Overseas:
1. Waymo gets first California OK for driverless testing without backup driver
2. British app bank Monzo hits unicorn status after latest fund raising
3. Coinbase valued at $8 billion in latest fundraising round
4. Brex has partnered with WeWork, AWS and more for its new rewards program
5. U.S. restricts exports to Chinese semiconductor firm Fujian Jinhua
6. Facebook daily users down in Europe, flat in North America, but revenue keeps rising
8. PayPal rival Adyen expands to Canada and picks up new customers including Adidas, Dollar Shave Club
10. Samsung third-quarter profit rises 21 percent, in line with guidance
12. eBay shares rise after earnings beat
13. Valued at $500M, investors say HeadSpin is ‘one of the fastest-scaling software companies’ ever
14. Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank, raises £85M Series E at a £1B pre-money valuation
15. Even Financial acquires Birch Finance, a credit card rewards startup
16. Emotional wellness startup Aura raises $2.7 million from Cowboy Ventures and Reach Capital
17. Cockroach Labs launches open source SQL database CockroachDB as managed service
18. Freebird flies off with $8M to rescue passengers after flight cancellations
19. Sentieo raises $19M to be the AI-powered Bloomberg Terminal
20. ZypMedia raises $5.6M to help traditional media companies embrace online ads
China:
1. China’s Baidu forecasts sales drop as regulation, trade fears bite
2. JD.com apologises for sexist marketing campaign as Singles’ Day shopping event nears
4. Baidu is restarting the e-commerce project
6. KaDa story (KaDa故事) , the digital content platform for children, raised 8-digit RMB in A+ round.
7. Kwai快手 launched the intelligent marketing platform
Blockchain:
Shariah-compliant crypto exchange to launch in 2019
Emerging Market:
Fintech startup Akulaku secures US$70M Series C funding
Cover picture credits from Reuters.