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Fresno-based Bitwise Industries, which offers training for devs, says it has raised a $27M Series A, one of the largest ever by a Latinx female-led company
Oracle reports Q4 revenue of $11.14B, rising 1% YoY and beating analyst estimates of $10.93B, as its Cloud Services division beats with revenue of $6.8B
Slack reference price set at $26 per share: NYSE
NYSE says Slack's reference price for its direct listing has been set at $26 per share, which would value Slack at $15.7B, per sources
Senate panel says it will hold a hearing on Facebook's Libra on July 16; source: David Marcus, who leads Facebook's blockchain efforts, is expected to testify
Bitrise, which helps companies build and operate mobile apps, raises $20M Series B led by Partech and says it is used by over 100,000 developers globally
Anti-phishing startup Valimail, which develops a cloud-based platform for companies, raises $45M Series C from Insight Partners, bringing total raised to $84M
Israeli facial recognition startup AnyVision adds $31M to its Series A, bringing the round's total to $74M, from Microsoft's M12 and others
How AI and IoT are driving an industrial revolution on the factory floor by improving operational technology, lowering downtime via predictive maintenance, more
Tally, which helps automate consumer financial services, raises $50M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total raised to $92M
Tech companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google are increasingly hiring neuroscientists who study animals to help advance AI, self-driving cars, and more
Apple says its devices can now be repaired in 1,000+ Best Buy locations across the US, expanding on its current network of ~270 Apple stores
Sources: YouTube considering far-reaching changes to protect kids, including moving all children's content to the YouTube Kids app and turning off autoplay
Quibi says it has booked more than $100M in ad sales with launch partners including Google, P&G, Pepsi, Walmart, and Anheuser-Busch, ahead of April 2020 debut
One of Facebook's stated goals with Libra, to help those without a bank, is undermined by detailed research, which shows solutions are often local and personal
Source: Xiaomi plans to spend $725M over three years to boost its Chinese market share, anticipating stronger competition from Huawei following US sanctions
Google's Private Join and Compute gives companies data insights while preserving privacy
Arizona-based smart home automation company SmartRent, which focuses on multifamily property managers and renters, raises $32M Series B led by Bain Capital
Shopify announces a range of new updates, including a new Plus tier for enterprise, new tools for developers, and AI-powered fulfillment centers across the US
venturebeat.com · 6 days ago
Text IQ, a machine learning system that parses and understands sensitive corporate data, raises $12.6M Series A led by FirstMark Capital
Google rolls out Private Join and Compute, a tool that lets organizations gain insights about other parties' confidential data, as an open source project
Cloudflare announces Ethereum Gateway, which makes it easier to interact with Ethereum's network and add interactive smart contract-powered elements to sites
London-based Kano, which makes hardware to teach younger people about computing and coding, partners with Microsoft and launches a £300 11.6" touchscreen laptop
Virginia-based Expel, which offers managed cybersecurity services for companies, raises $40M Series C led by Index Ventures, bringing total raised to ~$70M
UK-based Duffel, which aims to provide an end-to-end travel booking experience, raises $21.5M Series A from Benchmark, Blossom Capital, and Index Ventures
The Facebook-backed Libra Association contains no major banks in its initially announced group of partners
Microsoft launches public preview of Azure Bastion, a service for remotely accessing virtual machines more securely
Microsoft and Salesforce have joined the Hyperledger blockchain consortium, an umbrella project for various business blockchains run by the Linux Foundation
In watchOS 6, many built-in apps will have their own App Store listings, letting Apple Watch users delete and redownload some currently unremovable apps
Paris-based Meero says it has raised $230M for its AI-driven photography platform, giving it a $1B+ valuation; it raised $45M in July and has raised $300M total
Inside Facebook's ambitious plan to make Libra accepted as a global currency, especially for those underserved by banks, despite Facebook's tarnished reputation
Sources: Samsung will launch the Galaxy Note 10 on August 7 at an Unpacked event in New York City
Food ordering app EatStreet discloses breach; hacker Gnosticplayers, who has stolen 1B+ user records from 45 companies this year, claims 6M+ were from EatStreet
While Facebook's Libra plays at decentralization, it is still entrenched in Facebook, and using it means trusting Facebook, which is a hard sell in 2019
GitHub acquires code review company Pull Panda, makes subscriptions free for Pull Reminders and two other services but will discontinue enterprise subscriptions
YouTube unveils AR Beauty Try-On, which lets viewers virtually try on makeup while watching beauty tutorials, currently in testing, coming in summer
Mozilla patches a Firefox zero-day exploit that was discovered by Google's Project Zero and Coinbase's security teams, and it says was being abused in the wild
Adobe beats with Q2 revenue of $2.74B, up 25% YoY, and Digital Media revenue, which includes Creative Cloud and Document Cloud, of $1.89B, up 22% YoY
In response to claims Google lifted lyrics from Genius, Google has asked its lyrics partner to investigate, will soon include 3rd-party attribution on lyrics
Google's Safe Browsing service gets its own Chrome extension, which notifies users of deceptive URLs and lets users report suspicious sites
Chair of the House Financial Services Committee says Facebook should halt development of Libra until Congress investigates, calls on Facebook execs to testify
GoTenna, a mobile mesh networking platform using long range, low bandwidth radio frequencies, raises $24M Series C led by Founders Fund
Sources: Dish may make a $6B+ deal this week for T-Mobile and Sprint assets including spectrum and Sprint's Boost Mobile as the carriers try to get DOJ approval
London-based Zego, which offers flexible insurance policies with pricing based on usage data from vehicles, raises $42M Series B led by Target Global
Palm opens preorders for an unlocked version of its tiny $350 3.2-inch smartphone with Snapdragon 435, expected to ship in the next six to eight weeks
NewtonX, which connects companies with subject matter experts, raises $12M Series A led by Two Sigma Ventures
Amazon's Twitch has acquired social networking platform Bebo, source says for $25M, to bolster its esports business
techcrunch.com · 7 days ago