Techmeme: Kettle, a reinsurance startup that uses ML modeling on weather, satellite imagery, and other datasets to predict climate change risks, raises a $25M Series A (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

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November 21, 2021, 12:45 AM

Top News

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:

Investigation shows how Facebook and Google fund misinformation globally by paying millions of dollars in ad revenue to the operators of clickbait pages — A month after the fall of the democratic government. — In 2015, six of the 10 websites in Myanmar getting the most engagement …

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

The Apple Podcasts app's review score went from 1.8 to 4.6 stars after Apple began prompting users for ratings, confusing some into rating individual podcasts — Apple Podcasts rises above bad reviews, but at what cost? — You pissed off people by somewhat breaking your app, and they're leaving angry reviews.

More: ScreenRant, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, and MacRumors

Tweets: @keleftheriou, @keleftheriou, @bohemiancoast, @hbkirb, @timsweeneyepic, @sub8u, @davewiner, @starfire2258, @slightlylate, @keleftheriou, and @keleftheriou

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

A voter turnout group says Facebook served 36.8% of their conversion ads to iOS users after Apple's ATT change, down from 63.6% — Tatenda Musapatike is as familiar as anyone with the way Facebook's political ad system works. During the 2016 election and the 2018 midterms …

More: The Voter Formation Project and Insider

Tweets: @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, @kingjen, @saramorrison, and @saramorrison

See also Mediagazer

Matt O'Brien / Associated Press:

NY city council passed a bill that bans employers from using AI hiring tools unless a yearly bias audit shows they won't discriminate based on race or gender — Job candidates rarely know when hidden artificial intelligence tools are rejecting their resumes or analyzing their video interviews.

More: Engadget, Associated Press, Morning Brew, Axios, Newsweek, and The National Law Review

Tweets: @re_sieber, @john_j_howard, @cendemtech, @mattoyeah, @cendemtech, and @fbajak

Ben Lang / Road to VR:

Japan-based VR startup Hikky raises a $57M Series A led by NTT Docomo to expand its web-based virtual events platform Vket Cloud — Japanese social VR startup HIKKY announced today that it has raised ¥6.5 billion (~$57 million), led by Japanese mobile network operator NTT Docomo.

More: Business Wire and Forbes

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

Ultraleap, which develops ultrasound-based hand tracking tech and touchless interfaces for VR/XR headsets, raises an $82M Series D from Tencent and others — It was way back in 2017 that the company that became Ultraleap (Ultrahaptics, as weas) demonstrated at TechCrunch Disrupt a technology …

Source: PR Newswire and Media4growth. More: Auganix.org, eeNews Europe, Virtual Reality Times, Sixteen:Nine, University of Bristol, and Road to VR. Tweets: @mikebutcher

Conor Hale / FierceBiotech:

France-based Owkin, which helps medical researchers build and train AI models, raises $180M from pharmaceuticals company Sanofi — Artificial intelligence developer Owkin scored a major collaboration with Sanofi to help bring its digital clinical research platform to bear …

More: Sanofi, pharmaphorum.com, Reuters, and MedCity News

Tweets: @eithealth and @jarditi

Casey Newton / Platformer:

Twitter's AI ethics researchers on getting public feedback about algorithmic bias, why responsible AI is hard, why they think algorithms can be saved, and more — While other tech giants hide from their internal researchers, Twitter is doing its failing — and fixing — in public

Tweets: @hkanji, @platformer, @jackbandy, @sherryaske, @tanit, and @caseynewton

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Executives at Disney, Qualcomm, Coinbase, and other companies tried to weave their unrelated businesses into the metaverse discussion on their Q3 earnings calls — - The concept of the metaverse is still vague. — That didn't stop dozens of executives from speaking about their metaverse strategies.

Tweets: @sherman4949, @markhachman, @mayhem4markets, @sherman4949, and @sherman4949

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Kettle, a reinsurance startup that uses ML modeling on weather, satellite imagery, and other datasets to predict climate change risks, raises a $25M Series A — One of the most noticeable — and noted — effects of climate change has been its impact on how other events in the environment …

Tweets: @ourkettle, @alitamaseb, @trueventures, @acrewcapital, and @homebrew

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

Sao Paulo-based social commerce marketplace Facily raises a $250M Series D at an $850M valuation, bringing its total funding to $366M — Facily, a São Paulo-based social commerce marketplace, has quietly raised over $366 million in funding across four different rounds over the last year.

More: The Information. Tweets: @ruima, @turnernovak, @bayareawriter, @bayareawriter, and @mfriedrichark

Kelly Crow / Wall Street Journal:

ConstitutionDAO, which crowdfunded over $40M, loses Sotheby's US Constitution auction to a $43.2M bid from Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin — The 53-year-old billionaire paid $43.2 million for the historic document, plans to lend it to Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas

More: Bloomberg, New York Times, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, PYMNTS.com, Kotaku, Axios, TechCrunch, VICE, Protocol, Forbes, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Block, Quartz, Slashdot, Washington Post, Nexo.io Blog, CNET, Coinspeaker, Blockchain News, Protocol, Cryptonews, and Bitcoinist.com

Tweets: @constitutiondao, @sothebys, @sinakian1, @jchervinsky, @rsarver, @nischalshetty, @iamdcinvestor, @alexrkonrad, @cdixon, @cdixon, @0xmakesy, @joemccann, @scottmelker, @joshelman, @carnage4life, @matt_levine, @grimezsz, @dbreunig, @levie, @cwarzel, @jason_koebler, @katiedrumm, @mulligan, @caseynewton, @kevinroose, @noupside, @alexisohanian, @chuckrossdc, @brycent_, @tomgara, @shanegoldmacher, @matt_kohrs, @austen, @willoremus, @matt_kohrs, @apompliano, @jeffjohnroberts, @cnbcnow, @pt, @pbump, @trungtphan, @tomfgoodwin, @steven_ehrlich, @kellycrowwsj, @shiraeis, @katies, @niubi, @cathsimard_, @jason_koebler, @adriyoung, @penllawen, @kevinroose, @bigmagicdao, @mdudas, @riptari, @basedlemahieu, @drgonzo123, @dlberes, @litcapital, @sub8u, @dalmaer, @ishverduzco, @tanayj, @autismcapital, @twitchpluto, @omarabdelb, and @eladgil

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”; earlier CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump

Lorcan Lovett / Nieman Reports:

A look at the state of independent media in Myanmar, which lost US and Swedish funding this year and where subscriptions aren't a dependable source of revenue

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More News

Dan Ennis / Banking Dive:

Berlin-based neobank N26, which was recently valued at $9B, to exit the US on January 11 after over two years, following its UK departure in April 2020

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @sub8u

Maria Volkova / HousingWire:

nCino, which develops a cloud-based operating system for financial institutions, to acquire mortgage tech vendor SimpleNexus for $1.2B, including $240M in cash

More: WilmingtonBiz, Insider, National Mortgage …, and Finextra. Tweets: @jrichlive

Steve Knopper / Billboard:

Profile of Berlin-based Ableton, whose music production software changed the way recordings are produced and how DJs perform by eliminating cumbersome equipment

Tweets: @henrikberggren, @mattetti, @brigidnz, @markkilborn, and @edmacovaz

Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:

SoundHound, which offers voice AI tech to companies like Mercedes-Benz, Snap, and Mastercard, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$2.1B valuation

Source: Business Wire. More: Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, TheStreet, Benzinga, and Silicon Valley Business …

Reuters:

JD.com warns of weak China consumption demand in the second half of its fiscal year, after reporting a 25.5% YoY rise in net Q3 revenue to ~$34B

More: Benzinga, Barron's Online, KrASIA, and TheStreet

Zoe Schiffer / NBC News:

In a note to 80,000 hourly and salaried US employees, Apple affirms their right to discuss working conditions and pay, internally and externally

More: Gizmodo, Reuters, Engadget, CNN, Insider, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @bobpickard, @oilyraincloud, @wndu, @veenadubal, @lazerwalker, @mikeycampbell81, @ashleygjovik, and @ashleygjovik

Earlier Picks

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:

The US DOJ says Iranian hackers breached a media company in fall 2020 and tested how to create false news content; sources say Lee Enterprises was targeted

More: U.S. Department of Justice, HuffPost, CNBC, Bloomberg, CyberScoop, Tech Policy Press, PCMag, New York Post, Threatpost, Dark Reading, and The Hacker News

Tweets: @fbi, @justinhendrix, @dnvolz, and @emilybell