Egypt’s Taager Raises $6.4m in Seed Funding Met Police Seizes £180m in Crypto, and Windows Launches Cloud PC

Africa

Egypt’s Taager raises $6.4m in seed funding

Egypt’s social ecommerce platform, Taager, has secured up to $6.4 million in seed funding from Breyer Capital, Beco Capital, among others. Taager offers logistical and operational infrastructure for online traders.

Smile Identity secures $7m in Series A

Smile Identity raises $7 million in Series A funding to expand its KYC identity verification tools across Africa. The round was led by Costanoa Ventures with participants including Future Africa and other angel investors.

Ghana officially launches government service website

Ghana’s vice president government has officially launched its Ghana.gov website to provide a single point of access for all government-related services. The site will also serve as revenue mobilisation platform for government services.

Europe

Google fined €500m in France

France’s competition watchdog has fined Google €500 million for not negotiating in good faith with news organisations. This is the latest battle in the global fight over copyrights between tech firms and news organisations.

EE aims for complete 5G coverage by 2028

UK telecoms giant, EE, aims to achieve complete 5G coverage by the end of 2028. Some remote areas will have access-on-demand, with satellites, drones, and portable cells available as and when needed.

Police seize £180m in stolen cryptocurrency

Met Police have seized a record £180 million in cryptocurrency in London. The stolen funds were said to be connected to international money laundering ring in the UK.

The Americas

Windows announces cloud PC

Windows has announced Windows 365, a cloud-based PC that allows users to stream the contents of their PCs on different devices. This will make it easy to stream your PC on Apple Macs in the future.

Amazon introduces encryption on Ring doorbells

Amazon is rolling out encryption across all Ring doorbells after it concluded a successful trial in the US. This means files will only be accessible on the user’s smartphone.

WhatsApp will allow users to send messages without phones

WhatsApp will soon allow users to send messages even without their phones. The new multi-device compatibility means that users will be able to send messages on other connected devices like PCs even when the phone is offline.

Asia

Iran launches first state-sanctioned dating app

Iran has unveiled the country’s only state-sanctioned dating app to help young people get married. Developed by the Islamic Propaganda Organisation, Hamdan will be the only legal dating app in the country.

Iranian hacker discovered in London

An Iranian hacker group pretending to be British academics has been discovered by cyber-security company Proofpoint. The group is alleged to have ties to the Iranian state.

India’s Flipkart raises $3.6bn in funding

India’s retail giant, Flipkart, has raised a further $3.6 billion in a funding round as it prepares for a debut on the stock market. This has raised the company’s valuation to $37.6 billion.