Waymo says it will expand its fleet into Miami in 2025 with human safety drivers and plans to open up paid rides to local users via its Waymo One app by 2026
Waymo is setting its sights on its next location: the Sunshine State. — The Alphabet-owned company announced Thursday that it will be hitting the roads in Miami.
Kenya-based Wasoko and Egypt-based MaxAB, two of Africa's largest B2B e-commerce platforms, merge in an all-stock deal; the companies raised over $240M combined
450K+ merchants across 5 markets —$180M payment volume in Egypt, surpassing commerce sales —disbursed $20M in merchant financing; <1% default. —4,000+ employees. https://techcrunch...
Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz walks away from Google's $23B acquisition offer; Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport tells staff that Wiz will pursue an IPO as planned
Wiz has walked away from a $23 billion deal to be acquired by Google, in what would have been the search giant's largest ever deal …
Meta rolls out its Meta Verified program for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, with subscription plans starting from $14 a month
Meta plans WhatsApp features, including an AI-powered assistant for businesses in India and Singapore, and AI tools to create ads in English-speaking markets
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg :
Lagos-based Moove, which offers car financing to ride-hailing drivers, raised a $100M Series B led by Uber at a $750M valuation, up from $550M in August 2023
Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers, has raised $100 million …
Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads, saying Meta “engaged in systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets” and other IP
Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new text-based “Twitter killer” platform …
Meta's Supplemental Privacy Policy for Threads says that “your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account”, surprising some users
Exactly How Private Is Meta's New Twitter Challenger? NBC 7 San Diego : Meta's Twitter Rival Threads Explodes to 50 Million Signups One Day After Launch Rael Hornby / Laptop Mag : ...
Hands-on with Threads: fairly basic text-based messaging app, log in via Instagram, no hashtags, can't search for anything other than user handles, and more
Programming note: I really was trying to take a vacation, but this felt like it was worth the one-day interruption.
Sources: Lagos-based Sabi, which provides a marketplace, inventory management tools, and more to Africa's SMEs, raised a $38M Series B at a $300M valuation
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch :
Lagos-based payment service provider Nomba raised a $30M pre-Series B led by Base 10 Partners at a $150M+ valuation, per YC, after a $5M Series A in April 2019
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch :
Lagos-based Jumia, once hailed as the “Amazon of Africa”, has seen its stock drop 85%+ since its April 2019 IPO amid falling customer growth and mounting losses
David Adeleke / Rest of World : Tweets: @hkanji , @ulonnaya , @naijaflyingdr , @restofworld , and @eajene Tweets: Hussein Kanji / @hkanji : Another Rocket Internet success story s...
Lagos-based Jumia, once hailed as the “Amazon of Africa”, has seen its stock drop ~70% since its 2019 IPO amid stalling customer growth and mounting losses
Its stock has fallen 70% since its IPO as growth stalls and operating losses mount. — • ABUJA, NIGERIA Tweets: @ulonnaya , @restofworld , @eajene , and @naijaflyingdr Tweets: Tag...
Emails and sources: Google fired 16% of its ~400-person Fuchsia OS team, Research cut jobs in lower traction areas, and Cloud cut operational and other roles
The layoffs amount to about 6 percent of the global work force at the company, the latest tech giant to make cuts after a pandemic hiring spree.
Alphabet plans to cut ~12,000 jobs, 6%+ of its global workforce; CEO Sundar Pichai says he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”
read the memo CEO Sundar Pichai sent to staff Mary Yang / NPR : Google is cutting 12,000 jobs, adding to a series of Big Tech layoffs in January BBC : Google parent Alphabet to cut...
Emails and sources: Google fired 16% of its ~400-person Fuchsia OS team, Research cut jobs in low traction areas, and Cloud cut operational and other roles
The layoffs amount to about 6 percent of the global work force at the company, the latest tech giant to make cuts after a pandemic hiring spree.
Memo: Alphabet plans to cut around 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce; Sundar Pichai says he takes “full responsibility” for the need to cut jobs
Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce …
Adobe plans to acquire UI design and prototyping tool Figma for around $20B in cash and stock; Figma CEO Dylan Field will continue in the role; ADBE drops 12%+
Adobe Inc. agreed to buy software design startup Figma Inc. in a deal valued at about $20 billion to help it expand tools for creative professionals.
SoftBank reports a ~$17.23B loss for Vision Fund in Q1 2022, as the value of its tech portfolio fell, including SenseTime and Uber, after a record Q4 2021 loss
Y Combinator shrinks its Summer cohort to nearly 250 companies, down 40% from 414 in its Winter cohort, due to the downturn in the economy and VC environment
Technically, the accelerator is more exclusive now — Y Combinator says it has intentionally shrunk the number of startups within its accelerator for the Summer 2022 batch.