Bookmarks (12389)

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch: London-based Palta, which develops health and wellness apps, raises $100M Series B led by Per Brillioth at VNV Global  —  Health and wellness apps startup Palta, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Per Brillioth at VNV Global, with the participation of Target Global and other existing and new investors.

Rainey Reitman / Electronic Frontier Foundation: The confusing language in the infrastructure bill's crypto provision suggests that nearly any entity in crypto is a broker and must collect their users' data  —  The forthcoming Senate draft of Biden's infrastructure bill—a 2,000+ page bill designed to update the United States' roads …

Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News: Latin America now has at least 23 unicorns, which collectively have raised $15B+, with 15 raising VC this year; 40% of all VC funding in 2020 went into fintech  —  Startup investors have been putting a whole lot more capital into Latin America for the past couple years.

Simon Sharwood / The Register: Australian court rules AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings, days after South Africa granted a patent in which AI was designated as the inventor  —  IP lawyer says decision is bad because the last thing we need is robot patent trolls  —  An Australian Court has decided …

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch: Novakid, an app that offers online English language classes to kids aged 4-12, raises $35M Series B led by Owl Ventures and Goodwater Capital  —  If you're trying to develop fluency in a non-native tongue, language immersion is a crucial part of the learning process.

Joyce Lee / Reuters: South Korean game developer Netmarble says it will acquire Hong Kong-based SpinX Games, which develops social casino games, for $2.19B  —  SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean game developer Netmarble Corp said on Monday it agreed to buy 100% of Hong Kong-based social casino game company SpinX Games for $2.19 billion.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Twitter partners with Reuters and the AP, who will provide context and highlight links from trusted sources for Trends, Moments, Search, and more  —  Twitter announced today it's partnering with news organizations The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters to expand its efforts focused …

Kim Willsher / The Guardian: The French government found proof of Pegasus malware on three French journalists' phones and has referred its findings to the Paris public prosecutor's office  —  Announcement is first time an independent and official authority has corroborated Pegasus project findings

Taylor Lorenz / New York Times: A look at Fuck You Pay Me, a Glassdoor-like service where creators can review brands they have worked with and share ad rates  —  Fed up with the imbalance between online influencers and brands, Lindsey Lee Lugrin and Isha Mehra created a platform to change that.

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: Microsoft's desktop-as-a-service Windows 365 Cloud PC is generally available and costs between $20 to $162 per user per month, based on cores, RAM, and storage  —  Microsoft's Windows 365 Cloud PC service is now generally available, and pricing is public.  The service will cost users anywhere between $20 …

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: Facebook to require all US on-campus staff to wear masks starting on Aug. 4, regardless of vaccination status, citing rising COVID cases and local regulations  —  - Facebook will begin requiring all of its employees to wear masks when on its campuses in the U.S., regardless of an employee's vaccination status.

Carly Page / TechCrunch: Finite State, a supply chain security startup that helps uncover security flaws in device firmware, lands $30M Series B led by Energize Ventures  —  Columbus, Ohio-based Finite State, a startup that provides supply chain security for connected devices and critical infrastructure, has raised $30M in Series B funding.

Bloomberg: An in-depth look at the political motivations behind China's tech crackdown, as Xi pursues progressive authoritarianism at the expense of international capital  —  Xi Jinping smiled and hinted at a policy bombshell that would soon roil stock markets from Shanghai to New York.

Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo: Google's Rick Osterloh demos Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, which enables real-time object detection and HDR in videos as well as real-time translation and live captions  —  We sat down with Google's phone chief, Rick Osterloh, to see what the Pixel 6 has in store.  —  Alerts

Dieter Bohn / The Verge: Google unveils Pixel 6, with 6.4" 90Hz display, and Pixel 6 Pro, with 6.7" 120Hz display and 4x optical zoom, with a Google-designed Tensor SoC, coming in fall  —  Google's new Tensor SoC is the heart of its next phone  —  Google is announcing the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro today …

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Matrixport, led by Bitmain founder Wu Jihan, which offers crypto financial services, raises $100M+ Series C, and says a second tranche is to come  —  - DST, Tiger are among the latest backers of Wu Jihan's firm  — Matrixport has raised $129 million since its 2019 founding

Greg Ahlstrand / CoinDesk: Square reports Q2 revenue of $4.88B, up 143% YoY, while its Cash App service's bitcoin yearly revenue was $2.72B, up 200%  —  Cash App's bitcoin gross profit rose to $55 million, Square said in its Q2 letter to shareholders.  —  Jack Dorsey's Square said its Cash App service's bitcoin …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Indian online insurance aggregator Policybazaar files for IPO, seeks to raise $809M and says it may raise about $100M in a pre-IPO round  —  Indian online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar has filed for an initial public offering in which it is seeking to raise $809 million …

Brent Lang / Variety: Profile of Netflix's head of movies Scott Stuber, who has grown original film output from 21 in 2016 to 70+ in 2021, as it makes deals with Spielberg and others  —  Two years ago, the legendary director reportedly opposed the idea that streaming films should qualify for Oscars.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Bangalore-based online learning startup Unacademy raises $440M round led by Temasek at a $3.44B valuation  —  Unacademy has raised $440 million in a new financing round as the Indian online learning startup looks to expand into multiple additional categories.

Francis Agustin / Insider: Filings: Starlink has secured a license to build a satellite ground station on the Isle of Man, aiming to provide “blanket coverage” across Great Britain  —  - Elon Musk's Starlink will seek to provide high-speed internet across Great Britain, the Telegraph first reported.

Maya Wolfe-Robinson / The Guardian: Report: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok failed to act on 84% of posts spreading anti-Semitism reported via their own complaint systems  —  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok failing to act on most reported anti-Jewish posts, says study

Reuters: Square says it's buying Australia-based buy now, pay later service Afterpay for $29B in an all-stock deal, paying a 30% premium on Afterpay's last closing  —  U.S. fintech company Square Inc (SQ.N) said on Monday it had agreed to purchase Australian buy now/pay later giant Afterpay Ltd …

Stitch / The Verge: Some K-pop stars are bypassing Twitter and Facebook to create platforms for fans, like Universe, which features AI-generated voice calls with the idols  —  Fandom has changed a lot since I was a kid.  As a tween, I had no hope of getting in touch with celebrities I adored like Britney Spears and Whitney Houston.

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: Zoom agrees to pay $85M and bolster its security practices to settle a class action lawsuit over alleged user privacy violations and Zoombombing  —  Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming …

Kyle Chayka / New Yorker: Profile of Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection that sold for $2M+ in April, spawned a collector community, and has since seen ~$100M in trading activity  —  N.F.T. clubs are all the rage among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.  Are they a get-rich-quick scheme or the future of culture?

Stephen K. Hirst / Ars Technica: How the radical environmental themes of the game Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997 for the original PlayStation, influenced a generation of environmentalists  —  From activists to families, FFVII's cautionary, planetary tale still resonates.  —  In September of 1997 …

John Herrman / New York Times: After a decade of online identities coming under increasingly centralized control, online anonymity is starting to look like a threatened privilege than a right  —  Reconsidering pseudonymity and what it means to “be yourself” online.  —  In early July, when England's soccer team lost …

Stephen Nellis / Reuters: Qualtrics to acquire Virginia-based Clarabridge, which offers AI-powered customer experience management tools, for $1.125B in stock  —  Qualtrics International Inc on Thursday said it would acquire privately held Clarabridge for $1.1 billion in stock.  —  Qualtrics, which was spun …

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: SolCyber, which offers endpoint detection and response services, comes out of stealth with $20M Series A led by ForgePoint Capital  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  SolCyber, a managed security service provider, today emerged from stealth …

Vishal Singh / Silicon Canals: FRISS, which provides automated fraud and risk detection technology for property and casualty insurance companies, raises $65M Series B led by Accel-KKR  —  Dutch and US-based FRISS is a cybersecurity company that focuses completely on automated fraud and risk detection for P&C insurance companies across the world.

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: Replicated, which sells tools that help software makers create and deploy on-premises versions of their applications, raises $50M Series C led by Owl Rock  —  On-premises software delivery company Replicated Inc. is much richer today after grabbing $50 million in a new round of funding.

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Cyolo, which is developing zero trust security tech to enable users to securely access their organization's apps, servers, and files, raises $21M Series A  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  Cyolo, a startup developing a platform …

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Medical imaging startup Exo, which aims to commercialize its AI-powered point-of-care workflow software and handheld ultrasound device, raises $220M Series C  —  Exo, pronounced “echo,” raised a fresh cash infusion of $220 million in Series C financing aimed at commercializing …

Joe Burns / FinLedger: Mercury, which offers banking services to startups, raises $120M Series B, including a $5M allotment for crowdfunding, led by Coatue at a $1.62B valuation  —  Mercury, a company which offers software and banking services for scaling startups, announced raising a $120 million Series B led by Coatue, according to a company blog post.

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes: Rey, which uses VR-based tools powered by OxfordVR to provide on-demand mental health care services, raises $26M Series A, three months after launching  —  Technology can, and should, play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the burgeoning demand for mental health services and limited supply …

Molly Wood / The Atlantic: Microsoft is avoiding antitrust scrutiny by rebranding itself as nice and boring, even as it reverts to some of the behaviors that led to prosecution the '90s  —  How has Microsoft escaped the scrutiny of reinvigorated antitrust regulators?  —  About the author: Molly Wood is the host …

Tatum Hunter / Washington Post: Many viewers are experiencing the Olympics primarily through TikTok, with some of the most-watched videos coming not from NBC but from athletes themselves  —  The Olympics through the lens of TikTok look widely different than TV  —  When NBC's “Today Show” told viewers that gymnast Simone Biles …

Josh Centers / TidBITS: How Apple became an “antifragile” company, by building a diverse portfolio of products and performing even stronger during the pandemic than it did before  —  For over two decades, “APPLE IS DOOMED” was a common refrain in Internet discussions.  Originally, it was meant in a literal sense …

Jaime Llinares Taboada / MarketWatch: UK's CMA launches an inquiry into Facebook's acquisition of Kustomer, investigating whether the deal violates the UK's Enterprise Act 2002  —  The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Friday that it has started a merger investigation into the acquisition by Facebook Inc. of Kustomer Inc.

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times: A look at the debate over Spotify's Discovery Mode, whereby artists are prioritized for reduced royalties, a key way for Spotify to improve margins  —  Executives complain new Discovery Mode is ‘payola’ but one Texas frontman sees it as the future  —  The Josh Abbott Band …

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg: Apple removes Unjected, a social app for “unvaxxed friendly”, citing COVID-19 misinfo; Unjected removed social feed from its Android app after a Google warning  —  A new social app designed as a community for the unvaccinated is testing Google and Apple Inc.'s policies concerning …

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: 48 civil rights and advocacy groups join in asking the FTC to ban corporate facial surveillance technology, continuous corporate surveillance of public space  —  The open letter uses Amazon as a case study to argue that corporate surveillance technologies cause immense harm and fall under the FTC's authority to ban.

Jay Peters / The Verge: Snap says a technical issue has impacted some Snapchat users after ~125K reported problems on Downdetector, adds that it is working on a fix  —  Snap has acknowledged an issue preventing users from logging in  —  Snapchat is experiencing a massive issue as of Thursday evening …

Daniel Estrin / NPR: Source: NSO Group has temporarily blocked several government clients globally from using its technology as the company investigates their possible misuse  —  Israeli spyware company NSO Group has temporarily blocked several government clients around the world from using its technology …

Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge: Amazon Kindle devices with built-in 3G won't be able to download e-books via cellular connection in the US starting in December as carriers switch off 2G and 3G  —  Devices that can't connect to Wi-Fi will be out of luck  —  Amazon's Kindle e-readers with built-in 3G will begin to lose …

Nick Statt / Protocol: A look at the fallout from the Activision Blizzard suit, as the company confirms it fired WoW lead for misconduct last year and hires “union-busting” law firm  —  Activision Blizzard is in crisis mode.  The World of Warcraft publisher was the subject of a shocking lawsuit filed …

Thomas Brewster / Forbes: Profile of Israeli surveillance startup Paragon, funded with $5-10M from US-based Battery, which sources say allows police to hack encrypted messaging apps  —  Paragon Solutions doesn't have a website.  There's very little information at all about them online, even if the Tel Aviv-based …

Jonathan Greig / ZDNet: Researchers detail a never-before-seen attack against Iran's train system and transport ministry from a new threat actor using a reusable wiper called Meteor  —  SentinelOne analysts were able to recreate the July 9 attack and identify the threat actor behind it.

Kieran Leavitt / Toronto Star: Canada proposes the creation of a digital safety commissioner role to oversee violations of new harmful online content rules and issue penalties to platforms  —  The Liberal government has proposed a vast new system that would be tailored to ensure illegal content, such as child pornography and hate-speech …