Top tech startup news for today, Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Hola! Below are some of the top tech startup news for today, Tuesday, October 29, 2019.

Facebook sues Israeli cybersecurity startup NSO Group for helping hacking WhatsApp. Social network giant facebook is suing Israeli cybersecurity startup NSO Group over claims it hacked WhatsApp users earlier this year. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Facebook alleges that NSO Group used WhatsApp servers to spread malware to 1,400 mobile phones in an attempt to target journalists, diplomats, human rights activists, senior government officials and other parties. The complaint says the malware was unable to break the Facebook-owned app’s encryption, and instead infected customers’ phones, giving NSO access to messages after they were decrypted on the receiver’s device.

U.S. users spend more than $23 million in TikTok in-app purchases since launch. The headlines are filled with news about one of the most popular among teens in the US. According to a report from AppTopia, TikTok app users in U.S. have spent $23.1 million on TikTok in-app purchases since launch on August 2nd, 2018. The purchases include spending on coins and other virtual goods for the TikTok economy. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese tech startup thatt acquired music startup musical.ly in 2018.

Even though Amazon’s Echo Buds can do more than Apple’s AirPods, but it comes with some major drawbacks. Yesterday, Apple announced the launch of its new AirPods. However, according to some early testing but tech reporter at CNBC, the noise reduction option in Amazon Echo Buds, that helps block out noisy places, is something regular AirPods don’t have. Echo Buds are also integrated with Amazon Alexa. Now with Alexa voice assistant, you can call up Alexa wherever you are with the new Echo Buds. Simon Cohen from Digital Trends also said: “I wasn’t expecting the Echo Buds to deliver excellent audio quality, but they do, easily beating Apple’s AirPods.”

Datameer secures $40M in funding to build out its global sales and engineering capabilities. Datameer, a San Francisco, CA-based tech startup and maker of a data preparation and exploration solution, has secured $40 million in additional funding to further build out global sales and engineering capabilities. The round was led by existing investor ST Telemedia (STT), with participation from existing shareholders Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Nextworld Capital, Citi Ventures and Top Tier Capital Partners. Founded in 2009, Datameer is an agile analytics lifecycle platform that enables enterprises to unlock the value of all their data. The startup is the developer f Datameer X, the data prep solution for machine learning, and Neebo, a cloud-native self-service solution that enables analytics professionals to find, connect, combine, collaborate, and publish analytics assets.

French AI startup Prophesee secures $28M to provide bio-inspired computer vision solutions for autonomous navigation and connected objects. Prophesee SA, a Paris, France-based artificial intelligence startup and the inventor inventor of advanced neuromorphic vision system, has closed $28 million in funding to accelerate and expand commercialization of breakthrough event-based machine vision solution. The fund, which brings Prophesee total funding to date to $68 million, was led by the European Investment Bank. The round also includes staged investments from commercial backers, including Prophesee’s existing investors such as iBionext, 360 Capital Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Supernova Invest, as well as undisclosed investors.

Scopely raises $200M in strategic financing. Scopely, a global interactive entertainment and mobile games company, has raised $200m in Series D financing to accelerate its M&A and investment strategy, expanding its already diverse portfolio of games across new genres and IP. The round was led by NewView Capital, with participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Baillie Gifford, among others, along with existing investors Greycroft Partners, Revolution Growth and Sands Capital Ventures. Scopely creates, publishes and live operates mobile products for worldwide audiences – delivering digital, directed-by-consumer experiences of both original and beloved entertainment brands.

Western Union teams up with two fintech startups Bridged and Rebric to enhance its global cross-border platform using AI and machine learning. Western Union, a global company in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today announced it is forging business relationships with two fintech start-ups in the first class of the Western Union Accelerator Powered by Techstars. Both companies, Bridged and Rebric, are innovators in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In addition to providing business mentoring and funding through its accelerator program, Western Union is now working with both. Both Bridged and Rebric were part of 2019 class of the Western Union Accelerator powered by Techstars. Bridged AI helps companies with Data Sets and Ground Truthing to train their AI/ML models.  Rebric on the hand, uses machine learning and AI systems to help companies stay compliant with financial regulations and keep terrorists, human traffickers, and other criminals from receiving or sending money.