Passion Capital backs UK fertility workplace benefits provider, Fertifa

U.K.-based Fertifa has bagged a £1 million (~$1.3 million) seed to plug into a fertility-focused workplace benefits platform. Passion Capital is investing in the round, along with some unnamed strategic angel investors. The August 2019-founded startup sells bespoke reproductive health and fertilit

Reliance’s fiber-optic business raises $1 billion from ADIA and PIF

Reliance Jio Platforms, the telecom venture run by India’s richest man (Mukesh Ambani), had 405.6 million subscribers in the quarter that ended in September, becoming the first operator outside of China to cross 400 million subscribers in a single-country market. The Facebook and Google-backe

Cloud infrastructure revenue grows 33% this quarter to almost $33B

The cloud infrastructure market kept growing at a brisk pace last quarter, as the pandemic continued to push more companies to the cloud with offices shut down in much of the world. This week the big three — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — all reported their numbers and, as expected, the

NowThis partners with Calm to offer a soothing Election Day live stream

Mobile news organization NowThis is announcing a bit of counter-programming for next week’s presidential election — it’s partnering with meditation app Calm to create a live stream for anyone who needs relief from the stress of Election Day news. Not that NowThis is exactly avoiding t

Smartphone shipments dip in China for Q3, led by Huawei decline

China was the first major global smartphone market to rebound from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stringent lockdown measures were able to help the country recover from the virus relatively quickly during the first wave, as sales started to return well ahead of other areas. In Q3, however

Illinois is taking a data-driven approach to its mask-wearing ad campaign

Here's an example of ad targeting that's actually good for public health: In a campaign encouraging people to wear masks, the Illinois state government has been focusing its digital ad dollars on the counties with the highest COVID risk. To achieve this, the government's been working wi

UK watchdog reduces Marriott data breach fine to $23.8M, down from $123M

The U.K.’s ICO has reduced the size of a data breach penalty for hotel business Marriott — dropping it to £14.4 million (~$23.8 million) in a final penalty notice, down from the £99 million ($123 million) figure that the watchdog initially said it would levy in July 2019. The fine rel

Under Armour to sell MyFitnessPal for $345 million, after acquiring it in 2015 for $475 million

Global fitness giant Under Armour announced this morning that it will be selling MyFitnessPal to investment firm Francisco Partners for $345 million, five and a half years after acquiring it for $475 million. The company also announced that it will be winding down the Endomondo platform which it al

AOL founder Steve Case, involved early in Section 230, says it’s time to change it

AOL founder Steve Case was there in Dulles, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., when in 1996 the Communications Decency Act was passed as part of a major overhaul of U.S. telecommunications laws that President Bill Clinton signed into law. Soon after, in its first test, a provision of that

Amazon pegs COVID-19 costs at an estimated $4 billion next quarter

Amazon expects to incur $4 billion in COVID-related costs next quarter, an estimate that provides a bellwether for other businesses, large and small, trying to stay operational and control expenses amid the pandemic. The upshot: Amazon is planning for COVID to remain an unwelcome companion through

WhatsApp is now delivering roughly 100 billion messages a day

WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app owned by Facebook, is now delivering roughly 100 billion messages a day, the company's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said at the quarterly earnings call Thursday. For some perspective, users exchanged 100 billion messages on WhatsApp last New Year&#

PORTL Hologram raises $3M to put a hologram machine in every home

What does a hologram-obsessed entrepreneur do for a second act after setting up a virtual Ronald Reagan in the Reagan Memorial Library, or beaming Jimmy Kimmel all the way from Hollywood to the Country Music Awards in Nashville? If that entrepreneur is David Nussbaum, the founder of PORTL Hologram,

Tesla has increased the price of its ‘Full Self-Driving’ option to $10,000

Tesla has made good on founder and CEO Elon Musk’s promise to boost the price of its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software upgrade option, increasing it to $10,000 following the start of the staged rollout of a beta version of the software update last week. This boosts the price of t

Polestar recalls its newest EV for the second time this month

Polestar, the electric vehicle brand that was spun out of Volvo Car Group, has issued another recall for its newest electric vehicle. The company is voluntarily recalling nearly 4,600 vehicles over what has been described as faulty inverters, Reuters reported. Polestar said in a statement that all