Natasha Lomas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
NeoCarbon wants industrial cooling towers to join the climate fight
NeoCarbon, a Berlin-based climate tech startup that’s taking a retrofitting approach to scaling direct air capture (DAC) devices for uptake of CO2 emissions has nabbed pre-seed funding. Its focu
Google’s adtech practices targeted in UK, EU antitrust damages suits
More antitrust litigation targeting Big (ad)Tech: Google is being sued in the U.K. and the Netherlands where two suits have been announced today seeking damages on behalf of publishers who claim they
EU urged to reject ‘weak’ Amazon offer to end antitrust probe
A series of commitments offered by Amazon in the EU, where regulators are investigating competition concerns linked to its use of third-party data, has been dubbed “weak, vague and full of looph
Yandex’s sale of News and Zen to VK completes
Russian search giant Yandex has confirmed the completion of the sale of two of its flagship media properties, News and Zen, to local social media giant, VK, following regulatory approvals. As we repor
Klim harvests $6.6M seed to get more farmers growing greener
Berlin-based agriTech startup Klim is in a hurry to get farmers adopting so-called ‘regenerative’ methods — which are touted as less harmful to soils and biodiversity than convention
Adtech’s compliance theatre is headed to Europe’s top court
For those watching the slow motion unpicking of surveillance advertising in the European Union here’s a fresh development on the long and winding road to a long-overdue legal reckoning: Multiple
Localyze, a SaaS for staff relocation, gets $35M as it gears up for US launch
Hamburg-based Localyze is gearing up to launch in North America in the coming months — powered by a fresh raise of $35 million in Series B funding that’s being announced today, a little ov
Solar Foods wants to replace industrial animal farming with a high-tech protein harvest
Fermentation has a long, rich history in food production, from beer and wine to yogurt and cheese, leavened bread and coffee, miso and tempeh, sauerkraut and kimchi, to name just a few of the tasty th
Instagram fined €405M in EU over children’s privacy
A fat fine — of €405 million — is headed Instagram’s way after European Union privacy regulators came to a decision on a long-running complaint related to how the social media plat
UK closely probing four tech firms over kids’ privacy code breaches
The U.K. could be gearing up to hit a handful of tech firms with enforcement orders (and potentially fines) related to a children’s online privacy and safety Code which has been in force for a y
UK dials up scrutiny of Microsoft’s $68.7BN Activision deal over antitrust concerns
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion all-cash deal to bag gaming giant Activision Blizzard faces closer antitrust scrutiny in the U.K. where the country’s market watchdog has just announced it will m
Planted gets $72M to put whole cuts of vegan chicken on Europe’s menu
Planted, a Swiss startup that’s cooking up alternative proteins using biostructuring and fermentation to serve “clean” cuts of vegan meat — such as the plant-based chicken brea
Gopuff to pull out of Spain as q-commerce belt tightening continues
The q-commerce belt tightening continues: U.S. category veteran Gopuff, the SoftBank-backed delivery platform juggernaut — which was being valued at $15 billionN as recently as 2020, and had bee
Fleksy targets devs with SDK platform for smart keyboard features
Keyboard tech licensing startup Fleksy has expanded its SDK offering with an eye on winning over indie devs and app makers with an accessible, SaaS-like platform entry-point to its software licensing
Flush with fresh funds, UK ‘eco laundry’ startup Oxwash spins up growth plans
Oxwash, a U.K. startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12 millio
Facebook moves to settle Cambridge Analytica lawsuit
Can money buy privacy? Facebook’s parent, Meta, has proposed to settle a long-running privacy class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California related to the Cambridge Analytica scand
UK competition litigation against Meta will proceed to class-certification hearing
Novel competition litigation filed in the U.K. against Facebook/Meta — seeking to extract billions in damages from the social media giant via an opt-out class action lawsuit route — will p
Twitter faces privacy scrutiny from EU watchdogs after Mudge report
The explosive Twitter whistleblower complaint that was made public yesterday — detailing a raft of damning allegations across security, privacy and data protection issues (among others) by Twitt
Google faces ‘spam ads’ ePrivacy complaint in France
Google is facing a fresh privacy complaint in Europe over ads it inserts into its Gmail email service in the guise of emails. Privacy advocacy group, noyb, has filed the complaint with France’s
Cycle-focused femtech startup, 28, grabs backing from Thiel Capital
Meet 28: A U.S.-based femtech startup founded by a wife and husband team that’s scored $3.2 million in seed funding in a round led by Thiel Capital with a fitness and wellness pitch that aims to