54gene Secures $15m in Funding, BT Delays Removal of Huawei Equipment, and US Warn of NK Hacking Attempts

Africa

Ghana launches COVID-19 tracker app

Ghana has launched a COVID-19 tracker app to help the country fight the spread of the novel virus. Launched by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the free app is powered by the Ministry of Communications to help monitor symptoms and trace persons who have come into contact with potential carriers of the virus, it was reported. The app will rely on data from the Ghana Immigration Service to track persons who have come from countries hit with the viral pandemic. “It will help us easily track people with the virus, [and] those who have had contact with others. It is also useful in quarantine reliability, in case certain individuals need self-quarantine,” the Vice President said at the launch.

54gene secures $15m in Series A funding

Nigeria-based 54gene has secured up to $15 million in a Series A funding round that was led by Adjuvant Capital, a Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation-backed life sciences fund. Participants in the Series included V8 Capital, Raba Capital, and Ingressive Capital, according to reports. The funding will allow 54gene scale up its activities and bolster operations in genetics and clinical programmes. The company will also partner pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and diagnostic firms to improve research data on the continent. 54gene was established to bridge the gap in genomic research where African ancestry-related genome research contributed less than 3% of data used in Genome-wide Association Studies [GWAS].

Europe

UK MPs summon China-owned firms to answer questions on security

A leading Chinese-owned UK firm has been summoned by UK members of parliament to answer questions over the firm’s security, it has been revealed. The company in question, Imagination Technologies, is believed to be making plans to transfer sensitive software to firms controlled by China. MPs fear this could compromise networks in the UK and in Europe in general. “Whoever writes the code, writes the rules for the world, more than any regulation passed by bureaucrats. There’s no point in taking back control from Brussels, only to hand it over to Beijing,” Tom Tugendhat of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said. Imagination Technologies is owned by Chinese stare-owned Canyon Bridge which was incorporated in the United States. Since its takeover, though, Canyon Bridge has moved its HQ to the Cayman Islands, meaning it is no longer under US regulations. Imagination Technologies designs graphics and VR software for computer chips. In addition, analysts say it can detect if weaknesses in sensitive digital networks (backdoors) were mistakenly created or not.

BT delays removal of Huawei from core network

BT has announced plans to prolong the use of Huawei equipment in EE’s 5G network by another two years, the BBC has revealed. The British telecoms giant had planned to wean itself of Huawei technology from the core of its EE network by the end of 2021. The company has now announced that all core mobile traffic will be on Ericsson-built network by 2023. This is more in line with the UK government’s deadline. The core of a network is the most sensitive part of a telecom system through which voice and data are routed to servers and destinations across a region. In its statement, BT said it would prioritise migrating all 5G customers to the Ericsson core before doing same for users on the older 4G.

The Americas

Musk, Tesla to face lawsuit over taking tweet

A US federal judge has declared that Tesla Inc. and CEO Elon Musk will face a lawsuit over the latter’s tweet about taking Tesla private, Reuters has reported. Musk had tweeted in 2018 that, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” This led to a 13% hike in Tesla’s share price above the previous day’s listing. The share price eventually fell some 11% lower than it had been prior to his announcement after. Musk was forced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pay a $20 million fine while stepping down as CEO. Now, the court is willing to listen to a class action suit by investors who traded in Tesla stocks from August 7 to August 17 2018. The court added the plaintiffs could argue that Musk’s tweet was the “proximate cause” of volatility in Tesla’s stock price, leading to losses worth billions of dollars.

Stripe raises $600m in funding

US fintech start-up Stripe Inc. has secured up to $600 million in funding according to a Reuters report. The funding round saw investments from Andreessen Horowitz, GV and General Catalyst, the report said. The fintech company had already raised some $250 million in a Series G funding round in September of 2019. The new investment raises the fintech’s valuation to $36 billion. Stripe Inc. makes it easy for companies to bill customers and accept payments globally.

Asia

US claim North Korea hacking threat

The United States of America is warning about the potential threat of North Korean hackers targeting the financial service industry, Reuters has reported. The advisory was issued by the FBI, and the US departments of Treasury, State, and Homeland Security. North Korea has allegedly been behind a long campaign of digital theft, stealing from ATMs, and the hacking of digital currency exchanges around the world. In 2019, the UN accused North Korea of amassing $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction projects through a series of hacking efforts. The US declared that North Korea’s efforts “threaten the United States and countries around the world and, in particular, pose a significant threat to the integrity and stability of the international financial system.”

Tencent launches Arena of Valor overseas

Tencent is launching its Arena of Valor in Russia and the Middle East in a bid to capitalise on the rise in gaming as cities remain lockdown and families stay at home, it has been revealed. The overseas launch is part of Chinese-owned Tencent’s goal to diversify its revenue sources by up to 50%. “We want to capitalize on our advantage in mobile gaming development and work with our partners to really lead the way with our mobile games,” said Vincent Gao, international business director of Tencent’s biggest game studio. Tencent is planning to bring League of Legends, Pokémon, and Call of Duty to mobile users. Arena of Valor is a multi-player role-playing game where gamers fight their way through battle arenas.