Tech News: July 2021

Saturday, July 31, 2021

MoEngage raises $32.5 million funding from Multiples Alternate Asset Management, others

As part of this funding round, MoEngage also completed an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) buyback of $ 1.5 million for its current and former employees.

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Friendship Day 2021 wishes: How to find and send best stickers and GIFs on WhatsApp

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Credit to tech's pandemic leadership

But they have also been decisive trendsetters in keeping their workers and the rest of us safer from the virus.

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Micromax Airfunk 1, Airfunk 1 Pro launched in India: Specifications, Price

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Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ first and only job application sold for over Rs 2.5 crore

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Twitter Spaces gets new tweet composer, search feature for Live Spaces

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TicWatch GTH review: Advanced features at a budget price

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Turn off, turn on: Simple step can thwart top phone hackers

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Twitter launches competition to find biases in its image-cropping algorithm

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Delivery startup Gopuff valued at $15 billion after latest fundraising

Gopuff said it will use the latest funds to further expand into North America, the UK and across Europe and for hiring and making investments in technology.

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Chromebooks outperform other PC market categories, shows Canalys’ latest report

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Friendship Day 2021 deals: Discounts on OnePlus 9, Mi 11X 5G, and more

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Twitter to offer 'bounty' to find algorithmic bias

The move comes amid growing concerns about automated algorithmic systems, which, despite an effort to be neutral, can incorporate racial or other forms of bias.

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Russia opens case against WhatsApp for violating personal data law

The cases are part of a wider spat between Russia and Big Tech, with Moscow routinely fining social media giants for failing to remove banned content and seeking to compel foreign tech firms to open offices in Russia.

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Elon Musk says "Epic is right," takes sides in battle with Apple

On Tesla's call with Wall Street analysts earlier this week, Elon Musk took shots at Apple, criticizing the company's "walled garden" or its tightly controlled tech ecosystem

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Indian government readying info bank for startups

The system will enable multiple agencies to access, authenticate or approve documents and data.

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Chai Waale bags Rs 5 crore from angel investors

Chai Waale is planning to set up shops in places such as metro stations and malls and is looking to add other items such as soups, momos, and an expanded range of sandwiches to its menu.

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Elon Musk denies he discussed Apple-Tesla merger with Tim Cook

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The Great Fall

We take a closer look at the fallout -- and the mind-boggling numbers -- from China's crackdown.

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OfBusiness turns unicorn post SoftBank-led $160 million funding

B2B commerce startup valued at $1.5 billion; New capital to be used for acquisition, expansion

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New CXO hires at startups keen to ride Esop wave

Esops are now much more than the proverbial flavour of the season in startup India, with equity getting a disproportionate share in compensation packages built for top roles.

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As Covid-19 cases wane, host of startups look to increase headcount

“Our revenue doubled in the last year and we grew heavily in terms of numbers of customers and properties. With the second wave of Covid ending, we have seen a jump in customer interactions and in the next six months, we would see pent-up demand coming in our favour,” said Amit Agarwal, cofounder of the Bengaluru-based startup.

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Friday, July 30, 2021

Infinix X1 40-inch Smart TV set to go on sale starting August 8: Specifications and price

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Suunto 7 review: A timepiece for the outdoors

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Micromax In 2b launched in India, price starts from Rs 7,999

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Delhi High Court to hear WhatsApp pleas against IT rules, CCI probe on August 27

The Delhi HIgh Court allowed requests made by counsels appearing for the Union of India and CCI seeking for a week’s accommodation in both the cases, and adjourned the hearings to the later date.

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The trick is not hitting double digit growth, it's maintaining it, say Happiest Minds' execs

"We are looking forward to adding the same number or higher number of Happiest Minds, we added 310 this quarter and our expectation is to add a similar number for the next three or four quarters," says Venkatraman Narayanan of Happiest Minds.

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Facebook will launch its first smart glasses with Ray-Ban: Here’s what we know

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Sequoia elevates five execs to managing director position

Ashish Agarwal and Harshjit Sethi from Sequoia Capital’s venture team, and Tejeshwi Sharma, Ishaan Mittal and Sakshi Chopra from the growth team will be elevated to managing-director rank.

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From Facebook to Twitter, big tech sees social commerce driving sales growth

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RedmiBook 15 specifications, India price details leaked ahead of launch

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Google and Microsoft clash over documents in US antitrust suit

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Google says it removed 71,132 content pieces in May, 83,613 items in June in India

In its maiden report, Google said it had received over 27,700 complaints in April this year from individual users in India over alleged violation of local laws or personal rights, which resulted in the removal of 59,350 pieces of content.

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Snapchat crashes for millions, company says fixed the bug

The app experienced a massive issue as of Thursday evening, with more than 125,000 users reporting problems on website outage tracking platform Downdetector.

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Big Tech sees social commerce as the future of online retail

Led by Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subsidiaries, social media platforms — from YouTube to SnapChat and Twitter — are investing heavily in shopping features to drive revenue growth.

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Google Play Store to add Safety section and Privacy labels in Q1 2022

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LinkedIn will allow most employees to work remotely full-time

This new policy from Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is a reversal of the company's initial indication last October that employees would be expected to work from an office 50% of the time, when Covid-19 pandemic restrictions are lifted.

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Elon Musk's Neuralink raises over $200 million from Google Ventures, others

Co-founded by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2016, the San Francisco-based Neuralink will use the funds to take its first product, N1 Link, to the market, and for research and development.

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Amazon sales growth slows in tame start to Andy Jassy's tenure as CEO

Amazon's revenue was $113 billion in the April-June period, shy of analysts' average estimate of $115 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Profit rose 48% to $7.8 billion, the second-largest Amazon ever announced.

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Big Tech has outgrown this planet

Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have formed a separate universe in which they are the sun, and everyone else—billions of humans, other companies, entire countries and governments—are mere planets that revolve around them.

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GEF Capital's fund leads 3SC's $15 million funding

The company will use the money to expand operations and explore new tech-based products.

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NFTs set to crank up cricket digital collectibles business

Indian tech company Rario is launching world’s first digital collectible business for cricket

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Microsoft checks in to Oyo

Microsoft has finalised a strategic investment in Softbank-backed Oyo Hotels & Homes

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Microsoft finalises strategic investment in Oyo at $9 billion valuation

Sources told ET that the global technology major will initially buy a small stake, but it has the option to raise ownership later.

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Robinhood makes its $32 billion debut on Wall Street

Robinhood has introduced millions to investing and reshaped the brokerage industry, all while racking up a long list of controversies in less than eight years.

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Thursday, July 29, 2021

Twitter shuts its reopened offices in US as coronavirus cases surge

Other Big Tech companies—including Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft—are making vaccination mandatory for on-campus employees, as the highly infectious Delta Covid-19 variant drives a resurgence in US coronavirus cases.

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Apple sees record quarter, but Xiaomi pips it to take second position in smartphone market: Counterpoint

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Facebook’s future lies in virtual ‘Metaverse’, Mark Zuckerberg says

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t just want you logging in to his company’s products. He wants you living, working and even exercising inside them.

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Strata raises $6 million from Kotak Investment Advisors, others

Strata, a tech-enabled real estate investment platform, will use the funding to strengthen its technology and expand operations across India to grow its AUMs nearly fivefold by the end of the current fiscal.

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Car bodyshop Fixcraft raises $1 million for expansion, hiring personnel

Founded in October 2018 by Vivek Sharma, Abhishek Goyal and Inderjeet Rao, FixCraft provides end-to-end car-repair services—from picking up the vehicle from a customer’s location to filing insurance claims, if any, in case of an accident.

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Indian artists discover NFTs, a new way to monetise creations

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Raising the game with creativity and competitiveness at Synamedia

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Google cracks down on personal loan apps in India with strict new guidelines

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Apple rolls out iOS 15 beta 4 update: All you need to know

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Pixel 6 lineup to showcase Android 12 and Google’s Deep Tech Investments

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Twitter begins testing shopping feature: All you need to know

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Uber shares plunge after SoftBank is said to undertake a stake sale

SoftBank's motive to offload 45 million shares of Uber Technologies Inc. is said to be unrelated to the performance of Didi Global and Alibaba. The Japanese company just thought it was a good time to cash out.

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Zuckerberg says Facebook’s future lies in virtual ‘metaverse’

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Cognizant to hire 100,000 people from rivals to offset attrition pains

Cognizant, which has over two thirds of its employees in India, reported an attrition rate of 31% in the second quarter—the highest among peers.

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Cognizant records highest attrition rate among peers, raises annual revenue guidance

The Nasdaq-listed company reported an attrition rate of 31% in the second quarter, the highest among IT services companies in the three-month period ended June 30.

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CoinDCX in talks to raise $100-120 million

The crypto exchange is likely to hit $1 billion valuation post the round led by B Capital

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Paytm considering JV option for insurance business clearance

While Paytm announced the Raheja acquisition last year, the deal is yet to close.

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Google to pass on 'Google tax' from October

Digital giant to follow Indian regulations precisely, to pass on equalisation levy even on transactions where neither buyer nor seller is Indian

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Mortgage finance startup Easy raises $15 million in funding

The startup aims to achieve an asset under management of $150 million in the next two years.

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Minimalist raises $15 million in funding led by Sequoia

The company intends to enter the Middle East and Southeast Asian markets.

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‘Mysterious midlife crisis’: Experts decode why stars switch to low activity state in middle age

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Why Paytm needs a partner

Paytm, which has been trying to acquire Raheja QBE General Insurance Company for a year, is now looking for a partner for its general insurance business in the hope that this will speed up regulatory approvals.

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Google delays return to office, mandates vaccines

In a Wednesday email sent to Google's more than 130,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning October 18

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Wednesday, July 28, 2021

A record quarter by Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft gives way to growth scepticism

Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet are bullish about their prospects, but investor optimism was tempered by signs that the momentum of the past year may be ebbing.

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Sonata Software to acquire Encore Software to strengthen US presence

The acquisition gives Sonata access to an experienced leadership team that’s based in the US and adds significant capability to its platformation-led digital transformation strategy.

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Apple says supply shortages will affect sales of iPhones and iPads in September quarter

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Google Drive to apply new security update: Here’s how it may affect your existing files

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Google’s Data Restore Tool may soon let you transfer WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android

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Gupshup raises $240 million for share buyback ahead of possible IPO

Gupshup, a Silicon Valley messaging startup with a focus on India, has raised $240 million from Tiger Global Management and others to buy back shares ahead of a possible initial public offering next year.

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