Techmeme: Toronto-based Lendified, an online lender offering small business loans of up to $150K available within 48 hours, raises $15M Series A (Meagan Simpson/BetaKit)

Top News

Zak Doffman / Forbes:

Report: CIA shared intelligence with US allies showing Huawei received funding from Chinese security and intelligence agencies and the People's Liberation Army — In the battle between Washington and Huawei, there has long been the taunt from Shenzhen that U.S. officials have failed to produce …

Source: The Times & The Sunday Times. More: Reuters, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, The Times & The Sunday Times, Business Insider, Daily Mail, The Hill, Axios, USA Today, and Slashdot

Tweets: @w7voa, @yannikouts, @emilybell, and @1br0wn

Rachel Becker / The Verge:

Researchers: 33 of 36 apps for depression or smoking cessation shared data with third-parties and 2 apps shared very sensitive info, like health diary entries — ‘Do I trust the person who made the app, and do I understand where this data is going?’ — Free apps marketed to people …

More: Engadget. Tweets: @verge

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

The French Government officially launches Tchap, its own messaging app with end-to-end encryption, after patching a security flaw found upon initial release — The French government just launched its own messaging app called Tchap in order to protect conversations from hackers, private companies and foreign entities.

More: ZDNet, Forbes, Security Affairs, ResearchBuzz, Elliot Alderson, The Hacker News, and Slashdot

Tweets: @datenfresser, @campuscodi, @fs0c131y, and @zackwhittaker

Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:

Research paper argues that Facebook increased user surveillance as its competitors exited the market, makes the case for antitrust action against the company — In 2017, a 28-year-old law student named Lina Kahn turned the antitrust world on its ear with her Yale Law Review paper …

More: Institute for New …. Tweets: @livingstone_s, @braveneweurope1, @gf_polizzi, @r0h1n, and @ineteconomics

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

HipChat co-founders raise $3M in seed funding for Swoot, a social podcast app that lets users recommend podcasts and see what their friends are listening to — Pete Curley and Garret Heaton, who previously co-founded team chat app HipChat and sold it to Atlassian, are officially launching their new product Swoot today.

The Information:

Sources: Qualcomm's joint venture with Guizhou province on a server chip plant will be shut down; Qualcomm and the province spent $570M on the plant since 2016 — A joint venture between Qualcomm and the government of a rural Chinese province to make server chips will wind down by the end of the month …

More: Reuters

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

SiriusXM launches SiriusXM Essential, an $8/month streaming only plan for mobiles and smart speakers that gives access to 200+ channels — SiriusXM wants to cater consumers without cars, or cars without compatible stereos, with a new $8 plan for mobile and in-home listening.

More: The Verge, Engadget, and Mashable

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Autonomous car startup Pony.ai launches PonyPilot, a pilot ride-hailing service for its employees within a 50 square kilometer area in Guangzhou, China — Guangzhou, China-based self-driving startup Pony.ai is joining an exclusive club of companies that have launched autonomous ride-hailing programs.

Tweets: @jeroenbartelse

Meagan Simpson / BetaKit:

Toronto-based Lendified, an online lender offering small business loans of up to $150K available within 48 hours, raises $15M Series A — Lendified, a Toronto-based FinTech, announced today that it has closed a $15 million CAD Series A funding round, in order to continue its growth within Canada.

More: Crowdfund Insider and PYMNTS.com

Yomi Kazeem / Quartz:

Serena Williams reveals Serena Ventures, a fund she founded in 2014 that has backed 30 startups so far across e-commerce, fashion, and social good — Andela, the developer training and outsourcing company with operations in four African countries, already has a high-powered roll call …

More: The Daily Hodl, GiveMeSport, SportTechie, iAfrikan, PE Hub Blog, and Messari Crypto

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

GM's Cruise execs talk about the autonomous driving unit's history, its progress and plans, internal development tools they use, and more — According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025. Meanwhile, Research and Markets is predicting …

More: Digital Trends

Karsten Schmehl / BuzzFeed News:

Research: some WhatsApp group users are spreading Nazi propaganda through stickers and chain letters in Germany, where local laws forbid the use of Nazi imagery — BERLIN — German WhatsApp users are spreading far-right propaganda through the use of stickers and chain letters but the company …

More: The Local and ResearchBuzz

Tweets: @raju, @buzzfeednews, @sunnysingh_n6, and @miriamelder

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