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Alnoor Peermohamed / The Economic Times : Indian grocery delivery startup Grofers raises ~$60M from SoftBank Vision Fund, as part of a larger Series F round in progress, reportedly at a $425M valuation   —  SoftBank has moved Grofers to its $100 billion Vision Fund.  The Japanese group had earlier backed the e-grocer through its balance sheet. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2tLuifo

Ola, Uber’s key rival in India, is doubling down on electric vehicles after it span out a dedicated business, which has pulled in $56 million in early funding. The unit is named Ola Electric Mobility and it is described as being an independent business that’s backed by Ola. TechCrunch understands Ola provided founding capital, and it has now been joined by a series of investors who have pumped Rs. 400 crore ($56 million) into Ola Electric. Notably, those backers include Tiger Global and Matrix India — two firms that were early investors in Ola itself. While automotive companies and ride-hailing services in the U.S. are focused on bringing autonomous vehicles to the streets, India — like other parts of Asia — is more challenging thanks to diverse geographies, more sparse mapping and other factors. In India, companies have instead flocked to electric. The government had previously voiced its intention to make 30 percent of vehicles electric by 2030, but it has not formally introduced ...

Charity demands action after 5,000 online grooming offences were recorded by police in 18 months. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2GSnaX6

19-year-old Santiago Lopez is the first to make over a million dollars breaking into IT software. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2TloGGZ

Tesla made a flurry of announcements this afternoon with the highlight being the company’s reveal of its $35k Model 3. That reveal grabbed the most headlines, but updates to the Model S and Model X lines brought the costs of high-end models down with maxed out Performance + Ludicrous Mode versions of the S and X receiving healthy $18k discounts. The $35,000 Tesla Model 3 has arrived — but it comes with a price The Model S has the same entry-level price at $79k but the price bump to go from the Standard Range to more souped up versions is a lot more accessible with some huge price drops on the Long Range and Performance models. The Long Range Model S, which takes the top speed from 140mph to 155 mph and the range from 270 miles to 335 miles, now prices in at $83k, down from $96k. With $4k separating the standard and long-range models, it’s interesting that they even decided to keep the Standard Range version and didn’t just have the Long Range as the entry-level model with the ...

Finextra Research Headlines : Revolut CFO Peter O'Higgins resigns this week in wake of allegations made against Revolut of allowing money laundering, and using dodgy hiring practices   —  The CFO of Revolut has resigned as the fintech unicorn makes headlines for all the wrong reasons, with allegations surface over serious lapses … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Uc5ade

Tapping on a keyboard has been the standard way to interact with computers, but that is changing. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2UjqjSZ

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch : LinkedIn suspends emails to connections when a European member has been mentioned in the news, after algorithm mixes up identities   —  LinkedIn has been forced to ‘pause’ a feature in Europe in which the platform emails members' connections when they've been ‘mentioned in the news’. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2EG9o7H

Jon Russell / TechCrunch : Thailand's government passes cybersecurity bill that has been criticized for vagueness and the potential to give the government sweeping access to user data   —  Thailand's government passed a controversial cybersecurity bill today that has been criticized for vagueness and the potential to enable sweeping access internet user data. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2IH6PGh

Robert Hof / SiliconANGLE : Dell reports Q4 revenue of $23.84B, up 9% YoY, in its first quarter as a newly public company, but a net loss of $287M, up from $133M in 2018   —  In its first quarter as a newly public company, Dell Technologies Inc. today reported marginally better-than-expected quarterly revenue growth but a higher-than-expected net loss. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Vt6Q1Y

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Twitter says in the coming months it will test a Hide Tweet feature that allows users to hide replies to their tweets that others can view through a menu option   —  Twitter has confirmed it's developing a new “Hide Tweet” option, but has yet to provide detail about its launch plans for the feature. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2EEqS40

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch : Tesla says it is shifting all sales globally to online, resulting in some store closures and layoffs but allowing vehicle prices to be lowered by ~6% on average   —  Tesla is moving all of its sales online, a dramatic shift in its sales strategy that will result in the closure of stores … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2tIXRxS

Josh Constine / TechCrunch : In letter to Sen. Warner, Facebook says teens were ~18% of users of its Research app over its lifetime; Facebook had said publicly that teens were less than 5%   —  Facebook has changed its story after initially trying to downplay how it targeted teens with its Research program … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2NDvASM

Jem Aswad / Variety : RIAA: US revenue for recorded music grew 12% in 2018 to $9.8B largely due to a 30% surge in streaming revenue; subscriptions to services like Spotify topped 50M   —  The U.S. music industry posted its third consecutive year of double-digit growth, according to the RIAA's year-end revenue report issued today. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2T5UlNf

Tesla is moving all of its sales online, a dramatic shift in its sales strategy that will result in the closure of stores and some layoffs as the automaker looks for ways to reduce costs in order to bring a cheaper Model 3 to market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t say how many stores would close. He noted that some stores would remain and turn into information centers and showrooms. The company didn’t provide specific numbers on how many retail employees might be affected. “We will be closing some stores a nd that will be some reduction in head count as a result; t here’s no question about that,” Musk said. “ There’s no other way for us to achieve the savings  required to provide this car and be financially sustainable. I wish there was another b ut unfortunately, it will entail reduction in work force on the retail side, no way around it.” The shift to online-only sales, plus other cost efficiencies, allowed the company to lower al...

Forget the office ping pong table,  Cherry , a startup in Y Combinator’s latest batch, wants to let employees take company perks into their own hands. Cherry co-founders (and sisters) Gillian and Emily O’Brien say their Slackbot marketplace will let employees completely personalize the lifestyle benefits they get from their company, allowing them to set up a Spotify Premium account or buy a subscription to Classpass instead of just taking what perks their company dishes out at face value. Companies will pay huge amounts of money to deliver sweeping employee memberships or build a company gym even if there are only a few people interested in using them. Cherry could potentially eliminate a lot of wasted efforts while still managing to  potential recruits. The available subscriptions run the gamut from things like Classpass, Netflix, Spotify, Peloton, Postmates and other services that allow employees to feel like they’re getting. A sampling of Cherry’s 40+ available services...

Facebook has changed its story after initially trying to downplay how it targeted teens with its Research program that a TechCrunch investigation revealed was paying them gift cards to monitor all their mobile app usage and browser traffic. “Less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch and many other news outlets in a damage control effort 7 hours after we published our report on January 29th. At the time,  Facebook claimed that it had removed its Research app from iOS. The next morning we learned that wasn’t true, as Apple had already forcibly blocked the Facebook Research app for violating its Enterprise Certificate program that supposed to reserved for companies distributing internal apps to employees. It turns out that wasn’t the only time Facebook deceived the public in its response regarding the Research VPN scandal. TechCrunch has attained Facebook’s unpublished February 21st...