Author: Alastair Goldfisher

Online video marketing company TubeMogul announced it has $10 million in a Series C tranche that was led by SingTel Innov8, the venture arm of SingTel Group. Cross Creek Capital joined the round and existing investors Digital Advertising Consortium, Foundation Capital and Trinity Ventures also participated. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company previously raised about $33 million in total funding, including a $20 million first tranche of the Series C in late 2012, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). the company has recently opened offices in Singapore and Sydney and, in conjunction with the funding announcement, has opened an office in Beijing.

PRESS RELEASE

TubeMogul Raises $10 Million for Asian Expansion

Second tranche of the company’s Series C financing, led by SingTel Innov8, will be used to expand programmatic buying of video ads worldwide

Singapore – May 29, 2013 – TubeMogul announced that it successfully completed the second tranche of its Series C funding today. The funds will be used to expand the footprint of programmatic buying of video advertising throughout Asia.

TubeMogul is backed by venture capital from a diverse group of financial and media heavyweights from both Asia and the United States. This round of financing was led by SingTel Innov8, the corporate venture capital arm of the SingTel Group. Cross Creek Capital, a venture fund associated with Wasatch Advisors, also participated in this round along with existing investors Digital Advertising Consortium, Foundation Capital and Trinity Ventures.

“TubeMogul fits perfectly into our strategy of investing in top advertising companies that are poised for rapid growth in Asia,” says Punit Chiniwalla, Director, SingTel Innov8. “We are impressed by the product and team on the ground and look forward to working more closely with the company.”

The company plans to use the capital to ramp up information technology infrastructure and hires in a region where it is already seeing traction. In the past year, TubeMogul’s offices in Singapore and Sydney have grown from having a handful of sales executives to full teams spanning account management, marketing, and operations and planning. In addition, TubeMogul Japan, which was launched in February and led by CEO Masahiro Kano, has already signed on with several of the country’s leading advertisers, including Digital Advertising Consortium and Omnibus.

In line with its expansion, TubeMogul opened an office in Beijing today, headed by Director of Business Development Sven Rossbach. Previously, Mr. Rossbach helped Cadreon (Interpublic Group’s trading desk) develop a presence in Asia, pioneering global technology partnerships. At TubeMogul, Mr. Rossbach’s responsibility is simple: introduce Chinese brand marketers and publishers to the programmatic buying of video ads, and grow TubeMogul’s presence.

“Our private investments are focused on high-growth, late-stage companies with the potential to become public companies and TubeMogul fits that bill,” says Karey Barker, CFA, Managing Director at Cross Creek Capital. “TubeMogul will continue to see high growth as marketers adapt to changing consumer viewing habits.”

“Partnering with best-in-class buying platform TubeMogul will help DAC continue to push the frontiers of real-time buying in Japan,” said Hirotake Yajima, President and CEO at DAC. “The result creates a powerhouse for marketers looking to harness the persuasive power of video advertising.”

“TubeMogul is simplifying what was once a complex ecosystem for brand marketers and quantifiably delivering on their goals,” says Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the company.”

“TubeMogul’s singular focus on the intersection of branding and technology is resonating with marketers. In just over four years since Trinity first invested, TubeMogul has become an undisputed leader in programmatic brand advertising. We are delighted that TubeMogul is building a world-wide organization to bring its solution to marketers around the globe,” says Ajay Chopra, General Partner at Trinity Ventures.

About TubeMogul
TubeMogul is the leader in programmatic brand marketing. The world’s largest brands and agencies centralize their video advertising on TubeMogul’s enterprise platform. Created specifically for brand marketers, TubeMogul’s platform enables the execution of scalable digital video campaigns, while providing the measurability and accountability marketers demand. Founded in 2006, TubeMogul is based in Emeryville, CA with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Austin and Los Angeles.

About SingTel Innov8
SingTel Innov8 (Innov8), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group, is a corporate venture capital fund, with its own set of decision making, approval and funding processes. It has an initial fund size of S$200 million. Innov8 focuses its investments on technologies and solutions that lead to quantum changes in network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services and enablers to enhance customer experience. It works closely with the ecosystem of leading innovators, developers, government agencies, R&D and capital providers to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the various markets the SingTel Group operates in.

About Cross Creek Capital
Cross Creek is a venture capital firm founded in 2006 inside of Wasatch Advisors, Inc. Through its direct investment strategy and fund investment strategy the firm seeks to invest in what we believe are high-quality late-stage companies and top-tier venture capital funds. The strategies are mutually beneficial in their goal to strengthen ties between private and public investors and to achieve above market returns for limited partners.

About Digital Advertising Consortium
As an Advertising Business Integrator building a new business model to meet the needs of the era of Internet Media, D.A.Consortium Inc. (DAC) is contributing to the development of the 21st Century’s Advertising Media. We provide excellent client services based on our three main services: Media, Operations and Technology.

About Foundation Capital
At Foundation Capital, we’re dedicated to the proposition that one entrepreneur’s idea, with the right support, can become a business that changes the world. We helped Atheros create the mobile Internet, EnerNOC invent the energy demand response market, and Netflix revolutionize media distribution and consumption, among many others. We’re currently invested in more than 80 high-growth ventures in the areas of consumer, information technology, software, semiconductors, and clean technology including BoardVantage, Chegg, Coverity, Lending Club, MobileIron, Simply Hired, Sunrun, TubeMogul and Venafi. Foundation Capital’s eighteen initial public offerings include Envestnet, Financial Engines, Netflix, NetZero, Responsys and Silver Spring Networks. For more information, please visit www.foundationcapital.com.

About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures is a boutique early stage venture firm with an unwavering dedication and respect for entrepreneurs. We are smart, focused, passionate professionals with significant experience, deep expertise and a sincere commitment to help entrepreneurs build enduring companies. We were founded in 1986 by two entrepreneurs who saw the opportunity for a different approach to venture capital — an approach long on collaboration, short on hierarchy, and with none of the “our way or the highway” mentality

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True Ventures led a $3 million seed-stage funding for Orchestrate.io, a developer of a API that allows companies to add location, search, activity stream, and recommendation features to their apps. Also participating in the round are Frontline Ventures and Resonant Venture. The company was founded earlier this year. As part of the funding, Puneet Agrawal, general partner at True Ventures, has joined the board.

PRESS RELEASE

Orchestrate.io Closes a $3 Million Seed Investment to Eliminate the Need for Databases in Application Development

Frontline Ventures, Resonant Venture Partners and True Ventures Participate in Early Round to Accelerate Time to Market and Global Deployment

PORTLAND, OR – May 21, 2013 – Orchestrate.io, a new data API that will eliminate the need for deploying databases in application development, today announced that it has raised a seed investment round of $3 million. Led by True Ventures and joined by Frontline Ventures and Resonant Venture Partners, the funding will be used to rapidly build and deploy Orchestrate.io’s service for strategic partners, expand its core development team and deploy its offering across multiple cloud providers, on multiple continents, for general availability later this year.

Orchestrate.io is a cloud-agnostic service that unifies all the queries needed to build interactive applications, such as geospatial, time-series, graph, full-text search, key-value queries and more through a single API.  Historically, developers have been required to run multiple databases to build applications that need these queries. Orchestrate.io eliminates the operational and financial burden on enterprises that run multiple databases, such as monitoring and maintaining them, scaling as usage grows, and distributing them across providers to improve fault tolerance and put data closer to end users. As a result, developers can focus on building richer, more sophisticated applications.

“Database and operating system licensing, servers, storage, power, labor, outsourcing and professional services represents a market that exceeds $100B annually,” said Antony Falco, founder and CEO of Orchestrate.io, who also co-founded Basho Technologies, makers of the open-source distributed database, Riak. “We believe our service will save our customers significant time and money, allowing them to instead focus on what matters most – the end-user.  With Orchestrate.io, our customers can build better apps, faster.”

“Orchestrate.io is disrupting a huge market with an incredibly talented team,” said Puneet Agrawal, General Partner at True Ventures. “It’s exactly the kind of company we love to fund at True Ventures. Tony and team will democratize the ability to build powerful, feature rich applications while pioneering a new ‘NoDB’ movement.”

Founded in March 2013, Orchestrate.io has already made significant hires to the core team, including Dave “Dizzy” Smith,  formerly VP of Engineering at Basho and Singly.  A prominent Erlang and open-source contributor, Dizzy will build and lead Orchestrate.io’s engineering and product team. Puneet Agarwal from True Venture has also joined its board.

The company is currently accepting applications to its private beta for select strategic partners. For more information and to be considered for beta today, visit http://orchestrate.io. You can also follow them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/OrchestrateIO.

About Orchestrate.io
Orchestrate.io provides an API service that eliminates the need to deploy databases when building new applications, or adding new features to existing applications. A cloud-agnostic service, it unifies all the queries needed to build interactive applications in a single API, allowing developers to rapidly add location, search, activity stream, event and recommendation features. Founded in 2013, Orchestrate.io is based in Portland, Oregon, and is backed by Frontline Ventures, Resonant Venture Partners and True Ventures. For more information, please visit http://orchestrate.io.

About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With three funds and approximately $600 million in capital under management, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today’s fastest growing markets. With a mission to make the world a better place for entrepreneurs, True encourages each founder’s vision and has built resources to empower the employees, families and communities of its portfolio companies. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 100 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the True portfolio has created over 1,900 jobs. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com.

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Alteryx, a provider of data analytics, has raised $12 million in funding from Toba Capital and existing investor SAP Ventures. The company has now raised $18 million in total funding. The company says that over the past year, it has developed partnerships with newly public Tableau and other companies, such as Teradata, Cloudera and Hortonworks, to integrate its data blending and predictive analytics with its infrastructure and visualization platforms. The new funding will help accelerate this momentum.

PRESS RELEASE

Alteryx Raises $12 Million to Put Big Data Analytics in the Hands of All Business Analysts

Quest Founder’s Firm, Toba Capital, Selects Alteryx as its First Analytics Investment – with Renewed Investment from SAP Ventures to Further Fuel Focus on Humanizing Big Data

Irvine, Calif., May 20, 2013 – Alteryx, Inc., the leading provider of Strategic Analytics, today announced that it has received $12 million in financing from Toba Capital (recently formed by Vinny Smith, former CEO and founder of Quest Software) and existing investor, SAP Ventures.  This financing will support accelerated growth through added sales, marketing and product investments along with international expansion.

“Alteryx is enabling our customers to Humanize Big Data and answer the critical business questions that can accelerate their growth,”added Dean Stoecker, chairman and chief executive officer at Alteryx. “But to find these answers, business analysts need better tools than spreadsheets and other technologies created decades ago.  Alteryx puts affordable, powerful big data analysis tools in the hands of analysts, and our solutions facilitate complex tasks and the ability to obtain insights from diverse data sets that were once thought impossible to achieve.”

In 2013, Alteryx was positioned for a second year in a row within the 2013 Business Intelligence and Analytics Magic Quadrant* by Gartner Inc. The company was also listed by Wikibon as one of the top 10 Big Data vendors.  Over the past year, Alteryx has developed partnerships with Tableau (Alteryx is one of the first analytics platform to be able to create Tableau file formats natively), Teradata, Cloudera and Hortonworks to integrate its data blending and advanced spatial and predictive analytics with the best-in-class big data infrastructure and visualization platforms, which provides customers with one unified solution for all of their big data analytic needs.  The new financing will help accelerate this momentum.

“Toba is committed to investing in companies that deliver real value to their customers, redefine existing markets and have the potential for outsized growth,” stated Smith, founder of Toba Capital. “CMO’s, CFO’s and other line-of-business organizations are realizing the immense business value in applying analytics to drive change and success in their organization.  Alteryx alone addresses their needs without sacrificing power to usability. ”

“SAP Ventures saw the potential in Alteryx in 2011 when we first invested in the company, and we’ve watched this company thrive and bring continued value to its extensive customer base,” said Jai Das, managing director with SAP Ventures and an Alteryx board member.  “Alteryx is one of the few analytics platform providers which has the right mix of cloud, Big Data and predictive analytics capabilities to be able to leverage the massive changes in the analytics market and grow rapidly to become one of the leading analytics companies.”

Alteryx Expands Product Footprint

Two weeks ago, Alteryx released Project Edition, a free version of its Analytic Designer that further supports the Humanization of Big Data by putting powerful analytics into the hands of any business analyst. Project Edition is unique in providing business analysts with an easy and intuitive way to rapidly blend data from a wide range of data sources, perform advanced analytics, and deliver relevant analytic output to business decision makers.

In concert with Product Edition, the 8.5 version of the Alteryx Strategic Analytics Platform is now generally available. Alteryx Strategic Analytics 8.5 includes significant enhancements such as social media tools for analytics, the first native creation of the Tableau Data Extract, advanced interactive mapping, and a new designer interface specifically designed for line-of-business analysts.  With its new support for delivering output in the native Tableau file format, Alteryx makes it easy for business and data analysts to prepare an analytic data set in Alteryx and visualize it in Tableau.

*Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, Kurt Schlegel, Rita L. Sallam, Daniel Yuen, and Joao Tapadinhas, February 5, 2013.  Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About SAP Ventures
SAP Ventures is an independent venture capital firm that invests in innovative and disruptive software and services companies globally. We are focused on growth and later-stage opportunities, with a primary goal of generating outstanding financial return. SAP Ventures is affiliated with SAP AG and brings benefits to all parties by facilitating interaction between portfolio companies, including SAP and its ecosystem of customers and partners. Since 1996 SAP Ventures has had a successful track record of building industry-leading companies by partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and top-tier venture capital firms. For more information, visitwww.sapventures.com. SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

About Toba Capital
Toba Capital is a venture firm focused on enterprise software and infrastructure. Toba backs entrepreneurs building transformative businesses, both as an investor and as an ongoing operational partner. The firm was founded by Vinny Smith, the founder of Patrol Software and former CEO of Quest Software.

About Alteryx, Inc.
Alteryx provides an indispensable and easy-to-use analytics platform for enterprise companies making critical decisions that drive their business strategy and growth.  Alteryx Strategic Analytics runs analytic applications that empower executives to identify and seize market opportunities, outsmart their competitors, increase customer loyalty and drive more revenue.  It Humanizes Big Data by enabling business analysts and Data Artisans to combine Big Data with market knowledge, location insight, and business intelligence; easily perform predictive and spatial analytics; and produce analytic apps that can be shared via the private cloud or the Alteryx Analytics Gallery public cloud. Customers like Experian Marketing Services and McDonald’s rely on Alteryx daily. Headquartered in Irvine, California, and with offices in Boulder and Silicon Valley, Alteryx empowers 250+ customers and 200,000+ users worldwide. Visit Alteryx, the leader in Strategic Analytics, today at www.alteryx.com or call 1-888-836-4274.
Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc.

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San Francisco-based startup Chute announced Tuesday it raised a $7 million Series A round of funding led by Foundry Group, with existing investors Freestyle Capital and U.S. Venture Partners also participating. The company, which came out of Y Combinator, previously raised about $3 million in funding from institutional and individual investors, including Klout co-founder and CEO Joe Fernandez. Chute provides a platform to help publishers and brands manage user-generated photos and videos.

PRESS RELEASE

Chute Secures $7 Million Series A Funding

Chute continues to power the visual revolution by announcing first-to-market ad product to leverage real-time visual content. Condé Nast Traveler first customer to leverage Chute Ads for brand and user generated photos in banner units

San Francisco, CA, May 7th, 2013 – Chute, the platform for brands, publishers, and developers to leverage real-time visual content, today announced that it has closed a $7 million Series A equity round led by Foundry Group, with existing investors Freestyle Capital and U.S. Venture Partners contributing to the round.

The Chute platform provides its clients with the ability to better ingest, understand, manage and leverage real-time visual content while helping. Chute’s arsenal of developer tools and media platforms is what ignited Foundry Group’s interest in the company, Foundry Managing Director Ryan McIntyre said.

“At Foundry Group, we are deeply interested in companies that provide ‘magic infrastructure’ for developers that makes it simple for them to deploy complex yet elegant functionality at scale that integrates easily with their new and existing mobile and web apps,” McIntyre said. “With over 500 billion photos taken via smartphones in 2012, Chute’s cloud media platform enables brands, publishers and developers to participate in the massive visual conversation happening every day.”

In conjunction with its latest round of funding, Chute is announcing Chute Ads, a first of its kind product that allows brands to inject real-time visual content into digital advertising units. Chute is also announcing that Condé Nast Traveler is the first to use Chute Ads’ real-time and user-generated photo capabilities on cntraveler.com.  Chute and Condé Nast Traveler are enabling brand advertisers to meld paid, owned, and earned media efforts, thereby revolutionizing web ads by making them more interactive, personal, novel, and visual for marketers and consumers alike.

“Chute Ads provides an innovative tactic for Condé Nast and its brands to give advertisers the ability to also be publishers,” said Craig Kostelic, Head of Digital Global Sales for Condé Nast Travel Network. “The ads encourage user interaction and provide a more engaging and immersive experience, which makes the ads more effective and more attractive to consumers. Real-time content means audiences will never see the same ad twice, and in-ad calls-to-action ensure engagement and long-term relationships.”

Since its launch in 2012, Chute has seen substantial growth – processing and serving billions of photos for clients like NBC News, Turner, House of Blues Entertainment, Conde Nast, the NBA, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Chute continues to grow as more companies turn to visual content to help tell media-rich stories.

The new funds will be used primarily to expand product offerings and scale operations as the company continues to expand the ways in which it is shepherding and powering the visual revolution.

“We are known for our strength in helping brands and publishers leverage owned and earned visual content. By being the first company to complete the loop and help companies leverage owned and earned media in their paid efforts as well, we are broadening brands’ visual storytelling capabilities and helping them drive deeper relationships with audiences,” said Ranvir Gujral, Co-Founder of Chute.

About Chute
Chute is a mobile and Web platform that makes it easy to add photo and video functionality to any application or site. Chute works with some of the world’s biggest publishers and brands including NBCNews.com, Turner, Condé Nast, Saks Fifth Avenue, and House of Blues Entertainment, combining cloud infrastructure with extensive developer tools to provide instant media infrastructure to new and existing mobile and Web applications.  SlideChute, built on top of the Chute platform, makes it easy to collect, manage and display user-generated photos across the Web. For more information, please visit www.getchute.com.

About Foundry Group
Foundry Group is a venture capital firm focused on making investments in early-stage information technology, Internet and software startups. Its third venture fund of $225m was launched in September 2012 and is managed by four managing directors with over five decades of combined experience in venture capital investing. During that time they have invested in over 100 companies as institutional investors and over 50 companies as angel investors. Additionally, they have over three decades of entrepreneurial experience in founding and working in senior operating roles inside technology startups.

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Kansas-based Netchemia announced today that it raised $6.5 million from San Francisco-based growth-equity investor Mainsail Partners. The 12-year-old company provides schools with tools for hiring and managing employee performance. The company reportedly raised previous funding from undisclosed angel investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Netchemia Announces Investment from Mainsail Partners to Accelerate Growth

Partnership to help enhance and expand product development of K-12 talent-management software

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. (May 2, 2013) — Netchemia LLC, the leading provider of cloud-based talent management software specifically developed for K-12 school districts and institutions, announced an equity investment from Mainsail Partners to support the company’s growth plans.

The investment is part of a long-term, collaborative partnership that will allow Netchemia to tap Mainsail’s deep operational expertise and further bolster its market position. Mainsail is a San Francisco growth-equity firm focused on backing “bootstrapped” companies that have not previously taken outside capital.

The majority of the current $6.5 million investment will be used to accelerate Netchemia’s growth and enhance and expand the company’s product offering. More than 1,100 K-12 school districts and institutions in 42 states—ranging in size from fewer than 100 students to those with tens of thousands of students—use Netchemia’s TalentEd cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

Netchemia, which was founded in the Kansas City area in 2001 and works exclusively in K-12 education, is one of several growing startups in the Midwest’s “Silicon Prairie” region.

“We are excited to announce a partnership with Mainsail and the next phase of our company’s growth,” Netchemia co-founder and CEO Carlos Antequera said. “This investment will allow Netchemia to accelerate its product development and team-building plans. It was important for us to find an investor who shared our vision and had extensive company-building experience.”

Netchemia’s TalentEd K-12 Strategic Talent Management Suite delivers simple, innovative and affordable management solutions for applicant tracking and hiring (TalentEd Recruit & Hire) and performance evaluation (TalentEd Perform) without any hardware to buy or software to install.

TalentEd applications are flexible and fully customizable to empower school districts of all kinds and sizes to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, increase transparency and ultimately achieve positive educational impacts.

“Carlos and his team recognized the opportunity to leverage technology to improve the process of managing talent for school administrators,” said Stephen Wolfe, a Mainsail Partners principal. “We have a great deal of respect for entrepreneurs like Carlos who have proven they can grow their businesses rapidly and do so profitably. We look forward to working with the team to build the leading K-12 talent management platform.”

“As the value of talent management becomes more evident to educators, there is increased momentum in the marketplace to make a difference,” added Antequera. “We recognize the enormous importance of talent management in education; that finding, hiring and developing the best teachers and school leaders is fundamental to improved schools and high student achievement. It is a key part of our current national discussion over education.”

In addition to reinforcing the highly-collaborative, results-oriented experience to a rapidly growing customer base, the partnership with Mainsail provides Netchemia the freedom to continue expanding within its product development, client success, sales, marketing, and executive teams, Antequera said.

About Netchemia
Netchemia is a leading provider of cloud-based talent management software specifically developed for K-12 educational organizations.  We believe that by providing school districts with intuitive software to recruit, hire, develop and retain the best teachers and school leaders, we can help them dramatically affect student achievement.

Netchemia’s TalentEd K-12 Strategic Talent Management Suite delivers simple, innovative and affordable management solutions for applicant tracking and hiring (TalentEd Recruit & Hire) and performance evaluation (TalentEd Perform) to more than 1,100 educational organizations across the nation. TalentEd frees school leaders to focus on what’s important – finding and developing the best teachers and staff and helping them grow. To learn more, visit www.netchemia.com.

About Mainsail Partners
Mainsail Partners is a leading growth equity firm that invests in successful “bootstrapped” businesses and builds them into great companies. Mainsail, based in San Francisco, makes a select number of investments each year and leverages the deep operational expertise of its team to add value to its portfolio companies. The firm has raised over $350 million in committed capital from leading institutions, endowments, executives and entrepreneurs. Two of Mainsail’s portfolio companies were ranked on the 2012 Inc. 500|5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. For more information, visit www.mainsailpartners.com.

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Imagine K12, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based incubator focused on education tech startups, announced today it will fund participating startups in its program with up to $100,000. The funding includes $80,000 in debt and $20,000 in equity. Support for the funding of the Imagine K12 Start Fund comes from various investors, including Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, Yahoo co-founder David Filo and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, among others. Imagine K12, founded in 2011, says it has helped launch 39 edtech startups in nearly two years and they have gone on to raise about $30 million in further rounds of funding.

PRESS RELEASE

IMAGINE K12 LAUNCHES FIRST EVER START FUND FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STARTUPS

INITIAL FUNDING INCREASED TO $100K FOR STARTUPS ACCEPTED TO PROGRAM

In just 2 years, Imagine K12 Helps 39 Startups Intent on Revolutionizing K-12 Education Raise More than $30 Million and help millions of kids in hundreds of thousands of classrooms.

PALO ALTO, CA – April 23, 2013 – Imagine K12, the leading startup accelerator exclusively investing in educational technology that improves learning in kindergarten through high school, today announced changes that include increasing to $100,000 the funding each startup will receive upon acceptance to the Imagine K12 program.

This funding comes compliments of the Imagine K12 Start Fund, a new fund that is supported by tech luminaries including Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, Yahoo! co-founder David Filo, Angela Filo, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, NewSchools Venture Fund, and GSV Asset Management.  Every company accepted to the Imagine K12 accelerator program will receive up to $20,000 from Imagine K12 and a convertible note for $80,000 from the Start Fund.  This large increase of funding available to Imagine K12 companies is a testament to the early success of Imagine K12 graduates.  These companies are providing innovative solutions to America’s schools, are gaining significant traction, and are raising significant funds from the venture community.

“Imagine K12 companies have invented products that are now used by over 10% of US teachers and thousands more worldwide,” said Tim Brady, an Imagine K12 founder. “With the Start Fund, many more Imagine K12 companies will be launched and have a transformative impact on kids everywhere.”

The additional funds granted to these startups will give program companies more time to build their products and work with parents, teachers, and schools in order to get the traction necessary to raise seed and venture investment.

“A lot of attention has been focused on investments in higher education, but so many real problems exist in K-12 education. Geoff and Tim have a proven track record of success with Imagine K12, and investing in their Start Fund allows us to support innovation in a sector that is ripe for disruption, ” said Michael Moe, CEO and Chief Investment Officer for GSV Asset Management. “

The Imagine K12 program changes will give startups the best chance to receive funding and long-term success. The program now offers rolling admissions. Companies accepted in the program will immediately receive up to $20,000 in funding and as well as mentorship. The official program, consisting of in-depth seminars, weekly dinners with tech and education luminaries, and weekly office hours with Imagine K12 founders, will begin in September in Palo Alto and run through December, culminating in an investor Demo Day in early January. The Start Fund financing will be available once the program begins in September. The application for the 2013 program is now open.

About Imagine K12

Launched in Palo Alto in early 2011, by Silicon Valley veterans Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston, Imagine K12 funded its first group of companies in Summer 2011. To date, Imagine K12 has funded 39 startups that have raised over $30 million in outside venture capital.  Notable Imagine K12 graduates include ClassDojo, Hapara, Educreations, TapToLearn, Remind101, Bloomboard, NoRedInk, and LearnSprout.

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Gainsight, a provider of customer service management software, has raised a $9 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures. The company, formerly known as Jbara Software, uses big data analytics to monitor and predict customer behavior. Gainsight previously raised about $300,000 in seed-stage funding. As part of the Series A round, Roger Lee, a general partner at Battery Ventures, has joined the board. The company also named Nick Mehta as CEO. Mehta was most recently executive-in-resident at Accel Partners, according to his LinkedIn profile, and before that was CEO at LiveOffice, a SaaS email archiving provider that was bought by Symantec in 2012.

PRESS RELEASE

Gainsight Raises $9 Million to Revolutionize Customer Retention Using Big Data Analytics

Battery Ventures Leads Round, SaaS Veteran Nick Mehta Joins as CEO

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – April 17, 2013 – Gainsight, formerly known as JBara Software, the leading Customer Success Management solution, today announced a $9 million Series A funding round led by Battery Ventures. Delivering the first and only complete Customer Success Management platform and leveraging Big Data predictive analytics technology, the company will use the funds to accelerate product development and drive its aggressive go-to-market strategy. Gainsight is also announcing the appointment of Nick Mehta as chief executive officer. Mehta was previously CEO at SaaS email archiving leader LiveOffice where he led the company’s profitable growth and successful sale to Symantec in 2012. Gainsight founder Jim Eberlin will be dedicated full time to the company’s product strategy and sales development as newly named president. Companies such as Marketo, Jive, Eloqua and other B2B leaders use Gainsight to reduce churn, increase up-sell and drive customer success.

“Recurring revenue business models have permeated most industries and companies are realizing that customer retention is just as strategic as customer acquisition. Gainsight, with its innovative technology, is helping businesses navigate this transition and maximize revenue from existing customers,” said Roger Lee, general partner at Battery Ventures. “We are confident that under Nick’s experienced leadership Gainsight will define the growing Customer Success Management category.”

Over the past decade, companies have leveraged data, analytics and automation to accelerate customer acquisition efforts from marketing through sales. As companies today are increasingly being paid over time versus up front, customer retention represents a huge revenue opportunity. However, siloed data sets, error-prone guesswork and manual workflows prevent companies from understanding their customers and driving aligned customer retention efforts.

Gainsight enables businesses to proactively manage retention, reduce unexpected churn and identify up-sell opportunities by leveraging Big Data analytics across sales data, usage logs, support tickets, surveys and other sources of customer intelligence. For example, customer success and account management teams can track product adoption and usage and get early warnings about churn risk; sales teams can identify up-sell and reference opportunities and forecast renewals; and executive teams can track and analyze churn.

“Data is transforming industries and business processes around the world. Yet many companies today still don’t leverage data to understand their existing customers after they come on board,” said Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight. “Companies, from healthcare to financial services to retail, are moving to a model where financial success depends on customer success. Gainsight’s mission is to help businesses of all sizes reduce customer churn, drive up-sell and maximize customer satisfaction by using Big Data analytics to power insight and action.”

For more information about Gainsight’s products, see the company’s separate announcement today here http://www.gainsight.com/product-announcement.

About Gainsight
Gainsight, the first and only complete Customer Success Management solution, helps businesses reduce churn, increase up-sell and drive customer success. The company’s SaaS suite integrates with Salesforce and uses Big Data analytics to evaluate sales data, usage logs, support tickets, surveys and other sources of customer intelligence. In this way, Gainsight provides a 360° view of customers and drives retention across customer success, sales, marketing, executive and product management. Learn how leading companies like Marketo, Jive Software, Informatica and Eloqua are using Gainsight to help their customers succeed at www.gainsight.com.

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Sagar Pushpala, a former operating partner with Khosla Ventures, was tapped to take over TSI Semiconductors as CEO. TSI, formerly known as Telefunken Semiconductors, also added three other executives to its team.

PRESS RELEASE

TSI Semiconductors Appoints New CEO

Sagar Pushpala to Lead Expansion of TSI’s Technology Development and Foundry Operations

Roseville, Calif. – April 15, 2013 – TSI Semiconductors, LLC, a world-class specialty foundry offering flexible technology development and manufacturing services, today announced that Sagar Pushpala has been named its new CEO. Pushpala, who was most recently with Khosla Ventures and brings more than 25 years of experience managing technology development and supply-chain operations at leading analog and mixed-signal companies, will lead TSI as it expands its operations and R&D capabilities in the Silicon Valley area and around the world. In addition, today TSI also announced several new additions to its executive team.

TSI, formerly Telefunken Semiconductors, is focused on providing its customers – from small startups to multi-billion dollar corporations – services with a personal touch. Located in close proximity to its customers’ design and engineering teams, TSI intends to drive innovation closer to home by enabling customers to develop unique technologies and IP onsite with its advanced fab equipment. TSI also offers greater flexibility than traditional foundries, enabling customers to choose from off-the-shelf solutions, port technology from other wafer fabs or jointly develop technology in partnership with expert technologists in TSI’s R&D organization, Technology, Development & Commercialization Services (TDCS).

“Having previously been on the customer end of the technology development and manufacturing process in the analog and mixed-signal space, I know how important it is to have a strong working relationship with a foundry partner,” said Pushpala. “TSI’s model, which encourages close engagement with its customers and brings technology development and manufacturing closer to home, is a key differentiator and a strong foundation for the company’s growth.  I look forward to nurturing the environment for innovation that TSI has created and working with the newly appointed executive team to achieve our goals.”

Pushpala’s wide-ranging experience — from technology development to manufacturing — gives him a well-rounded view on how to innovate, adapt to environments and serve customers that are on the leading edge of technology. For more than a quarter century, Pushpala has held executive and senior-level operations, engineering and technology management positions at such analog mixed-signal companies as Intersil, Maxim Integrated Products, National Semiconductor, Saratoga Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices. Most recently an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, he continues to serve in board and advisory roles for many system and medical device companies. In addition, he has held board positions in various industry consortiums, including the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) and the Fab Owners Association (FOA).

“Sagar has an impressive background, with deep experience and an intellectual curiosity about what businesses need to do to succeed,” said Michael Gontar, chairman of TSI and chief investment officer and a director at Wafra Capital Partners Inc. “With his strong knowledge of the semiconductor industry and a wide network, Sagar is ideally suited to drive the company’s growth strategically and lead the strong team we have put into place.”

###

About TSI Semiconductors, LLC
TSI Semiconductors, LLC is a world-class, specialty foundry offering flexible technology development and the highest industry quality manufacturing solutions for projects ranging from the smallest to very large lot sizes. With its 8-inch fabrication plant in Roseville, Calif., and 6-inch fabrication facility in Heilbronn, Germany, TSI can manufacture in a large array of versatile processes that include analog/mixed-signal, deep-submicron, high-voltage BCDMOS, including SOI for power management applications, and solutions such as novel materials structures and devices. Technology Development & Commercialization Services (TDCS), TSI’s research and development organization, provides dedicated fab equipment to enable customers to manage their own development activities. For more information, visit www.tsisemi.com.

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Online marketplace provider Grand St. announced this week it raised a $1.3 million seed round that was led by First Round Capital. The funding included participation from individual investors David Tisch, Gary Vaynerchuk, as well as betaworks, Collaborative Fund, MESA+, Quotidian Ventures and Undercurrent. In addition to investing, Undercurrent plans to play a strategic role in advising the company as it grows. Grand St. announced the seed round in a blog post (see below).

BLOG POST

Hardware is Real: Living it at Grand St. and Growing Up (Just a Little)

Today we announced the Grand St. seed round. We are incredibly excited to be working with some of the smartest investors in hardware, commerce and digital communities around and are delighted to have the opportunity to grow the company and build more dope internets for our community. Much love to our earliest users, customers (!!) and friends for all the support so far.

In a way this moment in our (admittedly short) history has made all of us painfully aware of how much we want to accomplish. The hardware revolution is truly just beginning, and there is much to be done. This financing will help us grow our team (now at 7!) and continue to make the experience better.

Since December

There’s so much amazing innovation happening around new hardware, and our sole goal at Grand St. is to build a store that is just as innovative and delightful as the products we sell.

We launched Grand St. v0.1 on December 14 to the few thousand people who were on our email list. One of the best moments in the life of any small company is the moment when someone who is not your mom or your friend or your cousin buys something. Here is a random stranger who decided that you built something legit enough to hand over their credit card information (which btw is VERY SAFE TO DO thx stripe) … little do they know that four people are crouched around a computer screen cheering and mostly doing this. That day, we sold many thousands of dollars of creative technology to people across the U.S. and realized that maybe we weren’t the only ones who wanted a site like Grand St. to exist.

Creative Technology is Real

The democratization of hardware/consumer electronics is very real and should not be underestimated. Think about the number of really fantastic products that have launched in the last 12 months. Over time, that number will grow aggressively and the number of new products available not the market will become more and more impressive.

We feel privileged to work with so many independent (and even a couple of established) inventors. Putting together our April Fools roundup, I realized that 10 years ago it was an unthinkable fever-dream to try and launch a new electronics product. In the same way that the music industry has transitioned from top-down to bottom-up, the same thing is happening with consumer electronics.

The Future

Though by now we have had many customers who aren’t our friends or family, each and every new product sold is still exciting for us.

The future of Grand St., though, and the most profound thing for me (and Joe and Aaron too) is our fast-growing team. We are excited to show up every day mostly because everyone is effing genius-level talented and inspires all of us to work harder and better.

Like Phin said, we hope “…technology makers can focus on crafting experiences and utilize platforms to dramatically reduce the friction in their businesses. This means more craft and less commodity activity for the maker and it means more choice and creativity reaches the consumer.”

In some ways, we all know we have always been living in the future, and now we can get paid to do just that.

The post First Round Leads Funding of Grand St. appeared first on peHUB.

Haiku Deck, which makes an iPad app to make it simple to create and share presentations, announced it has raised $3 million in a Series A round. Trilogy Partnership led the round, which included participation from Madrona Venture Group, Founders Co-op and individual investors, such as Sarah Leary (co-founder of Nextdoor). Haiku Deck, which was previously known as Giant Inkwell, had prior to the Series A round raised less than $1 million in seed funding. The company says it will use the funding to expand to other platforms.

PRESS RELEASE

Haiku Deck Raises $3 Million in Series A Funding To Transform Presentation Creation

Trilogy, Madrona Venture Group, Founders Co-op and Angels Back Early Leader in Mobile Productivity

SEATTLE, WA–(April 3, 2013) – Haiku Deck, a Seattle-based company that aims to transform presentation creation and sharing, announced today that it has secured $3 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Trilogy Partnership with participation from Madrona Venture Group, Founders Co-op, tech entrepreneur Sarah Leary, and other angel investors.

Haiku Deck launched its iPad app to broad acclaim in August 2012 and has ranked #1 in productivity in 36 markets around the world. Last month Haiku Deck released version 2.0, with a powerful new set of business-focused features and functionality.

“We’ve gone from zero to half a million customers in just a few months, so it’s clear that Haiku Deck’s simple, fun approach to creating beautiful presentations is resonating,” said co-founder and CEO,Adam Tratt. “As mobile devices continue to change the way people work, we see a huge opportunity in helping everyone create the kind of presentation that used to require a design professional.”

Haiku Deck, hailed as the Instagram for Pitch Decks by Mashable, is gaining traction as a powerful, time-saving tool for traditional presentations and new formats including tablet-centric pitch decks, creative communication pieces, and rich content for blogs. Its innovative Creative Commons image search addresses a common pain point of finding and properly attributing free, high-quality images.

The new investment will allow Haiku Deck to expand its lead in mobile-first presentation tools by growing the team, expanding to other platforms, and developing a premium offering.

“We believe Haiku Deck is well positioned to disrupt an industry that’s seen surprisingly little innovation in the past two decades,” said Yuval Neeman, Partner at Trilogy. “The consumer response and product reviews have been extraordinary, and we’re excited about the potential for this next phase of growth.” Haiku Deck received seed funding from Madrona Venture Group and angels after completing the TechStars program in Seattle.

Haiku Deck has been embraced by business leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, realtors, salespeople, marketers, and creative thinkers worldwide. Recent examples from the Haiku Deck Gallery include:

• Tomorrow Ready CIO, by John Sheridan, Chief Technology Officer of Australia
• Elon Musk Quotes from #SXSWI, by Karen Budell, Chief Content Officer, Imagine
• Not Your Typical Graduate Job, by Andy Parker, founder of Incredibli
• 5 Sales Prospecting Techniques You Probably Never Tried, but Should, by Ago Cluytens
• Teaching Frameworks for Creative Collaboration, presented at Educon 2.5
• Visual Storytelling, by Ken Shelton

About Haiku Deck
Haiku Deck makes it simple and fun to create and share flawlessly beautiful presentations. Headquartered in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Haiku Deck is a privately held company with the backing of prominent investors including Trilogy Partnership, Madrona Venture Group, Founder’s Co-op, and Techstars. The Seattle-based startup was founded by Adam Tratt and Kevin Leneway. For additional information and company images, visitwww.haikudeck.com/newsroom

The post IPad App Developer Haiku Deck Snags $3M appeared first on peHUB.

MuleSoft, which provides enterprises with a cloud-based platform to integrate its mobile and on-premise data and applications, has raised $37 million in new funding. New Enterprise Associates lead the round, with participation from Salesforce.com, as well as returning investors Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAP Ventures and Bay Partners. The company has now raised about $81 million in capital since 2006.

PRESS RLEASE

MuleSoft Raises $37 Million to Connect the New Enterprise

NEA Leads Round, Fueling MuleSoft’s Aggressive Plan to Transform the Integration Market

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – April 3, 2013 – MuleSoft, provider of the world’s most widely used integration platform, today announced a $37 million investment led by NEA, bringing the company’s total financing to $81 million. Other investors include salesforce.com, as well as returning investors Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAP Ventures and Bay Partners. The funds will support MuleSoft’s aggressive growth plans across its SaaS and enterprise customer segments, further global expansion, and drive category-defining technology innovations for connecting the New Enterprise. The subject of a separate announcement today, MuleSoft launched its AnypointTM Platform, the first and only complete integration platform to enable connectivity to any application, data service or API, across the entire cloud and on-premise continuum.

The mega-trends of SaaS, mobile and Big Data are converging, generating a new wave of business opportunity for enterprises. Underpinning this movement is the rise of APIs, which leverage Web standards to create a common language for the New Enterprise. This convergence demands a new kind of platform – one that connects the explosion of endpoints and data generated by organizations each choosing a diverse set of best-of-breed applications to power their business. Companies that win by connecting their applications, data and APIs define the New Enterprise.

“The success of companies like salesforce.com and Workday shows the profound economic advantage of the cloud-based approach, but the move to the cloud creates a new set of challenges for enterprises,” said Scott Sandell, General Partner at NEA. “Companies that are enabling a more seamless transition from on-premise to cloud are among the most exciting investment opportunities right now, and MuleSoft is one of the breakout leaders in this category.”

Founded on the idea that connecting applications should not be hard, MuleSoft lets organizations harness the power of their applications through integration, without the need for custom point-to-point code. In the past year, MuleSoft experienced unprecedented customer growth worldwide and increased bookings 171 percent year-over-year, affirming the company’s leadership position in the $500 billion integration market. Building on this momentum, the growth round of funding will allow MuleSoft to fuel aggressive expansion and broader market reach.

“Today’s winning companies are reaching far beyond their four walls, into the cloud and onto mobile devices, to deliver the most connected products and most frictionless customer experience possible – we call this the New Enterprise,” said Greg Schott, president and CEO of MuleSoft. “The New Enterprise represents a once-in-a-generation shift in the way businesses operate, and MuleSoft has created the integration platform to make this vision possible. This round of funding helps us further cement our position as the definitive leader in the market.”

MuleSoft addresses all of the pains around connecting the New Enterprise. At the core is MuleSoft’s Anypoint™ technology, which provides instant API connectivity to hundreds of on-premise and cloud-based applications and systems. For companies anywhere along the continuum – from on-premise to the cloud – MuleSoft eliminates the pain of integration so companies can realize the full potential of the New Enterprise.

About MuleSoft
MuleSoft provides the most widely used integration platform for connecting SaaS and enterprise applications in the cloud and on-premise. With the rise of cloud and mobile, enterprises face a choice: become overwhelmed by the resulting explosion of endpoints or seize the opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Founded on the idea that connecting applications should not be hard, MuleSoft helps organizations harness the power of their applications through integration. MuleSoft’s Anypoint™ Platform eliminates costly, time-intensive point-to-point integration and creates business agility. Delivered as a packaged integration experience, MuleSoft’s products are built on proven open source technology for the fastest, most reliable integration without vendor lock-in. Supporting billions of transactions per day, MuleSoft is used in production by thousands of enterprises, including Walmart, MasterCard, Nokia, Nestlé and Honeywell, and powers integrations with leading SaaS vendors such as salesforce.com, NetSuite, Workday, Intuit and Box.

For more information:
•    Read about what’s new in the Anypoint Platform: www.mulesoft.com/unveils-next-generation-integration-platform-new-enterprise.
•    Learn more about the New Enterprise: www.mulesoft.com/connecting-new-enterprise.
•    Join MuleSoft’s growing team: www.mulesoft.com/careers.

The post NEA Leads $37M Round in MuleSoft appeared first on peHUB.

In the past month, Intel Capital has announced two investments in Brazilian big data and analytics companies. The latest investment came today when Intel Capital announced it backed Geofusion, a Brazilian company providing “geomarketing” data analytics and intelligence to enterprise customers. The amount of the funding is undisclosed. The announcement follows an undisclosed investment it made a few weeks ago in WebRadar, an analytics company delivering operational intelligence for telecom, energy and transportation markets.

PRESS RELEASE

Intel Capital Invests in Geofusion

Leading company in the Geomarketing industry receives investment for business expansion

São Paulo, March 18, 2013 – Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, announced a new investment in Geofusion. Based in Sao Paolo, Brazil,    and founded in 1996, Geofusion provides “OnMaps” – a geographic data-based market intelligence, analytics and decision support (“Geomarketing”) platform to enterprise customers of all sizes across a variety of industry verticals.

The cloud-based OnMap platform combines geographic data with relevant market information, such as industry specific consumption statistics and census-based demographics, offering its customers a suite of cost-effective updated social, demographic and market information via a graphically rich, easy to use web interface. The platform’s robust analytics capability improves the quality of available business intelligence, thereby helping to improve customer decision making on key issues such as placement of key assets, distribution channel coverage and product pricing strategies.

Geofusion’s platform is able to deliver value by seamlessly combining maps of over 5,000 Brazilian cities with relevant information from over 250 external databases from both public and private sources. The company currently serves more than 200 customers in Brazil primarily in the retail, food service, real estate, education and industrial segments. Well-known customers like McDonalds, Boticario and Coca-Cola FEMSA use Geofusion’s tools to, for example, prepare geographic expansion strategies, analyze performance of specific points of sale, measure consumption potential in specific areas and plan coverage for their sales and trade marketing teams.

In a single interface, Geofusion’s customers can utilize demographic profiles (social and economic information) and sector consumption data in various geographic scales (from country-wide to city blocks), as well as mapping of retail networks and traffic generation cores. OnMaps allows users to combine this detailed information with their own internal data and intelligence, which can be added to OnMaps to further enhance the information available regarding points of purchase, retailers and territories.

Intel Capital’s investment will enable Geofusion to expand its go-to-market capability and expand its sales and marketing teams. “Intel Capital’s expertise and resources will help Geofusion capitalize on the momentum it has built here in Brazil.  Companies are searching for data-driven ways to grow sales and increase profitability, by realizing the full potential of their investments across Brazil. The use of Geomarketing tools such as OnMaps is essential for companies to achieve those objectives”, said Pedro Figoli, CEO of Geofusion.

“We see significant opportunities in the business analytics market in Brazil, where companies are increasingly paying attention to the many ways in which technology can help business,” explained David Thomas, managing director for Intel Capital in Latin America. “Geofusion’s solutions can be useful for a large variety of industry verticals and their software as a service cloud-based business model enables offerings for customers of all sizes, not just large corporations.”

Joining Intel Capital in this funding round in Geofusion, is original investor Criatec, an investment fund targeting innovative startups whose investors are the National Bank for Social and Economic Development (BNDES) and Banco do Nordeste (BNB), managed by SP Ventures, based in São Paulo. “Geofusion is very well positioned in the current cloud computing revolution. Its solutions bring essential market intelligence tools for companies of all sizes in several different sectors. Even if their client portfolio is currently based in Brazil, we believe their technology will find success in the global market,” commented Francisco Jardim, regional manager at Criatec. Geofusion currently has approximately 60 employees.

David Thomas is Executive Director for Intel Capital, in charge of all Intel Capital investment activities in Latin America. The Intel Capital team in the region includes professionals Alexandre Villela, Fábio de Paula and Ricardo Arantes, all of based in São Paulo. Alexandre is the Investment Director responsible for Geofusion in collaboration with US-based Investment Director Mark Rostick. Intel Capital has a strong history of activities in the region, with a local presence since 1999 and over 40 investments in Latin America in this period. In 2012, Intel Capital announced seven new investments, six of which in Brazil.

About Geofusion
With 17 years of activities, Geofusion is the top Geomarketing company in the country, offering innovative solutions in the areas of market intelligence, expansion, marketing, sales, and others. Using an online platform called OnMaps, the company enables development of customized market analysis, data cross-referencing, audience mapping and features to manage the specific needs of its customers.
More information: www.geofusion.com.br

About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a global leader in innovation. The company designs and manufactures essential technologies that are the basis for computer devices across the world. More information about Intel is available at http://newsroom.intel.com/community/pt_br.
Follow Intel Brazil on Twitter: www.twitter.com/intelbrasil
Like Intel Brazil on Facebook: www.facebook.com/intelbrasil

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 317 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

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App security provider MyPermissions announced today it has raised $1 million in a round by lool Ventures, 500 Startups and 2B Angels, with participation by Plus Ventures and Israeli tech investor Robby Hilkowitz. The company operates as a personal cloud security company, managing users’ Web and mobile presence and alerts them when new apps gain access to personal information. Dave McClure says this is the first investment by 500 Startups in an Israeli startup, and he says more investments are planned in Israel and other Middle East countries.

PRESS RELEASE

MyPermissions Announces Investment Round of $1 Million

Led By lool Ventures, 500 Startups and 2B Angels, Financing Will Give Consumers More Control Over How Apps Access Personal Data on the Web and Mobile

Ramat Gan, ISRAEL – March 6, 2013 – MyPermissions, an easy, powerful way to scan, control and clean up applications on Web and mobile accessing personal data, today announced it has raised a financing round of $1 million. Led by lool Ventures, 500 Startups and 2B Angels, with participation by Plus Ventures and Robby Hilkowitz, MyPermissions will use the investment to expand its product offering and accelerate the growth of its user base worldwide.

MyPermissions protects consumers’ personal information on the Web through two free products – MyPermissions Cleaner, a Web browser extension that lets users manage which applications and websites access their information and alerts users when a new app is accessing user data, as well as its mobile application Permissions, now available on both iOS and Android. By linking directly to application permissions pages for services like Facebook, Twitter and Google, MyPermissions alerts the consumer when an app is accessing their personal data, giving them control over their personal information again.

“We at lool Ventures are investors and entrepreneurs, but first and most we are citizens of the Web,” said Avichay Nissenbau of lool Ventures. “MyPermissions was born out of a deep concern for the privacy issues that arise from granting app permissions across the Web and mobile.  We are excited to continue to support the growth of MyPermissions and help them fulfill their vision.”

“500 Startups is excited to be involved in MyPermissions,” said Dave McClure, Founding Partner at 500 Startups. “They are solving a real problem regarding consumer privacy during a time when most of us are participating in social networks. While we have invested in Israeli Founders in the US, this is our first investment in a startup based in Israel. We will be making more investments in Israel and other countries in the Middle East.

“Applications access personal data such as email, photos, contacts and location in order to make using services like Facebook and Twitter better and more robust, which is great,” said Olivier Amar, CEO of MyPermissions. “However, over time, consumers tend to quickly add up the number of apps constantly accessing their data, and revoking access later can be difficult. We’re excited to be able to build out our product offering, expand our reach globally, and give more consumers the control they deserve over who accesses their personal information.”

For more information on MyPermissions and to begin protecting your personal data today, please visit https://mypermissions.org.

About MyPermissions:
MyPermissions is an easy, powerful way to scan, control and clean up applications across Web and mobile that have permission to access personal data. MyPermissions offers two free products – MyPermissions Cleaner, an extension for Web browsers, and Permissions, a mobile app for iOS and Android, which protect users from unknowingly sharing photos, documents, locations, contacts, emails, work history, political and religious affiliations ever again. Based in Israel, MyPermissions was founded in 2012 and is backed by 2B Angels, 500 Startups, Lool Ventures, Plus Ventures and a consortium of angels. For more information, visit https://mypermissions.org.

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Electronic medical records management company Practice Fusion has made its first acquisition, scooping up 100Plus for an undisclosed amount. 100Plus, which was launched in Practice Fusion’s health tech incubator in San Francisco, previously raised $1.25 million in seed-stage funding from Founders Fund (which is also a Practice Fusion investor), Greylock Discovery Fund, Felicis Ventures (another Practice Fusion investor) and the Band of Angels. 100Plus was co-founded by CEO Chris Hogg, a health care data analytics expert formerly with Gilead Sciences. He’ll join Practice Fusion’s data and product development group. At 100Plus, he and his team developed applications that give liefspan predictions based on a person’s lifestyle choices. For instance, in 2012, the company launched the 100Proof app at SXSW to track a user’s alcohol consumption and give recommendations to improve one’s health.

PRESS RELEASE

Practice Fusion Acquires Personalized Health Prediction Startup 100Plus

Supporting its mission to improve health and save lives, the nation’s largest physician- patient community expands data and patient initiatives in its first major acquisition

SAN FRANCISCO – February 27, 2013 – Practice Fusion, the free, web-based electronic medical record (EMR) platform, today announced the acquisition of 100Plus, the personalized health prediction startup that uses data analytics and game mechanics to show how small changes in behavior can lead to a longer and better life. The acquisition will drive forward Practice Fusion’s development of patient-facing tools using clinical data to provide health insights.

100Plus was founded in 2011 and quickly attracted attention from Founders Fund, Greylock Partners, Felicis Ventures and Band of Angels Acorn Fund. The company’s first app, showcasing the impact of alcohol consumption on lifespan, launched at SXSW in March 2012. The second app, currently in beta, helps users discover, track and see the long-term impact of small health behaviors. In 2012, CNNMoney named 100Plus one of the top innovators reinventing healthcare.

“The 100Plus team has found a way to inspire the average person to make daily changes in their lives—this is a huge challenge that is rarely achieved,” said Patrick Dugan, Associate Vice President of Corporate Development at Practice Fusion. “Whether it’s through accountable care organizations or reminding people to the take medications, healthier habits mean a less costly healthcare system and longer lives for patients. We’re looking forward to using 100Plus’ talent and vision to make this happen.”

Practice Fusion’s first major acquisition, 100Plus has long been aligned with the company’s focus on developing life-saving technology. The startup began as a member of Practice Fusion’s health technology incubator in San Francisco, along with doctor-patient connection service Ringadoc. 100Plus applied de-identified clinical data from Practice Fusion to study health behaviors, determine how those behaviors might impact future health and provide new information to influence change.

The 100Plus team will join Practice Fusion full-time as members of the data and product development groups. Chris Hogg, CEO and co-founder, will be taking on a leadership role as Associate Vice President of Data Science. Hogg was previously selected as a winner in Practice Fusion’s 2010 data challenge and will bring his experience and background using clinical data to positively impact patients across the country and develop new ways for Practice Fusion to use de-identified clinical data.

“We created 100Plus with the goal of using data, design and technology to positively impact people’s lives and health. Joining the innovative team at Practice Fusion will allow us to achieve these results on a massive scale,” said Chris Hogg, Chief Executive Officer at 100Plus. “I have always had a lot of respect for Practice Fusion and the platform they have built. I am excited for the opportunity to help build smart products that are able to help doctors provide better care to patients.”

To learn more about Practice Fusion, please visit www.practicefusion.com.

About Practice Fusion
Practice Fusion provides a free, web-based EMR system to physicians. With medical charting, scheduling, e-prescribing (eRx), lab integrations, referral letters, Meaningful Use certification, unlimited support and a personal health record for patients, Practice Fusion’s EMR software addresses the complex needs of today’s healthcare providers and disrupts the health IT status quo. Practice Fusion is the fastest growing electronic medical record community in the country with more than 150,000 users serving 56 million patients. The company closed a $34 million Series C financing led by Artis Ventures in June. For more information about Practice Fusion, please visit www.practicefusion.com

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When Anna and Gregg Brockway moved within San Francisco after he sold Tripit in 2011 to Concur Technologies (for $120 million), the husband-and-wife team found they didn’t have enough room for all their furniture, and it was hard to sell high-end furniture online, via Craigslist and eBay. At her urging, the idea was born for Chairish, a curated, online consignment-like high-end furniture reseller. The company launched today and is self-funded, without any venture funding. Brockway told peHUB that Chairish is open to raising capital in the future from the right VC, but didn’t need to for its launch, “thanks to our previous outcomes.” Chairish was founded by a team of senior executives and founding entrepreneurs from Hotwire and TripIt, including the Brockways, Andy Denmark (formerly with Tripit), Eric Grosse (Hotwire) and Nancy Ramamurthi (Tripit). The launch of Chairish comes at a time when a number of heavily venture-backed ecommerce retailers are trying to tap into the online furniture market, such as 1stbids, Wayfair and One Kings Lane, which all have raised huge rounds recently. Brockway says the company’s monetization model is based on a sales commission that ranges up to 40%, but which he says is still lower than most consignment shops.

PRESS RELEASE

Announcing Chairish:  First Peer-to-Peer Consignment Marketplace for Exceptional Pre-Owned Home Furnishings

Delightful and simple way to buy & sell fabulous home furnishings arrives!

San Francisco, CA — February 27, 2013 – Chairish is the world’s first online consignment marketplace for design-obsessed people to buy and sell their exceptional pre-owned home furnishings. Buyers get access to a curated selection of high quality, designer, and often unique home décor of all types and styles, from “like new” to those with great bones that need a little love. All Chairish listings are pre-owned pieces straight from their design loving owner, so buyers enjoy huge savings on their purchases.

Now, owners don’t have to merely give away, let sit, or pay to store great home furnishings that just don’t happen to fit anymore. Chairish makes it easy, safe, and hassle-free to sell to a broad online audience; convert that furniture into cash; and make more money, more easily, than through other online or traditional channels.

Anna Brockway, Chief Curator and co-founder at Chairish adds, “I believe having a stylish home doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune. The inspiration for Chairish came when after a recent move, I found myself with really terrific things that needed a new home. I knew there were people like me out there who would really appreciate them, but there was no easy way to reach them. With Chairish we’re creating a place where individuals who appreciate style can both sell and buy fabulous, gently used decor. Our mission is to make the world more beautiful, one room at a time and save people money in the process!”

Eric Grosse, President and co-founder states, “Home design is a major investment for most households, but unfortunately, new furniture currently depreciates faster than new cars or any other significant consumer purchase. Chairish brings liquidity, convenience, and style to a multi-billion dollar market and makes the experience of selling and buying quality furniture and design what it should be: accessible, easy and fun.”

Chairish was founded by a team of senior executives, founding entrepreneurs, and design obsessed individuals from Hotwire, TripIt, Yahoo!, Expedia, eBay, and Levi Strauss & Company. This team includes: Gregg and Anna Brockway, Andy Denmark, Eric Grosse, and Nancy Ramamurthi.

How Chairish Works
For Buyers:

Shopping at Chairish is a joy. Consumers just browse, shop, and buy from our curated selection of fabulous pre-owned home furnishings using any major credit card. White glove shipping is arranged, everything has a 48-hour return policy.

Two “easy as pie” ways to sell:

1.  Standard service – anywhere in continental United States
Complete a simple online form, share the story behind the piece, and upload photos.  That’s it! Once Chairish curators approve the listing, it is posted and ready for purchase by our design obsessed buyers. Free to list and a 20% commission upon sale. Our white glove shippers arrange pick-up. Simple, hassle free, straight-forward.

2.  Concierge Service – SF Bay Area (will be rolling out in additional major markets)

With this completely turn-key service, a Chairish representative comes to your home, inspects your furnishings, writes the listings, carefully moves the pieces into secure storage, and professionally photographs them. We manage payment, shipping logistics and only then do we take a 40% commission. Listing is free. The only thing not included in this amazing service is a foot massage.

About Chairish
Chairish is the world’s first online consignment marketplace for design-obsessed people to buy and sell exceptional pre-owned home furnishings. Buyers get access to a curated selection of fabulous home furnishings that come direct from the owner at a great price. Owners get an easy, safe, and hassle-free way to sell their exceptional home décor to a broad online audience; convert their high quality furniture into cash vs. giving it away, having it sit, or paying for storage; and make more money, more easily, than through other online or traditional channels. For more information, please visit:
www.chairish.com
Twitter:  @chairish
FB:  https://www.facebook.com/chairishco

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Remotium, a San  Mateo, Calif.-based startup that helps companies manage the security risks of mobile devices, was named the Most Innovative Company at the start of the RSA Conference on Monday. The company, which has not yet raised any venture funding, was one of 10 finalists in the startup competition, which featured VC-backed Bromium, Skyhigh Networks and Nok Nok Labs, among others. Last year’s winner of the Innovation Sandbox competition was Appthority, which months later raised $6.25 million from Venrock, U.S. Venture Partners and Gunderson Dettmer.

PRESS RELEASE

Remotium Named “Most Innovative Company at RSA® Conference 2013”

Remotium Chosen for Its Solution to Pressing Enterprise BYOD Management Challenges

RSA Conference 2013

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–News Facts

• RSA Conference (www.rsaconference.com), the world’s leading information security conferences and expositions, today named Remotium, “Most Innovative Company at RSA® Conference 2013.” Remotium was selected from a group of ten finalists presenting at the Conference’s annual Innovation Sandbox program, a half-day interactive event dedicated to encouraging out of the box ideas and the exploration of new technologies created by emerging information security companies.
• Remotium won the award based on its potential to impact the broad and pressing enterprise BYOD challenge through a data management approach, all while still enabling employees to comfortably use their own preferred devices.
• Innovation Sandbox’s panel of esteemed judges, Asheen Chandna, Partner at Greylock Partners; Paul Kocher, President of Cryptography Research; George Hoyem, Investment Partner at In-Q-Tel; Alastair Goldfisher, Editor at Venture Capital Journal and Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO & SVP at Sophos, deliberated over a record number of submissions before determining finalists and ultimately awarding [company] with the 2013 crown.
• Past winners of Innovation Sandbox include Appthority, Invincea and Alert Enterprise.

“Innovation Sandbox’s ten finalists exceeded expectations by providing innovative ideas and solutions to conquer old, new and mounting information security obstacles,” said Sandra Toms LaPedis, Area Vice President and General Manager of RSA Conference. “Remotium demonstrated they were the most innovative by creating a scalable and easily deployable solution to the ever-growing enterprise BYOD challenge. We look forward to watching Remotium grow and expand in the coming years as we believe they will make a great impact on security’s future.”

About RSA Conference
RSA Conference helps drive the global information security agenda with annual events in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Since 1991, RSA Conference consistently attracts the best and brightest in the field, creating opportunities to learn about information security’s most important issues through face-to-face and online interactions with peers, luminaries and emerging and established companies. As information security professionals work to stay ahead of ever-changing security threats and trends, they turn to RSA Conference for a 360-degree view of the industry. RSA Conference seeks to arm participants with the knowledge they need to remain at the forefront of the information security business. More information on events, online programming and the most up-to-date news pertaining to the information security industry can be found at www.rsaconference.com.

RSA and the RSA Conference logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other products and/or services referenced are trademarks of their respective companies.

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Battery Ventures announced that it has raised $650 million for its 10th fund, and a $250 million side fund to support later stage, growth and buyout deals. The firm said it began raising the fund in October. Battery Ventures raised $750 million for its ninth fund, which closed in early 2010. The new funds come amid various personnel changes at the firm, including the hiring of Jonathan Sills as executive-in-residence and Aarthi Ramamurthy as entrepreneur-in residence, as well as promoting Itzik Parnafes to general partner and Mike Dauber to principal, among others.

PRESS RELEASE

Battery Ventures Closes Two Funds Totaling $900M

Battery Ventures X Capitalized at $650M, Battery Ventures X Side Fund Capitalized at $250M; Firm will Continue to Invest in Technology in Early, Growth and Buyout Stages

WALTHAM, MA, MENLO PARK, CA, HERZLIYA, ISRAEL; Feb 21, 2013 – Battery Ventures today announced that is has closed two new funds, Battery Ventures X (BV X) at its $650M target, and Battery Ventures X Side Fund (BV X Side Fund) at its $250M target.  Battery will continue its focus on Seed, Early, Growth and Buyout opportunities in technology and related markets.  The firm raised predecessor fund Battery Ventures IX ($750M) in March 2010.

Battery targets investments from as little as a few hundred thousand dollars during the formative stages of a business, to more than $100 million to support later stage growth and buyout situations.  BV X and BV X Side Fund will be co-invested, with the Side Fund providing the flexibility to support larger growth and buyout situations without disrupting the concentration in BV X. The firm funds companies worldwide, with the majority of its investments in North America, Israel and Europe.

In 2012, four of Battery’s portfolio companies went public: Bazaarvoice, ExactTarget, Guidewire, and Splunk, and nine portfolio companies (excluding Seed investments) were acquired:  Amalfi, Anobit, Consona, MCA Solutions, More Magic Solutions, Rogue Wave Software, Send the Trend, VSS Monitoring, and XtremIO.  For a full list of Battery’s companies go to: http://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/.

“The landscape has changed dramatically over the years, and we’ve evolved our business to continue to find and fund the most innovative entrepreneurs and management teams around the world,” said Scott Tobin, Battery General Partner.  “We’re grateful for the continued vote of confidence and the longstanding relationship we have with our LPs, and are proud that they recognize our impact on the market and our contribution to growing the technology companies of the future.”

BV X will continue the strategy Battery has employed over its nearly 30-year history, funding driven entrepreneurs and high-potential businesses that are diversified along sectors, stages and geography.   The firm does not limit itself to defined percentages of stage, sector or geography, but instead takes a market-driven approach to uncovering the most promising opportunities within its core segments, regardless of the current size of the business or its location.

Key themes for the coming years include:
•         SaaS/software for business users, including analytics exploiting big data
•         IT infrastructure including networking, cloud, scale-out and flash storage
•         Unique ecommerce, retail and yield management models that leverage mobility and high service levels
•         Technology-enabled business services
•         Buyouts in markets such as later stage software and industrial technologies, which are ripe for consolidation

To learn about the companies in Battery’s portfolio, visit:  http://www.battery.com/our-companies/#/

About Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in category-defining ideas and high potential companies and management teams worldwide. The firm views its investment as a true partnership, and works hard to help its companies carve out unique positions, dominate markets and reach business goals. Battery funds companies in technology and related markets at the Seed, Early, Growth and Buyout stage.  For a full list of Battery’s companies go to: http://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/

The firm has offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, and has raised more than $4.5B since inception.  For more information, visit www.battery.com.

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