Leaving the cube

I did a bit of a double-take on this one: $100 million is a big number at any point, but two-and-a-half months after a $56 million round is pretty wild. At the very least, we know Path Robotics is ready to put its money where its mouth is — and that Tiger Global likes what it sees in the weld

Mercedes-Benz to build eight battery factories in push to become electric-only automaker by 2030

Mercedes-Benz laid out Thursday a €40 billion ($47 billion) plan to become an electric-only automaker by the end of the decade, a target that will push the company to become more vertically integrated, train its workforce and secure the batteries needed to power its products. Mercedes has provide

DeepMind puts the entire human proteome online, as folded by AlphaFold

DeepMind and several research partners have released a database containing the 3D structures of nearly every protein in the human body, as computationally determined by the breakthrough protein folding system demonstrated last year, AlphaFold. The freely available database represents an enormous ad

Silicon Valley comms expert Caryn Marooney shares how to nail the narrative

Caryn Marooney, Silicon Valley communications professional turned venture capitalist, spoke extensively on storytelling at technewss Early Stage: Marketing and Fundraising. During her talk, she broke down messaging into four critical parts. Marooney knows what she’s talking about: Throughout

OnePlus announces $150 Pro noise cancelling earbuds

With a couple of generations of wireless earbuds under its belt, OnePlus finally has the AirPods Pro — and the rest of the premium market — in its sights. As part of an event today that also includes the launch of its budget Nord 2, the company officially announced the OnePlus Buds Pro.

Sophos acquires Braintrace to supercharge its threat detection capabilities

Thoma Bravo-owned Sophos has announced it’s acquiring Braintrace, a cybersecurity startup that provides organizations visibility into suspicious network traffic patterns. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Braintrace, which was founded in 2016 and has raised $10 million in funding, has dev

Spotify partners with GIPHY to connect users with artists’ music via GIFs

Spotify announced this morning a new partnership with online GIF database GIPHY to enable discovery of new music through GIFs. No, the GIFs themselves won’t play song clips, if that’s what you’re thinking. Instead, through a series of new Spotify-linked GIFs, there will be an opti

All Raise launches virtual bootcamp for women and nonbinary founders

More doesn't necessarily mean better — and that's a lesson for life and for tech. To focus on the latter, the startup ecosystem is experiencing a boggling influx of capital right now. However, the increase in dollars isn't being evenly distributed to all founders. For the vast maj

Tune in today to watch Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Global Finals

It's not too late to enjoy an epic pitch-off of global proportion. The Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) Global Finals start today, July 22 at 9:00 am (PT). Register here for free, get instant access and tune in to see seven phenomenal startups — each one tackling some of the world's most daun

Microsoft’s cyber startup spending spree continues with CloudKnox acquisition

Microsoft has acquired identity and access management (IAM) startup CloudKnox Security, the tech giant’s fourth cybersecurity acquisition this year. The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, is the latest cybersecurity acquisition by Microsoft, which just last week announced that it

Uber Freight acquires Transplace for $2.25B

Uber Freight, the logistics business spun out of Uber in 2018, has acquired Transplace for about $2.25 billion from private equity group TPG Capital, according to regulatory filings. The deal announced Thursday will involve $750 million in Uber stock with the remainder in cash. The acquisition of T

Fi's smart collar adds sleep tracking for dogs

Conventional wisdom holds that one ought let sleeping does lie. But no one says you’re barred from tracking them while they do. New York-based smart collar maker Fi announced today that it's adding sleep to the list of the device's tracking. The added feature uses the collar's on-

Facebook Messenger is stepping up its emoji game

If you can’t say it with words, say it with an emoji. Facebook is announcing a few minor updates today to its Messenger platform, which make it easier than ever to find the exact emoji you’re looking for when reacting to a friend’s message (let’s be real, there’s a big

Magic lands $27M Series A for its ‘plug and play’ passwordless tech

Magic, a San Francisco-based startup that builds “plug and play” passwordless authentication technology, has raised $27 million in Series A funding. The round, led by Northzone and with participation from Tiger Global, Volt Capital, Digital Currency Group and CoinFund, comes just over a