Laiye, China’s answer to UiPath, closes $50 million Series C+

Robotic process automation has become buzzy in the last few months. New York-based UiPath is on course to launch an initial public offering after gaining an astounding valuation of $35 billion in February. Over in China, homegrown RPA startup Laiye is making waves as well. Laiye, which develops sof

Daily Crunch: Apple announces a new iPad Pro and much more

Apple announces new devices, Amazon opens a hair salon and Venmo adds cryptocurrency support. This is your Daily Crunch for April 20, 2021. The big story: Apple announces a new iPad Pro and much more Apple revealed a bunch of new products at its press event today. As expected, there

All the electric vehicles that stood out at the Shanghai Auto Show

The 19th annual Shanghai Auto Show delivered a bevy of electric and tech-centric vehicles this year. Chinese, European and U.S. automakers showed off their latest offerings in every price segment, from the budget-minded ??Wuling Hong Guang Mini via a joint venture between SAIC Motor Corp., Gene

UK’s IoT ‘security by design’ law will cover smartphones too

Smartphones will be included in the scope of a planned “security by design” U.K. law aimed at beefing up the security of consumer devices, the government said today. It made the announcement in its response to a consultation on legislative plans aimed at tackling some of the most lax se

Netflix blames ‘lighter content slate’ for slowing subscriber growth

Netflix added 4 million net new subscribers in the first quarter of 2021, bringing its total subscriber base to 207.6 million, according to its latest earnings report. Any year-over-year comparison was inevitably going to make this latest quarter seem disappointing, since Netflix grew by an unprece

BlaBlaCar raises $115 million to build all-in-one travel app

French startup BlaBlaCar has raised a new $115 million funding round (€97 million). While the company is better known for its long distance carpooling marketplace, BlaBlaCar has also added a bus marketplace with the acquisition of Ouibus and an online bus ticketing platform with the acquisition o

Discord walked away from Microsoft talks, may pursue an IPO

A month after reports that Microsoft sought to buy the hot voice chat app Discord surfaced, those talks are off, a source familiar with the deal confirmed to technewss. Discord is considering plans to stay independent, possibly charting a path to its own IPO in the not-too-distant future. The Wall

Belarusian regime’s thugs shut down Imaguru, the country’s key startup hub

After visits by unnamed masked intruders and the cancellation of its lease, Imaguru — the country's key startup hub, event and co-working space in Minsk — has effectively been shut down by the Lukashenko regime, which has led a brutal crackdown on its own people in recent months. But the co

Who’s funding privacy tech?

Privacy isn’t dead, as many would have you believe. New regulations, stricter cross-border data transfer rules and increasing calls for data sovereignty have helped the privacy startup space grow thanks to an uptick in investor support. This is how we got here, and where investors are spendin

Tile bashes Apple’s new AirTag as unfair competition

Now that Apple’s lost item finder AirTag has officially been introduced, competitor Tile is going on record ahead of its testimony in front of Congress tomorrow about how it perceives Apple’s latest product. The company says it will be asking Congress on Wednesday to take a closer look

Here’s everything Apple announced at its ‘Spring Loaded’ event

It’s Apple event day! From tweaks to the Apple Card to all new iMacs and iPads, Apple crammed this one-hour event with news. Don’t have time to sit down and click through every last announcement? We’ve slimmed it down to just the key points for maximum skimmability. Enjoy! Apple C

The M1 iMac’s power supply sports magnetic connector, Ethernet port

Apple just announced the new iMac powered by Apple’s own M1 silicon. Among the numerous updates and upgrades is a new power brick that sports something special to Apple’s lineup: an Ethernet port. On the surface, this seems like a silly placement of a critical I/O port, but there’

The new iPad Pro features Apple’s M1 chip

The big news from today’s Spring Loaded event is, as anticipated, a new version of Apple’s high-end tablet. The new iPad Pro is the first in the line to adopt the M1 chip introduced on the company’s Mac line. The new chip sports an 8-core CPU, with performance up to 50% faster tha

Apple brings Touch ID to the Magic Keyboard

Apple has unveiled a new, colorful iMac today with an Apple-designed M1 chip. But that was just part of the story as the company used that opportunity to release new Mac accessories. In addition to a Magic Trackpad and a Magic Mouse with multiple color options, Apple is bringing Touch ID to desktop