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Phil Edmondson-Jones Contributor Share on Twitter Phil Edmondson-Jones is a principal at Oxx , the specialist SaaS VC backing Europe and Israel's most promising B2B SaaS businesses at the scale-up stage. Once the uncool sibling of a flourishing fintech sector, insurtech is now one of the hottest areas of a buoyant venture market. Zego’s $150 million round at unicorn valuation in March, a rumored giant incoming round for WeFox, and a slew of IPOs and SPACs in the U.S. are all testament to this. It’s not difficult to see why. The insurance market is enormous, but the sector has suffered from notoriously poor customer experience and major incumbents have been slow to adapt. Fintech has set a precedent for the explosive growth that can be achieved with superior customer experience underpinned by modern technology. And the pandemic has cast the spotlight on high-potential categories, including health, mobility and cybersecurity. Fintech has set a precedent for the explos...

Mark Wilson / Fast Company : Experts detail how Apple AirTags can be used by an abuser to discreetly track a partner despite built-in protections, especially when victims are not iOS users   —  AirTags are powerful surveillance technology.  And the National Network to End Domestic Violence believes Apple has more work to do to fix them. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2PBep9P

Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Plus One Robotics, which makes computer vision software for robotics in logistics and warehouse settings, raises $33M Series B, bringing total raised to $40M+   —  San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics today announced a $33 million Series B. The round follows an $8.3 million Series A announced … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3aPCmSi

The BBC talks to the volunteers running free workshops to help consumers fix broken gadgets. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3eI10VV

Shira Ovide / New York Times : Combined revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Facebook hit ~$1.2T this year, up 25% since March 2020, benefitting from a “perfect positive storm”   —  The dictionary doesn't have enough superlatives to describe what's happening to the five biggest technology companies … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3xCUxEa

Nearly a year after its last layoff , online coding bootcamp Lambda School just announced more cuts amid a broader structuring. In a blog post, CEO and founder Austen Allred said that the startup, which raised a $74 million Series C in August, is laying off 65 employees.  The roles that were cut span senior product, engineering, design, community management, or instructional staff. There is a Google form for companies to post job opportunities for new Lambda School alumni.  “We have been working for years on making incentive-aligned education work,” Allred wrote in a tweet. “It’s harder than we initially thought; we’ve had to invent a lot from scratch simultaneously and we have to get a lot of things exactly right.” Lambda School creates online bootcamps in the career and technical space — and it’s also a pioneer of the ISA, an income share agreement, touting it as a vital way to finance employment-ready education. ISAs essentially allow students to avoid paying upfr...

The South Korean business saw its income dented by disappointing results for its chips business. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3u6jCFq