tech:

taffy

Lilium raises $90 Million Series B Funding

Lilium, a German startup working on flying cars (yes, you read that right) has raised a $90 million Series B funding round. The funding group consists of Tencent, LGT, Atomico, the company’s Series A backer founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström; and Obvious Ventures, whose co-founder Ev Williams is Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO.

The investment will be used for the development of the five-seat Lilium Jet that will fly commercially, says the company. Lilium also plans to grow its current team of more than 70.

The Lilium Jet will be able to travel at up to 300 km per hour for one hour on a single charge – meaning an example 19 km journey from Manhattan to JFK Airport could last as little as five minutes, according to the company.

Lilium has raised $100 million to date.

You can watch the maiden flight of Lilium here:

[Image courtesy: Lilium]

Just in

Apple sued in a landmark iPhone monopoly lawsuit — CNN

The US Justice Department and more than a dozen states filed a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, accusing the giant company of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market, writes Brian Fung, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez.

Google is bringing satellite messaging to Android 15 — The Verge

Google’s second developer preview for Android 15 has arrived, bringing long-awaited support for satellite connectivity alongside several improvements to contactless payments, multi-language recognition, volume consistency, and interaction with PDFs via apps, writes Jess Weatherbed. 

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is paid more than the heads of Meta, Pinterest, and Snap — combined — QZ

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman has been blasted by Redditors and in media reports over his recently-revealed, super-sized pay package of $193 million in 2023, writes Laura Bratton. 

British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman joins Microsoft — BBC

Microsoft has announced British Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman will lead its newly-formed division, Microsoft AI, according to the BBC report. 

UnitedHealth Group has paid more than $2 billion to providers following cyberattack — CNBC

UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it’s paid out more than $2 billion to help health-care providers who have been affected by the cyberattack on subsidiary Change Healthcare, writes Ashley Capoot.