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November 30, 2007
Digital Advertising's Hipcricket IPOs In London
The last time we checked in with Seattle's HipCricket last April it had raised $6M from Broadmark Capital and an undisclosed European investment group. This week the company has completed an IPO on London's AIM where it raised $17.1M, giving it a $155M valuation.
Advertisers turn to Hipcricket to produce interactive mobile marketing campaigns that generate non-traditional revenue for radio, television, and agency clients. The company makes ads and promotions interactive, giving cell phoners a channel to give their feedback.
Hipcricket has inked a deal with Clear Channel Radio's Total Traffic Network to provide text messages and e-mails to people who want traffic information. Hipcricket has other network wins like Fox and Cox as well as advertisers wins like Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing and Maybelline.
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Posted at 07:55 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
The Holiday Shopping Rage: Digital Photo Frames
Given that we have two outstanding requests to buy digital photo frames as stocking stuffers, we are not surprised to see data showing that this is going to be a breakout holiday season for digital photo frames. So who is going to benefit from this mad rush? Certainly some big consumer electronics companies like Kodak and Westinghouse are here but it is interesting to see a number of startups doing very well. They include:
+ Irvine, CA-based Digital Spectrum.
+ Burbank, CA-based Ceiva.
Ceiva's Whirlpool mounted digital picture frame is a nice add.
Posted at 02:12 PM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Telecom's Broadview To Try Again At IPO
Rye Brook, NY's Broadview Networks has filed for a $287.5M IPO. Deutsche Bank Securities and Jefferies & Co. will be co-lead underwriters. Broadview has raised nearly $300M in VC funding. Shareholders are Baker Capital, MCG Capital, NEA, ComVentures and Lightspeed.
Founded in 1997, Broadview sells voice and data networking solutions to small and medium-sized businesses. It had initially filed for an IPO in February 2000, but withdrew the filing in September 2000.
Broadview reported an adjusted loss of $27.2M on revenue of $374M in the nine months ended September 30. It claims around 70K business customers in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. In May, Broadview acquired Manhattan-based InfoHighway, which is a distributor of voice and data services.
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Posted at 01:55 PM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Chinese Web Video Ad Network AdsIt Funded
AdsIt says it has raised several million dollars from investors Baidu, Intel Capital and Farallon Capital. AdsIt is the exclusive operator of video ads for Baidu. China Web 2.0 notes that while there are several hundred video sharing sites based on online advertising business model in China, only the leading players such as Tudou, will be able to sell advertisements by themselves. The rest will need to partner with others like AdsIt, which at from this perspective across the Pacific seems to have a fair lead over other startups.
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Posted at 11:27 AM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
Hercules Capital Bullies The Funded
The Funded posted today a copy of a cease and desist letter drafted by Hercules Capital's law firm. When we talked with The Funded's Adeo Ressi a few weeks ago (he was anonymous to the public at the time) we asked him if he had received any legal threats yet. alarm:clock has in fact taken our share of what we view as absurd legal threats from businesses who don't appreciate our slant. At the time Ressi responded that it would be suicide for a VC firm to threaten him with legal action as he would surely post the threat and that firm would look like a bunch of clowns in front of the VC community.
It looks like the guys at Hercules Capital really are not that smart after all. Their cease and desist letter demands that The Funded remove a post by an anonymous person who writes negative comments about Hercules. A good number of VC firms listed in The Funded also get negative marks. As a reader you take it with a grain of salt. But when a firm shows that they can't take anonymous criticism and have to tap their legal goons to make it go away you really have to wonder.
So what does the anonymous post tell us "Horrible. Avoid like the plague. They were aggressive with us at first. Put us through 2-3 weeks worth of technical and economic dilligence, and then blew us off at the last minute.
They were shady if not outright dishonest about the number of board reviews involved in the approval process.
They also totally failed to understand some basic economic aspects of our business model - basically high school arithmetic.
Avoid..... "
View - The Funded
Read - Venturebeat coverage
Posted at 02:10 AM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
This Week in Euro Tech Ventures
+ South Africa's blog platform Synthasite raises $5M from luxury label's corporate VC arm.
+ Alt energy consultancy Semplice attracts venture finance.
+ Bac2 has raised £2M of private funding from London Business Angels.
+ Thermoelectric semiconductor startup Nanofreeze has raised an additional $1M .
+ Hedgies invest in Baltic and E European job seekers site - Startup CV Market.
+ eCommerce pioneers see potential in shopping site iliketotallyloveit.
M&A
+ UK's Email Systemsbought by Webroot.
+ Prague's 1C buys Moscow games studio from Akella.
+ Applied Materials buy Italian solar cell equipment maker Baccini for €225M.
News & Analysis
+ Buy, hold, or sell with VC Alexander Straub. Gadgets beloved by Euro VCs.
Puzzler
Name this open source man and his position.
email: valerie@thealarmclock.com with your answer
Posted at 01:17 AM | Posted to Euro Ventures | TrackBack
November 29, 2007
Indian Mobile Advertising Firm mGinger Raises $2M
mGinger has raised $2M led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson with NEA-IndoUS, according to ContentSutra. mGinger is trying out a new model whereby it pays users to view advertisements and it claims to have north of 1M subscribers. They also say they have over a hundred advertisers and have run over 150 campaigns.
The model is fairly controversial but we are not sure why. Sure it's a pyramid scheme with members making more money if they bring in their friends. But some big businesses have been built from such schemes. Plus everyone pays a price for spam, why not get paid to get spam?
Since launching earlier this year, mGinger says it has only sent out 2 checks to users so it has a long way to go to prove success.
View - site
Posted at 07:50 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
PageOnce Funded For Net Valet Service
Palo Alto-based PageOnce is still in stealth mode but says that is has raised funding and has been staffing up. They are not commenting on the amount of the seed round nor who are the investors. The service is in closed beta where it promises users will enjoy a "Personal Internet Assistant."
We were able to get a beta user's pass to the site and can see the utility. It asks for your login to a number of consumer accounts: your cell phone company, airlines, banks, video rental accounts, etc. You'll then have a consolidated view into all of your key information. A challenge, of course, is that it is scary to give some strangers at a startup all of your most valuable accounts.
PageOnce is led by 3 Israelis who worked together at HP Software.
View - site
Posted at 05:19 PM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Online Advertising's AdBrite Raises $23M
AdBrite has raised $23M in third-round funding from return backers that include Sequoia Capital and hedge fund Artis Management, says PEWire. It had raised $4M in Series A in July 2004 and $8M in series B in February 2006.
AdBrite's revenues are rumored to be around $40M this year. That's a good number and from our perspective, AdBrite is a solid system and company. However, it begs the question why isn't AdBrite bigger? There are a good number of online ad startups that have arrived on the scene more recently and are making more than that. AdBrite's burden is that it represents sites that get huge traffic but that are not valuable to advertisers as they are file sharing or not safe for work sites that most advertisers don't want to touch. Also, AdBrite's margins are much lower than competitors as it takes only a 25% rev share.
Why would Adbrite need a big round of funding? Given its revenues it should be able to command a good valuation. It could of course use the cash to do some acquisitions. There are a few AdBrite knock-offs in Europe and Asia that it could buy. Also there are a fair number of new competitors that AdBrite must fend off. Lesser known rival Etology claims that it is now larger than Adbrite and it recently launched a JV with Technorati in Japan called adbutterfly.
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Posted at 04:11 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
Beatles' Boy Julian Lennon Invests In MyStore.com
Las Vegas based Mystore.com says that Julian Lennon (son of the Beatles' John Lennon and a music artist in his own right) has invested an undisclosed amount in the startup along with other angel investors. MyStore.com is a free platform to help music artists and others to build eCommerce storefronts on MySpace and elsewhere.
Julian from his MySpace page
Julian Lennon Invests in MyStore.com
LAS VEGAS, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Today MyStore.com confirmed Julian
Lennon, son of Beatles icon John Lennon, is among the group of private
investors behind yourStore, LLC. The company owns and operates
http://www.mystore.com, an online marketplace. "In addition to his monetary
investment, Julian has contributed some great ideas to the options
MyStore.com offers to musicians and artists who want to resell or self
distribute their music and art online. As an independent artist himself,
Mr. Lennon was an early user of MyStore.com, setting up his own MyStore and
linking it to several places he has a presence online including his MySpace
page. We are glad to have him involved. He's been a friend for a long
time," stated Todd Meagher, the company's CEO.
About MyStore:
MyStore.com is owned by yourStore, LLC (http://www.yourstore.com) which
is a virtual real estate company and application service provider offering
individuals and businesses with FREE online "retail" space and software
usage in the form of personalized web stores located within the company's
marketplace http://www.MyStore.com and an e-commerce service provider offering
seller support and software services; including web hosting, site design,
marketing, fulfillment and inventory and customer management tools. MyStore
is not an alternative but rather an additional sales channel that can be
either a stand-alone store or integrated as part of other websites like
eBay, Craigslist, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Amazon or Yahoo. Users
simply build a store and start selling. MyStore provides the marketplace
and tools to promote, sell or trade your items and services.
MyStore is privately funded and based in Las Vegas, NV with satellite
offices in Dallas, Texas. More information may be found at
http://www.mystore.com.
For PR inquires contact:
yourStore, LLC
(866) 545-4881 Extension 5
info(at)mystore.com
Posted at 12:11 PM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
5 Year Old ILoveRewards Does 1st Round
Toronto's ILoveRewards has closed $3.3M from JLA Ventures and other sources. The company has a web-based points engine that its corporate clients use to reward employees and their clients. You may recall a number of startups like Netcentives have given rewards a go (Netcentives raised mad cash then went belly-up but now operates as part of Clickrewards.)
The origins of ILoveRewards actually go back 12 years to a dorm room project led by CEO Razor Suleman who focused on rewards for college kids. The startup launched in its current for 5 years back and has been bootstrapped.
View - site
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TORONTO (November 26, 2007)
I Love Rewards Closes Series A Financing Round with JLA Ventures.
I Love Rewards Inc., one of North America’s leading web based reward program providers, today announced that it has completed a $3.3 million Series A financing round with JLA Ventures, Laurence Capital and other angel investors.
“We’re thrilled to be entering into a partnership with Canada’s premier venture capital firm,” said I Love Rewards CEO and founder, Razor Suleman. “We feel very strongly that, with this funding, we have the capacity to make I Love Rewards the most successful rewards and recognition program provider in the industry”.
I Love Rewards plans to use the funding to further develop marketing strategies and technological capabilities, with the focus on I Love Rewards Express, its online business-to-business rewards platform targeted to the small to medium size business market.
John Albright, managing partner of JLA Ventures commented, “We believe that I Love Rewards has a tremendous future, and we’re happy and proud to join them for the next big step of their journey.”
Posted at 11:44 AM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
IPTV's Avail Media Finalizes $25M Round
Reston, VA-based Avail Media has finalized a $25M series B round. The financing comes with $5M in debt financing from an un-named strategic investor and Silicon Valley Bank. The company sells a video on demand platform to cable companies, satellite companies and telcos that want to serve video across to both your TV and laptop. The company has yet to announce any big telco, satellite or cable client wins but says that's what 2008 is for. Avail Media formed in early 2007 as a result of the merger of two rivals, Auroras and Broadstream.
View - site
Avail Media, Inc. Completes Venture Financing Round
Columbia Capital, Novak Biddle, Pioneer and Valhalla Invest $25 Million Total in Leading IPTV Provider
Reston, VA - November 29, 2007 - Avail Media, Inc., a provider of IPTV and advanced media services to broadband operators, today announced it has closed the final tranche of a $25 million Series B equity round. First time investor Valhalla Partners joined Columbia Capital, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, and Pioneer Ventures in the round.
The financing, along with $5 million in debt financing from a strategic investor and Silicon Valley Bank, brings the total capital raised this year to $30 million, which will provide Avail Media with sufficient resources to execute on its vision, create value-added services, and effectively position its customers for success in the market.
"Having built out its corporate and technological infrastructures, Avail Media has made significant strides in supporting its expanding customer base. Avail's ability to bring telecom, cable, and Internet service providers cost-effective, customizable IPTV technology quickly and seamlessly is unmatched in this emerging space. There is tremendous market opportunity here and under the direction of its experienced, highly respected management team, Avail is well positioned to be a key player in the industry," said Art Marks, general partner, Valhalla Partners and Avail Media new board member.
Led by CEO Ramu Potarazu, former CEO of Broadstream Communications and COO of Intelsat, Avail Media provides managed content services and technologies through a fully integrated head end infrastructure for the profitable deployment of IP video. Avail offers providers an ease of execution and a speed to market beyond any possible self-built system by continually adding new features and functionalities to its service offerings.
"We've made some significant advances this year which indicate that 2008 will be a year of continued expansion and productivity for us. First, our customer installation rate is already exceeding expectations. Second, because we operate the only MPEG 4 linear and video on demand (VOD) platform, we have an excellent foundation upon which to build value added services," said Ramu Potarazu, CEO, Avail Media. "Valhalla brings additional industry and operating experience as well as critical resources within their team which will be valuable during this growth phase," Potarazu added.
Avail Media was founded in early 2007 as the result of the merger between Auroras Entertainment and Broadstream Communications. In September 2007 Avail acquired VOD programming supplier ViewNow, giving Avail the distinction of having the only full end-to-end solution with VOD and linear capabilities.
About Avail Media, Inc.
Avail Media is the only company today to deliver a combined MPEG-4 linear TV and Video On Demand (VOD) IPTV solution. Avail Media, the nation's premier provider of content aggregation and IPTV transport services, delivers to its customers a full line-up of live television programming with hundreds of channels, all quality encoded in MPEG-4, IP encapsulated, encrypted, combined with VOD and designed for future value-added services. Avail Media's system has been designed for use by broadband network operators of all types. Whether triple-play, quad-play, or pure video play, Avail Media offers the broadest and deepest set of IPTV services, technologies and solutions available in the marketplace today. For more information, please visit www.availmedia.com.
Posted at 11:16 AM | Posted to Video | TrackBack
a:c Puzzler
Our sister site the a:c euro has been running a terrific series of puzzlers that only a select few of insiders could get. So on this side of the Atlantic we were inspired to run our own Puzzler...
A principal at a VC firm recently saw one of its portfolio companies cash out to the tune of $300M+. This principal is the father of one of the company's founders. Which company was it?
Please email your answers to comments@thealarmclock.com
Posted at 01:30 AM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Big Fish Games Buys Thinglefin
Just 6 months old, Thinglefin has been bought for an undisclosed amount by casual games juggernaut BigFishGames. Thinglefin is a 4 person outfit that has targeted multiplayer games.
Last July, the startup raised an undisclosed first round of funding from California Technology Ventures. It has not disclosed the details of the game it is developing.
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Posted at 12:34 AM | Posted to Games | TrackBack
November 28, 2007
Telefonica Invests In Mobile Advertising's Amobee Media Systems
Spanish telecom giant Telefonica has made an strategic investment in San Francisco-based Amobee Media Systems. Amobee is also backed by Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Globespan. Amobee is not looking to be an Admob or other mobile ad network, rather it is selling telcos a system that is says can fund mobile communications through advertising revenues. In other words, its a white label version of the free cell phone services model that Google has been touting.
Just a couple of weeks back, Amobee had announced that Vodafone Spain will be using its platform to insert advertisements into Vodafone’s portal, Vodafone Live! It has also announced deals with Digital Chocolate and other online game companies to power their ad supported mobile game ventures.
The company is led by CEO Zohar Levkovitz who was CTO of Comverse.
View - site
Press Release Source: Amobee Media Systems
Amobee Media Systems Closes Investment Transaction with Telefonica and Announces Strategic Relationship for Mobile Advertising
Wednesday November 28, 10:36 am ET
Telefonica Joins Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Globespan Capital and Vodafone as an Investor in Amobee Media Systems
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON & MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amobee Media Systems, the world leader in advertising solutions for mobile operators, today announced that Telefonica has made a strategic minority investment in Amobee. Telefonica joins Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Globespan and Vodafone in funding Amobee’s next stage of development.
Amobee Media Systems was founded in May of 2005, with the objective of enabling all players in the mobile content and data value chain to generate new revenues from advertising. Its software solution supports digital ad delivery to all mobile content and communication types, including WAP and mobile web, mobile games, mobile video, and mobile messaging.
The Amobee management team, comprised of a strong core of executives with a combination of wireless, advertising, and interactive media experience, have produced a best-of-breed solution, tailor-made for mobile operators. The advertising impressions from the Amobee platform occur in a relevant, contextual and non-intrusive manner, thus giving the users control over the engagement.
“We have evaluated a large number of competing platforms for serving ads in the mobile environment. We have chosen to invest in, and partner with, Amobee because we have concluded that it offers the best solution to ad-fund our growing number of mobile data services, while ensuring that our customers get better value as well as a richer mobile experience,” stated Russ Shaw, Director of Innovation at Telefonica. “We also believe that Amobee’s carrier centric model will generate the highest quality mobile advertising inventory, thus ensuring that advertisers are given a compelling proposition.”
"Amobee is quickly becoming a standard for operators to serve contextual, dynamic and relevant ads to their customers,” said Zohar Levkovitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Amobee Media Systems. “In less than a year, we have made significant advances and have now generated mobile advertising revenues for tier one operators in several major markets around the world. With Telefonica’s investment, Amobee is set to strengthen its position as the world's premier provider of mobile ad-serving solutions.”
Mobile advertising represents an unprecedented potential to increase reach for advertisers. According to Pyramid Research, by 2010 one billion new mobile subscribers will join the current base of 2.8 billion. Further, according to Informa, worldwide mobile advertising revenues will rise to $11.35 billion by 2011.
About Amobee Media Systems:
Amobee Media Systems has built and designed the first and only telco-grade adserving solution dedicated to mobile operators, allowing them to dynamically insert advertising impressions in all forms of mobile communication and content: WAP Browsing, Video & Music, SMS, MMS, and Games etc... Amobee’s complete ad serving solution is designed to facilitate the launch of advertising campaigns for brand building, direct response and lead generation campaigns helping mobile operators and their subscribers “get more for less”. The company has also engaged advertisers and media buying agencies to directly purchase ad inventory as part of Amobee’s growing advertising network.
Amobee’s media system is capable of supporting everything from in-game and invideo to in-wap and in-message mobile impression insertions. The insertions occur with full user consent and are made in a relevant, contextual and nonintrusive manner thus increasing the media value while giving users control over the engagement.
Headquartered in the San Francisco, the company enjoys financial backing from some of the biggest names in venture capital: Accel Partners (www.accel.com), Sequoia Capital (www.sequoiacap.com), and Globespan (www.globespancapital.com). The company has also enjoyed the backing of the world's 2 leading operators: Vodafone and Telefonica. Amobee has commercial offices in London and San Francisco, with R&D in Herzliya, Israel.
Contact:
for Amobee Media Systems
Pamela Njissang, 415-397-7600
pnjissang@stearnsjohnson.com
Joshua Steinfeld, 415-397-7600
jsteinfeld@stearnsjohnson.com
info@amobee.com
Posted at 11:51 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
SimulScribe: What Your VC Is Reading On His Blackberry
We had a chance to talk with the Founder and CEO of SimulScribe, James Siminoff, today who got in touch because he claims VCs are some of his best clients. SimulScribe transcribes voice mails to emails so that VCs, who are stuck in meeting rooms at least a few hours a day, can get their voice mails on their Blackberrys.
UPDATE: Simulscribe has offered a free 30 day trial to ac readers.
Siminoff told us that his startup has been growing through word of mouth and expects to take in about $1M in revenue this year. But he also said that he got a marketing offer that he could not refuse. A SimulScribe user in LA who had launched an outdoor advertising company running small billboards on top of New York City cabs, offered a massive taxi-based marketing blitz for free in exchange for a small amount of equity in SimulScribe. Working with Big Fish Communications, Simulscribe got its "Voice Mail Sucks" message on 4% - or about 500 - of New York's taxis. In conjunction with that event, Simulscribe ran a media stunt in New York for press and bloggers that was a game in which participants had to down a shot when a taxi passes with SimulScribe's slogan.
SimulScribe offers a two-week free trial on its Web site. After that, its pricing is $9.95 a month, with 40 transcribed messages, and each additional transcription is 25 cents. Unlimited service is available for $29.95 a month.
Simulscribe has taken a sick amount of free TV, print and blogger attention
View - site
Posted at 11:21 PM | Posted to Voice | TrackBack
Broadband Over Powerline's Intellon Prices IPO
We still haven't met anyone who is getting their net connectivity via their electrical outlet so it still seems futuristic, however, the market appears to be more mature than we had gauged with a first IPO by a sector playing coming up. Intellon has set its IPO terms at 7.5M common shares being offered at $9 - 11 per share and could have an initial market cap of $329M at the high end of its range.
Intellon makes chipsets that are used to enable net connectivity via regular power outlets.
For the year ended 2006, the company posted revenue of $33.7M on net loss of $7.8M compared with revenue of $16.6M on net loss of 12.5M in 2005. The Ocala, FL-based company said it applied for a Nasdaq listing under the symbol "ITLN." Shareholders include Fidelity Ventures, EnerTech Capital Partners, Comcast Interactive Capital, Goldman Sachs, Summerhill Ventures and UMC Capital. Intellon has actually been a bit of a slow growth story - it was founded back in 1989 - but the numbers show it is growing fast now.
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Posted at 12:43 PM | Posted to Semiconductors | TrackBack
Doubleclick's Kevin Ryan Launches Funded Fashion Site Gilt Groupe
Our sister site alarm:clock euro has been tracking a number of startups that provide members only shopping and several of them have been successful. This trend is starting to make its way to the States as
Gilt Groupe has raised $5M from Matrix Partners.
Gilt Groupe is a private online community that provides members with access to fashion and luxury lifestyle brands at what it markets as sample sale prices. Membership is by invitation only, and there is no fee. Sales are structured as events that are designer specific and held over a one-day period. It launched on November 13th with a show build around designer Zac Posen. It plans on up to 3 events per week.
Gilt Groupe was co-founded by Kevin Ryan who was a founder of Doubleclick as well as more recently a number of startups like Shopwiki, Silicon Alley Insider, Panther Express, and Music Nation. Co-founders or Gilt Group are a couple of recent Harvard Business School grads. CEO Alexis Maybank was Director of eCommerce at AOL and CMO Alexandra Wilkis Wilson was Retail Operations Manager at Bulgari USA and Sales Forecaster at Louis Vuitton.
Fashionista Co-Founders Alexis and Alexandra
View - site
Posted at 11:54 AM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
November 27, 2007
Sales Intelligence's InsideView Buys Rival TrueAdvantage Which Will Slash Staff
Launched back in 1999, TrueAdvantage has been bought out by its rival InsideView which launched in 2005. After all these years TrueAdvantage has only 200 customers but InsideView says it will take them as it has far fewer.
TrueAdvantage is a body shop that employed up to 150 people to scour the Net and other sources to help its clients to develop leads. In contrast, InsideView used software to do much the same thing. The result, many of TrueAdvantage's employees will be pink-slipped.
InsideView is a sharp and opportunistic piece of software that connects to LinkedIn, Jigsaw and Salesforce from within its application, helping users make connections to boards of directors, reference customers and a user's previous employers.
InsideView's investors include Emergence Capital Partners, Greenhouse Capital Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners.
View - InsideView site
Press Release Source: InsideView
InsideView Acquires TrueAdvantage
TrueAdvantage Customers to Transition to InsideView's Sales and Marketing Intelligence Application
SAN BRUNO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InsideView, the revolutionary on-demand sales and marketing application for mining and aggregating information on prospective customers, today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire TrueAdvantage, an industry pioneer in sales intelligence. InsideView will offer TrueAdvantage customers a fluid migration to InsideView’s advanced sales and marketing intelligence application, while existing InsideView customers will benefit from enhancements to the InsideView platform.
TrueAdvantage customers will continue to have access to the information they currently rely on, while gaining InsideView’s unique meta-aggregation technology that provides critical intelligence on companies, key decision-makers and social network connections in order to accelerate the sales cycle and close more deals.
“TrueAdvantage customers are the true winners in this acquisition,” said John Blossom, president and senior analyst at Shore Communications. “They get the advantage of InsideView’s Web 2.0-based technology that not only integrates with sales force automation and CRM tools but also brings more relevant data about people and their profiles on social networks, companies and triggering events.”
“We are pleased to offer TrueAdvantage customers a seamless transition to InsideView’s platform,” said Umberto Milletti, cofounder and CEO of InsideView. “A key pain point for sales and marketing executives is making relevance out of the ever-increasing amount of data available on the web. TrueAdvantage customers will benefit from InsideView’s meta-layer that taps into Web 2.0 sources and social networks—something that is critical for enterprises today.”
“We’re working closely with InsideView executives to make the transition for our customers as easy as possible,” said Jake O’Leary, VP of technology for TrueAdvantage. “TrueAdvantage customers will now be able to rapidly integrate into salesforce.com and other CRM applications, in addition to utilizing InsideView’s mashups with data providers such as Jigsaw, LinkedIn and ZoomInfo.”
About InsideView
InsideView is the pioneer and leading provider of actionable intelligence for cutting-edge sales and marketing organizations. InsideView automatically discovers rich selling opportunities, notifies salespeople in real time and delivers critical relevant information on companies and connections needed to engage customers and close sales. InsideView dramatically reduces cold calling and research, revolutionizes prospecting, drives higher sales and builds high-performance pipelines. The company is privately held and venture-backed by Emergence Capital Partners, Greenhouse Capital Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners. InsideView also partners with salesforce.com and SugarCRM. InsideView’s customers include Aravo Solutions, GlobalKnowledge, Jobscience, Rearden Commerce, RightNow Technologies, saaspoint, ServiceSource, Symantec and WebEx. Founded in 2005, InsideView is headquartered in San Bruno, California with operations in Hyderabad, India. For more information, visit www.insideview.com.
Contact:
LaunchSquad
Brett Weiner / Eric Schubert, 415-625-8555
insideview@launchsquad.com
Posted at 08:23 PM | Posted to Enterprise Software | TrackBack
Wine Review Site Snooth Raises $1M More
NYC-based wine-recommendation site Snooth is raising $1M in angel funding from its initial angel backers, as well as a some investment banker individual investors. Snooth has now raised $1.3M raised in December 2006.
We had reviewed Snooth back in June with some criticism that there were not enough reviews on the site. Snooth currently claims nearly 2M reviews but given how many bottles of wine there are (brand, year, type, etc) Snooth still feels like its reviews are thin. That may be good for Snooth in the long run. If it can accumulate hundreds of millions of quality wine reviews that's hard to catch and represents real value.
Posted at 08:04 PM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
Webroot Buys UK's Email Systems
Anti-spyware's Webroot is buying UK-based security as a service firm Email Systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merged firm will be called Webroot. Founded 5 years back, Email Systems says it protects an estimated 2.5M email boxes for 1,500 businesses worldwide. It competes with MessageLabs.
In February, 2005 Webroot raised $108M. It has since hired a new CEO and announced its intention to go public. Webroot got its start in fighting malware but has moved to expand to other areas of security.
View - site
Posted at 06:22 PM | Posted to Security | TrackBack
Endless Meetings Go Virtual With Qwaq
Palo Alto-based Qwaq has raised $7M in its 1st round co-led by Alloy Ventures and Storm Ventures. The startup has developed a virtual worlds platform for the workplace. So rather than schedule with remote workers on clients on Webex, you might do it in Qwaq where you might walk around in a virtual room with co-workers in Shanghai and Paris looking at virtual powerpoint presentations while pretending that you are paying attention.
We certainly agree that as more and more meetings take place on phone lines with visuals that Webex is not satisfactory. However, we do think that it will take some time before buttoned-down corporate types get into a comfort zone scheduling meetings in virtual worlds. Video conferencing is not a big deal because people are so accustomed to video, but as the CEO of Second Life recently told us, the great majority of people still feel nerdy letting others know that they participate in virtual worlds That perception has to change before people at Clorox and Exxon begin to invite their peers to meet in Qwaq.
Qwaq got a foot-up by licensing virtual presence technology from Intel. Qwaq is led by Greg Nuyens who previously ran Kleiner Perkins-backed Devicescape.
View - site
Posted at 12:59 PM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
Intuit Pays $170M For DIY Site Building Platform Homestead
Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) is buying small business web site platform Homestead Technologies for roughly $170M. The Menlo Park-based old-timer sells a DIY website platform for small businesses. Homestead, offers a drag-and-drop website creation and editing tool for consumers.
The deal represents a departure for Intuit's core focus on financial software. It justifies the deal by saying that Homestead fits with Inuit's growth strategy in providing additional technology to small businesses on top of financial software.
Homestead has raised $73M in total VC funding, including a $35M Series C round in 2000 and represents a let-down for late stage investors who invested at a post-money valuation of approximately $313M. Backers include DFJ, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Institutional Venture Partners, Intel Capital, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, Draper Richards, VeriSign, GRP Partners and Meritech Capital Partners.
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Posted at 11:19 AM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Canadia's Iotum Funded For Social Networking Voice
Ottawa's iotum has received new investment funding from local management consulting firm VERDEXUS. Financial details were not disclosed. Iotum was founded in October 2003. It currently runs on Facebook, Blackberry and Jajah.
Iotum's TalkNow application addresses the task of scheduling meetings with people while reducing tedious phone tag.
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OTUM secures new capital investment from Verdexus
Tech Industry Veteran Randall Howard Joins Board and Becomes Chairman
Ottawa, Ontario - Nov. 26, 2007 - iotum, a pioneer and leader in voice services for social networks, announced today that it has received new investment funding from boutique investment and management consulting firm VERDEXUS. Financial details were not disclosed; iotum will use the new funding for ongoing operations. In addition, VERDEXUS General Partner Randall Howard has joined iotum's Board of Directors and has been appointed Chairman of the Board.
"Our investment represents a strong endorsement of iotum and recognition of a fast-growing and potentially dominant player in the mobile presence universe," said Howard, a veteran of Canada's technology industry as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant and venture capitalist. "iotum has the potential to be the phone company for social networks, as shown by its strategic launch of the first conference-calling application for Facebook. The underlying, patent-pending technology foundation and experienced management team make iotum a compelling addition to our portfolio."
Howard, a founding partner of VERDEXUS, brings a global network of senior-level business contacts based on his deep executive experience in international technology markets. As founder, Chairman and CEO of MKS Inc. (www.mks.com) (TSX: MKX), one of Canada's leading enterprise software vendors, he led growth to more than $40 million revenue annually and 350 employees worldwide, including seven acquisitions. From May 2004 to April 2006, Howard served as CEO of VERDEXUS' portfolio company, Software Innovation (www.softinn.com).
Howard's extensive board and advisor experience has included Necho Systems Corp, GoodContacts, Whitehill Technologies, Waterloo Maple Software, Arise Technologies and Nanodesign.
"Randall is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Canadian software industry. He is a serial entrepreneur who has earned a reputation as a respected visionary and innovator," said iotum CEO Alec Saunders. "His decision to join iotum as investor, board member and Chairman is a strong endorsement of the iotum vision."
About IOTUM
Founded in 2003, privately held iotum (www.iotum.com) is a Voice 2.0 company setting out to shape a world of relevant communications where devices, social networks and web services work seamlessly together to let people communicate with whom they want, when they want and on the device they want. Iotum has been awarded the prestigious CATA Alliance Innovation Award for Emerging Technology Achievement as the best emerging technology company of the year in Canada; was named a DEMOgod at DEMO2006, and was named to the Branham 25 Emerging Companies in Canada as well as to Business 2.0's Next Net 25. iotum and its innovative products, including the iotum Relevance Engine, iotum Talk-Now for Blackberry, and most recently iotum Free Conference Calls for Facebook, have garnered accolades from industry and users alike.
About VERDEXUS
VERDEXUS (www.verdexus.com) is an international, strategic management and financial boutique dedicated to turning great technologies into globally competitive companies. We leverage our extensive management know how, finance partners and international networks to build technology ventures faster and further. Founded in 2001 by international technology entrepreneurs who have founded and built global technology companies, VERDEXUS uses a hands-on investment model that provides seasoned operational executives who turn strategy into execution and build new levels of strategic market value for technology companies.
Contact
Sue Huss
Comunicano, for iotum
619-379-4396
sue.huss@comunicano.com
Randall Howard, General Partner, VERDEXUS
519- 957-2231
rhoward@verdexus.com
Posted at 12:38 AM | Posted to | TrackBack
November 26, 2007
The Parties-based Business Model
The a:c does not buy the storyline that the venture economy has floated another bubble. However, we are getting the sense that too many startup managers think they can mail-it-in if they can only generate buzz by getting links in key blogs and landing speaking gigs at events. We are seeing a number of startups that seem to have hired someone to manage their parties while other startups seem to be spending much to much on PR firms. We pity the PR pros who have been given big budgets to pitch startups but have no new news to pitch as the startups are bereft of newsworthy substance.
EIR Andrew Chen posts on this subject and breaks down marketing into the free/viral variety vs. the paid variety. What Andrew points out is that free traffic and attention is great but it it typically a one-time event and is generally not sustainable.
We would ad a third key marketing angle: great products/thrilled customers. If you can lock that down then you should consider hiring a PR firm and pressing your case. You can even afford to get cocky and leave the press and blogosphere wanting more. Depending on your business, give us sustained traffic growth, clients with killer ROI, and groundbreaking functionality and you won't have to waste your time begging hat in hand for free links.
The press, blogosphere and PR agencies are more than happy to oblige startups' mania for getting links. Every week we see more events launched, awards launched, and pay-to-win contests. Its been a great growth market. However, the a:c plans to take a look back at heralded startups and ask wtf questions.
Posted at 05:54 PM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Classmates Reaps $140M In Last 3 Quarters
Classmates.com says it expects to sell 12M shares priced at $10 - $12 given the social networking business a market cap of $600M - $720M. Assuming an offering price of $11 per share, the company expects to raise net proceeds of about $117.7M after fees and expenses from the IPO. Classmates owes $50M to its controlling stockholder United Online.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company reported earnings of about $1.7M on revenue of $140.1M.
The company's CEO has experience with public companies. Mark Goldston was CEO of United Online and was CEO of NetZero as well as CEO of Einstein/Noah Bagels. He'll be tested, as Classmates reported that the Federal Trade Commission is conducting an inquiry into the company's activities in the marketing and sale of paid subscriptions to consumers. Classmates acknowledges that any forced changes to its automatic-renewal practices could have a material impact on the churn rate of Classmates' social networking members and hurt the company's business operations.
Read - Reuters report
Posted at 05:22 PM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
Uberguilds Bought By GuildCafe
GuildCafe.com has bought Portland-based Uberguilds. This is not a case of one rival buying another, rather Uberguilds is a network of sites devoted to online fantasy role playing games. GuildCafe powers such sites with social networking software and got to know Uberguilds this way. GuildCafe is funded by IDG Ventures Boston while Uberguilds was bootstrapped.
Uberguilds was founded in June 2005 by former US Army SPC Johnathan Findlay.
Charts like this are helpful on GuildCafe's Galaxy tribe.
Posted at 04:59 PM | Posted to Games | TrackBack
Yodle Gains $12M For Local Pay-Per-Call Advertising
The last we heard of Yodle the online advertising startup called itself NatPal. It changed its name to Yodle over the summer. It also brought on a new CEO last Summer - Court Cunningham who was with Doubleclick. Today Yodle announced that it had raised $12M in a round of financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, with existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners.
Yodle is a fairly straightforward pay-per-call advertising network. What we like about the service is that it is dumbed down so that your local electrician or lawyer can understand it and use it to get leads. Yodle focuses on metro areas and hires local sales teams to comb through the yellow pages calling on small businesses to explain the ROI of pay-per-call listings. Early on the company was able to prove a reasonable ROI and it has stuck to the formula. Yodle makes the claim that on average, $1 invested with Yodle results in $12 in additional profit for the advertiser. The last we checked, they were saying they returned $6 for every $1 invested.
Yodle piggybacks on the bigs - Google, Yahoo, MSN, Superpages - and then helps its advertisers to get the most out of each dollar. This aspect of the service reminds us of another NYC-based startup that recently raised funding - Clickable, which also helps people to manage campaigns across the CPC networks. The difference is that Clickable is targeting agencies and other big media buyers. We prefer Yodle's target audience as we believe they are building a new market from people who don't have the time to make Internet marketing a core strength whereas Clickable is targeting pros who will be harder to persuade to use their toolkit.
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Press Release Source: Yodle, Inc.
Online Lead Generator Yodle Raises $12 Million in Latest Financing
Monday November 26, 9:00 am ET
Draper Fisher Jurvetson Invests in Yodle's Rapid Expansion; Yodle Achieves 400% Year-Over-Year Growth
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yodle, Inc., a leader in local online advertising and lead generation, announced today that it raised $12 million in a round of financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, with existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners also participating in the round. The new funding is the second round of successful financing for the rapidly growing New York based start-up.
Yodle’s goal is to make buying online ads simple and easy for small businesses and to offer a high-performing, cost-effective alternative to the outdated Yellow Pages, previously the standard for small business advertising.
“Today, 63 percent of consumers primarily search for local businesses online; Yodle is tapping this enormous advertising market to drive customers to businesses in a way that has never been done before. With Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s financing, we will be able to complete our national rollout and offer our services to small businesses across the country,” said Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle.
Yodle delivers tangible results for its customers, focusing on generating phone calls instead of web clicks. It’s estimated that $1 invested with Yodle results in $8 in additional profit for small businesses such as electricians, lawyers, doctors, roofers and even florists.
Andreas Stavropoulos, managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, added: “What impressed us about Yodle was its ability to deliver a high and steady volume of quality consumer phone calls to small businesses in a simple yet reliable way. Customer loyalty to the Yodle product is higher than that of any competitor in the market we have seen.”
In addition, Yodle has developed a proprietary media buying platform to squeeze maximum performance out of every dollar it spends in online advertising for clients.
“Yodle now offers small business owners something they have never had before; they know exactly what their return on investment is using Yodle’s industry leading Call Tracking and integrated Lead Manager tools. This level of transparency is new to small business owners who traditionally advertise in the Yellow Pages. With no long-term contracts and a clear method to track performance, this is low risk and potentially high reward investment for any small business to make,” said Cunningham.
Yodle is experiencing dynamic and rapid growth: 400% in the third quarter 2007 vs. third quarter 2006. Yodle was founded in Philadelphia in 2005 by Nathaniel Stevens, a recent finalist for Business Week’s “America's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2007.” Yodle now operates offices out of New York, Washington DC, Boston, Atlanta, as well as Philadelphia.
About Yodle, Inc.
Yodle provides local businesses with a simple way to get more customers and phone calls using online marketing. Yodle, a company funded by Bessemer Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is transforming local online advertising by connecting local business owners with consumers in a simple, measurable and relevant way. Yodle has developed an integrated approach to signing up and serving local businesses that are transitioning their marketing budgets online. Yodle operates offices out of New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Boston. To find out more about Yodle, go to www.yodle.com.
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading venture capital firm with a global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in more than 30 cities around the world and approximately $6 Billion in capital commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, serve and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back over 500 companies across many sectors including such industry changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), EnerNOC (ENOC), athenahealth (ATHN), Focus Media (FMCN), Mobile 365 (acquired by Sybase), xFire (acquired by Viacom), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Massive (acquired by MSFT), Parametric (PMTC) and Mozy (acquired by EMC).
About Bessemer Venture Partners
As the oldest venture capital practice in the U.S., Bessemer has carried on a tradition of hands-on, early-stage investing since 1911. With offices in New York, California, Massachusetts, Shanghai and Mumbai, Bessemer Venture Partners (www.bvp.com) now manages more than a billion dollars of venture funds. Over 100 Bessemer startups have gone public, including Ciena, Gartner, Ingersoll Rand, International Paper, Maxim, Parametric, Staples, WR Grace, Verisign, and Veritas. Wikia is one of many Web2.0 companies whose first venture rounds were led by Bessemer; others include Skype, Yelp, Zopa, Revver and Flock.
Contact:
Group SJR
Ben Kellogg, 212-751-3469
bkellogg@groupsjr.com
Posted at 10:31 AM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
Sendori Funded For Domain Name Ad Exchange
Cupertino-based Sendori has added First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, and Maples Investments as investors. No details of the funding have been released.
Sendori has advertisers bid in a marketplace to have targeted web traffic redirected to their sites. It's a brilliant idea and an idea that we are surprised has just arrived. Most domainers run ads from ad networks. What Sendori does is to redirect visitors who mis-typed a URL to whatever URL the highest paying advertiser owns. 100% CTR beats any ad network's CTR any day of the week.
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Posted at 12:54 AM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
e911 No Joke: Vixxi Funded To Sell Emergency Service To VoIP
We have to count ourselves as among those who under-estimated the hassle of VoIP 411. It really has been a hardship for VoIP companies. Here comes Vixxi Solutions out of Irving, TX which has raised $4M to fix the bug. Vixxi sells e911 solutions to VoIP providers and carriers. Vixxi says it provides 100% geographical coverage in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. Vixxi is majority owned by Spatial Data. Backers include ComVentures and Trident Capital.
So what's the problem here? Let's say you are kidnapped and make a 911 call via your VoIP line but the bad guy hangs up on you. Your local police don't know where you are to rescue you. Bummer. It's also a bummer for your VoIP provider who is required by law to know where you are. With a service like Vixxi, the e911 emergency-calling system automatically associates a physical address with the calling party's telephone number.
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Posted at 12:28 AM | Posted to Voice | TrackBack
November 25, 2007
Advasense Wants To Make Your Cell Phone Cam Less Crap
Israel's Advasense has raised another $6M. We have been tracking Advasense for the past year and we don't detect much progress in terms of deals to get their cell phone cameras chips into people's hands. But investors must believe that the deals are at hand.
Advasense says that its chips will make the quality of your cell phone camera 's pics the equivalent of the pics that your digital camera spits out. Sounds great and we can't wait to see it in action.
This latest round comes from Taiwanese VC firm CIDC Consultants. Advasense had raised $14M this year from Genesis Partners, Giza Venture Capital, BlueRun Ventures and Venture Tech Alliance.
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Posted at 11:31 PM | Posted to Wireless | TrackBack
November 23, 2007
This Week in Euro Tech Ventures
Investments
+ Zurich-based Spectraseis announced this week hat it has raised $ 32.5M from Warburg Pincus in a deal that sees the investor acquiring a "significant minority stake" in the geographical surveying technology company.
+ Irish wind energy power generating company Airtricity is in play with a €2B valuation
+ European investors are backing a seed round in Tokiva, a Chinese mobile communication platform company that provides services, such as discounted mobile calls.
+ Scottish Equity Partners Invests in Skyscanner - a flight search engine.
a:c euro puzzler
+ Here is a list of Latin place names. What modern day cities do they refer to?
Revalia - Skyperesearchanddevelopementonia
Turicum - the city on whose outskirts the alarm:clock euro office is located
Lutetia - Sofinnovaville
Emona - a young Eastern European city with more than 50,000 students and some interesting Web startups (dragon visual clue above)
Holmia - the capital of a Nordic country that has seen US giants acquire three of its cutting edge startups in the past year or so (audio compression, web conferencing, and data visualization)
News & Analysis
+ French eCommerce firm Vente Privée proves unconventionally successful with a turnover of some €300M annually.
Posted at 01:28 PM | Posted to Euro Ventures | TrackBack
November 21, 2007
Mojo Watch: Threadless, Wordpress, Feedster, Musicmobs
+ Wordpress is now larger than Typepad.
Mojo Lost
+MusicMobs shuts down.