In the wake of the petering out of the back-and-forth between Apple and the FBI over encryption, Whatsapp decided to throw the switch on end-to-end encryption for its entire userbase this week.
Messaging apps appear to be responding to consumers’ need for privacy. Signal – the messaging tool favored by Edward Snowden – opened up its desktop app to the public this week.
At Index we gather tech coverage into one platform for tech enthusiasts to keep up with the news and access that data. In this series, we fill you in every week on what’s been happening in Tech.
The overall picture
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
In the past week, Index logged 227 funding events from 32 different countries. The top 10 countries from North America and Europe in terms of number of rounds can be seen below:
North America
This week in North America there were 132 investments made at a total of $1.36 billion in capital deployment. The biggest round hauled in by a startup went to Slack, which took in a very respectable $200 million round, a year after a $160 million Series E. The round certainly legitimizes the company’s status as a Unicorn. Check out the breakdown in series in North America below:
Europe
Europe saw 45 funding rounds for a total of $226 million. Hamburg-based consumer loans marketplace Finanzcheck.de raised the biggest round with a $33 million Series C. Below you can see the breakdown of rounds for the week.
North America vs Europe
In this section we look back at the past four weeks and compare Angel and Seed level rounds, and Series A rounds in both regions. The charts show the fluctuations in average capital volume of the rounds.
This week’s must-reads
WeWork launches dorm-like WeLive spaces in New York and DC [The Next Web]
Intercom lands $50 million to own the customer communication journey [Venture Beat]
Verizon to Proceed With Yahoo Bid, Google Weighs Offer [Bloomberg]
Apple is basically sold out of the iPhone SE in stores across the US [The Next Web]
PayPal Won’t Tolerate North Carolina’s Discrimination, Scraps Expansion Plans [Huffington Post]
Why Microsoft needed to make Windows run Linux software [Ars Technica]
Google Ventures Bans Investments in North Carolina Until Anti-LGBT Law Is Repealed [Recode]
Kik beats Facebook to launching a bot store [The Next Web]
Tune in next week for another update on the state of tech. If you can’t wait that long, consider signing up to the Index.co newsletter to get the week’s hottest tech news straight in your inbox!
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