Posts Tagged ‘First Round Capital’
Monday, February 25th, 2013
 Advertising Age editors threw in a few surprises with the 2013 Digital A-List, out today in print, online and on the AdAge iPhone and iPad apps. The list is the centerpiece of the its annual Digital Issue.
All of the top three on the list are somewhat surprising. They are the humor site, The Onion, The Weather Company, and statistics maven Nate Silver, who correctly predicted outcomes in last year’s political races.
But something that isn’t a surprise: it’s clearer where the value is in the digital world, the magazine says.
“What a difference a year makes,” said Abbey Klaassen , editor of Advertising Age. “The digital ability of our industry is finally maturing. A year ago, things felt dark. Breakthroughs that were supposed to be big didn’t turn out that way, and business models that were supposed to save the world didn’t.
“Google was the only one making money in digital and our A-List pretty much wrote itself. This year, things have settled. And it’s clearer where the real value is.”
Each year, the closely watched Digital A-List names the companies, things, and one person the AdAge editors believe drove progress for digital over the past 12 months.
 Nate Silver is high on the Advertising Age Digital A list for 2013. Photo from Ad Age. The Digtal A list for 2013:
- The Onion
- The Weather Company
- Nate Silver
- Oreo
- General Electric
- First Round Capital
- Google Apps
- Deadspin
- 3D printing
- Samsung Galaxy
Deep Dives on Facebook, Twitter, Google & Hiring
The issue also includes AdAge‘s second exclusive assessment of marketers’ sentiments toward Facebook. A series of charts and other analytics show that most brands have yet to sample things like Sponsored Stories or use the Facebook Exchange.
“We can see that as either an indictment or an opportunity,” summed Michael Learmonth , assistant managing editor at Advertising Age.
Also in the issue, a look at Twitter’s coming of age.
“Twitter created a new real-time window for marketing and they own it, but until this year, there was a real question of whether the company would be able to capitalize on the business opportunity,” added Learmonth.
“We now see brands’ newsrooms operating continuously, and going into high alert around things like the Grammys, the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl.
“Nothing existed with this urgency before Twitter. It’s an amazing opportunity for Twitter, and there are real risks. The value of real-time content expires very quickly compared to search’s very long tail and permanence.”
Google/Samsung tensions brewing
 In a third look at leading digital platforms: the story of the tensions brewing between two longtime Silicon Valley allies, Google and Samsung.
In the wake of Google’s hiring of Samsung’s top marketer, the story delves into how the relationship has turned acrimonious.
“There are real indications that the united front of these two companies is crumbling and that united front is vital to competing with Apple,” added Learmonth.
New to the Digital Issue for 2013 – and providing some of the most interesting twists to the issue’s coverage: The Eight Best Digital Hires over the past year.
“You’ll see people you’d expect on the list, like Marissa Mayer . But you’ll also see people you’ve never heard of,” Learmonth said. “It gives you a sense of who to watch in 2013.”
Tags: 2013, A list, Advertising Age, Digital Issue, First Round Capital, General Electric, Nate Silver, Oreo, The Onion, The Weather Co.
Posted in Google, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech life/Culture, Twitter | No Comments »
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
 33Across, operators of the largest social and interest graph in the world, reaching over a billion users globally, has secured $13.1 million in new equity financing.
The round was led by new investor Pelion Venture Partners, with continued support from existing investors Flybridge Capital, Greycroft Partners, First Round Capital, iNovia Capital, Panorama Capital, QED Investors, Metamorphic Ventures, and Great Oaks Venture Capital. To date, the company has raised more than $26 million in total.
“The term ‘social graph’ is more often associated with Facebook than any other technology company,” stated Chad Packard, Partner of Pelion.
“However, there is a wide-open race underway to determine who will most successfully leverage anonymous social data gleaned from billions of actions taking place across the ‘rest-of-web.’ Clearly, we and our investor partners have placed our bets on 33Across.”
“The movement to understand how massive amounts of content, search and social data surround and inform a brand is underway; many are calling it a marketing evolution,” said Eric Wheeler, CEO of 33Across.
“Big data has the potential to transform digital marketing and publishing, and this capital infusion accelerates our position as the most trusted partner for the world’s largest advertisers and content owners.”
New York-based 33Across is on a rapid growth trajectory. The company’s revenues shot up dramatically in 2011: its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from inception in 2008 through 2011 was 468%.
33Across will use this added capital to continue its industry leadership and accelerate investment in new product innovation and engineering.
The company plans to significantly expand its presence in the advertising and publishing industries and build on its current client roster, which includes more than 375 Fortune 1000 marketers and over 600,000 publishers.
Recent company highlights include:
- Continued employee growth, including recently adding four new management team executives and five new sales executives. The company currently has 85 employees.
- Tynt Acquisition in January 2012.
- Introduction of The Brand Graph, a blueprint for advertisers to transform unstructured social, interest, and search data into actionable, high value audience segments.
- Expansion in US market, with offices in 11 cities including New York City, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Detroit and Chicago.
- Recognition by AlwaysOn with its third annual award for technology and innovation, eRetail for its leadership in the category, and SXSW solo speaker at the 2012 Interactive event.
Tags: 33Across, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Greycroft Partners, iNovia Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, Panorama Capital, Pelion Venture Partners, QED Investors, social & interest graph, venture funding
Posted in Analytics, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, venture capital report | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
 SinglePlatform, recently named among the nation’s most promising startups by Bloomberg Businessweek for its ability to simplify digital communications for local businesses, has raised $3.25 million in venture funding. The investment, led by DFJ Gotham Ventures with participation from new investor New World Ventures and existing investors First Round Capital and RRE Ventures, brings the company’s total funding to $4.45 million.
SinglePlatform operates as a one-stop digital portal for local businesses to manage their web presence, integrating their websites, Twitter, Facebook and mobile with a single upload of information. Local businesses are now able to publish their specials, events, menus, photos and more across a publisher network that includes more than 11,000 mobile applications, 34,000 hotels, 620 universities, data providers, and major travel and food specific destination sites.
“We help local businesses get discovered online. Managing digital streams effectively is the equivalent of a full-time job for someone like a restaurant owner, which is why many have not fully utilized new capabilities. We walk them through the process and make it simple, which levels the playing field for independent restaurants and other local businesses,” said Wiley Cerilli, SinglePlatform CEO.
“Local businesses represent an enormous potential customer base and restaurants are the most sought after targets in this category,” explained Thatcher Bell, a SinglePlatform board member and a principal at DFJ Gotham Ventures. “SinglePlatform has found a way to capture this market with a product that meets the needs of restaurants and other local businesses alike.”
Google Group plans to identify London Rioters
Is modern technology making it easier for people to create a new for of vigilante as well as the new type of criminals using Blackberry encrypted messaging to coordinate rioting and looting in London and elsewhere in England? A new Google Group, London Riots Facial Recognition (open only to members), plans to use facial recognition tools to identify looters and rioters from online photos.
The group says it will use only legal sources for its images.
Some critics argue the group could potentially target people who were just bystanders during the riots and that it raises privacy concerns.
Lenovo aims new ThinkCentre all-in-one desktop at large businesses, schools, governments
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced the ThinkCentre M71 all-in-one (AIO) desktop designed for large businesses, schools and governments. The new AIO boasts a variety of performance features, from fast boot up to the latest second generation Intel® Core™ processor family, interactive touchscreen options and advanced video conferencing features.
“We’re seeing more and more business customers embrace all-in-one desktops for their space savings, portability and style benefits,” said Tom Shell, general manager and vice president, Worldwide ThinkCentre Business Unit, Lenovo. “We’ve built the ThinkCentre M71z to go beyond these advantages and give any business that needs it the highest levels of desktop performance.”
Unlimited Performance All in One
As part of Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience 2.0 program1, the fast-booting ThinkCentre M71z starts up in as little as 15 seconds on select models with an optional solid state drive (SSD). The M71z includes choices of powerful second generation Intel® Core™ processors, rapid DDR3 memory, up to 1 TB hard drive storage or a ultrafast 160 GB SSD.
The ThinkCentre M71z’s 20-inch display is an ideal screen size for doing work with the added convenience and cost savings of a two-in-one device compared with desktops and monitor solutions sold separately.
Pricing and Availability
The ThinkCentre M71z all-in-one desktop will be available starting in October with models starting at approximately $599. The desktop will be sold through www.lenovo.com and business partners.
Tags: Blackberry encrypted messaging, Bloomberg Businessweek, DFJ Gotham Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Group members to identify London Rioters, Lenovo ThinkCentre all-in-one desktop, most promising startup, New Wrold Ventures, SinglePlatform, technology vigilantes
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
 Fred Wilson has the top PeekScore among U.S. venture capitalists What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news.
TechJournal South asked PeekYou to do a PeekScore on the 20 most powerful venture capitalists. Top score would be 10.
Here they are:
Tags: Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Bob Goodman, David Skok, David Sze, Douglas Leone, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Fred Wilson, General Catalyst Partners, Greylock Partners, Herry Weller, Highland Capital Partners, Jeremy Levine, Jim Breyer, Joel Cutler, Josh Kpelman, Kevin Efrusy, Marc Andreessen, Matrix Partners, Micael Moritz, New Enterprise Associates, PeekScore, PeekYou, Peter Baris, Peter Fenton, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Scott Sandell, Sean Dalton, Sequoia Capital, Terry McGuire, top U.S. venture firms, Union Square Ventures, who are the top U.S. venture capitalists
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, People, venture capital report | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
 Smarterer, a Boston-based firm that that measures digital, social, and technical skills, has raised $1.25 milion from Google Ventures, True Ventures, and angel investors who include Mark Gerson, Shikhar Ghosh, Scott Kurnit, Peter Lehrman, Thomas Lehrman, Dharmesh Shah, among others.
Serial entrepreneur Dave Balter, CEO, founded the company in October 2010.
The company has developed an algorithm that validates and quantifies digital, social and technical skills using an 800 point scale similar to the GMAT or SAT, labeling the user as smart, smarter, or smarterer, with only 5 percent reaching the top level. Skills evaluated include Google Search, WordPress, Excel, Salesforce and Photoshop. Its designed for people in the first ten years of their careers.
“The skills section on everyone’s resume is meaningless given there’s no way to gauge or validate level of skill. The tools we use are so important in today’s economy. It’s time to make that data authentic and mean something to employers,” said Balter.
If your skills are exemplary, this could help your resume standout, we suspect. One of the problems for both employers and job seekers in a high unemployment economy is separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff.
“The skills section on everyone’s resume is meaningless given there’s no way to gauge or validate level of skill. The tools we use are so important in today’s economy. It’s time to make that data authentic and mean something to employers,” said Balter.
Streetline parks oversubscribed $15M second round
San Francisco-based Streetline, which provides free mobile and web-based smart city and smart parking software, has raised a $15 million Series B round.
The company says that by accessing real-time parking availability via Parker by Streetline, the leading real-time consumer parking app, motorists can quickly and easily find and pay for available parking based on location, time limit and price – and significantly decrease emissions produced while searching for the perfect parking spot.
Streetline’s patented smart parking platform detects the presence of a car through a network of ultra-low power wireless sensors located in individual parking spaces. By downloading Parker onto a smartphone or compatible tablet, consumers can access real-time parking availability. The free app can be downloaded from the Android Market or Itunes stores stores.
Energy software firm Versify Solutions lights up with $2M
Chadds Ford, MD-based Versify Solutions has napped $2 million from a mixed securities offering, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company raised $375,000 in September 2010.
The company develops software and services for power industry professionals such as energy traders.
Others from the wires:
TellApart, a Burlingame, CA-based company selling personalized online shopping advertising software, has raised a $13 million second round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Greylock.
ReadyforZero, based in San Francisco, sells online software enabling users to track their credit card debt. It landed $4.5 million firs round fundings led by Polaris Venture Partners with participation by Citi Growth Ventures & Innovations group and angel investors.
Roblox, which develops virtual worlds for children, has nabbed $4 million. Backers of the San Francisco company include Altos Ventures and First Round Capital.
Tags: Altos Ventures, Bain Capital, Boston, Chadds Ford, Dharmesh Shah, financings, First Round Capital, Google Search, Google Ventures, Greylock, Mark Gerson, MD, parking app, Peter Lehrman, Photoshop, ReadyforZero, Roblox, San Francisco, Scott Kurnit, Shikhar Ghosh, skills accessment score, Smarterer, Streetline, TellApart, Thomas Lehrman, True Ventures, venture fundings, Versify Solutions, wordpress
Posted in Energy, Google, Internet/New Media, IT, Maryland, Potomac | No Comments »
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
 NET VC – Internet-based firms continue to rake in the dollars, if not on the scale of say Groupon or Living Social. What’s getting funded? Net-based platforms to boost SEO results, to do training and sharing, and to seek business loans, among others.
New York-based Altruik nabs $3M for automated SEO platform
Altruik, which sells an autmated SEO platform, has raised nearly $3 million in its second round of funding. The current financing includes commitments from all existing investors: DFJ Gotham Ventures, GSA Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Javelin Venture Partners, Zelkova Ventures, and Hub Angels Investment Group. In addition, Centurion Venture Partners and New York Angels have joined as new investors.
The company raised a $4.7 million first round.
Altruik says it has developed an advanced automated platform that streamlines the SEO process, and simplifies the implementation of much needed SEO transformations on a client’s native website. The company’s solution improves SEO capabilities, and also simultaneously complies with the terms and conditions of the leading search engines.
The company says that by automating SEO on-page best practices and enhancing visibility of a client’s Web pages, Altruik’s platform boosts search engine page results and click-through rates. It integrates with all content management systems. Altruik has clients in retail clothing and home improvement.
It’s amazing how many SEO-focused companies are thriving. Is it a sector ripe for serious consolidation?
Mindflash adds $4M funding for cloud training, sharing platform
Palo Alto, CA – Mindflash, which sells a web platform to share information and train employees, has raised $4 million from The Investment Group of Santa Barbara, which also led the company’s previous $5 million round in December 2009.
Mindflash says its platform allows organizations to quickly and efficiently set up training courses anytime, anywhere, saving them time and money. Employees benefit by sharing best practices, new product details, business process information, and any other materials that will aid in the development and growth of their business.
Since its launch in September 2010, Mindflash users have completed tens of thousands of courses on everything from sales training to brewing beer at home. Mindflash was recently awarded a Brandon Hall Learning Technology Award for their achievement in creating a low-cost, user-friendly training platform, and was named a Top Ten Tech Tool for businesses by ReadWriteWeb. The company has been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, Mashable and TechCrunch.
Lendio adds $2M in debt from Square 1 Bank
TechCrunch reports that Salt Lake City, Utah firm Lendio, previously known as FundingUniverse.com, a company that matches businesses with lending sources such as banks and credit unions, has added $2 million in debt financing from Square 1 Bank to the $6 million it recently raised in venture backing.
The company, which launched three months ago, says it has already received requests for $1 billion in business loans. Lendio says it works with 3,500 lenders with access to more than 13,000 lending options.
Anything that helps businesses find money for operations or growth should prosper in the current economic environment, we suspect.
See also: Atlanta-based CodeGuard keys in angel round for website protection
UberMedia raises $5.6M from Burda Digital for 3rd party Twitter app
PASADENA, CA – UberMedia, the largest independent provider of applications for reading and posting to Twitter and other social media platforms, has rasied $5.6 million in financing from Burda Digital through DLD Ventures.
Burda Digital is one of the leading European Internet companies with investments in over 50 digital media companies in Germany, Europe and overseas with revenues of over $900 million.
UberMedia’s applications user base has grown from startup to more than 5,000,000 users in just over a year. Users of the company’s popular Twitter apps – UberSocial, Echofon, Twidroyd and others – currently Tweet more than 200 times per second, representing approximately 13% of all traffic on the Twitter platform.
UberMedia recently announced partnerships with leading hip-hop recording artist, 50 Cent, to provide the Uber50 theme on UberSocial for BlackBerry, and with actor and technology investor Ashton Kutcher to power his own desktop Twitter client, A.plus.
We have to wonder how firms with third party Twitter apps will fare going forward. Twitter, which just bought TweetDeck, one of the most popular of the third-party apps, has expressed its displeasure with companies developing apps focused solely on the micro-blogging site.
Tags: A.plus, Altruik, Ashton Kutcher, automated SEO platform, Burda Digital, Centurion Venture Partners, DLD Venures, Echofon, financings, First Round Capital, Fundinguniverse.com, Gotham Ventures, GSA Venture Partners, Hub Angels Investment Group, Investment Group of Santa Barbara, Javelin Venture Partners, Lendio, loans to businesses, Mindflash, New York, New York Angels, Twidroyd, Twitter apps, UberMedia, UberSocial, venture fundings, web training and sharing platform, Zelkova Ventures
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
 LOUISVILLE, KY – A lot of company data floats in the cloud in Google docs, Gmail, Twitter, and WordPress blogs these days, so its no surprise that Backupify landed a $900,000 seed round only seven months after launching.
First Round Capital led the financing. Investors also include General Catalyst Partners, Betaworks and individuals, Chris Sacca, Jason Calacanis, Andy Swan and Bob Saunders.
Backupify is an online data backup and storage provider that enables users to backup their cloud accounts seamlessly to the Amazon S3 cloud.
Right time to expand
Backupify, which launched in June 2009 with a consumer focus, now provides storage for businesses to backup their critical cloud data. The company was founded in November 2008.
“With businesses moving their critical data to the cloud, the time is right for Backupify to expand its services,” said Josh Kopelman, founding partner at First Round.
“Backupify’s consumer offering has seen tremendous adoption and the company’s expansion will give businesses customers a key benefit that had been missing from the cloud—complete control of their key information.”
Control of data an issue
Much of the data users generate today is not stored on personal computers; users have data locked up in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Basecamp and other online services.
We wondered, though, why companies would worry about backing up cloud data, when generally, it is backed up. The company says that while most business users aren’t concerned about losing this data, they are concerned about losing control of it, the company says.
Threats such as hacking, SLA issues or even data loss due to user error further compound their concerns.
Beyond control, there is the issue of compliance: industries such as financial services must meet stringent requirements for archiving all employee communications.
“The move to the cloud is something that most companies see as a mixed blessing. The benefits are obvious, but the loss of control of company data can be daunting,” said Rob May, the CEO and co-founder of Backupify.
“C-level executives at prospective customers have told us that while they trusted that backups of their critical data were happening, they would still feel more comfortable if they had a copy of the data that they themselves controlled, and would be willing to pay for that peace-of-mind.”
Previously Backupify raised an angel round from Dharmesh Shah, CTO of Hubspot; Sean O’Leary and Sterling Lapinski, Co-Founders of Genscape; and Vik Chadha, Co-Founder of Glowtouch.
Backupify
Tags: Backupify funding, data backup for cloud apps, First Round Capital, General Catalyst, IT, Kentucky
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Kentucky, Money, Other SE | No Comments »
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