TechWire rewind: Durham makes Inc. ‘Surge Cities’ list; NC startups raise funding + 66 more stories

As Monday morning rolls in, we’re providing TechWire readers with a quick recap of the past week’s news headlines.

Hot news for December 9-13 included: Durham was ranked 3rd on Inc.’s “Surge Cities” list of the top 50 best cities for startups; a new survey says 70% of Triangle firms are planning to boost hiring in 2020; Raleigh drone tech startup PrecisionHawk raised $32 million from several venture investors, bringing its total financing to $100 million; Truist (the result of the recent BB&T-SunTrust merger) picked Charlotte for its new Innovation and Technology Center; a new report from ApartmentList ranks Raleigh the 9th most-changing metro and 3rd of youngest home buyers; plus, read our Q&A with NC Google Fiber’s Jess George.

Also, here’s an interesting tidbit from Google’s 2019 Year in Search: The most-searched topics among North Carolinians were Hurricane Dorian, the Carolina Hurricanes and Nipsey Hustle.

Check out TechWire’s comprehensive resource package for Triangle startups.

Several North Carolina startups raised funding last week, including: Raleigh-based WalkMe ($90 million), RTP-based bioMASON ($5 million), Chapel Hill-based Xilis ($3 million), NC State research project Vaccinium Coordinate Agricultural Project ($6.4 million grant), Charlotte-based Passport ($65 million) and Raleigh-based PrecisionHawk ($32 million).

And, some national news: Morgan Stanley is cutting 1,500 jobs; Verizon Media is laying off 150 staffers; YouTube is intensifying its crackdown on hateful and violent speech on the site; Apple shares increased by 70% in 2019; here are the most-searched health questions on Google in 2019; streaming, #MeToo and diversity shaped a decade of change — here’s how.

Keeping with our Monday tradition, here’s a look back at 68 local, state and national headlines as reported by WRAL TechWire last week: