Despite PR storm, Pinduoduo stock and downloads stay robust

Pinduoduo, a rapidly growing Chinese e-commerce company, is weathering its PR storm after the death of an employee sparked criticism against the firm’s grueling working hours. The employee, 21 years old, collapsed on her way home from work on a late night before New Year. The cause of her dea

Checkout.com raises $450 million and reaches $15 billion valuation

Payments company Checkout.com is raising once again. The company has closed a $450 million Series C round with Tiger Global Management leading the round — Greenoaks Capital and all existing investors are also participating. If you're not familiar with the company, Checkout.com wants to build

Curve says closing its new $95M Series C funding will put it on track for a US launch

Curve, the London-based fintech that combines multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and an app, has secured a Series C funding round of $95 million. The financing was led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of the estate of Microsoft co-founder and

Zipmex, which aspires to build the Asia Pacific region’s largest digital assets exchange, raises $6 million led by Jump Capital

Zipmex, a digital assets exchange headquartered in Singapore, announced today it has raised $6 million in funding led by Jump Capital. The startup, which plans to become a digital assets bank, says the round exceeded its initial target of $4 million. Along with earlier funding, it brings the total

Amazon is removing products promoting the QAnon conspiracy

Amazon has begun the process of removing QAnon-related products from its platform. A spokesperson for the company said that the process may take a few days. Any sellers that attempt to evade the company’s systems and list products will be subject to action, including a blanket selling ban ac

Sony reveals more details on its secretive Vision-S sedan

Sony’s Vision-S prototype sedan, one of the biggest surprises at CES last year, didn’t fade away after the tech trade show ended. The Vision-S is back in a series of new videos released by Sony during 2021 CES, which kicked off Monday. Two videos show the Vision-S prototype driving on a

BukuKas raises $10 million led by Sequoia Capital India to build an ‘end-to-end software stack’ for Indonesian SMEs

The backbone of Indonesia's economy are small to medium-sized businesses, which account for 60% of its gross domestic product. Many still rely on manual bookkeeping, but the impact of COVID-19 has driven small businesses to digitize more of their operations. BukuKas, one of several startups hel

PopSockets announces its MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 accessories

In October, technewss broke the news that PopSockets was developing its own line of MagSafe-compatible products that will support the new wireless charging capabilities of the iPhone 12 devices. Today, at the (virtual) 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, the company formally introduced its upcoming pr

Sony unveils AirPeak, its camera-carrying video drone

When Sony teased the AirPeak late last year, it didn't give us much to go one. We knew the consumer electronics giant was finally getting in the drone business — but beyond that, not much else. Just a dark image or two from some piece of the UAV. See the latest news from Sony unveiled at

The Capitol riot and its aftermath makes the case for tech regulation more urgent, but no simpler

Last week and throughout the weekend, technology companies took the historic step of deplatforming the president of the United States in the wake of a riot in which the US Capitol was stormed by a collection of white nationalists, QAnon supporters, and right wing activists. The decision to remove D

Ahead of inauguration, Airbnb pledges bans for anyone involved in Capitol riot

Building on a policy that the company said has been in place since the Charlottesville protests back in 2017, Airbnb said it will take additional steps to beef up community protections for the DC metro area ahead of the presidential inauguration. Airbnb already removes people from the platform who

Content discovery platform Dable closes $12 million Series C at $90 million valuation to accelerate its global expansion

Launched in South Korea five years ago, content discovery platform Dable now serves a total of six markets in Asia. Now it plans to speed up the pace of its expansion, with six new markets in the region planned for this year, before entering European countries and the United States. Dable announced

Daily Crunch: Parler sues Amazon after going offline

Platforms and infrastructure providers dump Parler, Microsoft unveils a new Surface and a Chinese fitness app raises $360 million. This is your Daily Crunch for January 11, 2021. The big story: Parler sues Amazon after going offline President Donald Trump has found himself banned fr

Noopl's iPhone plug-in is designed to improve hearing in noisy environments

Noopl looks like one of the more interesting hardware startups to come out of CES day one. The Sacramento-based company has designed an accessory that it says can help drown out background noise for users in a loud environment. The little accessory sports a Lightning plug (it’s currently iOS