Former Uber executive Travis VanderZanden's e-scooter startup Bird has officially become the fastest company to hit the $1-billion valuation mark in less than 9 months. According to filings, Bird is also seeking to raise $150 million, a deal which would value the US-based company at $2 billion. Founded in 2017, Bird allows users to rent e-scooters at $1 per ride.

An Ola driver has been fired after he refused to drop a passenger to Delhi's Jamia Nagar calling it a 'Muslim' colony and dropped him midway on Sunday. "When I refused to get out of the car, he started calling up his friends," the passenger said. The company called the incident "shocking" and added, "Ola, like India, believes in secularity."

After Elon Musk-led Tesla cut 9% of its workforce to become profitable, a former employee has revealed that her team received an email at 1 am, which asked them to clear four hours in their day's schedule for a video conference. During the conference, about 250 employees were asked to leave, even after some had completed their targets, she said.

After Elon Musk-led tunnelling startup The Boring Company distributed the first batch of its 20,000 commercial flamethrowers, people started using it to cook meat and glaze doughnuts. A video on Twitter showed a man lighting a joint with the flamethrower, which is called "Not a Flamethrower". The ₹34,000 device was unveiled in January and throws flames shorter than 10 feet.

Google is investing $550 million in Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, which competes with Jack Ma-led Alibaba in the Chinese market. In a joint announcement, the companies said they would collaborate with Google's Shopping platform for retail solutions in Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia. Valued at over $60 billion, JD.com includes Tiger Global Management and Capital Today as its investors.

Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, is the only Indian investor in Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, according to its IPO filings. Tata picked a 0.0024% stake (49,583 shares) in 2015 through his Singapore-based company RNT Associates International. His stake could be worth $2.1 million now based on Xioami's estimated valuation of over $90 billion, according to Bloomberg Quint.

Apple has hired senior self-driving car engineer Jaime Waydo from Alphabet's Waymo unit that made the Google driverless car. Before joining Waymo, she worked with NASA for 13 years and helped send a rover to Mars. Although Apple is yet to announce any products related to self-driving cars, CEO Tim Cook once called it "the mother of all AI projects".

While talking about investing in the Indian market, Uber's Chief Operating Officer Barney Harford has said the ride-hailing startup will continue to invest in India rather than focus on cutting losses. Adding that Uber has an indefinite investment horizon in India, Harford also said that it will not stop its aggressive investment pace in India even after a public listing.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis visited one of Virgin Hyperloop One's test sites in the US, earlier this week. The visit follows the MoU signed by the state government with the Virgin Group to build the Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop at an estimated cost of ₹20,000 crore. The Hyperloop is expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to 25 minutes.

Talking about the startup ecosystem in India, Google Cloud's Head of Solutions Architecture Oyvind Roti said he really likes coming to India "because we see startups bustling with energy". Adding that they are working closely with the startup ecosystem in the country, he also said there are certain Indian companies which have set an exemplary bar for the startup community.

Founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and former President Ramesh Balwani, have been criminally charged for multimillion-dollar schemes to defraud investors, doctors, and patients. The former couple was allegedly aware that Theranos' blood tests were not consistently providing reliable results. They were released on a $500,000 bail and ordered to surrender passports.

Snapdeal's Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Jason Kothari has resigned after 1.5 years at the e-commerce company and has been appointed President of Ahmedabad-headquartered Infibeam. Kothari earlier served as the CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company Housing.com after co-founder Rahul Yadav was fired. Snapdeal CFO Vikas Bhasin will reportedly take over Kothari's responsibilities.

Tea maker Girnar Food and Beverages has moved the Bombay High Court against grocery retailer BigBasket for infringing its 'Royal' trademark, as per reports. Girnar has alleged that the online grocery startup is using the 'Royal' trademark to sell several products, including tea. Founded in 2011, BigBasket is backed by investors including Alibaba, Abraaj Capital, and Helion Venture Partners.

An Uber cab driver has been arrested in Chandigarh for allegedly harassing a woman passenger by posing as a friend and sending her obscene messages. He got her number when she earlier booked a cab. After realising he wasn't her friend, the woman asked him to meet following which he was thrashed by her family and handed to the police.

Former South Korean dentist Seunggun Lee's mobile payments app Toss has raised $40 million in funding after eight failed apps since 2011. Earlier, Lee used to work as a dentist with the hospital arm of Samsung Group and quit his job to found the mobile payments startup. Founded in 2015, the app offers peer-to-peer online transfers, credit scoring, and micro-loans.

Talking about his father Miguel Bezos, world's richest man Jeff Bezos on Father's Day said, "My dad came here from Cuba all by himself without speaking English when he was 16 years old." Miguel Bezos, who arrived in Miami in 1962, married Jeff Bezos' mother in 1968 and adopted him at the age of 4.

Indian cab-hailing startup Ola has lost a fourth of its $3 billion overall funds raised from its investors since inception to compete against its American counterpart Uber, according to Bloomberg. To counter the rival, Ola spent nearly ₹5,183.6 crore (around $762 million) in the financial year ended March 2017. Notably, both Ola and Uber are backed by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.

Noida-based online marketplace IndiaMART is reportedly planning to go public with an initial public offering of around ₹500-600 crore, and could file its draft prospectus as early as next month. According to its website, the company caters to more than 5.8 crore buyers and has over 46 lakh suppliers. IndiaMART was founded in 1996 by Dinesh Agarwal and Brijesh Agarwal.

American actress Mary McCormack has shared a video of a Tesla Model S car which caught fire while in traffic in California, US. In a tweet, McCormack said that the car, which belonged to her husband, caught fire "out of the blue". The Police further confirmed that the deputies saw smoke coming from the vehicle followed by the fire.

US-based startup CTRL-labs has developed an armband which allows users to control computer mouse pointers with their minds. The device which is a collection of small circuit boards soldered together by gold contacts, reads signals passing from the brain to the hand. The device can work anywhere on the forearm or upper arm and is independent of muscle movement.

US-based startup Wearable X has developed 'smart' yoga pants which can identify yoga poses and vibrate around places which require users' focus. The pants feature sensors around the hips, knees, and ankles to keep track of the body movements. It also offers progress tracking and customisable playlist allowing users to create a personalised practice via an app.

The US Food and Drug Administration will start regulating lab-grown meat startups including those backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson. The companies rely on animal cells to artificially produce beef, poultry, and seafood. FDA will discuss safety of the products and how to label them so consumers can know they're getting meat from a lab, not an animal.

Elon Musk-led tunnelling startup The Boring Company has shared a video while conducting a test on its transit tunnels using a Tesla Model X. The video shows how a platform running on the tunnel's tracks would ferry vehicles from one point to another. Founded in 2016, The Boring Company plans to transport cars via sleds through tunnels to avoid traffic.

Amazon has led an investment of $6.5 million in Bengaluru-based digital payments startup ToneTag for contactless transactions in India. "ToneTag's sound wave technology will be integrated for payment on delivery for Amazon customers, which is expected to go live in three-four months. Customers will be able to use Amazon Pay at three lakh offline merchants," said ToneTag CEO Kumar Abhishek.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday said he will use his pay to make life multi-planetary because he doesn't want people to be sad about the future. Musk was responding to a user's tweet on Tesla's CEO-to-worker pay ratio. He added, "My “pay” is in options, which only matter if stock goes up & I sell."