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Posts Tagged ‘Technology Ventures’

Layar Scores $3.4M In Funding, Global Distribution Agreement

Big day for augmented reality startup Layar today. I’m here at the Mobile Premier Awards ceremony in Barcelona, where the company just announced on stage that they have struck a global distribution deal with a major handset manufacturer.

Layar has opened up a sort of app store or augmented reality experience delivered on top of its platform.

Also, the Dutch startup is announcing that it has crossed the 1 million user mark, and that two European investors have stepped up to inject €2.5 million ($3.4 million) of capital into the venture in a series A investment. The investors are Sunstone Capital and Prime Technology Ventures.

We’ve been covering Layar and its evolving platform since it debuted last summer.

WiFi is fairly spotty here at the venue, unfortunately, so we’ll get into the specifics of the platform play at a later stage. For now, here’s this bit straight from the press release:

The Layar platform allows brands, game developers, publishers and producers to engage with customers through the creation of rich immersive real world experiences. Already 375 layers have been published, with over 1200 layers in development. More than 2000 organizations in 70 countries are benefiting from the unique capabilities of the Layar platform, developing great content.

As of mid March 2010, all Layar producers and publishers will be able to generate a return from their investment in AR. They can offer both free and paid content through the Layar platform. Layar will facilitate global mobile payment processing and distribution in all currencies. Producers can fully focus on content – without having to worry about mass market distribution, developing for multiple mobile platforms, or financial administration.

Layar didn’t specify which global handset manufacturer they have reached an agreement with, but they say it is one of the top 3, and that the deal will enable tens of millions of people to experience Layar AR content on their mobile phones in 2010.

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Augmented reality startup Tonchidot raises $4 million, will use virtual goods for revenue

Finally, a decent fundraising round size for an augmented reality startup.

Tonchidot, the Japanese startup behind the augmented reality browser Sekai Camera, raised $4 million from DCM and existing investor ITOCHU Technology Ventures. Augmented reality is a young field that allows you superimpose data and graphics over the real world in a camera viewfinder.

There are two things that are interesting about this round — Tonchidot becomes the second of several augmented reality startups to raise a venture-backed round this year. It’s a decent size for a first round, and four times what Dutch competitor Layar raised this fall. Although a number of startups have launched products this year on the iPhone and Android-based phones, few venture capital firms had gotten their feet wet in the space. That seems to be changing now.

The second thing to note is that Tonchidot sounds like it will take a very different route to monetization than all of its competitors. It will use its augmented reality browser for more game play. Other competitors like Layar and Wikitude will take the advertising route, letting businesses pay for augmented reality tags or ads or sponsor layers in the browser that point to nearby places like fast-food locations or coffee shops.

Like many other mobile technologies, augmented reality will probably evolve very differently in Japan. Users can tag locations with data and comments in the browser that other people can pick up later if they use Sekai Camera in the same place. Ken Inoue, Tonchidot’s CFO, suggests that there might be special virtual goods that users pay to leave in different places.

“We think augmented reality provides a really interesting user interface, and a place to combine social interaction, marketing and content creation,” said Osuke Honda, a principal at DCM. Specifically, Honda says Tonchidot’s technology could be used to stage game play in the real world. For example, you could have robots battle each other through your phone on a real physical location like a playing field. Or it could be used in cosplay, a type of performance art popular in China and Japan where people wear elaborate costumes.

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Look Up, Don’t Look Down! TC50 Star Tonchidot Raises $4 Million Series A

There were quite a few memorable presentations during 2008’s TechCrunch50 (that’s the conference before last). But if you had to pick one, there’s a good chance you’d think of Tonchidot, the startup behind the Sekai Camera. Tonchidot captured the audience’s attention with a totally zany presentation and answered judges’ questions with non sequiturs like “Look up, don’t look down!” The result was hilarious, but there were some who wondered if the technology behind the company was the real deal. Rest assured, it is. And the company has closed a $4 million series A funding round led by DCM, with existing investor ITOCHU Technology Ventures (ITV) also participating.

The Sekai Camera service launched in Japan a few months ago, and has already become a national hit as the top app on the iPhone app store. The service leverages augmented reality and adds a social layer to it, allowing users to add virtual items in the real world (you hold the device up to your face as a viewfinder, then look at the world around you as tags pop up). The company says that within four days, 10% of all iPhones in Japan already had the app installed, though the number of devices in Japan is a small fraction of those in the US and worldwide. Major companies have already formed partnerships with the site — partners can insert sponsored tags into the virtual world created by Sekai Camera.

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Teknovus captures $5.6M for optical Ethernet chips

Teknovus, a provider of Ethernet optical networking chips, has brought in $5.6 million in convertible promissory notes, preferred and common stock, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Petaluma, Calif., the company is backed by Partech International, Focus Ventures, Galleon Group, Itochu Technology Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Vision Venture Capital, Mitsubishi, Technology Alliance Investment and Samsung Ventures America.

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Simply Hired hits profitability with new $4.6M

Simply Hired, a job listing search engine based in the Silicon Valley, announced today that it has crossed into profitability with a new $4.6 million in fourth-round capital from IDG Ventures and Foundation Capital. The company is also marking four consecutive quarters of positive cash flow.

Simply Hired says it plans to use the funds to expand its global presence, making it one of the top job databanks in the business. It will also grow its headcount from 50 to 80. It’s main web site, SimplyHired.com, crawls the web and culls together 5 million listings. It also serves listings on other major sites, significantly LinkedIn, MySpace, WashingtonPost.com and CNNMoney.

Simply Hired distinguishes itself from competitors like CareerBuilder and Monster.com by using a pay-per-click model for advertising revenue. Basically, its advertisers only pay when visitors to the site are actually clicking on them. This is very similar to Google’s model for advertising. So far, it seems like this practice has popularized the site and not damaged its revenue flow.

Right now, Simply Hired operates in 13 countries and seven languages. It says it doesn’t expect to raise any more capital following this round. It has raised $22.3 million to date. Past backers include Fox Interactive Media and Garage Technology Ventures, in addition to a flock of notable individual investors: Rajeev Motwani, Guy Kawasaki and Ron Conway, to name a few.

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