What's Popular on Techmeme
Tel Aviv-based Komodor, which helps businesses troubleshoot Kubernetes deployments faster, comes out of stealth and raises $21M Series A led by Accel
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
NextNav, a startup developing vertical geolocation tech that locates smartphones in multi-story buildings, will go public via SPAC merger at $1.2B valuation
Slintel, which offers sales intelligence tools for businesses, raises $20M Series A led by GGV Capital
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
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
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.com · 3 days ago
Sources: Intel offered to acquire SiFive, which designs chips that are based on the RISC-V architecture, for more than $2B
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
Sources: Apple has hired Ulrich Kranz in recent weeks to help lead its work on an electric car; Kranz ran development of the BMW i3 and i8
Chinese ride-hail company Didi Chuxing files for a US IPO, reports a $1.7B loss on $21.6B in revenue for 2020
US launches a task force to develop plans for sharing records on health, driving, demographics, and more with AI researchers while addressing privacy concerns
Apple announces StoreKit 2, simplifying App Store subscriptions and refunds by making them accessible inside apps
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
Netflix launches an online store with Shopify, featuring merch tied to its shows, expanding its retail business which includes deals with Walmart and others
nytimes.com · 3 days ago
Sources: House Democrats will introduce five bills to limit anticompetitive practices of Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and others as soon as this week
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
Amazon plans a $12M workplace safety initiative with the National Safety Council to study musculoskeletal disorders stemming from injuries in its warehouses
washingtonpost.com · 3 days ago
Israeli startup Glassbox, which provides automated tools to optimize web and mobile apps, raises $100M in its Tel Aviv IPO, valuing it at ~$500M
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
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
Online wholesale marketplace Faire, aimed at small retailers and brands, raises $260M led by Sequoia Capital at a $7B valuation
Facebook adds Venmo-like QR codes to Messenger for p2p payments in the US, alongside a new Quick Reply bar and other updates
Cerebral, which provides counseling, medication, and other mental health services through an app, raises $127M led by Access Industries at a $1.23B valuation
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
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
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
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
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
Red Date Technology, the developer behind China's BSN, or Blockchain-based Service Network, raises 30M Series A led by Kenetic Capital and Prosperity7
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
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
Sources: UK's competition watchdog is planning a formal investigation into Amazon, mirroring the EU probe, over how it uses the data it collects
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
Hawthorne Effect, which offers a cloud-based clinical trials platform, raises $20M Series A led by Northpond Ventures, bringing its total funding to $24M
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
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
Metadata for Apple's WWDC keynote YouTube video includes terms such as "m1x" and "M1X MacBook Pro"
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
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
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
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.com · 4 days ago
Instagram's Adam Mosseri says Facebook plans to help creators avoid Apple's 30% cut by "facilitating transactions that happen in other places"
cnbc.com · 4 days ago