The Station: Rimac-Bugatti is born, Tesla releases FSD beta v9 and Ola raises $500M

Hello and welcome to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. I’m back from my road trip and I am swimming in emails. If you sent me a message on Twitter, email or pigeon post, please give me a few days to dig

Controversial WhatsApp policy change hit with consumer law complaint in Europe

Facebook has been accused of multiple breaches of European Union consumer protection law as a result of its attempts to force WhatsApp users to accept controversial changes to the messaging platforms’ terms of use — such as threatening users that the app would stop working if they did n

Ex-SafeBoda executive Babajide Duroshola joins M-KOPA to lead expansion into Nigeria

On June 18, Babajide Duroshola, ex-country head, SafeBoda Nigeria, stepped down from his role two years after taking the job post-Andela. Less than a month later, the executive has found a new role as general manager for Kenyan company M-KOPA. His appointment coincides with M-KOPA’s broader e

Dovetail, the venture studio that has worked with startups like Afterpay, is raising a new fund

"attachment_2175946" aria-describedby="" style="width: 4032px">Dovetail co-founders Ash Fogelberg and Nick Frandsen Based in Sydney and Auckland, Dovetail is a full-service venture studio that works closely with founders who have a great idea, but may lack technical backgrounds. Dovetail helps them

Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson celebrate launch of first passengers into space

Virgin Galactic has successfully taken its first passengers to space, including its billionaire founder Richard Branson. The event, at Spaceport America in New Mexico, was a field day for press and employees, complete with an early-morning Khalid set and hero walk by Branson and the crew. “Ju

How Retail Zipline’s Series A pitch deck ticked every box for Emergence Capital

Melissa Wong spent more than a decade working for major retail brands before founding Retail Zipline. That kind of outrageous advantage — a complete understanding of the industry — is something that investors struggle to resist in a vertical SaaS company. At least, according to Emergenc

Twitter appoints resident grievance officer in India to comply with new internet rules

Twitter has appointed a resident grievance officer in India days after the American social media firm said to have lost the liability protection on user-generated content in the South Asian nation over non-compliance with local IT rules. On Sunday, Twitter identified Vinay Prakash as its new reside

Watch as Virgin Galactic’s first passenger flight takes off with Richard Branson on board

Virgin Galactic is set to launch its first passengers to space tomorrow morning, and you can watch the whole thing right here. The launch is scheduled for 7:30 AM Pacific, with streaming festivities (including commentary by Stephen Colbert) starting on the hour. Update: The launch has been delayed

The 36 questions that lead to love (but with your co-founder)

After months of beta testing, Y Combinator has launched a co-founder matching platform. The platform invites entrepreneurs to create profiles, which include information about themselves and preferences for a co-founder, such as location and skill sets. It digests that information and offers a numbe

The case for funding fusion

Digital technologies have disrupted the structure of markets with unprecedented breadth and scale. Today, there is yet another wave of innovation emerging, and that is the decarbonization of the global economy. While governments still lack the conviction necessary to truly fight the climate crisis,

Beyond ‘Netflix Party’: Startups and their VCs bet we’ll browse more of the web together

Last year, during the pandemic, a free browser extension called Netflix Party gained traction because it enabled people trapped in their homes to connect with far-flung friends and family by watching the same Netflix TV shows and movies simultaneously. It also enabled them to dish about the action

Growth marketing roundup: Cool SaaS, marketing lies, VR ads and more

One might think that a short week due to a U.S. holiday calls for a short weekly recap, but we have plenty to share about growth marketing from our coverage over the week. With the help of your recommendations, this week we were able to interview Peep Laja and Lucy Heskins, and publish multiple gue

Daily Crunch: European Union demands $1B penalty from VW, BMW for hiding emissions

To get a roundup of technewss's biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for July 9, 2021. We've made it to Friday, y'all, be proud. But we can't relax just yet — there's quite a

Cloud security platform Netskope boosts valuation to $7.5B following $300M raise

Netskope, focused on Secure Access Service Edge architecture, announced Friday a $300 million investment round on a post-money valuation of $7.5 billion. The oversubscribed insider investment was led by ICONIQ Growth, which was joined by other existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partne