Canalys: Apple accounted for 22% of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2021, down from 23% in 2020, followed by Samsung ., Xiaomi (12%), Oppo (9%), and Vivo (8%)  —  Shanghai (China), Bengaluru (India), Singapore, Reading (UK) and Portland (US) - Tuesday, 18 January 2022

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch: African startup Finclusion Group, which uses AI to provide credit-based financial services, raises a $20M pre-Series A in debt and equity  —  The digital banking space in Africa is taking shape as neobanks on the continent grow in numbers like their global counterparts.

Bloomberg: How Netflix succeeded in South Korea, including by developing ideas considered too risky for broadcasters and licensing local content overseas  —  It took “Squid Game” just four weeks this past fall to become the most-watched Netflix Inc. show ever released in any language.

Annie Njanja / TechCrunch: Uganda-based Asaak, which uses behavioral and financial data to assess loans for motorbikes and smartphones for African gig workers, raises a $30M pre-Series A  —  Asaak, a Ugandan asset financing startup, has secured $30 million in pre-Series A equity and debt funding.

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: French startup Exotec, which builds autonomous industrial warehouse robots, raises a $335M Series D led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management at a $2B valuation  —  Exotec, a French robotics company used by some of the world´s biggest retailers and enterprises, has raised $335 million …

Mihai Maganu / CrowdStrike Blog: Analysis: malware targeting Linux operating systems, commonly deployed in IoT devices, rose 35% in 2021 YoY; three malware families made up 22%+ of the total  —  - Malware targeting Linux systems increased by 35% in 2021 compared to 2020  — XorDDoS, Mirai and Mozi malware families accounted …

Becky Sullivan / NPR: A ransomware attack on Kronos workforce management software has disrupted the payroll of ~8M US employees; the health care sector has been hit especially hard  —  A month-old ransomware attack is still causing administrative chaos for millions of people, including 20,000 public transit workers …

David Ingram / NBC News: A look at the SMART Health Card, a minimal verification system that uses QR codes to check COVID-19 vaccine status, available to ~200M people in the US  —  The SMART Health Card is voluntary and minimal by design to protect personal information.  About 80 percent of vaccinated people in the U.S. most likely have access to it.

Kiel Porter / Bloomberg: PitchBook: Chicago has 26 unicorns, 13 of which reached the status in 2021; 17 VC funds in Chicago raised $7.42B in 2021, up from three raising $977M in 2016  —  U.S. technology investors have traditionally fixated on scouring the two coasts in search of the next startup ready for the big time.

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac: Sources: Apple is uncertain about using an all glass black for the 2022 iPad Pro, and is testing a glass Apple logo on the back of the iPad for MagSafe charging  —  Apple is expected to introduce new iPad Pro models this year - previous rumors suggested that the company had been experimenting …