Ingrid Lunden
Writer
The Latest from Ingrid Lunden
PayPal to buy Simility, a specialist in AI-based fraud and risk management, for $120M
Payment provider PayPal continues apace with its acquisitions streak to bring more modern tools into its platform to serve its 237 million customers. Today the company announced that it is buying Simi
China’s VIPKID, which links English tutors with online learners, raises $500M at $3B+ valuation
The online language school market is continuing to heat up, and a startup that connects English teachers with an audience of students spanning China and 35 other countries for live language tutorials,
Silexica, which optimises how disparate applications work together on autonomous cars, raises $18M
As we inch closer to building increasingly autonomous cars, the complexities that these vehicles will present as programmable hardware are increasing, with some 250 applications ranging from cameras t
GoFundMe now allows team fundraising, where multiple people collaborate to raise money
GoFundMe, the popular service for raising money for causes with some $5 billion raised to date, is expanding its platform to serve more community efforts: today the company is launching GoFundMe Team
Atul Gawande, the doctor and writer, named CEO of Amazon’s employee healthcare JV
Amazon, BerkshireHathaway and JPMorgan Chase have not been especially public about their plans for how they plan to take on employee healthcare in the US with their new joint venture, but now they hav
Blinkist raises $18.8M for its condensed reading platform for non-fiction books
We are living in the information age, but that doesn’t mean that we have all the time in the world to ingest everything that we want. A startup that is aiming to help with that has raised a roun
Facebook launches Workplace for Good, a free version of its enterprise product for non-profits
Workplace is making a push into the non-profit segment. Today the enterprise communications app from Facebook — which competes against the likes of Slack, Hipchat, and Microsoft’s Teams &
Aaptiv raises $22M from Amazon, Disney and more for its “Netflix for fitness”, now valued over $200M
Health and wellness has been one of the biggest categories for development in the tech industry, with huge range of wearable devices and connected equipment being built to track how we are moving and
BBVA and Repsol to build blockchain finance apps, BBVA issues record €325M credit line on its blockchain network
Spanish banking giant BBVA has an early adopter when it comes to exploring and using blockchain in its legacy business, being the first global bank to use its blockchain network, built with distribute
Google teams with the CIJ in the UK for free workshops for journalists on investigative journalism
Google has been the target of many an investigative journalism scoop, but today in the UK it’s sitting on the other side of the table. The search giant’s Digital News Initiative — t
CityMapper, the urban transportation app, is integrating with bike-sharing company Mobike
Hot on the heels of getting acquired for $2.7 billion by on-demand services startup Meituan-Dianping en route to its own $60 billion IPO, Chinese bike-sharing startup Mobike is ramping up its interna
Yahoo Mail aims at emerging markets and casual users, launches versions for mobile web and Android Go
The days for Yahoo Messenger are now numbered, but Yahoo and its parent Oath (which also owns TC) are still counting on growth for other communications services, specifically Yahoo Mail. Today, the co
Sherpa, the Spanish personal assistant, launches an API for its predictive AI with Porsche as 1st customer
Sherpa, a personal assistant startup that has carved out a niche for itself by focusing on the Spanish-language market (alongside English) and predictive suggestions, is expanding. The company is laun
BitTorrent is selling for $140M to Justin Sun and his blockchain startup Tron
BitTorrent, an early mover (and currently the largest player) in decentralised computing architecture to distribute and store data, is being sold for $140 million in cash to Justin Sun and his blockch
Kustomer gets $26M to take on Zendesk with an omnichannel approach to customer support
The CRM industry is now estimated to be worth some $4 billion annually, and today a startup has announced a round of funding that it hopes will help it take on one aspect of that lucrative pie, custom
Pipedrive, a CRM and sales tool, raises $50M to take on Salesforce and Microsoft
While Salesforce and Microsoft have a dominant position in the world of sales software today, there are a number of startups nipping at their heels, and today one of the more promising of them has ann
Dutch payments company Adyen opens at €400/share, a pop of 67%, now valued at $16B
After raising €1.1 billion in its initial offering and pricing its shares at €240 each last night, Adyen, the Dutch payments company, went public today with a bang. It opened for trading this mor
Google adds tools for brick-and-mortar stores to boost interest from online shoppers
Despite the growth of Amazon and other e-commerce giants, offline commerce — buying goods from brick-and-mortar stores — still accounts for around 90 percent of all retail spending. So in
Facebook cracks down on ads from e-commerce scammers flagged by new reviews
Facebook is cracking down on shopping sites and others that bait and switch customers by delivering lower quality products than what they advertised on the social network. Today, Facebook launches a n
Workday acquires financial modelling startup Adaptive Insights for $1.55B
Workday, the cloud-based platform that offers HR and other back-office apps for businesses, is making an acquisition to expand its portfolio of services: It’s buying Adaptive Insights, a provide