Online travel giant Booking.com faces antitrust probe in Spain

More tech antitrust activity: Spain’s competition watchdog has opened an investigation into potential anti-competitive behavior by the Dutch online travel agency giant, Booking.com, following a couple of complaints lodged by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and the Regional Hotel Association of Madrid. The national competition regulator said today that it will look into whether … Read more

PayPal debuts a new rewards program that combines Honey’s discounts with other ways to earn

PayPal is taking a step away from the Honey brand, the $4 billion shopping rewards acquisition it made in 2019, with today’s launch of PayPal Rewards. The new program will replace “Honey Gold” — the rewards program for Honey browser extension users, which allows customers to redeem their points for cash, gift cards or PayPal … Read more

Ambi Robotics secures $32M infusion to deploy its item-sorting robots in warehouses

Ambi Robotics, a startup developing supply chain automation hardware, today announced that it raised $32 million in additional funding led by Tiger Global and Bow Capital, with participation from Ahren and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. Pitney Bowes is a strategic investor in Ambi, having recently inked a $23 million deal with the company to deploy … Read more

Nigerian banking-as-a-service platform Maplerad raises $6M, led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have taken off rapidly across the fintech world over the last 18 months. By partnering with banks, these platforms allow entities from startups and fintechs to big corporations and banks to provide tailored banking services and experiences to their customers. Fintechs offering BaaS services in U.S. and Europe, such as Unit, Rapyd … Read more