SparkLabs Global Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review 0325 2015

SparkLabs Global Ventures Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review March 25th, 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

Virtual reality headset shipments will reach 26M in 2020, fueled by gaming Virtual reality (VR), which immerses the user in a computer-generated simulation of an environment, is becoming much more prominent with the launch of a number of different VR headsets. BI intelligence forecasts that the annual VR head-mounted display shipments will eclipse 26 million in 2020. That amounts to compound annual growth of 99% between 2015 and 2020. Our shipments number includes shipments to consumers and developers. This is up from an expected 825,000 units shipped this year. However, VR will not fully takeoff or go mainstream until VR devices tethered to gaming consoles are released, such as Sony's Project Morpheus Playstation headset and an anticipated Microsoft Xbox headset. VR headsets that utilize smartphones inserted into the headset to broadcast the VR experience and to act as the main computing processor will make up a significant portion of the market, driven by demand from mobile gamers. Samsung Gear VR is one example of a VR headset of this type on the market, though it is only available in the US and compatible only with Samsung's three flagship smartphones.

E-commerce will account for more than 10% of health and personal care sales by 2020

The health and personal care retail category which includes drug store items such as cosmetics, hair products, and toothpaste is emerging as one of the biggest opportunities in e-commerce. Americans spend nearly $300 billion a year on health and personal care products, the second-largest retail category behind groceries, according to the US Economic Census. However, less than 7% of those sales currently occur online. We estimate that by the year 2020, more than 11% of health and personal care product sales in the US will occur online. Driving the disruption of the drug store are low-cost delivery options that are being offered by e-commerce retailers. This model works particularly well for health and personal care products because it saves the consumer from having to make frequent trips to the drug store for daily essentials. For some consumers, the convenience of not having to make as many frequent trips to the store is worth an upfront membership fee.

Venture capitalists see big opportunities in a changing cybersecurity space After this years many cyberattacks on both companies and governments, theres a huge need for new thinking to fight cyberterror. So lots of venture capital money is flowing into the security space, and has been for some time now. People are realizing that they cant stop security breaches, where they used to think they could, said KPCBs Ted Schlein, speaking during a venture capitalists panel at the IT Security Entrepreneurs Forum (ITSEF). The security industry and its enterprise customers are still thinking about prevention, but theyre also thinking a lot more about things like containment and risk management. Several panelists believed that the right security solution is a combination of people power and machine power. One of the biggest themes heard during the panel was the idea that security systems cant be just bolted on to the systems theyre supposed to protect. Menlo Ventures Siegel said the security space remains very fragmented, with lots of small companies doing very specific things in security.



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Global Smartphone Market Report: Forecasts, vendor and platform wars, and the new high-growth markets The global smartphone market is still growing at a steady pace thanks to more widespread adoption in emerging markets. BI Intelligence estimates that the global market will grow at a 16% compound rate from 2015 to 2020 to hit about 3.4 billion units shipped in 2020. The next billion smartphone shipments will come much faster than the first billion. Last year, the smartphone market surpassed 1 billion units shipped annually for the first time. BI Intelligence estimates that the market will surpass the 2 billion milestone next year. Low-cost smartphones are proliferating across emerging markets, driving the feature phone closer to obsolescence. Feature phones now account for just 25% of total mobile phone shipments worldwide. We estimate feature phone sales will decline 12% per year on average through 2020. Shipments growth continues to be driven by emerging markets, but already China is maturing, and India is becoming the new growth engine. We forecast shipments in the Indian market will grow roughly 31% per year on average through 2020, compared to 8% average annual growth in China. The global platform wars are still playing out, with Apple able to push back against Android dominance on the backs of new device launches. After the release of the iPhone 6 line, Apple was able to grow market share in the fourth quarter 8 percentage points from a year earlier, and knock Android's share down to 77%, from a second-quarter all-time high of 85%. Simultaneously, Chinese vendors like Xiaomi continued to grow their share of global shipments. Combined, the top five Chinese smartphone vendors made up 24% of total global smartphone market shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from just 18% two years prior.

Drones Report: Market Forecasts, Regulatory Barriers, Top Vendors, And Leading Commercial Applications

The global commercial drone market will take shape around applications in a handful of industries: agriculture, energy, utilities, mining, construction, real estate, news media, and film production. Within five years, drone use will be routine in these areas. The hobbyist and consumer market is a separate category, important mainly to a few firms focused on inexpensive systems and the smallest version of these aircraft, with aerial photography being an especially popular application. Overall, most drone industry growth is on the commercial side, as the shift away from the military market gains momentum. The market for commercial/civilian drones will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% between 2015 and 2020, compared with 5% growth on the military side. The average selling price of a commercial drone system, including software and hardware, is now ~$30,000, according to market research we have reviewed, but will come down gradually as new regulation opens up competition. E-commerce and package delivery will not be an early focus in the drone industry. Despite the hype around Amazon Prime Air and other high-profile research programs looking into delivery drones (DHL, etc.), this will not be a common application in the short- or medium-term. E-commerce deliveries would be focused in urban areas, where airspace is crowded and regulators will see too many hazards to approve routine drone activity. The commercial-drone industry is still young but has begun to see some consolidation and major investments from industrial conglomerates, chip companies, IT-consulting firms, and major defense contractors. For now, the industry leaders are still a handful of early-stage manufacturers in Europe, Asia, and North America.



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Asia Pacific China Chinas Cheetah Mobile acquires France-based mobile ad company MobPartner for US$58M

Chinese mobile Internet company Cheetah Mobile, a recent spin-off from Kingsoft Corporation, has acquired France-based mobile advertising company MobPartner, in a deal worth US$58 million. Kingsoft Corporation was founded in 2009 and went on to become one of the biggest Internet security software firms in China. The company announced last year that it was spinning out a unit specifically for Internet security and related services that spin-off, Cheetah Mobile, filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to raise $300 million shortly after. Cheetah Mobile is known for a number of products, including Duba Anti-virus, Battery Doctor, and Clean Master. Founded in 2009 out of Paris, France, MobPartner is a global mobile-focused advertising company that offers a range of marketing products, including cost-per-impression (CPI) and cost-per-click (CPC) services, designed to help marketers drive traffic and installations. This deal also follows a growing trend of Chinese investment in Europe; the continent has now surpassed the U.S. as Chinas biggest trading partner.

After 2 years in development, Traintracks wants to put big data in a new perspective

After two years of backend development, a new data analytics startup has finally emerged from its Beijing office with a service that it hopes will disrupt the big data industry. Analytics tool Traintracks has signed on a handful of prominent clients in the first month of its invitation-only private beta, including Neteases new North American operations, and Chinas Tinder-like social network, Tantan. The company already brought in US$160,000 in purchase orders. Traintracks also announced the completion of its convertible note seed round worth US$360,000. Angel investors include a senior director of engineering at local web giant Baidu and a co-founder of mobile app analytics firm App Annie. A few other features make Traintracks stand out from its plug-and-play SDK-based competitors, such as Mixpanel, TalkingData, Google Analytics, and KISSmetrics. First and foremost is speed and efficiency. Right now, the six-person team targets ecommerce, retail, apps, and games, and hopes to enter the healthcare and finance fields in the near future.

Baidu gets into Chinas booming used car market with US$170M investment

Baidu, Chinas top search engine, revealed that it joined in a US$170 million investment for a startup site that specializes in selling second-hand cars. The funding for Uxin means that the four-year-old startup has so far raised over $430 million thanks to a massive US$260 million injection of capital from Warburg Pincus in September last year. Chinas car market has boomed in the past decade, and now analysts expect the countrys second-hand car sector to grow as a corollary to that. The nations used car market hit US$58 billion in transactions in 2014, up 26 percent from the year before, according to CADA, the China Automobile Dealers Association. The startup that Baidu invested in started out doing business-to-business sales of its curated second-hand vehicles (that section is called Uxin Pai), but the more recently launched Uxin is focused on sales to ordinary consumers, and thats the focus of this funding. Uxin works as a platform that connects auto retailers and used car buyers . It has 1,000 specialists in 50 Chinese cities who inspect each car; buyers get a guarantee straight from Uxin (not from the dealership), along with a 15-day full refund if any undisclosed issues are found.

Hong Kongs GoWell gets US$1M funding from Fresco Capital and Nest GoWell, a Hong Kong-based education company, has announced it has received US$1 million in funding led by hometown VC firm Fresco Capital, with participation from Nest Investments. Founded in 2003, GoWell originated as a company making language-learning tools for Chinese speakers studying English, and English speakers studying Chinese. It then sold its online programs to schools, governments, and businesses. But this funding the companys first institutional round has arrived to support GoWells foray into running education centers across mainland China. Hong Kongs Fresco Capital has made several bets in education, both for Chinese-speaking markets and international markets. In addition to GoWell, its portfolio includes Launchpilots, a company that connects brands with student ambassadors, as well as No Red Ink, a company that makes software that corrects students grammar mistakes.

Chinese parking app rolls out on-demand valet service with fresh US$2.6M funding Chinese parking assistant startup Tingchebao announced that it has secured an US$2.6 million series A round of funding. Ping An Ventures, the venture capital arm of insurance and banking company Ping An Group, led the round, followed by Yonghua Capital. Tingchebao, which literally translates to "parking treasure," was founded in April last year in Shanghai, and now operates in Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other cities.



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It is a location-based app that locates nearby parking spaces. It shows the prices and lets users reserve spots in advance. Monthly subscribers pay a flat fee for unlimited parking. With this latest funding, Tingchebao will roll out its newest service: on-demand valet parking. It works using an Uber-like on-demand model, where the customer pings the nearest valet as he or she nears the destination, typically in a place where parking spaces are sparse. The valet meets the driver, hands over the keys, and finds a suitable parking spot. When drivers are ready to depart, he or she pings the valet again to bring the car around.

Ensogo raises US$7.6M, aims to double down on partnership with Chinese etailer Vipshop Daily deals site Ensogo announced that it has raised US$7.6 million from investment firm Ward Ferry Management. 58.8 million shares will be issued to the Hong Kong-based fund at US$0.13 apiece, giving it a 10.6 percent stake in the company. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Ensogo received a strategic investment of US$4.9 million from Chinese online discount retailer Vipshop, giving the latter a 12.2 percent stake. The two companies will enter into a partnership that will give Ensogo access to Vipshops vast volume and selection of existing inventory [] to build the Vipshop of Southeast Asia, according to a statement. Ensogo was acquired by iBuy Group, which was operating in six countries under a variety of brands such as Deal.com.sg in Singapore early last year. It was only in November that the latter rebranded as Ensogo. The inflow of fresh capital will be used primarily to build on the partnership between Ensogo and Vipshop, and continue the upward trajectory to help further strengthen and develop Ensogos business throughout Southeast Asia.

Korea Koreas Memebox raises US$29 million in Series B funding

Koreas three-year-old beauty e-commerce startup Memebox announced that it has raised US$29.35 million in Series B funding. The round saw participation from Formation 8, Goodwater Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Pejman Mar Ventures, Y Combinator, Winklevoss Capital, FundersClub, Cowboy Ventures, and Altos Ventures. In an official release, Memebox said it will use the funding to significantly expand its mobile and e-commerce offerings to China, the US and Korea. Jerry Yang, a Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures and Co-founder of Yahoo!, said that most importantly the startups model is entrenched with data. It introduced its own data-driven, private-label cosmetics brand in 2014. Meanwhile, the Memebox CEO Hyungseok Ha said he sees an opportunity to capture the US$630 billion (by 2017) global market for beauty and personal care products. The Seoul-based beauty startup graduated as one of Y Combinators top companies in Winter 2014. It is currently expanding its operations in Shanghai and San Francisco.

Learn business English from real execs with BeNative Pro, which just raised US$2.7M Seoul-based educational startup Smatoos announced a US$2.7 million series B investment for its business English learning service, BeNative Pro, which launched earlier this year. The latest funding comes from Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Partners Investment. It will go toward expanding into China and Taiwan, as well as increasing the startups existing presence in Japan. 64 percent of the original apps users are in Korea, with 27 percent in Japan and 9 percent in China. Some universities in Japan and Korea are also accepting BeNatives lessons as course credit. On the business English front, Moore explains that the startup has been busy securing corporate clients. Smatoos series B brings the startups total funding to roughly US$6 million. Many of the current rounds investors also invested in Smatoos CEO Alan Moonsoo Kims previous company, Etoos, which was sold to SK Communications for US$30 million in 2006. Moore adds that the startup plans to raise a series C round next year, and IPO in 2017.

Daum Kakao acquires K Cube Ventures, adds US$15M into the firm

Daum Kakao, the public-listed firm responsible for one of Koreas largest web portal in Daum and chat app KakaoTalk, has acquired 100 percent of K Cube Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that backs primarily Korean companies along with a few Asia-Pacific ones. Daum Kakao will add another US$15 million into K Cubes kitty to launch a new early stage fund, and in the process, K Cube will become the acquirers corporate investment arm. K Cube promises that the marriage will allow its current and future portfolio companies to offer more support from Daum Kakaos online properties and business experience. K Cube claims it will be independently run. This development follows soon after Daum Kakao announced it was forming K Venture Group, an investment firm with US$90.8 million in capital. Daum Kakao has clarified with us that K Cube operates independently from K Venture. K Cubes cash injection comes directly from Daum Kakao instead of K Venture.



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Japan Former rival Mixi acquires C2C ticket marketplace for US$95M

Winter is finally loosening its grip on Japan, just in time for the 15 employees of Hunza to get the spring break treat of a lifetime. Mixi, the Japanese social network scorched by Facebook and resurrected as a gaming giant, is acquiring their firm for US$95 million. Founded just over two years ago by two Zynga Japan veterans, Hunza operates Ticket Camp, a consumer-to-consumer ticket marketplace. Its caught on quickly, recording US$6.63 million in merchandise sales for December 2014. Thats a 603 percent rise from the previous December according to Mixi. 80 percent of the traffic comes from mobile. It is available on both Android and iOS. This is the second acquisition Mixi has made in 2015, following its US$14.8 million splurge on fashion ecommerce site Muse&Co. These acquisitions are reminiscent of Gree and DeNAs bids to diversify through acquisitions last year. It appears that Mixi is aware that Monster Strike, the game that has propelled it back to a US$1 billion market cap, is a gift that will eventually stop giving.

E-ticketing site Peatix gets US$5M funding to explore more markets in Asia Japan-based online ticketing platform Peatix announced that it has raised US$5 million in series B funding, bringing its total to US$9 million to date. The investment was led by DG Incubation, and participated in by Singapores SPH Media Fund, Japanese PR firm Sunny Side Up, Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, and Draper Nexus. Since its founding in 2011, Peatix has sold over 1.2 million tickets across 50,000 events in 26 countries. According to a statement, it more than doubled its tickets sold from 2013 to 2014. While the Japanese startup is often compared to large incumbents in the event management space such as US-based Eventbrite, Peatixs CEO Taku Harada believes that the sites serve different market segments and as such should not be compared head-to-head. Beyond that, Peatix differentiates itself with a focus on creating a user-friendly, mobile-focused experience for its users. The funding will be used to double down on this competitive advantage. The investment will also go towards expanding to new markets in Asia.

Retty, Japans answer to Yelp, nabs US$8.2M, eyes American, Singaporean expansions Retty helps people navigate Japans restaurants. Like Yelp and domestic rivals Tabelog and Gurunavi, users rate restaurants and can see which spots are popular with their friends. The startup just announced it has scored US$8.24 million in series C funding. Fidelity Growth Partners Japan joins this funding round alongside previous investors Gree Ventures and Mizuho Capital. The funding comes a bit over a year after Rettys US$3.2 million series B. Its a considerable increase in funding, earned by the startups solid traction. At the time of its series B, the site had about 1 million monthly visitors. The Bridge says that number is expected to hit 8 million by the end of March. Close observers of Japans startup scene know that the appearance of Fidelity Growth Partners Japan means Retty wants to go overseas. Several notable startups Metaps, Peatix, and Kaizen Platform to name a few have looked to the VC firm for guidance and support overseas.

India Meet Razorpay, the first Indian startup to get YCombinator backing this year

Razorpay, a platform to make it easy for small organizations in India to accept online payments in an easy, affordable, and secure manner, just got the backing of YCombinator, with US$120,000 in funding and a three-month stint in Silicon Valley as part of the YCombinator accelerator program. Razorpay is only the second Indian company to be selected for mentoring by YCombinator. Last year, Cleartax got picked for trying to solve the hassle of paying taxes in India. Razorpay founders and IIT Roorkee alumni Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur initially quit their jobs with Microsoft and Schlumberger to start a crowdfunding portal. Their startup was incubated at Startup Oasis in Jaipur, set up jointly by the Rajasthan Industrial Investment Corporation (RIICO) and IIM Ahmedabads Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). The Razorpay product is fully cloud-hosted with automated backup. It is PCI DSS Compliant, so its clients do not have the burden of compliance.

Furlenco raises US$6M from Lightbox to be the Uber for furniture in India A Bangalore-based startup Furlenco, which lets you rent furniture and get a complete home furnishing solution on a monthly rental of US$100, raised US$6 million from Lightbox VC. There are many flexible options you can choose items you like or just get the living room set up with couches, center table, lamps, and soft furnishing. This seems custom-made for a city like Bangalore, with its large migrant population of tech workers. For Lightbox, the investment into Furlenco has been the biggest so far from its second fund of US$100 million raised late last year. In India, there are quite a few popular online furniture startups like Urban Ladder, PepperFry, and FabFurnish. These



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companies work with good furniture-makers, give them product designs suited for the urban middle-class, and make buying easy for those who dont have time to shop in stores.

Indias Iron Man prepares to go global as its creator raises US$2.8 million

Chakra, an Indian startup has raised US$2.8 million to take Indian superheroes and mythological characters to global audiences. India has a rich tradition of mythological and folk tales, the best known being the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Panchatantra. Now, with the smartphone and internet boom in the country, they can reach huge numbers of young people. But Graphic India believes there is no reason why these stories shouldnt reach global audiences as well with better production values for digital comics and videos based on them. That would give American superheroes and Japanese anime a serious contender. The current funding comes from media investment firms CA Media and Start Media, as well as Backflip Studios founders Julian Farrior and Dale Thoms. The original seed funding of US$2.5 million in 2013 was by CA Media, which is the Asian arm of the the US-based Chernin Group.

Moonfrog grabs US$15M to build games people play in metro trains and auto-rickshaws Bangalore-based mobile game developer Moonfrog Labs has just bagged US$15 million in series A funding from Tiger Global and the earlier investor Sequoia Capital, who had put US$1 million in the seed round. Moonfrog was founded in 2013 by five game developers Tanay Tayal, Ankit Jain, Kumar Puspesh, Oliver Jones, and Dimpalkumar Maisuriya. It is best known for Teen Patti Gold, an Indian three-card version of poker, which has been downloaded over two million times and is one of the top five grossing apps on both Android and iOS platforms. It also has a multi-player bingo game which is popular. The games have been designed with Indias low bandwidth flaky internet connections in mind. The current funding round will also help Moonfrog to develop games in new genres, including action, strategy, and roleplaying, adds Tayal. Moonfrogs first investor Sequoia had also invested in Octro, a Delhi-based mobile gaming company, which raised US$15 million last June.

ChargeBee takes the pain out of subscription billing, raises US$5M from Tiger Global, Accel Cloud-based billing platform ChargeBee has just announced its series B funding round of US$5 million led by Tiger Global. Its existing investor Accel Partners participated in the latest round. ChargeBee provides its clients with an easy plug-and-play interface to accept payments through a choice of 30 gateways, such as Authorize.Net, Braintree, Stripe, PayPal, eWay, Pin Payments, AmazonPayments, and WorldPay. The Chennai-based startup has a comprehensive product that addresses recurring billing needs of businesses, including setting price plans, creating promotional coupons, and generating email notifications. Apart from payment gateways, it can be integrated with email marketing product Mailchimp as well as popular accounting packages. It also provides subscription billing analytics for business growth. Its customers include Freshdesk, Soylent, and VinylMePlease. Tiger Global, which led the current series B funding round, has been one of the most active investors in India. It has funded some of Indias tech pioneers like Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, and JustDial.

Genetic profiler MapMyGenome raises US$1.1M from Google India MD, other angels MapMyGenome, a Hyderabad-based startup that screens your DNA for disease markers, has raised US$1.1 million in a pre-series A round of funding from Google India MD Rajan Anandan and other angel investors. The others include CMS Computers MD Aarti Grover, Hive Technologies MD Arihant Patni, and Singapore Angel Network CEO Satveer Singh Thakral. MapMyGenome is scaling up in the increasingly popular personal genomics space, which has global players like the US-based 23andMe, as well as Indian competitors like Xcode. A user gives a DNA swab from saliva or blood while signing up on MapMyGenome for a Genomepatri (which translates to genome-sheet). This contains markers for various diseases as well as drug responses. An individuals Genomepatri is periodically updated with new data. The MapMyGenome site points out that it only makes predictions based on DNA, and that there are many lifestyle and other factors that lead to disease.

Crowdfire gets US$2.5M from Kalaari to help users set their social media growth on fire Crowdfire, a social media management app for Twitter and Instagram, which has gained significant traction, announced a series A funding round of US$2.5 million from Kalaari Capital. Mumbai-based startup Codigami, owns Crowdfire. The five-year-old app has over 10 million users, and recently rebranded itself as Crowdfire after it outgrew its earlier name JustUnfollow. It first became popular for helping people spot unfollowers and spammers on Twitter, but now offers a wider range of features such as an Instagram scheduler and photo suggester. CrowdFire has a freemium model. Its free to start with, but if you want make full use of all its features like manage multiple twitter accounts, add team members, and so on, then, you have to pay. Its plans start from US$9.99 to $199.99 per month. Currently, it has over 10,000 monthly paying users.



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Indonesia IndoTrading grabs US$1.5M series A funding to get more small businesses into ecommerce

IndoTrading, a company that operates a directory for small businesses in Indonesia, announced that it raised a US$1.5 million series A funding round led by OPT SEA, the Southeast Asian business arm of OPT Group. The round was followed on by Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Jakartas Convergence Ventures (formerly Convergence Accel), Aucfan, existing investor Rebright Partners, and an anonymous angel investor. It will use the funds to grow the companys tech department as well as expand IndoTrading to other cities and to develop its mobile offerings. The site also wants to focus on the services industry, as Chang believes services are still an untapped opportunity in Indonesia. IndoTrading helps small business have an online presence and promote their products on its site. The site also helps merchants set up their own websites or ecommerce portals with customized domain names. There are currently 22 million registered businesses in Indonesia, many of which do not have proper websites, according to IndoTrading.

Singapore Parenting site TheAsianparent gets funding from Vertex, has raised US$3.27M so far

TheAsianparent, an online publication targeting parents and soon-to-be-parents in Asia, announced it has raised a round of funding from Vertex Venture, the venture capital subsidiary of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek. This brings its total funding to US$3.27 million. The website has about six million unique users a month hitting 40 million pageviews. Most of its readers come from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and India. Besides theAsianparent, Singapore-headquartered Tickled Media operates other properties like Pregnant.sg, a content site for pregnant mums-to-be, and Kidlander, an event listings site for expat parents. The funding will be used to expand regionally, but especially into India, which has a large English-language readership, growing internet penetration, and a high birth rate. It already has a localized site for India, called Indusparent, which will offer localized content.

Singapore deal discovery app Sugar raises US$720k to date, expands to Hong Kong Sugar, a deals discovery mobile app with a novel process to give users discounts, has raised over US$720,000 to date from Singapore Post chairman Lim Ho Kee as well as Koh Boon Hwee, the former chairman of SingTel, DBS Bank, and Singapore Airlines. Koh has invested in startups such as Razer, DocDoc, and HotelQuickly. Sugar has several actions that users can take to bring down the price of a deal. They can skim it by pressing a button, which brings the price down, and then spread it further to friends who can skim it further to sweeten the deal. Once theyre happy with the price, they can purchase it. Launched in Singapore in 2014, the startup also told Vulcan Post that it will expand to Hong Kong. It has an inventory of 500 listings in Singapore across F&B, entertainment, and lifestyle services, as well as 50 in Hong Kong. The numbers are a drop in the ocean for sure, but their goal is surely to ramp it up quickly.

Taiwan AppWorks announces US$50M fund to invest in Taiwan startups

AppWorks, the Taiwan based accelerator and venture fund, announced that it has established a US$50 million fund for investing in domestic startups. Contributors to the fund consist of a number of Taiwanese conglomerates and corporations. The list includes Cathay Life Insurance, Taiwans National Development Fund, Phison Electronics, best known as a maker of flash drives; Far Eastern, the islands third-biggest telco; CID group, a Shanghai-based VC firm best known for investing in Taiwanese semiconductor firms; and China Trust Capital. AppWorks founding partner Jamie Lin says that the fund will be used to support Taiwanese startups that go through its accelerator program, which has been active since 2010. To date, it has graduated more than 190 teams. Its investment branch, managed by IC Jan, Nice Cheng, Joseph Chan, and Lin, funded 19 portfolio companies through its previous US$11 million fund.



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United States Pinterest raises US$367M at $11B valuation with a look toward international expansion

Pinterest, that company that lets millions of people pin pictures and other content to boards, has raised US$367 million in a new funding round that could be as large as $577.9 million. Pinterest has raised the new money at an $11 billion valuation. Investors at Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, which have previously invested in Pinterest, are named in a new regulatory filing today. The filing comes after a report last month that the company was raising $500 million. The San Francisco-based company has been gradually improving its apps for multiple devices, taking steps to monetize, and expanding internationally. The new funding should help all of those efforts. Without question, Pinterest has already made progress on the international front. In 2014, international users grew more than 135 percent. Today, they are more than 40 percent of all users, up from just 28 percent in 2013.

Fundbox secures US$40M Series B financing led by General Catalyst Partners Fundbox, the leading cash flow optimization tool for small businesses, announced that it has raised US$40 million in Series B financing led by General Catalyst Partners. Existing Fundbox investors Khosla Ventures, Shlomo Kramer, Blumberg Capital and others along with new investor NyCa Investment Partners also participated in the round. The company also announced a new credit facility in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank and other institutions. According to a U.S. Bank study, 82 percent of business failures are due to poor cash management. Fundbox's innovative capital on demand approach is a transformative solution to fix that pain point. The Fundbox tool is embedded directly into the workflow of a business, through existing accounting, e-invoicing and payroll software, delivering one-click financing of outstanding invoices. The financing will enable the company to further accelerate its rapid expansion, innovation and product development, as well as increase its marketing efforts to reach small businesses.

Artificial Intelligence company Quid closes US$39M Series D financing Quid, the artificial intelligence company that accelerates research and insights to address the world's most complex issues, announced that it has closed a US$39 million Series D. Quid has built a web platform that enables users to search and process millions of indexed documents and to visually map answers to questions that might previously have required weeks or months of research. For example, a company launching a new product might use Quid to understand market reception to the product's features by searching thousands of blog posts and media reviews, producing a visual mapping of results within a matter of seconds. The round was led by Liberty Interactive Corporation, with participation from ARTIS Ventures, Buchanan Investments, Subtraction Capital, Tiger Partners, Thomas H. Lee Limited Family Partnership II, together with Quid Board Member Michael Patsalos-Fox and Quid Chairman and founding investor Charles Lho. The funding will be used to further expand the product and engineering capabilities and to invest in sales and marketing to bring the technology to a broader set of clients.

Draft raises US$3.5M as daily fantasy sports heats up Draft, a fantasy sports betting game built for mobile, announced that it has raised US$3.5 million to fuel its fantasy-sports mobile-game business. The company is also launching its March Madness real-money betting app, also called Draft. In doing so, the company is joining a sea of competitors who want to cash in on fantasy sports related to the big NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) college basketball tournament. An estimated 42 million people play fantasy sports in the U.S., according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Upfront Ventures led the round, with participation from Advancit Capital, BoxGroup, The Chernin Group, and QueensBridge Venture Partners. The New York company was founded by Jeremy Levine and Nicolo Giorgi, who previously sold StarStreet to Draftkings in the same real-money daily fantasy sports market. Draft is a fantasy sports betting game built for mobile. Draft currently offers NBA (National Basketball Association), NHL (National Hockey League), and college basketball games, and will launch MLB (Major League Baseball) and Golf soon.

InsideSales raises US$60M in round led By Salesforce Ventures Utah-based Neuralytics company, InsideSales has raised a US$60 million round of funding led by Salesforce Ventures. The investment is believed to be one of the largest ever for the fund that makes strategic investments in startups for Salesforce.com. Neuralytics is the term that InsideSales uses to describe its technology that helps companies use big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to identify sales patterns so their sales staff can make better predictions about customers wants and needs. InsideSales had already raised at least $139 million in venture capital over three previous rounds. The last round brought in $100 million in April 2014 and put the companys valuation close to $1 billion. InsideSales technology clearly has enough potential that the new round



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drew several other notable investors, including Microsoft, Polaris Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Hummer Winblad, U.S. Venture Partners, and Zetta Venture Partners.

Joyable raises US$2M, launches app to help people get over their social anxiety

San Francisco-based Joyable, which aims to cure people of anxiety and depression, has raised US$2.05 million in seed funding led by Thrive Capital and Harrison Metal. Angel investors like Andy Rachleff also participated. Joyable is debuting its web service people can use to track and eventually improve their mental condition. Joyable has also assembled a group of coaches who can motivate participants and keep them engaged with the app. The new backing comes after the venture-powered rise of startups like Lumosity and Memorado, which have pushed apps people can use to train their brains. The model calls to mind massively open online courses from startups like Coursera and Udemy, except that coaches can help you actually finish what you start with Joyable. Joyables system revolves around a process called cognitive behavioral therapy. In the future, the startup could introduce web-based treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.

Conversa Health pulls in US$2.5M for patient relationship management platform One of the costliest problems in health care today is that patients fail to follow caregiver directions between office visits. San Rafael, Calif.-based Conversa Health operates a patient relationship management platform to help providers deal with this problem. The technology enables continuous, collaborative, structured communications between caregivers and patients, Conversa says. Conversas platform sends personalized messages to patients based on a patient profile derived from electronic health records, patients biometric devices, and patient-reported data. The company says it has now closed a US$2.5 million seed round with a group of unnamed health care angel investors. Conversa will use the new funds to expand its service through distribution partners in care management, population health, and customer relationship management.

Startup Altocloud scores US$2M and launches its predictive communications

Predictive software will continue to develop until every possible customer situation is covered. Startup Altocloud is emerging from stealth mode and releasing what it says is the first predictive analytics solution with machine learning for real-time communications like chat and phone calls. The Mountain View, California-based company, which is also reporting it has raised US$2 million in seed funding, has been testing the software in a private beta since March of last year. Altocloud monitors your activity on a website or a mobile app [and compares] your behavior to that of other customers who have been on the website before. This most recent funding round, which brings to $3 million the total raised since the companys founding in October 2013, was led by Delta Partners, Digicel Group, and ACT Venture Capital. The new money will be used to increase sales and marketing, further develop the product, and strengthen partnerships with e-commerce and marketing automation vendors.

FiftyThree raises US$30M to push its Paper and Pencil creativity tools in enterprise and education FiftyThree, the company behind popular drawing app Paper and a smart stylus called Pencil, has raised US$30 million to help push its presence in the enterprise and education realm. The New York-based company has made a big name for itself in the digital creativity sphere since it was founded in 2011, primarily for its virtual sketchpad app (Paper) which Apple named as iPad app of the year in 2012 and the accompanying stylus. FiftyThree has previously confirmed its plans to push its hardware/software package into the education realm, where the company has already seen significant uptake. The chunky $30 million round is in addition to the $15 million it raised back in 2013, and was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with support from existing investors. FiftyThrees Paper has had north of 13 million downloads to date, and the New York-headquartered company has 53 employees in the Big Apple and Seattle.

Business-intelligence player Birst moves forward with US$65M Birst, a company selling business-intelligence software that competes with companies like MicroStrategy and Tableau, announced that it has picked up US$65 million in a new funding round. As major software companies like Salesforce join the market and as several startups take on larger and larger sums of venture capital funding, Birst must keep hustling with product enhancements and additions to its sales and marketing divisions. Birst now has several hundred customers, and thousands more using the software through original equipment manufacturer (OEM) arrangements. The customer list includes Aetna, Cisco, TD Ameritrade, Kellogg, T-Mobile, and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Wellington Management Co. led the new round in Birst. All previous investors, including Sequoia Capital and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, also participated. To date Birst has raised $156 million, including a $38 million round announced in August 2013.



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Indias Premji and Chinas Tencent back Cyanogens US$80M funding Cyanogen, the US-based maker of an alternative Android-based mobile operating system called Cyanogen OS, announced that it completed a US$80 million series C round of funding. Indias Premji Invest led the round, followed by Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, Telefonica Ventures, Smartfren Telecom, Index Ventures, Access Industries, Rupert Murdoch, Vivi Nevo and other undisclosed investors. Previous investors Benchmark, Andreesen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, and Tencent Holdings also participated. Cyanogen has navigated Asia well, first in China and then in India. Big developing markets like China and India are ripe with opportunity for Cyanogen, where many users are buying smartphones for the first time and arent yet tethered to the Google ecosystem. Cyaongen OS comes pre-installed on the OnePlus One smartphone and some Oppo models from China, a market where local phone makers are prohibited from using Googles version of Android. Cyanogen has raised a total of US$110 million in funding to date.

Investors wire US$12.5M to Remitly to help Asians send money home from the US Remitly, a US-based startup helping Asian immigrants to wire money home, has raised US$12.5 million in a series B round, taking its total funding to US$23 million. The round was led by venture capital firm DFJ, which has Baidu, Twitter, and Tesla in its investment portfolio. Existing investors, including Bezos Expeditions, the investment firm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also participated. For Asians in the US, sending money home can be a real problem. The usual channels like banks and Western Union take hefty cuts in money transfer across borders. A World Bank report says the global average cost of transferring money is over 8 percent of the remittance amount. Asians are the worst affected by this, as the largest share of the worlds remittances comes to India (US$71 billion), followed by China (US$64 billion), and the Philippines (US$28 billion). Money transferred through Remitly amounts to over US$100 million in a year.

Europe Dyson powers US$20M investment into solid-state battery company Sakti3

Dyson invested US$15 million in Michigan-based solid-state battery company Sakti3. Existing investors General Motors, Khosla Ventures, Beringea, and Itochu are also participating, taking the full value of the round to $20 million. A spinoff from the University of Michigan, Sakti3 has now garnered $50 million in funding to date, having taken on a little over $11 million over two rounds back in 2010, in addition to a $2 million Series A in 2009, a previously unannounced $14 million Series B-1 in 2012, and a $3 million grant. For Dyson, this deal represents one of the first investments to emerge from the $2.3 billion fund it set aside last year to plow into so-called future technologies, as it looks to bring 100 machines in four new portfolios to market in the next four years. The deal makes a lot of sense, and digging a little deeper into the details of the funding reveals that a development agreement is also in place to help commercialize Sakti3s batteries. In other words, Dyson wants to use Sakti3s technology in future machines.

Bird-scaring drone startup scores US$1.7M to, well, terrorize birds

Clear Flight Solutions has won about US$1.7 million (1.6 million) to invest in robird drones that mimic the flight of peregrine falcons in order to scare other birds away from damaging private property. This modern scarecrow startup has come out of the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and it wants to prevent the billions of dollar damage made by birds at airports every year, which sometimes results in loss of life. U.S.-based seed investors Cottonwood Euro Technology Fund, which opened its first European office in the Netherlands in July last year, has made the investment. Said Ray Quintana, lead general partner of the Cottonwood Euro Technology Fund, The bird control problem is much bigger than we initially imagined. Clear Flight Solutions has developed technology with tremendous potential that addresses a global problem. It is hoped that using drones will stop the birds from learning how to get around measures made to prevent them nesting. The tech can be applied to other industries, including agriculture, waste management, oil and gas, and harbors.

Rocket Internets Foodpanda fattens up with US$110M funding Rocket Internets online food ordering service Foodpanda revealed that it has secured US$110 million in funding far and away its biggest investment to date. This covers Foodpanda, which operates in 14 Asian nations, and sister sites Hellofood and Delivery Hero. Under its various brands, it now covers 40 countries. This comes seven months after its previous funding round, which was worth US$60 million. In total, Foodpanda has now raised US$218 million. The blockbuster US$110 million comes from Germany-based startup dynamo Rocket Internet, existing investors, and some undisclosed new investors. Last month Foodpanda went on an acquisitions spree, snapping up six rival sites across seven Asian countries. Foodpanda isnt planning new market launches in Asia; instead it will



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further improve our services in our existing countries after we consolidated our position through acquisitions, especially in Asia.

Orientation-software startup initiafy announces rebranding, reports US$1.5 in seed funding The employee orientation software developer known as Induction Manager in the United States and Orientation Manager in Europe has announced that they have rebranded under the unified name of initiafy and that have raised US$1.5 million total seed funding from a group that includes Delta Partners Group, ACT Venture Capital, and private investor Leslie Buckley. initiafy targets companies who hire contractors and temp staff with a platform that allows them to cut costs by training workers before they even show up for their first day on the job. The platform is designed to cut the amount of time that will be required to train a particular worker, as well as provide employees with information that will allow them to see how well the workers understand the tasks that they will be completing. The startup launched in Ireland back in April 2012, but has since expanded and serves 25 countries. At the moment, the company reports that their software is used by more than 70 firms, including 5 of the top 20 construction companies in the United Kingdom.

MySugr takes in US$4.8 million in new funding to further its health-tech initiative Austrian startup MySugr has announced that they have hauled in US$4.8 million in new funding from new investors Roche Ventures and iSeed Ventures, as well as current backer XLHealth, which provided them with an undisclosed amount of funding in early 2014. According to MySugr, this latest round will be used to continue the health tech companys international growth. MySugr launched back in 2012 with the goal of helping people who have diabetes by providing a complete toolkit for coping with this disease. MySugr offers its users articles and videos with tips on the best ways of dealing with their condition, as well as a tool for recording their data. The company has embraced the mobile sphere since it launched, rolling out apps for a logbook (iOS, Android, and web), an Austria-exclusive data-importer (iOS only, but coming to Android), analysis (web only, but coming to iOS and Android), quizzes (iOS only, but coming to Android), and for kids (iOS and Android). Since it launched, the platform has attracted more than 200,000 users from the United States and Europe.

Finnish startup CreateTrips announces that they have raised US$1.4 million to date There are no shortages of trip-organization services out there, but the recent successful launch of Finnish startup CreateTrips indicates that there is still room for one more. It is partly for this reason that they have proven attractive to investors, taking in a total of US$1.4 million in seed funding. The first section, valued at $600,000, came in June 2014 and was followed by $800,000 this January, the latter round including participation from Butterfly Ventures, as well as S3, private angels, and previous backer Frontier Capital. It may seem strange that CreateTrips would hook up with S3, which is based in Vietnam, but the startup claims 25% of its userbase from southeast Asia. CreateTrips has opted to focus on the social side of travel, building a service that allows users to build trips by joining with friends (or go it alone) and plan their vacation by adding venues, to which the user can access directions or call. It is not a big deal if the user is heading to an area with a spotty connection or hopes to preserve their data, either, as the platform can be accessed offline for a few dollars. What is interesting about this particular platform is that users have the option of writing or reading user-generated travel plans, possibly providing a more frank assessment of which venues in a city are worth visiting.

Israel Israeli Startup Solebit LABS Raises US$2 Million

Israeli startup Solebit LABS, a developer of cyber-security solutions that protect networks from zero-day attacks and APTs at the delivery phase, completed a US$2 million funding round from Glilot Capital Partners. The company is headquartered in Herzaliya Pituah and has 10 employees. The funding round will enable Solebit to accelerate its product development and ramp up its sales and marketing efforts. Solebit LABS was founded in 2014 by Boris Vaynberg, Meni Farjon, and Yossi Sara, entrepreneurs with experience in defensive and offensive cyber-security approaches and graduates of elite technology units in the Israel Defense Forces. The company asserts that its solutions protect large enterprises against Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), which continue to grow at an exponential pace. According to a recent study by Information Security Media Group, at least 38% of enterprises lack sufficient technology solutions to detect or mitigate APTs.

Documents

SparkLabs Global Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review 0325 2015