The U.S. Treasury is wading into the fight against ransomware by sanctioning virtual cryptocurrency exchange Suex for its role in facilitating ransomware payments. The sanctions are the first of its kind against a cryptocurrency exchange, and prohibit Americans from doing business with the company. It’s the latest action as part of a U.S. government-wide effort […]
Airwallex raises $200M at a $4B valuation to double down on business banking
Business, now more than ever before, is going digital, and today a startup that’s building a vertically integrated solution to meet business banking needs is announcing a big round of funding to tap into the opportunity. Airwallex — which provides business banking services both directly to businesses themselves, as well as via a set of […]
FTC says health apps must notify consumers about data breaches — or face fines
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned apps and devices that collect personal health information must notify consumers if their data is breached or shared with third parties without their permission. In a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, the FTC agreed on a new policy statement to clarify a decade-old 2009 Health Breach Notification Rule, […]
BitSight raises $250M from Moody’s and acquires cyber risk startup VisibleRisk
BitSight, a startup that assesses the likelihood that an organization will be breached, has received a $250 million investment from credit rating giant Moody’s, and acquired Israeli cyber risk assessment startup VisibleRisk for an undisclosed sum. Boston-based BitSight says the investment from Moody’s, which has long warned that cyber risk can impact credit ratings, will […]
Commercetools raises $140M at a $1.9B valuation as ‘headless’ commerce continues to boom
E-commerce these days is now a major part of every retailer’s strategy, so technology builders and platforms that are helping them compete better on digital screens are seeing a huge boost in business. In the latest turn, Commercetools — a provider of e-commerce APIs that larger retailers can use to build customized payment, check-out, social […]
Iceland’s Crowberry Capital launches $90M seed and early-stage fund aimed at Nordics
Crowberry Capital, operating in Reykjavik and Copenhagen, has launched Crowberry II: a $90 million seed and early-stage fund aimed at startups in the Nordic region. A second close — bringing in an additional $40 million — is planned for July 2022. The EIF (European Investment Fund) is the lead LP on the fund, after putting […]
Microsoft acquires TakeLessons, an online and in-person tutoring platform, to ramp up its edtech play
Microsoft said in January this year that Teams, its online collaboration platform, was being used by over 100 million students — boosted in no small part by the Covid-19 pandemic and many schools going partly or fully remote. Now, it’s made another acquisition to continue expanding its position in the education market. The company has […]
Nuula raises $120M to build out a financial services ‘superapp’ aimed at SMBs
A Canadian startup called Nuula that is aiming to build a superapp to provide a range of financial services to small and medium businesses has closed $120 million of funding, money that it will use to fuel the launch of its app and first product, a line of credit for its users. The money is […]
Two UK tech figures plan to row the Atlantic for charity supporting minority entrepreneurs
Two UK tech figures are to row across the Atlantic Ocean to raise money for a charity that funds social entrepreneurs from minority backgrounds. Guy Rigby, founder and now Chair of the Entrepreneurial Services Group at Smith & Williamson, and entrepreneur, investor David Murray will raise money for UnLtd which has supported over 15,000 social […]
Seqera Labs grabs $5.5M to help sequence Covid-19 variants and other complex data problems
Bringing order and understanding to unstructured information located across disparate silos has been one of more significant breakthroughs of the big data era, and today a European startup that has built a platform to help with this challenge specifically in the area of life sciences — and has, notably, been used by labs to sequence […]