Lolli, a bitcoin and cashback rewards application, has raised an $8 million Series B round, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Its rewards program awards its users with bitcoin or cashback when they shop online or in person at restaurants and stores.
The app gives up to 30% back on purchases, with an average of 7% back in bitcoin or cashback rewards.
Since its inception, Lolli has given over $10 million in bitcoin rewards, in addition to cashback rewards, Adelman said.
The company plans to use the momentum in the markets to “drive more revenue to partners and bring more major companies into offering bitcoin rewards,” Adelman said.
Proton Mail finally has a native desktop app, rolling out now in beta for some users on Windows and MacOS.
The encrypted email service has, of course, been available to desktop users since its inception nearly a decade ago — first through the web, and latterly via a “bridge” that opened access to Proton Mail accounts through desktop clients such as Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.
The desktop app provides offline access and is available directly from the Windows Start menu or MacOS dock, while it also bundles access to Proton Calendar, the encrypted calendar app Proton launched back in 2019.
Alongside the new app, Proton also unveiled a handful of new features that will be available to Proton Mail users on both the web and desktop.
Privacy pushFounded in 2014, Proton initially only offered encrypted email, but the Swiss company has expanded into VPNs, a password manager, calendar and a cloud storage service called Proton Drive which also has its own desktop app.
Threads is finally available to users in the EUFive months after its launch in July, Meta’s social network Threads is now finally available to people living in the European Union.
At launch, the company restricted access to the new social network in the EU to become compliant with various rules of the bloc.
In July, days after Threads’ launch, Meta had to take “additional” steps to prevent EU-based users from using a VPN to access the social network.
The official launch comes after the Wall Street Journal’s report last month indicated that Meta planned to launch Threads in the EU in December.
The social network’s launch in the EU will help the company cross that mark.
Instagram introduced its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users Wednesday.
Meta’s lead for generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories.
Earlier this week, Snapchat released a new tool for its paying users that let them create and send AI-generated images.
Earlier this year, the social network rolled out the ability for Snapchat+ users to populate prompt-based backgrounds.
At the same time, the company also launched a standalone AI-image generator called Imagine with Meta, powered by its own model called Emu.
LineNext, a web3 unit of the Japanese messaging app Line, raised $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South Korea, to expand its web3 platform.
The new funding comes nearly a year after LineNext released its browser-only beta service — a consumer-to-consumer(C2C) marketplace launched on its non-fungible token (NFT) platform DOSI.
The company plans to use the new capital to launch its official NFT platform DOSI and web3 services in January next year.
LineNext will also release a new social app allowing users to communicate via AI avatars and launch new Web3 games utilizing Line’s character Brown and Friends.
LineNext Korea manages Web 3 business strategy, while Line Next U.S. operates the NFT platform business.
Maka, an African fashion and beauty e-commerce platform, has raised a $2.65 million pre-seed round led by Pan-African venture capital firms 4DX Ventures and Janngo Capital.
She said launching Maka began during the pandemic when she was in Ghana and struggled to find inclusive fashion inspiration.
To address the trust element, Maka leverages videos as a means to connect users with trusted creators.
Notably, the platform offers a review option, allowing customers who make purchases to share their feedback through video reviews, usually between 30 and 60 seconds long.
Furthermore, creators can download their reviews from Maka and share them on other social media platforms, earning additional points for each share.
LineNext, a web3 unit of the Japanese messaging app Line, raised $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South Korea, to expand its web3 platform.
The new funding comes nearly a year after LineNext released its browser-only beta service — a consumer-to-consumer(C2C) marketplace launched on its non-fungible token (NFT) platform DOSI.
The company plans to use the new capital to launch its official NFT platform DOSI and web3 services in January next year.
LineNext will also release a new social app allowing users to communicate via AI avatars and launch new Web3 games utilizing Line’s character Brown and Friends.
LineNext Korea manages Web 3 business strategy, while Line Next U.S. operates the NFT platform business.
LineNext, a web3 unit of the Japanese messaging app Line, raised $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South Korea, to expand its web3 platform.
The new funding comes nearly a year after LineNext released its browser-only beta service — a consumer-to-consumer(C2C) marketplace launched on its non-fungible token (NFT) platform DOSI.
The company plans to use the new capital to launch its official NFT platform DOSI and web3 services in January next year.
One of the things that sets LineNext apart from its competitors is its global infrastructure and know-how based on its global services, Kim noted.
LineNext Korea manages Web 3 business strategy, while Line Next U.S. operates the NFT platform business.
Meanwhile, the app’s broader update for all users brings several new features, including Trending Topics, to see what’s popular on Bluesky right now.
On Bluesky, users can choose from multiple, custom feeds — a sort of algorithmic choice that other microblogging platforms like Instagram Threads and X don’t have.
Of these, the “Trending Topics” section — available from the app’s search tab — is the biggest highlight as it makes the world of Bluesky feel more like Twitter/X.
(It also reflects the community that has sprung up there, as tags like #furry and #nsfw are among the trending topics at this time).
Graysky Pro is an optional subscription that supports the app’s continued development and includes additional features.
Apple said it will no longer give over records of users’ push notifications to law enforcement unless the company receives a valid judge’s order.
For its part, Google requires a court-issued order before it will hand over push notification data.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment, or say for what reason it previously allowed law enforcement to obtain users’ push notification data without a warrant.
Push notifications appear as pop-up messages on a phone alerting the user to new messages, breaking news, and other app-based updates.
Wyden said unnamed foreign governments are also demanding Apple and Google turn over users’ push notification data.
