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Posts Tagged ‘New Investor’

Visible Technologies secures $22M for social monitoring

Bellevue, Wash. startup Visible Technologies announced it has raised $22 million in a fourth round of funding. The investment surely shows significant growth potential for social and digital media monitoring companies. It also suggests that big companies and brands might be starting to take out their wallets.

The ability to provide companies and brands with a way to monitor and measure is the stepping stone for them to take the leap of faith into social and digital media. While they may know that customers are having “conversations” about them, they want to make sure they have a good beat on who, what, where and when before they develop a presence on, say Twitter or Facebook.

Visible Technologies claims to have a strong data set in its TruCast platform, revolving around a listen, learn, engage and protect motto. The platform includes several additional solutions. TruPulse, an RSS feed web app, lets users listen to real-time discussions and determine influencers and activists. TruVoice, a set of response apps, allows the user to develop responses to any online conversations without having to leave the Visible Technologies platform. Finally, TruReputation is a set of services that helps you to maximize the positive information about your brand so it’s found by web searches.

Other social monitoring companies are working to strengthen their data sets as well. Yesterday, we saw two social monitoring companies Trendrr and Klout decide to share data to help strengthen each other’s platforms for users to better track trends and determine key influencers on the social web. Companies like Radian6 or Buzzlogic do the same type of analytic analysis and have similar solutions.

The funding was led by new investor Investor Growth Capital (IGC) and existing investors Centurion Holdings, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and WPP. Financing will be used to strengthen it’s technology platform, discover news uses and expand into international markets. Added to a previous third round, Visibles Technologies now has a total of $34 million.

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Cloud storage app ZumoDrive gets $1.5M infusion

Online file storage startup Zecter, maker of ZumoDrive, has secured a $1.5 million round of lending.

ZumoDrive’s trick is to take a cloud-based storage system and present it as local hardware memory to iPhones and other gadgets. That way, customers’ data is automatically stored and backed up in an online location that will still be available should the gadget get lost, broken or stolen. Moreover, ZumoDrive’s storage space for each customer is unlimited, compared to a local disk or memory card that runs out of room in the middle of, say, taking vacation photos.

There are other companies, most notably Box.net, offering similar services, but no clear leader has emerged. And there’s always the threat that Amazon, Google or another much larger player could steal buzz and customers with a mass-marketed solution. For now, though, there’s still room for innovative startups.

The latest funding comes from new investor Ram Shriram, plus original investors Tandem Entrepreneurs and VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company was founded in 2007 with seed funding from Y Combinator.

Investor Shriram said in a prepared statement, “ZumoDrive has a rapidly growing user base that is already generating strong revenue, so this funding is simply a boost.”

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Groupon Gets A Hefty $30 Million From Accel For Local Offers Service

Chicago based Groupon, which was formerly known as ThePoint, has raised a hefty Series B financing – $30 million – from new investor Accel Partners and existing investor New Enterprise Associates. Accel’s Kevin Efrusy joins Groupon’s board of directors.

The company is going gangbusters. They offer users deep discounts on local deals – spas, sky diving lessons, hotels, restaurants, golf, whtaever. Discounts range from 40%-90% of the normal price. If enough people buy into the offer, everyone gets the deal. If there aren’t enough people, no one gets the deal. Groupon collects payment and passes it on, minus their fee, to the business.

Example – 1,600 people in one day bought skydiving lessons in Chicago, says the company, getting a 44% discount on the $229 price. And the company making the offer normally sells just 6,000 lessons per year. They sacrificed some profit, but gos lots of new customers.

What makes the service so compelling is that people have an incentive to get their friends involved to make sure the minimum is hit. And Groupon makes it easy to spread the word about offers via Facebook and Twitter. Their user acquisition costs? zero.

Groupon generally takes 30% – 50% of the total price paid for the service, and they are on track, they say, to do $100 million in gross merchandise sales in 2010. They reached profitability in June 2009, just six months after launching the service.

Chicago launched first but the site now covers 26 cities and is adding a new one every week. They have 126 employees, more than half of which are sales staff finding new deals for users. The company has now raised about $35 million in aggregate, including an early angel round.

Think they deserve a Crunchie for best application or best new product in 2009? Vote for them here.

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TechCrunch Interviews (The Very Happy) Skype CEO Josh Silverman

Skype CEO Josh Silverman can’t stop smiling in this video interview we recorded in Menlo Park this morning. And no wonder – despite serious legal and spinoff drama, Silverman has managed to close his multi-billion dollar spinoff of Skype from eBay. His legal troubles have evaporated. Skype is growing like a weed. And he’s managed to keep his job running the business. Life is good.

All he has to do now is manage board meetings with two of the more forceful personalities on the planet – new investor Marc Andreessen and cofounder/new investor Niklas Zennstrom.

Well, that and keep this train on the tracks. Skype has exploded to over half a billion users, and is adding 300,000 new ones every day, Silverman says in the interview. 1/3 of usage is video, despite the fact that video calls can only be 1-1. Voice calls are multi-party. And revenue is cruising along at $185 million/quarter with 24.2% margins. Up to 20 million people are using Skype at any one time.

We talk a little about Skype’s business in the interview. But most of the focus in 2010. “You’ll see Skype become a lot more ubiquitous in a lot more places, both mobile devices as well as embedded devices,” he says, adding “expect to see us on a lot more platforms.”

We also spoke about Skype as a developer platform. Extras is now long gone, but Silverman reiterated that soon Skype will push far more powerful developer tools that can turn Skype into a service. That means Skype can run outside of the Skype client. That doesn’t necessarily mean Skype in the browser, they still say Flash isn’t powerful enough to run Skype in browser. But perhaps we’ll see Skype code being build directly into browsers.

We also spoke briefly about Chrome OS. Google’s new operating system doesn’t let users install software, meaning Skype is out. Flash is the only third party plugin Google will say will be included. Things like Silverlight and Skype are in limbo unless and until Google decides to include them. Silverman ends the interview with “If the Google folks are interested in building Skype into Chrome we’d certainly be interested in having that conversation.”

I hope they do have that conversation, soon.

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

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How A Failed Poach Could Cost Mike Volpi The Skype Deal

Yesterday, the already very public fight for Skype entered yet another round, with the publication of recent filings of a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO and Chairman Mike Volpi and Index Ventures – where the man currently works as a partner – asking that he refrain from using knowledge or confidential information he obtained while at Joost in current dealings with eBay/Skype.

There are loads of interesting nuggets in the documents, which are well worth a read if you’re as fascinated by the whole thing as we are. For instance, would you have guessed both Facebook and multiple members of the Apache Software Foundation played an interesting role in this particular part of the story?

To understand why, you need to understand what the lawsuit against Volpi, brought on by Joost and Skype’s initial founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, is actually about.

According to the two European entrepreneurs / enfants terribles, Volpi (pictured) has systematically breached his fiduciary duties at Joost to become the next Chairman of Skype if it were to be effectively sold to the new investor group that has agreed to acquire the company from current owner eBay.

This group also includes Volpi’s current employer Index Ventures by the way, which is being sued by the Skype founders separately.

The allegations span three core issues: the misappropriate use of confidential information gained at Joost in an effort to entice the buy-out group to join Index Investors in a play for Skype, a misuse of the same confidential information for plans to revamp Skype’s technology in the long run, and the attempts made by Volpi to lure key Joost engineers with knowledge of JoltId’s intellectual property (GI or Global Index, the peer-to-peer protocol technology developed and owned by Friis and Zennström) to the new Skype.

The third part is where Facebook comes in, albeit indirectly.

In July 2009, then-CEO of Joost Mike Volpi according to the court documents – which includes evidence in the form of e-mail communications and more – arranged a meeting between Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer and Joost Chief Architect Justin Erenkrantz (pictured) to offer him a potential job at the new Skype.

Erenkrantz was deemed one of the online video startup’s “most valued engineers” by the company’s founders in the case.

Just for your reference, Erenkrantz is an ex-Google engineer, current President of the Apache Software Foundation and former treasurer of the association.

In addition to Erenkrantz, Volpi allegedly undertook attempts to poach Sander Striker, Director of Engineering at Joost and also a member of the ASF.

The goal of the meeting with Erenkrantz, held at an industry conference, was to have him take a look at the current endeavors within eBay to develop a technology work-around for the P2P technology intellectually owned by JoltId and get his feedback, and to assess if he would be a good new member of the Skype diligence team (pending acquisition) and the new company’s technical team after the deal was done. Soon after, an official offer to Erenkrantz was made by Volpi.

The reason why that irked Friis and Zennström tremendously, the court docs show, was because they went to great lengths to retain Erenkrantz at Joost when Facebook – after Amazon – offered the man an engineering position at the social networking company, costing Joost a lot of money. They had managed to keep him from taking a job as software developer at Google after two internships there when they first hired him, and he was clearly a very valuable asset for the company.

Straight from the docs (also embedded below):

Although Volpi’s efforts to poach both of these Joost employees were equally unlawful, his overtures to Mr. Erenkrantz were particularly threatening. As Volpi was aware, Joost had recently expended significant effort and company resources to retain him – in the face of an offer for Mr. Erenkrantz to join Facebook.

As Joost founder Janus Friis write in a June 5, 2009 e-mail to Volpi: “I spoke to Justin Erenkrantz yesterday. Given the concerns about loosing [sic] him and the signficant ripple effects it could case,” Mr. Friis sought Volpi’s approval in paying him a substantial retention bonus, increasing his salary, and offering him a position as a part-time technical consultant for Joltid. Volpi concurred in these retention efforts, and having supported Joost’s bid to keep Mr. Erenkrantz from joining Facebook, nonethless attempted to lure Mr. Erenkrantz away from Joost a month later.

For what it’s worth: Friis and Zennström, who are still eager to buy back Skype themselves, seem to have Erenkrantz on their side in this matter. This is unsurprising, because he doubles as a consultant for Joltid at the moment, but it doesn’t bode well for Volpi in this case. In a declaration, Erenkrantz unambiguously supports the Skype founders’ motion for preliminary injunction (also embedded below).

Business, egos, lawsuits and emotions. It’s like watching Dallas!

PI Brief – PUBLIC –

Declaration of Justin Erenkrantz In Support of PI –

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Confirmed: Delivery Agent Raises $25 Million For Entertainment Commerce Platform

What recession? We’ve confirmed that startup Delivery Agent has just raised $25 million in Series D funding led by new investor Focus Ventures with T-Venture, Coral Group, Ironwood Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Worldview Technology Partners and Cardinal Venture Capital participating. This brings Delivery Agent’s total funding up to $60 million.

In a nutshell, Delivery Agent helps TV networks monetize content through two distinct channels. First, the company creates online marketplaces for products and merchandise that are seen on television shows. Delivery Agent has signed on all the major networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, and MTV Networks. Similar to GumGum’s ShopThisLook feature, Delivery Agent catalogues products appearing in movies and shows and then creates an e-commerce site where products can be purchases. By outsourcing all e-commerce for products seen on their networks to Delivery Agent, networks are able to monetize their content while keeping their overhead costs low.

Delivery Agent’s second service is coordinating advertising from the brands that manufacture the products that are shown on a networks’ TV shows. Delivery Agent will go through the index of products that will be airing on a show prior to when the episode airs, and then reach out to the brand and offer them the ability to buy an ad package for the show.

Mike Fitzsimmons, Delivery Agent’s founder and CEO, tells me that the new funds will be used to develop “click-to-buy” applications for online video and mobile content. In fact, Delivery Agent will soon launch a partnership with a major cable operator that will allow consumers to click and buy a product they see on TV with their remote control. Fitzsimmons also add that Delivery Agent will be using the funds to pursue international growth, and launch their content-monetization services in markets in Europe and Asia.

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