NFT marketplace LooksRare, which launched on Jan. 10, had $9.5B+ in trading volume, $8.3B+ of which seems to be users “wash trading” between their own wallets — CryptoSlam says the vast majority of the hot NFT marketplace's sales are illegitimate trades made to manipulate the token rewards model.
A look at the fight between six rapid grocery delivery startups in NYC, which raised $5.5B+ since 2020; sources: some are averaging a loss of $20+ per order — Jokr, Getir and Buyk are piling on freebies to build up a customer base in New York City — Since Hayoung Park moved to Manhattan last year …
China launches a pilot in 15 cities and 164 organizations to test the use of blockchain in manufacturing, government data sharing, law enforcement, and more — Some of the key areas of blockchain development include manufacturing, energy, government data sharing and services, law enforcement …
Profile of Ann Lai, who settled a harassment lawsuit against Justin Caldbeck's Binary Capital in 2020, as she talks about her ordeal publicly for the first time — She quit her high-profile job and sounded an alarm about bad behavior in tech—and she was nearly forced from the industry.
Many China-based sellers who were kicked off Amazon for rule violations have turned to Walmart's online marketplace to reach US consumers — Ever since Amazon.com Inc. began kicking tens of thousands of Chinese merchants off its platform last April for faking customer reviews …
An in-depth look at the ongoing patent battle over warehouse automation between Norwegian robotics company AutoStore and UK supermarket giant Ocado — In the village of Nedre Vats, on the edge of a 700m-deep fjord in the west of Norway, there is a white wooden house with a small red barn.
Profile of Susan Headley, an influential hacker of the 1980s, who specialized in social engineering and now leads a quiet life in a large US Midwestern city — She was known, back then, as Susan Thunder. For someone in the business of deception, she stood out: she was unusually tall …
SoftBank confirms COO Marcelo Claure is leaving the company after nine years and names Michel Combes as CEO of SoftBank Group International — - Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group confirmed Friday that its Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure is leaving the company following a nine-year tenure.
Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation — Folk-rock star had over six million monthly listeners on the service, which he blames for spreading fake info about vaccines
Ipsos: Apple News was the most widely used UK news app in December 2021 with 13.2M users and 1.2B minutes spent; BBC News had 12.5M users and 2.2B minutes spent — The Apple News app narrowly beat BBC News to take the spot of most popular news app in the UK in December …
Klarna launches its Visa-based Klarna Card in the UK, expanding on Sweden and Germany where it has 800,000 users; the card includes Klarna's “Pay in 30” feature — - Klarna is launching a physical card in the U.K. that lets users delay payments on their purchases, both in-store as well as online.
Sources: China's state-backed chipmaking company Tsinghua Unigroup has abandoned memory projects in two cities as US sanctions limit access to vital components — TAIPEI/BEIJING — China's state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has scrapped major memory chip projects in two cities as new investors push …
Sources: Amazon has abandoned its much-maligned campaign of paying warehouse employees to share positive messages on social media after embarrassing backfires — Paying warehouse workers to tweet positive comments is dropped after poor reach and embarrassing backfires
Live events service Fever raises $227M led by Goldman Sachs at a $1B+ valuation as it plans an IPO — Live events platform Fever raised $227 million in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a sign that post-pandemic live events can attract investor interest.
Crypto exchange FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, raises $400M at an $8B valuation from Paradigm, SoftBank, and others, its first outside funding — FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, has joined the crypto unicorn club after closing its first-ever fundraising round.
Twitter code shows it is developing Flock, which lets users create tweets for up to 150 close friends, after teasing the feature in July 2021 — Finally, a way to post nudes without your coworkers seeing them. — Twitter is developing a feature called Flock that will allow users to curate …
Sources: Nvidia is planning to abandon its Arm acquisition, as regulators scrutinize the deal; source says SoftBank is preparing an IPO for Arm — Nvidia Corp. is quietly preparing to abandon its purchase of Arm Ltd. from SoftBank Group Corp. after making little to no progress in winning approval …
There will be no bursting bubble, just a deflating balloon of high growth tech stock valuations returning to normal as factors that inflated them go away — Spoiler: the “Bubble” was a Balloon. And it's deflating. — Note: The below all seems fairly obvious, but given the amount …
Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall; Joe Bass, head of software engineering for Apple's car team left — Apple Inc. is nearing its first launch event of the year, with a new iPhone SE and iPad on tap.
Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade — - Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon all announced more acquisitions in 2021 than any other year in the past decade, according to Dealogic.
Analysis: AR and VR startups raised ~$1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR investments with ~$3.9B raised — Although the term metaverse has been around for nearly 30 years—coined in the novel “Snow Crash”—Facebook's name change to Meta …
Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt — Today, Lendis has just announced an €80 million Series A funding round for its SaaS solution that helps companies to set …
Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A — Mumbai: Social investment startup StockGro has raised $32 million led by marquee global investors such as Bitkraft Ventures, General Catalyst …
Nowsta, which runs an on-demand labor marketplace and develops tools to help companies manage their hourly, gig, and flex workers, raises a $41M Series B — Nowsta attracted venture capital for its approach to help employers better engage with their hourly workforces in this increasingly hybrid work environment.
Crowdbotics, which lets users launch React Native and Django apps without having to learn code, raises a $22M combined seed and Series A — Sign up here. — As companies expanded their tech investments during the pandemic, developers became saddled with larger workloads.
Bloomberg : A look at Abu Dhabi-based AI startup G42, as sources say US intelligence officials fixated on CEO Xiao Peng ahead of its Chin...
