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With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75 percent of European companies, across the EU and the UK, the regulatory environment is evolving fast.

Non-financial data, such as carbon emissions, is catching up with financial reporting burdens. And it’s not just the Environmental (“E”), it’s also social factors (“S”) and corporate governance (“G”).

Now, Berlin-based Greentech startup Plan A, which recently raised a $10M Series A round – has developed a new SaaS tool to cover this ESG reporting in an automated fashion.

It says its integrated module “automates measurement, analysis, and reporting of ESG performance, providing a central data management and reporting platform.”

This idea is that sustainability managers, also within VCs, can now peer into the ESG rating of their subsidiaries, portfolio companies, and suppliers through the Plan A Platform, reducing reduces data collection and analysis efforts to less onerous levels.

Plan A recently closed its Series A financing round at the beginning of November, six months after its Seed funding in March.

It plans to expand the decarbonization tooling and Scope 3 calculations for various industries.

The Berlin-based Greentech will also continue its international expansion, so that the current locations in Berlin, Paris, and Munich will be followed by others in the coming year, including London.

Lubomila Jordanova, cofounder and CEO of Plan A, said: “Regulatory pressure is increasing. Investors, employees, and consumers are placing ever-growing importance on companies reporting their ESG impact and developing sustainable business models in line with their values. Our goal is to support them in this transformation process with innovative, digital tools.”

TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to VPNSecure is on sale for £29.97 as of Dec. 1, saving you 96% on list price.

Whenever you go online, you're practically subjecting yourself to the risk of a hacker sleuthing your data, a tracker keeping tabs on your online activity to serve you with relevant ads later on, or even an identity thief. It doesn't matter whether you're connected to a private home network or your local coffee shop's public WiFi. When you hop online, you always face the risk of getting your personal data and your browsing habits stolen. It's the unfortunate truth, so it's your responsibility to shield yourself from cyberthreats.

A virtual private network (VPN) is a tested and proven solution to protect yourself on the internet and enjoy true online freedom. It masks your IP address so you'll be virtually untraceable online. VPNSecure is one of the most trusted VPN services available, and for a limited time, you can get it on sale for over 90% off.

VPNSecure understands the gravity of cyberattacks, which is why they designed a platform that will not only help you surf undetected, but they also promise to never to log any of your information or browsing movements. It also uses Stealth VPN to render your VPN traffic unrecognisable and allows you to connect five devices simultaneously.

You know those sites that you can never access because they detect that you belong to a different continent? Thanks to VPNSecure's Smart DNS component, you can bypass geolocation blocks on your favourite content viewing networks. It'll also keep you from coming across annoying pop-ups that interrupt your browsing and can pose a threat to your online data and activity.

You can finally go online without fear with the help of VPNSecure. A lifetime subscription typically costs £894, but for a limited time, you can grab it on sale for only £29.97.

Credit: VPNSecure

VPNSecure (Lifetime Subscription)

£29.97 at the Mashable Shop

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TL;DR: The 2022 FullStack Web Developer Bundle is on sale for £22.48 as of Dec. 1, saving you 98% on list price.

Web developers speak a different language, but it's not a secret language. Anyone can learn the tricks of the trade, they just have to be willing to put in the time. Fortunately for you, that doesn't include having to put in the cash to learn something new. For a limited time, these 11 courses on full-stack web development are just £22.48. So, there's no need to shell out hundreds of pounds to learn a new trade.

The 2022 Full Stack Web Developer Bundle includes 11 courses and over 400 lessons on Vue, Docker, Angular, React, JavaScript, and more. By the time you complete the lot, you'll be closer to your goals of levelling up your web development career.

Start off by taking a complete crash course on total web development. You'll even create a "Facebook-like" discussion platform and publish it on the internet in your first course. Don't worry, though. It's built for beginners like yourself and you can work through it completely at your own pace.

You'll learn from Jan Zavrel, a successful infopreneur, coder, author, teacher, and lifelong learner himself. Since he boasts an impressive 4.4 out of 5-star instructor rating, you can count on him to deliver digestible lessons that'll actually make a difference in your career in the long term. But most courses are taught by Oleksandr Kocherin, a full-stack developer with a 4.6-star rating. He's been programming for over a decade and teaching for almost as long. You'll certainly be in great hands with both of these pros. 

With lifetime access to 11 courses that will point your career in a new direction, this full-stack web development training is valued at over £1,600. You can slash the price down to just £22.48 and kick off your new career path.

Credit: Jan Zavrel

2022 FullStack Web Developer Bundle

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Maple VC is based in San Francisco, but don’t let that fool you, says its founder, Andre Charoo. The young fund, which launched in 2016 with $1.2 million in capital commitments, just closed on $16.5 million in capital commitments for a second fund that promises to almost exclusively back savvy Canadian founders, no matter where they live today and no matter what they are building, as long as tech is at the core of their startup.

Says Charoo — a Toronto native who worked briefly at at the early photo-sharing app Color, spent a year helping Uber expand into Canada in 2011, then logged more than seven years as a VP with the hiring platform Hired as he got Maple VC off the ground — “I’m a generalist who specializes in backing founders with Canadian roots.”

It’s a marketing approach that manages to be both specific and broad, and it snagged the interest of an enviable group of investment firms that are among the new fund’s limited partners, including Tiger Global, Foundry Group, Recast Capital, Insight Partners and Plexo Capital. Promising early investments from Maple’s debut fund also helped meaningfully, says Charoo. We talked with him earlier today about some of those deals, what raising capital from his backers was like, and how he’s putting Maple’s new fund to work.

TC: You describe Maple as the first and only fund whose sole goal is to fund the Canadian diaspora at the seed stage. Why do these founders need your capital?

AC: I was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto and attended the University of Toronto, and I tried and failed to get a job in finance in Canada, whereas when I got here to the US, I received multiple offers on Wall Street [and worked at Wachovia Securities]. It left me a little frustrated and asking this question of why I was good enough to get a job on Wall Street but not the equivalent in Canada.

What’s interesting about this is many of the founders I meet who leave Canada have a very similar story. They get rejected in Canada, they go to Silicon Valley, and they get backed by some of the best VCs in the world. For example, Marcelo Cortes, the cofounder and CTO at Faire and a fellow Canadian, tried to raise a seed round in Canada in 2017. No one would buy. So he went to Silicon Valley, got backing by a top tier fund and just last week, he announced that Faire just closed on $400 million in funding at a $12.4 billion valuation.

TC: Isn’t there a big difference between 2021 versus 2017, thanks to formerly employees of Shopify and other companies that have seen exits? Where are you seeing angels coming from, and do you work closely with networks there to source deals?

AC: Ironically, I’m outside of Canada, again because I believe some of the best founders have left Canada . . and arguably aren’t tied to those angel networks in Canada and will not be calling Canadian VCs.

TC: You wrote nine checks out of your first fund. What are some of the companies that stood out for prospective LPs?

ACL Yes. All Day Kitchens, centered on restaurant tech, was in that fund. There’s a biotech company called Vision that’s automatically tracking nutrition in that fund. RenoRun [a platform for general contractors to source materials] is another. Aalto, a home marketplace that Sequoia followed on, is in that fund, as is [digital home management platform] Setter, which was acquired by Thumbtack, which has led to Maple being a proud shareholder of Thumbtack at the moment.

Altogether, I’ve written 27 checks totaling $12 million to companies across both funds, and that includes SPVs.

TC: What were some of those fundraising conversations like for this much bigger second fund? Were they quick, given everyone has so much money to deploy and you’re developing a track record that illustrates a strong network, or was it a drawn-out process?

AC:  Some of them were long, Connie [laughs]. Some of them were long, some were short. I’ve been fortunate to be part of some of the diversity initiatives for some of my LPs, including Insight Partners and Alpaca VC. It’s been great to see firms engaged this way.

Look, I think being a person of color has actually made me a better VC. Not only am I frequently the only Black professional in the room, which has given me this unique perspective and ability to go against the grain and look for outliers, but it has helped me build a really diverse portfolio. I’m proud to say that 70% of the founders I’ve backed are people of color and at least 30% are women.

But yeah, it’s a wide range. Some have [committed] to participate within the first call; some have taken a full year to get over the line.

TC: I interviewed one of your founders back in May named Kate Hiscox, whose company, Sivo, a debt-as-a-service provider, was a very big bet for you.

AC: That is true. Sivo represents 20% of my funds, whereas average checks range from $500,000 to $1 million. I personally think Kate is a killer founder — from Canada — and there was just a lot of evidence from the team she put together before she had [raised] a penny [that this was a huge] opportunity that she was going after.

TC: Do you have enough flexibility in your investing mandate to back a team without Canadian founders?

AC: I have LPS who are like ‘Hey, Andre, you’re in some amazing networks in Silicon Valley. Are you going to say no to a founder who is sitting across the table from you who is not from Canada?’ The answer is that I’m open to backing [other founders]. My goal is to build a top-tier seed-seed stage fund. I just happen to believe that this cohort of founders with Canadian roots is the way I’m going to get there.

If you've been saying "Hey, Siri!" to your iPhone only for Siri to ignore you completely (rude), chances are she hasn't been enabled yet.

In order for Siri to work, you'll need to enable Siri on your iPhone before you can have Siri performs tasks like texting your friends or searching the internet hands-free. The process is a simple one and should only take you a minute or two. Here's what you need to do to enable Siri on your iPhone:

1. Go to your iPhone settings on your home screen

2. Scroll down and tap "Siri & Search"

Find "Siri & Search" in your iPhone settings Credit: Screenshot/ apple

3. Tap the switch at the top to turn it green and enable "Listen for 'Hey, Siri'"

4. Your iPhone will prompt you to set up "Hey, Siri" — tap "Continue"

5. You'll be asked to say a series of phrases into your phone, this calibrates Siri and helps the software understand and react to your individual voice

6. Then just tap "Done" and "Hey Siri" is successfully set up.

You can now say "Hey Siri" and ask Siri to do a number of different commands, such as calling your mom.

You can also access Siri by using a button on your iPhone (rather than your voice). Again, you'll find this option in your iPhone settings in "Siri & Search."

Under "Listen for 'Hey, Siri'" you'll see an option that says "Press Side Button for Siri" (or, if you have an iPhone model that still has a "Home" button, it'll say "Press Home Button for Siri." Tap the switch on the right to turn it green, which will enable you to hold your side button or Home button to bring up Siri.

Once you have both "Listen for 'Hey, Siri'" and "Press Side/Home button for Siri activated, your Siri & Search settings should look like this:

How it'll look when Siri is fully enabled on your iPhone Credit: andy moser / apple

Siri is now enabled on your iPhone! So next time you say, "Hey, Siri!" she might actually answer you.

Harrison.ai founders Harrison.ai founders Dimitry Tran, Dr. Colin Goldschmidt and Dr. Aengus Tran Photo by Stefanie Zingsheim/The Photo Pitch

Harrison.ai, a Sydney-based company that creates medical devices with AI technology, announced today it has raised $129 million AUD (about $92.3 million USD) in what it says is one of the largest Series B rounds ever for an Australian healthtech company.

The funding was led by returning investor Horizons Ventures, and included participation from new investors Sonic Healthcare and I-MED Radiology Network. Existing backers Blackbird Ventures and Skip Capital also returned for the round, which brings Harrison.ai’s total raised over the past two years to $158 million AUD.

Harrison.ai announced it has also formed a joint venture with Sonic Healthcare, one of the world’s largest medical diagnostics providers, to develop and commercialize new clinical AI solutions in pathology. The partnership will focus first on histopathology, or the diagnosis of tissue diseases.

This follows another joint venture Harrison.ai formed with I-MED Radiology in early 2020, creating Annalise.ai to develop AI-based radiology diagnostic support tools.

Harrison.ai CEO Dr. Aengus Tran told TechCrunch he became a doctor to help as many people as he could. “As I looked more into artificial intelligence, I fell in love with the idea of using AI to help more people than I ever could my lifetime.”

Harrison.ai was started with his brother Dimitry to scale the global capacity of quality of healthcare by giving clinicians AI-based tools. Dr. Tran said that Annalise.ai was able to release its first regulatory-approved product within 18 months, an AI tool that detects clinical findings on chest X-rays.

The funding will also be used to hire more AI data scientists and engineers, and form clinical partnerships around the world to expand into new healthcare areas. Harrison.ai says its AI-based technology can help improve the diagnosis process in places where there is a healthcare shortage.

“COVID has intensified the inequities and struggles the global healthcare system was already under, especially in critical areas like radiology and pathology,” said Dr. Tran. “For the past decade and more we have seen a critical shortage of radiologists in both developed and developing markets, and that has only gotten worse as COVID led to further skills shortages and a backlog of elective procedures and requirements.”

He added that Harrison.ai’s AI-based technology is designed to help scale healthcare systems, and are not meant to replace clinicians. “We’re giving them the tools to make critical healthcare decisions quickly, and at scale, with the help of artificial intelligence.”

Harrison.ai currently has teams in Australia, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, and plans to expand into other countries soon. Its products are ready for market in Australia, the UK, Europe and some Asian countries, Dr. Tran said. The company’s goal is to expand into other markets, with the goal of helping one million patients a day.

More investor money is flowing into Indonesia’s startup ecosystem. Today, AC Ventures, which focuses early-stage startups in the country, announced it has raise $205 million in committed capital for its oversubscribed Fund II, more than double its original target of $80 million. Investors include World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Disrupt AD, the venture development platform of Abu Dhabi Developmental Holdings. This brings the firm’s total assets under management to about $380 million.

AC Venture’s Fund III has been actively investing since its first close in March 2020, and has now completed 30 out of its 35 targeted investments, and says it is on track to deploy over $100 million by the end of 2021. All of its investments were in pre-Series A stage startups. The firm says many portfolio companies gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some, like Shipper, Stockbit, Ula, Aruna, Bukuwarung and Colearn, reaching “centaur” status, or a valuation of at least $100 million. AC Ventures also says Fund III is delivering strong early returns, with a MOIC (multiple on invested capital) of 1.94X less than two years after its first close.

Back in October 2020, when TechCrunch covered Fund III’s first close, its target was $80 million. That number increased, until finally reaching more than $200 million. Fund III’s typical check size varies widely. Founder and managing partner Adrian Li told TechCrunch that having a larger fund size gives AC Ventures the flexibility to deploy the right amount of capital based on the stage of a startup, so it doesn’t have to worry about finding co-investors or other srouces of capital. This means that depending traction and sector, Fund III’s first check sizes can range from a few hundred thousand dollars to several million.

AC Ventures’ founding team Adrian Li, Pandu Sjahrir and Michael Soerijadji

“I think with the increased traction of the portfolio during COVID and a step up in global interest in Asian companies, startups have raised faster than,” said Li. “The larger fund allows us to make sure we can keep our pro ratas and maintain ownership percentages in the best companies.”

He adds that at the beginning of 2021, it “became clear that technology companies were being relied on more than ever to help people continue their daily lives, whether shopping, paying or even entertainment, and that was quickly reflected in the public markets.” He added, “I think the turning point was probably August or September last year. From then, institutional investors and LPs began to realize that COVID was not going away in the short term. They therefore started looking for companies that were “having huge moments of adoption, new users and new user frequency by existing users, and Indonesia was a stand out.”

AC Ventures two earlier funds returned 2.99X and 2.41X gross MOICs, and they include unicorns Xendit and Carsome. The firm’s portfolio companies have also raised a total of more than $500 million in follow-on funding from investors like Sequoia, Tiger Global and Prosus.

The firm started investing in 2014 as Convergence Ventures and in 2019, became AC Ventures through a merger with Agaeti Venture Capital. It now has a total of more than 100 portfolio companies, which AC Ventures says makes it one of the largest Indonesian-focused early-stage venture capital firms.

Many of AC Ventures’ partners, including Li, are former entrepreneurs who have worked in markets like the United States, China and Indonesia. As a result, he says they are uniquely positioned to work closely with startups from early stage to exits. For example, AC Ventures helps its portfolio companies hire key talent, introduces them to the right business partnerships to scale and helps with downstream financing. Having a larger fund gives AC Ventures more ability to invest in wha tthey call their value creation team, or a group of experts in areas like data operations and growth and scaling.

“Building a specific team whose sole objective is to increase the value of our portfolio companies through their advice and interactions is someting that’s really excites us. With a small fund, it’s hard to build an operational team to help portfolio companies, but now with the larger fund size, we’re able to invest into that,” said Li.

Since it works with very early-stage startups, AC Ventures has developed specific strategies for deciding on investments. For example, it makes decisions using a comparable market and business model analysis to understand new sectors.

Li says AC Ventures invests in companies with great teams and strong ideas, or companies that have bootstrapped their way to having customers and revenue. “There isn’t a hard and fast rule, but what we want to do is come into companies as early as possible, where we have built a conviction around the team and market so we can be a longstanding partner in them as they grow.”

At early stages, “there’s not much data you can underwrite on,” he added. “Fortunately, investing in Indonesia, we have the benefit of hindsight for models that have worked around the world and the ability to analyze where certain markets are in Indonesia, relative to the total country and the economic development of the national. We can do a lot of market and business model research and so on, all up front. We can see if this model looks right, if it’s got big potential, if it’s a business model that’s worked well in markets like China or India.”

AC Ventures has also done quantitative and qualitative analysis of its most successful portfolio companies, and honed in on a set of signals that identify the founding teams with the most potential. Li said this gives the firm a more objective way of ranking early-stage startups.

For example, it’s important for at least one of the founders, usually the CEO, to have the strong capability to convey their vision to relevant stakeholders, constituents or first users and business partnerships. When AC Ventures asks founders about their business, they also need to be able to go into detail, including all their numbers, what works and what doesn’t. “Running a business, there are all these devils in the details that are very necessary, so you know what experiments to run, how to ititerate your product. There’s a lot to take in at the early stage of a business, but we find it critical that the founding team is really on top of that.”

In statement about IFC’s investment in AC Ventures’ Fund III, Azam Khan, IFC country manager for Indonesia, Malaysia and Timor-Leste said, “IFC’s partnership with AC Ventures underscores our long-term commitment to Indonesia’s economic development and digital transformation.”

For many of us, our multitasking iPhones have replaced many other tools and gadgets, including our cameras, calculators, torches, notepads, GPS units, and even our compasses. There's one more item your iPhone can replace — a magnifying glass.

We're taking a look at the iPhone's Magnifier app, a super useful free tool that allows you to magnify using your iPhone's camera.  

The iPhone's Magnifier app

With Magnifier, you can turn your iPhone or iPad into a magnifying glass so you can zoom in on objects or text near you. Magnifier uses your iPhone's built-in camera to enlarge objects or text so you can view them more easily. 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

The app allows you to increase the zoom level and turn on the flashlight to better display objects and text. You can also adjust the image brightness and contrast, and apply color filters. Plus, there's the option to freeze one or more frames to review them. 

Getting the Magnifier app set up on your iPhone

The best place to access the Magnifier app is via your iPhone's "Control Center." This is the shortcut screen you see when you swipe down from the top right hand side of your iPhone screen. 

In order to add Magnifier to your Control Center, open your iPhone's Settings app and scroll down to see "Control Center." Tap this. 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

In the next screen, you'll see your current Control Center setup, which lists included controls at the top of the screen, and more controls you have the choice to add at the bottom. Look for the Magnifier option and tap on the green plus sign icon beside it. 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

Magnifier will now appear in your Control Center options. 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

To reorder your Control Center shortcut icons, go back into Settings, then Control Center, and tap on the three lines that appear next to each tool. Drag and drop to rearrange. 

Using the iPhone's Magnifier app 

Now that you've got Magnifier set up in your iPhone's Control Center, whenever you want to use it, simply swipe down on the right hand side of your iPhone's screen and tap on the Magnifier shortcut icon. 

This will launch the app, and you'll see your live view window at the top of the screen and Magnifier's various controls at the bottom. 

The iPhone Magnifier's controls are as follows: 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

• Adjust the zoom level: Drag the zoom control slider left or right.

• Switch to the front or back camera: Tap the camera-with-arrows switch camera button, then tap front or back.

• Adjust the brightness: Tap the sun-shaped brightness button.

• Adjust the contrast: Tap the two-tone circle contrast button.

• Apply color filters: Tap the Venn diagram filters button.

• Turn on your iPhone's flashlight: Tap the flashlight-shaped button.

• Save a magnified object as an image: Tap the large central freeze-frame button. You can then share this via the share icon at the top right of your screen. 

How to customize your Magnifier app's controls

The default setup of the Magnifier's controls will be more than adequate for most iPhone owners; however, it is possible to customize how they appear on your screen. To do this, when in the Magnifier app, tap on the cog-shaped icon at the bottom left of your screen. 

Credit: Screenshot: Apple

In the next screen, you can drag and drop by tapping on the three lines icons to change the order of the controls. You can also choose to set two options as primary controls. 

This post was originally published on March 31, 2019 and has been updated multiple times.

The federal government is taking Elizabeth Holmes to court.

As you probably know by now, Holmes was the founder and CEO of Theranos, the blood-testing startup featured in the HBO doc The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (as well as a book, podcast, and, eventually, a feature film starring Jennifer Lawrence). Also being charged is former Theranos president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani.

The pair has already been tried in the court of public opinion. Now, they are facing a trial for making misleading claims about their company's ability to accurately test pinpricks of blood for a catalog of diseases.

The trial began with jury selection on Aug. 31, and opening arguments got underway Sept. 8.

Here is what is going on with the criminal trial.

What are they charged with?

The government is charging Holmes and Balwani with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.

The first conspiracy charge alleges that the two conspired to defraud investors, allegedly making "numerous misrepresentations to potential investors about Theranos’s financial condition and its future prospects," according to the Justice Department.

The second conspiracy charge alleges that they schemed to mislead doctors and patients about the speed and accuracy of test results.

Most of the wire fraud charges concern six transactions. Investors transferred money to Theranos, which the prosecution says was based on fraudulent claims about what they were getting in return. Theranos also faces two counts for wiring test results to Walgreens patients in Arizona, and one for wiring money to a New York-based media firm in New York to buy ads for Theranos Wellness Centers in Arizona.

UPDATE 2/12/2020: The charges against Holmes and Balwani got narrower after a February ruling. Judge Edward Davila said that he would dismiss any wire fraud and conspiracy charges regarding patients and doctors who had not paid for tests, or who had been reimbursed by insurance. That's because, in the judge's view, the fraud charges require injured parties to have lost money.

This does not affect the conspiracy and wire fraud charges based on defrauding investors, so although this is a legal victory for Team Theranos, Holmes and Balwani are still in a tight spot.

Why wire fraud?

While the claims Holmes and Balwani actually made to investors, doctors, and patients were allegedly fraudulent, it’s the actions associated with that fraud — receiving money, and sending money and test results — that the federal government prosecutes.

Additionally, charging Holmes and Balwani with wire fraud means Theranos' actions fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Because the alleged fraud included interstate wire transfers, the federal government, as opposed to just California, is able to go after them.

What is the evidence?

The material evidence that we know about are the wire transfers themselves. But the prosecution reportedly has more than 12 million pages of documents it plans to turn over to the defense.

In October 2018, the prosecution also won a motion allowing them to review more than 200,000 pages of internal Theranos documents. The indictment also refers to multiple press releases and media appearances that Holmes made that the prosecution considers misleading.

What does the prosecution have to do to win?

While the meat of the case is laying out the story of Theranos — a multi-billion dollar business built on a scientifically impossible idea — the biggest hurdle the prosecution will have to overcome is proving that Holmes and Balwani both knew about the fraud, and intended to defraud investors and customers. They both pleaded not guilty.

But in a deposition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a previous civil case, Holmes admitted that she made false statements about Theranos involving its ability to run tests and its supposed deployment in the military.

How much jail time are they looking at?

Holmes and Balwani could each face up to 20 years in prison, and a fine of $250,000 for each count of wire fraud and for each conspiracy count — for a potential total of $2.25 million, plus any additional restitution to victims.

What's going on with the trial now?

UPDATE 11/30/2021: Elizabeth Holmes is mounting her defense. She took the stand on Nov. 19, kicking off her testimony with four days of questioning from her attorneys.

Tweet may have been deleted

Holmes largely claimed that she was not aware of problems with Theranos' lab technology. She said that lack of transparency about using third party devices came from a desire to protect trade secrets. And on her last day of questioning by her lawyers, Holmes stated that she had been in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with her business partner and ex-boyfriend Sunny Balwani. She said he had been manipulative, and tied his controlling behavior to her conduct as CEO.

On Nov. 30, cross-examination began. The prosecution aimed to show that Holmes was aware of, and took responsibility for, the entirety of the company — including Theranos tech's shortcomings. They also showcased the way she had tried to control the company's image, including by going directly to Wall Street Journal owner, and Theranos Investor, Rupert Murdoch, in an attempt to kill John Carreyou's WSJ story that ultimately led to the company's unravelling. Holmes seemed to avoid confirming specific instances the prosecution raised about her understanding of company issues, but expressed some overarching remorse, saying that she had made mistakes.

Once cross-examination got onto the topic of Holmes' relationship with Balwani, The Verge reporter Elizabeth Lopatto tweeted that several members of the jury looked uncomfortable. The D.A. showcased emails and texts between the two that both showed that they were in a "loving" relationship at the time, and that Balwani was not trying to conceal problems in the lab — that he had shared them directly with Holmes.

Cross-examination continues on Dec. 7.

UPDATE 9/8/21: The trial is underway. Experts, investors, and victims of inaccurate test results are set to testify. In opening statements, the defense has positioned Holmes as a hard-working — if young and naive — businesswoman who never intended to hurt anybody. However, she was led astray by Balwani, and experienced investors knew the risks when they made their investments.

Meanwhile, the prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Leach, ended his opening statement with the assertion that “This is a case about fraud, about lying and cheating to get money... That’s a crime on Main Street and a crime in Silicon Valley" [per The Verge's Elizabeth Lopatto].

UPDATE 5/4/21: On May 4, 2021, Holmes came to court for the first time in over a year. The coronavirus has delayed the trial, as has Holmes' disclosure to the court in March that she was pregnant, and due to have a baby in July 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tweet may have been deleted

Holmes and her attorneys appeared in court for the first of three planned days to discuss what evidence they can and can't share with the jury.

Holmes' trial is now scheduled for late August 31, 2021. Balwani's trial will begin sometime in January 2022.

Both trials have been rescheduled multiple times.

UPDATE 4/15/20: It will reportedly be a three-month trial, which is not surprising considering how much evidence both sides have to get through.

At an April 22, 2019 status hearing in San Jose, attorneys for the defense successfully pushed for more time to review the terabytes of evidence the prosecution has been mounting against their clients.

Tweet may have been deleted

Where are they now?

Both Balwani and Holmes are out on bail. Holmes secretly got married in 2019 to her hospitality industry heir boyfriend, and was reportedly living her best life that year, living it up at Burning Man and baseball games. She disclosed to the court in March 2021 that she had become pregnant, and had her baby in July.

Have they faced any other legal action?

Yes. Earlier this March, Holmes settled a civil fraud case with the SEC. She will pay $500,000 to the SEC and agreed to not pursue business leadership roles for the next 10 years (although she is supposedly already pitching new ideas while out on bail). Balwani is pleading not guilty.

Walgreens also sued Theranos for $140 million, hoping to recoup some of its investments in the company in the wake of their disastrous partnership.

What's next?

UPDATE 5/4/21: Judge Davila began hearing pre-trial arguments in early May 2021 about the scope of evidence to include before the jury trial in August.

Additionally, prosecutors have indicated that the Theranos case is even broader than it appears at the moment — so more charges may be coming for Holmes and Balwani, too.

Correction 4/23/2019: A previous version of this story stated that a trial date had been set for July. This was not the case.

Twitch has introduced a new tool designed to detect people who create new accounts to circumvent channel bans. Called Suspicious User Detection, this new feature is intended to help combat harassment — a recurring problem on the streaming platform.

"Suspicious User Detection, powered by machine learning, is here to help you identify [returning malicious] users based on a number of account signals," Twitch wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "By detecting and analyzing these signals, this tool will flag suspicious accounts as either 'likely' or 'possible' channel-ban evaders, so you can take action as needed."

Speaking to Mashable about these "account signals," a Twitch spokesperson offered little elaboration, saying only that they include the suspected user's behavior and account characteristics. Such behavior and characteristics are then compared against previously banned accounts to find potential ban evaders.

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How Twitch's Suspicious User Detection handles these accounts differs according to its assessment of how likely it is that they're guilty. 

By default, "likely" ban evaders' messages will be blocked from appearing in chat so other viewers can't see what they're spewing. In contrast, "possible" ban evaders' messages will still be shown, however the account will be flagged to the streamer and moderators, who can then choose to restrict it from the chat. Users can also choose to adjust these automatic responses, as well as manually add users or turn off Suspicious User Detection completely. 

Unfortunately, while viewers may be shielded, streamers and moderators will still have to see every potentially hateful message regardless of how much they fiddle with the settings. A Twitch spokesperson told Mashable this is so they have the option of removing restrictions from incorrectly identified accounts, and completely banning hateful ones.

"One thing to prepare for, particularly around launch, is that no machine learning will ever be 100% accurate, which means there is a possibility of false positives and false negatives," said Twitch's blog. "That's why Suspicious User Detection doesn’t automatically ban all possible or likely evaders… The tool will learn from the actions you take and the accuracy of its predictions should improve over time as a result."

Assessing every potentially hateful user that shows up in your Twitch stream can be emotionally and mentally draining, particularly if there's a high volume of them. But at least Twitch's new tool will help quickly identify previously banned users and hopefully keep them out.

Bangalore-based fintech startup Simpl has raised $40 million as it looks to expand its online buy now, pay later service’s offerings in the world’s second-largest market.

Valar Ventures and IA Ventures led the six-year-old startup’s Series B round. LFH Ventures and some existing investors also participated in the round, said the startup, which has raised $83 million to date.

Simpl partners with popular online brands and offers their customers the ability to make purchases without paying for them at that very moment.

Over the years, additionally, it has also developed a range of offerings including a one-time checkout feature; Bill Box, which allows customers to automate their recurring expense payouts, and splitting a bill in three parts, to build a “full-stack solution,” said Nitya Sharma, co-founder and chief executive of Simpl, in an interview with TechCrunch.

Some of Simpl’s partners include telecom network Jio Platforms, food delivery service Zomato, pharmacy 1MG, grocer BigBasket and ticketing platform MakeMyTrip.

Buy now, pay later services have existed in India for several years but have started to gain fast traction only in recent quarters as e-commerce and digital payments increase their reach in the country.

One of the factors that is making these services popular among consumers is the trust deficit that exists between them and the services with which they are engaging, said Sharma, pointing to continued popularity of cash as the payment method for e-commerce firms.

Fun fact: Uber introduced the ability to let users pay driver partners with cash for the first time in its existence months after launching in India.

With a service like Simpl, customers know that they don’t have to pay right away and have the ability to dispute transactions and quickly request a refund, he said. The startup uses its own underwriting technology to determine the customers to whom it can offer its services, he said. For brands, too, an easier checkout process means the conversion increases significantly, he added.

“We built a full-stack checkout platform that gives merchants ultimate control of the user experience and helps them build trust with consumers at checkout. Simpl is like a Khata or a Tab for online commerce. This intuitive user experience, built on the bedrock of trust, will enable a larger e-commerce market and will lead to greater adoption of mobile payments in India and the rest of the world,” he said.

The startup said it has grown its monthly active merchants and active user base by 10 times in the past 18 months. Over 7,000 brands now use Simpl, the startup said. It now plans to work on further improving the consumer and merchants experience on its platform and also expand to new areas including bringing Simpl to offline neighborhood stores and building a loyalty program, said Sharma.

“India’s e-commerce market is at an inflection point and we believe Simpl’s solution is a key enabler in accelerating adoption of digital payments in e-commerce” said James Fitzgerald, partner at Valar Ventures, in a statement. “It significantly improves consumer experience, which is why it is quickly becoming a preferred partner for merchants. The team has shown great execution and we are excited to join their mission of democratizing e-commerce for all merchants big and small.”

Pay later fintech players today finance loans worth $500 million each year, analysts at Bernstein wrote in a recent note to clients. They expect the figure to balloon to $26 billion by 2025.

At its annual re:Invent conference, AWS today announced two new initiatives for the automotive industry. One is a new product, AWS FleetWise, a new service that makes it easier for automakers to collect and retrieve sensor and telemetry data from their vehicle fleets. The other is AWS Automotive, a broader, industry-specific initiative that brings together a range of the company’s products under a single umbrella, similar to AWS’s other industry solutions like AWS for Industrial.

Collecting sensor data isn’t necessarily a new thing for automakers. But FleetWise promises to provide an end-to-end solution that will give them a lot of flexibility. Maybe they want to smartly filter data right on the car to reduce the amount of data transferred to the cloud, or only pull in data from specific sensors like engine temperature, or maybe they do indeed want to get all of the data. It’s up to the individual auto manufacturer to decide what data they need.

Image Credits: AWS

Mike Tzamaloukas, AWS’ general manager for AWS Automotive, told me that no matter what data gets used, to get started with FleetWise, the manufacturer has to first describe and model the vehicle and its sensors, using the open source Vehicle Signal Specification that a number of automakers have already adopted.

AWS then provides the automakers with the source code to interact with FleetWise and collect data. The automaker’s developers can then take this code, modify it as needed and build it into the vehicle gateway, while its engineers can start building data collection campaigns to pull in data from the live vehicle fleet.

“The possibilities with data collection campaigns are endless and we are pushing the envelope in that data collection campaigns are not just time-based, are not just event-based, but it’s intelligent data filtering across your entire fleet,” Tzamaloukas explained. “That’s where we hope to give the automakers the ability to pull in the terabytes of data generated from all kinds of different cars out there, but at a much higher signal-to-noise ratio.”

Tzamaloukas expects that FleetWise will be generally available in 2022 and that we’ll see cars available for purchase with it built-in around 2024. A lot of this data may stay in the automakers’ back ends, but he noted that they could make some of it available to drivers as well, maybe in the form of more detailed monthly vehicle health reports.

As for AWS for Automotive, AWS’ Dean Phillips, who heads up this initiative, told me that he sees it as a way to clarify AWS’ capabilities for the industry. “We’re pretty excited about AWS for Automotive because it really helps clarify for our customers the different solutions that we have from AWS,” he said. These solutions include a number of different solutions areas that automakers can adopt as needed, ranging from cutting-edge autonomous mobility services to product engineering support, supply chain tracking and digital customer engagement solutions.

Tesla has yet to produce its all-electric Cybertruck, but diehard fans who need to lay their hands on something new and associated with the highly anticipated and delayed vehicle can now buy a cyberwhistle for $50. Yes, a whistle.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday a link to the webpage for his 65.1 million followers to view along with a message “Blow the whistle on Tesla,” which may or may not be a nod, a dare or a threat to those former employees who have actually attempted to do just that. He later tweeted, “Don’t waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!”

Clicking on the link, customers will see this message:

Inspired by Cybertruck, the limited-edition Cyberwhistle is a premium collectible made from medical-grade stainless steel with a polished finish. The whistle includes an integrated attachment feature for added versatility.

Note: Cyberwhistles are final sale.

Image Credits: Tesla

No word on what that integrated attachment reference means, but TechCrunch suspects it might be a lanyard hole so customers can wear this around their neck.

As any Tesla aficionado might expect, the cyberwhistle is shaped like the Cybertruck, the all-electric truck that Musk revealed back in November 2019. The Cybertruck was supposed to go into production in late 2021. The company has pushed that date to sometime in 2022, per its website in which potential customers can put down a $100 refundable deposit.

The cyberwhistle can be found housed under Tesla’s lifestyle products, which include items such as the $150 Tesla decanter, the $45 desktop charger modeled after a Tesla Supercharger, the $35 S3XY mug and several die-cast models of vehicles, including the Tesla Semi, which also has pushed the start of production to 2022.

Yeah, what is Google Home?

Basically, Google Home is an app that acts as a hub for all of your Google devices. If you have connected home products like a Google Nest thermostat, lights, cameras, or speakers, you can manage them from the Google Home app as well. The Google Home app is available both for both iOS and Android devices.

Google Home screenshots Credit: google play store

Previously, Google Home was a brand of the company's smart speaker, so the term can be a bit confusing. Now the brand Google Home includes everything on its smart home platform, with the Google Home app being the main hub.

The company now offers a line of smart devices under the Google Nest name, such as the Google Nest Cam or Google Nest Audio smart speaker.

The Google Home app allows you to control many different areas of your house while keeping all of your connected devices and services in one, neat and tidy place. It also lets you "Create Routines that allow you to turn on compatible lights, check the weather, play the news, and more with one simple command," the Google Play Store description says.

For instance: If you're away on vacation and want to check in on things at your place, you can use the app to do so. See your camera feed, turn lights on and off, and adjust the temperature in case you forgot to before you left. It also lets you view a "recap of recent events," and it will notify you if something deemed as "important" happens while you're gone.

Google Home screenshots Credit: google play store

Amongst its other uses, Google Home can run WiFi speed tests to help you diagnose internet problems, and if you want to prioritize traffic to certain areas (like video games or video call connection), you can do that, as well.

SEE ALSO: The lighting is always flattering with the best smart bulbs — these are our faves

Having all of your home services and devices available and manageable in one place sounds convenient, sure, but it also raises valid concerns about access and privacy. Google claims to utilize "one of the world’s most advanced security infrastructures, which we build directly into Google products so that they’re secure by default. The built-in security in your Google Account automatically detects and blocks threats before they reach you, so that your personal information is secure."

Still, some have valid concerns about one company being so involved in your life.

So, what is Google Home? It's, well, your home! More specifically, it's a mechanism that acts as a control center for every home device or service connected to it.

Digital mortgage lender Better.com, which announced in March that it was going public via a SPAC, is getting a cash infusion from its backers sooner than expected. Blank-check company Aurora Acquisition Corp. and SoftBank have decided to amend the terms of their financing agreement to provide Better with half of the $1.5 billion they committed immediately instead of waiting till the deal closes.

Sources familiar with the deal who preferred to remain anonymous told TechCrunch that with the new arrangement, capital hits the company’s balance sheet now (faster than originally planned) and puts more money on the balance sheet overall to fuel further growth. Specifically, according to an email from Better CFO Kevin Ryan to the company and obtained by TechCrunch, Better.com will have $1 billion on its balance sheet by week’s end. 

In the email, Ryan told employees:

“We pulled forward the funding of our spac deal…With this new structure the company will fortify our balance sheet and position us as extremely well capitalized in a tough mortgage market. Surviving is winning and capital ensures survival….By the end of this week we expect to have 1bn of cash on the company’s balance sheet. Quantum’s more than we have ever had. [sic] We will continue working through the process of public listing but the most important step has been taken (getting the money).”

The new arrangement will replace the prior agreement wherein $950 million of the $1.78 billion in committed financing from Aurora and SoftBank would have been used to purchase existing shares from Better’s stockholders rather than the company receiving it directly to its balance sheet.

The amended terms will not change Better’s implied valuation of $6.9 billion, the company says.

As for what Better plans to do with the capital, a spokesperson told TechCrunch that the money will help the company double down on existing businesses, continue to build out “a custom-first home purchase experience” and launch new products and services “that make the post-close homeownership experience as Amazon as customers deserve it to be.”

Better, which recently added a number of new insurance products, plans to expand its offerings into other product categories, including personal loans, student loans, and life insurance. 

The company chose to go public via a SPAC rather than taking the traditional IPO route because it preferred the guarantee of execution that SoftBank offered it with the blank-check deal, CEO Vishal Garg said in September. 

Today, Rover announced its annual list of most popular pet names drawn from users of its online service. Most of the list, which includes cats and dogs, are classic run-of-the-mill pet names—"Daisy" and "Max" for dogs and "Luna" and "Leo" for cats. But some of the more unconventional names are no doubt a reflection of the times. This year, for the first time, "Dr. Fauci," "Britney Spears," and "Elon Musk" made the cut. And it seems like a lot of dog owners watch The Mandalorian, because "Grogu" was the number one trending name this year.

Other trending names sound like a star-studded red carpet event. "Doja Cat," "Dua Lipa," "Aretha Franklin" for cats and BTS-inspired dog names all increased in popularity this year. Unfortunately, people also thought it was a good idea to name their pets after cryptocurrencies like "Doge" and yes, "Bitcoin."

Rover, which is an online marketplace for buying and selling pet-related services like walkers and sitters, compiled this list from its millions of user-submitted pet names. The full report of top dog and cats names of 2021 respectively can be found here and here.

South Korea-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform PeopleFund announced today it has closed a $63.4 million (75.9 billion won) Series C round led by Bain Capital with participation from Goldman Sachs. Returning investors in the round include CLSA Lending Ark Asia and 500 Global.

The latest funding brings the total raised by PeopleFund to about $83.6 million (100 billion won) since it was founded in 2015.

The Series C will support hiring AI engineers and secure alternative data to advance its credit-scoring algorithm further. PeopleFund also will beef up its machine learning-powered credit scoring system, which is one of its key differentiators, that provides a quantitative scoring model (for credit valuation), a qualitative scoring model and a demand forecasting model (for near-primer borrowers).

PeopleFund wants to address the structural problem involving the risk of high interest-rate loans in the near-prime loan sector and offer more personalized financial products to sub-prime and near-prime borrowers with its data-driven technology platform, said CEO and founder Joey Kim told TechCrunch.

“For the past six years, we have been focusing on proving the performance of our data-driven risk management technology, which is the essence of consumer lending,” Kim said. “Our mission is to grow into the #1 player in the Korean non-bank lending market to provide better loan options for average Koreans that the banks underserve.”

The financing event comes five months after PeopleFund received its regulatory approval from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) to register with the government.

In early June, only three Korean P2P lenders out of 41 applicants were granted licenses from the FSC to operate the business legally: PeopleFund, Lendit and 8 Percent. The FSC said it will continue to review other applicants.

South Korea has passed the first law in the world dedicated to digital lending, ‘The Marketplace Lending Act’, in August 2020 to regulate marketplace lenders, protecting P2P consumers. The new law enables the licensed P2P lending startup to operate as an authorized financial institution to lend, raise capital from international and domestic institutions, and provide loan referral services to its customers.

The number of marketplace lenders in Korea has fallen from 237 to 102, between August 2020 and May 2021, as per its annual report in 2020.

PeopleFund

PeopleFund, which connects borrowers with lenders to enable lending, provides loans at an average interest rate of 11.25 percent per annum, about 3 percent to 4 percent lower than other non-bank lenders. Near-prime borrowers are not qualified for bank loans thus have no choice but to resort to non-bank lenders like credit card loans (or saving banks), Kim said.

What sets PeopleFund apart from other competitors is the lowest delinquency rate in the industry, being managed by its own alternative credit scoring system, and having strong risk management capabilities, Kim said. PeopleFund claims it has managed over $1 billion in loans as of October 2021, with a delinquency rate of 2.06%.

Another differentiator is its credit scoring system optimized for mid-interest loans based on about 480,000 loan customers registered on its platform. PeopleFund built a credit scoring system (CSS) 4.0 for near-prime borrowers to provide more affordable mid-rate loans to borrowers, who use the funds to refinance existing loans taken from other second-tier lenders. The refinancing loans account for 66 percent of its total loans, he added.

Kim said that its clients include near-prime borrowers and individuals and institutional investors who expect 7%-9% the ROI per annum (before tax). Its lenders are mostly retail customers the company has through its partnership with Kakao Pay.

“For individual and institutional lenders, we offer diversified lending opportunities at an average annual return rate of 6 percent to 9 percent. For the borrowers and the lenders, [our] AI-based data-driven underwriting process has been the core of its competitive advantage, which has been outperforming other non-bank players by a 3 percent to 5 percent gap in loss rate,” Kim said.

PeopleFund targets the traditional personal credit loans market in South Korea, which is estimated at around $67 billion, according to the company.

The company, which accounted for about 57% of market share in the personal loan of the P2P lending market as of October, expects to generate profit in 2022, Kim said.

“While leading online lenders in the U.S. have grown to worth billions out of lending platforms such as Upstart and SoFi, Korea’s online lending is only just beginning, said Tim Chae, managing partner of 500 Global that participated in all fundraising since the seed round. “We strongly believe that PeopleFund will grow to become a clear winner with its proven track record, accelerating tech-driven innovations in the non-bank lending sector in Korea.”

Investment in fintech is surging back following a brief but notable drop during the COVID pandemic. As a result, countries worldwide are seeing a large influx of capital for fintech ventures, and both investment totals and deal counts in the fintech space are increasing rapidly.

Although a large part of fintech funding focuses on countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, smaller countries, particularly in Asia, are making their presence known. This is hardly surprising given that Asia leads the world in fintech adoption rates.

Singapore is one country building a solid reputation as a hub of fintech activity, and this reputation is generating substantial investment.

Singapore’s fintech investment surges forward

According to KPMG, total fintech funding worldwide in the first half of 2021 reached $98 billion from 2,456 deals, rebounding strongly from the COVID-inspired investing dip of 2020.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. accounted for most of the total investment at $42 billion. However, fintech funding also recovered well in Asia and the EMEA region.

For the first half of 2021, Asian fintech funding activity amounted to $7.5 billion despite the lack of any notably large deals. CBInsights estimates that Asian fintech funding in Q3 is strong at nearly $6 billion, trailing only the U.S.

Despite its small size (less than 5 million total population), Singapore is quickly reaching investment levels of countries many times its size. Although the KPMG data shows only $614 million during the first half, the Singapore Monetary Authority’s chief fintech officer, Sopnendu Mohanty, suggests a strong surge in the second half, pushing Singapore’s total to $3 billion. Given the record number of deals in the first half of 2021, Mohanty’s optimism seems justified.

Compare Singapore’s total to countries like Canada and the major European countries. In the first half, Canada’s total investment was $4.8 billion, while France and Germany were each in the $2 billion-$2.5 billion range. But these countries are six to 10 times the size of Singapore and have similarly larger GDPs.

Singapore’s investment level is also notable among countries in the Asia Pacific. The two most populated countries, China and India, generated only $1.3 billion and $2 billion, respectively. Australia had less than a billion. Singapore is swinging well above its weight when it comes to fintech investment.

Fintech adoption drives investment

Fintech adoption continues to grow rapidly, and the pandemic only provided additional fuel for the fire. Adoption rates in Europe, for example, accelerated by 72% in 2020 alone.