Rapid7 acquires Kubernetes security startup Alcide for $50M

Boston-based security operations company Rapid7 has been making moves into the cloud recently, and this morning it announced that it has acquired Kubernetes security startup Alcide for $50 million. As the world shifts to cloud native using Kubernetes to manage containerized workloads, it’s tr

DesignCrowd raises $10 million AUD to grow its DIY platform, BrandCrowd

DesignCrowd announced today it has raised $10 million AUD (about $7.6 billion USD) in pre-IPO funding. The capital will be used on hiring and product development, with the goal of accelerating the growth of BrandCrowd, its DIY platform. The new funding comes as DesignCrowd gets ready for a potentia

Nigerian digital bank Carbon hit $240M in payments processed last year, up 89% from 2019

In 2018, Carbon, a Nigerian fintech startup, made its financials public for the first time. Although typical for foreign private startups, it’s almost an anomaly in Africa. There have been rare cases in the past, for instance, when Rocket Internet had to include Jumia’s financials in it

bluShift Aerospace launches its first rocket powered by biofuels

New space startup bluShift wants to bring a new kind of propellant to the small satellite launching market, with rockets powered by bio-derived rocket fuels. These differ from traditional fuels in that they offer safety advantages during handling, and ecological advantages during production and use

Twitter restricts numerous high-profile accounts in India following ‘legal demand’ [Update]

Updated at 11.30 PM IST (6.00 PM GMT): Twitter quietly restored the accounts in India Monday evening (local time), more than 12 hours after it restricted them to users in the country. The company has issued no statement, but the following tweet from Pratik Sinha, co-founder of fact-checking organiz

India proposes social security benefits for gig workers in annual budget

India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed in the annual budget Monday a handful of benefits for the startup ecosystem and to accelerate the growth of digital services as the South Asian nation looks to revive the economy that was severely hit amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sitharaman

English learning app ELSA lands $15 million Series B for international growth and its B2B platform

Speaking is one of the hardest parts of learning a new language, especially if you don't have someone to practice with regularly. ELSA is an app that helps by using speech recognition technology to correct pronunciation. Based in San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City, ELSA announced today it has r

Ben raises $2.5M seed to fix employee benefits for SMEs

Ben, a London-based employee benefits and rewards platform, has raised $2.5 million in funding. The seed round is led by Cherry Ventures, and Seedcamp. A number of angel investors with backgrounds in fintech and HR tech also participated. They include Paul Forster (founder of Indeed), Taavet Hinrik

New rule reins in China’s flourishing self-publishing space

Despite China’s history of stringent media control, an industry of uninstitutionalized, individual publishers has managed to flourish on social media platforms like Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Toutiao. These self-publishers are called “We Media” in the Chinese int

Human Capital: Alpha Global forms to unite Alphabet workers worldwide

You’ve just landed on the web version of my weekly newsletter, Human Capital. It’s where we look at the recent events of the week pertaining to diversity, equity, inclusion and labor in tech. You can sign up here to get Human Capital delivered straight to your inbox every Friday at 1 p.

Institutional trust is the real meme

Hello friends, this is Week in Review. Last week, I dove into the AR maneuverings of Apple and Facebook and what that means for the future of the web. This week, I’m aiming to touch the meme stock phenomenon that dominated American news cycles this week and see if there’s anything worth

Gillmor Gang: Back Then Now

Still figuring out what this newsletter is, I'm torn between aggregation and writing. The inputs vary from blog posts, Twitter threads, and the occasional video. Podcasting seems oddly muzzled by the acceleration of streaming. Blog posts are a misnomer; professional blogs represent the bulk of

Reddit co-founder on GameStop: 'The collective public cannot unsee this'

When Robinhood, a startup that promises to make finance accessible for all, temporarily limited trading on GameStop, AMC, and other memestocks, many retail investors were pissed that the fintech darling suddenly didn't live up to its name. The specific reasons may have been short-term and techn

India plans to introduce law to ban Bitcoin, other private cryptocurrencies

India plans to introduce a law to ban private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in the country and provide a framework for the creation of an official digital currency during the current budget session of parliament. In the agenda (PDF) published on the lower house website, the legislation seeks to