Hey everyone! 👋

We're rolling out the red carpet of tech insights, so prepare for lots of leakages (data) and injections (IPOs, fines, investments) in today’s edition. 💰 

^{A special note from our sponsor BILL}  👋 

Hate closing your books, but love gift cards?

Close your books faster than you can spend $200 on Amazon.

No more chasing down receipts, juggling corporate cards, or wasting time during the month end close.

BILL helps you:

• Fight fraud with enforceable budgets and unlimited virtual cards

• Maximize rewards from ad spend and subscriptions

• Save time on expense reporting and closing the books

• Access credit lines from $500-5M as you scale

Take a demo of BILL Spend & Expense and we'll give you a $200 Amazon Gift Card*.

^{*Terms and conditions apply: see offer page for more details.}

• Griffin Bank gets full banking license: Banking-as-a-service platform Griffin Bank, founded by Silicon Valley veterans, is now a fully licensed bank in the UK. This comes just a year after its application, surpassing industry giants like Revolut, which are still struggling to obtain a license. (Link)

• Leaky database causes massive 2FA codes’ exposure: YX International, a company routing millions of daily SMS messages, left a critical database exposed online. This database leaked one-time security codes for logging into major platforms like Facebook, Google, and TikTok. (Link)

• Reddit seeks $748M in IPO: Popular social media platform Reddit is eyeing a $6.4 billion valuation in its IPO.  To achieve this, they and their investors are looking to raise up to $748 million by selling 22 million shares priced between $31 and $34 each. (Link)

• AMD to stop certifying TVs under 144 Hz:  AMD is raising the bar for FreeSync displays, eliminating certification for those below 144Hz and bumping requirements for higher tiers to 200Hz. AMD will prioritize smoother refresh rates for serious gamers, potentially increasing monitor costs. (Link)

• Horizon picks banks for $500M IPO: Intel-backed Chinese self-driving tech firm Horizon Robotics has chosen China Securities International, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley to assist with its upcoming Hong Kong IPO, aiming to raise $500 million. (Link)

Did you know? 😯

• Slack has had three CEOs in less than a year! 

  • Denise Dresser (present CEO) 

  • Lidiane Jones (predecessor) left Slack to join Bumble as CEO

  • Stewart Butterfield (predecessor) was also the co-founder of Slack 

• Huawei changes its CEO every 6 months?!

  • Well, Huawei rotates its CEO every six months to stay fresh.

  • Under the system, three executives take turns acting as CEO. The executives bring expertise from different parts of the company, such as marketing, wireless, and research and development.

• Apple's "Find My" feature needs a "Double Check Granny's House" update! 

  • Denver Police's attempt to track a stolen truck with iPhones led them to ransack the wrong home – belonging to a 78-year-old grandma

  • After a jury sided with the bewildered but tough-cookie homeowner, Ruby Johnson, the city is now $3.76 million lighter.

  • The moral of the story: You don’t mess with grandma! 

• Junk from space falls on Earth after 3 years!

  • A bundle of depleted batteries from the International Space Station moved around the Earth for three years before falling out of orbit and plunging back into the Earth’s atmosphere. 

    Nothing much to worry about as the trash is likely burned up as it enters the atmosphere. 

Some more cookies 🍪

• Lessons to learn from Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

• What happened to Nvidia after the blistering rally? 

• Do Google’s new bulk sender guidelines spell trouble for B2B? 

• EVs in China are coming with full-sized beds, kitchens, and drones!

Tech Throwback: March 11, 1960

On March 11, 1960, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Pioneer 5 space probe. 

Launched in 1960, the Pioneer 5 probe might have only sent data for 50 days, but it became a resounding success story for the Pioneer program. 

Originally aimed for a Venus flyby, a launch delay meant a change of course. This unexpected turn led to a major discovery: Pioneer 5 became the first probe to measure interplanetary magnetic fields, proving their existence in the space between Earth and Venus.

What an unexpected discovery, Pioneer 5! 

That’s a wrap. See you tomorrow!