Google, Nokia, Qualcomm are investors in $230M Series A2 for Finnish phone maker, HMD Global
Mobile device maker HMD Global has announced a $230M Series A2 — its first tranche of external funding since a $100M round back in 2018 when it tipped over into a unicorn valuation. Since late 2016 the startup has exclusively licensed Nokia’s brand for mobile...
As remote work booms, Everphone grabs ~$40M for its ‘device as a service’ offer
The latest startup to see an uplift in inbound interest flowing from the remote work boom triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is Berlin-based Everphone, which sells a ‘mobile as a service’ device rental package that caters to businesses needing to kit staff out with mobile...
Typewise taps $1M to build an offline next word prediction engine
Swiss keyboard startup Typewise has bagged a $1 million seed round to build out a typo-busting, ‘privacy-safe’ next word prediction engine designed to run entirely offline. No cloud connectivity, no data mining risk is the basic idea. They also intend the tech to work on...
UK U-turns on Huawei and 5G, giving operators until 2027 to rip out existing kit
The UK government has confirmed a widely expected U-turn related to “high risk” 5G vendors linked to the Chinese state — attributing the policy shift to the US recently imposing tighter sanctions on Huawei’s access to its technologies. UK digital minister Oliver Dowden told parliament...
Writing app Ulysses gets new document dashboard and advanced grammar and style check
Ulysses, a popular writing app for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, is receiving an update with some new features. The user interface has been slightly redesigned with a new right-hand column that acts as a dashboard. There’s also a new grammar and style check feature...
Rapid Huawei rip-out could cause outages and security risks, warns UK telco
The chief executive of UK incumbent telco BT has warned any government move to require a rapid rip-out of Huawei kit from existing mobile infrastructure could cause network outages for mobile users and generate its own set of security risks. Huawei has been the focus...
UK gives up on centralized coronavirus contacts tracing app — will “likely” switch to model backed by Apple and Google
The UK has given up building a centralized coronavirus contacts tracing app and will instead switch to a decentralized app architecture, the BBC has reported. This suggests its any future app will be capable of plugging into the joint ‘exposure notification’ API which has been...
Vivid is a new challenger bank built on top of solarisBank
Meet Vivid, a new challenger bank launching in Germany that promises low fees and an integrated cashback program. The two co-founders Alexander Emeshev and Artem Yamanov previously worked as executives for Russian bank Tinkoff Bank. Vivid doesn’t try to reinvent the wheels and is building...
Revolut expands bank account aggregation to Ireland
Fintech startup Revolut has expanded its open banking feature to Ireland. The feature first launched in the U.K. back in February. Once again, the startup is partnering with TrueLayer to let you add third-party bank accounts to your Revolut account. The feature launch also marks...
Square acquires European peer-to-peer payment app Verse
Square acquired Verse, a Spanish peer-to-peer payment app that works across Europe. Terms of the deals are undisclosed. According to Crunchbase, Verse had raised $37.6 million from Spark Capital, eVentures and Greycroft Partners and others. Square has attracted a ton of user with Cash App,...
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