Posts Tagged ‘Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’
Monday, January 7th, 2013
 Shape Security, a Mountain View, CA-based startup developing a new type of web security technology, has closed a $20 million Series B financing round led by Venrock, with additional participants including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Allegis Capital, Google Ventures, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures and former Symantec CEO Enrique Salem.
Business Insider recently noted that Silicon Valley insiders seem to love this startup.
Ray Rothrock, partner at Venrock, has joined the company’s board of directors, which includes Series A investors Ted Schlein, managing partner at Kleiner Perkins, and Gaurav Garg, special limited partner at Sequoia Capital and personal investor in Shape.
Unlike anything seen before
The new funding brings Shape’s total amount raised to $26 million. The company previously raised a $6 million Series A round in April, led by Kleiner Perkins.
Additional participants in that round included TomorrowVentures, Google Ventures and Baseline Ventures, as well as top executives from Dropbox, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
“The rise of botnets and crimeware-as-a-service have led to an untenable situation where websites are now cheap to attack and expensive to defend,” said Rothrock. “Shape’s technology will alter this balance. It is unlike anything the industry has ever seen before.”
Founder Shuman Ghosemajurnder isn’t providing details about exactly what the firm’s product does, but it apparently sits between a user’s PC and malware in such as way that it vastly increases the difficulty automating the hacking process.
Security incidents on the rise
The number of large-scale web security incidents has increased exponentially in the past decade. Symantec estimates the overall cybercrime market at $388 billion per year. Last month, the FBI took down a single botnet which alone stole over $850 million.
One problem Shape addresses are the Botnets offering cybercrime as a service. It can also help protect against the dangerous Zeus trojan that cost European banks $47 million by spoofing bank sites.
“Signature and heuristic-based detection have proven unsuccessful in keeping pace with the complexity of modern web attacks,” said Salem. “I’m excited about Shape’s technology because it will allow websites to deflect attacks automatically, using a far more sophisticated approach.”
Over the past year, Shape has recruited several key executives, including Google’s former click fraud czar, Cisco’s former VP of Application Delivery, and Walmart’s former chief information security officer.
“Cybersecurity is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Every week, major corporations that have invested millions in best-practice security technologies still get hacked,” said Derek Smith, Shape Security CEO. “This doesn’t have to be the case. We now have the opportunity to completely change the economics and efficacy of web security.”
Tags: Allegis Capital, CA, Enrique Salem, financing, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mountain View, Shape Security, Shuman Ghosemajurnder, Silicon Valley
Posted in IT, Money, Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
 Affdex reads facial expressions using a webcam to help understand how people feel. (Graphic: Business Wire) Are you ready to share not only videos you find interesting, but your emotional reactions to them? You may be able to do just that in the not too distant future. A company that has raised nearly $20 million in venture backing and several National Science Foundation grants is already marketing emotion-reading technologies.
Waltham, MA-based Affectiva has secured $12 million in Series C financing, backed by Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) Digital Growth Fund, with participation from existing investors.
The company’s technologies interest marketers and online video makers because it could sharpen their ability to create emotionally effective videos.
Affectiva, an MIT spin-off founded in 2009 by professor Rosalind W. Picard, Sc.D. and research scientist Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D., has successfully commercialized emotion technologies, including Affdex, an automated facial coding platform and Q Sensor, a wearable biometric sensor.
Building on its momentum in market research, Affectiva will use the new funds to accelerate Affdex development of emotional insights for all forms of online video content, including advertisements, trailers, TV shows and movies.
Will use built-in webcams on laptops
Using the webcam found on laptops, tablets and smartphones, people will watch Affdex-enabled online videos and easily share their emotional experience with friends, family and content providers.
This accurate, scalable emotional insight will also allow content providers to optimize their content with improved relevance, engagement and viral impact, resulting in more user traffic and increased advertising revenue.
“Our goal is to make Affdex a globally ubiquitous tool that enables people to understand and share their emotional experiences online,” said David Berman, chief executive officer at Affectiva.
“While there is tremendous value for online video publishers to better understand consumer engagement with their content, we want to take this even further, so that consumers can see and share their own personal emotional scores.”
Opportunities for marketers
“Capturing and viewing online video has become mainstream. The ability to effectively measure real-time emotion while consumers are watching video has the potential to improve online engagement and satisfaction for users, in addition to creating opportunities for marketers to more effectively determine what consumers care most about,” said Mary Meeker, a partner at KPCB and Internet-industry expert.
The additional financing will also support the continued development for Q Sensor, already in use by hundreds of leading universities and corporations, to collect data and develop meaningful insights for areas such as sleep, anxiety, and stress.
Affectiva is partnering with a number of leading research and commercial institutions on healthcare applications for clinical and consumer health.
Affectiva previously raised $7.7 million from WPP, Myrian Capital and the Peder Wallenberg Charitable Trust, represented by Lingfield AB.
In addition, the company has also won several National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to further develop the cloud-based Affdex platform for brand managers seeking to optimize ad performance.
As a part of the financing, Frank Meehan at Horizons Ventures will join Affectiva’s board of directors and Mary Meeker, a partner at KPCB, will join as an Affectiva board observer.
Tags: Affectiva, Digital Growth Fund, emotion insight technology, Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, M&A, Mary Meeker, online video, sharing emotional reactions, venture funding, Waltham
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, Money, Tech life/Culture, venture capital report, video | No Comments »
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
 InnoSpring, Silicon Valley’s first US-China technology startup incubator, today announced that it is now accepting applications for the new InnoSpring Accelerator Program, a six-month program designed to prepare startups for hyper-speed growth in the United States, China and beyond.
Santa Clara, CA-based InnoSpring will select up to 10 startups to enter the program, each of which will receive $100,000 in funding, industry and business mentorship and more.
InnoSpring will consider applications up until its August 31st deadline.
“InnoSpring encourages passionate and globally-minded entrepreneurs to apply to the InnoSpring Accelerator Program,” said Eugene Zhang, president of InnoSpring.
“Selected startups will gain unparalleled access to our unique and valuable US-China ecosystem, receive mentorship from the best in their industries, and be provided tools to build scalable companies for the global economy.”
The InnoSpring Accelerator Program
The InnoSpring Accelerator program is targeted at companies in the Mobile Internet, Cleantech and Healthcare IT industries, with special preference given to big data startups. Beginning October 1, 2012, selected applicants will begin their program at InnoSpring’s 13,500-square-feet Silicon Valley facility. Accelerator Program companies will receive:
- $100,000 or more in startup funding
- Structured workshops on topics such as sales, product differentiation, revenue model, improving your pitch, business development, startup law and more
- Mentorship and office hours from sector-specific mentors, VCs and angel investors, business/marketing mentors and startup law firms
- Speaker events with well-known Silicon Valley and China entrepreneurs and executives
- Exclusive access to InnoSpring’s US-China ecosystem
- Networking and pitching opportunities with venture capitalists and angel investors
- Assistance with marketing, public relations and recruiting
- Access to in-house resources such as HR, paralegal and bookkeeping services
- Series A/B round funding facilitation
InnoSpring Accelerator Program Mentors
InnoSpring Accelerator Program mentors include top venture capitalists and serial entrepreneurs such as:
- Datong Chen: Founding Partner and Managing Director of WestSummit Capital; co-founder and former CTO of Spreadtrum Communications; co-founder and former SVP of Omnivision
- Wen Hsieh: Managing Partner at KPCB China; Partner at KPCB US
- Jack Jia: Partner at GSR Ventures; founder and former CEO of Baynote, Inc.; founding CTO and SVP of Interwoven
- Michael Jin: VP of IC Engineering at iWatt; Managing Partner at TEEC Angel Fund; co-founder and former CTO of Simple Silicon, Inc.
- Imin Lee: Founder and former CEO of AccelOps, Inc.; founder and former CEO of Protego Networks, Inc.
- Brook Porter: Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB); former COO of Primafuel
- Jinlin Wang: CTO and VP of Engineering at Answers; Advisory Partner at TEEC Angel Fund
- Wei Jie Yun: Senior Advisor to Northern Light Venture Capital; co-founder and former Executive Chairman of Telegent Systems
The InnoSpring Accelerator Program is funded through the InnoSpring Seed Fund, established in 2012 with the support from leading investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and KPCB China, Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC), GSR Ventures, China Broadband Capital (CBC) and TEEC Angel Fund.
Interested startups can apply online at http://InnoSpring.net/apply/.
Tags: Brook Porter, Datong Chen, GSR Ventures, Imin Lee, Innospring, Jack Jia, Jinlin Wang, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, KPCB China, Michael Jin, Northern Light Venture Capital;, US-China accelerator, Wei Jie Yun, Wen Hsieh, WestSummit Capital
Posted in entrepreneurship, Money, Startups | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
 SAN FRANCISCO- Investments in cleantech, particularly solar, rose by 13 percent over last year’s numbers to $2.57 billion in the first quarter 2011. That’s a trend continuing into the second quarter, if the number of cleantech financings we report is any guide. The first quarter numbers represent the most money invested in cleantech since the third quarter in 2008.
So says a report from San Francisco-based Cleantech Group, a consulting company.
Although the amount invested in cleantech was larger, it went to fewer firms, so venture capitalists are doing fewer but larger deals.
In a conference call, Sheeraz Haji, CEO of the Cleantech Group, said the sector is setting a pace to raise more money this year than at any time since it began tracking the investments in 2002. He said succuessful IPOs by cleantech firms such ast Telsa Motors helps.
Brightsource Energy Inc., which develops solar fields, was the largest single recipient of the $641 million that went to solar firms during the quarter. BrightSource may go for an IPO later this year.
Electric vehicle firms took the next largest slice of the pie: $311 million.
The most active investors in the space were: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, Vantage Point Venture Partners, and the Google and GE venture capital arms.
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Tags: Cleantech Group, Energy, GE, Google, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Q1 2011, Sheeraz Haji, solar power, Vantage Point Venture Partners, venture capital
Posted in Energy, venture capital report | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
 CHICAGO – Groupon, the Chicago-based daily discount service that competes with DC-based Living Social and other firms that offer online coupon-like deals, has raised $950 million from new investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the new Andreessen Horowitz fund. Other investors include Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.
Groupon garnered a lot of press and quite a bit of comment when it reportedly declined a $6 billion buyout offer from Google Inc. One experienced entrepreneur we know asked, “What could they be thinking?”
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Groupon said it will use $345 million of the new cash to buy back stock from some shareholders. That may reduce the pressure on the company to sell or go public so some investors can cash out.
The big cash infusion for Groupon is just the latest in a series of mega investments in the social net in the last month. Facebook nabbed $500 million on a valuation of $50 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter took $200 million at a valuation of $3.7 billion. LivingSocial grabbed $135 million from Amazon.
Talk of a new Internet bubble continues to rumble through the media.
But with the exception of Twitter, these are thriving businesses. In documents to potential investors, Facebook disclosed a surprisingly high 30 percent net profit margin and earned $355 million on $1.2 billion in revenue. Groupon’s revenue topped $500 million in 2010, according to analysts. It has 50 million members in 35 countries and employs 3,000 people.
I worked for one of the companies formed in the Internet bubble (LocalBusiness dot com). Major media companies invested $17 million in the firm over the two years I worked for it. It established daily news sites in more than 20 US markets, attracted decent traffic, and sold maybe two banner ads during all that time. It was a different time and a different Internet.
Think about this: do you miss any of the Web sites that died when the Internet bubble burst? Would you miss Facebook? Twitter? All the sites that help you find the best price on just about anything you want to purchase?
Today’s Internet is as essential to commerce as brick and mortar giants were in the past. Facebook could not acquire 500 million members globally if the Internet itself were not now so much a part of our lives. All the hype of that first Internet bubble is actually coming to pass – about a decade later.
The digital measurement service comScore has shown that even online display advertising moves package goods as well as a TV ad campaign.
Over the holidays, online spending set records (up 12 percent at more than $32 billion).
Not only that, the whole mobile sector is adding yet another access point that makes it even easier to do research, shop, and communicate online.
So, it may be early to be declaring another Internet bubble is in the works.– Allan Maurer
Email TJS Editor Allan Maurer: Allan at TechJournal South dot com.
Tags: Andreessen Horowitz, Chicago, DC, facebook, Groupon, Internet bubble, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, LIvingSocial, twitter
Posted in Internet/New Media, Money, Viewpoint | 1 Comment »
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