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Posts Tagged ‘Backer’

Incubator Betaworks raises $20M

Betaworks, the New York-based startup incubator and early-stage investor, has raised $20 million in a second round of funding.

The firm, which focuses on real-time web startups, was founded by former AOL executives John Borthwick and Andrew Weisman. Betaworks has made 24 investments so far, taking a big stake in five companies — Bit.ly, Chartbeat, Tweetdeck, Twitterfeed, and a stealth startup — according to GigaOm. Although the firm is commonly known as an incubator, Borthwick reportedly prefers to compare it to a holding company like InterActiveCorp.

The new round was led by Intel Capital (Betaworks’ first Bay Area investor) and past backer RRE Ventures, with participation from Softbank, Founders Collective, DFJ Growth, AOL Ventures and the New York Times. Betaworks previously raised $8 million.

Companies: Betaworks, Intel Capital, RRE Ventures

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InMobi Furthers Expansion Across The Pond With Google Europe Hire

We recently wrote about InMobi, a mobile ad network that has seen success in Asia and Africa and was beginning to see traction in Europe. In order to jumpstart growth, InMobi has hired Rob Jonas, Google’s Director of Strategic Partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa to lead operations cor the mobile ad network’s European sector.

InMobi is currently being used in 37 countries around the world with over 7.5 billion ad requests monthly. In Europe alone, InMobi is now receiving 850 million mobile advertising requests monthly across all major European markets.

Jonas was previously responsible for Google’s largest commercial relationships in the European region. Before Google, Jonas was at Yahoo Europe. InMobi has raised a total of $7.6 million to date, starting out with a $500k seed round from a group of angel investors and followed up by a multi-million financing round led by Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures (the VC firm started by Ram Shriram, early backer and founding board member of Google).

Of course the big elephant in the room is Google’s recent acquisition of AdMob and how that will effect InMobi’s continued expansion into the U.S. and European markets. And there’s the possibility that Google could make a move to overtake InMobi’s stronghold in other countries.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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Good karma: an in-depth review of Ubuntu 9.10

Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, climbed down from the tree last month with new features and updated software. For five years and eleven releases, the Ubuntu Linux distribution has delivered a capable desktop operating system built largely on open source software. The new version is another important step forward for Ubuntu and its corporate backer Canonical.

The new version offers a user experience that is incrementally better than its predecessors, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Some of the new software introduced in Ubuntu 9.10 feels incomplete and will need a lot more work before it can really shine. This review will take a close look at some of the most significant new features, such as Canonical’s Ubuntu One service and the new Software Center application management tool. We will also examine some of the upstream software from GNOME 2.28 that plays a role in defining key parts of the user experience in Ubuntu 9.10 and give you some technical insight into various architectural components of distro, such as Ubuntu’s unique CouchDB configuration.

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OnLive raises big round from AT&T and others for on-demand gaming

OnLive is announcing today it has raised a third round of funding from AT&T Media Holdings, Lauder Partners and its existing partners as it moves toward the launch of its video games on demand service, which will let you play high-end games with no special hardware.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company declined to say how much it raised. But Steve Perlman, chief executive and founder of OnLive, said in an interview that the round was large and oversubscribed. Rumors surfaced earlier this year that the company was seeking a $750 million valuation, and one venture capital source said that the final valuation was likely above $500 million.

“It was a very big up round” in terms of valuation of the company and this was the biggest round we’ve had to date,” Perlman said. “But we’re limited on what we can disclose. The valuation was quite high for a pre-revenue company. It is probably among the highest for a pre-revenue company getting funding this year. But the scope of the opportunity is high.”

Other investors in the round include prior investors Warner Bros., AutoDesk, and Maverick Capital. The deal shows that OnLive has huge financial support, and it suggests that AT&T could be a backer of the OnLive on-demand service. Perlman declined to say if AT&T would be a partner in launching OnLive, but he said his company is working with investors who are “relevant partners.” The service, first described in March, will let gamers play server-based games. Those are high-end PC games that look visually outstanding, even though they are hosted on data center servers rather than on the players’ own computers. The service can cut retailers, and their profit margins, out of the picture. Coincidentally, the Game Crazy retail chain announced today that it will close 200 under-performing stores.

OnLive is in the midst of setting up a national network of servers that can handle the games. While the company leases those servers, the business is still capital intensive, Perlman said, which is why it needed the new round of funding.

Once gamers subscriber to this service, they can instantly play high-end PC games without waiting to download them to PCs. On top of that, they can play the high-end games even if they don’t have expensive computers. The service will work on just about any PC or Mac, or even on a TV set with small adapter box, dubbed a MicroConsole, from OnLive. You don’t need a game console or a high-end gaming computer to play. Among the new things you can do with this service is watch other gamers as they play live games. You can also capture video of your games and post them on your page as “brag clips.” Those videos capture your exploits of your best games, as illustrated in this screen shot.

As such, OnLive has the potential to turn the video game business, which is heavily dependent on selling $60 games at retail, on its head. Nine game publishers have agreed to make their games available on OnLive. OnLive’s services will include allowing gamers to watch others playing games live and instantly joining friends in matches.

“Over the last decade, we’ve seen an enormous upheaval in the media business as the written word, photos, music, and video have been steadily moving away from physical media to online delivery,” Perlman (right) said in a blog post this evening. “One major category that still remains largely based on physical discs is fast-response interactive media — in particular, video games. And, of course, OnLive’s goal is to enable that last remaining transition.”

The plan is so audacious that it has attracted lots of skeptics. In the venture community, a number of game-focused VCs decided to pass on the deal because the valuation was so high. But it looks like Perlman got the valuation that he believed OnLive deserved.

A lot of other rivals have surfaced. To Perlman, that validates the basic idea that games, much like other apps in the software-as-a-service vein, will move to servers. Rivals include Otoy, Gaikai, Israel’s Playcast, and even a new project being sponsored by Intel, which recently invested a small amount of money in Toronto’s TransGaming, which is working on a GameTree.tv on-demand games service.

But Perlman’s company has the biggest backers and momentum behind it in this sector. Rich Hilleman, chief creative officer at Electronic Arts, recently said after a speech in August that he was a big believer in OnLive and that it could change the business of video games.

Perlman said he hoped the backing from AT&T and Lauder would answer the skeptics. Perlman started OnLive in 2002 as a research project inside his research incubator, Rearden. Perlman’s previous companies include Mova, Moxi, Ice Blink Studios and WebTV. He also funded Android, which Google bought and used to launch its Android mobile operating system.

OnLive recently started doing beta tests of its service, which will roll out formally during the winter, Perlman said. That suggests the launch might happen in 2010 instead of 2009, but Perlman said the launch depends on how well the beta testing goes. Last week, he demonstrated the game at the MIT Emerging Technology conference.

“This closing marks a major milestone for OnLive,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Perlman said the company is filing for more patent protection and that proceeds from the funding will be used to bolster those efforts, as well as for the launch costs. OnLive already has more than 100 patents and patent applications pending. The company has more than 100 employees.

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FreeYourID Gives Up On Trying To Monetize OpenID

In an e-mail to its user base and with a short notice on its main website, FreeYourID has announced that it will be shutting down its service after nearly two years and a half in business. After August 15, the web service will be discontinued without a hint of explanation about the reason for the folding, although we suspect it may have something to do with VeriSign taking over the service’s main backer late last year.

When FreeYourID launched in February 2007, we dubbed it a personalized OpenID, because it allowed users to register a unique .name domain name (e.g. first.last.name) which in turn could be used as a custom, personal OpenID identifier, website URL and e-mail host. The service was the result of a partnership between OpenID company JanRain and Global Name Registry, the domain name registry for the .name extension. Alas for them, it never got any significant traction.

Until August 15, 2009, users will be able to access and use their FreeYourID accounts to make changes to their .name domain names, extend the registration period with a payment or retrieve the authorization code needed to be able to transfer the domain name to another provider. If the domain name isn’t transferred to another party, dotname will transfer all remaining .name domain names to Key-Systems automatically.

The latter will let users who are still interested in the service change the e-mail and URL forwarding settings for their domain names and continue using OpenID.

FreeYourID, however, hits the deadpool.

E-mail in full (hat tip to @pascalvanhecke):

Dear Freeyourid.com user,

We will be discontinuing the Freeyourid.com service, which may affect the way you manage and pay for your .name domain name going forward, on August 15, 2009. Please note that until August 15, 2009, you will continue to be able to access and use your account on Freeyourid.com to make changes to your .name domain name, extend its registration period with a payment, or retrieve your “Transfer Auth Code” so that you can transfer your .name domain name to another provider. The extended registration period will be fully honored by the new provider.

Your .name domain name registration term will continue until its expiry; however, we will transfer your .name to Key-Systems GmbH, an ICANN-accredited registrar who we have selected as the new provider of the .name services (”Key-Systems”). Upon completion of the transfer to Key-Systems, you will receive an email with details on how to activate your new account. With Key-Systems, you will be able to continue to enjoy your .name address, change your email forwarding and web forwarding, use Open ID, and extend the registration of your .name address and email.

Please also note the following:

1. If you do nothing, we will transfer your .name domain to Key-Systems on August 15, 2009. Your username and password will not be transferred. As mentioned above, you will receive an email with a link to activate your new direct account with Key-Systems and to check your preset data. After activation, you will receive a new username and password.

2. If you do not wish for us to transfer your .name domain name to Key-Systems, please click here to log in to your account and let us know. Your .name domain name will then be deleted on the transfer date, allowing you to re-register it with another provider of your choice; however, any remaining time in your registration term will be forfeited and there will be no refunds for time not used. If you select this option, please be aware that someone else could register your .name domain name after it is deleted from our system before you register it directly again with a new .name domain name registrar of your choice. If you intend to keep your .name address, we strongly recommend allow us to transfer it to Key-Systems.

We have genuinely appreciated your use of the FreeYourID service and your .name domain name. We believe Key-Systems will continue to provide you with a positive experience so that you can enjoy of your .name address – your personal, memorable and lifelong address.

As always, thank you for using your .name domain name, we greatly appreciate it.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact VeriSign Customer Support at 703-925-6999 or email us at info@verisign-grs.com.

Sincerely,

PJ Bolanos
Vice President, Global Customer Support

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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