Techmeme
August 2, 2021, 7:35 AM

Top News

Reuters:
Square says it's buying Australia-based buy now, pay later service Afterpay for $29B in an all-stock deal, paying a 30% premium on Afterpay's last closing  —  U.S. fintech company Square Inc (SQ.N) said on Monday it had agreed to purchase Australian buy now/pay later giant Afterpay Ltd …
Greg Ahlstrand / CoinDesk:
Square reports Q2 revenue of $4.88B, up 143% YoY, while its Cash App service's bitcoin yearly revenue was $2.72B, up 200%  —  Cash App's bitcoin gross profit rose to $55 million, Square said in its Q2 letter to shareholders.  —  Jack Dorsey's Square said its Cash App service's bitcoin …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Zoom agrees to pay $85M and bolster its security practices to settle a class action lawsuit over alleged user privacy violations and Zoombombing  —  Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
YouTube trials Premium Lite subscription for €6.99/month, offering ad-free viewing across all major platforms, currently available in Europe  —  Currently being piloted in parts of Europe  —  Google is piloting a more affordable premium subscription tier for YouTube …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Bangalore-based online learning startup Unacademy raises $440M round led by Temasek at a $3.44B valuation  —  Unacademy has raised $440 million in a new financing round as the Indian online learning startup looks to expand into multiple additional categories.
Emmanuel Akinwotu / The Guardian:
Nigeria is now second only to the US in bitcoin trading volume, hitting $2.4B in May from $684M in Dec. 2020, as the government tries and fails to curb its use  —  As leaders around the world grapple with cryptocurrencies, what happened when the African country tried to ban them?
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Matrixport, led by Bitmain founder Wu Jihan, which offers crypto financial services, raises $100M+ Series C, and says a second tranche is to come  —  - DST, Tiger are among the latest backers of Wu Jihan's firm  — Matrixport has raised $129 million since its 2019 founding
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Kuda, which offers mobile-first banking services in Nigeria, raises $55M Series B at a $500M valuation co-led by Valar Ventures and Target Global  —  Kuda Bank, the London-based, Nigerian-operating startup that is taking on incumbents in the country with a mobile-first …
Dan Taylor / Tech.eu:
Snoop, which uses open banking and analytics to help customers manage their money, raises £15M Series A at a post-money valuation of £47M  —  Money management app Snoop has raised £15 million in a few funding round, giving the business a post-money valuation of £47 million.
More: Finextra
Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:
Non-VC funds invested in a record 42% of tech startup funding deals in Q2 2021; H1 '21 US startup funding was $150B, with FY 2021 on pace to double 2020's total  —  Hedge, mutual and pension funds are investing heavily, leading to higher valuations and more leverage for company founders

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More News

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Brent Lang / Variety:
Maya Wolfe-Robinson / The Guardian:
Stitch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Chayka / New Yorker:
John Herrman / New York Times:
Associated Press: