Techmeme: Toronto-based Wealthsimple, an online investment management service, raises ~$610M at a post-money valuation of $4B, led by Meritech and Greylock (Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch)

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May 3, 2021, 9:00 AM

Top News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Kuo: Apple is planning to launch a foldable iPhone with an 8" QHD+ flexible OLED display in 2023; Kuo says Apple will ship 15M to 20M foldable iPhones in 2023 — Apple is working to launch a foldable iPhone with an 8-inch QHD+ flexible OLED display in 2023, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo …

Steve Kovach / CNBC:

Verizon says it will sell Yahoo and AOL to PE firm Apollo Global Management for $5B, keeping a 10% stake in the company, which will be rebranded as just “Yahoo” — - Verizon will sell its media group, which includes brands from AOL and Yahoo, to private equity firm Apollo Global Management.

Kim Lyons / The Verge:

After Apple's iOS 14 privacy updates, Facebook and Instagram show notices in iOS apps that tell users to enable tracking to help keep them “free of charge” — iOS 14 has new privacy settings that let users opt out of tracking — Facebook is continuing its campaign …

More: MacRumors, International Business Times, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Mashable, Wccftech, Techpoint Africa, iMore, TechRadar, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, Gizchina, MUO, BGR India, phonearena.com, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @ashk4n, @katebevan, @matthewstoller, @jenniferdaniel, and @hypervisible

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Toronto-based Wealthsimple, an online investment management service, raises ~$610M at a post-money valuation of $4B, led by Meritech and Greylock — Canadian fintech giant Wealthsimple has raised a new round of $750 million CAD (~$610 million) at a post-money valuation of $5 billion CAD (~$4 billion).

More: BetaKit, Globe and Mail, and PYMNTS.com

David Phelan / Forbes:

SEC filing: Rockley Photonics, developer of sensors that can be used for blood pressure and glucose monitoring, says Apple is currently its biggest customer — A new report says that a future Apple Watch could have a new raft of health sensors, including blood pressure and …

Source: Telegraph. More: Engadget, XDA Developers, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, PCMag, Tom's Guide, TechSpot, Firstpost Tech, Gizchina, Wccftech, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, phonearena.com, BGR India, AppleInsider, and TechRadar

Tweets: @forbes, @engadget, and @davidphelan2009

Lora Kolodny / CNBC:

Neuralink's President and co-founder Max Hodak tweets that he has left the brain-computer interface startup — - Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak announced Saturday that he is no longer working with the brain tech company he started with Elon Musk. — Musk - who is also the CEO of auto …

More: The Verge, Insider, Gizmodo, and Engadget

Tweets: @max_hodak, @benshooter, @nickcammarata, @doctorow, @teslacharts, @yoda, @rhinosoros, @lorakolodny, and @ermonacelli

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft planned to reduce its cut from 30% to 12% for Xbox games too, a document filed as part of Epic vs Apple lawsuit in January shows — Confidential Microsoft documents reveal some big plans — Microsoft had been planning to cut its Xbox store cut to just 12 percent …

Alex Russell / Infrequently Noted:

Apple's ban on alt iOS browser engines and years of delays in adding features to WebKit can explain why web apps are not a viable alternative to App Store apps — Do App Store policies harm developers? Is the web a credible alternative? A look at the data. — Three facts...

More: 9to5Mac. Tweets: @alexhern, @thomaswilburn, @ciphergoth, @slightlylate, @migueldeicaza, @tolmasky, @cwilso, @tolmasky, @slightlylate, @tolmasky, and @carnage4life

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Path Robotics, which uses scanning, computer vision, and AI for robotic welding, raises $56M Series B led by Addition, bringing its total raised to $71M — Columbus, Ohio-based firm Path Robotics today announced the completion of a $56 million Series B. The round, led by Addition …

More: FinSMEs and PR Newswire

Olaf Storbeck / Financial Times:

More than 30 of Europe's largest banks and credit card processors form the European Payment Initiative, aiming to compete with a US-dominated “oligopoly” — More than 30 lenders designing rival to take on PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and Apple — More than 30 of Europe's largest banks …

More: PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @pascalbouvier

Shiyin Chen / Bloomberg:

Dell has agreed to sell Boomi, which specializes in integrating cloud platforms for companies, to Francisco Partners and TPG in a cash deal valued at $4B — Dell Technologies Inc. has agreed to selling its Boomi cloud business to private-equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG in a cash deal valued …

More: Dell Technologies, Wall Street Journal, TechRadar, and The Economic Times

Tweets: @tpg and @jaycuthrell

Pete Rizzo / Bitcoin Magazine:

A look back at Satoshi Nakamoto's role in the Bitcoin project and exchanges with its community, 10 years after the disappearance of the mysterious figure — 10 years ago today, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto's disappeared. Pete Rizzo tells the story. — 10 years ago today, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto's disappeared.

More: Protocol. Tweets: @pete_rizzo_, @bitcoinmagazine, @bitcoinmagazine, and @bottlepay

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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

Will Daniel / Insider:

A new cryptocurrency called Chia is debuting on May 3, and its dependence on storage instead of computing power may be behind a rise in hard drive and SSD sales

More: Coinspeaker and HotHardware.com News

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Australia-based SafetyCulture, which helps businesses perform and automate safety checks and audits, raises $73M at a $1.6B valuation led by Insight Partners

More: VentureBeat, Tech News, and Business Wire

Kristin Stoller / Forbes:

Connecteam, whose app helps employers remotely manage deskless workers in industries such as retail and construction, raises $37M at a valuation of $100M+

Source: PR Newswire. More: FinSMEs, Tech.eu, and Globes Online

Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:

Report: Bitcoin accounts for ~46% of total crypto market value of $2.3T, down from ~70% at the start of the year; Ether, which rose to $3K on Monday is at ~15%

More: CNET, CoinDesk, CoinDesk, and Cryptonews

Tweets: @tracyalloway and @czechboy0

Meir Orbach / CTech:

Israeli startup Locusview raises $64M Series A for its digital construction management suite that helps companies manage infrastructure capital projects

More: Globes Online

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Bibit, which runs robo-advisor services for mutual funds and invests users' money based on their risk profiles, raises $65M led by Sequoia Capital India

More: Tech in Asia and KrASIA

New York Times:

SensorTower data shows Clubhouse has been downloaded 1.1M times in the Middle East, where its users see it as an open forum to discuss politics and taboo issues

Tweets: @abdu, @curdistani, @nytimes, @freddydeknatel, @mairavz, @asadabukhalil, @shahselbe, @farnazfassihi, @evelyndouek, @rickgladstone, and @naderalihashemi

Sam Goldheart / iFixit News:

Teardown of Apple's AirTag: it has a magnet to turn its body into a speaker driver, but still has a more compact design than the Tile Mate or Galaxy SmartTag

More: iThinkDifferent, Engadget, The Verge, TechSpot, Gizmodo, The Overspill, SlashGear, Wccftech, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleInsider, MacRumors, and Pocketnow

Tweets: @zcichy, @arnoldkim, @snazzyq, @braydonstachel, @l0vetodream, @snazzyq, @glennf, @glennf, @techaltar, and @backlon

Earlier Picks

Reuters:

Intel says it will invest another $600M in Israel, primarily to expand its Mobileye R&D, and confirms it is spending $10B on a new chip plant there

More: iTnews, CNET, Gizchina, Tom's Hardware, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, and Tech News

Laurens Cerulus / Politico:

Critics say the EU should focus on producing older generations of chips instead of making big plans to invest billions of euros into cutting-edge chip-making

Tweets: @nicholasvinocur, @adam_tooze, @adam_tooze, @politicoeurope, @laurenscerulus, and @joelbasson

Doug Kramer / The Cloudflare Blog:

Cloudflare, which was sued by “patent troll” Sable Networks, is offering a $100K bounty to those who can find evidence of prior art on Sable Networks' patents

More: Techdirt, The Register, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @eastdakota, @jason, @bgurley, @paulg, @jrichlive, @kennethn, @jgarzik, @zacharykimball, @tmychow, @scottmcgrew, @saarw, @scriptjunkie1, @cloudflare, @eff, and @marypcbuk

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Helsinki-based Yousician, which claims to have 20M MAUs across its music education app and guitar tuning app, raises $28M Series B led by True Ventures

Source: PR Newswire. More: Music Ally, Music Business Worldwide, ArcticStartup, FinSMEs, and EU-Startups

Tweets: @miikahuttunen, @timomj, @smolaholic, @scholaraudition, @trueventures, and @pvesterbacka

Monica Chin / The Verge:

Members of the Linux developer community reflect on “hypocrite commits” research, which got University of Minnesota banned from contributing to the Linux kernel

Tweets: @thehackersnews, @physicsteo, @ebomike, and @reckless

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:

Researchers find new exploit leaving all modern AMD and Intel processors with micro-op caches defenseless to Spectre threat, in spite of all current mitigations

Source: University of Virginia School …. More: Engadget, SiliconANGLE, iTnews, TechSpot, Phoronix, and HotHardware.com News

Tweets: @alspeirs, @paulrteich, @weldpond, and @p3b7_

Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo:

After an investigation found 800+ Etsy listings for weapons, porn, other items violating its policies, Etsy says it'll invest ~$40M in policy enforcement in '21

Source: Etsy Blog and Insider. More: Engadget

Tweets: @techinsider, @techinsider, @techinsider, @techinsider, @techinsider, @techinsider, @techinsider, @robaeprice, @robaeprice, @lexnfx, and @robaeprice