey Jude; Julian will retain the physical counterparts
Variety
7:00 AM
London-based BCB Group, which offers financial services to Bitstamp, Coinbase, Kraken, and others, including for payments and custody, raises a $60M Series A
The Block
6:55 AM
Twitter code shows it is developing Flock, which lets users create tweets for a curated list of up to 150 people, after teasing the feature in July 2021
Input
6:45 AM
Sources: Nvidia is planning to abandon its Arm acquisition after making little to no progress with regulators; source says SoftBank is preparing an Arm IPO
Bloomberg
2:30 AM
As Microsoft acquires Activision, a look at the state of the gaming industry, which generated $180B in 2021 revenue, double that of the movie industry
Financial Times
Monday, January 24, 2022
11:30 PM
A look at Orange DAO, a crypto collective made up of 1,000+ YC founders that has closed an initial fund and invested in ~30 Web3 startups
TechCrunch
10:50 PM
China is supporting thousands of “little giants”, startups taking on Silicon Valley in robotics, quantum computing, semiconductors, and other strategic sectors
Bloomberg
10:15 PM
Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, which offers cloud-based HR management software, raises a $72M Series D led by TCV at a $1B+ valuation
TechCrunch
9:05 PM
The Ethereum Foundation renames Eth1 as “execution layer” and Eth2 as “consensus layer” to “save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model”
Ethereum Blog
7:40 PM
A look at the piracy issues plaguing blockchain-based music streamer Audius, as users easily find unlicensed albums from Kanye West, Drake, Nas, and others
Billboard
6:45 PM
Coinbase adds a tax center to its app and website that aggregates taxable crypto transactions to help US users figure out how much they may owe the IRS
The Verge
5:45 PM
Sources: Savvy Gaming Group, backed by the Saudi Arabian government's Public Investment Fund, acquires esports companies ESL and FACEIT for a combined $1.5B
Sports Business Journal
5:05 PM
Hackers say they hit a Belarusian rail system with ransomware to stop Russia's military buildup against Ukraine; many Belarus Railway services appear offline
Ars Technica
4:35 PM
IBM reports Q4 revenue of $16.7B, up 6% YoY, and net income up 72% YoY to $2.3B, after spinning off of its managed infrastructure services unit Kyndryl
CNBC
4:30 PM
Soona, which helps e-commerce merchants with product photo and video shoots virtually, raises a $35M Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures
TechCrunch
3:50 PM
A look at Amazon's impact on Darlington in northern England, where the company's warehouse employs 1,300 full-time, as locals rue e-commerce but love new jobs
Wall Street Journal
2:20 PM
Some developers who use Apple's CloudKit have complained about an iCloud syncing bug for months; some are resorting to adding iCloud status pages to their apps
MacRumors
1:50 PM
Deliverect, which integrates online orders from various food delivery services into restaurants' POS systems, raises a $150M Series D at a $1.4B+ valuation
TechCrunch
1:20 PM
Chip startup Ceremorphic raises a $50M Series A and unveils QS 1, which is built on TSMC's 5nm node and designed to excel at tasks like AI model training
VentureBeat
1:00 PM
Internal docs: Meta's “free” low-data service for developing countries has led to unexpected charges for users, totaling millions of dollars per month
Wall Street Journal
12:24 PM
Meta unveils AI Research SuperCluster, a supercomputer for ML training, claiming it will have 16K GPUs and be the world's fastest upon completion in mid-2022
The Verge
10:55 AM
Lavca: VC investment into Latin America hit $15.3B in 2021 across 650+ deals, tripling 2019's record of $4.9B; 39% of capital was for fintech, 25% was ecommerce
Financial Times
10:40 AM
Globalization Partners, which offers tools to simplify hiring international job candidates, raises $200M at a $4.2B valuation from Vista Equity Partners
Wall Street Journal
10:25 AM
The cryptocurrency market loses ~$130B over 24 hours; bitcoin and ether reached their lowest levels since July and are down ~45%+ from their all-time highs
CNBC
10:15 AM
Autonomous air taxi startup Wisk Aero, a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, raises $450M from Boeing
Financial Times
10:00 AM
Sayata, which offers an automated online insurance marketplace for SMBs, adds $35M to its $17M Series A from August 2021
TechCrunch
9:50 AM
The Netherlands fines Apple €5M, saying Apple's IAP changes “failed to satisfy the requirements”; the fine rises €5M/week to €50M until Apple complies
MacRumors
9:10 AM
Riyadh-based Elm, a digital security company owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, seeks to raise as much as $820M from an IPO
Bloomberg
8:45 AM
Research: an OpenSea bug is being exploited to purchase NFTs at below-market rates before flipping them, netting $1M+ across at least eight NFTs in 12 hours
Elliptic Blog
8:40 AM
UK's DCMS committee says the Online Safety Bill falls short on protecting free speech, tackling illegal and harmful content on online services, and more
TechCrunch
8:35 AM
District of Columbia, Texas, Washington, and Indiana AGs sue Google for allegedly deceiving users to gain access to their location data from at least 2014
Washington Post
8:10 AM
Hundreds of German advertisers and publishers, including Axel Springer, say Google is breaking EU law by phasing out third-party cookies from Chrome by 2023
Financial Times
7:40 AM
Spectrum Labs, which helps online services detect and remove toxic content across nearly 40 languages in real time, raises $32M led by Intel Capital
TechCrunch
7:25 AM
Virtual worlds, or even just immersive experiences in the metaverse, will need far more network capacity than is currently available in homes around the world
Financial Times
6:20 AM
Indian food delivery service Swiggy raises a $700M Series K led by Invesco, source says at a $10.7B valuation, after raising $1.25B at a $5.5B valuation in July
TechCrunch
5:00 AM
Data centers used ~17% of Ireland's generated power in 2021, expected to grow to 27% by 2030, putting the country's ambitious climate goals into question
CNN
2:30 AM
Sydney-based Milkrun, which aims to deliver groceries in 10 minutes or less, raises a A$75M Series A led by Tiger Global, following an A$11M seed in June 2021
Business Insider Australia
1:35 AM
Australian PM Scott Morrison lost control of his official WeChat account months ago, and a Chinese tech company now uses it to promote Chinese life in Australia
Reuters
12:25 AM
OfficeSpace Software, which lets companies manage hybrid workspaces, desk and room booking, raises $150M from Vista Equity Partners
PYMNTS.com
Sunday, January 23, 2022
11:15 PM
Amid a shift in malware targeting UEFI firmware, Kaspersky details MoonBounce UEFI bootkit that can remain on an infected PC even after swapping the hard drive
The Record
8:25 PM
DeFi traders complain about Solana's network instability this weekend, four months after its last outage; Solana released an update to fix “the worst effects”
The Block
6:20 PM
There will be no bursting bubble, just a deflating balloon of high growth tech stock valuations returning to normal as factors that inflated them go away
500ish
3:10 PM
Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history for this fall; LinkedIn profile shows Apple car exec Joe Bass left for Meta
Bloomberg
1:15 PM
Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade
CNBC
11:05 AM
Analysis: AR/VR startups raised nearly $1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR funding at nearly $3.9B raised
Crunchbase News
8:05 AM
Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt
EU-Startups
2:00 AM
How longstanding disagreements between the FCC and FAA over potential risks to aircraft remained unresolved in the lead up to the 5G C-band rollout in the US
Wall Street Journal
Saturday, January 22, 2022
10:00 PM
EU Parliament passed Digital Services Act, including provisions banning targeted ads based on highly sensitive personal data, limiting dark patterns, and more
Euractiv
7:05 PM
How UK stage theater companies are using AR and VR to broadcast productions to viewers at home as the pandemic pushes companies to experiment with new art forms
New York Times
3:40 PM
How advances in semiconductor fabrication equipment are being applied to producing nano-scale microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS
Wall Street Journal
12:15 PM
Plaid acquires Cognito, which offers ID verification and compliance services to financial firms, source says for ~$250M in cash and stock
TechCrunch
8:50 AM
Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A
The Economic Times
5:25 AM
Nowsta, which runs an on-demand labor marketplace and develops tools to help companies manage their hourly, gig, and flex workers, raises a $41M Series B
TechCrunch
2:00 AM
How Ohio attracted Intel to build semiconductor plants, including pursuing execs for eight months, financial incentives, and sustainability commitments
The Columbus Dispatch
12:30 AM
Shopify confirms it canceled contracts with warehouse and fulfillment partners, but says its capacity to handle orders won't be affected; stock closed down 14%
Bloomberg
Friday, January 21, 2022
10:20 PM
Anitian, which offers enterprise cloud security and compliance software, raises a $55M Series B led by Sageview Capital, bringing its total funding to $71M
Portland Business Journal
10:00 PM
A look at ID.me, which will soon be used to verify IRS.gov logins and claims to have uncovered a $400B theft of US pandemic unemployment payments
Bloomberg
8:55 PM
US tech firms are “nearshoring” Latin American talent, lured by cheaper costs and similar time zones, leading to staffing shortages at tech firms in the region
Rest of World
7:25 PM
Berlin-based Moss, which offers a spend management service with credit cards to SMBs, raises a €75M Series B led by Tiger Global at a €500M valuation
TechCrunch
6:30 PM
Researchers: 40 themes and 53 plugins for WordPress downloaded from AccessPress had backdoors dating back to September, giving attackers full admin control
BleepingComputer
5:45 PM
CoinGecko: since Thursday, the cryptocurrency industry's market cap is down ~20% to ~$1.6T; Bitcoin fell ~20% to ~$34K and Ethereum fell ~30% to ~$2.3K
CoinDesk
4:35 PM
Netflix's stock is down 41% from a November high as US subscriber numbers hit maturity, forcing it chase growth in developing markets and verticals like gaming
CNN
3:40 PM
Amazon spent a record $20.3M and Meta a record $20.1M on US federal lobbying in 2021, both up ~7% YoY; Google spent $9.6M, up 27%; Apple spending fell to $6.5M
The Hill
2:30 PM
California court orders YouTuber Ruben Sim to pay Roblox $150K and stay off the platform, after Roblox accused him of leading a “cybermob” terrorizing players
Polygon
1:45 PM
US court rules in favor of pharma giant Merck in a $1.4B legal dispute with insurers who claimed an “Act of War” exclusion to deny coverage for NotPetya losses
Bloomberg Law
1:10 PM
Health monitoring startup Casana raises a $30M Series B as it gets ready to debut a smart toilet seat that measures heart rate and other vitals
Axios
12:55 PM
Google files to dismiss state AGs' antitrust lawsuit and says in a blog post that allegations of ad auction collusion with Facebook are “more heat than light”
The Verge
12:30 PM
A group of 34 QA testers at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software vote to unionize with the CWA, and ask the company to voluntarily recognize their union status
Bloomberg
12:10 PM
Netflix COO says the company is “open to licensing large game IP”; job listings hint it may launch Fortnite-like live service games with regular content updates
Protocol
11:45 AM
Hands-on with a pre-release mid-2018 build of Microsoft's canceled Andromeda OS for dual-screen devices
Windows Central
11:20 AM
IBM to sell part of Watson Health, including image software offerings and extensive data sets, to private equity firm Francisco Partners, sources say for $1B+
Bloomberg
10:56 AM
Investigation finds that Binance withheld information from regulators and maintained weak checks on customers even as it publicly welcomed government oversight
Reuters
9:20 AM
BigTime Software, which helps companies monitor and manage their finances through budgeting, tracking, and invoicing, raises $100M from Vista Equity Partners
Chicago Business Journal