Techmeme River
Techmeme River
Monday, June 14, 2021
2:40 AM
UK-based Motorway, which allows professional car dealers to bid for privately-owned cars for sale, raises £48m Series B led by Index Ventures
TechCrunch
Sunday, June 13, 2021
9:35 PM
Secret gag orders imposed by the US government on tech companies must stop, as they abuse citizens' fundamental freedoms and are no longer even used sparingly
Washington Post
7:40 PM
UNESCO: AI and robotics have “dominated scientific output” in recent years; ~150K research articles were published on those subjects in 2019, up 44% from 2015
VentureBeat
5:30 PM
Profile of DigitalMint, a final-mile crypto broker that helps ransomware victims pay ransoms in cryptocurrency, within 30-60 minutes of contact from the hacker
CNBC
3:35 PM
Sources: many Apple US stores will drop mask requirement for vaccinated customers as soon as Tuesday; mask requirement to be dropped at some Cupertino offices
Bloomberg
1:45 PM
[Thread] Former Facebook employee, now Coatue Management Chairman, shares his experiences working with Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook's early days
@danrose999
11:10 AM
After El Salvador's president, many Latin American politicians are expressing interest in adopting cryptocurrencies, as a PR exercise to elevate their profiles
Rest of World
8:05 AM
CB Insights: VCs invested $1.5B into mental health startups in 2020, a record high, and 5.5x the funding invested in the space in 2016
Forbes
5:00 AM
A new generation of young workers at China's technology giants is demanding an end to forced rankings, harsh working conditions, and the “996” work culture
Financial Times
1:55 AM
As carmakers integrate 100-150+ chip-based electronic control units in each car, a look at the challenges of an auto industry that is more dependent on software
IEEE Spectrum
1:10 AM
Taproot, a significant Bitcoin upgrade promising better transaction privacy and smart contracts, got approved by miners globally, due to take effect in November
CNBC
12:10 AM
Q&A with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about its Omniverse, dubbed a “metaverse for engineers”, discouraging miners from buying its GPUs, chip shortages, and more
VentureBeat
Saturday, June 12, 2021
9:40 PM
Many Latin American Facebook users are self-compromising their accounts to fuel fake engagement through “autoliker” websites and unwittingly joining bot farms
Rest of World
7:10 PM
Interview with Apple execs Bob Borchers and Sebastien Marineau-Mes about changes to multitasking in iPadOS 15, SharePlay, Universal Control, Quick Note, more
TechCrunch
4:40 PM
China pushes to subject data-related activities to government oversight, as it worries tech giants could use collected data to build alternative power centers
Wall Street Journal
3:55 PM
A look at the rise of BitClout, a burgeoning crypto service monetizing social influence, valued at more than $1B in April, but operating in a legal gray zone
New Yorker
2:45 PM
Thai SEC orders exchanges to delist NFTs and meme coins, defined as those with “no objective or underlying value” whose price relies on social media trends
Decrypt
2:05 PM
Profile of Praveen Khandelwal, leader of a network of ~80M SMBs in India with deep ties to Modi, who evokes British colonial looting in his fight against Amazon
Rest of World
1:05 PM
Disclosures from Tether show it has $30B in commercial paper, a short-dated investment similar to cash, making it one of the largest investors in the US market
Financial Times
12:20 PM
Aura, which offers device and identity theft protection including financial fraud monitoring for consumers, raises $150M Series E led by Warburg Pincus
FinSMEs
11:35 AM
Epic trial email suggests Apple manually boosted ranking of its Files app in App Store search results for Dropbox in 2017; Apple says it was a simple mistake
The Verge
11:00 AM
Filing: Byju's raises $350M from UBS, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Blackstone, and others at a valuation of $16.5B, making it the most valuable startup in India
TechCrunch
10:20 AM
Apple says it didn't know DOJ was asking for House Democrats' data when it complied with subpoena; Microsoft also received and complied with a similar subpoena
CNBC
9:45 AM
AT&T CEO says Biden's municipal broadband plan is “a bit misguided” and is confident that Congress will steer legislation in the more “pragmatic” direction
Ars Technica
8:40 AM
Blackstone has agreed to buy and take private QTS Realty Trust, one of the world's largest data center providers, for $10B
Data Center Knowledge
6:35 AM
Honeywell merges its quantum computing business with Cambridge Quantum to form a new joint venture; Honeywell will hold a majority stake and invest $270M-$300M
TechCrunch
4:30 AM
1stDibs, an online marketplace for antique furniture, jewelry, and other goods, debuts on Nasdaq after raising $115M in its IPO, valuing it at $750M
Seeking Alpha
2:25 AM
As ransomware gangs operate on multi-million dollar budgets at a global scale, telling companies to “just patch” or “implement zero trust” is no longer feasible
DoublePulsar
1:20 AM
A fresh wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in Taiwan and Malaysia has disrupted the semiconductor supply chain in those countries, worsening a global chip shortage
Wall Street Journal
12:15 AM
ByteDance launches Volcano Engine to offer enterprise clients its technologies, such as its recommendation algorithm that drove the success of TikTok and Douyin
PingWest
Friday, June 11, 2021
11:30 PM
SurveyMonkey rebrands as Momentive as it looks to expand its growing enterprise business; SurveyMonkey will retain its branding for its consumer-facing business
Forbes
9:20 PM
Transcarent, a health navigation, virtual care, and medication review service for self-insured employees, raises $58M Series B led by General Catalyst and 7wire
FierceHealthcare
9:00 PM
US clean energy company Invenergy says it had been hacked but “does not intend to pay any ransom”, after REvil threatened to leak 4TB of stolen data
Financial Times
8:10 PM
Tencent-backed Kanzhun, owner of Chinese online recruitment platform Boss Zhipin, closed up 96% in its trading debut, after raising $912M in its US IPO
Bloomberg
7:10 PM
The DOJ's opaque subpoena of Apple during the Russia probe highlights the tension tech companies face in obliging law enforcement and protecting users' privacy
New York Times
6:55 PM
Facebook unveils TextStyleBrush, an AI project that can copy the style of text in a photo using just a single word and can edit and replace text in images
About Facebook
6:10 PM
Federal judge grants a preliminary injunction that prohibits New York from enforcing a law requiring ISPs offer low-cost broadband plans to low-income families
Ars Technica
5:25 PM
Larry Page's air taxi company Kitty Hawk buys drone software company 3D Robotics, whose co-founder and ex-Wired editor Chris Anderson will become Kitty Hawk COO
Forbes
5:15 PM
Facebook buys BigBox VR, the maker of VR battle royale title POPULATION: ONE, in its fifth VR game development studio acquisition
UploadVR
4:15 PM
Avaddon ransomware gang releases decryption keys for 2,934 of its victims and is likely shutting down due to increased scrutiny by governments around the world
BleepingComputer
3:45 PM
NLRB expands its complaint against Google to add three more fired workers who say the company retaliated against them for protesting against its work with CBP
Vox
3:30 PM
YC's decision to remove two of its CEOs who critiqued the accelerator publicly from its program raises questions about how YC moderates its community
TechCrunch
2:50 PM
House lawmakers introduce five bipartisan bills to limit anticompetitive practices of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook
The Verge
1:50 PM
Flyhomes, an end-to-end homebuying service that lets buyers make upfront cash offers for a house, raises $150M Series C
Crunchbase News
12:30 PM
FTC says Amazon has agreed to pay $61.7M+ to settle charges that it failed to pay Flex drivers the full amount of tips they received over two and a half years
Protocol
11:50 AM
Apple finally adds support for Windows Precision Touchpad drivers in its latest Boot Camp update but only on Intel Macs with a T2 chip
The Verge
10:55 AM
Some attendees of Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, which had no mask or proof of vaccine requirements for its 12K guests, say they tested positive for COVID-19
Gizmodo
10:25 AM
Kepler Communications, which is building a network with 200 satellites aiming to offer internet service outside of the Earth by 2023, raises $60M Series B
CNBC
9:55 AM
Volkswagen says a vendor's security lapse exposed details of 3.3M+ customers spanning 2014 to 2019, including sensitive data of 90K clients in the US and Canada
TechCrunch
9:25 AM
EA hackers say they used stolen cookies, bought online for $10, to gain access to EA Slack, and then tricked IT support to give login tokens for EA's network
VICE
9:20 AM
McDonald's says hackers breached its operations in some markets, exposing some US business info and delivery customer data in South Korea and Taiwan
Wall Street Journal
8:45 AM
Google commits to involve UK's competition and privacy regulators in the development of its Privacy Sandbox proposals to replace third-party cookies on Chrome
CNBC
7:10 AM
London-based Fresha, a beauty and wellness booking service, raises $100M Series C led by General Atlantic, bringing its total raised to $132M
TechCrunch
5:50 AM
Google abandons experiment to hide parts of site URLs in the Chrome address bar, which ran from June 2020 to June 2021
The Record
1:50 AM
Nvidia acquires DeepMap, which is building high-definition maps for autonomous vehicles; DeepMap has raised $91M from investors
TechCrunch
Thursday, June 10, 2021
10:40 PM
Tel Aviv-based Komodor, which helps businesses troubleshoot Kubernetes deployments faster, comes out of stealth and raises $21M Series A led by Accel
VentureBeat
10:20 PM
Brazil-based Buser, which partners with charter bus companies to offer customers safe and low cost travel via its app, raises $138M from LGT, SoftBank, others
Reuters
10:00 PM
Apple provided data of House Democrats after DOJ subpoenaed it during Russia leak probe; Apple notified the lawmakers after a gag order expired this year
New York Times
8:55 PM
Slintel, which offers sales intelligence tools for businesses, raises $20M Series A led by GGV Capital
The Economic Times
8:05 PM
NextNav, a startup developing vertical geolocation tech that locates smartphones in multi-story buildings, will go public via SPAC merger at $1.2B valuation
VentureBeat
7:20 PM
Workplace collaboration company Monday.com closed up 15% in its Nasdaq debut Thursday, after raising $574M in its IPO, giving it a market cap of ~$7.82B
CNBC
6:50 PM
NY Senate becomes the first legislative body in the US to pass right to repair legislation for electronics; the bill still has to pass the NY Assembly
VICE
5:45 PM
Sources: TikTok is asking for more than $1.4M for top view ads in Q3 and $1.8M in Q4, a significant increase YoY, and forecasts ~$40B in global ad sales in 2021
Bloomberg
4:55 PM
US launches a task force to develop plans for sharing records on health, driving, demographics, and more with AI researchers while addressing privacy concerns
Wall Street Journal
4:10 PM
Chinese ride-hail company Didi Chuxing files for a US IPO, reports a $1.7B loss on $21.6B in revenue for 2020
Axios
3:55 PM
Apple has hired Ulrich Kranz, who ran the development teams for the BMW i3 and i8 and co-founded self-driving electric vehicle startup Canoo
Bloomberg
3:45 PM
Apple demos passkeys, to let users set up accounts with just Face ID or Touch ID, joining Microsoft and Google in advocating for passwordless authentication
CNET
3:05 PM
Sources: Intel offered to acquire SiFive, which designs chips that are based on the RISC-V architecture, for more than $2B
Bloomberg
3:00 PM
In an internal memo, Amazon adjusts return-to-office guidance and says it will allow corporate employees to work remotely up to two days per week
GeekWire
2:50 PM
US DOJ says it seized the servers and domains of SlilPP, a marketplace for stolen login credentials, in a joint operation with Germany, Netherlands, and Romania
The Record
2:25 PM
GameStop says revenue rose 25% to $1.28B and net loss narrowed to $66.8M in Q1, as it tries to stage a turnaround partially fueled by a Redditor-led stock rally
CNBC
1:55 PM
A look at the ruthless Eastern European ransomware gang Ryuk, which hit 235+ US hospitals since 2018 and collected an estimated $100M in ransom last year
Wall Street Journal
1:20 PM
Cerebral, which provides counseling, medication, and other mental health services through an app, raises $127M led by Access Industries at a $1.23B valuation
Bloomberg
1:10 PM
Facebook adds Venmo-like QR codes to Messenger for peer-to-peer payments in the US, alongside a new quick reply bar and other updates
TechCrunch
1:00 PM
Online wholesale marketplace Faire, aimed at small retailers and brands, raises $260M led by Sequoia Capital at a $7B valuation
Reuters
12:45 PM
Dark Sky, acquired by Apple last year, says it will shut down its API and iOS and web apps at the end of 2022, after Apple announced an updated Weather app
MacRumors
12:40 PM
Twitter says it will add a newsletter subscribe button to user profiles in the coming weeks, available to those with a Revue account; Twitter will take a 5% cut
Mashable
12:35 PM
Israeli startup Glassbox, which provides automated tools to optimize web and mobile apps, raises $100M in its Tel Aviv IPO, valuing it at ~$500M
Bloomberg
12:30 PM
Amazon plans a $12M workplace safety initiative with the National Safety Council to study musculoskeletal disorders stemming from injuries in its warehouses
Washington Post
12:25 PM
Workplace collaboration company Monday.com raises $574M in its IPO, after selling shares for $155, valuing it at $6.8B; Salesforce and Zoom both invested $75M
Bloomberg
12:20 PM
Sources: House Democrats will introduce five bills to limit anticompetitive practices of Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and others as soon as this week
Politico
12:15 PM
Netflix launches an online store with Shopify, featuring merch tied to its shows, expanding its retail business which includes deals with Walmart and others
New York Times
12:02 PM
EA confirms that it has suffered a data breach, after hackers claim they have 780GB of data, including source code for FIFA 21 and the Frostbite engine
VICE
11:55 AM
Apple announces StoreKit 2, simplifying App Store subscriptions and refunds by making them accessible inside apps
TechCrunch
11:40 AM
Homebrew's Satya Patel and Hunter Walk team up with 8 VCs to launch Screendoor, a $50M fund to back up to 15 underrepresented investors raising their first fund
Forbes
11:15 AM
Clip, a Mexican mobile payments startup targeting SMBs, raises $250M from SoftBank's Latin American fund and Viking Global, at a valuation of $2B
Bloomberg
11:05 AM
Deliveroo is partnering with Neighbourhood Watch in the UK to offer training to its couriers to keep an eye out for crimes
BBC
11:00 AM
Google researchers detail an AI system that outperforms humans in designing floorplans for microchips, promising better and more rapidly produced chip designs
Nature
10:55 AM
Ledger, best known for its Nano series of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, raises $380M Series C at a valuation of $1.5B
Decrypt
10:45 AM
Central banks of Switzerland and France trial Europe's first cross-border digital currency payments, focusing on the bank-to-bank wholesale lending market
Reuters
10:30 AM
Prefect, whose dataflow automation service allows companies to streamline workflows and schedule when apps run, raises $32M Series B led by Tiger Global
Crunchbase News
10:25 AM
Alexis Ohanian's new VC firm Seven Seven Six raises $150M for its first fund and says it targeted a base of 50% women and 15% Black or indigenous investors
Forbes
10:10 AM
Sources: an EU regulator is proposing sanctioning Amazon's privacy practices with a fine of $425M+, which could yield the biggest GDPR fine yet
Wall Street Journal
10:05 AM
NMPA files a $200M lawsuit against Roblox for alleged music copyright infringement, and launches a “major ramp-up” of its takedown campaign against Twitch
Engadget
9:45 AM
Coinbase teams up with 401(k) provider ForUsAll to let employees at participating companies invest up to 5% of their 401(k) contributions in cryptocurrency
Wall Street Journal
9:30 AM
Stripe launches Stripe Tax, which will provide automatic, updated sales tax calculations and related accounting services to customers in US and ~30 countries
TechCrunch
9:20 AM
Microsoft says it will soon launch a dedicated device for game streaming and is working with TV manufacturers to expand Xbox Game Pass subscription to smart TVs
Protocol
9:15 AM
Samsung unveils a 50-megapixel sensor with pixels just 0.64μm in size, the smallest in the industry, that it says can be used in ultrawide or telephoto modules
The Verge
9:10 AM
Klarna raises $639M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $45.6B post-money valuation, up 47.3% from its $31B valuation in early March when it raised $1B
TechCrunch
8:50 AM
Google plans to change its search algorithm to prevent sites that extort people to remove slanderous content from appearing in search results for people's names
New York Times
8:35 AM
French startup Yousign, a DocuSign-rival that provides an e-signature service targeting European SMBs, raises €30M Series A led by Lead Edge Capital
TechCrunch
8:20 AM
EU says there were 304 malicious attacks against “critical sectors” in 2020, more then double the 146 recorded in 2019, with a 47% rise in attacks on hospitals
CNN
8:05 AM
Tata Digital says it is acquiring a majority stake in Indian online pharmacy startup 1mg; source: Tata acquired about 55% stake at a valuation of around $450M
TechCrunch
7:45 AM
Red Date Technology, the developer behind China's BSN, or Blockchain-based Service Network, raises 30M Series A led by Kenetic Capital and Prosperity7
The Block
7:20 AM
Eightfold AI, which uses AI to help companies find, recruit, and retain workers, raises $220M Series E led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $2.1B valuation
TechCrunch
6:40 AM
China says its police have arrested 1,100+ people on crypto-related money laundering charges amid a nationwide crackdown on activities related to telecom fraud
CoinDesk
3:03 AM
Mythical Games raises $75M Series B led by WestCap Group for developing a platform for “playable NFTs” where player-owned game avatars can be bought and sold
VentureBeat
12:50 AM
Sources: UK's competition watchdog is planning a formal investigation into Amazon, mirroring the EU probe, over how it uses the data it collects
Financial Times
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
11:10 PM
Twitter names new board member to replace Elliott Management's Jesse Cohn, who was appointed to the board in March 2020 as part of a deal to keep Dorsey as CEO
Reuters
9:30 PM
Jakarta-based BukuWarung, which offers digital payments and a Shopify-like e-commerce platform for SMBs, raises $60M Series A led by Valar and Goodwater Capital
TechCrunch
9:10 PM
Hawthorne Effect, which offers a cloud-based clinical trials platform, raises $20M Series A led by Northpond Ventures, bringing its total funding to $24M
FierceBiotech
8:00 PM
JBS says it paid an $11M ransom in bitcoin to resolve an attack last week; the payment was made after most plants were operational to avoid further disruption
Wall Street Journal
6:45 PM
Metadata for Apple's WWDC keynote YouTube video includes terms such as “m1x” and “M1X MacBook Pro”
The Verge
6:25 PM
In its June batch of patches, Microsoft announced fixes for 50 flaws, including seven zero-days, six of which have been exploited in the wild
BleepingComputer
5:20 PM
Payment processing startup Marqeta's shares closed up 13% in its NASDAQ debut Wednesday, after raising $1.2B in its IPO, valuing the company at ~$16B
CNBC
4:10 PM
Founders of Fanhouse, an OnlyFans-like platform, say Apple is demanding they start paying “30% of creator earnings” by August or be removed from the App Store
The Verge
3:30 PM
A vicious cycle of surveillance and overwork is leading to extreme mental stress and fatigue, pushing China's tech workers to the limit and causing backlash
Nikkei Asia
1:32 PM
Sources: Facebook is planning to launch its first smartwatch, featuring a detachable display with two cameras and a heart rate monitor, next summer
The Verge
1:25 PM
Sources: under pressure from an Amazon-led group, Senate's China-focused bill left out consumer protections to make marketplaces authenticate 3rd-party sellers
Washington Post
1:20 PM
In an email to podcasters, Apple says Podcasts Subscriptions will launch globally on June 15, after postponing a planned launch in May
The Verge
1:15 PM
Several macOS Monterey features will not come to Intel Macs, like Live Text within photos, FaceTime's Portrait mode, and unlimited, on-device keyboard dictation
MacRumors
1:10 PM
Mark Zuckerberg says all employees can request to work remotely full-time if their job allows, office-based staff will need to be in 50%+ of the time, and more
CNBC
12:55 PM
Facebook says global ads chief Carolyn Everson is leaving after more than a decade; Everson was a liaison to big marketers during major controversies
CNBC
12:50 PM
Many young TikTok stars describe burning out as they struggle with mental health and the algorithm's volatility, years after waves of burnout on other platforms
New York Times
11:55 AM
Data analytics startup Amplitude raises $150M led by Sequoia Capital at a $4B valuation, up from $1B last year
Bloomberg
11:45 AM
MaintainX, which develops mobile tools for industrial and frontline workers, raises $50M across $11M Series A in 2019 and $39M Series B in 2021
Crunchbase News
11:25 AM
Sources: Sequoia Capital is considering changing how it distributes investment returns in a bid to avoid tax increases proposed by Biden's administration
Bloomberg
11:15 AM
How modern ransomware attacks work and a breakdown of their double extortion tactics, using the Nefilim ransomware as a case study
Trend Micro
10:55 AM
Start-Up Nation: Israeli startups have raised $10.5B so far this year, already surpassing 2020's record, with 30 rounds raising $100M+, up from 21 last year
Bloomberg
10:45 AM
End-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail launches a design refresh, offering a clearer look and customizable UI, after passing 50M global users in May
TechCrunch
10:40 AM
Instagram's Adam Mosseri says Facebook plans to help creators avoid Apple's 30% cut by “facilitating transactions that happen in other places”
CNBC
10:30 AM
Research: cost per click for Amazon search ads was $1.16 in May, up from $0.75 YoY; eMarketer says Amazon's ad revenue in the US will cross $20B this year
Bloomberg
10:25 AM
Solana Labs, which wants to develop a blockchain that is faster and cheaper than Ethereum, raises $314.15M in a private token sale led by a16z and Polychain
The Block
10:15 AM
PE firm Carlyle acquires London-based 1e, which helps companies enable hybrid working and manage endpoints, for $270M
TechCrunch
10:10 AM
Biden signs an EO revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat and says his commerce secretary will investigate any risks to national security and privacy
The Verge
9:55 AM
Sources: Amazon and US delivery app Gopuff explored competing takeover bids for Berlin-based grocery delivery app Flink, which raised $240M last week
Bloomberg
9:50 AM
Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti review: much faster than the 2070 Super, better memory performance than the 3070, but runs hotter than 3070 and faster 3080 is only $100 more
Engadget
9:35 AM
ChartHop, which helps companies create org charts and analyze their staff data, raises $35M Series B led by a16z, sources say at a $300M-$400M valuation
TechCrunch
9:20 AM
Google is building a subsea cable called Firmina, after a Brazilian abolitionist, to handle data surge between US, Brazil, and Argentina, due to launch by 2023
CNET
9:10 AM
Fastly, which was hit by a major outage on Tuesday, says the problem was caused by a bug that was triggered by a customer configuring their service
Associated Press
8:50 AM
Contentstack, which offers a headless content management system, raises $57.5M Series B led by Insight Partners, bringing its total raised to $89M
TechCrunch
8:35 AM
In iOS 15 and macOS Monterey betas, Apple has quietly included a new audio feature called Spatialize Stereo that simulates Spatial Audio for non-Dolby content
MacRumors
8:20 AM
Privacy-focused Vivaldi 4.0 browser launches with built-in email and calendar clients, RSS reader, and a translator service hosted on the company's own servers
TechCrunch
8:05 AM
SoftBank is launching its diversity-focused Emerge accelerator in Europe, in partnership with SpeedInvest and other VC investors
CNBC
7:55 AM
Sinch acquires MessageMedia, which provides SMS and other messaging services for businesses, for $1.3B, to compete with Twilio in business SMS services
TechCrunch
7:40 AM
DoorDash launches in Japan, marking the company's first foray into Asia, starting in Sendai, a city north of Tokyo with a population of ~1M
Financial Times
7:30 AM
Bangalore-based Refyne, which works with employers to let workers access their earned salaries in real-time, raises $16M Series A after a $4.1M seed in Dec.
TechCrunch
7:10 AM
Scalable Capital, a Germany-based neo-broker and wealth management service, raises $180M Series E led by Tencent at a $1.4B valuation
Sifted
6:45 AM
An inside look at how Google's Ethical AI team fell apart following the contentious departure of Timnit Gebru and then Margaret Mitchell
Wired