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Lyft is laying off 982 employees, furloughing a further 288 due to COVID-19 pandemic

Less than 24 hours after it was reported that Uber was considering layoffs of 20% of staff, its big rival Lyft is announcing its own cuts. Today the company said it would be reducing employee count by 17%, working out to 982 employees, and furloughing an additional 288, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic […]




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Amid stock market turbulence, investing app Stash raises $112M led by LendingTree

As coronavirus-hit financial markets continue to flip-flop in the wake of bad news followed by pockets of hope, a startup that aims to introduce ordinary consumers to investing has raised a big round of funding. New York-based Stash, which provides a mobile-first route to managing money through investment — as well as retirement, custodial and […]




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Spotify Q1 beats on sales of $2B with monthly active users up 31% to 286M

The coronavirus may be decimating some corners of the economy, but the impact on the digital music, as evidenced by the world’s biggest music streaming company, appears to be minimal. Today Spotify reported its earnings for Q1 with revenues of €1.848 billion ($2 billion at today’s rates) and an inching into a positive net income […]




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Cheetah, a restaurant wholesale app that pivoted to consumers for COVID-19, nabs $36M

A lot of restaurants have shuttered in the wake of stay-at-home guidance and government orders for non-essential businesses to close down, so a startup called Cheetah that provided a wholesale delivery service for them pivoted to selling to consumers, and now it’s raised a round of funding, both to expand its business and to help […]




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SkyCell raises $62M for smart containers and analytics to transport pharmaceuticals

While human travel has become severely restricted in recent months, the movement of goods has remained a constant priority — and in some cases, has become even more urgent. Today, a startup out of Switzerland that builds hardware and operates a logistics network designed to transport one item in particular — pharmaceuticals — is announcing […]




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Factorial raises $16M to take on the HR world with a platform for SMBs

A startup that’s hoping to be a contender in the very large and fragmented market of human resources software has captured the eye of a big investor out of the US and become its first investment in Spain. Barcelona-based Factorial, which is building an all-in-one HR automation platform aimed at small and medium businesses that manages […]




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Codota picks up $12M for an AI platform that auto-completes developers’ code

Thanks to smartphones and their downsized keyboards, autocomplete has become a nearly ubiquitous feature of how we write these days. To save us precious seconds composing and (at least in my fat-thumbed case) correcting words, our keyboards now prompt us with suggestions of what we’re trying to write to get the job done a little […]




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Randall Stephenson to step down as AT&T chief, succeeded by COO John Stankey

A big changing of the guard is underway at one of the world’s biggest and iconic names in telecoms and media: AT&T today announced that Randall Stephenson will be stepping down as the chairman and CEO of the telco, and he will be replaced by John Stankey, currently the COO. The change is effective on […]




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Stripe adds card issuing, localized card networks and expanded approvals tool

At a time when more transactions than ever are happening online, payments behemoth Stripe is announcing three new features to continue expanding its reach. The company today announced that it will now offer card issuing services directly to businesses to let them in turn make credit cards for customers tailored to specific purposes. Alongside that, it’s going […]




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Paige adds $5M from Goldman Sachs to double down on AI-based cancer therapies

Paige, the Sloan-Kettering spinout that has been building an artificial intelligence platform to improve cancer pathology and subsequently use those insights to develop better drug therapies, has raised an additional $5 million in funding to continue its work commercialising its platform and expanding its research reach, while also getting FDA clearance to launch in hospitals […]




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India’s Glance tops 100M daily active users in 21 months

Glance, which serves media content, news and casual games on the lock screen of Android -powered smartphones, has amassed 100 million daily active users, it said today. The subsidiary of ad-firm InMobi Group reached the milestone in 21 months in what appears to be the shortest duration for any popular internet service to gain their […]




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Samsung expects COVID-19 to hurt smartphone and TV sales, but increase demand for memory

In its first-quarter earnings report today, Samsung said it expects the COVID-19 pandemic to continue impacting its business for the rest of the year, cutting into sales for smartphones and TVs, but increasing demand for PCs, servers and memory chips as people continue to work or study from home. Samsung’s results for the first-quarter of […]




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Samsung’s new ‘eco’ TV packing transforms into cat houses, shelves and magazine racks

Here’s a nice thing. It’s not revolutionary or life-changing, but it’s nice. And right now we can all use a little bit of nice. Earlier this month, Samsung announced an addition to its line of “eco-packing” that will turn TV boxes in a wide variety of different “furniture.” I use furniture in quotes here because […]




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Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch app reminds you to wash your damn hands, dummy

A few months ago, the idea of a hand-washing app would have seemed trivial, at best. We’re all adults here, right? We’ve been washing our hands our entire lives. But things change. It’s mid-April and we’re afraid to go outside and engage with other humans — and thorough hand-washing is one of very few tools […]




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Google said to be preparing its own chips for use in Pixel phones and Chromebooks

Google is reportedly on the verge of stepping up their hardware game in a way that follows the example set by Apple, with custom-designed silicon powering future smartphones. Axios reports that Google is readying its own in-house processors for use in future Pixel devices, including both phones and eventually Chromebooks, too. Google’s efforts around its […]




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Decrypted: Zoom’s security fallout, CrowdStrike’s new CTO, Bugcrowd raises $30M

Another week in quarantine. As the world adjusts to working from home under mandatory stay-at-home orders, hackers are keeping busy. Microsoft said this week that coronavirus-related attacks are on the rise but still make up just a fraction of the overall malicious activity. Cybersecurity companies seem to be faring mostly well — in part thanks […]




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Samsung earnings guidance stays upbeat despite global macro crisis

Samsung overnight released its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2020, stating that it expected sales of $45.4 billion and an operating profit of roughly $5.3 billion. The company’s fiscal year is aligned to the standard calendar year, and it will announce official earnings results on April 23. Those numbers are slightly up from […]




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Online printing site Doxzoo exposed thousands of customer files

Doxzoo proudly says on its website that your “documents are in safe hands.” But for some time, that wasn’t true. The U.K. printing company left its customer files on a cloud storage bucket, hosted on Amazon Web Services, without a password. Anyone who knew the easy-to-guess bucket name could access the massive trove of customer […]




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5G devices were less than 1% of US smartphone purchases in 2019

No surprise, really, that 5G smartphone sales are on the way up. Frankly, there’s really no other way to go, according to the latest numbers from NPD’s Mobile Phone Tracking. The firm noted that 5G handsets accounted for less than 1% of total sales in the U.S. The hurdles are also what you’d expect: namely, […]




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Alipay owner Ant Financial takes minority stake in Klarna

Some big moves in the payments platform space: Ant Financial Group, the owner of China’s Alipay payment platform, has announced it’s taking a minority stake in Swedish payments platform Klarna . Klarna has a strong European presence and a flagship product that lets shoppers buy now and pay later in interest-free installments (typically 14 or […]




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Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra is a lot of phone for a lot of money

Let’s talk about money. More specifically, let’s talk about how much things cost. A few years back, the price of flagship smartphones leapt above the $1,000 threshold, owing largely to the cost of screen technology. It’s a tough calculus, but that’s the price of innovation. The rising cost of smartphones is largely regarded as a […]




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Bird is testing Bird Pay, which lets users purchase items from local businesses using its main app

Another on-demand transport app is making a move into payments to expand the existing relationship with its customers (and subsequent margins that it makes from serving them). Bird today announced the launch of Bird Pay, a service that will let people use its app to purchase items from local participating businesses alongside renting scooters. The service […]




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Do phones need to fold?

As Samsung (re)unveiled its clamshell folding phone last week, I kept seeing the same question pop up amongst my social circles: why? I was wondering the same thing myself, to be honest. I’m not sure even Samsung knows; they’d win me over by the end, but only somewhat. The halfway-folded, laptop-style “Flex Mode” allows you […]




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One year later, the future of foldables remains uncertain

Yesterday, Samsung announced that the Galaxy Flip Z sold out online. What, precisely, that means, is hard to say, of course, without specific numbers from the company. But it’s probably enough to make the company bullish about its latest wade into the foldable waters, in the wake of last year’s Fold — let’s just say […]




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: GDP

Coronavirus lockdown hits US economy




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Going digital

Earth day struggles for global attention




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: America First

Donald Trump pulls support from the World Health Organization




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Hitting the peak?

Countries look for evidence that Covid-19 infections have passed their pinnacle




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Testing times

Governments scramble for coronavirus tests




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: ‘A beautiful timeline’

Donald Trump plans to reopen US for business despite coronavirus




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Pinn’s Illustration of the week: Lockdown

Turning the key on the coronavirus crisis




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Balancing the Budget

UK government spending faces increasing pressures




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Ingram Pinn’s illustration of the week: Your move

Refugee crisis looms as ‘gates open’ on the Turkish border




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Brothers in arms

Donald Trump visits India as sectarian violence erupts




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Supply and demand

Tech companies caught in coronavirus disruption




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Donkey Derby

Democratic presidential contenders cling on over early hurdles




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: State of the nation

The US Republican party rallies behind Donald Trump




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Leap of faith

Boris Johnson dives into the transition period




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: One-click delivery

Saudis alleged to have hacked Jeff Bezos’s phone




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Tariff truce

‘Phase one’ deal provides only limited relief in US-China trade war




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Appearing act

Carlos Ghosn takes the stage




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Ingram Pinn’s illustration of the week: Happy New Year

Tensions in Iraq and North Korea greet Trump’s re-election plans




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Thin ice

The world faces increasing temperatures




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Transition

Boris Johnson rules out trade deal extension




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Ingram Pinn’s illustration of the week: Rule of law

Democrats gear up for US impeachment




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Ingram Pinn’s illustration of the week: Emergency emissions

COP25 attempts to confront climate change




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: Safe hands

UK election campaign fights for national health




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Ingram Pinn’s illustration of the week: In the frame

TV debate vacates centre ground




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Pinn’s illustration of the week: ‘I’m too busy to watch it’

Trump impeachment hearings go public




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Don’t blame German judges if they say No to ECB asset purchases

It would be the underlying law and EU treaty that needs changing, not the ruling