Butternut Box, a London-based fresh dog food business with a tech-driven platform that delivers HelloFresh-style, catered dogfood, has raised $55.4 million (€47.2 million) in a funding round led by L Catterton, the consumer-focused private equity firm, and included participation from White Star Capital, Five Seasons Ventures and Passion Capital. We covered their early funding round […]
China recalls Lithuania ambassador in Taiwan diplomatic office row
Plan for representative offices draws angry response from Beijing amid heightened tensions with TaipeiBeijing has recalled its ambassador from Lithuania and asked Vilnius to do the same, over plans by the European country and Taiwan to establish recipr…
Turkey’s first decacorn: Trendyol raises $1.5B at a $16.5B valuation
Trendyol, an e-commerce platform based in Turkey, has raised $1.5 billion in a massive funding round that values the company at $16.5 billion. General Atlantic, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Princeville Capital and sovereign wealth funds, ADQ (UAE) and Qatar Investment Authority co-led the round. The deal marks SoftBank’s first in the country. The new financing […]
Privacy-oriented search app Xayn raises $12M from Japanese backers to go into devices
Back in December 2020 we covered the launch of a new kind of smartphone app-based search engine, Xayn. “A search engine?!” I hear you say? Well, yes, because despite the convenience of modern search engines’ ability to tailor their search results to the individual, this user-tracking comes at the expense of privacy. This mass surveillance […]
Siga secures $8.1M Series B to prevent cyberattacks on critical infrastructure
Siga OT Solutions, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that helps organizations secure their operations by monitoring the raw electric signals of critical industrial assets, has raised $8.1 million in Series B funding. Siga’s SigaGuard says its technology, used by Israel’s critical water facilities and the New York Power Authority, is unique in that rather than monitoring […]
Jonathan Steele: ‘I came to Russia a political correspondent and left a crime reporter’
The veteran journalist, who moved to Moscow in 1988, charted the collapse of a superpower. But, he tells his successor, the Gorbachev revolution has been poisonedWhen Jonathan Steele moved to Moscow for the Guardian in 1988, the story of Mikhail Gorbac…
Business chief calls on PM to save north-east from Brexit damage
James Ramsbotham, CEO of North East England Chamber of Commerce, says letter sent to Boris Johnson remains unansweredA letter to Boris Johnson sent a fortnight ago by James Ramsbotham called on the prime minister to save the north-east from the “damage…
Thousands flee Greek island as wildfires raze forest and homes
Firefighters tackle blazes on two fronts on Evia as heatwave-driven devastation across southern Europe continuesThousands of people have fled wildfires that are destroying vast swathes of pine forest and razing homes on Greece’s second-largest island, …
The Guardian view on French Covid pass protesters: attention must be paid | Editorial
Emmanuel Macron’s new health measures are generally backed. But a worryingly large minority no longer trusts the state to act in the interests of allBy French standards, the protests which have now taken place across the country on four consecutive wee…
‘Great to be back’: tears in London as quarantine-free travel from France resumes
First Eurostar train arrives at St Pancras on Sunday morning since Covid restrictions were liftedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageNot until the automatic doors of Eurostar arrivals opened could Sue Stevens be sure that her da…