Eric David
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Mapbox raises $164M to help developers use location data for AR and connected cars
Mapbox, a data startup that built a location-based platform for developers, announced today that it has raised $164 million in a late-stage financing. The Series C funding round was led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, and it also included participation from existing investors Foundry Group, DFJ Growth, DBL Partners and Thrive Capital. This brings Mapbox’s total ...
Google discovers it also sold political ads to Russian-backed groups
It turns out that Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. were not the only tech giants that unknowingly sold political ads to Russian-backed groups during last year’s U.S. presidential election. The Washington Post reported today that Google LLC has discovered that Russian organizations spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads that were shown to American users on Gmail and YouTube. According ...
Facebook Workplace tests a desktop app with screen sharing
Facebook Inc. has released a new desktop chat app for for its enterprise focused Workplace platform, but so far the social media giant is not making a big deal out of it. The company did not make an official announcement about the app, but it launched a beta version of Workplace Chat today, available to ...
Facebook tests out info button aimed at fighting fake news
Facebook Inc. has had problems with hoaxes and fake news throughout most of its history, but the social network is now under more scrutiny than ever before, especially after it recently came to light that Russian organizations bought political ads on Facebook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Now, after working on a few programs over ...
MessageBird, a European Twilio rival, raises $60M in early funding
Cloud company MessageBird announced today that it has raised an impressive $60 million in Series A financing. The funding round was led by Accel, and it also included investments from London-based venture capital firm Atomica as well as startup accelerator Y Combinator. Like American rival Twilio, MessageBird offers a cloud-based platform that businesses can use ...
Wal-Mart acquires same-day delivery startup Parcel to take on Amazon in NYC
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is dipping its toes into the same-day delivery market, as the retail giant announced today that it has acquired Brooklyn-based startup Parcel Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2013, Parcel bills itself as a “last-mile delivery solution” that can integrate with existing ecommerce platforms through its application program interface. User who signed up for ...
Unsealed documents poke holes in Uber’s defense against Waymo
The due diligence report for Uber Technologies Inc.’s acquisition of autonomous vehicle startup Otto is now public, and the document does not bode well for the company’s ongoing trade theft battle with Waymo LLC and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. A judge first ordered Uber to turn over the report in May, and the report ...
Facebook is working on its own face recognition tech to speed account recovery
Apple Inc. is not the only tech giant turning to facial recognition to streamline account security. Social media giant Facebook Inc. confirmed today that it is testing out its own Face ID-like program, which would be used to make it easier for users to recover locked accounts. “We are testing a new feature for people who want to ...
Google ends ‘first click free’ program that let users bypass some paywalls
Google LLC announced today that it will be ending its First Click Free program, which required subscription-based online publishers to provide users with free access to at least three free articles if they discovered them through Google Search or through Google News. According to Google Vice President Richard Gingras, First Click Free is being replaced by Flexible Sampling, ...
Uber CEO will meet with London’s transport head to ‘make things right’
It has been barely a month since Dara Khosrowshahi joined Uber Technologies Inc. as the company’s new chief executive, and so far the job does not look like it is getting any easier. Last week, Uber lost its operating license for London, and now Khosrowshahi will be meeting with the city’s transport head in an attempt to keep Uber from ...
