SparkLabs Global Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review 0426 2015

SparkLabs Global Ventures Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review April 26th, 2015

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.

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Bi-monthly Highlights

Global Trends

Chinas digital games market growth is 5 times bigger than the rest of Asias in 2015 According to a report research firm SuperData, Chinas digital game market hit US$7.5 billion in revenues already. The country ranks No. 2 in terms of digital sales in Asia, counting for 38 percent of the regions revenues. Led by MMOs and free-to-play games, the forecast for Asias digital games market is to hit nearly $19.6 billion by the end of the year and climb to $21.2 billion by 2016. SuperData predicts that Chinas digital game revenues will hit $8.2 by then. China ranks just under the regions leader, Japan, which currently holds 45 percent of digital game revenues. The Japanese market has seen $8.82 billion in revenues over the same time period while having only a tenth of Chinas population thanks to heavy spending on mobile games. But Chinas growth rate is five times that of the regions average, and its set to grow another 8 percent next year, says SuperData. Averages revenues per paying customer in Asia are the highest in the world, with each gamer spending $32.44. SuperData says that despite conversion rates being among the lowest in the world, the average paying user is 30 percent higher than anywhere else.

Global mobile-ad spending on Android grew 539% in Q1 Global mobile-ad spending on Android grew an astounding 539 percent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, according to PapayaMobiles AppFlood service. The statistic captures the rapid increase in mobile advertising as many other sectors catch up with games in the race to snare the attention of a billion mobile users. The quarter saw a spike in the popularity of advertising for utility apps, which accounted for 60 percent of the ad spend in the first quarter. The cost per install (CPI) for utility apps was lower than for any other category. Overall, CPI prices were stable at 40 cents. Separately, market research AppAnnie says that the top utility apps at the moment come from Chinese companies: Clean Master and Flashlight from Baidu, and Zero Launcher from Sungy Mobile. During the quarter, ad spending in Latin America weakened as the Brazilian economy went into a downturn. More ad spending also happened in Western Europe and the U.S. The countries with the most number of installs are Indonesia, India, and the U.S. Western Europe and North America saw the highest growth in installs. A significant increase in the install rate also occurred in Oceania.

The Earth will spend US$91.5B on video games this year The global gaming market will reach US$91.5 billion this year, according to an upcoming report from research firm Newzoo. That will represent a 9.4 percent increase compared to 2014s $83.6 billion. Revenues will increase on PCs, consoles, and tablets, and smartphones will lead the way with 21 percent growth year over year. Spending on PCs and Mac which includes traditional retail downloads from the Steam digital distribution store as well as free-to-play behemoths like the competitive strategy game League of Legends will still outpace all other categories. Newzoo explains that while markets such as social and handheld gaming are shrinking, that cash is mostly shifting to other kinds of games.



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Asia Pacific China Zhiguoguo, Which Lets Chinese Companies Register Trademarks For Free, Raises US$3.7M Series A

Protecting intellectual property in China is notoriously difficult, even though the country is trying to set up legal safeguards to aid emerging industries. Zhiguoguo wants to help businesses preserve their IP by providing free trademark registration and affordable legal services. Based in Beijing, the startup announced that it has raised a US$3.7 million series A led by Matrix Partners China, with participation from returning investor Legend Star. Founder Sisi Liu says that Zhiguoguo has processed 20,000 orders since May 2014. Its new capital will be used for marketing, hiring, and increasing Zhiguoguos roster of paid legal and consulting services. According to Wabei, more than 2 million trademarks were registered in China last year and that number is expected to increase at least 30 percent every year.

Baidu invests US$11M in restaurant management platform to bring more local businesses under its wing

Restaurant management software-as-a-service startup Keru Cloud announced it has secured US$10.7 million in series B funding led by Baidu and Tianxing Capital (hat-tip to 36kr). Fangjinglin Investment and Kaixing Capital also participated in the round. The startup aims to be an all-in-one solution for restaurants and other businesses to go digital. It reports 3,000 restaurants nationwide, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and several more Chinese cities. By the end of this year it hopes to up that number to 20,000 merchants. Offline, Keru Clouds flagship tablet app can be used by restaurant staff to input reservations, add parties to the queue, take orders, and run customer loyalty programs. For customers ordering takeout or delivery by phone, restaurants can take the orders, add customers to a database, and allow them to track the status of their order online.

On-demand massage app in China attracts US$5M series A funding

Diandao has just secured US$5 million in series A funding to assist with its growth. The investment was led by Banyan Capital along with 58Daojia, a local web startup that specializes in other on-demand services for things like housekeeping and beauty treatment. Diandao only has massage therapists available in Beijing and Shanghai at the moment, which highlights how tough it is to expand these kinds of services across a nation. The price of an expert massage starts at about RMB 128 (US$20), putting it on a par with the professional (and legit) massage parlors that can be found in (the non-dodgy parts of) every Chinese city. This series A for Diandao is a drop in the ocean of VC interest in a wave of on-demand startups in China whether its for home-delivered salads, home-administered nail art, or a chef who comes to your kitchen.

Xiaomi-backed P2P loans startup Jimubox secures US$84M series C funding Peer-to-peer lending startup Jimubox has just secured US$84 million in series C funding. It comes seven months after the Beijing-based firm attracted US$37 million from Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital, a venture capital fund headed by the phone makers founder, Lei Jun. This time round the lead investor is UKs Investec Bank. Haitong Kaiyuan Investment also joined in, along with new investors Mandra Capital and Zhong Capital Fund. Existing Jimubox backers Matrix China Partners, Xiaomi, Shunwei, Ventech China, and Magic Stone Alternative also threw in some cash. The service, which offers business loans for small and medium-sized businesses and consumer loans for individuals, now has 23,000 separate loan borrowers as well as, a much larger (but undisclosed) base of investors who get returns on the primary loan issuance as well as any secondary trading of interest in the loans that may take place.

Ensogo gets another US$29.3M to dominate Southeast Asia Just last month, Ensogo raised US$12.5 million from Hong Kong-based investment firm Ward Ferry Management and Chinese online discount retailer Vipshop in total. It announced the raising of another US$29.3 million from a number of Australian and Asian institutional investors, as well as Vipshop. The latter contributed US$2.4 million to the heavily oversubscribed funding round, maintaining its 10 percent stake in the company. The fresh funds will go into marketing efforts to drive customer acquisition and retention, as well as the development of Ensogo technology platform, including its logistics and fulfilment systems. Ensogo was previously acquired by iBuy Group, which was operating in six countries under a variety of brands early last year. It was only in November that the latter rebranded as Ensogo.



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Korea Konolabs Earns US$100K Investment from 500 Startups and Invitation to Batch-13

Konolabs, developer of Kono, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personal assistant scheduler, earned US$100K investment from 500 Startups, a startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley. Konolabs was also invited to 500 Startups Batch-13 program, which provides startups with four months of mentoring and networking opportunities at the 500 Startups office in Mountain View, California. The company has been developing Kono as its flagship product. When users create a new schedule on the scheduler app and provide details of what to do with whom for that particular appointment, according to official Konolabs website, Kono suggests three best locations at the best available time based on attendees preferences, locations, traffic, and availability. Other users of the same app can also be easily invited to the schedule one set up. Additional features include informing users of the best time to leave for a scheduled appointment based on their behavioral patterns and traffic condition.

Japan Crowdsourced Translation Startup Gengo Raises US$5.4M And Changes Its CEO

There are changes afoot at Gengo, the crowdsourced translation service based in Tokyo, Japan, which just announced its US$5.4 million Series C round and a change of leadership. Matthew Romaine, previously CTO, is replacing fellow co-founder Robert Laing as CEO of the startup. Gengos service connects translators with customers who want their words translated. Its a particularly interesting company because, unlike many startups in Japan, its business is global, to the point that most of its revenue comes from overseas. Despite that, however, Gengos Series C round was put together entirely by Japanese VCs. It has landed big name investors in the past including Intel and Atomico but this time around the funding was lead by Recruit, with participation from SBI Investments, MUFJ Capital and CrowdWorks. Todays news takes Gengo to over $23 million in funding from investors. It raised $5.25 million from Atomico, 500 Startups and others in 2011, and went on to close a $12 million Series B round led by Intel Capital in 2013.

ChatWork, a year older than Slack, raises US$3M for team chat and collaboration tool ChatWork, an enterprise social network, today announced that it has raised US$3 million from GMO Venture Partners (GMO VP). It marks the first investment in the startup, which is based in Japan and California. ChatWork was an early mover in the team chat and productivity space, recently abuzz thanks to Silicon Valley rival Slack and its nearly US$2.8 billion valuation as of last month. While Slack has been a hit with startups, ChatWork positions itself as a communication tool for non-technical business professionals and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). ChatWork offers text, voice, and video chat in addition to task management and file sharing. More than 66,000 companies in 183 countries already use the platform, which is currently adding 30,000 new users a month.

Rakuten Ventures puts seed funding into push notifications startup OneSignal Rakuten Ventures, the investment arm of the Japan-based ecommerce titan, announced that it has made an undisclosed seed investment in a US startup thats made a push notification platform aimed at mobile app and game developers. That startup is OneSignal, which today rebrands from GameThrive. Its a Y Combinator alum thats been mostly keeping its head down since it graduated in 2011. Aside from the three main mobile OSes, OneSignals system can be integrated with gaming engines like Unity 3D. The startup makes money with three pricing tiers for developers based on how many devices and monthly notifications they want to hit. If its less than one million devices, theres a free tier for smaller devs to try out before expanding. This is Rakuten Ventures third investment in a non-Asian startup. Its something well be seeing a lot more of after the VC firm launched a US$100 million startup fund last summer.

India Indias Craftsvilla, An Etsy-Like Marketplace For Ethnic Products, Raises US$18M

India is currently undergoing an e-commerce boom at least in terms of investment. The latest startup to pull in bags of investor cash is Craftsvilla, an e-commerce site for ethnic products that is probably comparable to Etsy if you seek Western points of reference. Craftsvilla just announced its US$18 million Series B funding round, which was led by Sequoia Capital and included participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Global Founders Capital. A valuation was not disclosed. The Mumbai-based company was founded in 2011 by CEO Manoj Gupta, who then a VC with Nexus, which invested in retail powerhouse Snapdeal observed the rise of online commerce and decided to jump into the space himself as an entrepreneur. The funding will go towards marketing the site to mainstream consumers in India, advancing the companys tech and also hiring.



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Infosys To Acquire E-Commerce Services Provider Kallidus For US$120M Infosys, the India-headquartered consulting and IT firm, is on the verge of making its second significant acquisition of the year after it announced a deal to buy digital e-commerce services provider Kallidus for US$120 million. It also made a US$2 million investment in an air monitoring startup. With the Kallidus deal Infosys, which revealed the acquisition of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company Panaya for $200 million in February, is buying the holding group behind Skava. The San Francisco-based company provides a cloud-based platform that powers a range of online services for retailers, for example mobile wallets, apps, web stores, and more. The Indian software giant had another slice of M&A news: it is putting $2 million into Airviz, an air quality monitoring startup that was born out of Carnegie Mellon.

Indian online IT certification startup Simplilearn raises US$15M funding

India-based Simplilearn, an online education startup for professionals seeking IT certifications, announced that it has secured US$15 million in series C funding led by Mayfield. Previous investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Venture partners also participated in the round. Founded six years ago, Simplilearn has accumulated 400,000 students around the world. It currently educates 15,000 learners per month, about 60 percent of whom live in the United States. Unlike academic online education portals like Coursera, Simplilearn is made for career-focused IT professionals who know what they need to learn to advance to the next level. Most certifications are recognized globally by third-party certification bodies. The startup plans to expand its in-person workshops and corporate trainings, which are led by Simplilearns more than 2,000 instructors to supplement the online courses.

Handicraft e-store bags US$18M to help global audience discover Indian ethnicity India is known for its community of artisans who make lovely traditional art and handicraft items. Craftsvilla, an online marketplace that connects these local artisans with the world, announced it raised US$18 million in series B funding led by Sequoia Capital. The company earlier raised an undisclosed amount from Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and GFC, who also participated in this round. Like Etsy, which is now looking to go public and raise roughly US$300 million, Craftsvilla users can buy handmade items directly on its website. The fresh infusion of funds will be used for marketing and scaling the platform as it aims to become a destination for ethnic products globally. The four-year-old startup claims to have 2 million products across categories like clothing, handicrafts, jewellery, and art from 12,000 artisans. It facilitates 100,000 transactions per month.

Financial comparison startup CompareAsiaGroup raises US$40M series A led by Goldman Sachs Hong Kong-based financial comparison site CompareAsiaGroup announced it has raised US$40 million in series A funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Jardine Pacific, Nova Founders Capital, ACE & Company, and Route 66 Ventures. Zynga founder Mark Pincus, former Facebook and MySpace COO Owen Van Natta, and others also participated in the round. The site aggregates more than 1,500 financial products including credit cards, loans, health insurance, and car insurance. The latest funding round will go toward expanding those offerings to more categories, including investment products and life insurance, and into marketing. "We want to make sure in the next 12 months that every housewife will know our brand," says Gerald Eder, founder and managing director. The service is free to consumers, while the more than 60 banks and insurance companies that list their products pay a commission in return for expanding their marketing reach.

Inventory management startup TradeGecko raises US$6.5M in series A Singaporean inventory management software startup TradeGecko announced a US$6.5 million series A funding round. The round is led by Singapore-based venture capital firm NSI Ventures, which has been actively looking to support local companies through series A financing, and Jungle Ventures. The investment will help the company further expand its competitive product and technology. The reference to the online retail giant isnt just thrown into the conversation by accident. Amazon has been looking to streamline wholesale in the same way it took over the B2C retail sector. However, the companys AmazonSupply service is still in beta, as PR focuses mostly on drone package delivery and streaming original TV shows. Meanwhile, the other ecommerce juggernaut, Alibaba, has entered the field more aggressively, earning US$1 billion during fiscal 2014.

Indian startup that recommends cheap drug alternatives gets US$6M funding, rebrands itself Gurgaon-based drug e-store HealthKartPlus (now 1mg) has raised US$6 million in fresh funding. The investors include MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra, Omidyar Network, Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Kae Capital. The startup allows users to search for drugs and get information on dosage, common uses, and warnings. It finds the generic drug equivalents for commonly prescribed brand-name drugs and compares the costs of each. The site provides users details on the ingredients and also necessary precautions for before and after its use. It sells drugs



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too. The company earlier nabbed an undisclosed amount in series B funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital. Previously, it had received US$4.5 million in series A funding and US$1 million in seed funding. The two-year-old e-store has a database of over 100,000 medicines. It is currently operational in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Bhubaneswar and is looking to rapidly expand to more cities with fresh funding.

Grocery delivery startup Grofers nabs US$35M in funding as competition in India heats up Grofers, an Indian startup that delivers groceries and everyday items to households through a mobile app, announced that it has closed a US$35 million funding round led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital. The investment comes about eight weeks since the company closed its last US$10 million round, which itself came almost immediately after it bagged a seed round. Grofers says that it intends to use the funding to ramp up its product offerings and expand throughout India. Based in Gurgaon, the company provides 90-minute delivery to customers in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. While the service is identical, the business models can vary. Grofers owns no inventory of its own, and works with brick-and-mortar retailers to help them list products on its app. It then works with a mixture of in-house deliverymen (both part-time and full-time) and third-party logistics companies to take the goods to doorsteps.

Indonesia MediaCorp acquires 52% stake in Indonesias KapanLagi

Singapore-based media giant MediaCorp announced that it has acquired a 52 percent stake in Indonesias KLN Group (KLN) for an undisclosed amount. KLN is the parent company of KapanLagi Network, one of the largest and most successful online media companies in the archipelago. The two firms signed the agreement in Jakarta today with the hope that MediaCorps expertise and pan-Asian reach can help accelerate KLNs market position in Indonesia. The partnership also has a goal to create solutions for advertisers to reach customers in new ways. Media research firm eMarketer forecasts that Asia Pacifics digital ad spend is set to grow by some 30 percent this year, with Indonesia driving the most impressive growth. According to eMarketer, Indonesia is home to the third-largest Facebook mobile audience after the US and India, with around 33 million active daily users who also represent the highest mobile usage rate for Facebook worldwide.

Taiwan Taiwan music streamer KKBox invests in ticket vending startup WalkieTicket

KKBox, the Taipei-based music streaming firm, announced it has invested in WalkieTicket, a ticket vending startup from the same city. The terms and size of the investment arent disclosed, but the deal will make KKBox WalkieTickets largest institutional shareholder. Taiwan Family Mart, the domestic branch of the Japanese convenience store chain, also contributed to the round. Founded in 2010 by CEO Jay Wang, WalkieTicket works with local vendors to sell tickets for concerts and events. Users can purchase tickets directly through WalkieTickets website and apps, or through one of several third parties most notably FamilyMart. The convenience store chain, which has over 2,900 outlets in Taiwan, sells a variety of goods and services through its FamiPort digital vending machines. The collaboration will see each party compensate for the others gaps. KKBox can help drive ticket sales through traffic on its music streaming app, while WalkieTicket, which is older than KKTix, can share its tight network of vendors.

Chinas Dianhuabang acquires Taiwanese startup behind WhatsTheNumber app Storysense Computing, the Taipei-based startup behind phone number search app WhatsTheNumber, has been acquired by Dianhuabang, a like-minded startup from Beijing. The deal had been an open secret in Taipei for months, but Wednesday marked its official disclosure via a quiet report from Xinhua. The Chinese news outlet states that Dianhuabang bought Storysense for US$10 million. Storysense Computing was founded in 2011 by Edward Shen, a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. WhatsTheNumber, the companys flagship app, leverages artificial intelligence to help users find phone numbers for local businesses and call them using text and voice search. It also has mapping and social features baked in, making it sort of a Yellow Pages for the mobile generation. According to the company, the service is usable in more than 200 languages.

Philippine iFlix, A Netflix Clone For Southeast Asia, Scoops Up US$30M In Pre-Launch Funding

Video on-demand is looking like a hot market in Asia in 2015, after iFlix, one of a number of Netflix-like services to have sprouted up in Southeast Asia, landed a US$30 million investment ahead of its imminent launch. iFlix was first announced in March by Catcha Group a Malaysia-based organization that runs a plethora of online businesses,



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including group buying site Ensogo and Evolution Media Capital, and it plans to begin rolling out this quarter. The $30 million injection of capital has come from Catcha itself, and PLDT, a telecom conglomerate in the Philippines. The money will go towards bringing the service to more countries in Southeast Asia, increasing its catalog which iFlix pegs at a vague over 10,000 hours of content and financing a marketing push. Interestingly, iFlix said also that it will use the funds to produce original programming.

Malaysia Malaysias Flexiroam guns for Australia IPO at expected US$31M valuation

Malaysia-based roaming service provider Flexiroam announced its intention to raise up to US$9.4 million through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Funds raised from it will go towards developing and marketing its existing products; research, development, and marketing of new products; and expanding internationally. Flexiroam will be issuing 60 million shares to the public at $0.16 each, with a minimum subscription of US$6.2 million. If all goes well and its IPO bid is fully subscribed, Flexiroam will have an estimated market capitalization of US$31.5 million. Right now, Flexiroams services are available to travellers from eight countries Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the US, and the UK. With fresh funds in hand, it will expand its business in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, as well as open up operations in China, Hong Kong, and India. The startups current core products include the Flexiroam Roaming Pass and the Flexiroam SIM cards, which allow travellers to use their local numbers at their destination of choice for a daily fixed fee.

Singapore Consumer Finance Startup CompareAsia Scores US$40M Series A Led By Goldman Sachs

CompareAsiaGroup, which runs websites that help users find financial services, has raised a US$40 million series A led by the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners team. Other investors include Nova Founders Capital (a venture firm that is also one of CompareAsiaGroups founders), Jardine Pacific, Ace & Company, Route 66 Ventures, Zynga-founder Mark Pincus, and Owen Van Natta, who has held senior positions at Facebook and MySpace. CompareAsiaGroups total raised to date is now about $45 million, including an earlier seed round. CompareAsiaGroup helps financial institutions in turn by allowing them to reach more customers without the expense of setting up new branches, hiring more sales agents, or paying for radio and television commercials. CompareAsiaGroup currently operates sites in eight Asian countries (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam) that let consumers compare credit cards, loans, insurance, and other financial products for free.

Online payments company 2C2P banks US$7M in series C Epayments processing company 2C2P announced a series C funding round of US$7 million. Investors in the round include Amun Capital AG and GMO Venture Partners. With this latest round, the Singapore-based startup reports a total funding of over US$10 million. It had previously secured US$2 million from GMO Venture Partners in a series B funding round. Since it was founded in 2003, 2C2P has expanded across Southeast Asia, with offices in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Hong Kong. The companys mission is to bring epayment and mobile payment solutions to Southeast Asia, where consumers in several markets are not even used to credit card transactions. This new funding round will allow the company to continue its expansion in the region, embark on a recruitment drive, and further diversify its products by expanding its card, cash, and cash equivalent acceptance services.

Inventory management startup TradeGecko raises US$6.5M in series A Singaporean inventory management software startup TradeGecko announced a US$6.5 million series A funding round. The round is led by Singapore-based venture capital firm NSI Ventures, which has been actively looking to support local companies through series A financing, and Jungle Ventures. The investment will help the company further expand its competitive product and technology. The reference to the online retail giant isnt just thrown into the conversation by accident. Amazon has been looking to streamline wholesale in the same way it took over the B2C retail sector. However, the companys AmazonSupply service is still in beta, as PR focuses mostly on drone package delivery and streaming original TV shows. Meanwhile, the other ecommerce juggernaut, Alibaba, has entered the field more aggressively, earning US$1 billion during fiscal 2014.



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United States Headout Raises US$1.8 Million For Its Travel App That Puts A Concierge In Your Pocket

Headout, a mobile travel application that functions as sort of a mobile concierge, helping you find tours, activities and tickets to local events in select U.S. cities, has closed on US$1.8 million in seed funding in order to expand its business to new markets. Currently only live in New York and Los Angeles, the startup says it plans to utilize the funds to reach 12 more cities by year-end. Describing itself as an Uber for tours, the startup first began as Bangalore-based Tourlandish, and was initially targeting travel to and from Asia. But the company, which later participated in the 500 Startups accelerator program, shut down that app and relaunched with one focused on New York tours and events instead. Other investors in the seed round include 500 Startups, Nexus Venture Partners, Arena Ventures, AngelLists Maiden Lane Ventures, Funders Club, Haystack Fund, Ludlow Ventures and DreamIt Ventures.

Simplilearn Raises US$15M For Professional Training And Certification Simplilearn, a company helping customers get certified in areas like PMP (project management) and Android development, has raised US$15 million in Series C funding. The company offers courses both online and in classroom workshops and says there are more than 200 courses and 40 accreditations. Since launching in 2010, more than 400,000 people have been certified through Simplilearn courses. Simplilearn has now raised a total of $27 million. CEO Krisha Kumar said the most popular courses include big data and analytics, digital marketing, project management and various web programming languages. The new round was led by Mayfield Fund, with participation from past investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Venture Partners.

Backed By US$3.5 Million, SnowShoe Debuts Clever, Plastic Stamps That Unlock Content On Phones A startup called SnowShoe has developed clever, plastic stamps that interact with the touch sensors on mobile phones by way of the web browser. SnowShoe announced a US$1 million in a second round of seed funding led by Lowercase Capital aimed at increasing its manufacturing capabilities in order to meet demand from larger clients. Also participating in the new round are Collaborative Fund and MESA+ Capital. SnowShoe CEO Claus Moberg, a former TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon winner who left his Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin, says the idea for the startup actually grew out of earlier efforts to develop loyalty apps for grocery stores. The team was first trying to build a way to authenticate digital coupons outside the stores point-of-sale system, when they invented the SnowShoe stamp.

Valet Startup ZIRX Raises US$30M Led By Bessemer, Expands To Offer More Value-Added Services ZIRX provides an on-demand mobile app that enables users to request valets to pick up and drop off their cars instead of trying to find parking on their own. Customers either pay a daily fare or a monthly subscription fee to use the service. As the company looks to increase the number of services it offers and cities it serves, ZIRX has raised US$30 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The round includes participation from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, and Bessemer partner Ethan Kurzweil will join the ZIRX board. The new money follows $6.4 million that ZIRX raised last year, back when the service was only available in San Francisco and mostly just SOMA. With the funding, ZIRX will look to expand into new cities over the coming months. It will be expanding availability of its ZIRX Care services to all the markets it operates in.

Scalyr Raises US$2.1M Seed Round For Its Log Monitoring And Analysis Service Scalyr, a log-monitoring service that gives developers more insight into how their applications are performing, announced that it has raised a US$2.1 million seed round led by Susa Ventures. Other participants in this round include Bloomberg Beta, Google Ventures and Sherpalo Ventures. Thats a pretty illustrious group of investors for what may seem like a bit of an esoteric product at first, but Scalyr founder Steve Newman previously founded Writely, which he then sold to Google and which formed the basis for Google Docs. The idea behind Scalyr, then, is to get all of this data from server logs, as well as various metrics, error reports and other performance data and run it through a single tool that you can get actionable data from. Services like Splunk and Loggly offer similar log management services, but those tools make it easy to see anecdotes and its hard to roll that up into an overview.

With US$2M In Funding From Upfront, Ferris Helps Users Edit And Share Videos Trapped On Their Phones

A startup named Ferris wants to change that, with an app designed to make mobile videos actually watchable and actually shareable. The app also enables users to collaborate on videos together, helping them to create stories around events a number of friends and family members attended together. Ferris was founded by Paul Boukadakis,



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a director and editor by trade who saw an opportunity to unlock the ever-increasing volume of video stored on mobile phones. The reason those videos rarely get shared is usually because users dont know how to edit them down in a way that would make them more appealing. The team quietly launched the Ferris iOS app about a month ago, and the company raised US$2 million in a round of seed funding led by Upfront Ventures with participation from Machinima founder Allen DeBevoise and other investors. Along with the funding, Upfronts Mark Suster has joined the companys board.

Assured Labor Raises US$6.75M, Connected Workers With 100K Jobs In Latin Americas Informal Sector Long before LinkedIn went public or before a plethora of on-demand startups began washing the Bay Area and other U.S. cities with services at the click of a button, there was this startup from an MIT grad called Assured Labor. David Reich started the company in 2008 to make informal labor markets in Latin America faster and more transparent for low-skilled workers. It connects about 50,000 employers and 2 million job seekers in Mexico and Brazil through two brands, EmpleoListo and TrabalhoJ (pictured below). They just closed another US$6.75 million funding round led by existing investor, Capital Indigo, with participation from Mexico Ventures, Thayer Ventures and Promotora Social Mxico. Theyre partnering with employers like Brazilian brewing company Ambev, CRM business Atento, Sears and financial conglomerate Inbursa to find and place workers.

Onfleet Raises US$2M To Provide Infrastructure For Delivery Apps

Between ride-hailing apps, food delivery services, and the random niche services for getting things like massages on-demand, smartphones users in big cities are starting to expect seemingly anything and everything with the tap of a button. Onfleet, which provides a white-label backend specifically built for the task of coordinating deliveries with a fleet of couriers out in the field, raised US$2 million from CrunchFund, Winklevoss Capital, the Stanford-StartX, and several individual investors. The team will use to expand its purview beyond startups just raising their seed round or Series A. Onfleet facilitates communication between home base and couriers, letting drivers know when its time to pick up another batch of cookies set for delivery. It also enables communication with recipients, providing the interface for tracking a courier with your delivery, estimating the time until delivery, and letting users contact the courier to handle odd pick-up situations.

Fashion Marketplace Poshmark Raises US$25 Million More, Heads To Apple Watch Three years ago, fashion marketplace Poshmark launched on iOS with an app that allowed women to buy and sell secondhand items, including clothing, shoes and other accessories, right from their mobile device. The company, which has since expanded to Android and the web as of last year, has now grown its online community to include millions of registered users, and is on track to double its revenue in just six months this quarter to $200 million in annual sales. Poshmark is announcing US$25 million in Series C funding, with investment from Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Shea Ventures, and SoftTech VC. While there are a number of competitors in the online fashion resale space today, including luxury consignment site The RealReal which also this month took in an additional $40 million in new funding, what makes Poshmark different from many of these sites is that it doesnt play middleman when it comes to managing the transactions that take place on its platform.

Freelancer.com Acquires Payment Service Provider Escrow.com For US$7.5M Job marketplace Freelancer.com announced that it has agreed to purchased Escrow.com for US$7.5 million in cash. The acquisition was funded by through a placement of about $7.8 million in ordinary shares of Freelancer.com to institutional investors. As its name suggests, Escrow.com provides online escrow services for e-commerce sites by holding payments for goods or services until a transaction is successfully completed. Its commercial partners include eBay, GoDaddy, AutoTrader.com, and Flippa.com. Escrow.com was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial, then merged with iLumin in 2002 before being purchased by an unnamed private investor in 2004. Freelancer.com said it will acquire Escrow.com from the same investor. Freelancer.com already has a version of escrow services called Milestone Payments, which means the site holds funds from an employer until it is released to a freelancer following the completion of a service or a dispute resolution.

Mixmax Raises US$1.5M From Harrison Metal, Floodgate To Bring Interactive Apps To E-mail Mixmax, which is making e-mail interactive with apps that set-up calendar meetings and polls, raised US$1.5 million from Harrison Metal, Floodgates Mike Maples and Ann Miura-Ko, Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures and angels Eric Ries, Soundcloud CEO Alex Ljung, Nuzzel CEO Jonathan Abrams, Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis and Soundclouds Eric Wahlforss. Mixmax is a simple Chrome plug-in that adds extra functionality to your G-mail accounts. You can put in little apps or widgets to schedule meetings, annotate documents, make purchases, confirm



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orders or complete surveys all within the e-mail. (So you dont have to context switch to another calendar or browser tab to do a task.) They plan to use the $1.5 million in fresh funding to hire additional engineers, expand the platform and build out the SDK.

Shyp Confirms US$50M Raise, Launches Beta Service In Los Angeles On-demand shipping service Shyp is rolling out its service in Los Angeles, its fourth city. In addition to announcing its launch in Los Angeles, Shyp also confirmed that it has raised another US$50 million in funding. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the Series B round, which also included previous investors Homebrew and Sherpa Ventures. The round brings Shyps total funding to $62.2 million. KPCBs John Doerr will join Shyps board of directors. The startups couriers will pick up packages and returns in Santa Monica, Venice, West Hollywood, parts of Beverly Hills, and downtown. All told, this early push which Shyp is calling a beta will cover 70 square miles in its first foothold in Southern California.

Europe After Raising US$25M, U.K. Restaurant Delivery Startup Deliveroo Adds France And Germany To Its Menu

The premium take-out space in Europe continues to heat up as a number of startups target parts of the market that Just Eat, Foodpanda and Delivery Hero arent yet catering. Namely, food delivery from premium restaurants that dont traditionally offer a take-out and delivery service. The best funded is the U.K.s Deliveroo, which earlier this year raised a US$25 million Series B round led by Accel Partners money it pegged for European expansion. The London-headquartered startup is making good on that promise, launching the service in Paris and Berlin, following a quiet launch in Dublin earlier this week. Berlin and Paris have the combination of elements we look for in new markets high population density, affluence and quality restaurants and were natural choices for our first international launches, says Deliveroo CEO and co-founder William Shu. In addition, they are large capital cities that serve as a logical beachhead for further expansion.

Innovative fintech startup Number26 raises about US$10.86M in funding led by Peter Thiels Valar Ventures

Number26, a German startup providing its own spin on the age-old practice of banking, has announced that they have obtained about 10.86 million (10 million Euro) in a Series A from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiels Valar Ventures, as well as Swiss entrepreneur Daniel S. Aegerter and current investors Earlybird and Redalpine. With this latest funding, the startup reveals that they intend to both speed development of their core product, as well as boost the size of their current team. Of the top features highlighted by Number26 is a lack of fees. The fintech startup says that they do not charge for using accounts or using a MasterCard, instead generating income on the merchant side by charging a small percentage on the interchange fee that MasterCard charges businesses. They do not allow for overdrafts, either, which ensures that customers cannot be charged a fee on that end, either.

P2P lending service Assetz Capital raises about US$4.5M through crowdfunding British P2P-lending startup Assetz Capital has announced that they have raised about US$4.5 million (3 million pounds) through Seedrs, a crowdfunding startup that allows regular people to invest in various projects. Assetz launched two years ago and currently counts nearly 8,500 lenders, but they have not previously raised funding. The company said that they had received interest from their lending customers in financially supporting the startup, which led them to decide to launch a crowdfunding investment campaign. They initially sought 2 million pounds, but expanded their target to 3 million, which they hit with support from almost 800 backers. Supported by this latest influx of funding, the startup intends to expand their team and begin to branch out other European markets.

Peak, a startup developing exercises and games for the brain, raises US$7M in Series A British startup Peak, which develops brain-training games, has announced that they have pulled in US$7 million in a Series A led by Stockholm-based Creandum and including participation from current investors DN Capital, London Venture Partners (LVP), and Qualcomm Ventures. The company only launched last year, but they have now pulled in $10 million altogether. With this latest funding, the startup says that they plan to increase their team of neuroscientists and engineers. Peak is aiming to provide users with a brain workout, offering a set of 6 daily games and exercises ostensibly designed to sharpen brain functions. And then, having played for awhile, users can access data to check their performance. What is notable about Peak is that they are embracing the Apple Watch, having developed an app that will be released when the device is shipped.



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BlaBlaCar expands to the Americas, launching in Mexico via the acquisition of Rides Long-distance ridesharing platform BlaBlaCar has launched in Mexico, the first market in the Americas for the Paris-based startup, through the acquisition of major local player Rides. Mexicos addition to BlaBlaCar markets grows the community to over 20 million members. The company says the European leader of ridesharing will help the Mexicans cope better with the increasing fuel costs in the country. Mexicans have been suffering from a 72% increase in the cost of fuel since 2010 and the railways system between 14 cities lacks the interest of the people, according to the BlaBlaCar press release. Based on the need for affordable transportation, Rides has established a strong community of drivers and passengers in the country. Alberto Padilla, Cristina Palacios and Ignacio Cordero of Riders will join BlaBlaCar in its 12th international office.

ClickMechanic, The U.K. On-Demand Car Mechanic Startup, Scores Seed Funding ClickMechanic, the U.K. startup aiming to be something like an Uber for car mechanics by offering a marketplace that lets you easily and transparently book a mobile mechanic, has scored a modest seed round. The London-based company, founded by Andrew Jervis and Felix Kenton, has raised about US$487,000 (320,000) from angel investors led by former Just Eat CEO Klaus Nyengaard. This adds to around US$152,000 (100,000) that the young startup and graduate of so-called pre-accelerator Entrepreneur First (EF) had previously raised from various investors, including former Director of AutoTrader, James Bromley, and Imperial Innovations. The ClickMechanic website not only lets you locate, receive a quote and book a nearby mobile mechanic, who will come to your home or workplace, but the startup has also built an automatic quoting system to help you know if you are being offered a competitive price. This uses data its licensed from manufacturers.

UK tech startup Signal raises US$1.8m in funding

UK startup Signal has raised US$1.8 million in funding as it seeks to expand its business, backed by Frontline Ventures. The Dublin-based fund led the round for Signal, which specialises in media monitoring and market intelligence, and intends to take on firms such as Factiva. Signal scours the web, monitoring almost 100,000 news sources, 3.5 million blogs, and social media channels to bring real-time information to users. The company employs 15 people and is located in Shoreditch in London. The funding will be used to expand the team further, and Signal has already begun adding to its staff. Although the company was offered other term sheets for other investors, the decision was made to stick with Frontline. The alpha version of the product was launched about six months ago, a release that has already got great traction. The Jamie Oliver Group, European leaders and IG Index are among the firms already signed up to Signal, and the beta is now ready for launch.

Israel HP invests in Adallom, marking first time it funds an Israeli startup

Hewlett Packard Ventures, the new investment arm of HP, announced its first investment in an Israeli startup in cloud security firm Adallom. The money from HP brings the take from Adalloms last funding round to US$30 million. Other investors in the latest round include Rembrandt Venture Partners and the data storage firm EMC as well as prior funders Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Rembrandt general partner Gerald Casilli will be joining Adalloms board. The latest funds will be used to expand the companys sales and marketing effort, to build a global network, expand the capacities of Adallom Labs and for research and development. With the new capital, the company is expected to double the size of its development center in Israel within a year, open a European sales office and expand its sales force in the United States, which is Adalloms primary market.

Israeli startup Music Messenger raises US$30M Music Messenger, an app that allows friends to share playlists easily, has finished raising a series B funding round led by Roman Abramovich and a variety of celebs and musicians including Nicki Minaj and will.i.am Israeli startup Music Messenger, which provides an easy way to transfer songs among friends, announced on Monday that it has finished raising a funding round of approximately US$30 million. The round was led by Roman Abramovich, who invested $15 million. Other investors included popular musicians and existing investors such as David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, DJ Tiesto, will.i.am and Gee Roberson. The companys valuation is approximately $100 million. Music Messenger, like its name, allows users to create playlists and send them to everyone who is part of their contact list. The app is available to both Android and iOS users and allows you to play any song by any artist or from any album, free of charge.

Documents

SparkLabs Global Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review 0426 2015