Techmeme
June 17, 2020, 9:05 AM

Top News

David Pierce / Protocol:
Shortly after Basecamp debuted its email service, HEY, it says its next iOS app update was rejected because Apple wasn't getting its cut of subscription revenue  —  Right around the time the team at Basecamp was launching their Hey email service to the public on Monday, Zach Waugh …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Mark Zuckerberg / USA Today:
Facebook launches Voting Information Center for accurate election information and tools for voter registration, aims to help register 4M people via its apps  —  The 2020 election is going to be unlike any other.  It was already going to be a heated campaign, and that was before the pandemic …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook and Instagram will allow some US users to turn off political ads starting Wednesday; the feature will roll out to all US users over the next few weeks  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced the social network will allow its users to turn off seeing political ads.
Aaron Holmes / Business Insider:
Google cracks down on The Federalist and ZeroHedge for violating policies on race-related content and may permanently suspend their access to Google Ads revenue  —  - Google is cracking down on two right-wing outlets, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, for violating its policies on race-related content.
Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Graphika report details a Russia-based influence campaign, known as Secondary Infektion, that ran over 6 years and 300 sites, but failed to win a large audience  —  Group known as Secondary Infektion used multiple languages, burner accounts to circumvent attempts to detect it
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Boston Dynamics says Spot, its quadruped robot, is now available to businesses in the US as part of a developer kit for $74,500  —  Boston Dynamics today opened commercial sales of Spot, its quadruped robot that can climb stairs and traverse rough terrain.  Businesses can purchase …
Bloomberg:
Apple's head of diversity and inclusion Christie Smith, who joined Apple in 2017, is leaving  —  - Apple VP of Diversity and Inclusion Smith had joined in 2017  — Company planning $100 million initiative to promote equality  —  Apple Inc.'s head of diversity and inclusion Christie Smith is leaving the iPhone company.
Bloomberg:
Being a Black CEO in Silicon Valley can be humiliating, from being advised to have a white wingman in meetings, to being judged on a different rubric by VCs  —  Will Hayes has grown accustomed to an awkward start to business meetings.  On numerous occasions, venture capitalists would confuse Hayes …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
San Francisco's district attorney sues DoorDash for allegedly misclassifying workers as contractors instead of employees despite California's AB5 law  —  The largest food delivery service in the US is accused of misclassifying workers  —  DoorDash, the high-flying food delivery startup …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Oracle reports Q4 revenue of $10.44B, down 6% YoY, missing expectations of $10.65B, cloud and on-premises license revenue fell 22% to $1.96B  —  - Revenue declined more than the company had predicted in the quarter  — The company won business from video-calling software provider Zoom in the quarter.
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
ConsenSys launches a pilot “staking-as-a-service” tool, with customers including Binance, ahead of proof-of-stake tech being rolled out with Ethereum 2.0  —  Ethereum development house ConsenSys is being backed by heavy hitters like Binance and Huobi to test its new …
Reuters:
Sources: TikTok's owner ByteDance had revenue of ~$5.64B in the January-March quarter, up 130% YoY  —  BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Beijing-based ByteDance, the privately owned operator of short video app TikTok, booked around 40 billion yuan ($5.64 billion) in revenue for the January-March quarter …
Tweets: @alex
Jake Bright / TechCrunch:
Chipper Cash, which offers mobile-based, no fee, P2P payments services in seven African countries, raises $13.8M Series A led by Deciens Capital  —  African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has closed a $13.8 million Series A funding round led by Deciens Capital and plans to hire 30 new staff globally.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Upgrade, a digital bank focusing on personal loans and credit cards, raises $40M Series D led by Santander InnoVentures at a $1B valuation  —  This morning Upgrade, a credit-focused fintech startup, announced that it has raised a $40 million Series D round that the company says gives it a $1 billion valuation.
Shruti Srivastava / Bloomberg:
Facebook's purchase of a 10% stake in Reliance Jio is being reviewed by the Competition Commission of India, the country's antitrust regulator  —  Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need.  —  India's antitrust watchdog is reviewing Facebook Inc.'s purchase …
More: Seeking Alpha.  Tweets: @shantanugoel
Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE:
Pagaya, which uses AI and big-data analytics to manage institutional money, raises $102M Series D, bringing its total raised to $221.9M  —  Artificial intelligence financial technology startup Pagaya Technologies Ltd. revealed today that it has raised $102 million in new funding partly to move into new asset classes.
More: FinSMEs and VentureBeat
Nikkei Asian Review:
China's largest gay dating app Blued, which has more than 6M users on its network, files for Nasdaq IPO, aims to raise at least $50M  —  Plan for Nasdaq listing comes despite rising scrutiny of China issues  —  HONG KONG — The operator of China's largest gay dating app, Blued …
More: TechCrunch
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Headless CMS company Contentful raises $80M Series E led by Sapphire Ventures, bringing its total raised to $158.3M  —  Headless CMS company Contentful today announced that it has raised an $80 million Series E funding round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst …
More: Tech.eu

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Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Washington Post: