Bookmarks (984)

Katie Adams / MedCity News: New York-based Tomorrow Health, whose data-driven marketplace matches patients with home-based care suppliers, has raised a $60M Series B led by BOND  —  Tomorrow Health — a platform that makes it easier for patients, providers and payers to coordinate home-based care …

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: Kaspersky researchers discovered malware used in the wild since March 2021 to backdoor Microsoft Exchange servers of government and military orgs worldwide  —  Attackers used a newly discovered malware to backdoor Microsoft Exchange servers belonging to government and military organizations from Europe …

Michael Sheetz / CNBC: The FCC authorizes SpaceX to provide Starlink satellite internet to vehicles in motion, including commercial airlines, shipping vessels, and trucks  —  - The Federal Communications Commission authorized SpaceX to provide Starlink satellite internet to vehicles in motion, a key step for Elon Musk's company to further expand the service.

Reuters: Google settles a lawsuit by agreeing in part to pay $90M in a fund to support US app developers who made $2M or less in annual Play Store revenue from 2016-2021  —  Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a legal fight with app developers over the money …

Manya Saini / Reuters: Short-form video app Triller confidentially files for a US IPO, after ending its $5B merger with video ad software provider SeaChange on June 14  —  Short video app Triller Inc has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering of its class A common stock with the U.S. Securities …

Prarthana Prakash / Bloomberg: Uber received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct in 2019 and 2020, down 38% from 2017 and 2018, but the rate of fatal physical assaults rose 18%  —  Uber Technologies Inc. said it received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct across five categories on its ride-hailing app …

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: As avatars for metaverse applications grow in popularity, a look at Understanding Comics, a 30-year-old illustrated lecture considered an avatar design bible  —  First published 30 years ago, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is the definitive comic book about comic books.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Meta says Instagram is testing a change that turns video posts into Reels with select users, as part of efforts to “simplify and improve the video experience”  —  Instagram is testing a change that turns video posts into Reels, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: Gene Levoff, a former lawyer at Apple, pleads guilty to insider trading; he allegedly traded ahead of quarterly earnings from 2011 to 2016 and was fired in 2018  —  The former top corporate lawyer at Apple Inc (AAPL.O) pleaded guilty on Thursday to insider trading charges …

Maria Heeter / The Information: Source: eToro and the SPAC company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the June 30 deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal  —  Online brokerage EToro and the special purpose acquisition company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the deadline …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: April, which personalizes and autofills tax filings by using AI to analyze tax code, raised a $30M Series A led by Treasury, bringing its total funding to $40M  —  Most Americans dread doing their taxes.  Surveys show as much.  But as many as 40% rely on money from tax refunds to satisfy some financial obligation.

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Raspberry Pi announces the Pico W, a $6 microcontroller equipped with an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, powered by an Infineon CYW43439 chip with Bluetooth disabled  —  It's the Pico, but it knows about the network  —  Raspberry Pi has introduced a successor to last year's Pico …

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: Zoom is returning to its business software roots to revive growth, after two years of trying to monetize consumers, many of whom stick with free 40-minute calls  —  Zoom Video Communications Inc. is navigating life after the pandemic by acting like the past two years never happened.

Danny Nelson / CoinDesk: CFTC charges South Africa-based bitcoin pool operator Mirror Trading International with a $1.7B fraud, in its “largest ever fraud scheme case involving bitcoin”  —  MTI's self-described CEO was recently detained in Brazil on an Interpol warrant, the regulator said.

Katie Paul / Reuters: Internal memo: Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox expects “slower growth” in H2 2022 and “teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets”  —  (Reuters) - Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc is bracing for a leaner second half of the year …

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch: India-based GetVantage, which uses AI to offer revenue-based capital of between $10K to $500K to startups, has raised $36M, bringing its total funding to $40M  —  Some SMEs don't want to get (or have access to) equity funding, but also want to stay away from high-interest bank loans.

Ari Notis / Kotaku: Unity is laying off over 200 people, or 4% of its workforce, two weeks after the CEO said at an all-hands meeting that there won't be any layoffs  —  Management at the company behind the free game development engine has been a ‘shit show’ recently, sources say

Jeanne Whalen / Washington Post: A Taiwanese minister and TSMC board member urges US Congress to pass the Chips Act, saying the pace of building TSMC's Arizona chip factory depends on subsidies  —  The island's TSMC has started building a semiconductor factory in Arizona and is training engineers, but the pace of construction depends …

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: London-based Shop Circle, which offers merchants a one-stop shop for e-commerce software, emerges from stealth with $65M in funding led by NFX and QED Investors  —  The global pandemic ushered in new consumer behavior of shopping online, giving a boost to a U.S. retail e-commerce industry likely …

Financial Times: Officials in Zhengzhou, China used the smartphone location tracking-based health code system to stop 1,000+ depositors from protesting over failing rural banks  —  More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, everyday life for most of China's 1.4bn citizens hinges on the colour of a health code on a smartphone app.

Sam Kim / Bloomberg: South Korea's chip stockpile has jumped 53.4% YoY in May, the most in more than four years, suggesting a slowdown in demand for memory chips  —  South Korea's chip stockpiles increased by the most in more than four years, suggesting a slowdown in demand for memory chips used in electronics worldwide.

Joyce Lee / Reuters: Samsung begins mass production of 3nm chips touting a 45% reduction in power usage, a 16% smaller surface area, and 23% better performance compared to 5nm chips  —  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Thursday it has begun mass producing chips with advanced 3-nanometre technology …

Meir Orbach / CTech: Tel Aviv-based Cyolo, maker of zero trust security tech enabling secure connection to workplaces, has raised a $60M Series B, bringing its total raised to $85M  —  The Israeli startup helps organizations in the IT and OT spaces to enable all users, including employees, third parties …

Aisha Counts / Protocol: Google Workspace head Javier Soltero, who managed Google's productivity and collaboration tools including Gmail and Meet, is leaving the company on July 15  —  Javier Soltero is leaving Google Workspace, Google Cloud President Thomas Kurian announced Wednesday in an email to staff viewed by Protocol.

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: Grayscale Investments sues the US SEC after the agency rejected its application on Wednesday to convert its flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust product to an ETF  —  The SEC rejected Grayscale's application to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to an exchange-traded fund earlier Wednesday.

Moneycontrol: Sources: Byju's has laid off 1,500+ staff from Toppr and WhiteHat Jr, two companies it acquired in the past two years, and ~1,000 from its core operations teams  —  Byju's has laid off full-time and contractual employees from Toppr, WhiteHat Jr, and its core team across sales and marketing, operations, content and design teams

CoinDesk: Sources: digital asset trading firm Genesis is potentially facing “hundreds of millions” of dollars in losses, partly through exposure to 3AC and Babel Finance  —  The DCG-owned trading colossus is said to have suffered nine-figure losses partly through exposure to Three Arrows Capital and Babel Finance.

Wall Street Journal: Researchers say some businesses are exaggerating AI's capabilities, brewing misunderstanding and distorting policymakers' views of AI's power and fallibility  —  Google, Meta and OpenAI are investing heavily in the technology, which is increasingly capturing the public imagination

Bloomberg: EU lawmakers provisionally agree on anti-laundering rules for crypto, requiring verified customer identities for transfers between regulated digital wallets  —  The European Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement to force crypto providers to provide identifying information …

Sam Biddle / The Intercept: Docs: Coinbase is selling features of its intelligence-gathering tool Coinbase Tracer to ICE, letting ICE track crypto transactions including bitcoin and ether  —  Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, is selling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement a suite …

Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal: Hypercasual video games, with simple gameplay and low-stakes challenges, are getting more sophisticated as studios struggle to retain monetizable players  —  Mobile games that require little brainpower to play are becoming more sophisticated as their publishers try to cling on to fickle—and monetizable—players

Ashley Gold / Axios: Filing: Google asks the US FEC to green light a program that would exempt campaign-related emails from spam; GOP alleges Gmail unfairly flags its emails as spam  —  Google has asked the Federal Election Commission to green light a program that could keep campaign emails from ending up in spam folders …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: New Delhi-based Progcap, a digital bank that provides working capital to SMBs, raised a $40M Series C extension at a $600M valuation, up 3x since September 2021  —  Google has invested in Progcap, an Indian startup that provides working capital to small and medium-sized businesses …

Wilfried Eckl-Dorna / Bloomberg: Siemens plans to buy Brightly, a North Carolina-based provider of buildings and infrastructure management software, from Clearlake Capital for $1.58B  —  Siemens AG will buy US firm Brightly Software for $1.58 billion to add digital services for buildings and infrastructure as the German company continues …

Olivia Snow / Wired: How SCOTUS overturning Roe could be used to curb online freedoms and surveil vulnerable populations, as happened to sex workers following FOSTA/SESTA in 2018  —  FOSTA/SESTA—laws that deplatformed sex workers—helped build the gallows for overturning Roe v. Wade.

Allison Johnson / The Verge: T-Mobile launched App Insights, letting marketers target its wireless customers based on apps they have installed and engagement patterns; users can opt out  —  T-Mobile's advertising business is offering a new way for marketers to pry into your app-using habits.

Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch: Sam Bankman-Fried says there are no active talks for FTX to acquire Robinhood; Robinhood says no acquisition can go through without the founders' approval  —  SBF praises Robinhood, hints at possible partnerships  —  Crypto exchange FTX is open to partnering with Robinhood Markets …

Emma Roth / The Verge: Google says Hangouts will shut down in November as it begins prompting mobile Hangouts users to move to Chat  —  It'll start moving mobile Hangouts users to Chat today  —  After sunsetting Google Hangouts for Workspace users in February, Google's now beginning the process of migrating free, personal Hangouts users to Chat.

TechCrunch: Analysis of Stardust period tracking app, the top free app on the US App Store on June 25, shows it shares users' phone numbers with analytics company Mixpanel  —  The app was found sharing users' phone numbers with an analytics firm  —  Period tracking app Stardust surged to the top …

Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News: London-based BNPL startup Hokodo raised a $40M Series B led by Notion Capital, following an £8.8M Series A in June 2021  —  London-based BNPL startup Hokodo has raised $40 million in a Notion Capital-led Series B round, the company announced Monday.  —  Hokodo, which focuses …

Ryan Browne / CNBC: UK regulators investigate Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of money transfer company Wise, after tax authorities alleged he failed to pay a £720K+ tax bill  —  - Wise CEO and co-founder Kristo Kaarmann was recently fined £365,651 by U.K. tax officials for defaulting on his taxes.

Bloomberg: Sources: Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX is exploring an acquisition of Robinhood; Robinhood's stock closes up 14%  —  Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto exchange is exploring whether it might be able to acquire Robinhood Markets Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reports.

Annie Palmer / CNBC: Amazon plans to host two Prime shopping events in a year for the first time, the second one set for Q4 2022, according to a notice sent to third-party merchants  —  - Amazon is planning to hold a “Prime Fall” deal event in the fourth quarter, according to a notice viewed by CNBC.

Samantha Cole / VICE: Stardust's privacy policy said it may share “anonymized, encrypted” data to third parties “whether or not legally required”, before being changed after pushback  —  Stardust Period Tracker was the most-downloaded free app on iOS over the weekend.  —  Samantha Cole

Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal: Amazon's Prime Day shopping event, set for July 12-13, appears to be more low-key than previous years, focused on discounting Amazon-made products  —  Sales growth for the shopping event has slowed as retailer contends with high inflation, consumers' shifting habits and cost cuts

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: A look at Amazon's fight with China-based sellers of generic items trying to game its algorithm to develop Marketplace brands and get the “Amazon's Choice” tag  —  Jeff Bezos wanted to build the ‘everything store’—and now the company is drowning in China-based sellers hawking the same items under a dizzying array of brands

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India's central bank ban on loading non-bank prepaid payment instruments using credit lines has created panic among Indian fintech startups  —  Fintech startups in India have raised over $15 billion from high-profile foreign investors in the past two years.  —  For nearly all fintech startups, lending has long been the end game.

Oscar Hornstein / UKTN: UK online grocer Ocado, which licenses its automated warehouse tech to other brands, raised £578M in a share sale and secured a £300M loan facility from banks  —  British online grocer Ocado has raised £578m from investors on the public markets to fund the development …

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk: Leaked investor call: BlockFi backer Morgan Creek Digital aims to raise $250M to counter FTX's BlockFi bailout, since it could wipe out BlockFi shareholders  —  FTX's $250 million credit facility offer - if inked as initially proposed - stood to effectively wipe out all BlockFi shareholders …

Julie Muhn / Finovate: Detroit-based Autobooks, a payment and accounting service for small businesses, raised a $50M Series C led by Macquarie, bringing its total funding to ~$98M  —  - Autobooks has received $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Macquarie Capital.  — The investment more than doubles …