A twitter hacking affects the platform's most famous users, Netflix gets a co-CEO and Revel's mopeds are coming to San Francisco. Here is your Daily Crunch for July 16th 2020.
The big story: high profile Twitter accounts hacked into a crypto scamThis was crazy: the Twitter accounts of Apple, Elon Musk, Joe Biden and many, many others were compromised yesterday, posting messages with the address of a bitcoin wallet, promising that any payments would be doubled and sent back.
Apparently a hacker used Twitter's internal administrative tool to gain access to all these accounts. The company described it as "a coordinated attack on social engineering by people who targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."
Not surprisingly, Twitter's stock has taken a hit and the company will likely be dealing with fallout for weeks or months to come. (One of the initial responses was to block accounts that recently changed their passwords.)
The giants of technologyTed Sarandos appointed Netflix co-CEO - The announcement comes when the company added more than 10 million new subscribers in its last quarter.
Instagram launches its redesigned shop, now based on Facebook Pay: Instagram Shop is a way to buy products from brands and creators, as well as collections curated by the company's @shop account, all within the Explore section.
Uber acquires Routematch as it drives deeper into public transportation in search of SaaS revenue - Routematch, which supplies software to transit agencies, will continue operations with CEO Pepper Harward at the helm.
Startups, financing and venture capitalThe lands of Revel allow me to bring hundreds of electric mopeds to San Francisco: I have seen Revel mopeds all over New York City and now they have approval for the launch in San Francisco.
Activ Surgical raises $ 15 million to advance autonomous and collaborative robotic surgery - The startup provides surgical equipment with sensors, with the data used to guide surgeons and surgical systems.
Monzo launches new Monzo Plus with software functionality that it hopes users will pay for - New features include aggregation of third party bank accounts, virtual debit cards, customized transaction categories, export of spreadsheets and credit score updates .
Extra Crunch tips and analysisWhy some VC investors earn excellent "Founder NPS" scores - Danny Crichton read more than 1,200 founders' recommendations for VCs while preparing The ProWellTech List. In this post, he shares some of the common themes.
8 edtech investors talk about retraining, digital universities, ISA and other post-pandemic trends - We talked to investors about how COVID-19 has reshaped edtech and education, but what happens after the pandemic?
VC Josh Stein talks about power dynamics: "I don't think this was a turning point for the investors mustache" - The founders of hot startups may not have the same leverage as before the pandemic - but Stein from Threshold Ventures has having said that it is not, I'm trying to rub it.
(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription program, which aims to democratize startup information. You can sign up here.)
All the restThe game developer survey suggests longer hours and less productivity as the industry adapts to remote work - Of the developers surveyed by GDC, 32% found themselves less productive, despite working longer hours.
VPN providers rethink Hong Kong servers after Chinese security law: Hong Kong could lose its status as a paradise for data centers.
The first European court breaks down the main EU-US data transfer mechanism: the decision has implications for US agencies interested in digital surveillance, as well as for Internet companies such as Facebook.
The Daily Crunch is ProWellTech's collection of our biggest and most important stories. If you would like this to be delivered to your inbox every day around 3:00 PM Pacific, you can sign up here.
