Plus: Uber Sued by More Than 500 Female Passengers Over Sexual Assault Complaints.
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Milk Moovement bags $26 million CAD to bolster dairy supply chain software (BETAKIT)
Milk Moovement provides a software-based platform for the dairy industry. The startup claims that its technology creates full supply chain visibility for dairy farmers and their distribution partners to track and route shipments in real-time, optimize delivery schedules, and create a significant decrease in food waste and loss of profits.
Uber broke laws, duped police and secretly lobbied governments, leak reveals (THE GUARDIAN)
The leak spans a five-year period when Uber was run by its co-founder Travis Kalanick, who tried to force the cab-hailing service into cities around the world, even if that meant breaching laws and taxi regulations. During the fierce global backlash, the data shows how Uber tried to shore up support by discreetly courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media barons.
Tata Consultancy Services, Nitro Software announce new Toronto hubs (BETAKIT)
TCS, which already has a significant presence in Canada, is launching a new “Pace Port” in Toronto to help Canadian companies develop, trial, and adopt new technologies. The facility will mark the firm’s fifth global centre of its kind.
Uber Sued by More Than 500 Female Passengers Over Sexual Assault Complaints (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Uber has long struggled to handle complaints of misconduct on the ride-sharing app. Just two weeks ago, the company released its second safety report that showed it received 3,824 reports of the five most severe categories of sexual assault in 2019 and 2020, ranging from “non-consensual kissing of a nonsexual body part” to “nonconsensual sexual penetration,” or rape.
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Welbi raises $3 million CAD to take its senior engagement software south of the border (BETAKIT)
CEO and founder Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau said she came up with the idea of Welbi after her grandfather suffered a stroke. He couldn’t hear properly on the phone, knew no one in the residence, and had no motivation to leave his room. His health became worse, and he passed away a few months later.
Unity is merging with ironSource in an all-stock deal valuing Ironsource at $4.4B in a big consolidation play for gaming (TECHCRUNCH)
“We believe the world is a better place with more successful creators in it. The combination of Unity and ironSource better supports creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful apps in gaming and other consumer-facing verticals like e-commerce,” said John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, in a statement.
Hackers are smart but lazy. Here’s how startups can take advantage (BETAKIT)
When multi-factor authentication became widely available, many believed it was enough to stop all hacker attacks. Now, even multi-factor authentication is being targeted by hackers.
Read the memo Google’s CEO sent employees about a hiring slowdown (THE VERGE)
Pichai says the company will have to “be more entrepreneurial” and work with “greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days.”
According to the memo, the company isn’t freezing hiring entirely; it’ll still hire for “engineering, technical and other critical roles.” But Pichai says that the pullback will mean “pausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areas.”
English digital transformation company Adaptavist picks Toronto for North American headquarters (BETAKIT)
The new Adaptavist office and innovation hub is part of the company’s multi-year, strategic growth plans that include providing Atlassian leadership as well as support for more diverse technology ecosystems, including Aha!, GitLab and Slack.
‘Love me tender’: how Musk wooed Twitter, only to leave it at the altar (THE GUARDIAN)
The platform last week launched a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Musk after the entrepreneur walked away from a $44bn agreement to buy the company. In a filing outlining its claim, Twitter’s legal team has given a blow-by-blow account of the events that led to the collapse of the deal.
Truffle raises $2.3 million to compete with restaurant POS incumbents Lightspeed, Square (BETAKIT)
“As a former restaurant owner, [Truffle] solved a lot of problems that the incumbent point of sale systems haven’t been able to,” said Arden Tse, investment manager at Accenture Fund.
Carlyle to Sell Unison Software to Buyout Firm Madison Dearborn (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Carlyle is keeping a minority stake, according to a statement. The transaction values Unison at more than $1 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said, who asked to not be identified because the terms are private.
Companies secure collective $1 million after Startup TNT Summit V (BETAKIT)
Across Edmonton, Calgary, and Saskatewchan, 10 side deals were made in addition to the three winners. The majority of the angel investments went to Saskatchewan startups with $391,500; followed by Calgary startups receiving a collective $342,000 and Edmonton startups receiving a collective $313,000.
Microsoft lays off a portion of its workforce as part of a ‘realignment’ (TECHCRUNCH)
“Today we had a small number of role eliminations. Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly,” Microsoft said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to invest in our business and grow headcount overall in the year ahead.”
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