Duncan Riley
Latest from Duncan Riley
Bitcoin Investment Trust application withdrawn over fears of SEC rejection
An application by Grayscale Investments LLC to take its Bitcoin Investment Trust public has been withdrawn over fears that it would be rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The trust was seeking to raise $500 million with an investment objective that the registered shares would reflect the performance of the value of bitcoin, before liabilities and expenses of ...
Whole Foods point-of-sale terminals hacked, credit card data stolen
Just over a month since being acquired by Amazon.com Inc., Whole Foods Market disclosed Thursday that some of its point-of-sale terminals had been hacked, resulting in the theft of customer data, including credit details. How many Whole Foods outlets were affected by the hack was not made clear, but the company said the compromise of its systems only affected ...
Self-driving car technology startup Drive.ai raises $15M from Uber rival Grab
Silicon Valley self-driving car technology startup Drive.ai has raised $15 million in a new round from GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd., an Uber Technologies Inc. rival and Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing service. Founded in 2015 by former lab partners from Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, Drive.ai is building a platform that applies deep learning and AI to deliver ...
IKEA acquires TaskRabbit to help customers assemble furniture
Flat-pack furniture retailer IKEA Group has acquired TaskRabbit Inc., a San Francisco-based startup that provides an on-demand hiring platform often used to hire people to put together IKEA furniture. Founded in 2008, TaskRabbit offers an app from which users can hire what they call “Taskers” to assist with everyday chores such as cleaning, delivery, moving and handyman ...
North Korea hacking bitcoin exchanges along with threatening nuclear war
North Korea latest act of maleficence doesn’t involve nuclear weapons but something still deeply concerning to the cyrptocurrency community: bitcoin hacking. The rogue state is alleged by South Korea to have been intentionally targeting bitcoin exchanges, albeit rather poorly, like its missile technology. North Korea is accused of stealing more than 100 million won ($88,100) in ...
This Chinese startup you’ve never heard of is raising $3B on a $28B valuation
Chinese e-commerce company Meituan Dianping, which no one in the West likely has ever heard of, is close to finalizing a $3 billion venture capital fundraising on a $28 billion valuation, making it the fifth largest tech startup in the world. Previous investor Tencent Holdings Ltd., the operator of WeChat, is leading the round, with Los Angeles-based Capital ...
Lyft signs deal with Ford in race to put self-driving cars on US roads
Lyft Inc. has signed a partnership agreement with the Ford Motor Co. that will see the two companies working together to deliver self-driving vehicles to American roads by 2021. The deal, announced late Tuesday, will involve employees from both companies working together to develop software that will allow Ford’s self-driving vehicles to communicate directly with Lyft’s smartphone ...
800 pages: Journalist discovers Tinder records staggering amounts of personal information
Anyone who uses a service online knows that the company behind it gathers personal information. Just how much information some companies store has now been exposed by a European journalist who requested data from Tinder and received a staggering 800 pages in return. German reporter Judith Duportail made the request for a copy of data ...
Nearly 1,000 websites found running cryptomining code that hijacks computers
The number of websites injecting visitors’ computers with JavaScript code that is used to mine for cryptocurrency is rapidly growing, according to new research detecting nearly 1,000 sites now partaking in the practice. Security firm RiskIQ Inc. today said it made the discovery, finding 991 domains using code from Coin Hive. That company provides the service that ...
Vacuum cleaner maker Dyson to take on Tesla with its own electric car
Upscale vacuum cleaner maker Dyson Ltd. wants to take the good fight to Tesla Inc., announcing that it plans to build an electric car that will go on sale in 2020. Company founder James Dyson revealed the plans in an email to staff on Tuesday, saying that some 400 employees had been working on the ...