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10 118 top 100 award In this issue, the Red Herring Top 100 award highlights the most exciting startups from Europe and the Americas. Hundreds of companies from both regions were reviewed in a rigorous 3-step process. Congratulations to all the winners. 116 236
red herring Special Edition 2014 contents 122 228 235 this issue features
8 Publisher’s Note 116 Apple’s China Mobile Deal 235 Acer’s comeback Providing some relief Founder Stan Shih takes control 10 Top 100 Companies: Europe European innovators and entrepreneurs 117 African E-commerce Market 236 Netflix streams ahead to know Mobile Internet builds promise Proves to be the king of streaming industry
12 List of European Winners 118 Volvo’s automated vehicles 238 Meritech blazes a trail The ‘moonshot’ project is in action Gaining command of the landscape 114 Factual Stats: Europe 120 Nextdoor’s Social Platform 240 Amazon’s drone 122 top 100 companies: North America Connecting U.S. neighborhoods Plan or distraction? U.S. companies forging ahead into uncharted territory 228 Education through Khan Academy 241 Snapchat turned down facebook Education for all Tactical or foolish? 124 List of North American Winners 231 Budapest Blossoms with Tech Talent 242 European firms look to Israeli 226 Factual Stats: North America Despite government red tape Model for U.S. Success
232 Taxi App 243 Samsung suffers drop Compete Globally Budget smartphones disrupt market
233 Alibaba IPO 244 VeriSilicon Leaving Hong Kong Stock Exchange sweating What makes a smartphone so smart?
2 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 3 Red Herring Magazine
SPECIAL EDITION VOLUME 1 spring 2014
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Senior Editor and U.S. correspondent Red Herring is a global media Peter Ward company which unites the world’s best Director of Sales – North America high-technology innovators, Anam Alpenia venture investors and business decision makers Finance Augustin Meloty-Kapella in a variety of forums. Reporter Catherine Trautwein Our audience Program Manager can be your audience. Jean Ma Design Kelly Mayerick For editorial queries [email protected] Digital edition available online at
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Centric_RH_V03_PRINT_OLFonts.pdf 16/14/20131:57:47PM Publisher’s Note Bright Computing brightcomputing.com
n today’s world, the visual reward of publishing I a magazine could be deemed archaic or at least passé. During its history, Red Herring has gone from being an iconic paper, read throughout the world, to a vestige of a bygone era, and now attempts to supplement other forms of editorial content with its unique global point of view on technology. But the story features the same actors, entrepreneurs, disruptors, naysayers, established incumbents, money-makers, losers, venture capitalists and idealists.
In this issue, you will read about all of the above. We put the spotlight on people who are changing the mobile environment, revolutionizing the enterprise world with better security, storage, We put the spotlight cloud, analytics and data, or just embracing social causes with a new approach. We on“ people predicted in 2011 that we were watching a new generation’s rise. In fact, it is a combination of who are changing new ideas and veteran entrepreneurs that are taking charge of this universal cycle. In Europe, the mobile environment, America and Asia successful CEOs are putting revolutionizing the their experience and expertise to work, enabling incredible growth and speed of change. enterprise world with better Over the past five years, global economic security, storage, trends have reshuffled dramatically. South to South trade will overcome OECD commerce cloud, analytics and data, this decade. Even more compelling is the fact that 6.8 billion people subscribe in one way or or just embracing another to the digital age. By 2015 we will have social causes exceeded the magic 1.0 ratio of subscriber per human on this planet. with a new approach. This issue will tell the tale of this transformation, “Bright Cluster Manager’s rapid rebooting across nodes page after page. And countries such as Turkey, has reduced our node provisioning by a factor of ten, South Africa and Brazil are playing a pivotal role, not a secondary role in this silent revolution. and it’s done with a few mouse-clicks.” — Boeing Our journalists have interviewed CEOs on five continents, and have reported on local markets as well as global strategies. To be at the forefront of this exciting evolution is a craft, and not so passé after all. Thank you for sharing it with us. ” Bright Cluster Manager is software that manages clusters in the datacenter: HPC, Hadoop, OpenStack, database and storage clusters; as well as server and workstation farms. Features include deployment, provisioning, cloud bursting, monitoring, automation, visualization, alerting, role-based access control, security, workload management, and much more.
Alex Vieux, Customers: 3M, ATK, Boeing, Cambridge University, CD-adapco, Cisco, Dell, Electrolux, HP, ING Bank, Intel, Life Technologies, Lincoln Fi- Editor-in-Chief and Publisher nancial, Merck, NASA, NCSA, PACCAR, Roche, Sandia National Laboratories, Sanofi, Stanford University, TACC, Toyota, and many more.
8 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Red Herring Magazine Top 100 Companies: Europe Europe’s Top 100 t has been another year of struggle for Europe. Recovery has been slow or non-existent in some countries and conditions for The Most Promising And Innovative entrepreneurism could barely be tougher. That’s why this year’s IRed Herring 2013 Top 100 Europe winners fully deserve all the Technology Startups In 2013 plaudits coming their way.
In times of recession and austerity, cash can be hard to come by and great ideas can be squandered as funding becomes sparse. But these 100 companies made it anyway.
What Europe lacks in funding, it more than makes up for in talent. The whole continent is awash with great minds and universities such as those in Dublin, Paris Delft and many others act as conveyor belts for exciting new entrepreneurs, ready to take the market by storm.
As the U.S. frets over the possibility of another tech bubble, those in Europe know that, because of the debt crisis and looming deflation problem, only the best of the best will make it. And the cream of that crop is displayed in the winners this year.
But there is hope for the 28 members of the European Union. November forecasts by the European Commission suggest that although GDP across the EU will stagnate this year, it will expand by 1.4% in 2014. There is also expected to be signs of recovery in the 17 countries tied to the Euro. The European Commission estimated a 1.1% increase in GDP in 2014, after a 0.4% dip this year.
With a vague hint of hope on the horizon, entrepreneurs in Europe can go into the New Year with even more confidence, that their products, services and technology will be even more successful in a recovering economy.
Many of the Top 100 companies work in essential markets where brilliant new innovations cannot fail, such as biosciences. Others concentrate on making business easier, through financial, payment and funding assistance. Yet more attack a new wave of industries such as the internet of things.
The Red Herring 2013 Top 100 Europe winners are a standout group of companies, and share not just talent, innovation and huge potential, but also a steely reserve built up from the testing surroundings in which they have prospered. They are to be congratulated today, watched closely next year, and admired in the years to come.
10 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 11 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
2013: A-Z Europe: Abiquo The company also makes every effort to The major challenge now for Abiquo, and make the whole process as easy as possible other firms in the same market, is to stay www.abiquo.com for the client. This means making sure on top of the technology advancements Abiquo Multi Touch any processes that can be automated are which are continuously happening. “The AdMingle MVF Global Gilles Samoun automated. “We’re trying to take away the breadth of what we have to support keeps TOP Adomik Mythings mundane tasks, the repeatable tasks and us on our toes. Every time you have to Advaltis Next Media Group Virtualization allow the IT department to get greater enhance the product you have to enhance af83 Nitor Creations scales of economy from having a tool like it times the number of products you Agaidi NLT Spins Ltd UK ourselves,” says Mr. Darragh. support,” says Mr. Darragh. “We’ve grown Amikod Oxford Immunotec Ltd the engineering team steadily as we’ve Anatole PacketFront Software Solutions The final element that the company puts Yes gone in order to support that. If you really Apptivation Mobile ParStream heavy emphasis on is making sure that the want to be an enterprise player, your level Automsoft Paylogic product is completely secure. AVK Systems Paymill GmbH of integration with legacy technology and » Beslist.nl Payson Companies of all different sizes are now Abiquo has evolved since its inception in processes, supporting the things that are BIMobject Phinergy looking into developing their own cloud 2006, although one of the founders, Xavier important to the enterprise is more of a Brand Embassy Pozitron services. Some of these are hosted on a Fernandez, is still with the company as challenge and it’s something that we focus Catchoom Proxistore public cloud, and aimed at customers or head of engineering. The product went to an awful lot of effort on. We want to be Celeno Puzzlepart clients, and others are on private clouds, market in 2009 and got its first customers an enterprise software company, not just Technology Cirrato Technologies RTR Rete Rinnovavile and for the sole use of employees. This in 2010. The firm recently raised another a service provider software company and Cleeng Sefaira mass migration to the cloud has created round of funding and is planning to enter that takes an awful lot of time and effort.” Companies CLIQ Digital Sefamerve a market in managing and providing the North America market this year. The CloudPay Showroomprive.com platforms for the companies making the development work is done in the company’s Conferize Sievo switch. offices in the UK and Spain but Abiquo is Creativesystems-Sistema Sigfox now planning sales and commercial teams Crunchfish SkySQL Abiquo, is one such company which in the U.S. adMingle D-ORBIT smartTrade Technologies provides clients with a single management DelfMEMS Softkey layer that allows them to build the Earlier this year specialist growth capital www.admingle.com Delivery Hero Solutions30 infrastructure that becomes their cloud. investor Oxford Capital led a $5 million Shlomi Benbasat DEM Solutions Ltd Somoto The key to operating in this market is to funding round into Abiquo. Oxford Dream Broker Sportradar be flexible enough to serve both groups of Capital joined Balderton Capital and Ductor Corp. Spreadshirt GmbH Social Media cloud users – the public and private. “It’s Nauta Capital as a major backer of the Evmanya.com Sticky Ads TV firm. Colin Watts, Partner, Oxford Capital applicable to an enterprise customer who Turkey Ezakus Sympa said: “Cloud computing gives businesses Falcon Social Tageos wants to take their existing infrastructure far greater control over their software and FeedHenry TeamUp and technologies and turn it into a more No systems, benefitting from a more flexible FlatFrog Tethras flexible platform for themselves,” says Jim IT framework. Abiquo is at the leading Frafos Upfront Chromatography Darragh, CEO of Abiquo. “And it would edge of this change, the software essentially Global Business Register Vaadin also be applicable to a service provider who » allows businesses to not only utilise The social-network era is expected to GlobalOrange Valens Semiconductor Ltd actually wants to take infrastructure and Cloud computing but to also effectively bring more and more innovation with it, Greenclouds Varaani Works build a cloud that can then be consumed manage it through its easy to use portal. and has already introduced new ways of i-Optics Varnish Software as a public cloud. So I guess at some level making money online. “People share what iData WalkMe With the Abiquo solution businesses are allows a public cloud that would rival they do and a lot of it has commercial IDchecker.com Watchful Software not required to remove their current IT Amazon at the top of the market.” value. You share it anyhow, so why not inbenta Wi-Next systems which can be costly and time consuming. Instead, the management make money from it?” says Shlomi Innotech Solar Widespace Abiquo has three core tenants to platform that Abiquo provide integrates Selim Benbasat, co-founder and CEO of Indisys WITBE its proposition. The first of these is easily with most technologies, making it AdMingle, a new advertising platform for Intune Networks WiTech independence, which means the firm an exceptional product in the market.” social networks, based in Turkey. Jinny Software Ltd XMOS offers the widest variety of underlying Jongla Xstream infrastructure possible. Put simply, the firm LiTHIUM Balance YD concentrates on giving the customer the Magine Zerogrey maximum number of options and control Modelity Technologies Ltd Zoobe over the cloud solution they are trying to build through the Abiquo platform.
12 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 13 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
After signing up for adMingle, users can low as 6 percent to 15 percent,” he explains. AdMingle started selling in October 2012 month on social networks, it’s like a day It’s an entirely new world for publishers, huge amounts of data, so our business select their interests like sports, music, “Besides, the common people have more and Benbasat hopes to reach the break- of work. If we can become the price list and it takes some getting used to––not model is volume-based,” he says. “We cars, etc., and choose publishers to team up credibility.” even in the next few months. AdMingle of social transactions, it’s a multi-billion to mention expert advice and insight. charge by ad request ... so it’s a pure with, to become their brand and messaging shares 50 percent of profits from every dollar business.” According to the adomik’s blog, the CPM model.” Though Schueller says the ambassadors. On the other end, brands And credibility is indeed a big challenge campaign with users; this business model company’s “advertising intelligence” market has yet to be measured, he gauges can reach out to users according to profile for AdMingle. Would you believe that attracts them to the platform. “They know platform guides publishers in solving his company’s opportunity at billions of indicators and ask those users to join your favourite singer posted “I love Diet that we are partners,” Benbasat says. He three crucial quandaries: what to sell, at dollars. specific campaigns. They can join or not; if Coke” simply because they liked it? “This still meets with and writes emails to some what price, and to what buyer. Adomik’s they choose to participate, they can enter was our main concern when we started users. “It creates trust, and they always give adomik proprietary technology, bidExplorer, While competitors address what Schueller their own message regarding the campaign this,” Benbasat says. However, users can calls the whole value chain from advertisers me new ideas,” he says. www.adomik.com brings publishers the data analysis they and a preferred day and time to publish edit advertisement posts before AdMingle need to make decisions. to publishers, adomik limits its focus; and posts them on their profile page (or even The company’s current customers in messages. The payment is per-campaign, Nicolas Schueller in doing so, carves out a niche position for according to each user’s “reach”. reject them) in order to make them seem Turkey include Opel, Fiat and MasterCard. “What they provide us and what we itself in the industry. more “real”. AdMingle has launched in the United Internet/Online rely on is the look into raw data,” says AdMingle developed its own “reach Kingdom and Italy, and in the future hope Marius Rausch of Interactive Media, an “It was a strange thing because you have “I won’t post an ad for a car that I don’t algorithm” in order to calculate the scope to reach customers in 14 other countries, France adomik client. “[Adomik’s] analyzing billions and billions of investment to that each signed-up user has on social drive,” Benbasat explains, adding that including Germany and France. huge amounts of data, transactional data, help one side [(the demand side)] and 8 percent to 20 percent of advertising media. “We look at how many people No auction data, getting insight for us to really practically zero for the other side,” says have liked your posts, shared them or campaigns get rejected by users. In Telecom companies show the most interest see what is going on under the hood–– Denis Barrier of Iris Capital, who invested commented on them in cycles of 15 days,” addition, every message that comes out in AdMingle, Benbasat says, since text what specific partners from our side were in and incubated the company. Seeing of AdMingle’s system includes a specific Benbasat explains, “we also trace the third messaging advertising is getting less » Pretty soon, companies like adomik interested in purchasing and buying, how an opportunity, adomik zeroed in on the hashtag that indicates its origin on the and fourth circles of friends that receive the popular among advertisers. All three will help humans turn digital advertising they were valuing our inventory, our opposite side of the ecosystem. user’s profile. “I’m not deceiving followers shared content, which can sometimes be a telecom companies in Turkey are already over to machines and data. Today, the media.” — I’m telling them that this is where the lot greater than the first circle.” Traditional working with AdMingle, while similar company, which provides clients “ad sales “We have made the choice to be...fully- post came from,” Benbasat says. online advertising measures like cost per companies in Russia and France have intelligence tech,” enables publishers to Adomik’s data-driven perspective publisher focused,” Schueller says. From click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA) indicated interest in their platform. sell and target ads more quickly than any provides guidance as publishers adapt the beginning, adomik has put customers AdMingle started in Turkey, a good spot are also considered when calculating the person ever could: i.e., within the blink of to the quickfire, tech-based nature of the first and prioritized their feedback in for social media startups. According to AdMingle’s main competition comes return for users. an eye. ad exchange. The company’s tech chews creating the platform. “There is nothing research by comScore media metrix, from United States-based companies like through information to produce analysis; that has been developed without the Their reach algorithm can provide better Turkey accounted for 23.1 million unique Izea, MyLikes and Adly, which makes the “Digital advertising has changed a lot in i.e. what inventory (often ad space) customer sponsorship,” he says. premiums for users, Benbasat says. “You Internet visitors of Europe’s 372 million prospect of a U.S.-market entry all the more the last few years,” says adomik co-founder advertisers want to buy and why. might post a link about BMW cars and visitors during August 2011, coming in challenging. In contrast, penetrating the and CEO Nicolas Schueller. “We’re moving Last May, investors Elaia Partners and Iris have 100 people click on it, so you’ll get third after the United Kingdom and the European market will prove relatively easy, from a traditional commercial model “Imagine you are browsing a website Capital financed adomik’s seed round, paid for 100 clicks. But actually, you have Netherlands. According to the research, as it contains no significant competition. In based on human relationships where you (let’s take theDailyPlanet.com), and you contributing €1.3 million. Schueller says a reach of 1000 people, who may have seen Facebook was the most engaging site in addition, none of the competitors use the have the seller and...a handful of sales per are loading the homepage. Assuming the the company sought backers with specific the post but did not click on it, [and] in this Turkey, accounting for 28.8 percent of all reach metrics that AdMingle developed, month.” Daily Planet sales house made this space skills. “We have selected our VCs based on case your compensation using the reach time spent online during the month. as most of them leverage business models eligible for programmatic trading on an their capacity to support our international method is better,” Benbasat says. based around CPC. Instead of between people in offices, sales ad exchange, as soon as you load the page development also, so...definitely we have “Turkey is our backyard,” Benbasat says. He now occur between machines on fresh on your browser a request is fired to ad the ambition to become global,” he says. The reach model works best with celebrities, and Moshe Franko, co-founder and COO Online ad spending as a percentage of total ground: the ad exchange. The digital exchange,” Schueller says. “The role of ad Adomik’s first-ever customer resides in of the company, are childhood friends and who usually have more followers than other ad spending has increased by more than 17 landscape allows for almost instantaneous exchange then is to gather all interested the U.K., and 80 percent of their revenues have been partners in various technology social media users. However, only about 15 percent in 2012, while a smaller increase selling and a more refined approach buyers to set up an auction, to gather all originate from companies based outside percent of registered users of AdMingle and internet ventures over the past 10 years. of 10-12 percent in online marketing is to target marketing. Plus, advertisers the bids from the buyers, to resolve the France. are celebrities, while the rest are part of Arman Acar, co-founder and CBDO used expected in 2013 to 2015, according to data massively ramp up the number deals auction, to attribute the sales to one of the the general public. “Celebrities don’t have to work in one of the companies Benbasat by eMarketer. Social network ad revenues, closed. “[The] ad exchange is a technology buyers ... and send it back to your browser.” “We serve clients in seven different as much time as other people,” Benbasat and Franko exited a few years ago. The however, are expected to grow more slowly platform that plays the role of the countries in Europe, [and we’re] looking says. He explains that some people can company was originally self-funded by as years go by, after cresting in 2011 when middleman between buyers and sellers, “Here you have the process of selling in no at the other side of the Atlantic very become “Wellebrities” and have a big Benbasat and Franko, but they plan to raise social ad revenues increased by more than and that handles programmatically sales more than 120 milliseconds,” he says. cautiously,” Schueller says. “We have just impact and wide readership online, even $3 million this year. “Some angels wanted 55 percent in one year. transactions,” Schueller says. “In the been integrated as an app within AppNexus, though they are not VIPs in the real world. to help us, but we prefered venture capital, traditional sales, [you have] a handful of Adomik generates revenue by powering one of the ad-exchange platforms. This “The return on the Wellebrities’ user base since it’s ‘smart’ and not ‘stupid money,’” However, Benbasat is confident in his sales per month; when you change to the through information and providing allows third parties to provide value- can be 60 percent to 150 percent, while Benbasat adds. He is aiming for a future product. “I want to change the way we do exchange, you have hundred of millions insights. “We are a pure technology added services to their customers, so we some real celebrities can have a return as IPO, and has no M&A plans. Internet,” he says. “People spend 8 hours a per month.” platform, and our product is processing are now embedded within the AppNexus
14 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 15 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
ecosystem, and we believe that this will available. Advaltis is a business solution The other product idea which Mr. Ahmed af83 services for us, but for our clients it means Agaidi definitely be the commercial kickoff of the provider with offices in Oxford in the UK is particularly proud of is yet to be a lot: the business units need to organize c omp any.” and Casablanca in Morocco. launched on the face of it could be huge. af83.com for that, there is a lot of governance and www.agaidi.com He has, together with a partner, developed HR involved.” Though adomik already partners with Advaltis CEO and founder Jaoued Ahmed a tool called My App Converter, which Louis Montagne Tiina Vuorio New York City-based AppNexus, Schueller was born in France, but moved to the UK converts the code of applications from one Af83 boasts an impressive client list, which remains trepidatious in approaching in 1994 to undertake a PhD at Oxford platform to another. “As you know mobile Software includes companies such as EDF, the giant Telecommunications the U.S. advertising market. With the University. In the late 1990s he went to applications are everywhere, everyone has electric utility company, France TV and company off and running, Schueller says work for major telecoms companies in an application for anything. Whether it’s France Opera Online. Another client, Cleverscale, Finland adomik concentrates on impetus in a London, including British Telecom, Cable weather, food, games, maps, there is an a cloud based platform for content market still finding its footing. “Our belief & Wireless and Logica. Towards the end of application for it. The problem is you have No delivery and analytics, was pleased with N/A is that this whole business is a question of 2010 he quit his job at Logica to become four or five mobile handsets with different the work done. “af83 demonstrated their momentum, so we are [making decisions] and entrepreneur. operating systems mainly Android Apple, ability to innovate and propose the right very quickly, we are building features Blackberry and Windows,” he says. » In 2006 Louis Montagne and Stephane technologies and infrastructure related to » A small company in Finland has begun after the customers’ sponsorship,” he says. “I needed two things, one is a great idea and Distinguin were part of a Parisian analytics,” said Anh-Tuan Gai, Founder & trials on a system which may revolutionize “Our forecast is to double the customer the other is investment funding. Over time One of the biggest frustration for mobile delegation visiting San Francisco, along CEO, CleverScale. the way supermarkets advertise and portfolio each quarter.” However, growth I managed to get the two,” says Mr. Ahmed. application developers is that once an with the Mayor of Paris, to sign the digital promote their products to shoppers while untempered by strategy won’t yield the “So I gave my resignation to Logica and in application is developed, it has to be sister cities act. The pair were on the trip The competition in the market is tough. they are in the store. results adomik hopes for. “We need to September 2010 I set up Advaltis UK to recoded to work on other platforms. as entrepreneurs, and were keen to learn “There is a lot of competition on the tech be very cautious of the maturity of our help companies to accelerate their adoption from the thriving technology sector in and communication side. There are very Agaidi, a firm based in Espoo, Finland, addressable market because again, life is Supporting all these different platforms of cloud computing services.” San Francisco. They discovered many new few competitors, at least on the French and consisting of eight employees, has changing for publishers and networks,” he costs both time and money. My App ways to embrace the digital revolution, market, for user experience, and, very, combined its expertise in low power says. Converter works in three steps, a user The cloud services market is an extremely uploads the code for their application, and on their return journey they decided very few competitors managing correctly wireless technology and electronic profitable one. Earlier this year Gartner the mix between user experience and paper to build a system which offers As the company gains ground, Schueller the coding is done automatically by the to form an agency, one which they named tech,” says Mr. Montagne. supermarkets the chance to advertise projects adomik will cross the break-even released a report forecasting that the company, and it is then downloaded for after the flight number they were on at the line into profitability in 2015. public cloud services market would whichever platform was selected. time – af83. offers and promotions to customers based grow 18.55 in 2013 to $131 billion. “The The company has a subsidiary office in San on where they are on the store. continued growth of the cloud services However, Mr. Ahmed has decided to “We decided to create this company as Francisco, but for now it is mainly focused market will result from the adoption of launch the new product as a new company, a mix between a technology consulting on Europe and expanding locally. This The technology is fitted onto the handle Advaltis cloud services for production systems and and funding has become an issue. “We company and a web agency. With the expansion is being targeted internally and bars of the shopping cart, and operates workloads, in addition to the development have some funding issues, we are launching strong will to work on the hard subject of externally, with the firm aiming to add IoT completely wirelessly. This allows www.advaltis.com and testing scenarios that have led as it separately as a separate company. We helping our clients turn their businesses and mobile experts to the team, and also to supermarkets to do two things – one is to track shoppers as they move around the most prominent use case for public were supposed to launch by end of June the to digital,” says Mr. Montagne. “What we increase sales. Mr. Montagne says that the Jaoued Ahmed the store, giving them crucial business cloud services to date,” said Ed Anderson, iOS to Android automatic code conversion saw and learned in San Francisco and the company is aiming for two new clients in intelligence by tracking the habits and research director at Gartner. but we’ve suspended it until September Valley helped us build the proposition that Germany, one in the U.S. and one in Asia. Cloud Computing patterns of their customers. The second because there is still some mapping work we have today. There was a cruel need for He also reveals that this summer has seen is even more interesting. “Because we Although he was targeting the UK and to be done. As opposed to launch a semi- that in France with almost no players on an increase in activity due to a number of UK have this ePaper display attached to the French markets, Mr. Ahmed decided finished product we decided to postpone. this market.” reasons. handlebar, it is able to show customers to build the services he was to offer in I need a chairman basically, someone to No The market for helping companies embrace “In France, 60% of the PIB is made up by different types of coupons or promotions Morocco, and Casablanca in particular. raise the profile of My App Converter,” says digital is a huge one, but is difficult to companies that do need to transform and or offers related to the place where the “Altogether we have 20 people, mainly Mr. Ahmed. serve, according to Mr. Montagne. “Our the future leaders, market by market, will customer is,” says Tiina Vuorio, CEO and » software developers and software Designing a piece of software is very main strength is that we managed to have be those who managed the mutation. Co-Founder of Agaidi. “So it’s basically engineers. One solution we are proud of The company has already done some free energy expensive process. The amount teams specialized in user experience, tech location based advertising or promotions which we are trying to boost across the conversions for I.T. companies that have of work which goes into applications, and communications, working together to This is the first reason. The second is that within stores.” market, is a software testing platform approached them and there is a sense of games and cloud services cannot be create new services. The basic idea behind the crisis leads to thoughts about strategy underestimated. Therefore products which called Act, Adaltis cloud testing,” says Mr. intrigue about the product already. If it the need for digital transformation is that for a lot of companies. Which often leads to This type of system has been tried before help ease the whole process are very highly Ahmed. makes it to market successfully it could it allows our clients to become leaders on digital. At least to considering it strategic. with LCD displays, but trials have always valued. have a major impact on one of the biggest come unstuck when faced with the issue “That’s quite a breakthrough because you their markets,” he states. Which is good for us,” says Mr. Montagne. markets in technology – mobile apps. of charging. The ePaper displays used in A company based in the UK is offering don’t need a license, you don’t need to “It’s easy to sell. Transformation of the the Agaidi solution are battery powered. a suite of products that do just that, and install anything you just upload the online business means mainly adding digital The system is currently being trialled by two of them stand out in particular – and then you can carry on your software one in development and another already testing,” he adds.
16 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 17 Top 100 Companies: Europe
a major Finish hypermarket chain and Ms. Vuorio believes the American public Amikod. “Amikod is changing the rules the company will begin another pilot in would react well to the offers appearing on of providing loans to small and medium Sweden in September. their shopping carts. companies. What we do is very simple – our partners or customers simply come on our A recent report by Gartner revealed that Initial testing results from the pilot of the webpage and register for our solutions and this form of marketing was very much a Agaidi system have been encouraging. Of start to use them. After three months we reality, and would be seen widely in the the shoppers who used a shopping cart approach them and if we see that they have future. “A future is coming when shoppers with the system installed, 95% of those made some progress in the organization will get personalized, real-time offers while interviewed afterwards said they noticed of the company, we simply give them an they are in the store, powered by context- the promotions were changing as they were offer for financing and our top consultancy aware computing,” the report, titled Me going around the store, and understood helping them be even better organized.” Marketing: Prepare for the Challenges that the messages were referring to of Real-Time, Context-Aware Offers in products that were nearby. Over 60% of Although currently based in Slovenia, the Consumer Goods, stated. respondents took action and went to items company is in the middle of a proposed advertised or actually bought them. move to London. Mr. Brilly proudly states Other forms of location based advertising that the company is profitable currently, are popular, but have led some to question In a market such as this, Agaidi will only and is making 50% returns, on average, whether the privacy of the consumer is need one major contract for the idea to on the loans that it is providing for its invaded, particularly when they have take off. There are few, if any, alternatives customers. not opted into a service. Agaidi does on the market which deliver this type of have a solution to provide personalized marketing, and with all the shopping carts The company was conceived as a reaction marketing, but it doesn’t affect the user’s being used in the world every day, the to the reckless lending Mr. Brilly witnessed privacy in any way. opportunity is huge. prior to the economic downturn which has hit Europe so hard. “There was too “In our solution there is an option, and much money on the market, the money we believe it would be a really cool thing, was cheap, the request to get the money where me as a customer for example, when was easy, so with ours it’s different. You I go to the hypermarket I could touch the Amikod need it make some kind of improvement handlebar with a card or smart phone and in your organization. It’s good for you as it would identify me and after that I get www.amikod.com/en well because you become profitable as a these cool offers and promotions that are company too. But for sure the environment only for me,” says Ms. Vuorio. “People are Andrej Brilly is why we are growing.” willing to accept advertisement and offers if they are relevant to them. When I leave Banking/M&A Mr. Brilly explains that the company the hypermarket I show my card again and is currently finalizing stage one of its it says goodbye. So it knows I’m identified Slovenia roadmap. This stage involved achieving the with the cart but it is in my control and it best business model and finding ways for has a start and an ending.” No the business to be as efficient as possible. As part of this first stage the company Agaidi was created with loans from a is about to release a new solution onto Finnish government program and a handful » One of the biggest challenges for any the market, a communication tool that of angel investors, but the company now small or medium sized enterprise is to promotes collaboration within companies. needs more investment. “We have ongoing raise the cash needed to make the business Amikod will offer the tool for free, and discussions with a few investors but we are a success. In recent years, a number of follows the strategy of giving the tools looking for investors until something is new financing methods have emerged as for companies to improve at no charge, closed. Another option is of course to look options for entrepreneurs, such as peer to and then approaching the company over for strategic investment from the industry peer lending and crowdfunding. Another funding. The company also plans to and that is something that interests us a solution is also being offered by a company offer two solutions which will be sold to lot,” says Ms. Vuorio. in Slovenia, and it may have the potential to customers in the coming months. The final disrupt the lending industry permanently. process in this stage is for the company to The company is also looking at the U.S. move capital from Slovenia to the UK. market as an ideal location for its solution. “If I had 30 seconds to introduce my U.S. supermarkets or grocery stores have a company I would say something like this,” The second stage involves relocating large number of coupons and offers, and says Adrej Brilly, founder and CEO of the headquarters of the company from
18 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
Slovenia to the UK and spread the business Anatole mobility are typically a third to half of the been a consumer market, but companies the mobile app market, and previously to bundle that into several products through Europe. Amikod is aiming to raise industry standard. A telecom manager that are just beginning to understand what it worked on the client side of the business, and services that we can then promote 15 million Euros in capital and another www.anatole.net typically oversees 1,000 to 2,000 devices can bring them as well as the challenges. with agencies. He noticed not only the internationally,” says Mr Kanji. 700 million Euros from debt financing. can often handle 2,000 to 4,000 devices Managing budget expense is absolutely key. huge gap in the mobile market, but “Altogether we believe we can reach the Nicolas Peltier using Anatole’s software. We are in an ideal position for this market.” also the inconsistency of work within The company may also look to expand into turnover of more than 250 million Euros mobile application development. “I was the Middle East and Africa in the future, based on that capital and debt and we need Software Headquartered in France, Anatole’s focus increasingly frustrated with the lack of and as attitudes towards mobile changes, to get only 500-700 customers to reach is primarily Europe, where it excels due quality and focus that was given to mobile the company can expect an increase in that, and that is not so large amount for France to the vast network of providers on the — it’s a niche channel and a specialist area,” business. “Still I think when we talk to Europe so we don’t see any problems to get continent. Unlike the mere handful in the Apptivation recalls Mr. Kanji. marketing managers, generally 70-80% this amount of cash. Already in Slovenia Yes US, Europe has as many as 150 carriers. of their focus and budget goes towards Just under a year ago, Mr. Kanji formed we have 100 customers and the demand is Countries have their own data regulations, Mobile traditional channels,” reveals Mr Kanji. Apptivation, which is described as a full quite large,” says Mr. Brilly. currencies, and languages. Anatole’s system » In the age of Bring Your Own Device is deeply engrained with each carrier to www.apptivation.co.uk service mobile agency. “I wanted to create an “Mobile in a lot of circles is still treated as Mr. Brilly says that the way in which to work and the proliferation of mobility, be able to handle them all. “This is more agency consisting of the best and brightest ‘we know we need to do something and we that understood mobile and getting them companies are evaluated prior to them companies have a lot more to worry than just iPhone and Android capability,” Mark Kanji know its growing, but lets just dip our toe to work with some of the biggest and most being given loans is out of date, and this about when it comes to IT expenses than Peltier said. “Telecom expenses have to in the water and get an app out there.’ So challenging brands to deliver innovative is the problem that his company remedies. just office desktops or the printer that be integrated with IT asset management, Mobile I think the biggest challenge is to educate solutions,” Mr Kanji said. “They are simply taking the financial data constantly breaks down. As businesses dealing with security, ESCHER, Finance, brands that if you get this right on mobile see increased mobility use among their and a whole range of web services.” UK and you think of it as a holistic approach of the company, checking it and if they see Apptivation recorded turnover of $12.5 that this company is valued then they give employees, managing those devices integrating other channels then you’ll Facing a worldwide market estimated at No million in its first year and is forecasting them the loan. With us it’s different because becomes an expensive challenge where end up with a much stronger return on $2 billion, Anatole serves over 250 end that figure to double to $25 million in we believe that financial data is history, costs easily run out of control. investment.” customers, typically companies earning the second. It’s focus so far has been on and with how the world is changing so fast Anatole provides fixed and mobile telecom $5 million to $40 million per year. For the » The arrival of the internet brought with the banking sector, but there are plans to The company is expecting to double its and business is changing so fast, you need lifecycle management solutions. It helps past six years, it has grown 20 to 50 percent it a world of possibilities for every business expand into travel, automotive and retail. number of staff to 100 in its second year, a to adopt organisation.” corporate accounts to grasp their telecom annually, with a high renewal rate. Its base on the planet. But it also produced a huge process that could prove challenging as the Apptivation took off fast, and the company budget and reduce both direct and indirect continues to expand as its own customers gap in skills that was promptly exploited by talent pool for those with skills in mobile “We give you the tools and approaches went from one employee, the founder Mr. costs. Anatole empowers the management globalize the solution. entrepreneurs the world over. Gradually, application development is a shallow one. which help you have better organisation Kanji, to 50 in approximately six weeks. The of expenses from any network, and the world caught up and e-commerce, web “There’s a massive war going on at the and this helps you become more organised, company immediately targeted the finance provides a vision on the telecom Founded in 1999, Anatole began selling marketing and internet based services are moment in trying to attract the best and and organized companies become more sector and got its reward when it landed convergence challenges. It also specifically mobile devices to carriers, but quickly now the norm. But then along came mobile, competitive, and more competitive a deal with Lloyds Banking Group in the brightest when it comes to mobile,” says helps answer today’s mobility challenges, recognized the pain telecom companies and the whole process started again. companies make profit and only profitable United Kingdom, to be the banking giant’s Mr. Kanji. “It’s still a growing industry and including BYOD, policy management and had managing the expense. The company for us and when we need to scale upwards companies can pay the loan,” he concludes. Once again a skills gap has been created, mobile solutions provider. Apptivation real time costs analysis. decided to instead switch to a telecom it’s an increasing challenge trying to find, expense management company, rewriting as large corporations scramble to ensure delivers al of the mobile browser sites and native apps for the banking group, hire and also retain the best people in “We help large accounts control their the entire network in 2009 to handle its a presence in the mobile channel. “What across all platforms. The firm will also the market. It’s an incredibly competitive budgets and reduce spend,” said Nicolas growing customer base and the massive we’re seeing right now is basically every build enterprise solutions and business to market and there are lots of opportunities Peltier, CEO of Anatole. “A big part of it amount of data that generated. large corporation has budget and activity consumer applications for Lloyds Banking for good people.” is about mastering and reducing your going on around mobile application development,” says Ian Finley, Research Group in the future. invoices from subscribers, but it is also The company has raised $5.2 million Apptivation aims to reach 50-100 banks through minimizing indirect costs, which from A Plus Finance, an independent Vice President, Gartner. “Generally both on With success arriving quickly in its home in the next two years, and few would tend to be very expensive. With our private equity firm, as well as existing the client facing side and on the employee market, Apptivation is now looking to bet against it, given the lightening start solution, you know who owns what; you shareholders. Coming out of a strong facing side.” expand beyond the UK. “The focus so the company has made in the mobile are able to set up and enforce telecom investment phase, it recently reached the “We have this very rapid expansion and a far has been in the UK but our intention application development market. “We see policies, allocate thresholds, and gain an breakeven point. Today it earns about $10 number of companies looking for services is within the next six months is to start demand continuing to grow and banks and ability to have a strong control with what million in revenue. Peltier sees a potential and the skills are not keeping up so we have promoting our products internationally. other brands will continue to look at ways you allow users to do. Companies today for $40 million to $65 million in the next a lot of people looking for those skills,” he Generally speaking I think the UK is a little in which they can use mobile to enrich a need to master their telecom expenses.” five to eight years. adds. bit ahead now in terms of the rest of the customer experience, retain the customers world when it comes to banking products and also push new products and services Anatole’s clients typically realize a 15 to “Everything is moving very fast in mobility Mark Kanji, now CEO and founder of on mobile and we’re hoping to deliver all of to them and monetize the channel.,” 25 percent return in investment. Indirect management, and for corporate customers Apptivation, was a keen observer of our insight, experience and best practices concludes Mr. Kanji. costs and the time spent managing it’s a critical subject,” Peltier said. “It has
20 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 21 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
Automsoft area. There are two basic products in the have conversations with people and that’s sports arenas before. But adding more about $420 million in one-time revenue,” private investors added $1 million to the company, there is the database engine something we continue to do because it’s microphones made no difference — even Sathya says. “Similarly if you take the funding pot, and the company received www.automsoft.com itself, which is the storage and retrieval an open questions as to whether one way when, Sathya says, a leading south Brazilian highlights and the other products, you’re the FIT (Foundation for Technological logic, for want of a better term. And that of accelerating our growth is to take a large looking at close to half a billion in one- broadcaster put them inside the ball itself. Innovation) loan amounting to CHF sometimes is licensed to third parties who chunk of money. So we’re open minded time sales... in just the tier one market, the Paraic O’Toole Rather than picked up, sound had to be 350,000 from the Swiss canton of Vaud. put their own analytics and visualizations about that.” drawn out, using technology overlaid on top broadcasters.” Maintenance support add recurring revenues to the opportunity. Sathya puts AVK on the path to raising Clean Tech on it,” explains Mr. O’Toole. “And then an established framework. “The key thing Meanwhile, AVK’s live offering goes an additional $10 million, now speaking there is the second part which can be about the technology is that it works with embedded with the first but can also be together with set-top boxes, of which there with a number of institutional investors Ireland the existing infrastructure,” Sathya says. standalone and that is the visualization are 170 million in the United States. “Set- that have discussed a pre-money valuation AVK Systems “[There are] no additional microphones, top boxes get replaced every three to four Yes and analytics platform.” of $30 million. “We intend to raise $10 no additional camera, it’s just a server years so even if you’re selling it at €1 per www.avksystems.com million with a 25 percent valuation in the The time series data can be processed being placed which works on the existing software per set-top box, you’re looking at feed, extracts the sounds that are being lost, something like €230 million, €300 million company,” he says. “Once that $10 million » Any entrepreneur will tell you that there using traditional database technologies, Vijay Sathya needs to be a certain amount of faith in but it takes a lot more work and hardware and brings them back to life.” [from the worldwide set-top box base] is in place, the company should be looking which can happen every three to four the idea of a company. But that faith can costs are much higher as a result. “You Entertainment & Media at consistent revenues of $20 million to $30 be tested when the market doesn’t respond get serious complications with traditional Sathya says his company serves the newly- y e ar s .” million in 2015.” minted HD Audio market. With its tech, as you had hoped and investors start to database technologies,” says Mr. O’Toole. Switzerland In total, B2B offers the company the turn away. Paraic O’Toole was not even the “Currently we have the highest performing AVK provides sound solutions for league Currently, revenues stream mostly from chance at $300 million to $400 million in founder of Automsoft, when the venture time series database in the world, we’re N/A partners, and will offer its service direct-to- Switzerland, pinned to the European soccer revenues per year. Big money could come capitalists invested in the company got pretty sure of that, nothing else comes consumers with a mobile application. “You in windfalls should their app catch users’ scene. Sathya sees AVK setting up shop in cold feet. Instead of walking away though, close to it. To give you an idea, just based have the B2B model when you’re selling attention. AVK will cross the Atlantic to in India and America as well. In the latter he bought them out. And now he’s reaping on some live data experiences at one of the » AVK Systems delivers HD Audio where to broadcasters, but we’re also pairing pursue consumers and the B2C market, a market, the company looks to expand into the rewards. major oil companies, we can insert data media watchers used to hear nothing. The up with the B2C experience ...wherein billion dollar opportunity. into the database with a bout 2.5 million company’s tech separates specific sounds we are building a new mobile and tablet other sports like baseball, basketball and Automsoft is a database technology events per second and we can retrieve data football. from cacophony, enriching a listener’s application called Pitchscreen,” he says. AVK currently works with the Swiss League company, with a focus on time series data. from the database at about 4 million events experience. and has “roughly five [B2B] customers.” “Back in the late 90s early 200s was identify per second.” “It’s all a question of money,” he says. To monetize, AVK charges customers per Latent scale potential rests in partnership that the technology for managing data It hit AVK’s founder and CEO Vijay Sathya game or per minute, as clients use the discussions with brands like Sky and with a single index, in this case time, was The industries which are using this while watching sports with a friend: the company’s servers and services to enrich Brazil’s TV Globo. Sathya also mentions Sathya says AVK is at a crossroads — technology are the ones which are making actually very limited,” says Mr. O’Toole, sound of silence. sound in clips, highlights and live games. he has contacts with FIFA and UEFA. where an “influx of capital is really going CEO of Automsoft. “What we saw was the better use of sensors and gathering more Companies choose AVK for its capabilities “We’re on the verge of signing contracts to change the way this company functions,” data about their operations. This trend “In 2006 ... I was watching a game of emergence of large scale sensor networks, with major European soccer leagues...and falls in line with the larger Big Data — but also because nobody else does what Sathya says. “We will go from a startup to metering systems and control systems tennis in the U.K. It was an old game we have interest from Brazil for the World phenomenon, which is ever growing. “The they do. “It’s totally a blue ocean, there is no being a small corporate entity.” The coming that were starting to generate a very large between Jimmy Connors and McEnroe... Cup, so things have really started picking Big Data technology and services market competition, and I don’t think in coming year may see rapid growth, international volume of time series data.” and you could hear the ball being smacked up,” Sathya says. In the next year, Sathya represents a fast-growing, multibillion- three to five years anyone will come this expansion, and a B2C product. around,” Sathya says. “Apparently England hopes to tap the top five European leagues, Time series data is usually a measurement dollar worldwide opportunity. The Big Data far,” says investor Omprakash Yadav. was playing Croatia [at the same time], while the next deal they sign will help them of some kind. In the example of an oil market is expanding rapidly as large IT “Because it takes a lot of research, a lot of and [my friend’s girlfriend] zapped the cross the line into profitability. “Every deal With potential partnerships and product companies and start-ups vie for customers mathematical algorithm to extract the real company, the data can be taken while channel, and at that instant, Beckham was that comes in, you end up having high offerings lined up, a favorable wind will drilling for oil. The temperature and depth and market share,” said Dan Vesset, vice taking a free kick.” sound from a big field.” margins,” he says. “We’re really poised for send the company zooming into profits. of the drill (plus many other variables) president for IDC’s Business Analytics and explosive growth and what we need now is But Sathya notes a Plan B ready to deploy can be recorded at extremely frequent Big Data program. “IDC expects the Big Suddenly, the sound subsided from Sathya splits up the B2B market based on capital.” intervals, and each measurement is Data technology and services market to the smack of rackets smashing balls to product offerings for slow-motion, live if the clock runs out. ‘If we don’t get our act together in the next one year, we probably structured with a timestamp and then the grow at a 31.7% compound annual growth nothing. “There was a close up shot on the games and highlights. AVK’S slow-motion Seed and Series A financing adds up value. This may not seem like the most rate through 2016.” soccer ball and he smacked the ball and product runs clients $70,000, and with to about $2 million, with the company will end up being acquired,” he says. “But difficult data to deal with, but in some I couldn’t hear it,” Sathya says. “Hang on, about 6,000 sales points “you’re talking previously valued at $10 million. Recently, we’re trying to play the game right and cases these measurements are taken every Automsoft is not actively looking for that was tennis ten years ago and this is make sure that we can scale up fast.” 100 nanoseconds, meaning the process investors, but that is not to say it hasn’t had football today, and you can’t hear the ball.” takes a huge amount of processing time. offers, and Mr. O’Toole says he is keeping his options open. “We’re not particularly Others had tried to solve the problem of Automsoft has two offerings in this looking for funding at this time but we sound on the soccer field and in other
22 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 23 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
BestList.nl the report. The U.S. has always dominated biggest shopping platform there is and in that process we saw that there is huge “If it has had an impact on revenue is yet could become the go-to place for the the e-commerce sector but other regions then a huge gap to the number two,” says glitch. The companies that are delivering to be proven, but what’s more important is manufacturers and designers of the www.beslist.nl are beginning to catch up, most notably Mr. Verpalen. the products are not part of the process.” that without BIMobject we would not be industry. the Asia Pacific. “Western Europe will considered as a supplier with a complete Kees Verpalen continue in third place globally. The share BIMobject tries to resolve that issue with assortment,” Kærgaard says. British law of Eastern Europe of global ecommerce a two-year-old cloud-based portal. It requires 3D BIM plans for all public Internet/Online has been increasing up to 2012, but will provides software tools, web solutions buildings, and as a supplier for the UK likely decrease steadily through 2016 as BIMobject and services that assist its customers in market, this was critical for Velfac. Brand Embassy other emerging regions increase their the creation of BIM objects in several Netherlands www.bimobject.com www.brandembassy.com share,” says the report, titled Global B2C formats, and introduces them to a cloud- It took Larsson eight months to build the based platform. Architects can then use right business model. Manufacturers pay N/A E-Commerce Sales and Shares Report Stefan Larsson Vit Horky 2013. the cloud-based system to find specific BIMobject to build digital replicas for products, thereby generating sales for the their products and publish them on the Internet/Online Social Media manufacturers. Architects and consultants platform. “The replicas imitate the way » Prior to founding BesList.nl, a price BesList makes its money from the companies that list their products on the can share data, while all plans, sections that objects can open and close in reality, comparison website operating in The Sweden UK site. There are around 8,000 shops listing and elevations are generated automatically change colors according to the design, Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium, Kees products on the site, and 2,000 of these and kept updated, thanks to the cloud. etc.” Larsson explains. Their company also Verpalen had a terrible experience buying No No are pay per click. “We’ve got a bidding Advanced calculations take factors such as builds microsites with the software, creating a copier for his previous firm. It was an algorithm so you can decide how much sunlight and shadows, energy and carbon private clouds for specific manufacturers experience so bad, that it prompted him you want to pay us per visitor per type of dioxide, airflow and sound simulations upon request. to start his current company, which offers » Building Information Modeling (BIM) » Social media has created new and product. It can vary. For notebooks for into account. They may prove critical to exciting ways for businesses to interact consumers the chance to compare prices has been around since the 1970s, but Architects can contact manufacturers example, you can offer us 20 cents but you figuring out how energy-efficient a project with their customers. However, with so on thousands of everyday products. was only implemented in projects in the directly through the platform, but can also say I don’t want to pay anything. is, for example. many opinions being posted on so many late 1980s. Today, it is used for decision- BIMobject is not part of the ordering What we do is we list the merchants that different sites, tracking, managing and “With the company I had before I once making in the design and construction “The fact that with BIMobject we did process. “That’s a very complex issue in the are willing to pay us more higher than the responding to customer views can become ordered a fax copier machine. At the time of buildings, through to the operational not have to choose ArchiCAD or Revit construction industry,” Larsson explains. merchants who are paying us less,” explains very tricky. This is why the social media it cost 1000 Euros and a week later I saw life of a facility after it is built. The (different BIM softwares), but we could Mr. Verpalen. customer service market is taking off. the very same product in another store Swedish company BIMobject uses its BIM have both, plus another software, was very “Designers waste a lot of time on building for 500 Euros and I felt screwed, so that’s technology to create a social network, the “lego” pieces when trying to guess data The price comparison market is a crowded appealing to us. We found a partner who Brand Embassy, a company formed two where the idea came from, I don’t like to be connecting product manufacturers in about the objects in their designs, while and competitive one. And further treats could help us reach a wide range of users,” years ago, operates in this space. The screwed and other people in Holland don’t the engineering, design and construction the manufacturer can provide it,” Larsson are on the horizon for BesList. “Amazon says Mathias Odén, Product Manager company offers a platform which aggregates like that either,” says Mr. Verpalen. (AEC) fields to architects around the says. The company has had three rounds is going to start in Holland as well, they LECA at Weber manufacturers in Sweden. customer reviews and comments from all world. “Our task is to become the Facebook of investment adding up to a total of $1.1 should have started in October last year, BIMobject also presented Weber with new over the internet and provides a simple Beslist developed all of its price comparison within the construction-architecture million in funding. The main investors and I thought the plans were for them product capabilities such as integrated system for customer relationship personnel technology in house. “The first year and industry,” says Stefan Larsson, CEO & co- involved are Larsson and the rest of the to launch this summer but I haven’t seen analytics, which helped them keep up with to reply with. a half we didn’t earn any money and our them yet. But sooner or later they will founder of BIMobject. the BIM industry. management team, while French investors first break even month was somewhere come in our direction. So we’re facing and business angels are also backing the “We saw this gap on the market of creating in the beginning of 2006, we invested a some stiff competition from companies The National Building Information Model “The portal has also been a communication company. a technology that will help them to listen year and a half almost on the technology,” that are larger and bigger than we are,” says Standard Project Committee defines the line between us as a supplier and our to their customers across their social media says Mr. Verpalen. “We processed all the “VCs are rarely used in Europe in these Mr. Verpalen. technology as “a digital representation of customers, as they create requests for new platforms and help them to engage the early phases of a company, unlike in the data we had to make sure we could match physical and functional characteristics of objects through the portal. In this way customers on their preferred channel of U.S. where they are more open-minded,” products together while building the However, the company is investing in a facility.” Indeed, BIM takes architectural the objects are developed organically, as communication,” says Vit Horky, CEO of Larsson says. The stock market is a entire infrastructure. It was a lot of work new technology and brand awareness models from 2D to 3D, and adds they need them,” says Malene Koustrup Brand Embassy. and it took more time than I estimated techniques in order to combat this. Last helpful, relevant information. This type Kærgaard, Operations Manager of Project better opportunity for a small company but eventually we got there. But we’re still year the firm began sponsoring a speed of modeling takes into account spatial Sales at Velfac A/S, a Danish window like BIMobject, Larsson says. An IPO is “Our approach is that companies shouldn’t working on it after eight years, it’s never skating team in the Netherlands, and it has relationships between objects, quantities, manufacturer. “Without very much support imminent. “Industrial companies have also care so much about where the customers perfect.” started a major TV campaign which will colors and more. BIM also allows better from us, they have found all necessary tried to partner with us but it’s dangerous are, it’s our responsibility that we will run for a further year and a half. virtual communication between the design information to create the objects. For us, for us since we are building a neutral be able to deliver them a platform that is Price comparison websites are being driven team, the manufacturers, the contractors this is important as we have no in-house platform and everybody is welcome,” he listening to all of the customers out there. by the ever growing e-commerce market. The company is focusing solely on and others that can add data and view the skills in this area, and have worked with a adds. We do have very sophisticated monitoring, A recent report by Hamburg based yStat. The Netherlands and Flanders for the project simultaneously. very time-demanding supplier before,” she which is covering over 60 million web With BIM use and global understanding com revealed that business to consumer foreseeable future, and can’t envisage adds. pages, discussion forums and blogs in 25 of its importance growing, BIMobject ecommerce is growing significantly across international expansion in the near term. “In the last 10 years BIM is what everybody different languages,” he adds. the globe. E-commerce accounts for just “Our ambition is to create some kind is going for,” says Larsson, who’s been part over 5% of total sales globally, according to of role that Amazon has in the U.S., the of the industry for more than 25 years. “But
24 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 25 Top 100 Companies: Europe
A recent report by RnR Market Research acquisition,” says Mr. Horky. “We’ve been Tomasz Adamek took the platform one revealed that the social customer reaching out to companies out there in step further and developed a cloud-based relationship management market is the market as well as receiving a lot of image recognition solution for more than expected to be valued at $1.91bn in 2013, interest from the customers so we need to 4 years, until it was ready to serve a larger and is set to grow to $9.08bn by 2018. manage it properly. Also, we’ll be releasing market. new innovations to our product which is Brand Embassy’s customers include very important because we believe today The company was finally founded in Vodafone, Telefonica and Huawei, and the platform itself is already the best January 2012. “It wasn’t a side project, we they offer glowing reviews. “Thanks to on the market and I mean globally for took the time to create a business plan,” Brand Embassy we have everything in one social media customer service. But we says Marimon, who was a Former Project system – from customer responses to our know that we need to keep up the same Manager of Mobile Augmented Reality own notes and statistics therefore we have speed of innovation to stay ahead of the and Contextual Services at Telefónica, more time to take care of our customers,” competition.” and is Catchoom’s CEO today. Telefónica says Ondrej Ullmann, Social Networks sold Catchoom’s technology to customers Specialist at Vodafone. The company recently released new before it was established as a company, and reporting and analytics capabilities into transferred them once Catchoom had been The social media customer service Brand Embassy and will soon be launching established. The strategy meant Catchoom market is a very new one, and that creates a new social customer relationship had customers right away. challenges for those operating in it. Some management tool into the platform. The education is required to inform the market company seems well positioned to take Catchoom’s first customers were the of the full potential of social media, and full advantage of a market which provides augmented reality technology companies how it can be properly utilized to interact an increasingly vital service to the business Metaio and Layar. When readers scan with customers. Another challenge the world. magazine or newspaper pages that have companies operating in this space face been augmented with Layar, content is the language barrier. For a company appears at the top of the printed page. (For to use the Brand Embassy platform to its example, a photo in the magazine might full potential on a global scale, they must Catchoom suddenly start playing as a video.) In order have local customer service agents to to know which content to show, Layar communicate with customers in their own www.catchoom.com uses Catchoom’s technology to recognize language. the page out of hundreds of thousands of David Marimon other pages already uploaded to Layar’s The Brand Embassy platform also provides platform. companies with data and analytics, which Cloud Computing The OnForce Promise can help decision makers. “Our clients Dirk Groten, CTO at Layar, says that have been using Brand Embassy on a Spain Catchoom has the best recall rate in the daily basis on the actual engagement of industry today, i.e. the highest percentage the customers. And on the executive level Yes of matches for images scanned and marketing directors and CMOs have been recognized on Layar’s database. “Without using the analytics and data coming out of it, our users would have to tell us in another Brand Embassy when they need to make » When you take a picture with your way what they are looking at, which would an important decision over how to change smartphone, the device deploys software severely deteriorate the user experience communication towards customers,” says trained to recognize specific items, words and the ease of use of our application,” Mr. Horky. and objects for you. Catchoom produces Groten adds. the image recognition technology that The company has a large focus on enables a smartphone to know who’s who Image recognition is extremely important innovation and half of its employees are in and what’s what. when it comes to Layar’s market. According the project teams which are given the task to Layar’s 30M report from April 2013, of working on new releases of the Brand Catchoom began as a spin-off of when an image is present as interactive Embassy platform and new products in the Telefónica Digital, and was meant to be print content, it has a much higher click company’s portfolio. a supermarket sales booster. The system rate. In fact, 41 percent of all clicks in 2013 allowed customers to take pictures have gone to images. Innovation is just one of the main goals of products while they shopped, and of the company in the future. “Definitely connected users immediately to pages with A retail customer can upload a collection continuing with the rapid customer details about goods. David Marimon and in less than a minute and add new images
26 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
quickly. Catchoom never contacts the end focus more on developers, they don’t reach One of the major challenges that cable, in the U.S. as well, as multi-screening “This is a small market for the big players, critical to manage the complexities of a user, but rather a development house or out to brands and media as much, while satellite and telco IPTV providers need to expands and more users consume their but for us it’s huge,” Rosen says, adding large printing network, yet a major source an agency that creates these platforms. the market that we approach is closer to address is home networking, namely how media through several devices at the same that similar solutions may not cover the of office profanity on any busy afternoon. Developers, ISVs and integrators retail brands,” says Marimon. While IQ to connect the home router with multiple time. “iPads. smartphones and laptops same range of square feet that Celeno’s Large organizations invest in multiple use Catchoom’s technology to create Engines requires its customers to use its set-top boxes and a digital video recorder can only work with WiFi and this creates chips do, while competitors’ error rate is local print servers in order to deliver the applications so shoppers using their apps app, Marimon says, Catchoom provides a (DVR). Installing new cables can take time demand for better quality of WiFi which usually higher. print order more directly to the nearest can take pictures from their smartphones solution which integrates with the platform and money. To avoid that, service providers allows users to purchase video content printer, which can expound a print job and get connected to websites, online a customer already has. try to rely on no-new-wires technologies. on their tablet and watch it on their TV,” The initial investment in the company five to 10 times as it’s processed through content, offers, and digital experiences. In this respect, wireless technology such as Rosen explains. came from private investors who were the system. A system of 20,000 printers The biggest challenge ahead is educating WiFi is cheap, flexible, and easy to install not as skeptical as others, but the first might require as many as 1,000 servers. Catchoom has licensees that can upload others on how physical objects connect — in other words, it is the most ubiquitous Celeno doesn’t sell directly to telecom large funding round came only after the This requires excessive administration to an unlimited amount of images, but about with the digital world. “We need marketing home networking technology. companies, but to companies which company had a prototype and positive manage and support the distributed fleet. 80 percent of its current customers use its departments to love the idea, but also implement the chip in their products. feedback from clients. The total amount Multiple servers drag down a corporation’s no-cost SaaS model. Over 1,000 people “The WiFi technology allows telecom educate end users,” Marimon says, “Even though we only produce the invested in the company so far stands at $68 bandwidth. If one server goes down, every have registered for the free version since companies to add a new customer in tens of “Imagine that instead of going through technology, the chip itself, we still have million, with the latest series in September print order sent to it grinds to a halt. deployment in November 2012. minutes instead of many hours,” Rosen adds. categories online, you could take a picture to take part in selling the product to the 2012 closing at $24 million. Deutsche of your box of cereal while eating breakfast end-users,” says Rosen. Celeno puts a lot of Telekom is one of the first companies Cirrato vastly simplifies a complex printing Catchoom’s 2012 revenues stood at However, in order to get carrier-grade and buy a new one. We need to convince effort in educating telecoms on their WiFi who supported and guided Celeno, and network by managing as many as 30,000 €175,000. This year the company aims WiFi, Celeno still needs to make much still works with with the company today. supermarkets that they need our solution options, which can be a great challenge. printers through a single printing server. to reach €500,000 and hopes break-even progress; it must also carry out field Other investors include Cisco and Liberty — escape from the ‘Wow’ effect and build It narrows down each printing order to a will arrive early 2014. The company is experiments with partners around the Large cable operators such as Liberty Global. backed by seed VC fund Inveready Asset the usefulness for our technology.” world. This explains the large number of printing ticket, a 200 bit document that Global and Telenor in Europe and Comcast includes all the instructions necessary for Management in Barcelona, which invested offices that the company runs in countries Even though research and development in the United States are already using the print job, including made the order a total of €300,000 in Catchoom in its first like Israel, the U.S., France, Taiwan, Korea expenses are still high, Rosen hopes Celeno’s WiFi chips in their products. and which printer to send it to. The ticket round of funding May 2012. Catchoom and the Ukraine. “We work with clients Celeno works with two telecom companies that the company will reach break-even also enforces office rules and regulations also raised €300,000 from the government from the U.S. and Asia at the same time, in France, along with Sagemcom, which by 2014. “Celeno currently has tens of Celeno regarding each print job, such as not and awaits a second round of funding that which requires unusual work hours and a sells telecom equipment globally. Another millions in sales, but we would like to cross allowing color or expensive formatting or may take place in 2014. www.abc.com very diverse group of people,” Rosen says. big client is Samsung, which operates from the $100 million sales-line in two to three limiting where the job is allowed to print “Sometimes you can hear Hebrew, English, Korea but sells Celeno’s products across years,” Rosen says. He is confident about “We believe image recognition is one of due or by whom. Each ticket ensures the First Lastname French, German and Mandarin, all around Europe and Asia. the future of his product, and predicts than the technology enablers of [augmented the same meeting table.” it’s only a matter of time until the word printing job is sent to the right driver. A reality] which has a chance to become a Blahblahblah “Two years ago the technological barrier “cable” no longer goes with “TV”. global network can be upgraded to the very powerful interface for the mobile Europe is the leading market for video- was the biggest challenge, but now it’s right driver in as little as two minutes. By devices replacing partially the keyboard. Country/State grade WiFi technology, which is mostly the execution, and as the product proves using the ticket method, Cirrato’s software Catchoom has developed a technology concentrated in Germany, Switzerland, itself and the market expands, so will the enables printing jobs to continue on a platform that can serve horizontally the Yes/No the Netherlands and France. “Most of the competition,” Rosen says. 24/7 basis, even when the server is being whole AR ecosystem,” says Ignacio Fonts apartments and homes in Europe don’t Cirrato maintained, upgraded or taken offline. Cavestany, CEO of Inveready. have wires going through their walls due Celeno faces different kinds of Technologies It also eliminates WAN print traffic, » WiFi is found in almost every home, to historical traditions of having only one competition. The strongest type comes simplifies printing server maintenance, “The technology is built in a way that TV at home, so installing cables is more office and coffee shop in the developed from home routers and mobile devices www.cirrato.com and provides complete analytics on provides very high speed which makes complicated, and thus WiFi makes sense,” world, allowing us to surf the web producers, such as Qualcomm, Broadcom printing jobs and infrastructure. recognition possible without having to Rosen explains. wherever we want without the need to and others. However, as the complexity of Gorm Halberg-Lange install the image libraries on the client connect computers to walls or routers. these devices increases, Celeno claims to “A printing network should not cost a device (smartphone) and thus provides The situation in the U.S. market is a lot However, when it comes to the TV in our have the upper hand on the market. Software small fortune to maintain,” said Gorm higher flexibility to publishers,” Cavestany different, where the penetration of cable Halberg-Lange, CEO of Cirrato. “We says, adding that Catchoom technology living room, we still use cables. Established companies has been historically very high in Israel in 2005, Celeno attempts to get Transferring HD video through WiFi Sweden handle large networks in a way that gives is also unique because it can recognize for decades. Hence, many US households requires complicated technologies beyond us full, 100 percent control in most print 3D images, whereas the company’s major rid of these cables by using a Wi-Fi chip have existing cabling infrastructures what’s standard, and Celeno claims to have N/A environments. In a traditional scenario, competitors focus on 2D recognition. portfolio that allows HD video streaming inside the walls in most of their rooms, control over this high-end market of data you simply cannot have this level of control. over standard WiFi. “We had a feeling back though they’re old and in many cases offer and video gateways. According to market Everyone is looking to reconfigure and Catchoom’s competitors include Zurich- then that Wi-Fi was going to become the customers a low-quality experience. research by In-Stat, over 175 million WiFi » Like death and taxes, local print servers consolidate their print infrastructure, and based Kooaba, IQ Engines, based in San dominant technology in everyday life,” says enabled gateways, broadband routers and have long been regarded as a necessary we make it easy. This is a huge opportunity Francisco, and the French company, Gilad Rozen, Celeno’s founder, president Nonetheless, Rosen predicts that WiFi set-top boxes will be shipped in 2015. bane of an office print environment- for us.” Moodstocks. “Kooaba and Moodstocks and CEO. technology for video content is inevitable
28 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 29 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
The company serves more than 150 Self-funded, Cirrato recently achieved an extremely flexible solution to sell books, the process of setting up and managing CloudPay for two successive years. The company customers, including GE Health Care, profitability at a profit margin of 20 percent videos, live streams with the kind of great paywalls,” said Shiri Friedman, director of also opened a new office in Bucharest and Nestle Oil, and the US state of Delaware. EBITA, but invests much of that back into experience you would have on iTunes.” technology partnerships at online video www.cloudpay.net expanded its bases in Raleigh, London, Its revenue and customer installed base its operations. The company earned $4 pioneer Brightcove. “Content owners can Singapore, Shanghai and Paris. has been growing at 110 percent. Most million in 2011, $5.2 million in 2012, and Moreover, it ensures the content is available instantly derive revenues from both on Andrew Pearson of its work is done through partnerships, expects to earn $13.5 million in 2013. Over when requested. “In live content, failure is demand and live video events with pay- “Organizations across every industry particularly printing manufacturers, the next three to four years, Halberg-Lange not an option,” Mr. Domartini added. “To per-view, subscriptions, rentals or metered Cloud Computing are challenged to improve their global who supply the company with larger expects Cirrato’s revenues to grow 400 to guaranty a good experience, you need to paywalls.” payroll processes and seek a company that installments than a direct sales approach 500 percent. make sure consumers get quality access UK can provide a robust solution that brings could provide, Halberg-Lange explained. on devices whenever they want. The As more brands, musicians, and greater control and visibility,” stated Mr. Most printing manufacturers are using “We’ve been taken by surprise by client experience needs to be seamless to avoid a filmmakers turn to independent means to Yes Pearson. “This opens up an enormous third party solutions and need to move to a demand, and it’s changed the way we look disaster.” Having hosted events for Cirque make money, the company finds itself in opportunity for CloudPay across the service client to maintain their place in the at the market dramatically,” Halberg-Lange du Soleil, TED Conferences, and major a market that has only begun to mature. market, particularly with our proven market, he stated. Partners include Canon, said. “We are taking it one step at a time, but sporting events, the company provides a “A massive industry is shifting,” Mr. » Multinational companies are increasingly track record of focusing on the dual and HP, IBM, and Xerox. we really see a two year window to achieve proven method of delivering video and Domartini said. “Geographical expansion looking for centralized payroll operations, complementary tracks of innovation and massive growth. To take advantage of this other content for mass consumption. has enabled a new way of getting content. in order to boost efficiency, according to meeting our customers’ needs.” “Our solution has received quite a opportunity, we need to act now.” Why not simply sell it directly for a single Cloudpay, a company operating in that huge interest because our software can Making a streaming experience similar to contract?” space. The company recently expanded its global integrate higher in IT departments,” iTunes had been the goal of the company operations when it opened offices in Sao So far, the company serves about 2,000 Paulo, Brazil. CloudPay also announced Halberg-Lange said. “We are looking to since the beginning, said Mr. Domartini, Cloudpay, which has offices in New York customers, about 400 of which are that it was forming a partnership with develop a solution where our partners who is a former Apple executive and and London, offers software-as-a-service- significant and active, Mr. Domartini said. Brazilian payroll services firm Apdata. could supply one server solution to worked for the company’s iTunes store. He based payroll automation to multinational later worked for Philips, the electronics It multiplied its revenue 20 times in its first organizations. thousands of customers, which we should Cleeng “CloudPay stands apart from other global conglomerate, where many of the SaaS year, and by six times last year. achieve in the near future.” payroll providers, offering industry- platforms that had been built in the ‘90s The company has targeted a growing www.cleeng.com Mr. Domartini anticipates the company leading expertise and a far reaching Cirrato hopes to be able to double its were more designed for physical goods market. Research by advisory firm Everest earning about $100 million in revenue technology platform unrivaled in the printing capacity of 30,000 printers on one than virtual content in the cloud. “iTunes Group has predicted that the multi- Gilles Domartini over the next two to three years. About 50 payroll space,” said Luiza Nizoli, president server within the next year. taught us that if you provide a good user country payroll outsourcing market will percent of its revenues are concentrated in of Apdata. “We are very excited to grow experience for consumers, they will buy grow from $600 million to $1.3 billion Internet/Online the U.S., with the rest in Western Europe. our relationship with the company, as this About 80 percent of Cirrato’s customer by 2014, boosted by globalization and and continue to buy,” Mr. Domartini said. partnership enables us to provide the very base is currently in Europe, with the rest corporate adoption of SaaS. Netherlands He founded Cleeng along with Donald Res, The company has raised about $1 million. best global payroll solutions to our multi- primarily in the US and Canada, though Nicolas Le Gail, and Benedicte Guicahard It is seeking another $4.5 million round “The value that our solution delivers is national clients.” it has also received considerable interest No in 2011 with the goal of providing a over the next few months to further reflected by exceedingly high rates of in Australia and is looking to foray into seamless e-commerce solution better expand into the U.S.. Headquartered in customer base retention, plenty of new As companies become more and more South America. Buoyed by the interest suited to digital goods. Amsterdam with satellite offices in France, business and a strong pipeline,” said global, and workers are increasingly Cirrato has received in the US, Halberg- » As more video content becomes streamed Poland, and the U.S, Cleeng competes Andrew Pearson, CEO of Cloudpay. “We’ve employed in countries outside of their Lange expects the company’s footprint to on the web, providers need to find better The first year was spent mostly on against Piano Media. assembled a highly qualified executive employers’ headquarters, the need for change dramatically in the coming year to ways to monetize it. development. Sales picked up considerably team and board, invested throughout our global payroll initiatives, which leaves the 60 percent Europe, 40 percent US. in 2012 as the company gained clients, “What makes us a success today is we’ve organization and strengthened the balance likes of CloudPay in a privileged position. Cleeng helps publishers do just this with including Dailymotion. “We might have been able to attract very significant brands sheet with our Series B round of funding Cirrato competes against Nuance, YSoft, premium content. The company provides been a bit early to the game, but now it and customers in two years in a market that to ensure we are able to aggressively and EveryonePrint, but is the only one on an advanced ecommerce platform for seems that the stars are aligning properly,” is extremely complex,” Mr. Domartini said. accelerate our leadership position.” the market to be able to handle such a large digital content, and enables a patented Mr. Domartini said. The company recently “People were skeptical whether you could network of printers from a single printing in-page monetization approach to text, signed partnerships with Brightcove and sell premium content outside Apple or Cloudpay announced impressive results for server. video, photos and apps. It offers pay-per- Livestream. Amazon, but we are proving every day you 2012, doubling the number of clients with click, metered paywall or subscription, and can generate revenue and build a stronger recurring revenue of $1 million or more Founded in 2003, Cirrato received patents ensures that content is not only readily Cleeng built an integration with audience through premium content.” for its technology in 2005. Working with available, but is also paid for. Brightcove’s Video Cloud that allows a few pilot clients, it honed its solution allows joint customers to monetize their over several years before fully launching “With Cleeng, publishers don’t need to online video content. to market in 2010. The company is build their own specific e-commerce headquartered in Stockholm, with sales environments,” said Gilles Domartini, “Online video monetization can be offices in the US and UK. CEO and Co-founder of Cleeng. “They get cumbersome, but Cleeng’s platform eases
30 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 31 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
Conferize Conferize debuted its beta product in and connecting the Conferize subscribers’ Creativesystems stores online, and adjust stock levels and At the store, the solution includes mobile 2013 after it was introduced pre-launch professional networks has resulted in an the status of shipments. RFID devices for stock-count purposes, conferize.com at the seminal technology conference- audience of over two million [people]. www.creativesystems.eu RFID Point-of-Sale (POS) devices and, at slash-launchpad DEMO in Silicon Valley Conferize has an exciting opportunity to In 2005, the company received €5,000 of the sales floor level, a Magic Mirror. The Martin Ferro-Thomsen in 2011. According to a press release, build on that initial momentum.” JoaoVilaca angel investments. Friends from Portugal advanced technology is both a mirror $1.33 million in seed funding came in also invested €100,000 — which they’ve and an interactive surface with a high Internet/Online September from angels and an institutional The highlight player, which aggregates Software already earned back, Vilaça says. definition display and a RFID reading investor. The company focuses on sectors and displays media like Tweets about infrastructure that fully integrated with Denmark like technology, mobile, and marketing and video of the conference, is currently Portugal Creativesystems puts special emphasis store’s ERP in real time. When consumers mainly in the U.K. and the U.S., but also offered on a freemium basis. Through its on retail, logistics and manufacturing, use the Magic Mirror they get information No has representatives in India and Denmark product, Conferize can track events taking No industries which often require better on each product presented such as garment as well. place, livestream them and show them on tracking technology. The company sells composition, price, and also other sizes external networks. For these services, the software along with consulting and and colors that are available in-store. The » “We are not just a database of events, “The Conferize platform allows me to company charges fees of event organizers. » Creativesystems develops integrated professional services. The company has software also up-sells and cross-sells for we want catch the networking around maximize my interaction with attendees In the future, the company plans to solutions for data flow automation and been profitable for several years, with $2.5 retailers as it recommends products that and after each event and revitalize it,” before, during and after the event. Even if generate revenue from organizers for every optimization, turning the old “tracking million in sales in 2012 and $0.5 million in match pieces customers show the mirror. says Martin Ferro-Thomsen, Founder and I can’t attend a particular event in person additional ticket sold through Conferize’s tags” into a smarter solution for retailers. profit, 2012. “We are planning to go up to CEO of Copenhagen-based Conferize, an I can participate online,” says Colin system. “If I can help the organizer sell two $10 million in 2015,” Vilaça says. IDTechEx Sousa says the company’s solutions made online destination for physical events and Crawford, an advisor to Conferize and the tickets, they’ve already earned back the The range of tracking tags is wider than puts the world market opportunity at $700 Throttleman’s shipping and receiving conferences. As the company launched its CEO of Media7, which offers consultancy fee,” Thomsen adds. it seems. Back in 2004, many companies million. processes more efficient, improved stock new highlight player in June, it became services to venue owners. “Business tagged objects by placing an RFID (Radio- visibility and inventory accuracy, and Creativesystems has about 40 customers the first in the world to introduce a full- professional opportunities now have an Various event organizing companies Frequency Identification) tag directly on enhance the overall customer experience. in Europe, including companies in Dubai service content marketing platform in the easy-to-use platform, to discover new (Professional Conference Organizers, or pallets. According to Vilaça, this kind and Russia. It also works with Asian conference industry. events, to attend offline and online events PCOs) like MCI Group or Cvent offer of technology wasn’t smart enough, With the use of the RFID item-level and interact with their peers,” he adds. similar solutions globally and provide and couldn’t allow a salesperson to find companies in China and Japan, along with tagging, Throttleman was able to reduce In 2008, Thomsen, former co-founder tough competition for Conferize, but a specific object on the sale floor, for retail clients in Brazil and Columbia. the time items spent in final part of the of Issuu (a free publication platform for Event organizers can create an interactive Thomsen isn’t worried. “Conferize is example. supply chain from five days to less than While most clients are retailers, the magazines, newspapers and more), was version of their event, build an online more modern,” Thomsen says. “We build 24 hours, guaranteeing that products were company started to work with logistics looking leverage large events to market community around it and thus create more a platform instead of a service, with a “We wanted the objects to communicate available in stores to be sold. Furthermore, ventures in Portugal and Spain. Automotive products, people and companies. “I spent “buzz” easily. In an era when marketing community kind of approach.” Other event where they are,” says CEO João Vilaça. the company’s platform enabled companies industry groups such as Bosch and 2 weeks generating an Excel sheet and costs are highest for event organizers, this registries like Conference Alerts (which As veteran electronics and computers to use 60 percent less warehouse space and Faurecia, Delphi and Marigold Industrial, I thought ‘I know how big this industry free, online-based marketing provides a lists academic conferences worldwide) also engineer, he says that he “got fed up of the to cut down delayed deliveries from 21 which have factories in Portugal and Spain, is and I can’t find it online.’ That was the useful solution. compete with the company. bad mood that the industry was in.” percent of total to zero. also work with Creativesystems, as well as first thing I wanted to solve,” he says. But pharmaceutical companies like Roche and he didn’t just want to create a database More online marketing for events, Conferize hopes to expand its global user “Customers were becoming more Next up is the U.S. In order to enter Medlog. of events and videos, but to create a especially on social media, may heighten base and add more major events to its demanding, and if a customer goes into a American markets and continue their place where online users could actively awareness and encourage more people platform in the future. An app is also in shop and doesn’t find a shirt their size, they development, the company is seeking to register to attend in advance. Event development. “I think that companies like will leave. We guarantee that the product is “At the distribution centre an automatic $3 million to $5 million in an upcoming participate in conferences, just like people RFID tunnel was implemented for physically present at the events. organizers generate revenue from LinkedIn will be interested in us,” Thomsen on the floor, so that won’t happen,” Vilaça investment round. They’re looking for registrations and sponsors; but lately, adds. Nonetheless, he doesn’t plan on being says. receiving and cross-docking and shipping “smart money,” i.e. backers that can add processes, capable of identifying hundreds Conferize’s tech brings conferences and vendors get less and less time to sell sold yet. “I’m here for at least five more value to the company and connect them of tags simultaneously and in a few events to online audiences and enables tickets. According to Conferize’s research, years,” he says. He became an entrepreneur and started with right contacts in their industry. seconds, with full integration with ERP them to share their thoughts and ideas five years ago, organizers had three weeks Creativesystems with €2.5 million ($3.4 “Because we are looking to enter the U.S. [Enterprise Resource Planning] systems on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and to sell 50 percent of their tickets. Now, Million) of initial cash. Creativesystems market, the smartest move will be to get and transportation companies, ensuring more, all from the same page and platform. vendors must sell half their tickets in eight uses RFID technology to create advanced money from the U.S.,” Vilaça says, “The that the right items are shipped to the “We are able to process the best tweets days — meaning they need to spread the solutions for automatic identification of problem is that we need to get someone right stores,” says Jose Sousa, IT Director from big conferences, and if someone that word about events that much more quickly. objects. The tracking tags the company that is interested in this specific IT retail at Throttleman, a retailer which adopted you follow on Twitter is announced as a makes help trail projects from the design systems, and has contacts and knowledge Creativesystems’ technology. By applying speaker, you will be the first one to know,” “The biggest challenge is to build the level, through manufacturers anywhere there, so they can leverage the move.” RFID tags to every item, Throttleman Thomsen adds. audience and get organizer participation,” in the world. At the end of the day, the Recently, Creativesystems partnered with says Crawford, “Already word of mouth company’s products allow workers to find is able to control its products from the Avery Dennison, an American global a specific object in-store at any time, while manufacturing sites, through a distribution labeling and packaging corporation. retailers can manage the status of their centre in Portugal and then into stores.
32 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 33 Top 100 Companies: Europe
When something’s missing, One of the biggest challenges for the innovative applications for the iOS and “The software can interoperate whether company, apart from the general need Android markets. Soon, it had the support a hand or a face is moving in front of the everything’s wrong. to grow, is making their software less of the technical Guru and angel, Paul camera,” Nydemark says, “You can take complex, thereby reducing the need for on- Cronholm, today the CTO and founder of any application, add an ‘enable touchless site staff and support. But that’s coming up. Crunchfish. controls’ option to it and just define a gesture According to Vilaça, the company plans to to control it.The only criteria that we need release a lighter version of the software for In the summer of 2012 Crunchfish raised is a camera.” App-related services such as a small retailers in the next couple of years. its first investment round. “We got a very touchless media player, or a touchless option This version will be cloud based and will be clear message from the owners, saying that for your favorite game, are part of the the able to work anywhere in the world, with touchless is the focus, and the application company’s overarching plan. no need for in-store servers. development turned into a halt eventually,” says Joakim Nydemark, Crunchfish’s CEO. Crunchfish uses the head and hand The next phase of its technology, Vilaça says, Today the company is completely dedicated movement detector to control media will concern consumers’ connection with to touchless interaction based on gestures. players. “If you put a tablet down, turn your tags that allow tracking via smartphones. head away and move from the screen, the The two main owners in the company, movie would stop,” Nydemark says. With With the unforgettable pink tree as the main Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi and Crunchfish, users can move media from symbol on the company’s business cards, Crunchfish chairman Joachim Samuelsson, one device to another. For example, people Creativesystems might be memorable have invested more than $2 million in might drag a movie from their phone onto and inventive enough to turn the tagging the company and own almost 60 percent their TV with a hand gesture. But this tech business into a stronger, cloud-based of it together. The third largest owner is will require steady connectivity and cloud solution for retailers around the world. its founder, Paul Cronholm, who holds support. 13.2 percent. The remainder of shares are spread out among six private investors. Customers pay a unit and support fee, on a Some of these owners contributed to the licenses basis. In some cases, the company company’s latest $3 million (€2.4 million) charges a fee for a developer when an app Crunchfish AB funding round in June. The company has user downloads the touchless option on www.crunchfish.com not turned to VCs for investments. “We the app. believe that we get a more engaged and The technology is still patent-pending, Joakim Nydemark business-oriented structure with private investors,” says Nydemark. but covers object tracking that works Telecommunications even in dim light conditions, as well as a Al Amoudi is a well known investor in platform that runs on all major mobile Sweden Sweden and the owner of the country’s operating systems such as iOS, Android national gas station network. Samuelsson and Windows. No is a serial entrepreneur that “kickstarts enterprises,” as the company’s website “Any one with some good skills in image says. “I have been involved in Mobile and video analytics can build something that uses the camera, the trick is to do this » When the touchscreen phone was first IT companies before and recognized well and get the user experience, and we are introduced to the world a few years ago, Crunchfish as a great opportunity with able to do that,” Nydemark says, explaining not everyone was sure the new technology technology that enables a paradigm shift When it comes to recovering your data, that the company’s interactive approach would become popular among keyboard in how humans interact with electronics,” there’s no such thing as a minor detail. Samuelsson says. “I would be willing to makes it unique, as does its technology. fans. Now, tapping at your phone is about Good thing there’s Asigra. Our award-winning recovery solution to become old hat. Crunchfish, a Sweden- invest more if necessary. However, we Before users go touchless, though, lets you recover now from anywhere. Every byte. Any device. based company that focuses on touchless have just completed our second round and Crunchfish must convince the market, and All the time. How can we make such a promise? Because we’ve A3D software, detects and tracks objects believe this was the final round, ” he adds. the world, that it’s a necessary innovation. been quietly leading the recovery revolution for more than 25 in three dimensions relying only on video Mobile device manufacturers and app “Seven to eight years ago people were years—with more than half a million installations worldwide. streams from cameras embedded in mobile developers use Crunchfish for mobile skeptic, but after a while touchless devices. This way, users don’t even have to Find out more today at recoveryiseverything.com. gaming. The market that included all interaction became common to interact touch their phone to use it. Before you make the wrong step. consumer electronics seemed “too big with [on] tablets and phones,” Nydemark says. “It won’t be instead of the touchscreen, Sweden-based Crunchfish was founded initially,” Nydemark says, since it counted but it will be part of it. In a year or two most in 2010 with an initial focus on creating laptops, media players, DVDs and even cars, “anything that has a camera,” he says. tablets will have touchless interaction.”
34 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014
Asigra_Print_Ad_CMYK.indd 1 13-06-04 9:52 AM Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
“I believe we will see this technology in D-Orbit lose control over its movement when that In February 2009, the first in-orbit However, the final test for the product was DelfMEMS all such devices already in five years. Just moment arrives. If operators lose satellites accidental collision of two satellites done in Germany in January 2013, and it look back five years then we did not even www.deorbitaldevices.com to dense and populated space orbits, happened and created is expected to launch beginning of 2014. www.delfmems.com have touch technology and now every sooner or later those satellites will collide D-Orbit is in discussions with NASA as it smartphone and tablet has it,” Samuelsson Luca Rossettini with others of fall to Earth. With some thousands of particles of debris. hopes to create the first actively de-orbited Guillaume d’Eyssautier says. satellites as big as school buses, the danger Kosmos-2251 was a Russian military satellite in history. By 2014, Rossettini Other is great. satellite that had been deactivated prior wants to partner with American companies Consumer Electronics Devices such as Xbox, Kinect and Samsung to the collision and remained in orbit as to begin producing D-Orbit tech in the U.S. Galaxy 4s, that incorporate touchless Italy “When a satellite gets old it needs to be space debris, that collided with Iridium 33, France technology, serve as competition. U.S.- removed, but companies leave it there in a commercial satellite owned by Iridium Among the companies that showed interest based Leap Motion produces a touchless Yes order to make more money,” Rossettini Communications Inc. in D-Orbit’s technology is Thales Alenia Yes device that connects to computers. explains. Producing and launching a Space, a 7,500-employee company that However, Crunchfish doesn’t add extra satellite can cost about $300 million, “This was a turnover point that convinced has operated for more than 40 years in the all space organisations to adopt strong hardware and sensors, which can make the » While we all worry about earth pollution, so commercial operators prefer to keep space market both in Europe and the U.S. » DelfMEMS provides a solution in tunable measures to limit the number of space technology more complex and add more some take it to the next level and worry it functioning for as long as possible. Other manufacturers include the German radio frequencies, enabling an efficiency debris,” says Enrico Corpaccioli, MetOp- OHB and European Astrium company. cost. On the other hand, these devices can about space pollution. As more satellites D-orbit’s system allows them to have it 20 to 30 times better than traditional SG Program engineering manager at Earth recognize gestures that occur farther away are launched into space, their due to their way, but explaining the company’s semi-conductor switches. The company’s Observation Projects Department (EOP- “The approach is not particularly original,” from camera, unlike Crunchfish’s software. collision fragments is expected to increase, approach isn’t always easy. technology uses an radio frequency (RF) PPE) at the European Space Agency (ESA), Corpaccioli says about D-orbit. ESA’s away from the camera, unlike Crunchfish’s and space debris will become a major front end module to switch between an international organisation funded by reports on the subject show that the case. Gestures-with-software solutions, threat for space activities. D-Orbit aims to When deciding to deorbit a satellite, antennas in 3G and 4G mobile platforms, most European countries. “Now, for newly strategy was mentioned in 1998. However, such as the Israeli Omek and PointGrab, reduce space collision and pollution using operators often make it re-enter the optimizing the connection across over 40 compete with Crunchfish as well. atmosphere in lowly-populated areas designed satellites, safe disposal is a must D-orbit is the first private company to bands to provide better linearity and lower devices that dispose of artificial satellites and money is finally being invested in exploit this option. “At present I have no such as the Pacific Ocean. However, this data insertion loss. at the end of their life by removing them deorbiting solutions,” Corpaccioli says. report on anyone else developing this kind Crunchfish has about 20 employees, requires extra fuel or the use of more from their orbit. of product, even if I cannot exclude some most of whom are interaction designers engines — all this in a satellite whose The company’s radiofrequency systems are “After more than 50 years of space age, there other space companies are doing the same and computer vision experts, all based in In 2008, Luca Rossettini, D-Orbit’s advanced age heightens the probability of based on MEMS ohmic switches, which Sweden. are thousands of debris orbiting around the in their labs,” he adds. can disconnect and reconnect like a lamp CEO, was looking to bring sustainability failure and therefore pilot loss of control. earth, posing a severe collision threat to principles into space. “I tried to talk to Operators also get rid of satellites through switch using a traditional mechanical relay. However, the company plans on reaching any new satellite being put into orbit. For Even though the market is still progressing people about the issue, but at that time self-destruct, or by sending spacecraft to This means unlike a capacitor switch, no out and becoming as global as possible. this reason, all future satellites need to be and the company is not selling its product they were not worried about the problem,” higher orbits far away from commercial current passes when switched off, resulting In November 2011, Crunchfish debuted capable, at the end of their operational life, yet, Rossettin is confident in the innovative he says. At an internship at Nasa in 2009, positions, filling “satellite cemeteries” with in significant energy savings. In traditional their technology in Stanford, CA as part to be safely disposed,” he adds. technology D-orbit offers. “We will remove the idea became a product and Rossettini’s dysfunctional satellites. Both alternatives capacitor switches, the current remains of “Innovative Sweden,” an exhibition run a satellite in a few hours, while today it interest rose again. In 2010, he created a still pollute the space environment. constant, regulated by the membrane’s by the Swedish Institute, VINNOVA. Later D-orbit plans to be part of this evolving takes years,” he says. And not just years, team that would help him reach a solution, distance to the capacitor, so power on Crunchfish accompanied the exhibit market, and hopes to increase awareness according to the international guidelines of and pitched a plan to the US and Italy. Another solution for space pollution may continues to draw even when the switch is through six cities in the U.S., Canada, of the problem. “We are showing our the Outer Space Treaty, but takes 25 years. TTVenture, an Italian VCl, decided to be a spacecraft that would collect one off. Brazil and China — then through Berlin, technology to legislators as well, so they can If D-orbit makes it into the market, this seed the company, and by 2011, D-Orbit failed satellite after another, removing Tokyo, and Seoul in 2013. push towards our solution,” Rossettini says. reality can change, and with it the future of DelfMEMS’ switches are broadband and was founded. Two investment rounds, one about 10 satellites per year. “The world will However, not much regulation is found our space environment. can adjust between 0 to 30 gigahertz. of equity and one in a convertible note, send about 1,200 satellites in the next eight The company claims to have reached out concerning space environmentalism, and DelfMEMS also has developed a simple provided €1 million to start with. years,” Rossettini adds, which makes the to more than 20 manufacturers in China, political issues may be part of the problem. custom approach that makes it easier to solution unsustainable. Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries. “The U.S. can’t remove a Chinese satellite create multiple switches in the same chip The device that D-Orbit develops is Two of China’s major domestic mobile even if it’s dead,” he says. “We want less by stitching them together. Studies done installed on the satellite prior to launch. Operators are able to monitor small pieces players have signed deals with Crunchfish. politics and more solutions.” by the DelfMEMS customers reveal a 30 to The operators can manage it in space of satellites that are about to hit their “Implementation is ongoing,” Nydemark 40 percent energy savings in the front end using a modular, independent system that own satellite, maneuver to avoid them. “The main problem that we have right now says. With deals in-pocket and more on module. allows them to command it even in case However, every move decreases the life is credibility,” Rossettini says. D-orbit has the way, the company’s management hopes of total satellite failure, after that satellite of the satellite, and thus decreases the completed most of its space qualifications to reach break-even by 2014. “We are the world’s first supplier of tunable has kicked the bucket. Solutions found potential revenues it can generate. At the on the ground instead of in space, so its antennas based on MEMS ohmic switches,” today only allow operators to interact with end of the day, space density decreases the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is not said Guillaume d’Eyssautier, CEO of satellites that are still functioning. This revenues in any case, and satellites that are at its best. None of the patents that the DelfMEMS. “Our tunable switches provide forces a choice: de-orbit the satellite before not removed on time make crowding even company has filed have been approved yet, stellar linearity, extremely low insertion it “dies” or use it until its life ends — but worse. and no products have been sold, so the losses and better isolation between company is not yet profitable.
36 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 37 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
brands. Our switches not only optimize switch solves both issues: less silicon and 12 markets, including Germany, Sweden, Shenderovich is on Delivery Hero’s board DEM Solutions “There’s never been a simulation solution data quality, but boost an efficiency that less power to deliver best performance. Finland, Austria, Korea, Poland, Mexico and is the company’s largest investor. for bulk materials. This is transformative optimizes applications, resulting in lower This was instrumental in our investment and more. Most of the 10,000 restaurants www.dem-solutions.com technology but of course relatively new to energy costs across the whole device.” decision.” they serve are located in the U.K. Profitability for a company growing at their the market so it’s pretty early days,” explains pace is not a priority, although an important John Favier John Favier, CEO of DEM Solutions. The company was founded in 2006 About 30,000 participating restaurants factor in the future, Shenderovich says. “If by Olivier Millet, who developed the appear on Delivery Hero’s sites, which Delivery Hero stops investing in marketing, Software The benefits of using the DEM Solutions technology while completing his PhD at Delivery Hero have a different name in every country. In the company will be immediately break software are clear – it can reduce Lille University of Science and Technology. comparison, Seamless lists about 12,000 even. However, we believe that right now is UK dependency on physical prototyping, which He teamed up with Karim Segueni. The two American restaurants. not the time to do so.” he says. means building prototypes and physically www.deliveryhero.com spent three years developing the switch, Yes testing them. With the DEM Solutions and then transferred the production to The U.S. market is the one area the “What helped us grow was making sure software this can be done virtually. As Niklas Ostberg a bigger foundry to increase the supply. company prefers to stay away from at that there is a large variety of restaurants would be expected, this greatly reduces After getting its first samples in early this point. “It will require a lot of capital on the site, and smart marketing,” Östberg » costs, and also reduces the time it takes Internet/Online Computer aided engineering has 2009, the company raised $10.5 million to get to the U.S., so we prefered to go says. According to the company, 20 percent been around for a very long time. But to design new machinery and equipment. in December 2012 to build up production for the markets where we can be number of the approachable population in Sweden This type of software has been available in Germany breakthroughs are still being made in a and strengthen the organization. one,” Östberg says. Europe presents a (people aged 15 to 60 years old), have used field where computers are used to aid and engineering for some time, but it is unique different type of opportunity. “There are the service. In Germany, 25 percent of the in that it deals with bulk materials. Yes optimize the engineering process through The company ensures a supply chain more independent restaurants in Europe approachable population knows Delivery programs simulating real life scenarios. with two established sources. It holds a compared to the U.S.,” he says. Hero and 10 percent have used its services, “In the case of bulk particles, they are partnership with DoCoMo, the Japanese according to the company’s research. One area where these programs have not very difficult to measure anyway, so the » Years ago, food delivery mostly meant wireless network operator, and major The business model is simple. Delivery been able to work in effectively, up until level of understanding of what is actually pizza. Today, having a three-course manufacturers of RF front end modules. Hero does the marketing and the Delivery Hero’s biggest competitor is Just recently, is bulk material sector. In the happening to these materials and how they meal delivered to your home from any The company primarily serves the mobility transactions for the restaurants and Eat, an online delivery website active in mining sector, pieces of coal or ores would are reacting with equipment is already markets, mostly based in the United local restaurant is almost as common — charges a 10 percent commission on the 14 markets, some of which are identical to be the bulk materials, in the construction quite low. So by simulating you get a lot of States and Asia. It also provides solutions depending on where you live. While food order value from the restaurants. However, Delivery Hero’s: India, Switzerland or the industry it is more likely to be rocks new information,” says Mr. Favier. for Industrial, ATE and professional delivery sites like Seamless and Grubhub the company is still not at break-even U.K. Pizza.de in Germany, for example, has from drilling, and in the pharmaceutical radiocomms applications. are the go-to sites in the United States, and hopes to be profitable by the end of been active for a while in Germany, but is manufacturing space, bulk materials could The problem which DEM Solutions solves, other continents have not yet adopted 2013. According to Östberg, the company not innovative, according to Östberg. “We be tablets or pills. is the lack of efficiency in the manufacturing D’Eyssautier expects the company to break online delivery to the same extent. currently has €300 million in gross revenue have better mapping systems,” he says. machinery of their clients, and Mr. Favier even by 2015 and in the next few years to Delivery Hero has been trying to take over and a gross profit of more than €35 In addition, Delivery Hero was the first All of these sectors use machinery which explains that it is a particularly prevalent be earning hundreds of millions of dollars the online delivery business over the past 3 million, while maintaining profitability to market its service with a solid mobile works closely with bulk materials, which problem in any industry that handles in revenue. “There’s nobody doing what years in several international markets, but in key markets. Investors such as Ru-Net, solution. creates a challenging working environment bulk materials. “There is a lot of room we’re doing, which gives us a tremendous mainly in Europe. Will their technology Kite Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures, for the machinery. DEM Solutions for improvement. The efficiencies can be advantage in this market,” d’Eyssautier and marketing strategies make them the a Holtzbrinck Ventures, Point Nine Capital The plan is to keep growing within its specializes in this exact space. The company as low as 50-60%, so if we can achieve a said. superpower in their industry? and Team Europe have helped raise more current markets and to become the leading provides scaled and modelling simulation 5-10% increase in efficiency then that’s than $100 million for the company in the online-delivery site in the German market, software for engineering and performance a huge increase. There’s a lot of room for Headquartered in France, the company Niklas Östberg started a food delivery past two years. rather than going into new ones. “We analysis in almost every industry sector. It improvement in those industries where has raised $12.6 million from CDC website in Sweden in 2008, which soon are looking at other markets. However, primarily works in the mining, coal power, bulk solid materials are a primary raw Entreprises, Iris Capital, BPI-FSN, extended to Finland, Austria and Poland. “Even though the market and the financial Europe is quite important, as we are first manufacturing and process industries. material that is used or they are the end Capitalaria, VIVES, A2D Invest, Alliansys, “I wanted to build something that will support of the shareholders has contributed and foremost, a European company,” In the mining sector for example, the product.” Finorpa, Inovam, Rhône-Alpes-Création, affect many consumers,” Östberg says. He to the company’s success, the credit is Shenderovich adds. company can simulate the grinding up of The firm recently was awarded the 2013 and some business angels. It employs close founded Delivery Hero in 2010 along with mainly due to the team that has executed rocks, a very energy expensive process, Even though it’s still common to order Global Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial to 20 people. Team Europe and several other founders. on the vision with utmost precision and which will tell the client where the process pizza in Europe, “users are starting to order passion,” says Edward Shenderovich, is failing in terms of efficiency. Company of the Year Award. Naveen more diverse food now,” Östberg says. “Using existing technologies for the The superhero team is based in Berlin, Managing Director of Kite Ventures, a Kumar Ramasamy, Senior Industry Delivery Hero may be a super way to start Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said at the time antenna switch and power amplifiers while the company currently operates in technology venture fund based in Moscow. The technology to do this has been present means more silicon and requires more trying out new places. for a long time, but it has been held back of the award: “ In addition to servicing its power,” said Frédéric Le Brun, Director of by a lack of computing power. The arrival industry customers with state-of-the-art Investments for BPI-FSN. “All smartphone of more powerful computers has led to DEM software and support for commercial users know how batteries remain one of a surge in the capabilities in this type of applications, the company uniquely the most deceptive features. DelfMEMS’ software. also provides a range of options to meet academic research and teaching needs. Its EDEM Academic Partner Program
38 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 39 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
(EAPP) fuels innovation and helped keep Dream Broker high amount of data in the form of videos A typical customer is a top 500 company manufacturers can use the company’s Ketola has been the main investor in the the company afloat during the economic over the web. It really started to be possible in each global market. They represent technology to make green crude oil for the company since it was founded in 2009, downturn.” www.dreambroker.fi to use these type of solutions globally HR, IT department and communications. biofuel industry, as well as organic fertilizers. and invested €2 million in the company. within different organisations,” he adds. Companies typically use the platform The latest funding rounds have been The company’s goals for the next 18 months Mika Ahokas to create, edit and share videos both “I was at a coffee shop, talking with my underwritten by the company’s founders, are primarily to grow on its core base. DEM But the firm had no intention of taking on the internally and externally. The platform associate about global issues, when I as well as Lifeline Ventures and the Finnish Solutions has suffered in the past few years Cloud Computing giants like YouTube head to head, and instead enables better communication between realised that food is running out and in a Funding Agency for Technology and as the manufacturing industry has gone identified the business to business segment employees and enables departments such decade or two we’ll face serious problems”, Innovation. through a recession. One of the biggest Finland of online videos as its core target market. as human resources to make induction says Ari Ketola, Ductor’s CEO. All the industries that the company works in is videos, presentations for shareholders and major components for food come from The European Union is currently the the mining sector, which is currently in N/A “Lightweight, easy to use, organisation- sales videos. oil, while the technology for natural gas leading continent when it comes to biogas a down cycle. When the mining industry wide solutions, did not exist in the production has been around for hundreds production, with roughly 1600 biogas recovers, DEM Solutions expects a large business to business segment and we In the next few months Dreambroker is of years. Producing one ton of ammonia producers. This makes a great starting upturn in fortunes. » A recent report from Informa Telecoms saw that sooner or later companies and to release a number of applications that releases 2 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, market for Ductor, which targets Europe & Media forecast that the online video technology providers would focus on that can be used on mobile devices, and it will while the mining industry also hurts the first. In addition, regulations and laws in Although there are one or two companies market will be worth $37 billion in 2017. segment between the consumer side and make these apps available to the regular enviroment. the European Union limit the amount with a more simple version of the software The online video boom has been a long old fashioned corporate and try to open its consumer as well as businesses. “Anyone all of waste produced by biogas producers, DEM Solutions offers, the solution is time coming, but many smaller companies potential market,” recalls Mr. Ahokas. over the world can use our solution free to “Any commodities out of fossils are still which indicates a potential entry point for largely out on its own in the market. have been swept away by the big players, some extent. So anyone can try and create relatively cheap, that’s why we don’t have Ductor’s products. “At the beginning of 2007 there were not However, that could change in the future, meaning start ups which have been online videos with mobile phones and methods to compete with them. In the so many business to business solution something which Mr. Favier is aware of. successful, have been the ones which tablets and computers and they can share beginning we tried to produce competitive Reaching the rest of the world is the next providers available but we knew there “One of the larger players in engineering have targeted key areas that the likes of it with other people and colleagues but to pricing for ammonia and later on we step. “China is polluted now, but in a few were other players, but they focused on simulation got into the market a couple of YouTube, Skype and Netflix have stayed some extent it will be changed so you have realized that our method is working with more years the Chinese will also regulate online video platforms only providing very years ago so we now have the beginnings away from. to pay for it,” says Mr. Ahokas. bio-gas production,” Ketola says. the pollution, and this gives us better of competition from one of the established vertical solutions,” he adds. possibilities,” Ketola says. players of CAE. But their capabilities are One company which has found a profitable This does not mean the company is Ductor’s technology extracts nitrogen The video market did evolve rapidly from still quite far behind ours.” pocket of the market to operate in is looking to take on YouTube, and indeed before biogas production and reduces the In terms of waste water treatment in biogas, 2007, and it shows no signs of stopping, Dreambroker. The firm’s main offering is a the whole process is designed to attract amount of areic water created, improving Ductor faces technological competition although the majority of the revenue is Right now the future looks good for a cloud based software for creating, editing, more customers to the corporate solutions the yield. “We can minimize the areic water from companies that use stripping methods going to the major players. Giles Cottle, company exploiting a gap in technology managing and publishing online videos. it offers. “Hopefully that general interest handling cost and boost the revenues for to treat nitrogen. Other than that, there are principal analyst and author of “OTT Video in one of the biggest markets on the The company was founded in Finland and awareness can be turned into paying any biogas plant,” say Ketola. According to no specific competitors that use the same Revenue Forecasts” at Informa Telecoms planet. “We are at the forefront of this in 2007 and has been financed almost customers on the business to business side. Ketola, the company manages to improve exact technology Ductor uses. & Media says, “It’s clear that online video, technology and it represents the next entirely by its own income. The Finnish That is the idea,” concludes Mr. Ahokas. production by 10 percent to 20 percent. today, is worth much more than the digital Ductor Corp. is finalizing its patented wave of computer aided engineering. The Government gave Dreambroker some cents and dimes of yore, and is attracting technology for producing green crude oil structures have been addressed, the fluids grants, but aside from that the company The company is currently negotiating real, and growing, revenues.” from algae, and ammonia and phosphates have been addressed but until now bulk has funded its own growth up to this point. with several biogas producers (it didn’t materials have had no solution. Now they disclose which ones) and expects to sign from food industry waste streams using But this value is concentrated around a Ductor Corp. 100 percent biological processes. The do,” concludes Mr. Favier. The company was founded at a time where a deal within one year. “These are existing select few players. We estimate that Apple, company already filed six patents, and 16 technology had enabled the widespread producers that already have a problem with Google, Netflix and the global broadcasters www.ductor.com more are on the way. use of videos. “The main idea came that areic water,” Ketola says. (including Hulu), combined, account for we really believed that online videos in about 70% of all online video revenue Ari Ketola The next challenge for Ductor is selling general was a potentially lucrative market,” Ductor currently plans to sell an add-on today– so if you aren’t one of these players, its technologies to companies that will says Mika Ahokas, CEO, Co-Founder and form of product, that will cost $3 million then the chances are you aren’t making a Clean Tech own and commercialize them globally. Chairman of the Board at Dreambroker. to $4 million for each plant. The company great deal of money from online delivery With only 13 engineers, all based in “We really thought that online videos does not operate its own factories or plants. t o d ay.” Finland Helsinki, Ductor has managed to develop was something that was picking up back However, Ketola believes that this business a technology that aims to improve biogas in the beginning of 2007 and we saw that Yes model can make the company profitable But Dreambroker appears to have carved production in the region and beyond. The major companies were starting significant quickly. “I believe that as soon as we have out its own segment of the industry, and company plans to create a larger team in operations and acquisitions in that the market penetration and show the has ambitious targets for the future. By the the future, as more deals close. » market.” end of 2014, the company is expecting to Finnish biotechnology company business what we are able to make, I’m sure exceed 10 million euro in revenue, and by Ductor Corp. produces ammonia and that revenues will go up. Three to five years “Technology had come to the point that I 2018, to exceed 100 million euro. phosphates from recycled materials and and we will be able to reach $200 million was really feasible and possible to move a makes production of green crude oil by selling only these add-forms for existing from algae commercially viable. Licensed biogas producers”, he says.
40 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 41 Top 100 Companies: Europe That would be your Call Centre...
Evmanya.com “Turkey is a really big market, and it’s our Ezakus biggest potential,” Gokdere said. “We will www.abc.com show our leadership in Turkey and maybe www.ezakus.com expand our footprint in the next two First Lastname years.” Christophe Camborde
Blahblahblah The company handpicks products from Big Data/Storage over 512 suppliers from Turkey and Country/State other parts of Europe. Though Gokdere France declined to share revenues, she disclosed Yes/No that the company orders grew by 6x over No the last year, and the average order size has increased 20 percent. The site has tripled » Ecommerce is rapidly changing the its unique visitors over the past year. » Ezakus, the Paris-based data management Turkish economy. In an accelerated turn- company, challenges producers with the around from just a couple of years ago, The company currently has 250,000 slogan: “Can you read minds?” In analyzing Turkey now has 45 million people using members, typically ages 20 to 45. About 65 big data, Ezakus helps enhance clients’ the Internet. One in five Turkish citizens percent of its customers live in big cities. understanding of their respective consumer did their first online order last year. Home bases, enabling publishers, media agencies Gokdere previously coordinated business decoration in Turkey is expected to reach and advertisers to serve specific content to and finance development on a number $1 billion over the next four years. individuals and target audiences. of Turkish ecommerce, gaining insight Leading that movement in the home into online content and decoration. Her Today, the market around big data is well- furnishing space is Evmanya, Turkey’s family also has a 20-year history in retail tread territory. Publishers and advertisers first home decoration site, featuring over with a focus on home electronics. Bit by understand users create information 25,000 different products handpicked for the entrepreneurial bug, Gokdere started goldmines when customers go searching their style, fashion and utilization. The Evmanya in October of 2012. It landed around sites, pointing out with their site features over 20,000 different pieces of $500,000 in angel funding within two clicks their interests and buying patterns. furniture. months, and raised a Series A of $2.2 And yet, in many cases, analyzing all the million in April of 2013. The company data generated when visitors head to web “We are living in the individualization era has reached its breakeven point, but pages, and even collecting information in of people. They want to see a product that reinvests its profits back into marketing an organized and consumer-sensitive way, reflects them, reflects their favorite colors and operations. sends media producers out of their depth. and styles, who they really are,” said Asli ...once you start working with us Gokdere, Founder and CEO of Evmanya. Gokdere is currently looking for new VCs Founded in 2011, Ezakus fills a need for “People are focused on functional products with experience in ecommerce and home guidance left wide open in ad landscapes that are also an identity statement. decoration. “Experience and smart money unfamiliar to all the space’s players. “[The The ability to choose designs helps our is essential,” Gokdere Said. “We have a lot company was] created ... to provide data customers feel great about their homes.” of opportunities for growth, and we need expertise to the digital advertising business. a strategic investor to help us realize our At that time, RTB (Real Time Bidding) was In addition to an ecommerce store, the potential.” only emerging, programmatic ad serving company also publishes a home decoration was very new,” write co-founder and CEO Gokdere hopes Evmanya will be a $100 emagazine featuring the latest products Christophe Camborde and Jean-Michel ...the customer care software suite with million company by next year. She and trends. Gobet, marketing director at Ezakus in an envisions taking the company public in the e-mail. As the leading home decoration ecommerce next ten years. best self-service rate in the market site, the company is currently focused on Ezakus gives marketers and advertisers a The company competes against eBay and Turkey due to the size and growth of the window into the worlds of their customers, Amazon. Turkish market. It plans to next expand from which they can view how the other to Europe, starting in Eastern Europe and half, the target audience, behaves. With expanding through the rest of the continent these insights, they’ll shape messaging to as its capacity for the market allows. specific segments and afterwards, evaluate success of campaigns using the Ezakus’ inbenta www.inbenta.com 42 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
DMP (Data Management Platform). To And according to a blog post, their network Falcon Social Some of the bigger enterprise software staying ahead of the market evolution. FeedHenry, a mobile application monetize, Ezakus sells its DMP “called of cookies reaches 25 million computers, companies have made moves into the “We’re scaling our innovation quite a bit. development platform provider, is AMP (Audience Management Platform) tablets and smartphones through their www.falconsocial.com social media market, mainly through We are certainly scaling up sales as well. looking to exploit this opportunity. The in SaaS mode and we also get a technical partners. However, Ezakus distinguishes acquisitions. “We have a broad offering in But with the new investment that we just firm began as a research project at the fee from the exposed data in CPM,” write between you the consumer and the Ulrik Bo Larsen our platform but they have tried to reach got here, we’re using a lot of that capital Waterford Institute of Technology in the Camborde and Gobet. “anonymous you,” who they guarantee that breadth by acquiring a lot of one to invest in R&D because we believe that Republic of Ireland. The original project will stay as faceless and unidentifiable Social Media trick ponies and creating what we rather there are a lot of hard problems that are was research into cloud based delivery “The mission of Ezakus is to provide ... [a] “as a number,” according to their privacy mockingly call ‘Frankensuites’,” says Mr. not very well defined in the market yet, platforms, dealing mainly in HTML 5 and DMP to the full ecosystem, [advertisers], policy page. To make a long story short, Denmark Bo Larsen. that we aim to be the first ones to solve,” Javascript. In 2010, Cathal McGloin, who agencies, sales houses or publishers,” the company writes: “With all these facts says Mr. Bo Larsen. would become the founder and CEO of they write. “A DMP is a platform that you can feel confident, we don’t know who Yes “Marketers can see that those suites are not FeedHenry, got involved in the project collects, understands all the visitors’ you are!” very coherent. There are a lot of different Falcon Social is now aiming to solidify while it was still in the college. behavior (website or mobile app) and disciplines that need to work in unison to its presence in continental Europe before creates behavioral or socio-demographic Regarding market opportunity, Camborde » Social media has fast become an handle social well,” he adds. creating the beginnings of a strong footing “It seemed like very good technology but segments.” and Gobet report Ezakus may soon address integral part of almost all consumer facing in the U.S. The future of the company it was targeting the wrong business space,” a small but substantial subset of the total businesses. That’s why companies serving Some of these disciplines which need to seems to be tied with that of the exciting, recalls Mr. McGloin. “They were doing In the bargain, consumers get ads that advertising industry. “[The] ad market size this requirement are saying that social is be handled by a social media management evolving and gigantic market it operates interesting things with mobile but it wasn’t appeal to them, or content in line with is €600 million in France, double in UK the newest enterprise software category. platform include engaging and answering in. specifically targeting the current trend. So their taste preferences from publishers and ten times bigger in USA,” they write. incoming messages from consumers, in we took the technology, we raised some using the service. On its website, Ezakus “[The] data part is very marginal so far, but “It’s a multi billion dollar market an efficient and consistent way. At the capital and we spun it out of the college claims 18 percent of the French population opportunity both in Europe and the U.S.,” same time there needs to be compelling at the end of 2010, and then we started considered digital advertising both useful we estimate that it could reach up to 10%, says Ulrik Bo Larsen, Co-Founder and content outgoing which will gain the targeting helping enterprises come to and pleasant. The company wants to ramp i.e. €600 to €800 million in 2015.” CEO of Falcon Social, a Danish social maximum traction with consumers. Brand FeedHenry grips with all these mobile apps that were up ad appreciation through its technology. Camborde and Gobet write Ezakus will media management firm. “It’s potentially management is also an important factor beginning to emerge at the time.” “[Ezakus’] ambition is to increase those feedhenry.com reach break-even/profitability in 2016. even bigger. We believe that this is a new for a platform such as this, as is speed of numbers with a really targeted advertising enterprise software category just in the use. The newly formed company took 10 staff that matches aspirations and behaviours of Most recently, the company raised $3.4 Cathal McGloin million from IDInvest, up from the early days — in its infancy.” from the college and began trading in each individual,” the company writes. Falcon Social recently announced it had firm’s original $3 million investment in 2011. The firm really began to take off raised $8 million in its latest financing Mobile when it partnered with Telefonica in the 2011. According to a blog post about the Mr. Bo Larsen previously worked in But as Ezakus mines data to achieve round. Target Partners, A German venture UK and Republic of Ireland, and began to funding, the new money will go towards the margins between technology and those ends, it faces consumers upset at capital firm, led the round, supported by Ireland win big contracts against some of the more enhancing Ezakus’ international presence; marketing, and has applied that experience and unsure about how much information existing investors NorthCap Partners. Kurt traditional enterprise mobility players already, the company has opened a London in the creation of Falcon Social. “I co- Yes they’ve inadvertently volunteered online. Müller, Partner at Target Partners says: such as SAP. A few months ago FeedHenry office and plans on another coming soon to founded an agency where I worked in a “[Our] biggest challenge is to face end “We have been tracking the enterprise raised money through Intel Capital, customer request for privacy and control,” New York. Right now, Ezakus employs 30 more bespoke and consulting style, with a lot of big brands on their international social media management space for some which led a $9 million investment round. writes Camborde and Gobet. “We are people, and will add 10 more to its team in » The success of consumer facing campaigns. And we saw there were a lot time and we believe that the team at Falcon That cash will be used for international developing a new service to give back the next year. mobile apps has led a host of developers, of recurring patterns and challenges for Social has the vision and leadership to build expansion. power to the people.” upon the success of its flagship clients and marketing agencies and businesses to rush Meanwhile, the same post says Ezakus will those guys — that’s really what led to the become a leader in the emerging category to roll out their own suite of applications. FeedHenry’s success story is one example Though Ezakus tracks customers’ actions, continue to develop its technology at home, inception of Falcon Social,” he says. of social media management platforms for But mobile apps are not just being used for of the changing attitude towards enterprise the company insists it does so without concentrating on delivering their product enterprises. Falcon has demonstrated that consumers, so how successful can they be mobility. “The traditional enterprise invading their privacy. The company’s and putting customer privacy concerns The firm works in many verticals. One it has a scalable sales model winning over as enterprise solutions? mobility space was until recently a well tools create user profiles that preserve first and foremost. According to Camborde of its most prominent clients, Danish beer maker Carlsberg, highlights how the 70 new customers in the first half of 2013 defined market, it was called the MEAP anonymity, deploying “a collection of over and Gobet, Ezakus’ transparency, Analysts of the industry believe this way company can work with its customers. a l on e .” space by Gartner and it was designed 600,000 words and concepts cover all of trustworthiness, focus on and relationship of using applications is a growth market. Carlsberg has carried out a 44 country for companies that had 5,000, 10,000 or your web visitors’ main interests in order to with data, as well as their current status “I think we’ll see packaged applications roll out with the Falcon Social platform, The social media management market 50,000 field service workers or 10,000 sales analyze their reactions to your content,” the as an independent company distinguish become more and more important, and has more than 300 users working with offers some stern challenges. One of these guys or brokers in the field,” explains Mr. company says in a video illustrating their them from others — crucial in an industry particularly in these areas like sales force it every day. The regional marketers and is the breakneck pace at which is moves McGloin. publishers profit from the platform. beginning to pick up speed. automation where you’re putting a mobile local agencies typically use the platform to and evolves. In this respect the market can sometimes be more suited to smaller, more device in a salesperson’s hand and you’re “But today that definition of who is mobile Ezakus uses cookies to obtain certain produce content and optimizing the reach agile firms which are able to shift their connecting that up to a back end sales has changed completely. Today everybody information from visitors; specifically: of that content, while the group marketing innovation focus at short notice. Falcon force automation system,” says Ian Finley, is mobile. Today the finance director URLs visited, time, IP, searches made, the and executive level of markers use it to gain Social has placed a lot of its resources into research VP at Gartner. who works a day a week from home or company reports on its privacy policy page. an overview of what is happening locally.
44 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 45 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
the accounts person who wants access — on smart devices and downloaded through multiple layers. FlatFrog’s approach results “This is a great opportunity,” Mr. Johnsson deployments and open interfaces, and can to Butsher. It is not losing money and is everybody is mobile,” he adds. app stores, integrated through the cloud – in greater accuracy, higher performance said. “As the prices of LCDs Have been scale from a small business to a carrier- not dependent on more funding from the that’s the future of technology and it doesn’t and lower latency. coming down rapidly, I think we’ll see grade solution, supporting up to 7000 owners anymore. “We’re trying to break The companies that have traditionally need to cost millions and take 18 months to many more touch screens in the retail and parallel calls. the $1 million in revenues by the next used mobile solutions, such as those with roll out,” concludes McGloin. “If our prices were not competitive, consumer markets in the very near future.” year or two,” says Butsher, adding that the large numbers of workers in the field, have this wouldn’t be so interesting,” said The ABC SBC solution caches successful company is not looking for investments, until now used the offerings of companies Christian Johnsson, Director of Sales and registrations. The registration information but is willing to consider investment offers. such as Oracle and SAP, but new firms like Marketing at FlatFrog. “We have a simple at the operator’s registrar will be refreshed FeedHenry offer a different way of doing manufacturing approach. We can take this by the ABC SBC at much lower rates Today the market is estimated at $700-800 things. FlatFrog superb user experience into the consumer than the subscribers refresh attempts. million dollars. electronics space. It all boils down to the Frafos This reduces the load on the operator’s www.flatfrog.com “We help companies who want to build and touch experience. We provide a premium infrastructure and protects it from The largest competitors for Frafos are www.frafos.com deploy mobile apps for their business, do touch experience in larger form factors with misbehaving subscribers or malicious global providers of session border control Dhwani Vyas it fast and quick and do it from the cloud the accuracy and friendly user experience users that try to attack the network by technology like Acme Packet, acquired Berthold Butscher as a SaaS based offering. So information by Oracle in on February 2013, or Sonus, Consumer Electronics that people are used to in a small handheld sending large numbers of registration is going to be consumed on these smart which has customers in over 50 countries device.” Telecommunications messages. devices, these tablets and these smart across the globe. “Our major advantage is Sweden phones and information frequently is Founded in 2006, FlatFrog’s technology to An application service for voicemail that we can do exactly what the customer Germany coming from a cloud type of environment took time to buld. Ola Wassvik and serial and announcements, installed on the wants faster, whereas a big company’s Yes with more and more applications moving entrepreneur Christer Fåhraeus launched border controller, reduces the load from a products don’t necessarily have the same No to the cloud,” says Mr. McGloin. the business from their own experiences company’s network, and thus reduces the flexibility,” Butsher says. Frafos serves developing touch technology for a separate expenses. A capability that is beyond what many small and mid-sized companies, » FlatFrog’s Multitouch 3200, an interactive FeedHenry has positioned itself between company. The company spent a year building a traditional border controller can do. while scaling is not an issue, according to display that the company says is the » In a world where hackers can reach every the world of mobile, smart phones and a prototype and several more years honing Butsher. “Smaller companies are the ones slimmest true multi-touch system on the piece of data, a secure cellular network tablets and the world of cloud and back end the technology to get it right. It released its Frafos has customers from the U.S., UK, that have more complicated requirements market, offers a technology reminiscent becomes the most important thing for enterprise IT systems, offering companies Multitouch 3200 in August of 2012. Indonesia, Australia and more. Some of since they serve certain customers,” he of that seen in science fiction movies. every business. the platform to build apps for their which are big companies, such as Deutche says, and this is what makes Frafos strong. Responding to up to 40 different touches businesses through the cloud. The company “The cornerstone of this technology is Telekom. “The software has been open source for a at once, the system delivers multi-touch Frafos GmbH is a manufacturer of Voice acts as mobile middleware between systems single processing and optics, and we have couple of years and we can react fast. This at an unprecedented accuracy. It’s the first over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions which were never designed to be accessed a very strong engineering team in both “We had a good experience with the is a big advantage compared to the big system of its kind to detect pressure, which for the delivery of voice and multimedia by mobile devices and the employee or user of those fields,” Mr. Johnsson said. “It’s customer oriented approach that Frafos players in the market,” he adds. can avoid accidental touches or provide sessions over the internet, rather than the with the smart phone or the tablet. amazing to see the evolutionary steps as gave us we value the fact that Frafos deeper shading for digital drawings, for telephone network. “When you have a the technology becomes smaller.” spent more time on resolving the issues Frafos’s main focus these days is increasing example. VoIP network, a border controller is your Many firms are now using mobile apps and than trying to find accountability for the the number of customers. “We’re trying security against malicious users,” says the cloud in order to make their workforce In addition to Intel Capital, FlatFrog has problems,” says Pavel Chlupáček, CEO of to grow carefully, so we’re adding 2-3 Now FlatFrog has adapted its large screen Berthold Butsher, founder and CEO of mobile, and the industry is growing rapidly also received investment funding from Spinoco Czech Republic. Spinoco uses customers each month,” Butsher says. approach to the consumer tablet and Frafos. as a result. “Those types of applications are Invus, Sunstone Capital, and Fårö Capital. the ABC SBC solution and cooperates With only 10 employees now, he attempts computing markets, recently raising $26 already out there and I think we’ll see them with Frafos on their new platform for next to grow to at least twice the size in the next million in partnership round from Intel Back in the nineties, the founders of Frafos get stronger and a lot of people invest in Though only about 1 in 10 computers generation CRM system. years. However, as a small company, they Capital. The company plans to release were the among the first to develop open those too. In which case the services market currently use touch screens, Mr. Johnsson all fit in Butsher’s boat. “We all went sailing a 23 inch model screen by the end of source solutions and standards in the around that is not building the application expects the majority to do so in the next The ability to control the behavior of the once, and I’m sure that we will make that a 2013, followed by 27 inch and 32 inch German public R&D institute Fraunhofer but it’s maybe integrating that application several years. FlatFrog aspires to be a network from a web platform — we are tradition,” he concludes. screen versions and is working with FOKUS. This was the begining of the VoIP and customising it for a specific customer.” dominate player in the larger screen sizes coupelling our product with their test era that we are experiencing today. several of the top 10 consumer electronics for the PC market as well as an important form- so an operator can implement.. if FeedHenry has successfully placed itself in manufacturers. player in the laptop space, combined an operator wants a new service ... We’re Incorporated in May 2010, in Berlin, the right area of a major market disruption, markets worth $1.5 billion. It also strives to trying to simplify this by providing the FlatFrog offers an optical, in-glass Germany, the company also runs an office and is now targeting the bigger firms on its address the $4 billion tablet market. Further operator to program its on services. So he technology. Light is transmitted into a sheet in Prague. Frafos offers Session Initiation way to international success. potential markets include the automotive can program his infrastructure- You might of glass on top of the LCD screen. Touching Protocol (SIP) session management and industry, gaming and education. have heard about SDN- we take it level the surface scatters the light, which is then security solutions, for voice and video calls “Some of the big dinosaur companies like above to SDCN. over Internet. The ABC SBC, the company’s Oracle are very slow to wake up to the fact digitally measured for response. Because If successful, Mr. Johnsson expects FlatFrog flagship product, offers open interfaces that their traditional enterprise software is only a sheet of glass is used, there is nothing to have a bottom line in the range of tens of The company is funded by its owners and built in multimedia applications such being challenged by apps delivered quickly to obstruct the image clarity, unlike more millions of dollars. and has no outside funding. frafos is as recording and announcements. It has common projector capacities that require found at the break even point, according special media features that allow cloud
46 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 47 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
Global Business Mr. Leslie explains that the technology very protective over their data so again GlobalOrange Amsterdam who deal mostly with as fast and responsive. “They have short behind the company’s core offering is it’s about taking time to make them feel customer interaction, while 30 developers delivery times and their knowledge about Register not complicated. “It’s essentially all web comfortable that what we’re doing with www.GlobalOrange.nl are employed in the Ukraine. “It’s easier to the latest developments in the online and services, its APIs that we use to connect to their data is good and we’re not using their find developers in the Ukraine compared social market is important,” he says. globalbusinessregister.com the business registers. They’re all different data in an inappropriate way and that they Yvo Gortemaker to the Netherlands, and it’s cost effective so we’re taking a lot of very diverse data come to trust us.” too,” says Gortemaker. “Because we split The company did not disclose its actual Ben Cronin and reformatting it essentially into a single Internet/Online up the work, we can do the complex revenues, but claims it has reached structure so it makes integrating that single Mr. Leslie believes that once the company customization job in Amsterdam and profitability in the last three years. “This Internet/Online structure into your systems very easy. The reaches 150 countries, it will have reached Netherlands attract a strong local team.” year we will double in size and I think we’ll technology itself is quite simple actually. “critical mass” where no other company double again by 2015,” Gortemaker adds. Ireland With the internet as it is today and the would be willing to attempt to repeat what No The company focuses on the Netherlands speed that it operates at, it makes it work they had done, and instead would rely and Belgium, so much so that its website In a competitive IT market, the road is Yes really well.” on the information gathered by Global isn’t even translated to English. “There is long for a company such as Global Orange. However, its smart business model can Business Register. The problem with this » In recent years, companies that didn’t enough market in these two countries, but help speed up growth in the future. The company’s service is used on occasion strategy is that it will take a lot of time, have websites didn’t exist. Today, you we are launching an English site soon,” » For any business, the last thing the by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in effort and money to reach that goal, which can almost say the same thing about Gortemaker says. accountants want to see is a written off the United States and HM Revenues and makes financing an important factor in the companies that don’t have a mobile or web Customs in the United Kingdom. But the company’s success. debt. Yet this happens all over the world application. The IT market is expanding “We used to have more customers than main sector the firm is targeting is finance. every day, when companies service clients fast, and for some companies, the need for we do now, but we decided to focus on Greenclouds “Our primary target would be banks and “We’re taking two approaches – one is which are either not the company they say a custom approach is crucial. The Dutch bigger companies in the Netherlands,” finance because they have the greatest we’ve been working with a specialist they are, or don’t exist at all. A small start company Global Orange enterprises Gortemaker says. Global Orange has greencloudsonline.com regulatory need. They have to identify financier in London who really likes what up with just nine members of staff based in custom application development in a developed applications for various every company they do business with. we’re doing and would be used to operating its headquarters in the Republic of Ireland, competitive market. local companies, such as the insurance Peter Zonneveld has come up with a solution to verify What we’re trying to do is automate that in this space, so we’ve asked him would he company, Aegon, the second largest represent us and see if he would go and businesses in real time. process,” says Mr. Leslie. The business plan for Global Orange started paper manufacturer, SCA and Johnson & Cloud Computing help us raise the capital,” explains Mr. in different coffee shops in Amsterdam, as Johnson in the Netherlands. In addition, A typical high street bank has hundreds Leslie. “In parallel with that, we’ve been Global Business Register was founded in Yvo Gortemaker was working for IBM and it also developed applications for the Netherlands of thousands of corporate customers, and meeting reasonably regularly various VCs, 2006, when a small team of technologists Erik Seveke was working for a large bank Rijkswaterstaat, which is part of the responsible for building the infrastructure every so often these banks need to verify investors, large corporates who would have in the Netherlands. “At some point Eric Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Yes of business registries, approached that the details of those customers are venture type funds as well, with a view to said ‘Let’s give this a month and decide.’ Environment. businessman and property investor Ben valid. This is a long and time consuming seeing if they would like to progress things.” Two days after we quit our jobs and went Cronin, to explain the potential in the process, and one that Global Business » with it,” says Gortemaker. Both of them The tax system for companies in the Less than five years ago Peter Zonneveld commercialization of the data which Register hopes to eliminate, by providing The company has had a good amount of were the first ones to invest in the company Netherlands is attractive. On the other was working for HP, in a division makes up business registries. Mr. Cronin, the banks with a live, constantly updated interest so far, despite the nature of the hand, the competition between IT responsible for utility computing, when project, which could mean a slightly slow and serve as its managing directors. saw the opportunity in the idea, and took version of their records. The company companies makes it harder to survive in he realized a huge pool of IT resources either charges banks a fee for each record return on investment. For those willing it to Rob Leslie, the brother of an associate, In 2006, Global Orange moved to an office the market. Large IT companies like Cap was going to waste. He took his findings they check, or sells them a monthly or to wait it out, it could be well worth the who had over 30 years of experience in on the Keizersgracht Canal in Amsterdam. Gemini and Atos are harder to compete to Hewlett Packard, and explained how annual subscription which keeps the patience. technology. After discussing the project, Keizersgracht, meaning emperor, may with since they have expanded throughout the company could profit from this, but the two formed Global Business Register. records updated periodically. In today’s be what Gortemaker is aiming for when Europe. Global Orange’s small size lets it they weren’t interested. Unperturbed, fully connected business world, it’s easy to it comes to the company’s goal in the keep its personal approach and allows Mr. Zonneveld took matters into his own Like every good business idea, the company see why banks would benefit from having local custom software market. The total for more flexibility and innovation than hands. solves a problem. And this problem is a live information regarding their clients. market for custom software development other software or application companies, big one. The UK Cabinet Office revealed in the Netherlands is estimated at $5.5 Gortemaker says. Mr. Zonneveld was working on the early that Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud cost The goal of the company is to offer its service billion per year by the Information and stages of cloud computing, when big the government £5 billion in 2012. The in 150 different companies. However, this Marnix Zwart, CEO and co-founder of companies would go to HP and ask for IT Governance, Risk and Compliance is more difficult than it sounds. First the Communications Technology (ICT) Office. The total ICT market in the Kroodle, a digital insurance company in support but only pay for what they used. Technology Centre has reported that firm must convince governments of the the Netherlands, describes Global Orange He developed a utility model around this, regulatory compliance to prevent fraud countries to grant it’s staff access to data Netherlands is estimated at $25 billion will cost 5 billion Euros globally in 2013. from its business registry. “Some countries per year of which approx 50 percent are Global Business Register aims to ease will have APIs and some won’t,” says Mr. telecom companies. these losses by validating the legal identity Leslie. “We’ll have to build those APIs What makes Global Orange different, of companies by connecting to global come to an arrangement with them as to according to Gortemaker, is its team. companies registries. how that will all work. Some countries are Global Orange has 25 employees in
48 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 49 Top 100 Companies: Europe Upgrade your Design & Verification with which became the global standard for HP, Director of Sales at i3D.net, says: Providing ID Checker but soon Mr. Zonneveld noticed a strange excess IT capacity to Greenclouds enables pattern in the behaviour of the customers. us to optimize available capacity and www.idchecker.com resources even further.” “I was working with the big corporates Michael Hagen across Europe and they were asking for The firm is now aiming to expand more IT capacity, more computing and internationally, particularly into Cloud Computing more storage capacity, but I noticed that Switzerland, the UK, Germany and they were only using a couple of percentage Russia. The target is to be in at least three Netherlands of the capacity,” explains Mr. Zonneveld. “I international locations by the end of next though that is strange, on the one hand N/A they are wanting more and more, yet they year, and after that to open operations in are not using it all completely.” six locations per year. In order to do this the company must find more financing, » Michael Hagen, CEO of ID Checker, After conducting some research, Mr. but Mr. Zonneveld is confident it will come There’s formal . . . founded the company in 2005 after Zonneveld, found that the reason they through. “Funding is always a challenge, experiencing a major problem with his were only using a small percentage of this we are currently in the assessment process previous business. Since then, the company capacity, was due to the unpredictability with a couple of VCs and we’re hoping has moved on to solve many more problems and then there’s . . . of peak demand. Major companies, he to finalize that in the coming weeks, and surrounding online identification. discovered, were unable to predict how big then there is enough funding to do this the demand for their IT capacity would Formal expansion. What we are doing is setting up Mr. Hagen owned temp agencies before he reach, and when this peak would arrive, local hubs together with big telco players founded ID Checker, until one day he was JASPER Formal so they were forced into over buying and basically we always aggregate capacity visited by the IRS, which came to look at storage and computing capacity in order to locally and also deliver it locally within a the files and identification documents of his properly ensure they were not caught short. country.” temporary employees. Upon discovering After his idea was rejected by HP, Mr. that some of the documents were not Zonneveld quit his job and teamed up Greenclouds operates in a very competitive properly copied, the IRS imposed a series with Michel Korpershoek, who was then market, but an extremely profitable one as of fines of just under 1 million Euros on To learn how working for CapGemini. The two formed well, and there are few, if any, companies him. Fortunately they gave him the time Greenclouds, a company which aggregates which are doing anything similar to to get the files together and in line, but Mr. this wasted IT capacity and offers it to its its model and platform. The company Hagen realized that due to the nature of the can help you visit: www.jasper-da.com clients at a discounted price. channels this unique position into a problem, this could happen again. positive philosophy that runs throughout Mr. Hagen went out into the market to find The partners attracted venture capital firm the firm. ICOS Capital to invest in the company early a solution to the problem, and couldn’t find one. Therefore he went to Pierre De Boer, on, and also received a significant grant “The philosophy is really to make use of all who owned an well established internet from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in that there already is. The whole IT industry The Netherlands. company at the time, and is now CTO of is about over delivering, over selling and the firm. The two solved the problem in Greenclouds has already attracted major our goal is just make use of what there a couple of months, and their company, enterprise customers as clients, and some already is. Don’t make a new investment IDChecker, became the market leader in of the big telecoms players as suppliers, on but try to use what there is. 90% of the the Netherlands within three years. its platform. “On the one hand we have global capacity is not used at the moment suppliers of capacity which most of the and that is not a sustainable model. And “We have 8 out of 10 of the larger employers FORMAL time are telecom companies,” says Mr. that is what we try to do with every aspect in Holland using ID Checker and using our Jasper Design Automation delivers industry-leading Zonneveld. “On the other hand we have of our company — make the best use of systems,” says Joe Bloemendaal, Business companies who want cloud capacity and the resources available,” concludes Mr. Development Director at IDchecker.com. software solutions for semiconductor design and these are all enterprise customers.” Zonneveld. Mr. Bloemendaal arrived at the company verification based on state-of-the-art formal technology One of the firm’s latest partners is managed shortly after its creation, with a vision to hosting provider i3D.net, which recently take the technology down an additional announced it is to supply excess I.T. capacity revenue route. “I wanted to be able to use to the Greenclouds platform. Bas Kling, an ID document as input for electronic Jasper Design Automation | 707 California Street | Mountain View, CA 94041 | 1.650.966.0200
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verification — so database lookup. “We set Recognition Market has crossed the chasm and fleet management. It takes a much promised a custom system. All of our company specializes in Natural Language Search queries are answered by way of up another company called Data Checker and has become more accurate, less costly more complex approach over competitive needs have been met, despite the fact that Processing (NLP) and semantic search and syntax analysis. Traditional platforms which is still around, we sold it about and significantly mainstream. This has options that merely scrape the surface, we made a lot of development requests.” attempts to help computers understand don’t always get what humans write on a year ago. And that set us on another helped the technology to gain traction and explained András Szabó, Co-founder the human language the way people do. the internet, as sometimes people use course and it brought us the international investment from commercial sector,” the and Director of Company Development The company’s founders András Szabó, This lets information seekers present their the wrong words in the wrong ways. “If expansion that we’ve seen, where we now report stated. for iData. As the needs of its clients can his brother Lajos Szabó, and Balázs Póka question the way they want, instead of I say ‘somebody spent a joke on me’ or ‘I service not only HR related issues but range from the very simple to the very previously worked for the GPS tracking restricting them to specific keywords. spent a mosquito’, it sounds perfect from also financial institutions, gaming and The company has a busy time ahead, complex, providing a sophisticated system management company Sat-Markt kft, a syntactic point of view, but in English gambling companies.” especially as the market is not without heavy that covers every detail of fuel and vehicle and founded iData in 2006 based on that Inbenta started in 2005 in Spain. It was it doesn’t make sense. We are actually competition. But it has set itself ambitious management is key, he explained. experience. They developed the device and founded by Jordi Torras, who now serves very limited by lexicon,” Torras explains. The company is now preparing to go into targets. “One is further developing our software solutions internally, tweaking as its CEO and U.S. operations manager. Inbenta puts common sense into software hyper growth due to two drivers. One is mobile solutions, that’s an important one. “There are a lot of providers in every the system in response to customer input. According to Inbenta’s blog, Spain’s Center so that similar questions submitted by the shift to mobile. If a consumer is on his Another is building our presence in the country who can locate cars using GPS and Since its first day of business, iData has for Industrial Technology Development users generate matching answers. For laptop, phone or tablet and wants to buy U.S.,” says Mr. Bloemendaal. “And then use mobile to deliver some level of control enjoyed exponential growth, fueled by the bestowed a €420,000 grant on the company example, the phrases, “I want to buy this a product which requires identification, probably more what we expect that will or functionality, but it’s really basic,” Szabó 2009 release of the fuel control system that in February of 2011. Though Inbenta first product” and “I’m interested in purchasing previously they would have had to send happen, we will keep growing at a double said. “Our system is easily customizable, “essentially sells the whole platform,” Szabó specialized in online customer care, in it” will get the same response from a Virtual it physically. But with the technology that digit rate every month. We’re going to complex, and hard to reproduce. Our said. Its original team of three engineers late 2009 they transformed from a service Assistant. IDChecker offers, they can take out their have to push hard and keep ahead of the competitors have tried to react these last has since grown to 15. company into a software company. “We phone, take a photo of the ID document competition and grab the opportunities three years, but cannot make anything had to learn the problem first, and then Inbenta’s software is based on the Meaning- Acquiring more than 300 customers last and send it over and it gets integrated into that are out there.” nearly as good.” established a software company,” says Text Theory (MTT), a theoretical linguistic year alone, iData has grown to over 1,000 framework for the construction of models the process. Torras. One of its pillar features, iTrack Vizsla, customers, including Toyota, CIB Bank, of natural language that originated in and HBM. It earned about $4 million in Another driver of growth is the increase serves as a framework for implementers The company has more than 30 significant Moscow. “The software translates text revenue in 2012. More than 25 percent in business done on a peer to peer basis. to make effortless customizations. The clients, including Groupon, Ticketmaster into lexicon functions,” Torras says. “We iData of its clients are outside of its home base For example, if someone is renting a user’s company’s Total Fuel Control function and Deutsche Bank. Its market in Brazil take the contents from our customers of Hungary, with a high concentration in and transform them to lexicon functions.” apartment on AirBnB, they would want www.itrack.hu that helps fleets optimize their fuel use is includes five big customers including Oi Eastern Europe where fuel control is a big Inbenta’s software redefines phrases so that to know who that person is and verify one of the few of its kind in the industry. (the biggest telecom operator in Brazil), problem. It plans to expand into Africa in “close an account” can mean “cancel an that they are who they say they are. And Lajos Szabo iData’s own customers say the return on Lojas Renner and Porto Seguro. “It started the next year or two. account,” while its competitors can’t. further innovation could create many investment is less than three months. with one customer in Spain that needed more revenue streams in the future. Software Bootstrapped, the company invests in R&D to use Portuguese, and from there it was “We strive to understand our customers “VoIP is a pretty new technology to from its profit margin. It is considering easier to enter the market,” Torras says. most of our users, and one of our biggest “We can bridge the gap between online Hungary deeply so we can design a solution that’s raising a VC round in order to help challenges is to educate our users about and offline as well,” says Mr. Bloemendaal. uniquely applicable to them,” Szabó In coming months, Inbenta intends to facilitate its expansion into Europe. Line2’s capabilities with language that is “In the offline world the best way to verify N/A said. “We have great engineers who can expand its reach to the Netherlands easily understood. Inbenta helps us bridge somebody is to look at them and ask to solve problems with solutions difficult and Northern Europe, as well as head see their ID and connect the dots. One to replicate. We give our customers the gap by helping users find the technical deeper into current markets. Apart from help they need without having to know all big innovation is we have linked in face » Most managers overseeing mileage free customization, while most of our languages such as English and German, of the telecom jargon we use,” explains Sam recognition into our product suite. Some and fuel consumption on a large fleet of competitors will charge thousands of Inbenta plans to support to Dutch, Turkish DeMello, Customer Service Manager at clients have called it the Holy Grail because vehicles have to take the driver’s word for dollars for customization.” inbenta and Polish in 2 years, and later on Russian, Line2, a company which adds a second line before there was always the question – how it. iData, on the other hand, takes only the www.inbenta.com “but at this point we are staying with to your smartphone, dividing work versus do I know that I’m actually receiving this data for granted. The company provides a iData is used to help track vehicle energy European languages,” Torras says. The personal-life profiles. Inbenta provides ID document from the legitimate holder of fleet management solution based on real consumption at E.On, the largest energy Julio Prada company’s management intends to create Line2 with semantic search functionality, it? If we can capture the face and compare data, not good faith or guesswork, that company in Hungary. The company has a self-serviced software, with 200 small employed in conjunction with their that to the image on the ID document minimizes fuel and vehicle costs while 2,100 vehicles installed with iData tracking. Software customers and 100 big customers. help-desk service. Inbenta allows Line2’s with a high level of trustworthiness, then optimizing driver behavior. Fuel consumption dropped 7 percent its consumers to use their own language when we know that that’s the holder of the first year. This year, E.On expects to cut Spain Inbenta uses the same core software in searching Line2’s Help Desk (provided by document.” iData provides satellite-based tracking fuel costs 14 percent. “We liked that iData every segment. But each new language is a fully Hungarian owned company, and one of Inbenta’s competitors, ZenDesk). systems, route and fleet management and No demands a specialist’s help. “Because we A recent report by MarketsandMarkets vehicle theft control. One of the leading every owner has a function in the firm,” use specific theoretical frameworks, in While quality of search is very important, claimed that the facial recognition fleet tracking solutions in Hungary, the said Horváth Gábor, who oversees iData’s order to have a new language we cannot Line2 chose Inbenta for its quick service. market alone is to reach $6.5 billion by company’s iTrack GPS Tracking System project for E.On.. “And last but not least » Inbenta wants to help businesses build use standard available dictionaries, so “The day after signing-up for their 30-day 2018, at the current annual growth rate provides an adaptable, versatile and user- their prices were the best, and it’s all cost, platforms that allow users to talk to search expanding to new markets requires hiring trial program, I was on the phone with of 27.7%. “Over the past few years, Facial friendly approach to GPS vehicle control we don’t need to invest anything. They engines like they would to friends. The linguistics,” Torras explains. one of their linguists who had already
52 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 53 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
completely indexed our help desk,” “The biggest challenge is how to make the Facebook posts with Virtual Assistants. Innotech Solar’s strong business model “It still remains to be seen if Innotech Intune Networks DeMello says. Within 24 hours, semantic company international and find the right separates it from most in the industry. Solar can produce a sufficient return on search was up and running. According model to do that,” says Julio Prada, who The company claims that its virtual Focused on quality throughout the our investment, but being one of the few www.intunenetworks.com to DeMello, since implementation in manages Inbenta’s operations in Spain. assistants lower costs while providing 24/7 value chain, Innotech Solar optimizes surviving solar photovoltaic companies January, Inbenta has deflected well over 35 The business has representatives in several availability. Other products include social solar cells through a laser-based testing in Europe, being able to deliver niche Ian Jenks percent of the total ticket volume. “They countries in addition to Barcelona. “We media tools, ERM and live chat products. process that identifies dangerous defects products at competitive prices, puts it in have helped us improve the quality and want to expand to more countries, but and hot spots, saving up to 90 percent a unique position to build values going Telecommunications functionality of our Help Desk resources to if we are able to get new projects in the The company’s customers include large of the energy generated for traditional forward.,” said Tellef Thorleifsson, General the point where we are now able to conduct USA the biggest challenge is how,” Prada corporate banks, telecommunications crystalline modules. Providing a high price Partner at Northzone Ventures. Ireland 90 percent of all customer interaction via concludes. and retail companies. It serves Europe, performance ratio, the company strives to email and self-help,” he says. Latin America and the US. Clients include use 100 percent of the raw materials for Based in Norway, the company sells to Italy, Yes PhilipMorris, Intel and BBVA. energy generation. Germany, UK, the US, the Netherlands, and Inbenta’s business model is based on China. It has offices in Sweden, Germany, monthly subscriptions. But revenues Indisys Founded in 2005, Indisys is headquartered “We are making the green industry even Hong Kong, Shanghai and California. » Networks are extremely complex increase at a different pace that sales. in Seville, Spain. It has raised money from greener,” said Håvard Lillebo, Chief systems, based on a simple concept. Commercial Officer, CFO and Founder Achieving profitability in the first quarter of “Even with 100 percent growth in sales this www.indisys.es around $7 million from Intel Capital and Network operators are constantly trying to is only 50 percent to 60 percent growth the Inveready Technology Investment of Innotech Solar. “We are first movers in 2013 required several strategic maneuvers. improve the efficiency of their networks, The company had a CEO change, hiring in revenue,” Torras explains. However, Group. Last September, Intel acquired this industry and basically developed our and this too can be hugely complicated. But Pilar Manchon David Hogg, former COO of the largest Inbenta has been profitable since the Indisys.Last September, Intel acquired technology from scratch. Our intent is to an Irish company called Intune Networks create as much value for the solar industry Chinese solar giant Suntech. Under Hoggs’ first quarter of 2013, with €2.6 million Other Indisys. believe they’ve made one of the biggest in revenue, according to the company’s as possible.” leadership, it streamlined processes to cut breakthroughs in network technology in costs by 50 percent and enable profitability management. Spain “Indisys has a deep background in recent years. A former finance manager for the European on a much higher level while still improving computational linguistics, artificial cell manufacturer REC ScanCell, Lillebo the customer offering. “Our CEO change Inbenta faces three kinds of competitors. Yes intelligence, cognitive science, and machine Intune Networks was founded in 1999, saw the need for Innotech Solar’s approach proved pivotal,” Lillebo recalled. In June of In the enterprise space, Inbenta goes up learning,” said Erik Jorgensen, Investment and developed an idea which it put to use against companies like Google, Oracle- first hand. He had a problem with faulty 2013, the company recruited Jerry Stokes, in what would turn out to be the wrong Director, Intel Capital, in a statement. “We solar cells and did not know what to do former president of Suntech in Europe, to owned data analyzer Endeca and and » problem entirely. In 2007, after investment Taking its name from intelligent believe that natural language dialogue will with them. He realized this was a universal be CEO, while Hogg continues to sit on the Autonomy (an HP-owned company which dialogue systems, Indisys specializes be playing an increasingly important role from a number of venture capitalists, the develops enterprise search and knowledge dilemma for the solar industry, and board. company applied its solution to telecoms in machine-human interactions in the way people communicate with their teamed up with a number of technology management applications). More networking, and Intune Networks was through natural language and dialogue devices.” experts to find a solution to adequately Growing from 1.6 gigawatts in 2006 to competition comes from international reborn. management tools. The Spanish company test and fix the cells. The team convinced more than 30 gigawatts in 2012, the solar customer care softwares, developed by uses multilingual technology to create Northzone Ventures to invest $1.3 million industry has been growing at a rapid pace Last year the company shipped its companies such as eGain, Zendesk and what it calls a “functional, social and in seed financing. Its Series A round of $2.5 of 65 percent annually. networking solution and has already won RightNow Technologies (owned by Oracle). emotional virtual intelligence” to automate million was raised in 2008. In total, nearly its first customer – a Tier 1 service provider Lastly, virtual assistant competitors like customer interactions in a call center. The Innotech Solar $60 million in equity has been invested in “The future potential is enormous,” Lillebo in North America, which currently cannot Next IT, Virtuoz and Artificial Solutions, company claims to provide a human-like said. “More and more countries are able to www.innotechsolar.com the company. be named. also serve as challengers to Inbenta. conversational experience. provide a lower cost of electricity through “We had an extremely strong business solar than from standard sources. It’s In order to explain the premise of the “We are in the middle of these three Indisys claims its Virtual Assistants are Jerry Stokes model because the solution was cost clearly not stagnating. As the solar industry Intune Networks solution, it’s necessary spaces,” says Toras, “We are as good as the “the most intelligent automated online competitive,” Lillebo said. “In the last five becomes more competitive, things get to first understand the basic concept of the virtual systems but easy to implement solutions for online customer service.” Clean Tech years, we’ve realized it’s clearly possible to extremely interesting.” networking. There are two main types of as the enterprise systems, and the cost is The service is completely customizable, solve this problem technologically.” technology used in networks — transport similar to the customer care price.” and can be integrated with pre-existing Norway and switching. In the context of a road infrastructure or platforms. The assistants The company sold 38 megawatts of solar network, the transport element of the Since Inbenta is smaller than enterprise feature a powerful AI engine and 3D Yes energy last year, earning $42 million in technology would be the roads themselves, companies, the difference shows in graphical interfaces. The company also revenue. Anticipating massive growth, which take traffic from point A to point customer service. “We felt that they were enables Intelligent Virtual Operators. All Lillebo expects the business to produce » Innotech Solar stands out among other B. However, these roads only go from one just as interested in seeing the service to services are available on mobile devices. 50 to 70 megawatts this year. It expects to our customers improve as they were about green energy projects in the sense that it point to another, therefore it’s necessary double or triple its take this year, earning to build road junctions, which connect up landing another account,” says R.J. Salow, Other services include a semantic search is truly green, in cash. Unlike most solar $130 million in revenue within the different roads. The junctions are similar director of customer service operations at engine that relies on natural language efforts in the world, the company actually foreseeable future. to the switching technology found in Groupon, which uses Inbenta for customer rather than keywords, Live Chat, Tweets, turns a profit. in an industry where many networking. In order to build a network, service. automated email management and have struggled to actually make any money.
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transport technology is connected to successfully raised funds in the difficult University of Delft, in the Netherlands. “When you look at the success rate today of also requires a large amount of cash, but nine years is grow the company by focusing switches in a mesh type system. If it economic climate of the last five years.” cataracts surgeries, you have a 40% failure for the right company, it can all be worth on emerging markets, focusing largely on weren’t for the switches, the road network “Current solutions can both be expensive rate where the patient can see clearly, but it. “Typically it makes the investment standards defined mobile network value mentioned before would need a road The firm has also sold its product to the and complicated. In terms of patient they still need glasses to see properly. So higher risk, but the rewards are also high added service infrastructure and we’ve from every house in the world, to every Irish government, which bought a test friendliness and affordability they really that’s a high number, a 40% failure rate. once you pass all these hurdles, you’re into g row n .” other house in the world. The switches are bed, and the company is expecting to see lack some functionality. The need for If you can do a much better measurement the market, and the benefits can be very necessary to reduce the number of roads more sales now it is expanding its sales early diagnosis of eye diseases is growing of the cornea, you’ll be able to lower the substantial,” concludes Mr. Cammeraat. “To give you a sense, only about 11% of needed. force. “I think 2013 will be a year mostly rapidly because of diabetes and ageing failure rate of 40% to maybe 10% or max our business last year was in Europe. Africa of tests and pilots, we’ve been through the populations,” says Jeroen Cammeraat, 15% ,so that’s a huge benefit,” he adds. counts typically for 30-40% of turnover Intune Networks has built a networking labs successfully at Telefonica in Europe CEO of i-Optics. every year. The balance is split between Latin technology that improves the efficiency as well. Next year our aspiration is to start The company has attracted investment and America, North America, the Middle East of the switching process considerably. The expanding at volume,” adds Mr. Brandon. The early years of the company were spent recently raised 11.8 million euro from its D Jinny Software and Asia, mostly South East Asia,” he adds. concept is both switching and transporting developing a prototype of the EasyScan round of financing. The second phase of the Although the firm does not release D round saw a total of 5.1 million euro of The company’s strategy has ensured it has at the same time, which makes it similar technology. In 2010 Mr. Cammeraat www.jinnysoftware.com to building a high speed ring road around financial targets, the company has stated its joined the company as an investor and funding provided by new investors, Swiss avoided markets such as India, Russia ambition to emulate other start ups in the healthcare investment firm HBM Partners and China, which Mr. Wilkie describes a city, and using it as a single junction for CEO and the following year the firm Maxwell Wilkie every house inside that city. same space, which become multi-billion rolled out EasyScan into the market. and Netherlands based NIBC Bank. In the as potential pitfalls. Jinny Software now boasts more than 70 customers globally dollar companies in their first decade. Since i-Optics entered the commercial first phase of this investment round lead Telecommunications This type of switching has not been done stage of its existence, it has expanded investor Aescap Venture increased its stake and a vast portfolio of products. However, there are challenges on the horizon for the before. Other network solutions use rapidly and now has offices in Germany, in the company, as did family fund De Ireland an electronic switching method, which the Netherlands and the United States. Hoge Dennen. firm, most notably the massive industry disruption caused by over the top providers switches pulses of digital 1s and 0s across i-Optics The U.S. is the company’s most important No an electronic cross switch. Intune uses market, according to Mr. Cammeraat. Patrick Krol, chairman of the i-Optics such as Skype and WhatsApp. This has board and representing leading investor affected the mobile network operators that optical switching, which means different www.i-optics.com Aescap Venture, sais after the investment Jinny Software serves greatly, and the firm colors of light are sent across a piece EasyScan is being sold into two main » Sometimes companies can target the round: “i-Optics enjoyed a successful first has had to adapt. of fibre. Light on optical fibre travels Jeroen Cammeraat markets. One of these is the disease right industry, but the wrong regional year of sales in 2012. This shows the market much further before it runs out of steam, management programs, which use the market. Jinny Software, a mobile network and business potential of smarter eye “There are new opportunities in this meaning Intune is able to build a local Medical Devices technology for early diagnosis of eye solutions provider, has been in existence diagnosis solutions offered by i-Optics. We space, so we’re building the company to switch that is spread over a large area. problems related to diabetes. i-Optics is since 1999 but only achieved success when expect substantial acceleration of revenue be focused on three key challenges for Netherlands also selling the product into the optical it switched its focus from Europe to the growth in the coming years, making mobile operators,” says Mr. Wilkie. “One The market which is being targeted by retail market, where it gives optician emerging markets. i-Optics a global success story in the eye is to ensure the profitability of existing Intune Networks is huge — and potentially Yes stores a fast and easy solution to offer to care market.” core services. That means finding ways extremely profitable for the company. “This customers for eye health and wellness scan. Jinny Software was set up in the Republic of producing capital expenditure and is a product that plays into an equipment of Ireland offering platforms to the likes of In the next 4-5 years, i-Optics is aiming reducing operational expenditure, which market that’s worth about $19bn per » The company’s second product, Cassini, Vodafone Ireland to provide value added Few other sectors highlight the vital to become a 100 million euro revenue increasingly means providing services from year,” explains Richard Brandon, CMO at measures the filament of the eye, the services in SMS. However, the company work that technology start ups are doing company. The goals of the company for the cloud. Staying relevant in the changing Intune Networks. “It’s a huge market and cornea and the refractive properties of was small, and only served around eight for the world than the healthcare industry. the next 18 months all surround the value chain is the second challenge for any one big carrier would be spending the eye. This diagnosis is used for cornea customers, until a switch of leadership led The leaps in innovation in this field can successful commercial roll outs of both of operators.” north of $100m a year on equipment at surgeries. Cassini is used in two different to a change in fortunes. In 2004 the firm save lives, improve quality of life, and give its products, EasyScan and Cassini. The this time. We’ve got aspirations to expand cases, one in preparation of Lasik Surgery, appointed Max Wilkie as CEO, and he hope to those in the most challenging of focus for the latter will be in the U.S. “We’re The new services which have entered the our footprint in our first customer: we’re and the other is a huge market – planning ushered in a new era for Jinny Software. circumstances. One area where tech start really focusing on the US, that’s where the market over the past few years have led to already in two different divisions of that ups are making huge strides in, is the for cataracts surgery. The product was mobile network providers scrambling to really big market is, there are more than “I took the company and said listen, the c u s t om e r.” field of eye healthcare, through diagnostic developed in conjunction with the VU keep up. One of Jinny Software’s products 3m cataracts procedures a year, it’s huge. competitive space within Europe is pretty tools that are more accurate than anything Medical Center in Amsterdam and is set to is similar to that offered by Skype and So we’re focusing on the United States tough, so let’s focus on emerging markets Back in 2011, the company’s last round of previously used in the sector. be launched this year. WhatsApp in that it is an over the top through our sales office in the US,” says Mr. and move the company that way,” recalls funding raised 17.5 million euro, which services that the network providers can Cammeraat. Mr. Wilkie. “What we’ve done over the last raised the total amount of investment Based in the Netherlands, i-Optics “What makes [Cassini] unique is a far offer as part of their own brand. raised to more than 60 million euro. At was founded in 2007, with the goal of superior accuracy and precision to measure The market that i-Optics operates in has the time of the funding, Barry Maloney, developing state of the art technology to the cornea,” explains Mr. Cammeraat. “The high barriers to entry, and the company has partner at Balderton Capital, one of provide a fast, easy to use, patient friendly big benefit will be in surgical outcomes, had to go through clinical trials and other the lead investors, commented: “It’s a and affordable eye diagnosis system for you will get a much better outcome when regulatory procedures in order to make testament to the strength and potential of retinal diseases. The first product offered determining which lens implant you need sure its products are CE labelled and FDA Intune Network’s technology that it has by the company, EasyScan, came out of the to select for the procedure.” approved. The early stages of development
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Top 100 Companies: Europe
The final challenge for operators is the position to expand and explore different Riku Salminen is the CEO of Jongla, a transition to fourth generation networks. ways to enhance our services,” said Charles mobile messaging firm based in Finland. The roll out of 4G services has long Watson, Sr. Technical Infrastructure and He is not surprised by the struggles bigger been heralded as a major step for mobile NOCC Manager for C Spire. players encounter in the messaging space. technology. But the majority of geographies “The more successful, for once, are startups still have little 4G coverage. “The reality is Jinny Software is targeting 20% growth because of their entrepreneurial mindset that today 80% of access to mobile phone in revenue this year, and is aiming to and their mission of changing how people networks is still globally through second continue to make a profit. The other communicate in the future,” Salminen says. generation technology, what is called GSM major goal of the firm is to start winning “You are not obliged to follow some agenda and Edge in most instances,” says Mr. contracts in the new areas of the market which is coming from the corporations; Wilkie. “There is a growing presence in 3G it has been targeting. Jinny Software has you look at the big picture.” particularly in the markets we’re focused also made a move into the cloud and has in. And 4G becomes another radio access secured its first win in the infrastructure Jongla was founded in 2009, which makes network through which customers can, as a service space already. With the major the company a relatively experienced depending where they are but typically in disruption in the market, the company is player in the mobile messaging market. urban areas, access the network.” looking to stay ahead of the curve in a fast Originally the company offered a free changing landscape. “Our ambition for messaging application. Monetization came This means the operators need to do two the next 18 months, aside from growth, by way of advertising. Jongla’s service things – one is make the experience of is to strategically reposition the company leveraged existing technologies such as the mobile user the same regardless of away from our existing cash cows into new SMS combined with the latest trends in what speed network they are using. The growth areas,” concludes Mr. Wilkie. mobile interactivity, and was released C second is to ensure that the customers in 2010. However, the firm soon made a M are always accessing the best possible change in strategy. Y network they can be. For example, they may begin speaking to someone over a 2G Jongla “We understood that the world was actually CM network, then move onto a 4G network changing very fast and people were willing MY and later onto a 3G network as they move www.jongla.com to find alternative tools for SMS and MMS CY messaging,” Salminen says. “We saw that around. Jinny Software has attempted to CMY position itself to provide solutions to these Riku Salminen we were on the right track but the angle was problems. not right for the consumer point of view. K Mobile At the same time the whole global market Despite primarily targeting emerging changed drastically. The iPhone took off markets, Jinny Software has also made Finland very well and they got a nice market share progress in North America, by targeting in a very short period of time and then the smaller scale markets. “We’ve grown No Google was coming up with the Android.” into the U.S. by deliberately not targeting In May of 2012, research provider Informa the big players,” says Mr. Wilkie. “Our Telecoms & Media predicted that in terms space out there is in the tier 2, tier 3 players. » Mobile messaging applications have of traffic worldwide, users will send 7.7 A lot of mid-western operators that lump improved drastically with performance in trillion mobile messages a year in 2016. themselves together in a grouping called smartphones and mobile broadband. Yet the Competitive Carriers Association.” big players in mobile like Apple, Google, Jongla witnessed the runaway success and Samsung have not been able to of WhatsApp, today one of its main One of the companies more recent clients establish themselves fully in the messaging competitors, and the firm adapted its in North America is C Spire Wireless, a market. Why are startups better positioned strategy to move into mobile instant wireless provider. Jinny Software provided for success? messaging. The company optimized its its MMSC picture and group messaging approach by taking all of its development product to the firm. One reason is differing attitudes and goals. in-house and recruiting workers of 10 Industry giants have multiple objectives different nationalities. The latest version “Jinny delivered exactly what they said they to consider that startups do not, such as of Jongla was released in December 2012, would – a service infrastructure which met promoting the use of their own devices. but the company is already working on an our needs, the needs of our customers, and Mobile messaging developers at startups update, Jongla 2.0. a solution that would grow with us. We are allowed to freely pursue cross-platform have had an excellent experience working messaging, something which is essential to Analysts within the industry believe with Jinny and feel we are in a strong a modern day messenger. instant mobile messaging services will
58 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
impact both consumers and businesses. It was recently reported that WhatsApp continue to decrease the price of battery “The key to the long life, safety and Magine is that you get bandwidth limitations,” “With the release of push-based rejected a $1 billion acquisition offer management.” performance of any lithium system is Hjelmstedt says in a Magine introductory notifications by mobile operating system by Google. The behemoth’s attempt the battery management system,” said www.magine.com video. “When watching something, you get vendors in 2011, eBusiness professionals to buy its way into the market reflects Lithium Balance is currently focused on Alastair Johnston, Director of Business buffering and problems in watching the got their first glimpse of next-generation the opportunity at stake. And for once, the industrial segment, which provides a Development at Exide, which has been Erik Wikstrom screen.” Hjelmstedt claims Magine’s system messaging services. Third-partystartups have the advantage. more viable business case as it waits for a customer of the company for about leverages tech that serves users better. application developers, OS vendors, and the consumer electric vehicle market to 18 months. “Lithium Balance helps us Entertainment & Media “We have recreated how we distribute wireless service providers are rolling out mature. The company has performed a ensure that we deliver the highest quality content over Internet as a whole,” he says new IP-based messaging services that offer number of pilots with OEMs of electric systems. Without that quality we cannot Sweden in the clip. “We’re not really doing regular enhanced feature sets and improve upon LiTHIUM cars, which are soon expected to hit the launch our new lithium business and streaming; we’re using the core of the the user experience,” Forrester Research market. Its customers are primarily lithium this is fundamental to growing market No Internet infrastructure to be able to send to analyst Julie Ask stated in her report on the BALANCE ion battery producers for industrial share. They are a company that has a solid everybody at the same time.” mobile messaging sector last year. forklifts, cleaning machines and other reputation in the lithium world.” www.lithiumbalance.com industrial vehicles. It also sells directly to » Magine releases TV viewers from the Highlighted features of the service include Jongla no longer uses advertising revenue battery manufacturers, providing only the To date, Lithium Balance has implemented ties that bind them to set-top boxes. The its Netflix-like search and content storage to monetize its mobile messaging offering. Lars Barkler battery management system and not the systems in over 200 customer applications, Swedish cloud-based TV platform hooks capabilities. All seem targeted towards on- Instead, the company has moved to an in- batteries themselves, half of which are live customers. Though customers up to programming delivered the-go, flexible twenty-first century viewers app purchases business model, which means Clean Tech its first couple of years were dedicated to in real time, wherever they are on and on who most likely missed their favorite users are encouraged to buy items such as About 15 percent of the $15 billion US product development, it had 40 percent whatever device they choose — so long as show’s season opener last night. Look up a interactive stickers to use with the app. Denmark market for lithium ion batteries are large growth last year, a trend Barkler expects to the service senses an Internet connection. program and Magine lets you watch every applications such as vehicles or industrial continue this year. It earned $1.6 million in With its portal and subscription model, associated episode aired in the last 30 days. “This is something which we are developing No equipment, but it is expected to grow to revenue last year. Based in Denmark, most Magine solves a self-posited thought right now to make this even better, we are reach $6 billion over the next 10 years as of Lithium Balance’s sales are in Europe, problem: “What would TV look like if it Founded in 2011, Magine has not so going to introduce more payment options electric vehicles become more popular. though the company recently focused on were invented today?” much crawled from first deployment as and building our in-app shop as a totally » Electric cars may save at the gas pump, building out sales in China with a Chinese sprinted. The company delivered cloud- new ecosystem where we can not only sell but it’s the price of the battery that zaps a The company took a modular approach sales team. It soon expects to launch a Faster than a speeding buffer and able to based TV to Sweden with its “first edition” stickers but any type of digital content that consumer’s wallet. The battery is by far the to its design that provides a more simple physical presence in the US as well. It has leap time gaps in a single finger scroll, implementation in April 2013. Three will enrich the user experience,” Salminen most expensive part of a vehicle, and the but scalable manufacturing process. raised $6.5 million in investment. Magine plays Superman to mere mortals months later, its mobile app beat out all says. owner’s biggest liability and its quality and It uses a few standardized pieces that like cable and satellite. If users miss the other entertainment apps for the top spot performance determines the performance are combined together into a complete Lithium Balance also recently landed beginning of their show, they drag playback in Apple’s Swedish iTunes store. The firm is currently in its second round and lifetime value of the automobile. system, allowing volumes to be scaled very project of 500,000 systems from an to the start, just like DVR. Live TV takes an of financing, after it initially attracted quickly, from 12 volts up to 1,000 volts. unnamed manufacturer. Barkler expects instant to load, and in demos, CEO Mattias Summer 2013 saw Magine moving quickly investment from the Finnish government Lithium Balance, a supplier of Li-Ion The system is completely configurable with the company to soon be earning revenues Hjelmstedt shows how easily consumers into new markets. In July, their beta product and some angel investors. Financing battery management systems for industrial no programming knowledge required. of $100 million. hop between channels, and between real- went live in Spain; the following month, remains a challenge, and one Salminen applications, optimizes battery lifetime The system works across a wide range time and the past. the company headed north to Germany, would rather not face, as it distracts him performance through cell balancing of modules. Its modular approach that where customers can access Magine in from the work he would rather be doing technology. Battery packs, which can enables elastic scalability differs it from The company’s marketing messaging beta as well. Depending on the market, on the app itself. The cash raised in this have as many as 100 to 200 cells, are only competitors, Mr. Barkler explained. depicts traditional TV access methods their service provides programming from latest round will be spent on international as strong as the weakest cells in the pack. as out-of-touch and annoying. It paints channel partners whose names Americans investment, as the company looks to Lithium Balance’s technology manages all “Our advantage has always been fast cell satellite TV as tough and time-consuming would recognize, like Nickelodeon, expand its presence into countries where the cells to work together identically so balancing and our product design that to set up, and torrenting as risky. Comedy Central and BBC. the Jongla app has taken off in a big way. that the full capacity of the battery pack is enables mass production,” Mr. Barkler always available, increasing the lifetime of said. “We have low cost at high volumes. According to a 2012 beta user survey A recent funding injection will help “We are in the middle of a transformation. the battery pack with a longer charge range When the order requirement is high, our conducted last year, cloud-based Magine springboard the company’s international Right now we can see that there are and improved durability. It essentially quotes are always much cheaper than our led more than 800 participants out of prospects. An unnamed group of investors a couple of countries that are doing gets all the cells in a battery pack to work competitors.” 2,000 viewers studied to increase television (Swedish and otherwise) raised $19 million particularly well. Thailand is our number together as one. consumption. Eighty percent reported for Magine this past July. “On the strength one country and it’s growing fast,” Lithium Balance’s scalability saved it in its Magine “has changed the way they watch of this fundraising round, Magine predicts Salminen says. “Indonesia is also waking Placing the system in an electric car improves early days when demand suddenly spiked, TV, by enabling them to watch TV in new that the service will be available to viewers up and Philippines is doing very well.” battery lifetime and range by as much as 40 Mr. Barkler explained. Founded in 2006, places,” a company release states. in at least five further markets before the percent, according to the company. the company spent a number of years end of the year,” a release states. Where Jongla moves, the company looks to building the platform before landing a “The regular problems of play services and build relationships with telecom operators “The cost of the battery is what is holding customer or two in 2009. In its first month services that have Internet as a distribution Those nervous that the service — which to target consumers, as it does through app back the electric car,” said Lars Barkler, the company landed 15 customers. Now it stresses maximum mobility while limited stores as well. CEO of Lithium Balance. “Our goal is to typically adds 25 new projects per month.
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by the constraints of Internet connectivity Modelity is always open for new ideas,” as Leibowitz On the other hand, big banks also have By 2015, Leibowitz expects the company to This has led to more and more touch — will make TV-viewing a solitary activity describes. Modelity debuted a beta-version their own units creating models, which generate $20 million in revenue, two-thirds screen being seen in every day life. And should know Magine plays on TV boxes, www.modelity.com technology at Leumi bank. With it, the means more competition for Modelity of which will come from outside Israel. the scenarios in which they can be used are too. Depending on the make and model, company tackles one of the biggest market coming from within their potential Already, Modelity earns $4 million steadily plentiful. One company taking advantage Magine connects to televisions by cable or Ayal Leibowitz challenges — expanding into unstructured customers. The recent crises left the global from its local market in Israel. Their goal of this huge opportunity is MultiTouch, wireless means. Displaying, then snapping territory. financial-instrument industry (a sector is to expanding internationally, moving a Finnish firm with headquarters in a QR code on the TV establishes a link Software in which innovation is carefully overseen on from Europe and the U.S. to Asia. “Our Helsinki. MultiTouch provides multi user between devices and the box, now allowing “Israel is not well known for its financial by regulators) in an unstable position. products are mostly found in developed interactive displays and software platforms for smartphones and tablets to be used as Israel products market, and I used to get Financial institutions and banks review countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Korea for customers over a wide range of sectors. remotes. surprised responses asking ‘What do you their products constantly and often would and China, these are the big players and Yes guys have to do with financials? I thought rather have their own IT segment build we want to try selling directly to them,” The company was formed in 2007 and Magine has told the press broadcasters love you only deal with security technologies,’” a program, rather than use an external Leibowitz says. initially offered custom made projector their product. The platform plays out like a Leibowitz says. company like Modelity. based MultiTouch scrolls, but changed new trick for old dogs, i.e. broadcasters sick » The recent economic crisis created “Instead of producing product explanation its strategy in 2009. The firm switched to of losing customers because their model’s a market need for better explanations In addition, the relatively low salaries Starting in Europe may have been a good to customers once a year, our program can LCD back projection displays, which allow broken for the modern viewer. “Magine is to clients of how financial tools work. that financial experts receive in Israel decision for Modelity. According to produce it once a month,” Leibowitz says. unlimited numbers of users to interact ... devised to make viewers come back to Modelity Technologies Inc. provides (compared to the US or Europe) allow Euromoney magazine, about 50 percent of Simply put: this can help with preventing with the displays at any given time. The watching TV and this is why broadcasters financial modeling and analytics platforms the Israel-based company to keep its costs the market for structured products is based the next crisis, or at least help bankers display also identifies and distinguishes low, Leibowitz says. With 75 employees, 95 and content providers are very keen to for banks, insurance companies and other in Europe today, compared to 35 percent delete a lot of burdensome Excel files. between left and right hands, which allows percent of them based in Israel, the savings adopt the service,” says Michael Werner, financial institutions, aiming to help in Asia and only 15 percent in America. multiple users to be recognised even if they are significant. Magine chairman, in a July press release. both them and their clients manage their “In fact, developed financial markets that work closely to or reach over another user. “Magine helps them create new forms of financial products. “Our program shows The displays are also stackable, meaning The company entered the international invest mostly in equity and the stock market monetizing whilst respecting the current different scenarios to the client and lets are precisely not as open to structured multiple displays can be placed side by side rights chain.” Most recently, news sources market in 2006, creating financial models MultiTouch them ‘play’ and ‘feel’ the financial product products, unlike some classic markets for as a wall or table in order to build large and the company report they’ve paired for Danske Bank, headquartered in before they buy it, just like you can play private banking in Europe, Switzerland www.multitaction.com surfaces. with smart TV providers in Europe like LG Copenhagen. with a phone or a tablet before you buy it for example,” Leibowitz explains, “But the and Panasonic. in a store,” says Ayal Leibowitz, Modelity’s The firm has targeted six main segments of “The Scandinavian market was very open United States is getting there, slowly, even Petri Martikainen CEO. the market. These are corporate information to solutions from abroad back then, and though the current structured products For now, Sweden remains the sole and communication, productivity and relatively developed,” says Leibowitz . there are not as complicated, so our product Hardware stronghold for widespread access to Back in 2000, Avi Ben Moshe, one cooperation, education and research, retail, From that point, Modelity expanded is not as needed as in Europe.” Magine’s service. However, in the coming of Modelity’s co-founders, built a Finland museums and exhibitions and hospitality year, the company will move its way across to European markets such as England, computerized engine for a hedge fund Even though the company is generating and entertainment. Europe, bringing cutting-edge tech to a Sweden, Italy, France, the Netherlands and in Geneva. Ben Moshe partnered with revenue, research and development costs No cultural institution. more. Leibowitz, who was a program developer are still very high and comprise most of MultiTouch CEO Petri Martikainen with a strong passion for finance. Banks get models from Modelity’s the company’s expenses. “We need to work explains that he is most happy when he sees “Programing financial logic, using a » platforms. The bigger the bank, the greater harder on sales,” attribution says. The meteoric rise of the tablet over the past his products in the education and research business person and not only a program the usage of the platform, and the larger few years has changed the way tech savvy sector, where the products are supplied developer, was innovative in the beginning the profits for Modelity. Most of the initial investments in Modelity people interact with their devices. Touch to, among other, the NASA museum. of the 2000,” Leibowitz explains. came from Eliezer Fishman, one of Israel’s screen devices have been threatening to “Personally I’m the happiest when I see “It’s funny, but even the largest banks most prominent businessmen and the break through into the mainstream market satisfied users and that’s usually what The two tried to sell their product to still run a lot of databases on Excel files,” owner of Fishman group, the largest private for a long time, and now they are well and happens when the kids are using these. international businesses, but the financial Leibowitz says, describing a meeting investment group in Israel. It holds stakes truly here. Touch screen has become so Like in NASA, there are thousands of kids crisis in 2008 forced them to focus on with one of the largest banks in the US. in some of the largest Israeli companies that integrated into every day life that parents using our displays every day and they are the local Israeli market, which was not “The management team took me to the invest mainly in real estate, retail, media tell stories of their children attempting to usually very happy. That’s the best type of as severely hit by the downturn. One of top floor and showed me ten computer and telecommunications. Other Israeli swipe, scroll and manoeuvre all sorts of customers you can have.” their first products was a model for asset screens, lined up in a row, all showing one finance angels invested as well. Israel-based surfaces, believing them to be controllable allocation and portfolio administration, huge Excel file. They asked me- ‘can you Foriland Investments lists the company in by touch. used by most of the big banks in Israel to help us get rid of this?’,” he says. And he this day. its portfolio, but the Modelity has stopped did. In fact, the company started to work looking for funding. “We are still interested with large banks such as Citibank, HSBC, The close-to-home business in Israel is in strategic investments like an investment Barclays and more, expanding to the U.S. also used as a field for “experiments” with branch in a bank that could both invest and and Canadian markets. new technologies,“since the Israeli market become a client,” Leibowitz says.
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In the education sector the products are touch it, then it comes to life and you’re which offered his company a directory innovation. Research by Forrester recently myThings The company is also unique for its model, used as large interactive teaching tools, able to do different things,” explains Mr. listing and some leads for $200 a month. revealed that only 11% of marketers set positioning and partnerships. Though where users can explore and interact Martikainen. Mr. Sharpe accepted the offer and was aside a specific budget for marketing www.myThings.com myThings can go traditional if clients with information that is displayed on delighted when his company was handed innovation efforts and the majority of choose, they’ll also charge via CPA (cost per the products. On the retail side of the The interactive display market is fiercely 20 leads in the first month. However, respondents in a survey said they were only Benny Arbel action) frameworks; meaning customers business, the company has enjoyed success competitive, and MultiTouch has some by the sixth month, the company only in the early stages of innovation maturity. don’t pay until they see the results they in providing customer engagement tough opposition working in the same received two leads. Internet/Online came for. in store. The famous Harrods store in arena of business. Last year Microsoft “Marketing innovation is difficult due to London boasts a MultiTouch display for its signalled its intent in the market when Mr. Sharpe considered this to be a good the ever-changing customer landscape UK MyThings gets clients in on exclusive customers’ use. it purchased one of MultiTouch’s business proposal that was executed caused by digital disruption, perpetually channels and close to sales landscapes competitors Perceptive Pixel. And that is poorly and in 2004 set up Approved Leads, connected customers, and the shifting Yes others will never see, like FBX, Facebook’s MultiTouch technology was recently used not the only giant involved in this lucrative a pay per lead directory company. That customer life cycle,” says Forrester Vice ad-exchange platform. “As one of few in two installations at the headquarters space. “There are the natural players firm was sold in 2008 and a year later Mr. President and Principal Analyst Bert select partners with a direct seat on The of the offices of financial media company Samsung and LG but at the same time Sharpe left. He soon found himself with DuMars in the report. » Online advertising company myThings Facebook Exchange (FBX), myThings can Bloomberg in New York. Engage they are cooperating with us – they are time on his hands. “I had bit of time off promises to pull consumers back to web deliver substantial performance uplift by Production, a UK firm, used the firm’s competing, but also provided components and found myself twiddling my thumbs This is perhaps part of the reason why sites they’ve just left behind — and to serving personalized ads on the world’s MultiTaction technology in a sculptural to us,” says Mr. Martikainen. “Then there is and got bored quite quickly so I met with MVF sees competition in every sector do so better than anyone. The European most popular website through a real time piece called The Scroll and a touch screen the manufacturers providing simple touch other guys who I’d worked with in the it operates in. “What we find is each personalized retargeting firm delivers 5 bidding mechanism,” says myThings’ web table which is known as The Hub. displays, meaning single or dual touch. past and were also looking for something market has its competitors. Because we’re billion impressions per month, and in the site. They are competitors in some sense. But to do,” says Mr. Sharpe. “We started off in in seven markets there are two or three past has dramatically increased conversions “The Scroll is a colourful and playful piece I see competitors as a good thing because my basement in London and we grew the competitors in each market we are in that and click-through rates for customers. In order to provide “access to preferred of digital furniture,” says Steve Blyth, that is creating the market and creating the business pretty rapidly. We launched in we’re concerned about. But we are quite deals and private auctions,” myThings managing director of Engage. “It gives the demand.” 2009 and we grew the business to be one of unique in this that we’re doing customer According to a myThings case study, 98 pairs with plenty of big-name partners impression that a piece of wall has actually the fastest growing companies in the UK. acquisition marketing on a global basis percent of online shoppers don’t make including The Telegraph, The Guardian, come bursting out under the pressure of all We now have 150 staff and we’re about and a multi sector basis and there’s nobody purchases before clicking away to greener Fox, AOL, and Sky, according to myThings’ the news being produced by Bloomberg. four years old and our turnover is pretty really like that in the market,” says Mr. pastures. Once they’ve left, myThings site. Online, myThings also states that For anyone passing through the lobby, it’s a significant. And it’s all been great fun.” Sharpe. unrolls its sleeves to reveal tricks to get “proprietary [bidders] handles 7 billion bid real head-turner, as is The Hub which allows MVF Global them back. Strategies involve targeting, requests per day from 14 top exchanges,” visitors to interact with their environment MVF works in specific sectors – education, The company has performed extremely creative displays, and data analysis to pick listing Google Admeld, Double Click and mvfglobal.com and underscores Bloomberg’s leadership finance, business to business, market well over its first few years, and has set itself the right way to say the right thing to the Rubicon. in providing business and financial news research, clean tech, healthcare and ambitious targets for the future. “Our goals right customer — all at exactly the right Titus Sharpe and information.” international moving. “We help clients are very much gross profit focused rather time, when they need reminding of a Perhaps most impressive: the long list of in those specific sectors. The key to our than revenue growth focused. What we find brand’s site and inventory. massive brands partnering with myThings to MultiTouch may have been founded Internet/Online success has been our marketing technology is that we have a few mature verticals that win customers back to buy. Founded in 2005, and headquartered in Finland, but it has platforms that have allowed us to market are delivering good profits but we want all All banner ads are not displayed equally. the company now works with everyone from UK expanded internationally. “We do have a across all the digital channels and help our our vertical delivering good profits. It will In order to pique user interest, myThings Disney, Vodafone and Orange to Walmart, fully owned subsidiary in United States customers grow their client base in those come but it takes time so it’s really about gathers what they know about consumers, adidas, and Microsoft Store. N/A and in Singapore. Basically we have now specific markets. And we’ve been market making sure that we are making good then serves them ads via different about 400 customers in 45 countries but specific for the reason why we see high profit in all the markets we are in. So that’s approaches. Basically, myThings reads A November 2010 press release records if we look where exactly – North America growth potential,” explains Mr. Sharpe. our immediate financial goal. Our long customers like a book, determines their myThings raised a $6 million round led » For both large and smaller companies, is the biggest market, and Australia is term vision is to be the world’s leader in value to brands, and markets to them by T-Venture. At that time, Accel Partners, creating international business and the second biggest single country in the The company does a lot of work in Brazil global niche verticals customer acquisition accordingly. In turn, advertisers get Carmel Ventures, Dot Corp and GP world buying these products,” says Mr. leads can be a difficult task. This is why and India and other emerging markets, marketing,” concludes Mr. Sharpe. online shoppers bounding back to sites, Bullhound also contributed. Two years Martikainen. companies often turn to marketing and but has no employees on the ground in as well as the chance to deploy customized later, Iris Capital joined the ranks, taking lead generating firms to help them out. these countries. Instead, MVF employs impressions across mediums (i.e., video, the lead role in a round adding $15 million With the company already operating in multilingual employees in London who print). “We have invested over 100 to the pot (Accel, Carmel and T-Venture One company operating this space, MVF, the world’s major markets, it is a different can conduct their marketing activities development years to build innovative participated, too), according to a March began in 2009 with five friends working frontier that it is aiming to dive into next from the UK. display technology that is centered on 2012 release. Another investor, Viola out of a basement office in London. Bu the – the living room. “Today it’s a high end predictive artificial intelligence algorithms,” Private Equity, pumped $8.4 million into story stretches back further than that — in product but we are definitely going in that It’s easy to see why companies are turning the company’s site reads. “These engines myThings in May of the same year. In June 2002 one of MVF’s co founders and CEO direction. We’ve already made some living to outside sources for marketing, as a recent analyze hundreds of parameters from six 2012, a funding-associated release reported room tables where when you are not using Titus Sharpe started a web agency. He was report revealed that firms are coming different onsite and offsite data sources to total funding at $37 million, spread over it, it looks like a designer table but if you approached by a U.S. based directory firm, unstuck when it comes to marketing calculate an up-to-the-second user value.” four separate rounds.
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“Personalizing over a billion banners Next Media times the number in 2013. This growth per month, myThings generates over rate is being driven by the increase in 150% performance uplift compared to Group free to play released, more sophisticated the retargeting industry standard,” the mobile devices and the ongoing popularity funding release says. “Its solutions propel www.nextmedia.ru of smart phones. customer acquisition and retention through retargeting, pre-targeting and Dmitry Sergeev Siân Rowlands, the author of the Juniper Research report, said “Tablet games are look-alike targeting, driving sales at scale Mobile growing so much because they are such an for the biggest retailers in Europe.” accessible way for all consumer segments Russia to access games. In particular mid-core “I rated The GodfAther A Carmel Ventures press release gamers, who previously spent a lot of announcing myThings as a winner of N/A money and time playing games but now Deloitte’s 2012 Israel Technology Fast have jobs, families or other commitments, 50 Award also declares the company are driving this trend.” and Some Site Told Me To Watch experienced explosive revenue growth: » The video game industry has been turned more than 7,800 percent over five years. upside down by the popularity of mobile The company’s revenue increased by The company has scaled global and serves devices. For many it has finally brought nearly $10 million between 2011 and 2012, 15 markets, while its “number of customers about a real opportunity to better target and is expected to rise a further $3 million increased 3x in 2012 with 97 percent casual gamers, who are typically unwilling in 2013. The company is still looking for The Godfather Part 2. customer retention rate,” according to the to invest a lot of money in consoles or investment in some of its ventures. “For release. other hardware. Success stories such as several assets we are looking for strategic Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja have proved investors, like for Shamrock Games, While myThings has made its mark on this to be the case. For many businesses our games development company,” says European markets, myThings has yet to as well, mobile games have become a core Dmitry Sergeev, CEO and co-founder of Technology Really Is Amazing.” fully tap the advertising and publishing part of their marketing strategy. Next Media Group. opportunities on the other side of the ocean. Chatter in press releases assert Americans are One firm which is working in this space Next Media Group has developed a ready for a new advertising model delivered is Next Media Group, from Russia. The number of solutions for publishing and distributing mobile games and boasts the by myThings. In August of this year, company works in many different mobile largest number of games sales in Russia, myThings opened its second U.S. outpost spaces, but its main focus is mobile games publishing. where it has two offices – one in Moscow in New York City, after touching down and one in Novosibirsk. It currently in Scottsdale and deciding the company The products the firm offers work with employs 120 people. The systems it offers needed more hands on deck. “In the first two all types of mobile content from full- in mobile gaming include payment models quarters of 2013 more than 80 new top tier length video to music and infotainment. such as subscription, pay-per-play and try advertisers chose myThings as their data- But the Next Media Group sees games as and buy. The catalogue of offerings tracks driven advertising provider,” an August 2013 the content with the highest efficiency. users’ behaviour analysis and recommends Discover Something Different press release reads. “During this period, the It boasts a games catalogue filled with systems based on the user’s experience. company experienced an 800% growth in offerings from some of the top publishers, revenues in the North American market and and also games from its own studio, The firm’s biggest challenge now appears to anticipates a six-fold rise in demand in the Shamrock Games. be staying on top of the game in Russia. Mr. upcoming 12 months.” Sergeev lists the challenges as: “To be leader Recent data compiled by Juniper Research on growing Russian markets and keep it With that expansion, myThings checks revealed that by 2017 there will be 64.1 away from newcomers and to succeed with another market off its list — and more U.S. billion games downloaded onto smart our solutions on international markets. customers are suddenly reminded of that phones and tablet devices, more than three We are focused on emerging markets now, thing they wanted to buy online but didn’t. Better do it now. Visit www.snagfilms.com/new-republic
66 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
because it’s so close with Russian one by process automation are the key selling launched Nitor Delta, a new business NLT SPINE a minimally invasive surgery platform “Convincing hospitals to buy products customers point of view.” The emerging point to the company, Vilmi stated. A for large scale agile transition services. intends to improve cost-effectiveness of from a small company isn’t simple, and markets being targeted include Brazil, financial services company, for example, A certified partner of the Scaled Agile www.nlt-spine.com spine surgeries and reduce hospitalization we can’t always support their low-cost India and Bangladesh. has an extended application lifecycle. A Academy, Nitor Creations offers Scaled and recuperation time. expectations.” sound architecture design in development Agile Framework (SAFe) training and Didier Toubia Next Media Group is operating in a highly ensures that the cost of the software is coaching services. “For a long time, there This innovative MIS technique uses Smaller leading companies in MIS space profitable market and has a clear path optimized despite the long lifecycle. Nitor has been a mismatch between project Life Sciences/Biotech a conduit that is inserted into a small are Spineology and Interventional Spine , to success, the company has ambitious Creations can also speed up the agile management level and agile project teams,” incision and acts as a channel for both located in the U.S. However, neither financial targets set for itself, but with the software development process dramatically Vilmi said. “Now with this model our Israel procedural implants and instruments. The small nor big competitors provide a right planning in place, there is a good by automating repetitive manual tasks like customers can also adopt agile management implant or instrument is shaped to form platform for a full surgical procedure, as chance it will reach them, particularly if testing and deployment, Vilmi explained. models to drive the development better Yes a bar of interconnected segments that are Toubia explains. “Our platform is more it takes off in the emerging markets it is and with lesser costs.” inserted into the spine through a conduit. versatile, allowing us to give more specific targeting. In the mean time, the company The Finnish company uses a two cycle The segments then bend to form a curved solutions for the market,” he says. will rely on its core philosophy: “Be Pragmatic Agile development process The company was founded by six software » “One of our board members just called configuration in the spine. This procedure creative. Be smart. Be transparent for your model. A concepting cycle feeds the engineers working for large companies. me and said that he can’t come to our is not as invasive as a general spine surgery, Two of the company’s lumbar fusion employees and partners. Take a pause, hold development team cycle with high quality Without a guide to determine best efforts, and may thus reduce risk, while saving meeting in New Jersey — he has a back products are currently under limited on, and look for years ahead,” concludes requirements and ready-made architectural they found they spent most of their time time and money for the surgeons and pain,” Didier Toubia, the CEO of NLT release in the U.S. One is a tool that helps Mr. Sergeev. decisions, enabling the development teams “putting out forest fires,” not dedicating patients alike. SPINE told the Red Herring by the end of remove the degenerated disk from the to efficiently develop the software that their expertise to the core process of his interview. spine, and another is an implant that keeps also conforms to the client’s architectural building high quality software. They “Health systems all over the world are the spine steady until the vertebrae above decision and guidelines. founded Nitor Creations in 2007 and have pushing to lower costs,” Toubia explains, Whether it’s the way we bend, the way we and the disk under fuse. What is different yet to raise any investment. “It’s not about saving a thousand dollars sit in front of our computers or how we about NLT SPINE’s implant is that it takes a Nitor Creations It was Nitor’s talented personnel and here and there, it’s about achieving lift things, we’ve all had back pain or at different shape according to an individual’s approach to development that proved a key Operating locally as well as globally, progress in the industry as a whole, and en.nitorcreations.com least known someone who went through unique spinal curvature, unlike uniform advantage to a Fortune 500 company. the company currently focuses on large that means a lot more.” implants that are used today. customers mostly operating in Finland and spinal surgery. It is no coincidence that Matti Vilmi “Nitor has provided us right skills at the the Nordic region. With large scale agile 1.2 million spinal surgeries take place The U.S. spinal fusion market is expected The released products still don’t generate right time,” said Teresa Sällström, Senior transition services, the company is now in the U.S. every year, 700,000 of which to remain flat at $4.8 billion in revenues in Software sales that cover research and development Solution Delivery Manager at the company, targeting European markets. involve spinal implants, according to data 2013, but should increase to $5.1 billion costs, but Toubia is not aiming for that which preferred to remain anonymous.. from BioMedGPS, LLC, an intelligence in 2017, according to BioMedGPS. In Finland yet. “At this point we want to improve our “When comes to seamless development The company has been profitable company for life science businesses. 2013, smaller companies are expected to processes, we have experienced benefits throughout its history, and currently earns technology and marketing, the breakeven N/A continue to take share from the market that are rare to find, such as a great business a profit margin of 30 percent EBITDA. It Back surgery lags behind when it comes leaders, most noticeably in the U.S. market point will take a few more years,” he says, understanding of our area. earned $8.7 million in 2012 with a growth to minimally invasive surgery (MIS) with — a good sign for NLT SPINE. planning to produce initial revenues by rate of 57 percent. The company expects to about 70 percent of surgeries still invasive, 2014. » For Nitor Creations, sound software Their technical skills are in the highest grow profitably and be earning over $13 requiring long recovery periods and more BioMedGPS estimates continued market architecture and pragmatic agile class, which in practice means we haven’t million in the next three to five years. risk-taking. When treating heart disease, consolidation in 2013, as larger companies The company raised $17.5 Million to date, development processing are the building spent unnecessary time on trainings or for example, a patient can go through look to acquire innovative technologies, with investors such as Accelmed in Israel blocks of software development. The knowledge sharing that would in other cardiac catheterization and recover within particularly in the MIS space, which NLT and Peregrine VC in the U.S., and has 19 company provides a service solution to cases cause delays to the project.” days. But a spinal repair surgery not only focuses on. “We’re not looking to sell the approved patents. Twenty-seven successful high productivity software development, requires a long recovery (up to 24 days), company yet,” Toubia says. However, he is clinical cases with NLT SPINE’s products “combining the jaws of agile software The company’s approach to software but also demands considerable financial searching for another strategic partnership have already taken place around the world. development with a lean software development helped one of its biggest expenses, with the surgery costing $24,000 to help NLT SPINE improve its market The company works mainly in the U.S. architecture design and development customers to shrink its engineering team to and the total cost of hospitalization penetration. “This is our biggest challenge (specifically in Baltimore), but more trials process automation,” explained Matti a third of its size, establishing more features between $60,000 and $100,000. now,” says Toubia. are expected to take place in Germany, Vilmi, the company’s CEO. in the same amount of time with a higher Czech Republic and Israel. level of automation. Another client saved “People don’t want to go through back About 80 percent of the spine surgery “Many of our competitors don’t think about $1.3 million because the development surgery since it’s dangerous and costly. market is controlled by a few big Six more products are expected to be architecture, but for us, it’s an essential part process was reorganized in a new leaner We want to make things different,” says corporations, including Metronic and released by 2015, and will have different of the software,” Vilmi said. “We take into way to streamline software testing. Toubia. NLT SPINE was founded in 2006 Johnson & Johnson in the US. “It’s a functions regarding back surgery. Among consideration the total cost of ownership of by Dr. Tzony Siegal, who is currently the mature market, and entering this market as them is an implant that expands the gap the software.” Speeding up the development process Chief Medical Officer of NLT SPINE. a small company is challenging, even with between vertebrae and an implant that requires agile business and IT management Its focus on architecture with agile project The company’s non-linear technology is innovative technologies,” Toubia explains: gives special support the lower spine. processes as well. The company therefore modeling and software development
68 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 69 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
“This technology will allow us to change helpful tool to identify TB infection, and entrepreneurial bug working as a CEO for PacketFront be revamped to accommodate recent year. It serves telco broadband networks, the way we do back surgery today,” Toubia it’s significantly better than the current PowderJect, a developer of cellular immune technological advancements, PacketFront enterprise communication networks, and says. With about 30 employees in Israel and test.” based diagnostics. Following that company, www.pfsw.com faces a sizable market, according to Arvin. data centers. a small office in Boston, MA, he intends he approached Oxford’s Technology Unit “A technology cycle change is happening,” to keep experiments going, with the goal Oxford Immunotec has a patented in search of a new technology to launch Ulf Avrin Avrin said. “People see improvements that Peter Eriksson, a manager of Com Hem, of turning today’s scary and complicated technology for measuring T-cells, an a business. He met with Ajit Lalvani, need to be done to accommodate higher had searched a long time for a quality, operations into more convenient ones. important molecule in the body’s immune who introduced him to the platform that Telecommunications bandwidths, so we see huge opportunity in non-proprietary system to handle IP system for fending off a range of diseases. would become Oxford Immunotec. The the traditional telco market.” networks and services. Com Hem now The company takes a blood sample, two co-founders spent the first year and Sweden uses PacketFront to plan MDU networks, separates out the white blood cells, and a half setting up key license and supply Founded in 2000, PacketFront’s roots allocate resources, upgrade firmware, then adds up the quantity into a standard arrangements in order to develop a system Yes trace to Bredbandsbolaget, which in configure and verify functionality of the Oxford number. The cells are then provoked with that is commercially viable. It achieved EU 2000 was the world’s largest fiber optic access path from BNG to media converter Immunotec tuberculosis fragments. If the T-cell has approval in 2004, less than two years after residential network built in Sweden and including distribution and access switch been fighting tuberculosis, it will recognize it first went to market. » Nearly as complicated as the human used Cisco equipment. They realized stacks. oxfordimmunotec.com the fragments and secrete germ fighting body, data networks are their own central that products designed for enterprise use chemicals. Based in the UK, the company has nervous systems. Whether introducing were not optimal for a large residential “There are not many good systems out there Peter Wrighton-Smith raised $110 million from NLV Partners, new hardware, an improved service network, requiring many more endpoints to buy, and normally we end up writing The company is so far only focused on Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Clarus capability, or adding customers to the and a much more dynamic setup at something ourselves to really get what we Life Sciences/Biotech tuberculosis in order to first prove its Ventures, Wellington Partners, Kuwait- network, any change requires complicated generally a larger scale. Several in Cisco want,” Eriksson said. “But PacketFront was business model. Other potentials include based National Technology Enterprises tweaks to parameters and configurations and in Bredbandsbolaget realized a the exception. They really helped me set up UK autoimmune disease, allergies, cancer, Company, SPARK Ventures, DFJ Esprit, to ensure network performance. Operators better approach, and left their respective a smooth automatic process for network Hepatitis C, and other illnesses that have Oxford University and The Dow Chemical are forced to either do the work in-house employers to found PacketFront. rollout with their system BECS. We can Yes no current vaccine. Wrighton-Smith Company. or pay expensive system integrators like now roll out a high quality new network expects the company to introduce cancer IBM or Amdocs to build a system, which The company sold a complete solution for very quickly.” recognition strategies by 2016. “We are “We already see a strong market pull for wears thin on margins. customer premise equipment, growing Based in Stockholm, Sweden, the company » Killing over 2 million people per year, developing a very significant step forward Oxford Immunotec’s products, including PacketFront provides fully automated and considerably through 2006 until the competes against upper tier solutions like tuberculosis is the leading preventable in the early identification of infection and from emerging countries, and there will harmonized networks with end to end market unexpectedly died in 2007. The IBM and HP, which typically have legacy infectious disease death. To treat it, the disease,” Wrighton-Smith said. be a time when the 100 year plus old service activation. It provides network and next few years proved a difficult time for systems that are expensive and not as illness needs to be identified early, ideally skin-test for LTBI will not be regarded service management that complements the company, which filed for Chapter 11 in The company received European clearance automated, Avrin said. before infection has spread into full blown as ethical anymore, so the whole market already existing networks. 2010. In 2011, the founders recapitalized disease. Unfortunately, the current standard for its product by 2004, and FDA approval might convert to the two IGRAs, of which the company and cleaned out its debt. It Bootstrapped since it was spun out test, the Tuberculin Skin Test (‘TST’), has in 2008. It has since expanded into Japan T-SPOT.TB is the one with the higher “Very few can provide an out-of- spun out several divisions of the company independently, PacketFront could easily a history of false positives, false negatives, and China. Today, Oxford Immunotec accuracy,” said Rainer Strohmenger, a box solution that enables this kind of separately to run more effectively, with the multiply its numbers by 50 or 100, Avrin and adverse skin reactions, according to serves over 45 countries around the world. General Partner in the Life Sciences automation,” said Ulf Avrin, CEO of software division launching independently indicated. “I don’t think we are very far the World Health Organization. Yet it has It earned $21 million in 2012, growing division of Wellington Partners. PacketFront. “We position ourselves as as PacketFront in 2011. All other divisions away where capital is the only limitation to been the fallback solution for identifying about 60 percent annually for the last three a strongly packaged software provider have since been sold. what we can do,” Avrin said. TB for over 90 years. years. Not yet profitable, Oxford Immunotec’s that includes all the elements needed next priorities are to invest in its market to automate a network and minimize “In terms of the company, we are a startup Serving over 50 million TB tests per a year, Oxford Immunotec has developed the trajectory. consultancy.” with small team that is VC funded, but T-SPOT.TB test, a brand new TB test that the market opportunity for TB testing is in terms of product, we have been on the overcomes the limitations of the TST test between $1 billion and $2 billion annually. “The market clearly exists,” Wrighton- Whereas most operator solutions are market for quite some time with proven with improved accuracy. As a blood test, Yet aside from the antiquated skin test, it Smith said. “We are replacing a very flawed 20 percent product and 80 percent technology,” Avrin said. its solution fits well into existing laboratory faces only one competitor, QuantiFERON. test in a market large enough to support integration, PacketFront turns that model infrastructure as blood is ubiquitous. Once Though Wrighton-Smith points out many players. We are in a fantastic place of on its head at 80 percent product and 20 Though the company originally targeted a blood sample is given, patients do not the market is sizable enough for both being able to execute.” percent integration. “Typically with costs, small fiber networks, it has transitioned in need to return for further testing. companies to be successful, he listed some we see order of magnitudes improvement,” the last 18 months to serve large providers, key advantages for Oxford Immunotec: a Avrin said. “You don’t have to run including Radius, the largest fiber operator “Tuberculosis is a significant global higher performing test and the ability to complicated systems. Making adjustments in India, and Com Hem, the largest fiber public health threat that kills more than make the test available as a service. becomes really simple, and you also see provider in Sweden. Employing 25 people, any in history, but the irony is that it is radical improvements in quality, thanks to PacketFront earned nearly $4 million in The company earned its name from a close actually quite curable if caught early,” said automation.” revenue with a 30 percent growth rate. As Peter Wrighton-Smith, CEO of Oxford association with the University of Oxford, it continues its transition to larger network Immunotec. “Our solution is a really where Wrighton-Smith earned a PhD Considering that many systems in providers, Avrin expects the company in engineering. He first got bitten by the the traditional telco market need to to achieve growth rates of 45 percent per
70 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 71 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
ParStream customer behavior to show the right against HP’s Vertica in the U.S. and SAP e-ticketing kicked off in the Netherlands, “Secondary is also to expand much further has grown rapidly. “In the beginning we adverts and better engage with users. HANA in Europe. the Paylogic saw an opportunity, and in other region like the United States, just started in Austria and Germany but www.parstream.com seized it. Within a few years the company South America and China would be there were so many people contacting ParStream’s speed took more than five “The ParStream team has demonstrated had quit its other activities and was especially interesting. Basically we want to us from the UK, Spain and France and Michael Hummel years to build, Mr. Hummel said. The that their deep technical capability and concentrating solely on ticketing. deliver our service and our representation asking us could you please also offer your company began in the European tourism their business solution stands out amongst worldwide. But starting with Europe.” services in our countries, it showed us that Big Data/Storage industry, where airfare, hotels, car rentals others in the industry,” said Vinod Khosla, The ticketing market is extremely there was a big need for this in this area,” and other accommodations are often sold founding partner of Khosla Ventures. “They competitive, with several big names The majority of the company’s experience explains Mark Henkel, CEO of Paymill. Germany as package units with a high degree of data are disrupting the data analytics market players dominating the space. But Paylogic so far has been in Europe, and excelling renewal. The German market alone has 14 through the daunting task of analyzing has worked to make sure its technology is in other markets creates new challenges. The biggest challenge for any company Yes billion tourist package accommodations, massive amounts of data in sub-seconds a major differentiator. “First of all we focus “Every market is a bit different — Germany delivering payment solutions is the each with different prices and features. The and providing customers with real answers on the bigger more professional event is a bit different from the Netherlands and regulations. Due to fears over the funding company sought an end user approach that to their biggest business challenges, organisers — so the bigger festivals, the France and the UK. They are 80% similar of terrorism and fraud, a merchant must » As data volumes continue to explode at analyzed the best travel offerings based on specifically in ecommerce environments.” bigger concerts, and technology-wise we but the way you do business is different know who the person is that is sending their an increasingly accelerated rate, the next 25 different criteria from 14 billion records, provide the most flexible platform,” says and also the way of doing ticket sales, so money to them. In the U.S. this is easily Mr. Hummel estimates ParStream serves a step is being able to access it at lightening handling up to 1,000 queries per second Theo Hoeksema, CEO of Paylogic. they are mostly cultural differences that done through the social security number, two digit billion dollar market opportunity, speeds so companies can respond in real- in peak times. The closest alternative the you need to be flexible about. The cultural but in Europe there is no equivalent. “larger than the $30 billion big data market time. To achieve real-time understanding, company could find was MongoDB, which “We did Tomorrowland which is one of differences are probably the most complex by 2015,” he said. “Big data is changing large amounts of data need to be analyzed still proved 100 times too slow. the most popular festivals in the world ones, especially finding the right people Some of the obstacles the company has all industries. The market opportunity is down to the millisecond, and that includes and we sold about 100,000 tickets within in each country — that’s also a really big had to overcome so far include finding the The data compression needed to deal with enormous.” the continual waterfall of changing raw an hour, and within a second there were challenge,” says Mr. Hoeksema. right marketing strategy. “Marketing in enormous data volumes was a formidable data. a million people wanting tickets, and nine B2B is completely different to B2C. We’re roadblock to high speed analytics, Mr. out of ten ticketing businesses would have not offering shoes out of a garage but a Hummel explained. ParStream developed For ParStream, the next tech revolution gone down. So we can handle the high solid software helping people to make a new compression technique that allowed isn’t just in big data, but in fast data. Using a Paylogic loads, we deliver a full service product to payments easier, and finding the right high performance compressed data index, it to analyze a bitmap index in its entirety our customers,” he adds. PAYMILL at lightning speeds. It launched its first approach and marketing channel was not the company provides big data analytics www.paylogic.com easy,” says Mr. Henkel. in real-time. In most instances, it provides prototype at a travel exhibition in 2009 Another key differentiator is that the firm www.paymill.com and landed its first customer outside of the attempts to sell tickets from the site of the results within two seconds, but can react Theo Hoeksema The firm also encountered difficulties travel business by the end of the year. The event organizer, rather than from its own Mark Henkel within milliseconds for such use cases as working with some of the banks in Europe. company added pilot customers over the platform or website. And the system works recommendation engines, advert delivery Internet/Online “Working together with banks in Germany next two years strengthened the maturity even when the main website is down. “We Professional Services tracking and optimization, equipment and Europe was quite cumbersome of the product, adding SQL interface, full were amazed by the powerful solution and process monitoring and control, and Netherlands because these guys are usually stubborn class support, and interfaces into third Paylogic provided to sell tickets to over Germany network analytics monitoring. and outdated. And they are not very party applications. No 100.000 visitors of million’s interested innovative so it was quite hard for us to “We talk fast data in contrast to big data,” ones, even when our own website was Yes find banks that would make this new said Michael Hummel, CEO of ParStream. Today the company serves customers in the down Paylogic’s system kept on working innovative payment deal with us,” says Mr. “To achieve real-time speed, you need to e-commerce, vertical, tourism and financial » When e-tickets became mainstream back perfectly,” said Geert Dethier, Operations » Henkel. “Now we are working together change from a technological perspective sectors, and is close to signing a deal in the in the middle of the last decade, the whole Manager, Tomorrowland. The number of regulations in Europe with European banks so we can allow 39 and really go deep into the data system, teleco industry. It serves seven customers ticketing industry changed irreversibly. concerning online payments has made the countries in Europe to process payments find the right data structures, and apply in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and The vast majority of ticket sales are now NoorderHuys, an investment company process much more difficult than in the with us. And the US players are working massively paralleled algorithms to different France. Working on a six to 12 month sales done online, and event organizers have focusing on medium sized business in U.S. As a result, although there are many distribution systems. This level of speed cycle, it is currently testing products with benefitted from a burgeoning ticket sales the Netherlands, invested 3 million Euros online payment offerings coming out of mainly with non-European banks and so is only possible through a high level of several well-known companies in the U.S., industry, providing new innovations and into the company in 2010, which was then North America, there are not so many they don’t have the same reach as we have.” complexity.” with deals soon expected. services to the sector. called Accepte, and Paylogic was its main being developed in Europe which are able product. to cater for the stringent regulations. The company secured additional funding The application use cases include just ParStream is currently earning seven figure Paylogic, a European based ticketing in February this year, bringing the total about every instance where real-time revenues and strives to reach $100 million company based in Amsterdam, was Paylogic is looking to expand out of Paymill is a German firm operating in capital it has raised between Blumberg reaction is essential. Companies in in the next three to five years. He expects founded in 2005, although the company Europe and enter into new territories, this exact field. The company was founded Capital, Sunstone and Holzbrinck to well monitoring and analytics, fraud detection, profitability by 2015. Based in Cologne, did not always concentrate on the ticketing but not before it solidifies its position by former consultants, who decided a over 10m euros. “This is an exceptional and the e-commerce advertising space Germany, the company has raised $7.7 industry. The firm was originally a software in Europe. “First of all we want to focus solution was needed for the complex and team going aggressively after an can immediately respond to new data. million from Khosla Ventures, Baker development business and created several on the bigger, more professional events often frustrating process of companies underserved market globally, and we are Advertisers can instantly react to changing Capital, CrunchFund, Data Collective, Tola internet based products. But when organizers. And to have a strong position accepting online payments. excited to be part of the team,” said Jon Capital and private investors. It competes in the leading countries in Europe would Soberg, Managing Director at Blumberg be our first goal,” says Mr. Hoeksema. The company was founded in 2012, and Capital.
72 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 73 Top 100 Companies: Europe
Now Paymill’s sole goal is to continue to Phinergy the oxygen, and have many CO2-related grow and provide its solutions to more failure problems. companies in Europe, it currently does not www.phinergy.com have plans to enter the North American “Metal-air technology came out with over- Enabling Communication market. “We have a solid product in place, Aviv Tzidon promise, but under-delivered,” Tzidon we have more than 1000 customers and we says, “In the past these metal-air batteries just want to increase the number of our Clean Tech would last for only 40 to 50 hours, but customers,” says Mr. Henkel. we’ve managed to pass 20,000 hours of Israel constant operation.” The company started with one pending patent, and today it has Yes one granted patent and 15 pending. Payson The technology was initially developed www.payson.se » Imagine that you could drink a bottle at Bar Ilan University by Professor Arie of water and fill up “gas” in your car at the Zaban, Head of Bar-Ilan Institute of GET Oskar Bjursten same time. If you ask Phinergy’s Founder Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Aviv (BINA). It was created as an oxygen Internet/Online Tzidon, this process is part of everyday depolarized cathode (ODC) in 2000. Dr. life. Tzidon drives a car his company has THEIR Eric Khasin, Chief Scientist at Phinergy Sweden developed, powered by air and water. and former researcher at Bar-Ilan, developed a nano-silver catalyst at Bar- Yes Tzidon’s Israel-based company, Phinergy, Ilan along with Zaban’s group for 8 years. creates electric vehicles. It develops zero- This catalyst proved to be the component emission, high energy-density systems metal-air batteries had been missing in the » A leader in P2P payments in Sweden, based on metal-air energy technologies, past. Tzidon decided to buy the technology ATTENTION! mainly aluminum-air and zinc-air Payson specializes in secure Internet in 2008 and use it as a cathode for metal- batteries. payments between individuals. The air batteries, attempting to turn the catalyst company provides fast and secure into a strong and long-holding cathode. payments via credit card or through a Phinergy’s aluminum battery consists of 50 aluminum plates that allow a 20-mile drive banking solution without the buyer or seller Phinergy’s metal-air batteries freely each. Every couple hundred miles, drivers needing to submit sensitive information. breathe oxygen from the ambient air to must stop for “gas” (i.e. water), but the release the energy contained in metals. The The company offers the Payson Guarantee, car’s total range adds up to 1,000 miles. In company developed an air electrode with which holds the payment until both buyer addition, Phinergy’s rechargeable zinc-air a silver-based catalyst and structure that and seller are satisfied. Employing 11 to 50 battery is resistant to dendrite formation, lets oxygen enter the cell, while blocking people, it is based in Stockholm, Sweden. unlike other zinc-air batteries. CO2. Thus, the operational lifespan can It was founded in 2003. In 2012, it became last longer: thousands of hours, according the subsidiary of Svea Ekonomi AB. It has Since the ‘80s, air-battery technology raised just over $1 million in two rounds created a “gold rush” among various to Tzidon. At 55 pounds, the battery is also of funding. companies and research centers around the quite light in weight. globe. Lithium-air batteries are expected Payson competes against Paypal, Klarna, to improve the range of electric vehicles, What’s the secret? Aluminum plate anodes Dibs, and Payex. It differentiates itself solving one of the electric car’s main implemented in the battery. Aluminum through a transaction based revenue problems. These batteries contain “air batteries have a great energetic potential, model with no fixed fees that includes all cathodes” that draw oxygen from the air, with 8 kilowatt-hour (kWh) compared to necessary payment methods for a web but conventional bulky cathodes contain 0.2 to 0.3 kWh average in most electric merchant. The company offers the first P2P oxidizers within the battery itself, carry vehicles, according to Tzidon. payment service to Facebook connections with a credit card on file.
74 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
However, Phinergy’s aluminum batteries with the company. Until today, most VCs collaboration, and secure authentication, The company began building mobile Proxistore are a number of ways to localize a user on are not rechargeable. Once the energy is and other potential investors found the Pozitron eases the transition to mobile software solutions, eventually constructing the internet. One is to use the I.P. address, expended, the plates need to be replaced. technology too risky, but Tzidon is not with a simple to use solution, personalized a backbone platform to streamline the www.proxistore.com another is to do it based on their Wi-Fi According to the company, though, worried. “We’d rather put more effort into for each client. process. The core back end continually system and it can also be done by tapping this process is quicker than recharging. making the technology work than trying to evolves. The company recently added push Bruno Van Boucq into GPS enabled devices. However, The aluminum is also recyclable, unlike convince others that it’s working,” Tzidon “We open powerful channels of interactions notification with geolocation that can Proxistore uses another system. other metals. Due to then nature of the says. “Our current investors made the for large companies,” said Firat Isbecer, send messages based on location with a Marketing/Advertising/SEO technology, Phinergy sees its aluminum-air decision to keep supporting the company cofounder of Pozitron. “We don’t just build personalized message. “The most transparent and legal way to technology as a range-extender working in until its profitable,” he adds. the channel. We design, grow and develop Belgium localize a user, if you consider all the rules conjunction with the traditional lithium- each channel with our clients. We carry In the last two years, the company has of privacy, is the cookies. The cookies that ion battery, which would handle daily Companies like A123 and Tesla have tried them quickly to the mobile channel with become the market leader for mobile N/A an internet user uses is answering and commuting energy needs. The aluminum- to use similar technologies to Phinergy’s. a competitive user experience based on banking in Turkey, holding more than 50 saying ok I live there and that’s my zip code air battery would only provide the extra However, Tesla’s final product is expected multiple channels of interaction across a percent of market share in terms of mobile etc. Then it is crystal clear we know where range when needed. to be a luxury car that would cost at least variety of platforms.” banking software vendors. Pozitron is » Local advertising has traditionally been they are,” says Mr. Convent. $70,000 to $80,000 due to its battery’s targeted to earn $10 million this year. Over very easy, a company wanting to target the Tzidon says Phinergy works with a high ticket price. Phinergy, on the other The company can open a mobile channel the last five years, its revenue has grown consumers near to its store would place “Once that localization is done we can leading European OEM (an expert car hand, is focused on middle-class usage of for a bank in less than eight weeks 85 percent, mostly through product cross- adverts in local newspapers, magazines bring local campaigns that are running on manufacturer) in the hopes that the the technology. There are a few startups for example, where most competitive selling. The company is profitable with and billboards. But as print advertising national website so that somebody that is company’s metal-air battery technology that have tried to revive the 20-year-old solutions can take six to seven months. high margins. continues to fall, and online ad spend stays based in Brussels can see on a website from may be commercially available in vehicles technology, but none have reached the The company uses a lean methodology strong, the question of how to advertise a La Monde can see an advertising of a local by 2017. “Until then we still have to same development stages that Phinergy has. to quickly implement the product, but Self-funded, the company seeks growth local business becomes more complicated. store within his city or community or zip improve the total CO2 impact and the then tweaks and perfects the offering funding to help fuel its US expansion. Geolocalized advertising appears to be the code. And somebody who is looking at the “In terms of global software, the US is exact same website in Antwerp will not see system’s life cycle,” Tzidon says. In just a few years, this once-unsuccessful in response to customer feedback. Each answer. absolutely the best market,” Isbecer said. that because it’s not a campaign for him,” technology may turn into the secret product is structured around a proprietary The company also signed an agreement he adds. that will allow electric cars to run for code base, but can then be differentiated “Everyone is aware that the revenues from with Alcoa for the production of relatively Pozitron competes against Antenna longer periods of time, fueled with water. according to the client’s specific needs. publishers in the traditional newspapers low-priced aluminum. “This will allow us Until then Phinergy has to keep up with Software and mFoundry, but differentiates have been declining for years. The digital Proxistore is an extremely young company, in its lean methodology as well as having spun off from BeWeb, an internet to be competitive in KwH price compared development efforts, competition, and Pozitron serves around 30 clients, mostly advertising market is going up, we’re also customization options, Isbecer said. display advertising firm. Despite this, the to a diesel or gas-fueled cars, but it’s hard most importantly, a strong belief in its blue chip, high revenue Fortune 1000 aware of that,” says Frederic Convent, firm still has strong plans for international since we are competing with a technology technology. Chief Financial Officer of Proxistore, a businesses, adding about three to four In the next three to four years, Isbecer that is hundred-years old,” Tzidon firm offering commercial geo-localised expansion. Proxistore has the most contacts customers per year for a 15 percent annual expects Pozitron to be earning $60 million mentions. web services. “But it’s very curious to see in its base in Belgium, but in September it growth. The company works with eBay, a in revenue. is also going to begin operation in France, strong reference that helps give it clout. It that the newspaper digital advertising is “Our strategy was to prove the technology making use of the contacts it’s parent serves 12 different countries, including the rather flat. So in other words on digital in the most complicated market, and then Pozitron “Every single business needs to embrace company BeWeb has in the country. The US, Germany, South Africa, and Mexico. multi-channel strategies, or they won’t newspapers on websites from newspapers go to other markets,” Tzidon says. Phinergy you see that there is still a lot of unused ad company also plans to start working in decided to focus on the vehicle market www.pozitron.com The company recently opened an office in compete,” Isbecer said. “We offer experience Germany, and recently signed a deal the Bay Area. backed by proven technology.” inventory that management of the unused first, but its metal-air tech can be used in advertising inventory could be optimised with a young company called YieldLab to different markets, including aerospace Fatih Isbecer offer real time bidding technology in that Based in Istanbul, Turkey, Pozitron has a so there is a large room for the monetisation and defense, consumer electronic devices, market. rich history in mobile that goes back to of online audience.” smart grid energy storage, and UAVs and Software its founding in 2005. Founders Isbecer, boats, the company says. “That’s one element, and the second “The integration of Proxistore and Yieldlab Turkey his brother Fatih Isbecer, and Mete Balci element is that we see that local advertising will once again significantly increase began focusing the company on mobile By 2017, Tzidon hopes to have positive cash on the web is not so strong yet. Compared the transaction volume on the Yieldlab No as early as 2006, providing Java-based flows and to increase sales by leveraging a to radio, television and also door to doors platform. The combination of Proxistore mobile software for banks and ecommerce competitive price and targeting a niche and print newspapers, digital newspaper and Yieldlab offers the local marketers an companies a year ahead of the iPhone market (i.e. the emergency generator advertising does not promote enough local independent and strong complete solution » The mobile revolution has completely when even Blackberry’s mobile offering segment). businesses,” he adds. in the area of inventory optimization” transformed how we do business, yet many was fairly rudimentary. “When the iPhone explains Marco Klimkeit, founder and Phinergy’s technology is sophisticated, companies struggle to adapt to the new app store came out in 2008, we were the Proxistore attempts to solve this problem Managing Director of Yieldlab. and so are its backers. Tzidon was the first world. Providing out-of-the box yet easily only company in our region that had though a technology that geolocalizes to invest, and he explains that its investor customizable solutions for mobile banking, substantial knowhow in mobile,” Isbecer customers, so local advertisers can target Proxistore also has its eye on the North group is comprised of people familiar mobile payments, mobile sales force remembered. only the consumers in their area. There American market, and the west coast in particular. Representatives of the firm went
76 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 77 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
on an economic mission over the summer be just as easy to install, customize and functionality. “When the marketplace RTR Rete have to maximize the production out of Mr. Lugiato’s personal goal is to reach to the west coast with Phillipe of Belgium, empower as consumer software. It designs for SharePoint is mature, it will be much our plants.” 500 megawatts by 2015. The company who at the time was a Prince, and is now SharePoint apps that simplify the use of easier for business users to buy these types Rinnovabile continues to pursue acquisitions, and has the King of Belgium. The firm is currently the platform while taking full advantage of of applications,” Mr. Norby said. “We want Though it has no venture funding, RTR the objective to increase its solar plants by closing a fundraising round and will have its functioning. to be an early adopter in a new ecosystem.” www.rtrenergy.it is 100 percent owned by Terra Firma, the 10 percent by the end of 2013. to consult with new shareholder any private equity fund, which strives to bring plans for major international expansion, “We try to do for the business side what Puzzlepart does not really expect the Paolo Lugiato the company’s monitoring and energy “In a mature market like this, we have plenty however. Apple has done for the consumer side,” said market to mature until well into 2014, with optimization techniques to the solar of opportunities to grow, geographically Steffen Norby, CEO of Puzzlepart. “We business really picking up a few years after Clean Tech markets in other countries. and technologically,” Mr. Lugiato said. The firm now has ambitious targets to hit. empower SharePoint by delivering real that. The company currently serves about “The future of our technology is the grid Because it can test the optimization of “First of all I think that we should target business value for the platform. SharePoint 20 large enterprise customers. It earned Italy parity. Ideally, the value of this technology plants, RTR makes an ideal partner for will continue to accrue as we extract more in 2015 a revenue of around 20 million is fascinating in the sense that it’s a number $1.5 million in 2011, and $2 million in N/A every startup striving to develop novel value from it.” euro and being also in positive figures, of Microsoft acquisitions fitted together. 2012. It is on track to earn $2.5 million this approaches to the photovoltaic industry. not before,” says Mr. Convent. “That’s Puzzlepart’s provides consultancy to help year. By 2016 or 2017, Mr. Norby expects something that we should keep in mind. “We have a very powerful tool monitoring it all fit together and deliver functionality the company to be earning at least a $15 We should of course continue innovation » Italy’s 16 gigawatt solar energy market is system that can collect, analyze and out of the box.” million with high margins of 40 to 50 of our product and consider all the highly fragmented, with the top 10 players compare data, so we’re continually percent. Sefaira challenges. What about geolocalization The company features a suite of four in the market owning less than a 5 percent developing new products to increase with mobile technology?” share . RTR Rete Rinnovabile owns more performances,” Mr. Lugiato said. “We make packaged apps: the Did app, enabling “We are the tiger in the grass waiting for www.sefaira.com than 117 plants producing over 400 GWh an ideal R&D case for business.” time management and time sheeting the prey, but we don’t need to make the big Proxistore will also develop more real time capabilities; the Play app, a gamification of electricity per year. These plants prevent Mads Jensen money right now,” Mr. Norby said. “We’re RTR’s monitoring system led RTR to bidding technology and welcome its new engine; the Whoodoo app, a tool for more than 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide letting the market mature.” change the acute angle of panels in two large financial partners in the coming months. project management; and the Hired app, from polluting the atmosphere, according Clean Tech plants, improving the energy harvested by “If we are successful in all of these things which facilitates collaborative recruiting. to the company. The company was founded in 2008 by as much as 3.5 percent. When a new Italian then we will have done an extremely good UK Mads Nissen, an expert on the Microsoft energy law required solar utility companies job,” concludes Mr. Convent. Puzzlepart’s technology helped customer In addition to being the largest solar platform who received Microsoft’s Most to predict their output in advance, RTR and partner 4Subsea improve collaboration provider in Europe, RTR stands out in the Yes Valuable Professional Award for his was able to quickly develop an internal efforts of their own as well as their clients’. solar market for its high tech approach. It community efforts for SharePoint. He uses automated technology to optimize its algorithm, based on weather forecasts, that could forsee plant production 48 hours in “Puzzlepart improves the SharePoint had the idea to sell Sharepoint apps in the solar output and has developed a real-time » Green initiatives have spread through Puzzlepart advance. experience by providing good design and same way Apple did with its app store. He monitoring system that observes energy every industry, as the world attempts to stem usability,” said Øyvind Tveit, manager of developed the idea for two years before performance. the flow of dangerous climate change. One www.puzzlepart.com Founded through the acquisition of a engineering at 4Subsea. “It has been our recruiting developers and launching of the sectors that has addressed this issue number of solar plants, RTR launched Puzzlepart. They took two years to develop Text messages and emails are immediately is construction, and organizations such as Steffen Norby choice since it adds value to 4Subsea’s in March 2011 with already established the core platform. They released it to sent to technicians as soon as energy the US Green Buiilding Council have been engineering services — we are able to infrastructure but no actual team. customers at the end of 2012. lags. Typically solar panels are connected working tirelessly for a number of years Software combine SharePoint technology with Mr. Lugiato was the first hire, and together so that one dysfunction can knock to ensure construction firms are striving engineering services to increase value to his immediate task was to assemble a Self-financed, the company earns its bread out an entire line. However, RTR Rete to build the most sustainable buildings Norway our customers.” technical team to handle maintenance and and butter through selling custom apps, Rinnovabile’s are equipped with power possible. Efficiency and technology walk optimizers to ensure the entire system optimization, a business team to pursue No Puzzlepart began developing SharePoint and then investing that revenue back into hand in hand, so it is no surprise that it continues to work if a panel is suffering growth opportunities, and a finance team. apps several years ago before Microsoft the company. It has always been in the is a technology firm, with a cloud based temporary shadows or breaks down. The had even released a developer’s platform. black. offering, that is giving architects the tools company also tested a new algorithm for The company achieved profitability last » Microsoft’s SharePoint may have over The company designed its own platform, to design green buildings, with half the inverters that could maximizes output, year and earned revenues of $113 million 100 million users, but as enterprise and then integrated it into SharePoint’s In the next five years, Mr. Norby envisions hassle. optimizing the conversion of DC current in 2011 and $186 million in 2012 at a 64 once the API had been released. Today Puzzlepart to be a $100 million company. software, it doesn’t really get a lot of love. into AC current for use in a commercial percent annual growth rate. the company sells its software apps In that case, an acquisition would be Historically when an architect is designing Most users don’t understand its intricacies electrical grid. and functioning to get the real value from through a cloud model. The company has tempting, Mr. Norby admits, especially No other competitor offers a similar real- a building, should they need to calculate if the company could achieve wide usage the energy efficiency of the project they are it. Useful but complicated, SharePoint development operations in India and Sri “Typically, solar power plants are just seen time monitoring system, according to remains a problem child with a complexly Lanka, with clients all over the world. . to fetch an attractive price. “We’re really the company. “The only real competition working on, they would have to consult a as a real estate investment, where the utility specialist engineer, a process which can take robust feature set that’s difficult to grasp. looking towards a possible exit strategy just buys or builds the asset and runs it for we face is on the acquisition of what is Mr. Norby claims the company doesn’t with Microsoft,” he concluded. available on the market,” Mr. Lugiato said. up to several weeks. Therefore, architects 20 years to get incentives and sell energy,” have always finished their design prior to Puzzlepart, a Norway-based company, yet have much competition, and what said Paolo Lugiato, CEO of RTR. “We are “If we do well and squeeze assets, it’s good believes that business software should does exist on the market offers little for everybody.” submitting it for performance analysis. one of the few to have a utility approach. This limits the number of changes the Our objective is to produce energy, and we
78 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 79 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
architects can make, without adding large says Harvey Bernstein, vice president LEED credits for incorporating energy Roughly 1.2 million of Sefamerve’s Belgium and Denmark, which is about Self-funded and profitable since inception, amounts of time onto the design process. of Industry Insights and Alliances at analysis as part of the early stages of the Facebook likes come from Turkey, while half the population of Turkey itself. The Showroomprive achieves roughly $320 But a UK based firm called Sefaira, has McGraw-Hill Construction. “And the design process,” says Mr. Jensen. the other 700,000 come from Islamic strength of the Turkish market combined million in annual sales, selling 50 million come up with a solution that can calculate fact that green is growing in all parts of communities primarily in Europe. The with the potential of Europe offers enticing articles per year. About 70 percent of its the efficiency of the design in real time. the world indicates that there are market company plans to expand soon into North opportunities for the company, he said. turnover includes accessories or shoes. The opportunities in both established markets Africa, followed by the Middle East and average consumer shopping basket is $65. “We’re embedding energy analysis right as well as developing countries.” Sefamerve Asia. “Excluding Turkey, the turnover in Europe into the CAD (Computer aided design) is about €100,000 monthly, but is mainly But the company’s secret is not what it offers program of the architect,” says Mads The hard work put in by Sefaira has paid www.sefamerve.com According to Sefamerve, the company has from the sites that are translated (German, customers, but what it provides the brands, Jensen, CEO of Sefaira. “So instead of off, as they are the only firm offering this shipped over 500,000 items of merchandise, French) with the wrong payment methods explained Thierry Petit, Co-founder and having to involve an engineer to specialise type of software. “Our platform is the only Metin Okur and the majority of its goods are delivered (credit card and PayPal),” Mr. Jatenberg CEO of Showroomprive. The company software to do different modelling, we can platform in the industry that can do energy within 24 hours. said. “Translating to Dutch should make works with brands to alleviate overstock, use our CAD program with our cloud analysis in real time. There are plenty of Internet/Online them €10,000 to € 20,000 monthly without which allows it to offer considerable platform and we can do energy analysis in traditional engineering software that runs Sefamerve was founded in 2011 by any effort. Adding IDEAL, the payment discounts on big name merchandise. In real time.” on a desktop and will take hours and hours Turkey Oya Erciyes. Returning to Turkey after method used for 90 percent plus of the many ways, the company is actually a B2B to do a simulation and so no other software briefly residing in Canada, she noticed business rather than a B2C in the way it The company was founded in 2009 and population, will also double the turnover.” can do what we’re doing. It’s completely No that Turkish citizens who wear a hijab helps companies quickly sell a huge volume endured a lengthy design process before unique and that’s a big differentiator. For did not have access to a variety of styles Sefamerve’s presence in Turkey is roughly of unsold merchandise, Petit explained. In taking its software to market, where it was the first time it’s a relevant part of the and qualities in brick and mortar stores. some cases, it can sell 50,000 orders of a received with excitement by architects. It 10 times the size of its presence throughout design process. You can’t stop every time » The largest e-commerce portal in Meanwhile, Erciyes’ brother Mehmet particular item in just a few days. took three years to be launched, mainly Europe, Mr. Uslu indicated. you make a change to the design and then Turkey, Sefamerve offers choice and Okur had developed a sizeable fanbase due to the extremely complicated nature wait two hours to see what happens,” says traditional Islamic clothing for women. on Facebook through his development of “If you have the brands, you’ll have the of what the company was trying to do. Mr. Jensen. Serving a demographic of Muslim women applications . The two teamed up to sell consumer,” Mr. Petit said. “We offer real “Effectively we’re taking a process that has who choose to dress conservatively, the merchandise online. value to our brands. They give us their in the past taken hours and hours to run, Sefaira has had a good knowledge company provides clothing and other Showroomprive overstocks, and we provide them a way and we’ve got to calculate all the energy base in the market space it operates in accessories that meet the traditional The company is off to a good start. In its to sell their overstocked products very flows of a building and everything that’s since its birth. Mr. Jensen previously www.showroomprive.com standards of Islamic dress. first year, it went from zero revenue to $9 quickly to avoid distribution problems. going on and compress that process down worked for IBM and has a background million. Mr. Uslu expects the company to It is critical that we are able to sell a large into seconds. It’s one of those things, in in technology. Co-Founder Peter Krebs Thierry Petit “We provide choice for Muslim women,” earn $25 million this year. In the last 16 volume of merchandise in just two days. research you don’t necessarily know how is a trained civil engineer as well as a said Tayfun Uslu, co-founder of Sefamerve. months, revenue has grown 16 times over By delivering a mass market to brands on hard it’s going to be when you set out but technology entrepreneur and worked on Internet/Online “Women love these products. The choice and there is plenty of room for growth. unsold merchandise, we are able to provide we found a way through it and got out the the prestigious The Solaire project in New of selection we offer empowers them Sefamerve plans to triple its revenue a huge discount on well recognized brands.” other end,” says Mr. Jensen. Having gotten York city, one of the first Gold rated green France to be beautiful within the standards of in Turkey, adding a potential 5 million over the technological challenge, the buildings in the U.S. traditional Islamic dress.” customers. With 1.6 billion Muslims in the Mr. Petit has a long history in Internet Sefaira software is now used by more than Yes world purchasing $120 billion in goods, ecommerce startups. In 1999, he won a 160 architectural companies. Orgnizations such as the U.S. Green Sefamerve drives its marketing efforts Building Council are hugely influential according to an IBIS Global Apparel Microsoft award for best app after creating through social media. The company has Manufacturing Market Research Report, a worldwide internet portal for L’Oréal. A recent report from McGraw-Hill in this space, and it is behind LEED, a a large social reach on Facebook with » Showroomprive provides a members- Construction revealed that construction ratings system for green buildings that Mr. Uslu estimates the company’s target He also launched the first online price nearly 2 million likes. All customer service market is easily worth $25 billion. only eCommerce platform that enables comparison site in France, toobo.com, firms are steadily shifting their focus construction firms strive for. “One of inquiries are handled through Facebook, up to 70 percent discounts on leading towards green buildings. The study the things we’re seeing in bodies like the which Tiscali acquired in 2000. with an average query response time of “If we can increase the performance of brands. The site features ready-to-wear revealed that 51% of respondents are Green uilding Council do, is they are 10 minutes. The company receives 450 Turkey and repeat that in other countries, merchandise for men, women and In 2006, Mr. Petit launched Showroomprive planning more than 60% of their work to be starting to focus more on the importance million Facebook impressions per month. children, including fashion accessories, green by 2015. This number has increased of embedding analysis as part of the Sefamerve has tremendous potential,” Mr. together with David Dayan, an entrepreneur It runs call center operations and employs lingerie, beauty products, as well as toys dramatically from previous studies, where design process. And one of the upcoming Uslu said. “We have a solid business model in the stock clearance and private offline a Facebook management team to give with a low-cost acquisition of customers. and home decoration. sales profession. Accel Partners bought 30 285 of respondents said 60% of their work changes to the LEED rating systems they customers better personal attention. would be green in 2013. are proposing is that design teams will get Our community is dedicated and engaged. percent of its shares in 2010 in order to fuel We have huge potential in the lifestyle Through a partnership with Société the company’s growth and foray into new Générale and an SSL protocol, the “The acceleration of the green building business.” countries. marketplace around the world is creating company ensures secure payments through markets for green building products Wim Jagtenberg, CEO of Youdagames, credit, debit card or Paypal. The company The background of the company’s founders and technologies, which in turn will wrote the business plan for Sefamerve. He also has a large mobile presence with more has helped it succeed in an arena where lead to faster growth of green building,” points out that about 40 million Turkish than 1.5 million downloads that make up many others have failed, Mr. Petit explained. people live in the Netherlands, France, 45 percent of its traffic. Mr. Dayan holds 20 years of sourcing
80 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 81 Top 100 Companies: Europe Know what your customers experience, which is complemented by Mr. Management’ solution that identifies “The Sievo software was easy to implement want before they do. Petit’s media and ecommerce background. procurement savings through a platform and very easy to use for both technical which manages every step of a project. It and end-users, as it is based on selections Showroomprive has grown to more than simplifies budgeting and forecasting future using visual clicks, graphics and colors. Smart mobile engagement. Anticipating and delivering on your customers’ needs is fundamental to 4 million members to date who have spend and embedded savings, controls the It is very intuitive,” Mr. Martinez said. driving traffi c and creating long-term advocates. bought at least once from the site, growing realization of savings according to budgets “It benefits us in the way that the end- 20 percent annually. Customer orders and compares those savings with other user does not depend on anyone to get tend to be high with repeated buying financial periods. The platform essentially savings indicators, supplier management The mBlox mobile engagement platform uses SMS and push messaging to enable more than patterns and 75 percent of its turnover is provides an accurate picture of where or categories of purchases.” 10,000 businesses to create mobile relationships with 5 billion people. generated through loyal buyers. Its sales a company spends money, where it can grow about 15 percent annually. Mr. Petit save, and how much each decision impacts Mr. Saporito estimates Sievo can benefit Learn more at mBlox.com expects Showroomprive to reach $650 its bottom line. More importantly, Sievo from a $1.5 billion market opportunity. million in sales in the next two years. The provides an accurate way to measure the The company currently serves over 40 company competes against Privalia and savings success of procurement teams to clients on the corporate level, growing at VentesPrivees.com. “We have now reached enable rewards. 50 percent annually for the last three years. a critical size that allows us to grow faster,” Mr. Petit said. “The most important thing Although the Finnish company’s customers “We provide a solution that bridges the is to be able to drive a good margin with are historically Nordic, more than 60 finance and procurement world,” said good execution and capacity. Creating an percent of its revenues today come from Fabrice Saporito, CEO of Sievo. “We help engaged base has been critical.” outside Finland. The company has clients finance to not only understand what in France, Spain, the UK, Switzerland, procurement does, but enable procurement Based in France, the company’s primarily Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Sievo plans to departments to be recognized for the work sells to Europe, including Spain, Italy, expand to the United States in the coming they are doing. That is game changing France, Portugal, the UK the Netherlands, year as well as the Middle East. and Belgium. It has plans to soon enter when it comes to how the procurement Brazil. Expansion in the U.S. is particularly space affects the finance function.” Sievo was founded by Matti Sillanpää challenging, as physical outlet retail stores and Sammeli Sammalkorpi, who met at are already strong and attract most of the The company’s software relies on three the Helsinki University of Technology. inventories, according to the company. components. The data extractor pulls Working for a local management information from multiple sources and consultancy firm, they understood the integrates it into a database. A collaborative massive manual work needed to coordinate web platform enables suppliers to provide expenses, and decided to develop an Sievo detailed invoice data so clients can track, automated solution. Mr. Saporito met them spend, and measure performance and in 2004. The French CEO, who won the savings. And a data manager translates www.sievo.com Booz & Company’s Professional Excellence the data into multiple languages and Award for the successful turnaround of Fabrice Saporito provides universal measurements to assess LEGO in 2004, liked the approach of the performance. Finnish startup, but thought it lacked Cloud Computing differentiation. He encouraged them to Sievo’s software typically enables 40 address the procurement performance Finland percent savings to its clients’ bottom line, management space with a solution that as well as an 80 percent savings reduction managed current spending as well as No in maverick buying, according to the projected future spending. The approach company’s website. Its technology allowed worked, with Lego signing up as a client Lego to identify procurement losses that by the end of 2004. A second client arrived » If you want to know where money can led to a 50 percent savings, simply by in 2006, and the company has been on a be saved, you first need to identify where tweaking its supply change to better suite growth trajectory ever since. it is spent. The process of identifying demand. procurement savings can be tricky. But Without a dime of venture funding, new software solutions are offering a After analyzing the competition, Sievo the company has grown to 40 people, simple solution to a crucial problem. stood out for the agility of the solution, including 12 added in the last year. said Alvaro Castro Martinez, Director of Saporito is looking to raise a Series A next Sievo offers a ‘Procurement Performance Operations for Bankia, a Sievo customer. year. Profitable since landing its first client,
82 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014
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the company has yet to have negative year. “The emergence of standardized ultra- Finally there is the complexity problem, A look at the diverse range of clients SkySQL the merger: “With this merger and my Last year brought a margin of around 10 low power wireless technologies is one which Sigfox believes it has solved. “We’ve which use the Sigfox network displays the own role in the MariaDB Foundation, percent. of the main enablers of the IoE, with taken it to the extreme where you can potential of the Internet of Everything, and www.skysql.com I’m ensuring that the MariaDB project semiconductor vendors and standards buy an off the shelf modem, not even gives an indication of what is capable when will remain ‘open source forever’, while Mr. Saporito views Sievo as a $70 million bodies at the forefront of the market push, from us but from the regular providers, everyday objects can be connected to the Patrik Sallner knowing that enterprise and community to $100 million opportunity over the helping to bring the IoE into reality,” said then you subscribe your IT system to our internet with ease. One client produces users of both the MySQL & MariaDB next few years. “Companies continue to Peter Cooney, practice director at ABI web services API, which is just a regular smoke alarms which are able to send Software databases will benefit from best-in-breed outsource and have external purchases Research. “The year 2013 is seen by many standard API and then that’s it, you’re up ‘heartbeats’ to the manufacturer, which are products, services and support provided growing at a rampant pace,” he said. “They as the year of the Internet of Everything, and running,” says Mr. Nicholls. “There is signals sent every day to tell the company Finland by SkySQL. And who doesn’t want the best need to get control, and it’s not going to be but it will still be many years until it reaches no longer a need to install it yourself and that they are operational, and the owners for their children?” with traditional solution. Sievo provides its full potential. The next 5 years will be operate network equipment or have your do not need to carry out any maintenance Yes a robust approach that goes beyond basic pivotal in its growth and establishment as a customers configure wi-fi connections etc. on them. These smoke alarms can also The addition of MariaDB to SkySql’s expenses to deliver real savings that can tangible concept to the consumer.” and no need to implement sophisticated send alerts to house owners if there is offerings comes at an important time have meaningful impact on the bottom APIs to integrate your IT system with the a fire and the owners are not home, by » When a system becomes extremely for open source databases. A survey line.” Entrepreneurs are rushing to take operator. Basically a very simple solution sending an alert to the mobile phone of the popular, industries can spring up which conducted by 451 Research recently advantage of this boom, and many have which is extremely cost effective and low owners. Some of the more exotic uses of offer support to them. One example is the suggested that, by 2018, of those using been working in this space for a long time. energy consuming.” the Internet of Things are devices which case of MySql, an open source relational any form of MySql variation, only 45% One company which boasts experience are put in the ears of cows in the Pyrenees database management system. will actually be using MySql, compared in the Internet of Everything space is SigFox operates in the whole of France mountains, which make a sound if the to 62% in 2013. The research firm claims Sigfox SigFox, a cellular network operator which and is aiming to have complete nationwide cow moves out of a designated area. The MySql was bought by Sun in 2008 for $1 that by 2018 the majority of companies concentrates on low bandwidth solutions coverage in the Netherlands by the end of sound forces the cow to stay within an area billion, and Sun was in turn bought by will be using alternatives such as MariaDB, www.sigfox.com for the smaller devices which will make up the year. The firm has also begun operations without the need for fences. Another is a Oracle for $7.4 billion in 2010. Shortly Percona Server and Amazon RDS. The the Internet of Everything. in St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia and client who had designed a sensor which is after the Oracle acquisition, 20 employees proportion using MariaDB in particular Ludovic Le Moan plans to roll out to many more countries in able to alert homeowners to the presence of MySql left the company and founded is expected to grow to 23% in 2018, from “The existing connectivity solutions such the future. To deploy the Sigfox network in of termites in the wood of the house. a new company called SkySql, which 145 today. Telecommunications as the telcos aren’t good enough for these a country similar to France costs less than provides services to MySql users. low bandwidth objects,” explains Thomas 5 million Euros in capital expenditure, Markets such as the Internet of Everything Monty Program was also set up by former France Nicholls, Internet of things Evangelist which means it is not too expensive to will always attract young companies “Over the past two and a half years we’ve executives of MySql, meaning the firm at SigFox. “So we at Sigfox as a cellular roll out into a new country. This is partly looking to make quick money from a built up a base of about 350 enterprise will boast even more know how of the Yes network operator, we cater specifically for because the Sigfox network is deployed popular trend, but companies such as customers in about 20 different countries,” MySql program and its origins. “The these objects, they just need to exchange in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical Sigfox are not only operating in the sector, explains Patrik Sallner, CEO of SkySql. interesting thing is that after the merger small messages once in a while. We do that (ISM) bands of frequency, so there is no but enabling its growth. “We’re in this “They are quite big enterprises in many we have most of the original core MySql » The Internet of Everything, a concept by answering the major headaches that are need to pay for a license. The company has game because we know ourselves, from different parts of the world. We’ve also in developers, a lot of the technical talent and involving the linking of billions of within the industry.” also devised a strategy to build quickly in having had other companies that we’ve parallel built up a portfolio of different much of the original technical support everyday devices in a simple and effective new territories, called the SNO, or Sigfox even successfully sold etc, we know what products that enable the deployment of team from mySql as well, so a lot of deep way, has been around for many years. The The major headaches which Mr. Nicholls Network Operators. Companies in the this business is about and we know that databases effectively in cloud environments MySql expertise, that means that we’ve had phrase first surfaced in 1999 and since then refers to are the cost of connectivity, energy countries where Sigfox is expanding are this has been a headache that has been which is becoming more and more of a unusually high customer satisfaction and technology experts have been predicting consumption and complexity. The firm has encouraged to become exclusive partners there for a long time,” concludes Mr. requirement.” also very high renewal rates of agreements. the rise of the concept, which is also been able to drive prices down to just £1 in their country and are made responsible Nicholls. So 90% of our customers renew their referred to as the Internet of Things and per object, per year in subscription costs, for installing and maintaining the physical The firm made a major market move agreements every year, which is unusual in M2M. which has gone a long way to ease the fears infrastructure. The chosen partner can when it announced it was to merge with this industry,” says Sallner. of mounting costs when connecting devices then distribute and sell subscriptions a firm called Monty Program, the creators Finally, the timing seems to be right for the to the internet. Mr. Nicholls says that within those countries. These strategies of the MariaDB database solution. “We SkySql is headquartered in Helsinki, Internet of Everything to take off. A recent clients of Sigfox are now using batteries in mean the company hopes to be present in are growing extremely quickly right now Finland and employs 70 people right report by ABI Research revealed that there their objects which will last for more than 60 new countries within the next 3-5 years. thanks to that acquisition and spreading now, but only has one office with five are now more than 10 billion wirelessly 20 years, so technology is advancing to out globally. So the goal for us is to become people working in it. The company uses connected devices in the market today, address the issue of energy consumption. the leading database provider in the world an unorthodox set up for its employees, and over 30 billion connected devices are and we believe we have a very strong where the majority of them are working expected by the year 2020. product serving various different needs in from home. This allows the firm to recruit the market place.” the top people regardless of where they Huge leaps in technology have spurred on are based, and also enables it to adopt a the growth, and boosted the industry as Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius, CTO of ‘follow the sun’ organization, where people they have made connecting devices more the MariaDB Foundation, said about are hired in time zones where the firm efficient and cheaper.
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needs more capacity. This means there is smartTrade the same core technology to build several Softkey Together with a few other stores, we are Softkey competes against international no need for night shifts, as there are always different trading solutions, which is a great building the ecommerce world of Russia.” ecommerce players such as Digital River, employees in the next time zone ready to Technologies relief to a bank,” Gozlan said. “Small banks, www.softkey.ru but is the only one to provide direct sales take over once an employee’s shift is over. especially, cannot really just step back and During its first year, Softkey earned or B2B sales. Softkey currently holds over www.smart-trade.net streamline all they have built for 40 years.” Felix Muchnik $750,000 and had five employees. It has 50 percent of the $150 million ecommerce Employing talent in multiple countries since nearly multiplied its revenue 100x software market in Russia. to work remotely also improves the Harry Gozlan The company currently serves Software and employs a staff of 100. “When I first proximity to customers, and can be done 45 clients, including tier 1 and tier 2 announced that selling online was our Despite its revenues, Softkey has yet to fairly efficiently with the best collaboration Software banks, hedge funds, brokers and asset Russia future, no one except my wife believed me,” make IPO plans. “It is still too early,” tools which are on the market. SkySql does managers such as aiwa, Kepler, Nomura, Moochnick joked. “But it was clear early Moochnick said. make sure that all of the employees meet France FXSpotStream, BPCE, RBS, Société Yes on the Internet would be quite a trend for each other face to face at least once a year, Générale and Deutsche Bank. It has been business. Software was the perfect place to when it holds a company meeting which all Yes growing at 25 percent annually. start selling.” employees attend. » Before Softkey launched its online Solutions 30 Gozlan founded smartTrade in 1999 marketplace for consumer software in the Serving today’s $3.6 billion Russian Despite the company’s strong organization » Providing the first and most advanced following his own experience as an late 90s, Russian ecommerce was its own software market, the company’s technology www.solutions30.com and customer satisfaction, there are still liquidity management system for capital investment banker for 13 years. “I realized desolate Siberia. Nearly impossible to buy platform and ecommerce engine allows challenges ahead. “We’re still a fairly small markets, smartTrade Technologies the next trading wave would not come legally, software was sold in boxes that had digital software and content to be sold Gianbeppi Fortis company and our brand isn’t especially simplifies the trading exchange floor down from complex installments, but in the ways to be mailed to the buyer in a process that to any party across multiple payment well known. Especially in North America to an app. Based on the idea that markets trades are executed, which is still pretty could take months due to the massive size systems. Over 3,000 vendors now use the Other we are still building the awareness of who are essentially conversations, smartTrade archaic,” Gozlan said. He teamed up with of the country. Often, the programs were platform, primarily small and medium vendors who use it to sell across multiple we are and what we do so one important creates digital conversational nodes for several technologists and signed the first already outdated by the time they arrived. France nationalities and currencies. The company step will be for us to increase the awareness banks, brokers and exchanges, complete company’s client a year later. In the first serves primarily Russia and former Soviet and the adoption of MariaDB and also with execution protocols that can be nine years, the company leveraged about When a severe economic crisis hit the Yes Union countries. work with some partners to accelerate the abstracted for all asset classes. SmartTrade eight large clients such as HRBC, adding an country in the late ‘90s, Softkey realized growth of the business, that’s going to be a can automate trades across eight different it needed an easier selling model and that average of two to three per year. Today, the Softkey sells to about 1.6 million active big step forward,” explains Sallner. asset classes, across 10 regions, and provide the Internet would be a perfect vehicle to » For older generations in particular, new company averages about eight to 10 new B2C customers, and over 300,000 B2B a different way to execute the order for each connect with customers, despite the mere technologies can seem like inaccessible clients annually. customers. With over 8 million orders, SkySql secured $20 million in Series B specific instance. 15 percent web adoption rate in Russia at alternate universes. Solutions 30 opens B2B makes up about 60 percent of the investment in October from Intel Capital, Gozlan expects smartTrade to be earning the time. a portal. The company makes tech California Technology Ventures, Finnish “This replaces the big switch board and company’s revenue, yet its B2C base is support house calls throughout Europe around $50 million in revenue in the growing fast. Over the past few years, the Industry Investment, Open Ocean Capital the universe of traders,” said Harry Bootstrapped from the financial pooling to make technology available to everyone. next three to five years. It has raised an company has grown from $14 million in and Spintop Private Partners. Gozlan, CEO and Founder of smartTrade of its founders, the company launched an The company’s network of over 1,500 undisclosed amount of venture funding revenue to nearly $60 million in revenue. Technologies. “With our technology, ecommerce platform that could handle technicians provide on-site or remote one- from SEEFT Ventures. He estimates the It expects to earn around $70 million Another challenge for the company is anyone can address any type of trading both B2B and B2C customers well before on-one support to over 4,000 customers company could eventually be earning $70 this year. Breaking even four or five years increased competition in the market. platform in a very short time frame in selling online was a reality in Russia. every day. As the name of the company million to $100 million if it continues to ago, the company earns about 15 to 20 Although there have previously been only a very reliable manner. Our software Knowing it would take a while to grow suggests, Solutions 30 will suggest a focus on a pure trading world. percent EBITA, but reinvests back into its a handful of main players, in the past few identifies the best trade or order in the an online business from just one vendor, solution within 30 minutes of receiving a Softkey chose to launch a marketplace operations. “In our changing world, we query, the issues being typically resolved in years hundreds of database technologies market. smartTrade works like an air traffic “It’s a pure engineer and technical market for multiple vendors to offer more for the realize we continually need to update the have emerged. “So the challenge for us is controller managing many different types under 48 hours. now,” Gozlan said. “You no longer need online shelves. Founded in 2001, Softkey platform to keep it fresh and interesting to to have a very clear positioning in all of of planes.” to understand how the market works. stay ahead of the demands of the market,” this and that is something we continue to issued its first order nine months later. “We help people take advantage of new smartTrade has made trading a purely Though not a well-known fact, the first Moochnick said. technology,” said Gianbeppi Fortis, CEO work on and we have a clear message to Headquartered in Aix-en-Provence in the technical question.” the customers to maintain a visibility and South of France, smartTrade serves 10 or electronic version of Microsoft software of Solutions 30. “New technologies come had been suggested for Softkey to sell, The platform’s continual evolution grows awareness of what we can do,” concludes 12 of the largest tier trading institutions to the market faster and faster, and people according to Felix Moochnick, CEO of with the times. “Softkey’s developers just don’t know how to use them. There’s Sallner. in the world. “With us, they can rely on Softkey. continuously improve its performance and constant demand. We set up and provide usability,” said Sergey Zemkov, Managing an understanding for a wide network of “We realized the box software model Director of Kaspersky Lab, one of Softkey’s technologies.” would fail sooner or later, so we provided a first software ecommerce partners. “They technology that allows retail chains to sell appeared to be the first who introduced Operating in Belgium, France, Germany, digital software through the integration of a technology of digital software sales in Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, our platform,” Moochnick said. “We built a brick and mortar retail, thus significantly the company addresses several key new way for software to be sold in Russia. reduced logistic and inventory costs.” technological areas. These include IT
86 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 87 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
telecom, energy (specifically smart meters), And it’s market will only mature, especially wouldn’t innovate — everyone would lose. Bundling systems like Somoto are the The company’s offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, world. Professional teams use Sportradar’s audiovisual, points of service, and property when it comes to the aging community. Somoto’s software monetization tools solve reason why an extra commercial plays are decorated with photos that employees services for improving their performance, security. this problem with a bundling system and when users download software. But they took themselves. “We enlarged two photos for example. It currently serves 400 to 500 “We believe in more and more technology a wide net of advertisers, allowing users provide a solution for developers (who taken by every employee, and they make customers, growing 60 percent annually. The company’s main advantage is size. Most coming into everybody’s life,” Fortis to enjoy a range of free softwares online, get paid for their products) that keeps that our office more colorful,” Yaacov says. All Clients include Fox Sports, Blick, and of its competitors are little guys serving said. “Our next big thing is health care. while simultaneously assuring developers software free to download. “If a publisher 60 employees live in Israel, but one can SPOX.com. The company provides the local populations. Solutions 30 actively Plus in Europe, more people are getting still reap benefits. like me tells you that he has the customer’s hear English and Hebrew in the corridors, data in various formats, ranging from recruits roughly 250 new technicians per old, increasing the demand for digital experience in mind when he decides to as well as Spanish, French, Turkish and XML feed to online hosted solutions for year to its network and maintains a local equipment to be professionally installed in Somoto’s founders, Eyal Yaakov and use a bundling system like Somoto then Chinese. mobile or app outputs. presence in all the markets it serves. homes.” Ben Garrun, started Somoto in 2009. that’s surely a lie,” he says, explaining Somoto provides freeware and shareware that bundling systems are a key solution Somoto currently operates on the web Betting, however, is the company’s best “At end of the day, our network processes Solutions 30 has raised nearly $2 million developers with strategies to enhance and for both the publisher and the customer only, but the company plans to penetrate card. Consistently growing at double digit allow you to integrate new technologies from Sofinnova Partners. The company monetize their work with multiple software who downloads the software. “Customers the mobile and tablet markets in the future. rates thanks to a constant string of new and teach people how to handle it,” Fortis went public in 2005. Its shares have been monetization tools. Advertisers that join probably don’t like to get many additional This makes for an excellent move, as more product innovations, the sports betting said. “That is the core strength of the available on the trading group E2 of the the Somoto community use the company’s offers in the installation flow, but without and more software developers turn to this market now accounts for $30 billion company. We can replicate the process for NYSE Euronext’s Alternext market since services to reach relevant users worldwide. systems like BetterInstaller I’m sure there segment as well. globally. Sportradar serves as an official as many technologies as we want.” 2010. Solutions 30 was one of Olivier would be a lot less free products out there,” data partner to FIFA and ITF, and also Sichel’s first deals as a partner for Sofinnova. “We offer solutions to advertisers and he explains. offers fraud detection and prevention Having spent all his life in the IT and business owners who wish to distribute services. “The bookmakers are competing communications sector, Fortis foresaw “I think the best skill of the company lies in their software, but our first market was The first and main investment in the Sportradar with each other and require sophisticated big demand for the company’s solution its process to understand very quickly new program developers,” says Yaakov. The company came from its founders, both solutions to differentiate from their when fast Internet was just beginning to technologies and manage a continuous company works with more than a thousand whom have significant experience www.sportradar.com competitors,” Harmuth said. “We provide hit the market. He spent a year developing know how database to implement developers and about 40 advertisers in startup companies. The rest of its them invaluable data.” a network of technicians that could emerging technologies it on field,” Sichel from more than 200 countries, mainly in investment rounds were much smaller. Carsten Koerl adequately provide tech support, and said. “This skill is combined with an Western Europe, South America and Asia. An Israeli news source, Globes, reported Though the company originally began in another three years tweaking the platform extremely rigorous management processes Babylon Ltd. supplied Somoto NIS 4.6 Entertainment & Media 2003 focusing only on the data, it has since that made it accessible. The company began of the workforce and a strong will to grow “The software developer uses our installer million in July; Babylon received a 4.1 developed a rich product offering derived growing fast in 2005 and has kept a steady and expand.” to download his or her software, and we percent stake in the company. Globes Switzerland from pure raw data. Bookmaker products pace ever since. add sponsored offers to it,” Yaakov says. reported in August Somoto’s public include tools to suggest odds, create events, The company competes against Geek Distribution is free for the developer, offering raised NIS 20 million on the Tel Yes as well as provide betting software and “Developing the platform was crucial,” Squad, a division of Best Buy. sponsors pay a fee to Somoto, and revenues Aviv Stock Exchange. different betting games. Media products Fortis remembered. “To get it right, we are shared with the developers. The network include white label live sports center needed a good IT system. All technicians of sponsors that the company partners with Many global companies have similar » A market leading provider of live sports solutions and sport analysis tools. need to see info in real-time, so we had to (that includes companies like Google and solutions, but Somoto’s main competitors information and services, Sportradar be mobile from the beginning.” Somoto Yahoo) allows Somoto to offer distribution are the Israeli companies Installcore and provides real-time data science that keeps Growing from a pure data provider to a services at a relatively low cost. Apart from Amonetize, and the American company score of more than 70,000 events in 30 service provider, Sportradar has managed to organically outgrow competitors due Its first customers were based in France, www.somotoinc.com those distribution services, the company NativeX, formerly w3i. “Our installer sports. Serving the betting, sports, and and adoption was fast, earning nearly offers analytic solutions that let users to has some features that the others don’t entertainment spectrums, the company to its focus on cutting-edge technology $400,000 in its first year, followed by annual Ben Garrun view the download flow of certain software, have,” says Yaakov, “If a developer wants integrates live data within seconds of the and constant innovation. “We have strong revenues of $1.32 million, $13 million, $39 plus the conversion and monetization data to use his own installer and not ours, we action. barriers to entry of at least several years,” million, and $46.8 million in subsequent Internet/Online associated with that software. can still provide him with monetization Harmuth said. “It’s not as easy as it looks to years. Today, Solutions 30 have provided services, while other companies require “Prior to Sportradar, sports statistics extract this data in real-time. We also cover onsite visits to over 5 million households. Israel Andreas Breitschopp, a software developer that developers use their own installers in were very boring and slow,” said a wide range that would be very difficult to Its user base grows at 25 percent annually. and publisher from Germany, uses Somoto’s order to have monetization.” Ulrich Harmuth, Managing Director replicate, if not impossible.” Last year, it earned over $100 million. Yes BetterInstaller technology to monetize of Sportradar. “For the last eight years, his products, especially the free ones, on Installation guidelines require we’ve provided live information on sports The company was founded by two Norwegian students whose thesis focused Yet 75 percent of its revenues are based in AB-Tools.com. “The revenue per install is monetization companies like Somoto that brings a transparency across many to promise cookies aren’t added to their on different methods of extracting sports France. If it can match its success in France » Imagine a world where you would have very good, especially for U.S. traffic,” he different sporting industries.” installer, and download comes with data from the Internet. They teamed up with the rest of Europe, Fortis expects the to pay for every single piece of software says, “I’ve tried other companies in this no additional software the user doesn’t Its clients include bookmakers using with Carsten Koerl (a co-founder of Bwin, company to be earning $400 million to that you download online. If that was the area, but the cooperation with Somoto know about. “Unfortunately, many other the data to place bets, media companies the online gambling company) and built $500 million in the next few years, which case, you probably wouldn’t download was always very good and reliable. I never companies in our industry still do that,” that subscribe to the analytics on a B2C the product foundation over three years. implies about $30 to $50 million of free more than half of the software that now had problems in terms of late payments Yaacov adds. platform, and sports federations all over the The company has since grown to over cash flow. “I want to reach this before currently resides on your computer. or similar things I’ve already seen with attacking new continents,” he allowed. Customers wouldn’t buy and developers others.”
88 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 89 Top 100 Companies: Europe
500 employees working out of 18 offices, company creates a platform for anyone “I think that we are the only company to ever enabling it to cover sports around the who wants to create their own clothing, export T-shirts from America to China,” world on a 24/7 basis. from t-shirts and pants to tablet covers and Rooke jokes. Even though the company beer mugs. The “designers” can even open is headquartered in Germany, its biggest The company is owned by its founder their own Spreadshirt shop online and start market today is the U.S. The company has and CEO Carsten Koerl, EQT Expansion marketing and selling their products. Can two printers in Germany and Paris, two Capital as well as management. the dream of becoming a fashion designer factories that print in the U.S., and sales be achieved online? and marketing in 17 countries around the “Sportradar’s state-the-art technology globe — 15 in Europe, in addition to the gathers up-to-date and best in class In 2001, Lukasz Gadowski was finishing U.S. and Canada. “We actually delivered to information from a wide array of sports,” his MBA at the Leipzig Graduate School of 45 countries last year, since many people said Michael Föcking, partner at EQT Management and was looking for an online are selling their ideas that attract people Partners. “It promotes less well known businesses opportunity. He found one in from outside the countries they operate sports and gives the customers access selling t-shirts to small groups online, who from,” Rooke adds. to superior information. Sportradar’s would market their own designs. Soon, a fraud detection division is paramount prototype for Spreadshirt was developed “We have to be able to support a 24-hour in preventing illegal betting and game and the company started operating. Today, business now, especially if we are planning manipulation in the sports market.” Gadowski serves as the Chairman of the to launch in Australia in September,” he board for Spreadshirt, after handing over says. By 2014, the company plans to launch Headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in Asia and South America. With nearly Sportradar is profitable. It earned more the CEO position in 2007. 300 employees today, this will require Whether you’re a start-up or an industry leader with than $60 million last year at a high double further recruiting. digit profit margin. “We take something complex, opening offi ces around the world, making smart decisions about a textile business with all the designing Initially, Spreadshirt raised a total of 22 your cash is critical to maintain growth and minimize risk. and marketing that is involved in it, and “Sportradar’s position as an incumbent Million Euros in two rounds of investments, make it simple — so people can do that Kyriba’s 100% cloud-based treasury solution provides player in an emerging market gives us a mostly from UK-based Kennet Partners in a couple of minutes,” says Philip Rooke, fi nance teams in more than 700 companies around clear advantage,” Harmuth said. “We are and global Accel partners. “We invested Spreadshirt’s CEO. clearly in a unique position as this market in Spreadshirt because we felt the business the globe the visibility, automation, and control to more begins to mature.” model was unique since nobody in Europe Each designer can open an online shop effectively manage and work their capital. Our single has built a network of tens of thousands or submit their designs to the Spreadshirt platform enables on-the-spot visibility across cash, of selling shops. They had built a very Marketplace, the general store on the interesting business with very little money,” treasury and risk management – enabling faster, more company’s website. A online shop has its says Harry Nelis, partner at Accel Partners, informed decision-making, greater effi ciency, reduced Spreadshirt own URL and can be integrated into a which invested $13 million in Spreadshirt website, blog, YouTube page or Facebook risk and improved controls. www.spreadshirt.com in 2006. site. The company makes money on The Kyriba Cloud – elevate your treasury management. Philip Rooke commission, paid by the designers, and The company became profitable in 2010 and takes care of the printing and shipping doesn’t see a need for further investments. Internet/Online process for them. In each case the designer In fact, it even invested about $1 million in decides the commission they want to earn, a factory in Las Vegas and an engineering Germany which is then added to the base price of the a factory in Pittsburgh in 2012. “Last year product and the printing cost. we grew over 40% year over year, and our Yes profits grew 45% year over year. This year “Over 45,000 online shops had sales in we plan to grow, so we don’t have plans to 2012, some of them are celebrities and some sell the company,” Rooke says. He expects » Remember your class t-shirt from are made for campaigns, but some do it for the company to reach a size of €200 million college? You might have always wanted it to money,” Rooke says. Over 35,000 designers by 2015. say something else, or have a cool logo that sold at least one design in 2012, mainly via you and your friend designed that never the Spreadshirt marketplaces or the t-shirt Spreadshirt’s competitors include got voted by the whole 500-students class. designer tool, and in total Spreadshirt companies like CafePress, which functions Spreadshirt can help you take that idea and shipped over 3 million products worldwide in a similar way both in the US and print your own class T-shirt (even though last year, expecting to ship at least 4.2 European markets, and Custom Inc which it might be too late). The German-based million items in 2013. has been around since 1999. www.kyriba.com | [email protected] | 1-877-KYRlBA-0
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“The different coffee shops that invite watching video content on a regular have been doing TV advertising for the higher than entertainment. There are many Sympa a couple of companies in Finland. “Every people to make t-shirts in them are also television has decreased, this issue has past 50 years and they realised that their other ways of pricing inventory using the company I met was excited,” Sipilä says. “In a big competition,” Rooke says, “But become even more important to solve. audience is not watching TV anymore, exchange, such as audience groups. www.sympa.fi other parts of the world, including the U.S., customers come to us because we’ve made or at least some audience groups. Those the need is quite the same,” she adds. it simpler to operate for them.” Rooke also A recent study, conducted by AOL’s Be On, people are now on the internet watching Systems such as Sticky Xchange are Keijo Karjalainen adds that the competitors focus mainly on revealed that the majority of advertisers video content,” says Mr. Brunet. more widely known as real time bidding Sympa HR is delivered as software as believed that they could achieve greater a service (SaaS). The business model the American market, while Spreadshirt mechanisms and have grown in popularity Cloud Computing consumer engagement and scale with “But there is one big problem, the audience is based on continuous contracts, with has more international operations. across all forms of advertising. “Over time online video instead of traditional TV is basically spread over hundreds or over 60 percent of clients planning to go we also believe that TV traditional TV Finland “There is no theory of evolution. Just a list advertising. Of the 770 brands, media thousands of sites so there was no simple international through partnerships. Since advertising will be purchased through real of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to agencies and creative agencies surveyed way for advertisers to reach their audience. No it is a cloud solution, the service can be live,” says one of the t-shirts that you can across the globe, 78% of respondents in So we created this one stop shop for them,” time bidding mechanisms. Today TV is delivered within hours. Sympa shortens design yourself on the Chuck Norris Facts Europe and 58% globally said that they he adds. sold traditionally so you have a salesman the time it takes to creat a full, new and website. The action star’s family runs an could improve engagement and scale with talking to a media buyer and they agree » The people that work in a company customized HR system for big companies. online shop through Spreadshirt. “This online video. The trend of video content being displayed on a pricing and they make a deal. We are its most important asset. Many Normally it takes years, but with Sympa, it online also means more videos are being is a celebrity having fun with his family,” think that over time what’s happening in human resources units run their workers’ takes months. watched on different devices. This is Rooke says, “I actually have a Chuck The research also showed that 73% of the digital industry will also happen in the information using papers, Excel sheets, respondents believed that online video another challenge for advertisers looking The Sympa HR system now has over 60,000 Norris T-shirt and that’s my favorite t-shirt TV advertising industry, meaning that will Word documents etc. Separate systems spend had increased over the last 12 to exploit this as there are multiple users in more than 200 organizations. to wear at home.” The designs on the site be purchased through auctions,” says Mr. control payrolls and recruitment, while the months, while TV and display advertising operating systems which need to be taken The smallest company they serve has also include some of the famous quotes management team doesn’t always have full were both citied as sources where budget into account. Brunet. seven employees and the biggest, 7,000. from the last US 2012 elections. and updated access. “Our system can do 90 has been moved from. Customers are mostly located in Finland percent of what they do, ten times faster Sticky Ads developed an advertising Sticky Ads TV currently operates in two and the Nordic Countries, and across “It’s basically people having fun, even with and cheaper,” says Taina Sipilä, growth “The results of our study show that marketplace in order to help with the countries: France and Spain. The firm’s Europe, Asia and North America. Some of serious issues,” he concludes. director and executive chairman of the branded content has become an important issues of audience fragmentation and next goal is to move into Germany next the international customers Nestle Finland board of Sympa. Whether this new way of creating custom part of global advertising strategies,” said multiple operating devices. and then expand gradually into the rest of and Rovio (which came up with Angry René Rechtman, SVP AOL Networks Birds). “I’d be happy if we’ll be adding 100 design can “eat up” some of the traditional Europe. The firm is considering acquiring The Finlandic Human Resources (HR) International. “We’ve developed a video advertising customers a month in the following years,” retail market remains to be seen, but companies in new territories in order to System, Sympa HR, combines various market place which we call Sticky Sipilä says. growing companies like Spreadshirt singal speed up the process. “The ability to execute recruitment processes into a single entity, Sticky Ads TV, which offers a video Xchange. It runs like a stock exchange changes to the way we might consume fast is a challenge. We have a very good allowing enterprises to better manage advertising network, has profited from – publishers sell in real time through an “The company is profitable from day one,” these products in the future. window of opportunity right now because their personnel. Using Sympa’s system, the advertiser’s move into this space, and auction process, their video advertisement Sipilä says. From 2005 through 2013, the a company’s management has access to has offered a solution to the problem of inventory and advertisers or buyers buy we are alone and we want to capture that yearly growth rate average of Sympa was 78 properly exploiting the potential of online that inventory impression by impression today and take that to the next level so targeted information about employees, percent, according to the company. videos. on the fly. So it’s a fully automated process. we need to execute really fast. Execution with analysis options that help long-term StickyADS The sales process is fully automated and means going internationally really fast HR planning. The system also save time “More and more companies are interested “We aggregate premium video content the ad process has been fully automated and we’re thinking of buying companies in for HR units as it automates activities that in developing their employees and will would take a lot of time otherwise. www.stickyads.tv from multiple websites and we sell that for years now,” explains Mr. Brunet. other countries,” says Mr. Brunet. need a cost effective solution. Sympa is the aggregated audience to advertisers. That’s right answer for that,” says Eero Broman, a “It starts from basic information about Herve Brunet essentially what we do,” says Herve Brunet, The system allows publishers to sell Competition in the market is thin on the private investor in Sympa. the person, information, salary, from President and Co-Founder of Sticky Ads inventory at differing prices. One example ground, with most of the comparative Marketing/Advertising/SOE the recruitment to the exit interview,” Ninety-five percent of Sympa is still T V. is a UK media firm selling advertising companies based in the United States, and space for a high price within the UK, says Sipilä. “Most HR functions calculate owned by the founders, making it a family they show no signs of moving into Europe. France The firm has been operating since 2009 but placing advertising in Europe on the payrolls that are sometimes not flexible business. “My brother and I are doing this Therefore the company can allow itself to and has witnessed a change in advertiser exchange at a lower price. Firms can also and meant for local markets, while most for the first time so its important to have No attitudes over the three years it has been price their inventory based on content, think big when setting goals for itself. “Our companies are becoming international, older guys like our father and Broman that open. “It’s been very simple – advertisers for example news items would be priced mission is basically to be the number one and our system is more international.” can see a bit further. If they say that we’re player in video in Europe in the next three doing great, then we know that we are,” » The power of online video content years,” Mr Brunet concludes. Sipilä runs the company along with her Sipilä says. has for a long time been apparent to brother, Keijo Karjalainen, the CEO. advertisers. But harnessing that power has The idea came from their father, Lasse The company received €1 million in 2012 been a struggle. As the number of people Karjalainen, a management consultant who from the Finnish government for growth saw a need in the market. Keijo launched and internationalization. The latest funding the first version of the system in 2000 with round of €1 million from Tekes, the
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Finnish Funding Agency for Technology Tageos “Most manufacturers have made large company has received about $1 million in doing our marketing differently, it’s a whole For example, Kivirauama says, if a user and Innovation, came in 2013. “We’re investments in antenna manufacturing government funding, as well as about $2 new way of marketing,” Kivirauama says. follows adidas, the company might provide thinking of ways to expand and speed up www.tageos.com chips based on plastic solutions and million from Newfund. “It’s something I call common purpose targeted offers like a special shirt for the — one of them may be another investor,” haven’t found the relevant technology to marketing, which is being in a social game at a special price, or VIP passes to the Sipilä comments. Matthieu Picon manufacture on paper. What we do is not Earning $1 million last year, Tageos expects media community with your customer, game. Today, TeamUp attracts attention easy, as you need a technology that doesn’t to earn about $1.5 to $2 million this year, with a common purpose; and the common from all camps: fans, brands and talented “We’ve been on the market for almost 10 Other destroy or make the antenna suffer during and about $7 million next year due to purpose here is to discover and support people. More than 40 businesses already years and we still haven’t found something the process. An accurate reading requires new contracts. It expects profitability by these talents. By sharing a purpose with have profiles, and upwards of 240 athletes, like our solution,” Sipilä says. However, France quality products and materials. We’ve the second quarter of 2014. Picon expects your customer there is more acceptance.” musicians and artists have joined the the company’s competitors include SAP, overcome a serious technical challenge.” Tageos to reach $15 million by 2015. platform, which launched at the end of the European multinational software No Miikka Honkasalo of TEHO Sport, a sports October. Notable among the talents, the corporation for business management, The company addresses the retail, clothing, drink brand, brought his company to the Finnish Olympic team decided to make and the human resource and financial pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and other platform to give his talent portfolio extra TeamUp the pinnacle of its online presence; resource management system, Aditro, » Tageos takes a straight-forward approach markets, bringing cost efficiency to an TeamUp air time. “Our fans or our customers only and they’ve agreed to help with TeamUp’s based in Sweden. It also has a competitor to RFID tags, labels embedded with an industry that creates about 2 billion RFID know the big sponsorships; no one knows global expansion plans. “They’ve made a in Norway — Visma, which provides labels per year. commitment that, any country we want to antenna to electronically monitor an www.teamup.fi that much about the little ones and the business software, outsourcing services, object through radio signals. The company talents that are not so famous in Finland,” go to, they will arrange a meeting with the Tageos’ simplicity and cost efficiency has commerce solutions, IT solutions and keeps it simple. Whereas most RFID tags he says. “Together we thought that it will be Olympic committee of that country for us,” fueled its growth. Currently serving more Donna Kivirauma more to 240,000 customers in Northern require the antennae to be placed on a great to give an opportunity to our fans and Kivirauma says. than 14 sizable customers, the company Europe. plastic tag, an expensive process burdened customers to get to know [them all].” Plus, has doubled or tripled its client base in the Marketing/Advertising/SOE by the cost of the manufacturing materials, he says, TeamUp allows athletes and talents “If we do this right, the market opportunity “We were in cloud in 2005 and that gives last year, a momentum Picon expects to is in the billions,” she says. The company Tageos’ proprietary approach can implant Finland to find other willing sponsors. us a big advantage compared to similar the antenna on a simple piece of paper, snowball in the coming years. currently faces Finland only, which presents companies who don’t use the cloud as significantly reducing expense. The TeamUp will snag business from enterprises a large market to tap. “There’s 330,000 much,” Sipilä says. “The main advantage “Our solution is globally patented,” Picon No company’s tags provide an affordable way such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn companies in just Finland,” she says. “If just of the cloud system is that it is agile, so said. “We think it would be quite difficult to track inventory. advertising, and Google Adwords, 5 percent of Finland’s companies come to we can create a system according to the for competitors to remove plastic from TeamUp, and 95 percent of them buy the » Social media breaks barriers between Kivirauama says, because TeamUp’s model customers’ demand relatively fast, and their manufacturing universe. You need €250 profile, we’ve got almost €5 million in For most RFID tags, the manufacturer fans and their heroes, but before allows for more effective marketing that build features to the system whenever the very solid technology to be able to install revenue for the company. But that’s not the traditionally must make an RFID inlay on TeamUp, no one leveraged the platform won’t leave users feelings overwhelmed customers wish to do so,” she explains. a plastic substrate, which is then inserted such a small chip.” case since most are interested in the €5,500 for marketers. Tampere, Finland-based with spam. “Instead of trying to dig out into a paper label. The process typically when they’re buying.” The company was founded in 2007 TeamUp links brands, fans and talented people’s private information to market to “When something goes nicely, we keep requires several different companies, by Picon, Laurent Delaby and Nicolas individuals and groups to create a sharing- them, you can market to them through on saying ‘Sympa, accidently good,’” one to manufacture the chip and plastic TeamUp keeps busy getting the word out. Jacquemin, who each had extensive RFID is-caring community where fans follow the sponsorship that you’re doing. These Sipilä says. Well, the company’s slogan is inlay, and another to insert the inlay into Kivirauma expects scale to come quickly experience working for RFID suppliers and their idols, those idols can make money, are the things that are important to your becoming less coincidental. According to the paper label, resulting in a bulky and and prepares the platform for an influx of leading technology companies including and the sponsors behind them can find customer,” she says. “[A business would Technavio, the global HR software market expensive end product. Tageos’ tags more all kinds of users. TeamUp aims for 100 MBDA and IBM Global Services. The new, passionate audiences. come to TeamUp] to build that connection is currently worth $11 million. closely resemble the paper tags attached customers at launch and 200 by the end of three first launched Frequentiel in 2005, with their customer and then provide them to airline luggage. The company uses a the year. “Those first 100 create the tipping With only 45 employees in Finland, the which is still currently the leader in France. “It’s for musicians, athletes and artists benefits. That way, you’re not throwing ads very thin aluminum antenna to attach it point, and we’re also leaving Finland next next step for Sympa is to reach more Working with the French government’s at any phase in their career and they can at them.” to a paper label through a process it keeps year,” she says. Next stops include: Brazil, European countries and the US market leading RFID research center (CNRS) in broaden their fan base and really add some confidential. The labels are simple paper Portugal, Spain, the U.K., the U.S., France, next year. “The product, business model Montpellier, they spent two years building value for their sponsors by giving a direct On platforms like Facebook where people tags that can be glued to the items they Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. and team are now ready to go big time and a functional prototype, and another sales channel to their fans,” says founder go to play games and share or chat with monitor. By doing all its manufacturing the market is hot. We will partnership with three years tweaking the product for the and CEO Donna Kivirauma. friends, Kivirauma says users aren’t in in-house and simplifying the materials Kivirauma also predicts profitability once big players to make our business fly,” Sipilä industry, relying on several beta customers a “lean-forward buying position.” As a and manufacturing process, Tageos claims TeamUp hits 600 business, which she sees concludes. . to keep it afloat in the meantime. After five The site generates revenue from businesses result, those ads can’t capture audience to produce an RFID tag of equal or better happening by the first quarter 2015. But no years of R&D, the company only started seeking new targets, the idea being: fans attention, leaving marketers with dismal performance quality at a 30 percent savings matter their size or revenues, Kivirauma full marketing of its technology in 2012. will remember brands that sponsor their measurables. “The click-thru rate on those to traditional RFID tags. is bent on keeping TeamUp private. “We heroes the next time they decide what ads are less than 1 percent,” Kivirauma says. have no desire to be a public company,” she Headquartered in Montpellier, France, “This solution we’ve developed is very kind of milk or shirt or shoe to buy — “It’s becomes spam or clutter.” On TeamUp, says. “That’s not in our plan, and a possible Tageos also has offices in Arkansas and productive, efficient and a fantastic especially as their allegiance can earn customers find common ground with and partner we’re discussing with would not India. It works directly with integrators way to save costs,” said Matthieu them rewards in TeamUp, according to seek out businesses supporting talented desire it to be public either.” who distribute its technology globally. The Picon, Co-founder and CEO of Tageos. Kivirauma. Brands buy profiles at €250 a people users admire. Instead of “selling” to year, €500 a year or €5,500 a year. “We’re them, brands provide “benefits.” According to one marketing agency,
94 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 95 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
one million fans will join the site by platforms across the globe. The company there,” Farrell said. To prove his point, Upfront Chro- there is pent up demand,” said Michael Pålsson added. “Several customers have year’s end. Afterwards, growth ramps claims to be the only solution to manage Farrell looks towards the company’s Pålsson, CEO of Upfront. “Upfront can completed pilot studies and are ready to do up exponentially. Kivirauama stands at system content while allowing developers international footprint. Just 18 months ago, matography find and isolate sources from material scale up.” the ready. “We’re already talking with to do billing and purchasing up to seven most of its customers were app developers streams never been used before. We meet Microsoft because the platform we’re an unmet demand in the world with a Upfront’s competitors are mainly times a day on one project. in the US transitioning to new markets, www.upfront-dk.com using right now can only go to 50 million much higher yield at a much higher purity. the traditional membrane filtration but it has seen significant uptake in Europe users, which we hope to get in 2015,” she “A lot of complexity creeps into languages Michael Pålsson Upfront solves an ethical problem in the technologies that first entered the market in says. “We’ll need to be looking at our own and internationally published software,” and Asia, especially Eastern Europe and challenge of a limited food supply.” the ‘50s. “We really face no competitors in datacenter after that. said Brian Farrell, CEO and Co-Founder India. Now about half its base is in the Life Sciences/Biotech the fields we operate in,” Mr. Pålsson said. of Tethras. “Small teams of app developers US. “This is a growing industry that has With the fast growing infant formula “The real competitor is the time to prove have to manage those changes. Our service only begun,” Farrell said. “We’re looking Denmark market alone estimated at $8 billion to $10 the model works within each application in the cloud automatically shows our towards phenomenal global growth with billion, Upfront easily faces a multi-billion are a .” dollar opportunity. Its immediate focus customers changes they made to the app the majority coming from the non-English Yes Tethras is the dairy and biofuels markets because Founded in 1992, Upfront has raised by uploading their changes directly.” speaking markets.” they are well known. “While there are good investment from DSM Venturing, www.tethras.com Tethras’ ease of development is certainly » Every 11 seconds, a child dies from hunger. infant formulas out there, none have yet the corporate venturing arm of Royal The company was founded in 2010 by being carried by its own momentum. In the Nearly 1 billion people are malnourished, been able to assimilate cow milk to infants. DSM N.V., and existing investors Brian Farrell Farrell and Brendan Clavin, who had last 12 months, it has grown 400 percent with around 98 percent of them living in Aside from Upfront, the technology does InnovationsKapital and NBGI Ventures. It helped develop the engineering team for not exist today,” Mr. Pålsson said. “On the is based in Denmark. Internet/Online on a steep escalation. The company serves developing countries, according to Food over 2,000 customers, from the smallest Google’s localization. It is Farrell’s third Agriculture Organization data. biofuel side, we can dramatically improve “Upfront is at the forefront of technological hobbyist to large organizations releasing startup, having previously founded MVT the cost structure for operators by tapping Ireland breakthroughs in downstream processing,” as many as 60 apps in multiple languages. and XSIL. The two built the foundation Upfront Chromatography’s technology has more from their operations.” the potential to revolutionize the global stated Leendert Staal, CEO of DSM No Rather than a SaaS model based on platform over three months, which it food supply. Upfront provides a more Cash positive for the last two years and Pharmaceutical Products. monthly fees, its services are pay as you go, piloted with a small number of developers specific and pure way to process proteins. earning revenue through asset sales of its with app developers paying for each new for feedback. They then spent 11 months Going a step beyond traditional processes technology, Upfront serves 20 to 25 global While Mr. Pålsson does not see a rapid » Over 46 billion apps were downloaded localization. building the commercial platform. that produce concentrations of proteins, customers, including several early stage increase of revenue in the next three to in 2012 by 1 billion smartphone owners Through early coverage in the Guardian five years, he does see Upfront developing For Focused Apps, whose game Hit Tennis Upfront’s optimized system can extract customers on a private scale, as well as around the globe. About 600 million a storyboard to prove the capacities its 3 is the most popular tennis game on the as well as word of mouth in the close-knit specific proteins out of any industrial sized large customers on an operational scale. Its of those users were non-native English technology can achieve in specific areas. He iPhone and iPad, translation essentially developer community, Tethras picked up protein stream. A high density absorbent clients are typically the leading customers speakers. Yet 80 percent of all apps are estimates that each application represents a customers quickly. “As engineers ourselves, bead bed captures specific proteins through of the world within their markets. It has sold only available in English. In fact, most comes down to fully tapping the market. value of $25 million to $65 million. Nearly all of its customers prefer to we developed a solution by engineers for the manufacturing process, enabling an its technology to a large pharmaceutical app developers are ignoring 60 percent of company in the Netherlands and to a search and play the game in their native engineers,” Farrell said. “That really helped extreme purity of highly specific proteins. the market. Tethras provides a translation Canadian company for dairy applications. “Our technology answers the lack of the language, so Tethras services ultimately engine for apps that makes localization us with word of mouth.” Immunoglobulins specific to the immune Its processes are used by the world’s largest proteins to the world population,” Mr. translate into more revenue. Its tools work easy, putting the global, non-English system of cows can be extracted from cow’s chromatography installation for potato Pålsson said. “Huge opportunities for the seamlessly with the tool Apple built to speaking market within arms’ reach. That’s Based in Dublin, Ireland, Tethras has milk, so a new born baby can digest it, protein production at Solanic NV. technology are still to be proven.” handle transactions, said Mark Johnson, a good news for the 3 million app developers raised $2.6 million. It is currently working for example. Protein can be isolated from Focused Apps developer. around the world, 90 percent of which on raising another round of similar size to algae and used to supplement various food It has had an organic revenue growth rate work in teams of five members or less. expand its customer base with increased products. Its technology can also extract of 15 to 20 percent, which Pålsson admits “I’d say nearly all translation companies the proteins from biofuel before it is turned isn’t impressive.”But the valuation that is are really there to translate documents, marketing efforts and hiring. It competes Named for a mythological chieftain in into gas, providing biofuel manufactures created means we are actually doing very but Tethras is specially for translating against Babble-on and Applingua. Irish folklore, Tethras provides a cloud an additional revenue source through food well. We are a well-funded company,” he apps, and that makes a huge difference,” platform that integrates with software streams. said. development kits. Its tools pick up changes Johnson said. “Apps are never finished. In the next three to four years, Farrell looks for Tethras to be a $30 million business. or revisions in app software and manage We are always releasing updates, which “We need to move mass scales of quality “There is no doubt we are in front of the their complexity across multiple languages means constantly adding and changing “The opportunity is only limited by our proteins to developing populations where scale up of the commercial side,” Mr. and platforms. A sizable app may have a translations. Tethras’ pricing takes that ability to onboard customers,” Farrell said. 100 word update, which in 32 languages, into account.” requires 3,200 individual strings to be updated and organized. Farrell expects Tethras’ growth to be just the beginning. “Much of the ecosystem Tethras offers a one-trick pony to provide is new to localization, and there is an a localized version in languages and abundance of potential customers out
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Top 100 Companies: Europe forescout.com
Vaadin reducing the amount of code they have to to do third party projects, but eventually write. They don’t have to learn anything decided to make the tooling itself the main www.vaadin.com new. Using Java language that they already function of the business. The company know, developers can write really nice launched the product in 2002. “It took us Joonas Lehtinen looking web applications, while getting all quite a while to figure out how to learn how the benefits of the Java platform.” to make a business by offering free tooling,” Software Lehtinen said. “In a few years, we went Vaadin’s free platform features a community from a few hundred programmers to over a Finland of over 100,000 developers that grows at hundred thousand developers. It has been 50 to 75 percent per year. The company quite an amazing ride.” Yes monetizes through selling developer tools, support and training. Its serves enterprises, banks, insurance companies, government » When it comes to applications, first entities, and healthcare companies. Valens impressions are essential, and a quality user interface is as good as a professional smile “By using the Vaadin TouchKit we were Semiconductor and a firm handshake. The UI essentially able to focus on functionality rather than determines the quality of interaction and on all the tricky details of a regular web www.valens.com ultimately the success of the program itself. application, like CSS, JavaScipt, HTML, In the new digital age, users expect UIs etc.,” Christian Burger, Senior Group Head Dror Jerushalmi comparable to Facebook and Google, yet IT Custom Solutions at PUMA SE, said in a professional looking interface typically a company testimonial. “With the help of Consumer Electronics comes with a hefty price tag. How can Vaadin we built a functional and intuitive business app budgets with a small user base GUI.” Israel and limited app lifespan afford consumer Last year, Vaadin earned $5.3 million at a grade UIs? Yes 40 percent annual growth rate, a trajectory Vaadin strives to make building quality Lehtinen expects to continue for the next UIs easy and affordable. Addressing several years. The company is profitable, » Trying to connect your TV to your cable the 9 million developers using Java, the generating 10% EBITDA, but reinvests box, DVD player, and all your other devices company provides a free Java framework much of that back into operations. can be quite a difficult task, especially for building modern web applications that when you get lost among cables. One often Nearly 90 percent of the Finnish company’s simplifies the programming process. Easily needs the assistance of TV technician. but user base is outside its local market, with compatible with multiple devices across even then, experts might have a hard time 50 percent of its development community all major browsers, its automatic platform figuring out which cord goes where. Valens centered in Europe, 25 to 30 percent in the provides ready-made building blocks so has found a way to unite devices connect US, and the rest in Asia. developers do not need to reinvent the them all. wheel with every line of code. Providing The company competes with large entities Valens was the first company to create a 100 a stable, secure and uniform user-friendly like Oracle and IBM, but their offerings If Bruce Lee were a Network Security Solution meter Local Area Network (LAN) cable Java platform, Vaadin enables developers tend to be more traditional websites and that delivers HD video, audio, Ethernet, ™ to build quality UIs 50 percent faster. do not provide a rich user experience, power and controls. Their HDBaseTTM He’d be ForeScout CounterACT With 50 percent fewer codelines and half Lehtinen said. the development time required, Vaadin (HDBT) chipset takes signals produces from several devices and bundles those essentially simplifies multiple layers of The company has raised $1.3 million. Wicked Fast. Deadly Accurate. coding language into one. All major signals into one protocol. Access and device diversity, dynamic exposures and advanced threats. No problem. Just as browsers and platforms have been written Lehtinen was inspired to launch Vaadin’s Established in 2006, Valens was created by into the language. platform from his own experiences leading Bruce Lee was a martial arts game-changer, ForeScout has changed the game of network security. six engineers with backgrounds in video ™ a team in building a virtual hospital Leveraging our ControlFabric technology, ForeScout delivers the continuous monitoring and technology. “Israeli engineers can never get “Vaadin simplifies the core processes of system in the late ‘90s. Unimpressed with mitigation necessary to enable business agility without compromising defenses. Be a game changer. enough, they keep challenging themselves,” developers,” said Joonas Lehtinen, CEO the tooling methods of the day, the team says Micha Risling, Valens’s vice president Check us out at forescout.com/gamechanger. of Vaadin. “Instead of writing applications decided to build its own. Lehtinen and a marketing and business development. “The for each browser, we make it easy to couple of others founded Vaadin in 2000 HDMI video cable wasn’t revolutionary Complete Network Visibility and Control. Any Device. Anywhere. concentrate on the server side of Java, with the idea of using the tooling language
© 2013 ForeScout Technologies Inc. | © 2013 Bruce Lee Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. www.brucelee.com. Licensed by GreenLight.
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enough for them, so they wanted to as surveillance. “It’s important to get a is used by a person in New Zealand. People I have a lot of old LP records which I products differently to end consumers, at with several Asian brands, global Asian add more to the same cable — Internet, better frame in these camera in order to who use it at home approach them, shake started five years ago to digitize and I have its most basic, the revenue model consists companies about possibilities for them to electricity and USB. The result is a relatively identify criminals, and since we have the their hands and thank them, and this is the hundreds of CDs.” of one-time fees for devices and recurring license our asset,” Lahdensivu says. cheap and easy-to-work-with cable that ability to add more information on a cheap kind of feedback that programmers can monthly service costs. “We basically sell installers like and fits many devices. We foundation, we have an advantage,” Risling never get if they only stay in the lab.” “Everything has to be centralized. That’s the device to the operator upfront and then Kulmala sees the company as poised right tried to match the technology to the cable says. what I wanted,” he says. “When I found we charge per month for a subscriber after before a tipping point. “I’m pretty sure that and not the cable to the technology, even the company, I realized this is something that,” he says. during the next 18 months we’re gonna though it requires a lot more effort.” Today, “The second round of investments was [that] I need, and I think that if I need it, make a breakthrough,” he says. “Right Valens is led by co-founder and CEO Dror needed to help us enter the market and Varaani Works my neighbor needs it.” Next up, Lahdensivu sees the company now we are having our first pilots with the Jerushalmi. work on future generations of our product,” concentrating on consumers and increasing telecom operators here in Finland ... we Importantly, Varaani’s cloud service its scale capabilities. He hopes for 15 Risling explains, “We reached sales with www.varaani.com have a sales organization in Middle Europe The original chipset was released in 2009, only 30 employees in three years, and we has data’s back in case disaster strikes. operator customers “mostly in Europe” by and we have got very, very encouraging Everything on the Hub can be restored 2017, which would mean just under one only three years after the company was wanted to pump up the expansion.” Eighty Kimmo Lahdensivu contacts.” started. Today, Valens’ more than 100 percent of the company’s 90 employees through the company’s online offering, million end consumers using Varaani, as which keeps memories safe and secure clients include Panasonic, Pioneer and operate from Israel, but other support and Big Data/Storage the company reaches less than 4 percent of “When the big breakthrough has happened Epson. “We started in the U.S. but in recent sales offices are located in Asia and the U.S. without a second thought from users. operators’ base. But acquiring funding in with first let’s say mid-size or big operators, See Varaani’s slogan: “Do nothing. Save years more and more production happens Finland Finland remains an obstacle to growth; and it will spread very very quickly,” he says. in China and Taiwan,” Risling adds. The company says that the next generation everything.” to overcome challenges, Varaani has had of its products will also allow fiber No to stay away from the consumer market Since Valens’ technology requires both a optics technologies to run on the same Their core innovation and IP relates to cost- longer than it wanted to, focusing instead transmitter and a receiver and is used by cable. Those capabilities might appeal to cutting and efficiency. “In the beginning on SMEs. we figured out a way [to] do online backup Varnish different brands, the company embarked organizations like the military. » Information storage is stuck in the past. with only 10 percent cost compared to Originally, funding arrived by way of angel on an ambitious journey to create an Digital memories don’t stack up like boxes anybody else doing online backup,” he says. and public money totaling €1.5 million, Software international standards to approve usage “We are getting ready for the day when of photos in the attic; rather, personal data large companies will try to imitate our “We don’t do one-to-one copy of the data with Varaani valued at €3 million pre- of one cable for disparate devices. This pileups require solutions stressing mobility www.varnish-software.com ... and we are able to regenerate the data if money in the angel round. Now, Lahdensivu way an installer knows that a Sony TV product, so IP is very important,” Risling and flexibility. says. The company has 13 granted patents something goes lost.” says Varaani scouts for interested investors, can communicate with a Panasonic DVR Lars Larsson through Valens’ cable. “A small company and more than 50 pending requests. Finnish startup Varaani Works helps users as the company would like to raise roughly “Even if your data is at home and it’s from Hod HaSharon, Israel actually “There have been unsuccessful attempts easily stow away massive quantities of data. €2 million to €3 million soon. “We are quickly accessible with any device, we also Software managed to recruit big names like Samsung, to create the same technology, but it’s very Now, instead of in closets or file cabinets, currently looking for VC funding, round secure all your data so whatever happens LG and Sony into an organization that is complicated. Companies like Intel, for users’ pictures, document and videos find A type of funding, as we already have the — if your house burns down or something Norway responsible for the standard,” he adds. example, produce HDMI technology, but homes on Varaani’s hardware (the Cloud customers in pipeline that we will require — we are able to recover any data,” he says. can’t produce ours.” Hub) and in the cloud through Varaani more funding to be able to fulfill,” he says. “We are able to do that for terabytes of data No Much of the company’s sales strategy Online Backup. “We need a VC round for scaling the because of our invention.” concerns introducing the disruptive In a world sprinting towards adopting business.” products to the market. Valens founded wireless technologies, Valens’ cable Gartner reports that by 2016, storage Currently Varaani serve SMEs by teaming » Nobody likes a slow website. A faster the HDBaseTTM Alliance to hype and solutions might not seem as innovative as on average per household will reach 3.3 At Varaani, scale and revenue will go (and with operators. Lahdensivu says the one can help businesses increase revenues. explain its technology. “It’s not just about others. “The biggest problem with wireless terabytes. “Still, two-thirds of that data grow) together. Lahdensivu projects next company serves customers at the crux Varnish Cache is a web application promotion for the producers to use the is that it’s unpredictable and sensitive will reside at home, not in the cloud,” year, the company will generate about €2 where three markets meet, as it provides accelerator that typically speeds up content chip, it’s also promotion for TV installers to the environment,” Risling says. “It’s says Varaani founder and CEO Kimmo million in revenues, while 2015 should see online backup, network-attached storage delivery, i.e. that of text, images, video or that need to choose to use the cable that enough that your neighbour turns on his Lahdensivu. “[For] two-thirds of the data, Varaani “already” in the “€5 million range.” devices, and cloud storage services. “We see audio. Where a typical web application goes with the chip.” microwave and it might affect the quality so over two terabytes of data per household, Break-even should follow in early 2016, he ourselves in the intersection of these three server can spit out somewhere between 10- of your video. People are so forgiving when we don’t think anybody’s solving that [the] says. markets, integrating seamlessly together 50 pages per second, the same server with “I want to get to a point where not only it comes to the quality of video, unlike way it should be solved.” all the required functionalities from each professionals use it, but private users ask other kinds of media.” Now, Varaani moves to tap not just SMEs, Varnish can deliver up to 50,000 pages per of them and trying to create our own blue for it themselves,” he adds. Varaani gives customers leading scattered but international companies and the broader second — a speed increase by a factor of ocean there,” Lahdensivu says. “These three As a global company, Valens has an edge. digital lives a place to keep everything consumer market. “We are currently talking 1,000, according to the company. markets together by 2016 will be [a] $20+ After two rounds of funding, that Risling highlights how the company makes organized: the Hub. “All my photographs billion market.” produced about $24 million in investments an international impact; as a marketing were here and there, lots of photographs from Genesis, Magma, Asus and Mitsui, person who used to be a software on old CDs, old home-burned DVDS, Right now, clients include one operator and Valens released two new chipsets in 2012. developer, he tries to take developers to memory sticks, whatever,” says Olli-Pekka a few service providers, which Lahdensivu These generations include optimization conferences. “It’s just so they can see that Kulmala, the company’s chairman and says are more like value-added resellers. functionalities for specific needs, such what they developed in our small country angel investor. “Music is another thing. Though each customer markets Varaani’s
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Varnish started as an open source project $20,000 a year, and these fees generate 75 Ease of distribution enabled the software Forrester Research global advisory firm. conversion rate and reduced support are from Germany, India and more. initiated in 2005. Varnish Software was percent revenues for the business.Varnish to spread to every continent relatively The firm calculates that a 10-percentage- needs. These two items are strongly “Even though we are based in Israel, we founded in 2010 with 14 employees; the also receives payments for professional quickly. Varnish also delivers IT services to point improvement in a company’s connected to the company revenue and are targeting mostly English-speaking company is headquartered in Sweden. services rendered and from developer and India. About 70 percent of the customers customer experience score can translate profit,” he adds. The main service WalkMe markets,” Sweary adds: “The sales team The name “Varnish” came about when Per system operator trainings they provide. are European (especially northern Europe into more than $1 billion in revenue. provided to Clarizen is the ability to deliver simply works according to East Coast time, Buer, CEO of Varnish, was working on “We are more or less breaking even, it where the financial ecosystem is better), a software feature without the need to instead of Jerusalem time.” an art poster with the word “Vernissage” changes every month,” says Buer. The while 25 percent come from the U.S. A few “It’s like a GPS, it tells you what to do spend valuable resources on development on it. The word can have three different company has no control over marketing, more customers come from Africa and and when you should do it, but doesn’t and maintenance from Clarizen’s side. Mangrove Capital Partners, Giza Venture meanings, all which relate to polishing or so revenues can be difficult to manage. Asia. “We can definitely have a larger U.S. give you all the instructions at once,” says Clarizen’s large customers use WalkMe as a Capital and Gemini Funds have backed improving the look or finish of an existing However, “staying profitable is not presence and this is one of our goals,” Buer Rafi Sweary, President and co-Founder training tool, Tzikoni says, while many ask the company with a total of $7 million product. necessarily a good idea,” Buer says, who says. He expects that in three to four years, of WalkMe, in describing the system. for custom walkthroughs on the already- in two investment rounds. Sweary isn’t would rather focus on meeting the need of share of U.S. customers will double to 50 Sweary’s partner and co-founder, Eyal customized environment Clarizen created looking for further investment right now, Varnish provides a solution for a problem customers before making more money. percent. Cohen, conceptualized the solution from for the companies. with profitability soon on the horizon. “We most Internet sites come across as they grow an epiphany — as he helped his mother want to focus on the long run and change and become more popular, when more Redpill Linpro Group, which provides navigate her bank’s website, he saw an The main challenge WalkMe faces is that the whole industry,” he concludes. “There content and visitors make response time professional Open Source services and opportunity.“When she kept calling every people are not used to the system, and is a potential client in every website that slow. Varnish’s scalability allows savings products in the Nordic region, made the WalkMe week, Eyal resorted to think about a better might not notice the little “Need help?” tab requires a username and password.” on of number of servers, infrastructure first investment in Varnish Software and is support system than himself,” Sweary says. on the bottom or side of the web page. “It’s a matter of educating people to search for complexity and CO2 emissions. But more its majority shareholder today. “As traffic on www.walkme.com importantly, a faster website attracts more the internet increased and the number of Founded in 2011, WalkMe is headquartered our tabs,” Sweary explains. Online video in Tel Aviv and San Francisco. The business tutorials, for examples, are more popular, users. Varnish users grew, and HTTP at the same Dan Adika time became the de facto protocol on the model is based on monthly subscription and serve as another challenge that Watchful from clients. While a couple hundreds of Varnish’s free software is available online, Internet, it was obvious that Varnish had Internet/Online WalkMe faces. Software but technical support will cost users, who tremendous business potential,” says Lars business clients are currently paying for the service, thousands are still using the Similar companies and technologies remain usually need it. “If you run a big website Larsson, COO at Redpill Linpro Group. Israel www.watchfulsoftware.com for financial information that reaches half free basic plan, limited to 300 clicks on the quite rare, mainly due to technological Walk-through system. However, WalkMe obstacles. “It’s not just about the ingredients a million people, you want to make sure Networking equipment manufacturers Yes Charles Foley that the software works so you can hit such as Cisco, F5 and Blue Coat make projects reaching break-even by the end of of the cookie, it’s about the bakery itself,” 2013. Sweary explains. He is proud of his group that distribution,” says Buer, explaining appliances that provide similar services Software of veterans from leading IDF computing the business model. “Software companies Varnish does. “But we focus on acceleration » Starting any kind of account online, The system enables companies to control units, who managed to adapt the “balloon” spend more money on selling and and nothing else,” say Buer, “We ‘eat their purchasing your summer vacation or Portugal the content and design of the balloons, keep technology to every website on the net. marketing, while open source companies lunch’ when it comes to performance.” even just paying bills on the web is not track of the number of users that follow the “The competition for good people is tough, spend money on developing, and the always an easy task. Website operators Yes on-screen guides and identify problematic but the best way to find them is through the distribution is free,” Buer says. The radical According to Larson, other technologies often aggravate the situation, as millions steps which make them leave the site and network of the programmers themselves,” idea about open source is that a small require significant capital investment of users are routinely challenged with the abandon the transaction. ElementBars, he says. “They know what to look for.” number of subscriptions is enough to and demand long-term contractual complicated technology hurdle of trying » an online store based in Chicago, where One PowerPoint presentation set make a profit, especially since marketing commitments, while Varnish resolves to figure out the “easy as 1-2-3” steps. customers can create custom energy bars, WalkMe also ends up reducing employee- the entire world searching for Edward costs are close to zero. “There is somebody technical and financial issues for customers WalkMe Ltd. is solving these issues with claims that their company experienced an training costs for its clients by using the step- Snowden, a former technical contractor blogging about our software at least twice a at lower costs, employing a more flexible interactive on-screen guidance sequences increase in the number of first-time site by-step system for instructing employees, for the National Security Agency (NSA) week, and money can’t buy that,” Buer says. approach. that companies can add to their website. visitors that engaging after using WalkMe, instead of in-person instruction. U.S. and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The small balloon hints that appear on top which translated to an increase of 12.7% organizations spent $156.2 billion on who leaked details on top-secret American Varnish received a leg up over competitors Varnish is also an application platform. of the screen should make things easier for in ElementBars’s e-commerce conversion employee learning and development in and British government mass surveillance in 2008 when Facebook and Twitter High-performance applications can be users and walk them through any process, rate in six months. The company was not 2011, according to the American Society programs to the press. Snowden was able started using the company’s software. written and executed within Varnish all while cutting customer support costs willing to provide the full conversion rate for Training and Development (ASTD) to access this information even though the “Once people heard that they use us, it was Cache. “This is important because it for businesses. numbers. association. According to Planet Soho, NSA and the CIA are considered to be the the biggest PR boost we’ve ever gotten,” gives us an arena to add value,” Buer says. a small business management platform, most secure places on the planet. “If the Buer says. Approximately 100 customers In addition, Varnish’s Paywall product About two-thirds of customers agree that “WalkMe had the richest feature spec Walkme saved the company 50 percent on NSA would have used our product, you have already subscribed to Varnish and enables websites to move from ad-based valuing their time is the most important and the best value per dollar,” says Uri support representative costs and increased wouldn’t hear about Snowden. Cause that pay a service fee. Among them are major to content-generated revenues without thing a company can do to provide good Tzikoni, product manager at Clarizen, a user engagement by over 10 percent, from wouldn’t happen,” says Charles Foley, CEO companies like Morningstar, Globe and sacrificing performance. In recent years, service, and 45 percent of U.S. adult work and project management software the traditional 2 percent. and founder of Watchful Software. a number of online publications made the customers will abandon their online Mail, Vimeo and ESPN. company based in San Mateo, California. switch; all the better for Varnish, which purchase if they can’t find a quick answer “Our management has a strong feeling Most of the company’s business clients Watchful’s security solutions work The average subscription runs at around taps a growing market. to their question, according to research by that adding WalkMe has increased the are located in North America, but some seamlessly for the different users within an
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enterprise. Whether dealing with emails, that gained a reputation for high-quality marketing in 2013 Watchful is considering organizations are not fully protected and require plenty of juice, and again Wi-Next’s Earning just under $2 million this year, Wi- documents or spreadsheets, Watchful software and for developing safety-critical raising growth capital to drive sales and that data is going to continue to walk technology comes into play. Its Green Next is on track to reach revenues of $45 secures any kind of information separately technologies for mission- and business- marketing in 2013. out the door,” Foley concludes. It seems Networking chip can recognize traffic in million in the next three years. De Carne and transparently, such that only people critical systems. The security technology like it’s only a matter of time until the network ports, and can shut off when not strives to make Wi-Next the second player with the right clearance can get to it. (IP) behind Watchful developed and Further investment from Critical Ventures next Wikileaks comes along. Until then, in use. It essentially allows WiFi to be provider in Italy to knock Aruba Networks The information stays safe as it travels, matured over three years within within is still an option. “You’ll find us right there companies will continue to search for the turned on and off like a faucet, only when it out of its second place position to sit regardless of whether the file is on a Critical Software. After first proof of supporting that effort,” Carreira says. best solutions to protect their information, is needed. The connection sits dormant in beneath Cisco, which currently holds the corporate server, sent via email, or shared concept and early customer adoptions, it “Watchful’s technology is significantly and companies like Watchful can only an office building on nights or weekends, first tier. He expects profitability in 2014. on a USB key, anywhere in the world. The became clear that the market opportunity better than market alternatives, so that is benefit from this growing need. coming on automatically when someone The company is looking to raise venture clearance for specific data can also be was massive and required a sharp market not a concern, and they have built a strong makes a connection. This function enables funding from a firm which could not only changed; so even if a file is locked up in focus, a team, and financing of its own. At global channel network in less than a year, an energy savings of 50 percent. invest but also partner in distribution. the bottom drawer at your desk, it can’t be that point Watchful Software was created so we believe that they have a good chance De Carne estimates Wi-Next could reach accessed by certain users. and €1 million was raised from Critical to reach their goals,” he adds. Currently focused on Italy, Wi-Next plans revenues of $100 million in the next 10 Ventures to launch the new company. Wi-Next to extend into Germany and France by 2014, years, but allows it is anybody’s guess. “It used to be all about building a massive According to Foley, next year the company and the US by 2015. The company faces www.wi-next.com wall or boundary against people hacking Watchful indeed has an “unfair advantage” will focus more on TypeWATCH, its a robust market, estimated at nearly $400 “We don’t want to become the next Cisco,” into our systems, but now people have in the market, as Carreira puts it. “We’re eBiometrics solution, as biometric systems million in Germany alone, and a billion Nicola De Carne De Carne said. “We want to become the realized that every user is a come-and-go very fortunate because we had 15 years are gaining popularity in the market. The dollars in the US. All of its production leader in a niche of specialized WiFi.” from the boundary, and it is those users of development from the start,” Foley solution needs no hardware, but can still facilities are centered in Italy, which Telecommunications from the inside that make a mistake or do adds. Developers at Critical Software were monitor devices for identity data theft provides direct control of production to be working on Watchful’s specific technology attempts by analyzing free-text typing able to better personalize the product with malicious things, and the document ends Italy up getting to a competitor or a journalist,” for more than two years before it became patterns of each user. Its costs are lower its OEM customers. “Through the control of our production, we can personalize Widespace Foley says. a separate company in the summer than most biometrics systems, which No of 2012. However, since the tech was involve complex and expensive hardware our technology to provide very effective www.widespace.com With more than 20 years experience initially targeted at specific customers, the components. solutions for the Internet of Things,” De managing company teams at companies challenge remained creating a production Carne said. » WiFi everywhere. That’s the vision Patrik Fagerlund like TimeSight Systems, Inc., which line that appealed to all kinds of users. The primary competitors for Watchful of Wi-Next. The company’s technology develops leading-edge storage and video are budget competitors such as point-of- De Carne founded Wi-Next in 2007 as allows for the easy setup, configuration Internet/Online management solutions for the physical Watchful’s business model is based on purchase companies like Symantec and a solution to Italy’s digital divide, where and management of broadband networks. security market, Foley believes that the selling standard licenses with annual McAfee. However, these companies “don’t up to 60 percent of the population lacked It specializes in mesh technology that Sweden information security market is a great support or annual subscriptions. “By 2015, secure the information itself, but where a broadband connection. In 2010, the can create a network and enable router opportunity for Watchful. The analyst firm the number of subscriptions is expected to will it go,” Foley says. “We’re winning and company was acquired by Carpaneto Sati, recognition without a centralized computer No VisionGain estimated the cybersecurity be higher than licenses, since people want they are going to have to partner with us.” which owns 70 percent of the company. Wi- controller required to manage it. Every market at $68.3 billion for 2013 in a report the benefits of the products, and not the Next spent its first three years building the released earlier this year. commitment,” Foley says. “They are very expensive and difficult, and Wi-Next access point can create its own technology, and only began to concentrate » Sometimes the most frustrating experience they don’t do a very good job in securing autonomous network that’s flexible, scalable on sales at the end of last year. That allowed for an entrepreneur can be waiting for Watchful Software, based in Coimbra, As with any young company, Watchful the information,” he says. and elastic. At a 30 percent savings compared for a rich platform that enables quick Portugal, is a member of Critical Group, is focused on getting the word out to to legacy competitors Cisco and Aruba product development for its customers, De the market to catch up. Many have been anchored by Critical Software, which market in order to drive revenue growth. Some smaller companies also compete Networks, Wi-Next can easily scale up to Carne explained. Over the last half of the predicting the rise of mobile technologies specializes in solutions and technologies The company is already selling product, with Watchful. The Israeli firm Secure 200 access points at a lower cost because no year, it plans to release five new products. for a number of years, and others have for information systems. “We always look has filed for one patent and working Islands Technologies, develops advanced centralized controller is required. A fiber optic access point, for example, waited patiently for the technology to for three things to invest in: a large market, on filing more, but has not reached yet Information Protection and Control can be provided in less than two months. reach the necessary level to support their an ‘unfair advantage’ and a strong team. We reached break-even. “We are running (IPC) solutions. In addition, the Canadian “Thanks to our technology, it is possible to “We now have the capacity to develop entrepreneurial ambitions. Finally, the era saw all three here in Watchful Software,” in banking, governments and defense company Titus serves more than 2 million create very large networks very easily,” said and release new products in a very short of mobile has arrived, and the patience of says Joao Carreira, managing partner at organizations already, so I believe that we users worldwide, including the U.S. Air Nicola De Carne, CEO and founder of Wi- time,” De Carne said. “We can personalize the few is starting to pay off. Critical Ventures. “The key technologies will be profitable by next year,” Foley says. Force and the Canadian and Australian Next. “In the future, we will live every day technology as our customers need. Our Patrik Fagerlund and Henric Ehrenblad of the flagship products, RightsWATCH Watchful’s customers are located in Europe Departments of Defense. always connected in every hour of our life. competitors don’t have that capability.” realised the potential of mobile advertising and TypeWATCH, were actually the result and the U.S. It has distributors in Germany We need effective wireless networks that at the start of the millennium, when the pair of work done with real customers, and and the Middle East and a partner in South A future IPO is also part of the plan, Foley can easily spread as smart devices become Serving primarily telecom operators and were both working for Ericsson. In 2006, are ahead of anything else in their market America. says. But for now, the company focuses on ubiquitous. We provide a very easy solution big systems integrators on a b2b model, Wi- they believed it was ready to take off and segments,” Carreira says. growth and capital requirements. to build networks quickly, effectively and Next has about 110 customers, growing at Watchful is considering raising $4 million affordably.” 15 percent. Clients include Wind, Telecom began plans to form their own company, Watchful started as a spinoff of Critical to $5 million in growth capital mainly from “Wikileaks showed us and Snowden Italia, Vodafone, Enel, Lottomatica, which materialised in 2007 in the form of Software, a company founded in 1998 the U.S. venture market to drive sales and reminded us that even the biggest Naturally, keeping the world connected will Juventus F.C., Terna. Widespace. The firm was set up to operate
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in the premium mobile advertising space, updated every couple of months to maybe brought success to companies such as which meant it would be targeting the top a year. It’s a very different pace to what we Widespace and the company’s story serves advertisers and publishers in the markets saw in the PC world and maybe even the as a reminder that even in the fast paced in which it was operating. But the two web world. So that’s tripping people up,” world of technology start ups, patience can founders had to remain patient for a little says Finley. be a virtue. longer before they achieved the success they desired. The wide number of devices is made even more complex by the multiple operating Tag Management Simpli ed “I would say that the first couple of years systems on which they run. Depending on WITBE were really tough, there were very few how it is counted, there are two and half Deploy and manage your online marketing companies apart from the ring tone players mainstream operating systems on mobile www.witbe.net that wanted to be seen in mobile, and – iOS, Android and Blackberry. But it gets solutions faster than ever before that was not really what we were about,” even more complicated when the multiple Jean-Michel Planche explains Mr. Fagerlund. “Once you had versions of these operating systems are the penetration of Android and iPhone taken into account. There are as many as Software devices in the marketing departments and 14 different versions of Android alone. All at the media agencies, then all of a sudden of this can scare people away from working France this started to take off. Since 2009 we have or advertising in mobile. However, Mr. had a tremendous growth. Fagerlund believes this problem is slowly Yes being addressed. “I think it has to do Widespace is headquartered in Stockholm with more and more companies like C and expanded into Norway and Finland Widespace actually offering services that » As monitoring customer experience M a year and a half ago. The company then helps companies get into the mobile. More online is becoming more and more Y moved into the German, Dutch and than just providing them with an online important for service providers, CM French markets around five months ago solution,” he states. technologies like Witbe’s are crucial for and recently ventured into the UK and their survival. MY Denmark. The firm’s targeting of premium Widespace is now looking to the United CY States as one of its next possible ventures, advertisers means it needs sales people Jean-Michel Planche, President and co- CMY on the ground in the companies where although much depends on the company’s founder of Witbe, founded the internet K it operates, and it also needs to build ability to secure the right publisher service provider Oleane in France in relationships with the top media agencies agreements in markets. The European 1990. It was the first “Internet Operator” in any market it moves into. market continues to be the primary focus focused on selling IP infrastructures to of the firm, but Mr. Fagerlund admits he business customers. Oleane soon became In 2011, Widespace recorded net income of has an eye on the U.S. market all the time. the second largest ISP in France and was 1.7 million Euros, a figure which rose to 5.6 “It’s a big market and it’s big money so we acquired by France Telecom in 1998. million Euros last year, and Mr. Fagerlund would definitely want to be a Madison predicts, based on the first quarter of this Avenue company.” “At that time it was clear to us that all year, that the company will reach a net applications and communication streams profit of 12-13 million Euros in 2013. For Widespace, one of the challenges the would soon be based on IP and that company has faced is to maintain the there was a need for a new generation of Analysts are now agreeing that the mobile culture of the company while expanding monitoring technologies to ensure these market has started to fulfil its potential. at the same time. “One of the reasons that new services were properly delivered,” “Every year since 1999 has been declared we have been really successful is that we Planche says. Enterprise Tag Management for Marketers the year of mobile and it may actually be have a great culture in the company. The finally be coming true,” says Ian Finley, more people you get and the more markets Witbe was founded in 2000, with some Tealium puts marketers in control of their mission-critical online solutions by making it easy to research vice president at Gartner. you go to, it is hard to extend that culture of the key people that drove the success manage their third-party vendor tags (pixels) without ongoing IT assistance. See why global of Oleane. “Our vision was that rather over the total group of people. But we brands such as Petco, Nokia, News International, Volvo, Travelocity, A+E Networks and many The mobile sector has proved daunting to believe the people in our company, they than focusing on monitoring individual more rely on Tealium to increase marketing agility and performance, increase conversions, www.tealium.com some looking to exploit it, in part because are creating the success, it’s not one person equipment, the industry should focus of the wide range of devices which have or two or three — it’s a culture that creates on controlling the quality of the delivery and reduce costs. To learn more, download our free guide “The ROI of Tag Management” to be catered for. “The devices are being success. Culture beats strategy every time.” and the actual user experience,” Planche www.tealium.com/roi. replaced on average every two to three explains. “In an IP world, the sum of the years. The operating systems are being Mobile has finally arrived, and it has quality does not equal the quality of the Tealium is proud to be recognized as a Red Herring Top 100 Award Winner for North America.
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sum. Monitoring each network component “We’re not actively looking for investors WiTech than 25 pilots worldwide with the Cloud 4 markets, the company is set to change to a cores, each with its own instruction stream is certainly useful, but provides too much right now, but this could be an option,” Wi,” she adds. non-traditional plan. “For the international and register file, all on the same chip, for information and no hints whatsoever on Planche says. As they reached profitability www.witech.it market, what we want to create is a new a series of multicores that perform at the the quality really delivered to users.” one round after initial financing, additional Analysts at TechNavio forecasted earlier this model, it is a business to community lightning strike of real-time. backing could only be relevant to accelerate, Andrea Calcagno year that the global Wi-Fi hotspot market model. We want to join the communities Witbe’s technologies simulate user Planche says. would grow at a CAGR of 0.84 percent of Wi-Fi vendors, and starting from them Its chips do not have any dedicated transactions with active robots on any Telecommunications between 2012 and 2016. The technology we want to create our community so in external interfaces implemented in the type of service or terminal, and measure Witbe competes with many players from research company said one of the key this way through the community, we can hardware, allowing for any interface to be performance, quality and integrity of what the quality-of-service world that monitor Italy factors contributing to this market growth decrease the costs related to the sales programmed in the software. It enables was delivered to users. The company started network equipment and analyze traffic to is the increased use of mobile devices. channel and we can leverage on the word USB, Ethernet, serial interfaces, a daisy with solutions to monitor Internet access assess quality. With the introduction of the No of mouth phenomenon,” says Ms. Briola. chain network for industrial applications, and website performance, introduced Internet, this type of monitoring is getting WiTech is targeting the U.S market, and on a very flexible platform where the exact telephony monitoring as the market In order to do this WiTech has launched harder. intends to focus on the telco providers and interfaces can be specified by the designer. migrated to VoIP; since 2004 Witbe has » In today’s connected world, people service providers market. The company a channel partner program, which aims helped service providers test and monitor “These QoS monitoring solutions are still expect to be able to access their emails, s currently searching for sales staff in to recruit resellers and distributors into “In many cases, we can replace their IPTV (Internet Protocol television) relevant for making sure infrastructures apps and the internet wherever they go. the U.S. and plans to open an office with the community so they can sell and several devices to allow you to build a services and now does so for their multi- distribute the Cloud 4 Wi solution in their are working properly. But they do not Any park, shop, building or house without a management team, while keeping the programmable system on a chip solution dscreen services. own countries. The firm is working with provide insights on whether users can a Wi-Fi connection is in danger of losing research and development team in Italy, and integrate a complete system on a Ms. Briola says. distributors in the UK and South Africa conduct transactions, on whether a its credibility very quickly. As more and single chip that you wouldn’t find on Witbe has about 400 customers in more currently and is close to signing more particular malfunction has an impact on more devices pour onto the market, the a conventional microcontroller,” said than 35 countries. They include large The firm set up a subsidiary in San agreements in the near future. demand for Wi-Fi everywhere is only Nigel Toon, CEO of XMOS. “Because service providers such as DISH Networks, the delivered service, etc,” Planche argues, Francisco recently to work in the U.S., going to get stronger. Telecoms companies our chip can be repurposed to solve so Comcast, Bell Canada, Orange, BT, “Service delivery has become so complex, called Cloud 4 Wi Inc and the firm also have introduced Wi-Fi in all manner of many different applications, we end up Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Canal+, NOC [Network Operation Center] has plans to open an office in London and places, but are they making the most out of with a broad potential of customers with PCCW and China Telecom. Main set-top engineers and management generally expand into Europe. WiTech has also seen monetizing these networks? XMOS a plethora of potential applications. We box developers such as Pace, Sagemcom have either too much information or no interest in the Brazilian market so plans to and Technicolor work with Witbe’s test information at all. Witbe gives them the create a flexible platform that can solve One company which has been helping move into Sao Paulo at some point in the xmos.com equipment. Large IT infrastructures at BNP relevant information they need to get many different problems.” network operators do just that is an Italian future. Paribas, Generali, LVMH, Total, Brinks or straight to the point and solve issues, focus firm called WiTech. The company was Nigel Toon Competing at the high end of the Schneider use the company’s monitoring on issues that could really affect revenues, The company, led by CEO Andrea founded as a spin off from the University solutions. control SLAs [service-level agreements], Calcagno, has put a lot of time and effort microcontroller market focused on of Pisa in 2003. WiTech boasts a portfolio Hardware prioritize investments, and more.” into research and development in order to embedded applications, XMOS primarily of Wi-Fi solutions, including its newest Customers can choose to have the come up with the solutions it offers, but it serves four key markets. These include the offering, Cloud 4 Wi, which uses a cloud UK entire solution in-house, or use Witbe’s Witbe has two challenges to face this year. also has to maintain that level of research consumer market, with a focus on high solution to offer Wi-Fi hotspot services. technology as a managed service. A On the technology side, Witbe’s newest to keep up with technological trends. “At end consumer products such as audio “It means that through this solution a Yes significant share of revenues, the company solution is in big data analytics, released the moment the R&D department has devices and gaming interfaces, and the service provider or a telecom operator, can says, come from the professional services earlier this year, which enables the business more than 12 people. We have the solution audio space, where it can support multiple offer Wi-Fi services by introducing some team that helps customers who work with case for multiscreen video services. “We already now and what we want to do in the » audio streams thanks to low latency. added values, for example marketing tools, Today’s next generation embedded the system. Witbe has been profitable have several trials going on and we need next months and years is to improve our It also supports the automotive space, advertising tools and so on,” says Elena computing requires a chip with more than since 2006 and generates revenues of $15 solution taking into account there is always implementing lower cost end points for to transform them,” Planche says. On the Briola, CMO and VP of Technology at a single processing core to deliver multiple million, according to the company. an upgrade of a new technology and we interfacing on real-time networking and business side, the company recently opened WiTech. functions at instantaneous speeds. need to satisfy new standards. For example the industrial space, its largest market, “We are on a trend to double revenues by an office in São Paulo to drive its business XMOS, a British fabless semiconductor in our road map there is the integration where its level of interfacing can deliver 2015,” Planche says. With a network of in Latin America. “We already have “At the moment we have two different company, uses time slicing technology with the 4G networks. So the solution is a broad array of applications in fields like more than 40 Points of Presence (PoPs) customers in the region, including a major patents, on telco solutions and we’re also in its products to effectively introduce ready but we need to evolve it in order industrial robotics. around the world, this statement seems incumbent. We’re working on several large developing four other patents related to our multiple processing cores on the same opportunities there and I am sure we’ll have Cloud 4 Wi solution. At the moment we to address new market requirements,” chip. According to XMOS, this delivers reasonable. “We’re seeing a huge traction XMOS has already shipped more than a many successes,” Planche says. are the main provider of hotspot services explains Ms. Briola. unprecedented performance at speeds 100 in North America where we secured very million units. It is currently adding to this large customers. We’re just starting to in Italy, for example one customer of ours times faster than any microcontroller on WiTech has also evolved its business number every month at a fast trajectory. promote our solutions in Latin America Witbe has about 100 employees across is Telecom Italia. So starting from these the market. models in order to address new markets. With 50 percent of its revenue based in and the feedback is tremendous. We have offices in New York, Montreal, Paris, customers, and starting from the domestic The company uses a classic business to The company’s architecture provides Europe, the company also serves a growing a very strong value proposition for the Singapore, Casablanca and São Paulo. market, we have decided to move to the business model in Italy, with direct channel different instructions at scheduled global market with distributors all over the Multiscreen Video delivery market which More hiring is expected due to the new international scenario at the beginning of sales. But as it expands into international intervals to enable separate, logical 32-bit world. is booming right now and we are very office in Latin America, as well as more this year, so at the moment we have more successful there,” he adds. offices in Europe and in the U.S.
108 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 109 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
“The XMOS USB Audio solution gave XMOS is working towards an IPO with a on multiple devices really took off. “Since is taking full advantage of the market begun to use a system more befitting of an and on the sell side. And the advertisers our engineers the perfect starting point. market capitalization of up to $500 million three years ago, this business has really opportunities. “We are in a market where increasingly digital sector. have a way better insight into the quality Its flexibility allows us to easily customize in the next several years. been taking off,” explains Frank Thorup, we see open windows all over and there is of the media,” says Mr. Senf. “I think the processor to our exact requirements,” CEO and founder of XStream. “Two or a lot of business going on and we need to The standard advertising marketboth benefit — the publisher can now sell said Jerome Henry, Chief Brand Officer three years ago we were around 15 people, grab as much as we can,” states Mr. Thorup. model involves a publisher selling their more, the advertiser gets more quality. We for Vestax. “The single XMOS device today we are closing in on 100 people.” “And the reason why it is important is we advertising space or media, by rate cars. believe in the coming years more inventory replaces a number of components from our Xstream need to grow in order to spend more and The sales people of the publisher would go sources will be automated, so mobile and previous designs, dramatically upgrading This sudden growth in the business can more money on innovation. So in order out with the rate card and sell directly to mobile television is a big source which will be attributed to a shift in strategy by the advertisers. This model is still widely used our standard sound specifications, and www.xstream.dk to fulfil our vision of being one of the five be in the exchanges soon.” reducing our material cost.” clients which XStream serves. Video top suppliers of video asset management today, but may soon be a thing of the past. across different devices has moved from a Frank Thorup within three years, then we need to grow This may be bad news for the media sales Mr. Senf founded YD World in 2008 with The XMOS technology was conceived speculative, tertiary tactic of businesses, to and we need to build out the business that person, but it will be beneficial to both the Niels Baarsma, who is the CTO of the in 2005 through the research of David Software a core marketing and delivery strategy. we have.” advertisers and the publishers. firm. The company currently has around May, Head of Computer Science at the 60 employees and operates in five different Mr. Thorup explains that he has witnessed University of Bristol. May previously wrote Denmark XStream is expanding internationally, YD World is one of the companies that countries – The Netherlands, where the the OCCAM language and designed the clients “spending much more energy and and last year opened an office in Toronto, are offering a fresh way for both sides to firm is based, France, Germany, Spain resources on the technology that we have.” Transputer, a highly versatile silicon- No Canada. This gives the firm a position from do business. “YD is a display advertising and Poland. The pair began the venture based processor. XMOS spun out of the The success of companies such as Netflix which to go after the North American technology company, we’re mainly due to the lack of performance based sales university as a separate entity when it and the online service provided by HBO market. The company, headquartered in focusing on delivering performance in the advertising industry. “We saw that has also driven demand for video platform received venture funding in 2006. The »The way the average consumer of video Copenhagen, also has an office in Warsaw, display advertising to direct advertisers. people were working on a purely a cost services. company launched its first product in 2009, content accesses video and television has Poland. We built technology which made us able to per acquisition brokering activity and we with its first aggressive marketing in 2010, changed irreversibly over the past five reach targets for advertisers,” says Mendel saw that if you chose a scientific approach The market is now changing for the cable and began ramping its revenue stream in years. The days when a family would sit in As video consumption habits continue to Senf, CEO of YD World. “On top of that by analysing data and making decisions and TV companies, so these over the top the second half of 2010. a living room, huddled around a television, evolve, companies such as XStream will we have been building our performance on data, then we could forecast or predict services are now vital to their survival. waiting for their favourite TV show to start have to work hard to stay ahead and profit algorithm which is a decision making tool prices we wanted to pay for media. That’s Based in Bristol in the U.K., XMOS “One of the most interesting things about are almost over. The new TV is on demand, from the changes. But with the enormous that decides on the data we collect from where the ambition came from to close has raised $60 million in investment being in this business is that the way we on different devices, and online. market opportunity, it will surely be worth the advertisers funnel. It’s quite easy set the gap between the traditional branding from Amadeus Capital, DFJ Esprit and watch TV and the way we consume video the effort. up and an easy approach to generate a world and the performance world,” is changing so rapidly so the TV industry Foundation Capital. Mr. Toon expects to Any disruption in an established market real time bidding request and start buying explains Mr. Senf. and video content delivery industry is announce new investments over the next creates huge opportunities for those with impressions,” he adds. changing so rapidly over the last five years, several months. Earning close to double enough foresight to anticipate it. The video The company’s algorithm takes into so I would say all the cable operators and digit million dollar revenues, the company content delivery market is no different, and The real time bidding process is a system account numerous factors to predict how all the TV distribution operators, they should be profitable sometime next year. many companies have already experienced YD in which companies bid in real time for well an advert will perform in a certain need to compete in order to be in business huge growth as a result of this shift in advertising space from publishers, which placement, and how much it is worth The closest competitive technologies to in five years.,” says Mr. Thorup. www.ydworld.com market culture. enables them to target specific audiences there. As with all algorithms, it needs XMOS are FPGAs and microcontrollers, and users, and get a fair price based on constant revision. “The algorithm is purely “That’s why the demand for technology the former which provides a similar One such company is XStream, a Danish Mendel Senf the success of the publication in attracting focused on delivering performance, so vendors and companies like us with the flexibility but at a much higher price point, firm which provides solutions for video users. it’s an ongoing research and development product that we have is so high. Because Marketing/Advertising/SOE the latter which fails to deliver XMOS content producers to deliver their videos to process in which we’re trying new variables they know that it’s a question of being in performance, Mr. Toon said. “There’s a huge users across multiple devices. The firm was A recentr report from Adform, an all the time to optimise our bid strategies,” the market in five years,” he adds. Netherlands space between the two where we fit in. We founded in 1999, and in 2001 it won a major advertising technology platform, revealed says Mr. Senf. “If you look at the main provide high flexibility and performance at contract from one of the top broadcasters that investment in real time bidding spend research that we’ve been doing for finding John Farrell, Director of YouTube Latin No a price point that is very attractive.” in Scandinavia, to help broadcast Danish increased 275% in the first quarter of 2013. the algorithm it’s a big piece of our time America, recently explained how much soccer on the internet. During this time Martin Stockfleth Larsen, CMO, Adform and a big piece of our performance for Mr. Toon looks toward the Internet of opportunity lies in online video advertising. the company developed what would be says “RTB spend has continued to increase the research and development people. On Things market, predicted by Gartner to “I think that advertisers still invest heavily » known as Media Maker, which is the central The advertising market has changed as the industry realises the benefits top of this algorithm we’ve been building reach $1.9 trillion by 2020, as a massive in TV advertising because video is the platform used by the company today. Media considerably over the past ten years. The of automated campaigns for reaching a platform that is just a user interface and opportunity. The company competes best way to connect with consumers. On Maker is a video management platform introduction of online advertising caused and engaging with the most relevant if you look at the company, we have more against Atmel and STMicroelectronics. YouTube, 1 trillion videos were uploaded which enables clients to make the most of a seismic shift in the way business could audiences.” developer people than sales people at this in 2012 alone.” ‘over the top’ services. be done for companies looking for the moment.” “We see a massive opportunity to build a maximum exposure and value for money “I believe that on the publishers’ side, they fundamental platform technology,” Mr. As advertising online ramps up in the Despite this early success, the company for their adverts. But for many years the are enjoying one of the best situations to This market, although extremely lucrative, Toon said. “We see a smarter world where coming years, so will spending allocated had to wait until around three years ago advertising industry continued to use old monetize their media because they don’t is also very competitive, and this is the devices will need to be connected with not to online videos. For XStream, one of to really take off, as online video content systems to sell and place adverts online. need sales people any more and it’s just an main challenge that YD World faces as it the major challenges the company faces just one sensor but several.” Only in recent years has the industry algorithm based business on the buy side looks to expand further. “The challenges
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we see are on one side of competition, euros, and flatly refused to pay, so Mr. America presents. Mr. Meak himself is in-house, to varying degrees of success. patented animation platform humanizes as “one of the big five instant messaging because our main competitors are the big Meak offered him an alternative solution. going to the U.S. to ensure the success of But there are huge numbers of consumers instant messaging with imagination that services, such as Facebook, WeChat or six media communication holdings in the “I said you know what, you pay us 50% in the U.S. project. The main things I’m going still switching to online shopping, and still seems to come fresh off the storyboards Viber.” Zoobe will be deeply integrated world, who also have large wallets to do cash, and 50% you pay us in product and to be doing in the United States. One is a large proportion of brands without an of Disney. It’s a natural leap for Krawinkel, with the partner, enabling Zoobe messages investments with. But on the other side our we’ll set up a mono brand online store for helping our existing European clients to online presence. Luckily for Zerogrey, the who has previous experience directing and to be created and sent at a touch of a advantage is they don’t have the knowledge you for free and we’ll sell those products move decently into the US and sell online number of potential clients entering the producing advertising spots for Disney. button, similarly to adding a photo, video or the speed to develop technology online so we can get our money back. He in the US. So my task is to come over and market outweighs those exiting it. or emoticon. “We’ll become a new category themselves,” explains Mr. Senf. said you’ve got a deal, where shall I sign?” compete with the local stores and get a “VCs who look at Zoobe only for an instant for sending premium, instant messages,” slice of that market. Goal number two is to Both Zerogrey and Mr. Meak have come might mistake us for another copycat Krawinkel said. Although the plan would ultimately be contact and sign as clients US companies a long way since being told their contract of Talking Tom, but we are actually a successful, there was still much trepidation and help them to sell internationally. was to be eaten 12 years ago, and the technology,” Krawinkel said. “We enable Krawinkel compares Zoobe’s market to about the deal he had just struck. “My company has found a way to exploit an any character through our backend system Line, the app that provides free calls and Zerogrey business partner didn’t speak to me for the “There are two main things I’m going extremely profitable market space — one that has an SDK of just 2 megabytes. This messaging. That company told him it made next hour,” said Mr. Meak. to be doing in the United States. One is which is only going to get bigger in the means we can integrate into any other app $8 million in July purely from stickers. “A www.zerogrey.com helping our existing European clients to future. For Zerogrey, the main focus now and provide a library of endless characters. year ago, nobody said that stickers could Today, Zerogrey has subsidiaries in the move into the U.S. and sell online. So my must be the U.S. — and succeeding in a We become a marketplace for content be such as successful business,” Krawinkel Guido Meak U.S., Europe and China and provides task is to come over and compete with the region of almost unlimited potential. providers who can access our SDK, using a said. “I look for similar opportunities for it’s e-commerce solutions to clients in a Internet/Online local stores and get a slice of that market,” minimal of on-device storage space.” Zoobe.” number of different sectors, including explained Mr. Meak. “Goal number two is fashion, sports equipment and catering. Aside from the animation, Zoobe features The company plans to soon launch Zoobe Ireland to contact and sign as clients US companies The idea spawned from that meeting, to and help them to sell internationally.” a speech patented technology that enables 2.0, a marketplace for animated characters. provide companies with an online platform more natural lip synching in its characters, It is also working on a karaoke app. “We’re No Zoobe from which they can sell their merchandise According to Zerogrey, most U.S. independent of language, whether the user providing the next level of personalized internationally, has proved to be a hit in the companies use e-commerce platforms www.zoobe.com speaks French, Chinese, or Swahili. expression,” Krawinkel said. lucrative e-commerce market. that are ill suited for use in European and » Zerogrey co-founder Guido Meak was Asian transactions. Some may think this is Based in Berlin, the company produces The company has raised an undisclosed 26 years old when his multi-brand online Lenard Krawinkel E-commerce spending in the U.S. alone due to language barriers, but that is only Zoobe Pets which enable users to send amount of seven figure investment from fashion store hit a brick wall. The wall took will reach approximately $262 billion this part of the problem. Tax laws differ widely animated voice messages, as well as Zoobe a private group of Berlin entrepreneurs. the size and shape of the CEO of the largest Mobile year, according to a report from Forrester across different regions, and this causes a Eve, which features an attractive female Krawinkel looks to raise a Series A of client the young company had. In 2001, Research. That figure represents a 13.4% problem when selling products in different avatar. The apps have had over 50,000 $3 million to $5 million to increase Mr. Meak was at a meeting with one of his Germany increase from last year. Meanwhile, in countries. Companies may also want to installs in the last three months and are partnerships and introduce new licensed business partners to ask why this particular Western Europe, e-commerce spending is change their prices according to which used to create hundreds of thousands of content. client had not paid their invoices. The CEO, No set to jump 14.3% to $114 billion in 2013, territories they are selling in. Zerogrey videos daily. They were recently featured in his 40s, told him that internet companies compared to last year. The report bases seeks to make an impact in the U.S. by in the Google Play store and have received Krawinkel founded the company on July 4, in the past had stolen his money, so he its findings on consumer and executive offering its platform, which supports sales » over 500,000 downloads. Yet the apps 2008, a date inspired by his admiration of wasn’t going to pay. Mr. Meak reminded A producer and director of animated research, public financial documents and across the whole of Europe and even Asia. actually serve as an ambassador, not a the entrepreneur spirit of Silicon Valley’s the client that he had a contract, so he must films, Lenard Krawinkel founded Zoobe web traffic analysis, and shows the trend central product, Krawinkel explained. culture. When asked how big Zoobe can pay. The CEO’s reply was blunt — “I’m to bring cartoon animation to the land of of online spending is heading in only one Another aspect of the company that They serve to show other instant messaging get, he points to the size of the sticker going to eat the contract.” instant messaging. The company produces direction. differentiates it from its competitors is its an app that creates animated avatars for services, brands and content providers the business. “For me, the sticker business is modular offering. A client can pick and possibilities of Zoobe’s rich animations. just the beginning for Zoobe,” Krawinkel For many entrepreneurs this could have mobile messaging. With apps such as “Online retail’s growth will outpace that choose which parts of the e-commerce The technology is the actual sale, not the said. “Look at what 3D effects did for been a huge blow to a young company, Talking Tom and Headcast already vying of physical retail stores,” read the report, platform and services it needs. The company app, Krawinkel maintains. the film industry, or what Pixar did for but Mr. Meak somehow managed to turn for position, the CEO admits his company written by Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester’s doesn’t just offer technology either, it has animation. Zoobe strives for nothing less.” it into an opportunity, from which the serves a crowded marketplace. But vice president and principal analyst for logistics operations and warehouse space it Zoobe soon expects to announce a new e-commerce firm he runs today was born. what Zoobe provides is not just another e-business. “As a result, stores will continue can offer to clients should they need it. messaging app, but a technology. Its speech partnership with what Krawinkel refers to to lose wallet share to web retailers.” The meeting proved to be the inspiration The e-commerce platform market is a very Mr. Meak needed for Zerogrey, a company Zerogrey, headquartered in Dublin, dynamic one. The number of potential which offers an e-commerce platform to Republic of Ireland, operates mainly in customers is decreasing in one respect, and clients, who can effectively outsource their Europe currently, but the firm is looking increasing in another. There is a steady flow online stores to the company. Over 12 years to capitalize on the opportunities North of companies taking these types of services ago, the client in question owed 30,000
112 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 113 Top 100 Companies: Europe Top 100 Companies: Europe
europe Company Age Geographical For more statistics of the Distribution 2013 winners, visit us at www.redherring.com Finland 12% France 12% UK 10% Stats Netherlands 8% Sweden 8% Ireland 7% Israel 7% Revenue + Other 36% Grand Total 100%
Of companies are 9 years or 20Countries younger
Patents
Sector Banking/M&A 1 Funding Big Data/Storage 4 % C 4 Of companies 637Patents Have60 no patents ompanies hold Clean Tech 7 have between 0-2 one third of patents % Cloud Computing 8 % rounds of funding 40 Consumer Electronics 3 85 Of all winners Entertainment & Media 3 are Internet and Software Hardware 2 Employees Internet/Online 21 Of companies are Life Sciences/Biotech 3 not VC funded Marketing/Advertising/SEO 4 % Of companies x 5 = 1000
# Companies 25 have less than Only 1 company has Medical Devices 1 100 employees over 1,000 employees Mobile 5 Other 4 Social Media 3 Average With mean at $1.5M Software 19 Funding $11M 1 1 Telecommunications 10 5 3 Virtualization 1 Of companies Of companies 0 26 $40k have 10-19 have less than 20 1 31 $5.6M employees employees 2 27 $7.2M unding The CEOs 3 9 F $40M ounds 4 3 $20.6M otal
# of R 5 3 $46.6M # Companies
6 1 T vg. $110M A 8 1 $64M Are CEO Are CEO/ Founders Total 100 $2.9M
114 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 115 Feature Story Feature Story DigitalTrends.com Photo Source:
Mobile Internet builds promise in African E-commerce Market
he vast continent of Africa connectivity on the continent. In areas But MTN’s move into e-commerce in presents a significantwhere computers are hard to come by, Africa highlights the risks of betting on the T opportunity for e-commerce consumers increasingly use mobile devices continent’s digital shopping sector. As a retailers, but a lack of infrastructure has to connect to the internet. result of this announcement, ratings agency held back online shopping in the region. Moody’s Investor Service downgraded its Now the use of mobile devices to shop But some countries in Africa saw outlook for MTN from positive to stable, Gartner. Apple looks increasingly isolated online is unlocking some of the potential, connectivity increase over the past few citing the company’s increasing exposure in the smartphone market, mainly due and big players are starting to take notice. years. In Kenya, the number of Internet to more unstable markets. Apple’s China Mobile Deal to the success of the Android operating users reached almost 20 million this year, system. Android holds an operating MTN, the largest cellphone operator in half of the country’s population, according “MTN’s exposure to the risks within the Could provide temporary relief system market share of 81.9%, according Africa, recently announced a partnership to the yStats.com report. E-commerce has political, social, regulatory and economic to Gartner figures. In contrast, iOS takes with Swedish e-commerce company room to grow in the country, as mobile environments in the key countries in a 12.1% share, and this is not the only Millicom International Cellular and which it operates such as South Africa and incubator Rocket Internet. The three firms Nigeria are important drivers for MTN’s pple completed its long anticipated many more iPhones the company will troubling omen for Apple’s smartphone In Kenya, the number will each hold a 33.3 percent stake in ratings,” said Dion Bate, vice president and iPhone distribution deal with sell through China Mobile. Brian White, ambitions. Africa Internet Holding, set up to develop of Internet users senior analyst at Moody’s. China Mobile at the end of last an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, estimates e-commerce businesses across Africa. Ayear. The Cupertino-based tech giant will Apple could sell 20-24 million iPhones to This year there were more apps designed reached almost Millicom and Rocket Internet will attempt Worldwide e-commerce sales topped enjoy a sales windfall from the deal, but China Mobile in 2014. for the Android operating system than iOS to leverage MTN’s reach in the continent 20 million this year, $1 trillion for the first time in 2012 and will the boost help the company recover for the first time. If the content developers and create startups in some of the world’s Emarketer predicts that figure to rise to share in the smartphone market? ”We estimate there are 35 million to 40 prefer Apple’s competitors, there may half of the country’s $1.3 trillion this year. Sales in the Middle million iPhone users on the network at be trouble ahead. Paul Deninger, senior fastest-growing internet markets. East and Africa accounted for just 1.9 Apple hopes the long-awaited agreement China Mobile. As such, Apple not only has managing director at Evercore Partners, population. Business-to-consumer e-commerce sales percent of sales in 2012, which is expected with China Mobile, which boasts 759.3 the opportunity to attract new iPhone users recently said at a Red Herring event that in Africa totalled less than $1.4 billion to grow to 2.1 percent this year, according million users, will help its sales figures in but also to tap into a large base of iPhone if current growth rates hold, Google Play, Internet penetration trumps a lack of fixed last year, but annual growth of around 40 to figures from eMarketer. a country of increasing significance to the users on the China Mobile Network that which hosts Android apps, could generate broadband infrastructure. Only 20 percent percent is forecasted for the next ten years, American behemoth, and the tech world we believe could upgrade in 2014,” White more revenue than the Apple app store by of Kenyans are shopping online, though, according to a report released by yStats. The e-commerce market in Africa holds at large. Apple’s revenues in China stood wrote in a recent note. 2016. reflecting an opportunity for growth in a com. The same research states that South great riches for whichever companies at $25 billion last quarter, a 13% increase country where mobile Internet penetration Africa currently leads in online shopping, make the bold decision to move into from last year. The company relies heavily White also predicted this could result in The deal with China Mobile will vastly is negating the lack of fixed broadband but other countries such as Egypt, the likes of Nigeria and Kenya. Mobile on the iPhone for revenue — the devices an earnings per share increase of $4. Other improve Apple’s revenues and smartphone infrastructure. Morocco, and Nigeria have higher mobile Internet penetration grows every year, and accounted for 53% of total net sales so far analysts expect the deal to add anything market share. But down the line, the shopper penetration and may overtake the The Middle East faces the same structural with it the opportunities in e-commerce. this year, up 3% from last year and 11% between 10 million and 40 million extra dominance of the Android operating country in the future. issues as Africa, and MTN recently Investors may not see immediate payoffs from 2011. iPhone sales. system casts a longer shadow over the performance of the company’s iPhones. announced a similar partnership with from the continent, but in time are sure to More than 10 percent of active Internet reap rewards. Apple’s performance in China is certain to Apple holds a 12.1% share of the smartphone This deal will offer temporary relief for Rocket Internet in that region. MTN users in Africa shopped on mobile during improve dramatically if the deal is signed, market, compared to Samsung’s 32.1%, Apple and its investors, but the long term expects to invest a total of around $400 2013, according to yStats.com, illustrating but analyst predictions vary on just how according to third quarter 2013 data from issues remain. million into the projects in Africa and the the increasing importance of mobile Middle East.
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Significant progress has been made concerning Volvo set out to make driving less boring, and the legality of driving an automated car. In the this may be what ultimately fuels its success. U.S., three states have already passed legislation Rather than chasing an idea born out of science regarding automated vehicles. Nevada’s fiction, it has attempted to address a genuine Governor signed a law recognizing automated problem in a realistic way. The company seeks to cars in June 2011, which required the Nevada put an end to tedious driving conditions such as Department of Motor Vehicles to set safety, city commutes and traffic pile-ups by enabling a performance and testing standards for them. driver to switch on automated driving and turn In July 2012, Florida followed, while California their attention to something more entertaining was the latest state to recognize automated cars, or useful. requiring California DMV to adopt regulations on testing, performance and equipment by Many other car manufacturers are working on January 2015. varying levels of vehicle automation technology. Volkswagen, for example, has been developing Most European countries adhere to the Vienna automation solutions since the early 2000s, and Convention on Road Traffic of 1968, which is now looking to incorporate this technology states that drivers must be in control of the primarily into the Audi brand. vehicle at all times. However, this law can be interpreted in different ways and has sparked A number of ‘moonshot’ projects have gathered much debate. Some say to be in control of a attention over the past few months, such as vehicle you must be accelerating, braking and Amazon’s fleet of delivery drones and Google’s steering at all times, but other say as long as robotics project. But automated driving has there is an option to deactivate and activate an reached a level where it can no longer be automated driving system safely, then the driver classified as an overly ambitious fantasy — just is in control. Volvo has attempted to bypass any ask the people of Gothenburg in a couple years’ legal confusion by partnering with the Swedish time, when the first driver-less cars hit the Transport Agency and the Swedish Transport roads. Administration on the project. Automated Vehicles Stand out from crowd of ‘moonshot’ projects
Lower Left: The self-driving cars have sensors that mazon may have its head in the clouds with its GPS- Volvo has already deployed automated cars on the roads, keep track of cars and the driven drone delivery plans, but a far more realistic according to Erik Coelingh, technical specialist at Volvo surrounding environment. A form of automated driving is gathering momentum Car Group, but the vehicles have not yet been driven The cars will also be on the roads. without the aid of a supervising engineer. The biggest connected to a Volvo cloud hurdle for the project right now is making the automated to get map data and other Volvo, the Swedish automaker, recently unveiled a pilot system dependable enough to be used unsupervised. Before information from a traffic program in which automated cars will take to the roads in the cars hit consumer markets, their operating systems control center. Gothenburg, Sweden. The company aims to put 100 cars and built-in technology must prove reliable, sensitive and Autonomous drive paves the way for more efficient time-management behind the wheel. capable of driving themselves in the hands of customers by secure. Automated cars need extremely sophisticated sensor 2017. systems in order be considered safe. Lower Right: Signing of This marks a big step forward for Volvo’s automated driving “The major challenge is on the sensing side,” Coelingh project Drive Me, from left ambitions. Until now, Google has led the field, clocking up said in a phone interview. “Making sure you can detect to right: Staffan Widlert over 500,000 miles of driving in its autonomous cars. Its everything that can potentially happen on the road in (Swedish Transport technology uses a combination of sensors, algorithms, GPS traffic — that is a really big task. It requires a very advanced Agency), Caroline Ottosson (Swedish Transport coordinates and digital maps to safely navigate public roads. sensing system.” Coelingh gave the example of a piece of Still from the video Google has about two dozen Lexus RX450h vehicles in use, debris falling off another car and into the road suddenly. Administration), Håkan and has yet to report any accidents. However, there is no The automated car would need to quickly acknowledge the Samuelsson (Volvo Car word on when the technology could reach consumers. debris using its sensor systems, and maneuver clear of it Group), Anneli Hulthén without endangering other cars on the road. (City of Gothenburg), Niklas Wahlberg (Lindholmen Autonomous driving by Volvo Car Group. Autonomous driving by Volvo Photo courtesy: Science Park). 118 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 119 Feature Story Feature Story
Nextdoor is looking to perfect what has Nirav Tolia, Nextdoor’s CEO and founder, already been done. It only takes one person has previously worked at Yahoo and co- to sign up a neighborhood to the platform. founded a digital sports almanac called That person then becomes responsible Fanbase, which didn’t take off. But he is for inviting others to the platform. Pilot extremely passionate about Nextdoor. neighborhoods must gather 10 verified “As we have gotten older and purchased users in 21 days or they lapse (though houses and gotten married and had Nextdoor notes it can extend the three- children, we realized the importance of the week deadline). The site authenticates neighborhood in our lives,” he says. “I care users, confirming their addresses by a very deeply that Nextdoor is something credit or debit card, snail mail, phone, or a that my children use, and their children social security card. Once online, members u s e .” get access to forums where they can post news about crime, free stuff they’re trying When the time comes for the platform to unload, local events and more. to make money, the potential lies in local advertising. Tolia gauges the local Mobile plays an integral role in bringing advertising industry at $100 billion. Every new and younger audiences to the platform. day, his platform’s users recommend Currently, 20 percent of user-generated 260,000 service providers. The connection content comes via the company’s iPhone is there to be made. app. Nextdoor sees mobile engagement ramping up as a harbinger for growth The company’s main aim now is to keep across multiple aspects of the business. its head down and grow, following the The company saw that in lower-income likes of Pinterest and Snapchat, which or younger neighborhoods, engagement also secured large amounts of cash pre- spiked when the mobile apps were released. revenue. Nextdoor has reached 25,000 neighborhoods in the United States — one Nextdoor’s Social Platform The company also coordinates with city out of every seven, or roughly 14 percent. governments and agencies in order to The firm is aiming to reach half of the aims to connect U.S. neighborhoods Almost 80 keep users updated on local goings-on, neighborhoods in the U.S. before targeting and members have the capability to deploy the international market, which holds great percent of mass urgent alerts in case of emergency. potential uch of social media depends on The U.S. has around 150,000 neighborhoods increase offline interactions. Almost 80 Nextdoor is currently partnered with 130 M the ego of the user. Facebook in total and Nextdoor has targeted these percent of Americans that engage with Americans city governments but this is not just the “I think there’s the same identification users post pictures and statuses, first, and has no global presence yet. But online neighborhood forums speak to only service it adds to distinguish itself with neighborhood and community in Instagrammers snap shots of breakfast, it’s a tough task facing the company — to neighbors in-person at least once a month, that engage from competitors. Stockholm that there is in Sacramento so and Tweeters write witty quips, hoping for connect and protect neighborhoods in a up from 61 percent of all Americans, this will work, but no doubt the product a Favorite. Nextdoor, the web platform for world where people want less and less to according to the study. with online Features such as neighborhood maps will be tailored, adapted and customized neighbors, asks members to take a wider do with each other. allow users to mark significant locations, for those communities,” Doerr says. The view of the world. A platform to connect neighborhoods neighborhood and a recent map encouraged people to company will approach English-speaking According to a survey by Trulia, Inc., only digitally is not a new idea. Neighborhood mark their house with a small light bulb countries first and head into other Targeting neighborhoods may feel niche, slightly more than half of Americans know forums such as i-Neighbors and Home forums speak if they were intending to decorate their international markets based on demand. and has been tried before with varying their neighbors’ names. A 2000 book by Elephant have been around for a while. homes with lights over the holidays. levels of failure. But the company has well Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, explores Home Elephant was founded in 2011 and to neighbors Subtle differences like this have helped the Tolia says Nextdoor often adds 100+ respected backing and is taking aim at the the idea that civic life, once so rich in the boasts more than 6,600 neighborhoods, company gain significant funding. neighborhoods a day now. At that rate, likes of Facebook and Twitter. U.S., might be fading. according to its website. I-Neighbors in-person at its user base at 23,000 will grow by 3,000 was launched back in 2004. Another Nextdoor is currently pre-revenue, but has neighborhoods a month and 36,000 a year. Kleiner Perkins founder John Doerr Plenty of people will reminisce about the competitor, Tel Aviv-based Meetey, has least once a raised $100 million in VC funding over By this time 2014, Nextdoor could have describes the positioning of the company ‘good old days’ and claim that the sense of started deploying its services in more than the past two years. Nextdoor’s most recent, racked up more than 75 percent of U.S. as “Solomo”, meaning it covers social, neighborhood has been lost, but studies 90 countries. The company, founded 2012, month $60 million injection came from some of neighborhoods as members. If the figures location and mobile. Nextdoor started such as these show that there is a genuine has reportedly racked up 200,000 users the best VCs in the business: Benchmark, hold up, there will be nothing to stop Tolia’s out as a web portal, but has now deployed problem there. But social media has been and connects members to 56 people they Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Tiger goal of revolutionizing the society in which smartphone and tablet applications, shown to bring people together. Research wouldn’t link up with on any other digital Global Management. Having this kind of we live, be connecting the world to the allowing users to contribute content on from independent research organization platform. backing can only provide the company people next door. the move. Pew, states that portals like Nextdoor may with an added sense of respectability.
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Top 100 winners: North America American pioneers are embarking on new territory through technological innovation
merican start ups are still leading the charge and provoking much disruption around the world of innovation. Although breakthroughs are sprouting from most regions at an unprecedented pace, U.S.- based, venture backed companies show an amazing ability to scale Aand disseminate their technology before reaching out to international markets. The Award Winners at Red Herring America 2013 have, by all metrics, beaten all former records.
The time taken to go from 0-20M in trailing revenues has shrunk. The number of companies with Fortune 100 clients at that stage has more than doubled. New concepts in education have become commonplace. A larger number of biotech firms are bringing seminal changes in healthcare for millions of Americans and personalized medicine is no longer a buzz word. We are witnessing not only a leap in execution skills but also an early adoption or acceptance of innovators throughout the economic fabric. In a nutshell, tech has crossed a frontier and the current vintage epitomizes this unstoppable trend, and is featured many times in this issue.
You will read about each of them but we cannot stress enough the limits of the exercise. For every profile, so much more could be said and reported but we focused on the core aspects of their achievements. It goes without saying that the Red Herring America Top 100 does not include candidates which did not complete the selection process, but whose journeys will continue to capture our collective attention. Nevertheless, our writers intend to give you an opportunity to read about some exceptional entrepreneurs who are backed by an increasingly successful venture community.
Over the years, our readers have used this magazine to get acquainted with tomorrow’s innovators. They have kept this issue next to them for weeks, discovering the companies one at a time. I hope that you will use these next pages as a springboard for further exploration. Have a nice read.
122 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 123 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America North 2013:
America: AccuVein AccuVein’s device resulted in $1,600 and equipment to office-based physicians A-Z savings per month and more than $19,000 and long-term healthcare providers. www.accuvein.com annual savings. In addition, the probability AccuVein Kony Solutions of infection increases when the procedure “When asked about time spent at a hospital, Ace Metrix Labcyte Ron Goldman is done over and over again, meaning patients frequently comment on two TOP Actifio LeadBolt technology such as this can lower that risk. things: first, the lousy food, and, second, Adaptive Computing Linkable Networks Medical Devices the pain, anxiety and treatment delay Adly Inc Manta “We were able to build a device that was caused by problems starting an IV,” says Agiliance mBlox New York 10 ounces versus the 150-pound machines Eric Bednarski from MVM Life Science AgilOne Medsphere System that showed your veins beforehand,” says Partners, a firm that invested $9 million in Airbiquity Metamarkets Yes Goldman. The price difference was also AccuVein’s Series B round. “Doctors and AirWatch Mu Sigma significant: $500,000 for the machine nurses recognize the value of AccuVein’s Alteryx MuleSoft versus $5,000 for AccuVein’s device, which product and the importance of starting IVs Asigra Myriant Corporation » A lot of people hate needles, and for doesn’t require training, unlike the vein smoothly as failures result in unnecessary AtHoc Narrative Science some, a simple blood test can turn into a machines. escalation of hospital resources and cost, Autonomic Technologies Neuronetics nightmare if the nurse can’t find a vein. inefficiency in health care delivery and Avalara Nextiva Now, new technology can make veins more The target market for the Accuvein devices adverse patient care,” he adds. Awarepoint Corporation NuoDB visible than ever. are hospitals, long-term care facilities Azumio Nutanix (such as nursing homes), ambulances, AccuVein’s intellectual property portfolio Technology BizSlate OncoMed Pharmaceuticals AccuVein, a New York-based company, emergency medical services, blood labs includes over a dozen patents covering Bloomfire OnForce developed a vein illumination device that and blood donation centers. “The market a broad range of imaging and medical Braintree OptiMedica Companies allows healthcare professionals to see a map is huge because blood is drawn throughout diagnostic technologies. The company Brand.com Paymetric of peripheral veins on the skin’s surface. the whole medical system,” says Goldman. is not profitable yet, but Goldman hopes Bright Computing Pentaho Corporation The technology helps to guide the most Most sales today come from the hospitals, to break even by 2014. “The company’s Caring.com Perfect Market commonly-performed invasive medical but the company hopes to target other strong growth is being fueled by deeper Causata Pertino procedure, venipuncture, as well as other segments in coming years, such as the penetration of existing clients, new product Celladon Corporation Quantenna vascular access procedures. “It’s so rare that cosmetic procedures market. launch, and greater expansion into the vast Centric Software Qwilt you have a technology that you don’t need market opportunity improved by vein ClearPath Networks Resilient Network Systems to explain, you just show it to a technician AccuVein’s devices are in use in more than illumination,” adds Bednarski. Continuuity RetailNext and they understand the difference that it 2,000 hospitals and available for sale in Couchbase Revinate 100 countries. The company distributes its From the patient’s point of view, less pain Course Hero ShopKeep POS makes,” says Ron Goldman, AccuVein’s CEO. device in Asia, Latin America and Europe. and more comfort makes a significant Crescendo Bioscience SimpliVity “We found good distribution partners in difference. “I was in Boston Children’s Cvent Skybox Imaging AccuVein’s solution can be particularly those areas,” Goldman says. Hospital and noticed that the doctors put CytomX Therapeutics SmartDrive Systems useful for obese patients with relatively the IV into the child’s better arm. With our Drillinginfo SnagFilms dark skin or for newborn babies. The In July 2007, private investors from the device they could put it in the diminished Elance Snapfinger Memphis Tennessee area invested more arm, so the children were able to use the Evolven Spring Mobile Solutions technology saves time that can be crucial especially in the emergency room. “When than $10 million in Accuvein. Products other arm for other functions,” Goldman Fiksu SS8 were first sold in 2009. In 2010, the company concludes. Finovera Taykey you use conventional techniques you often miss the veins, and once a first nurse raised a $22.5 million Series B round from Full Circle CRM Tealium Bessemer Venture Partners and MVM Life Gainsight Teladoc misses twice the hospital is required to get another nurse for the procedure,” Goldman Science Partners LLP, both of which invest GainSpan Corporation TouchCommerce in healthcare-related companies. The Gen-E UniversityNow explains. “We avoid the escalation process within the hospital.” company doesn’t plan to raise more capital, Glassdoor Vantrix Corporation but to focus on acquiring more distribution Grammarly Venafi partners. Most recently, it has teamed up hc1.com Veracode, A study conducted by the company in 2009-2010 in a hospital with an annual with PSS World Medical Inc., a leading Infinite Convergence WaveTec Vision Systems national distributor of medical supplies Influitive YapStone volume of 4,500 patients showed using Intacct Zend Technologies Invuity ZestFinance Jasper Design Zetta.net Jumio Zettics Kargo Zscaler
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Ace Metrix you look at the ROI, the actual success of customers include Dr. Pepper, Snapple, Actifio “I can’t comment about the specific “Our initial investment thesis was that Ash a campaign can really be attributed to the Ford, and Taco Bell. potential size of our company, but the is going after a large and important market www.acemetrix.com quality of the creative. There’s tremendous www.actifio.com market opportunity is huge,” Ashutosh with innovative and disruptive technology leverage to get that right. Nobody has “Ace Metrix has given us more than just says. The International Data Corporation . Given Ash’s track record before Actifio Peter Daboll been able to provide this level of color in a score for our ad, but a barometer by Ash Ashutosh (IDC) sized the segment of copy data we also assumed he will be able to attract advertising.” which we can see how our campaigns are storage at $48 billion by 2016. Moreover, around him a world-class team,” says Erez Marketing/Advertising/SEO doing against competitor’s messaging and Big Data/Storage IDC finds that copy data consumes 60 Ofer, partner at Greylock Israel, who also One amusing Jell-O ad featured parents different segments within the consumer percent of disk capacity, drives 65 percent serves on the company’s board of directors. California terrifying their children to keep them market,” said David Marine, Director of Massachusetts of storage software spending and accounts Greylock invested in Actifio since its A from stealing their Jell-O desserts. After Client Engagement with Coldwell Banker, for 85 percent of hardware spending. round in 2010. Yes the ad was released, more than 300,000 an Ace Metrix customer. “Everything in Yes Today, organizations are already spending people signed a Facebook page to boycott advertising today has to be measurable $44 billion on storage and software to Actifio competes with many companies Jell-O, and the company panicked . Within but for a while how effective your creative manage copy data according to IDC’s including EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, » Over a phone conversation, Ace Metrix 24 hours of the ad’s release, Ace Metrix truly is wasn’t instantly available in a » Today, data storage ranks highly on research — and that number is expected to Symantec and Commvault. According to CEO Peter Daboll was discussing with was able to provide quantitative data that quantifiable format.” enterprises’ list of concerns. Historically, grow by the end of the year. Ashutosh, “Actifio consolidates many of Microsoft how its latest Surface ads proved the ad was actually one of Jell-O’s as data gets stored, files get backed these competitive tools that are the root performed. The company said they already best performing ever. Kraft stuck to the ad Difficult to duplicate, the company’s IP up over and over again. This process Actifio sells Copy Data Storage solutions cause of the cost, complexity and confusion tested the ads and compared them against campaign, which proved to be one of its includes its scoring algorithm, a proprietary creates multiple copies of the same data. through its partners across 19 countries, via in the data center today.” advertising for other Microsoft products. most successful. fingerprinting system that identifies each Massachusetts-based Actifio tries to keep SaaS model or as an on-premise solution. Daboll responded: “Wouldn’t you like ad, unique software and apps as well up with the data storage needs of our time, “We have more than 300 systems deployed According to Ofer, competitors like to see how the new Surface ads compare “They had three hours to make a decision, as the panel calibration methods that as datacenters turn into virtualized and in North America, Israel, Germany, UK, EMC and HDS validate Actifio’s model against advertising for the iPad?” The and we were the only ones who could help provide consistent scoring across brands. Cloud architectures. Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand,” by introducing products and bundles company was speechless. them,” Daboll said. “There are a lot of It has invested significant resources in Ashutosh says. Some of Actifio’s clients to compete with the company. Actifio, loud mouth opinions in social media that establishing the ability to collect the include HBO, Time Warner/Navisite and however, has a solution that is radically As it turns out, those Microsoft’s Surface don’t necessarily represent your base. We elements that determine an ad’s success. Its In 2009, Actifio’s founder Ash Ashutosh Dassault Systémes. more simple and cost-effective than what ads actually did perform better than iPad provide the necessary speed and clarity to meta data on normative comparisons on observed how little storage technology incumbents are able to patch together advertising, scoring a 674 on Ace Metrix’s know how good the creative is and which over 30,000 ads also present a significant had evolved to meet new business Even though it is not profitable yet, Actifio from their existing product sets. ad scoring system, compared to Apple’s 489, parts really work with what audience.” barrier against competitors. requirements. Having spent 25 years in claims to have grown 700 percent in 2012, slightly below the industry average of 542. the business, most recently as the Chief with reported bookings of $17 million, Like any young company in an accelerated Plus, the company can provide near real- Founded in late 2009 and based in Technologist at HP storage, and before that and 11 consecutive quarters of triple digit growth phase, Actifio’s main challenge and Ace Metrix can measure the creative time analytics for TV advertising in an Mountain View, Calif., the company has as the founder of AppIQ, Ashutosh found growth. opportunity is to grow the company in a appeal of an ad against nearly every ad industry that has been based on estimated raised $22 million from WPP, Hummer that over two-thirds of storage capacity scalable fashion while maintaining the on the market in as little as 24 hours. The guesses for decades. “This is absolutely Winblad Venture Partners, Leapfrog was being used to store copies of data, The company raised a total of $107.5 culture and focusing on hiring the best company monitors about 200 advertising disruptive in TV advertising because they Ventures, and Palomar Ventures. rather than production originals. There million over 4 rounds of funding, with folks. As the data storage market grows networks and has the technology to grab don’t typically think in real-time,” Daboll were copies for data protection, business the last round being the largest one at $50 furthermore, its revenue potential is the actual ad from the digital content. It said. “Our platform tells broadcast TV Expecting to be cash positive by the end continuity, disaster recovery, analysis, million. Different investors have led every expected to grow with it. then fingerprints the ad to see if it is new, advertisers the creative score as part of of the year, Daboll foresees the company archiving and more. Organizations round, and among them were Greylock, places it in its advertising cloud, and then the optimization process. Yeah, you can earning $50 million revenues in the had reached the point where they were North Bridge, Advanced Technology has the ad reviewed by 500 viewers carefully optimize on cost and eyeballs, but you next three to five years. “With some spending more to manage copies than they Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and chosen for geography and demographics. need the creative to be key in the mix so diversification of products, we are well were to manage their actual “stuff.” Technology Crossover Ventures, which Every ad is scored according to the same the ad environment can work well for on a path to be a $100 million company,” led the most recent round. “We’re not nine questions and given a rating that can everybody.” Daboll said. “This is a space that is really Ashutosh got started Actifio Copy Data seeking additional funds at this time,” be compared against other advertising, ripe for innovation.” Storage (CDS) as its industry shifted to Ashutosh says. The company intends to including the competition. Ace Metrix Doubling annually, the company serves virtualization, storage commoditization, use the investment to scale and grow its surveys about 5,400 ads a week, 11 percent over 50 advertisers that include some of and from tape to the emergence of various community of 200 “Actifians.” of which are new that are then tested and the top brands in the world, including storage media including Solid State Drives put into the company’s database. Facebook and Google. For its new video (SSD’s). The moves opened up a place unit, Facebook will soon be requiring all for Actifio and a new approach to data “To understand the creative complexity advertisers to first test their creative with management. of the marketplace, this is a perfect tool,” Ace Metrix. “Both Facebook and Google Daboll said. “Only about 10 percent of the are really behind this because they want cost of developing an ad is actually spent a superb user experience by being able to on producing a commercial, yet when offer great content,” Daboll said. Other
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and Facebook to drive celebrity-and- The company is privately-backed by digital as well as its proprietary software that Adaptive Computing influencer-sponsored awareness formedia and retail consumer investors, such determines which risk affects a business’s brands and partners. “I think there is no as Greycroft, GRP Partners and Siemer core operations. www.adaptivecomputing.com 22 pending. Its technology identifies which allowed the company to grow, and began better group to reach individuals from an Ventures. workloads need to work together, whether implementing the cloud services as early organic conversation point of view than a “Agiliance works like a Whac-A-Mole. The Robert Clyde or not data can be moved, and which as 2004. Clyde only recently joined the celebrity, because they can reach the most “The sector of social media will reach close critical risk Whac-A-Moles that come up on applications are limited by licensing to company after it surpassed $10 million in people, while consumers have emotional to [$15 billion to $20 billion] soon, and the our screen are only a small quadrant of the Software certain servers. It looks at both regulatory sales. attachment to them,” says Walter Delph, people that work with the largest publishers whole landscape,” Fantuzzi said. “We have and business needs, environmental would gain a significant share of the disruptive patents that give us ability to Utah “This is core technology,” Clyde said. Adly’s CEO for the past 1.5 years. “A considerations, and a number of other market,” Delph says. Celebrities are among correlate the exact threats to vulnerabilities “Gartner pointed out that policy based consumer can now directly connect to a regulatory limits to the data. Savings are these publishers, and their share of the leave an asset open to attack, with controls Yes optimization is key. Without it, you don’t celebrity, follow where the celebrity is going well realized by large customers, Adaptive market, according to Delph, is significant. that close off attacks, all correlated in real- get a real return, and it ends up costing and what they are doing. Those things can’t Computing tends to have the biggest. Adly’s average reach is 1.5 million people t i m e .” you more money. We are still in the early be replicated through TV or billboard ads.” » Adaptive Computing empowers high In addition to the Oakridge National per celebrity. “We have the same reach as a stages, but we are starting to be recognized performance computers to reach 100 Laboratory, other customers include Unlike traditional ads, digital advertising mid-sized cable network,” he says. The Department of Defense, for example, as a key element in the process.” percent utilization rates. The Oakridge Yahoo, Yale and the FDA. allows better understanding of the target once created 180,000 vulnerabilities in a National Labs Computing Center, the audience and potential customer. Adly “The sector is very new so there are no tracking system based on vulnerability “Packing the data is easy. The trick is It raised $24 million in 2010 from Intel largest in the world, is a $100 million analyzes the needs of specific brands specific companies that we are losing scans that its team would meticulously knowing where to fit it dynamically in real Capital, Epic Ventures, and Tudor Growth system. With traditional systems, it would and works with these brands to address business to,” Delph explains. However, review for weeks. Agiliance’s system time, or the system will thrash a lot,” Clyde Equity. cost over $200 million with only a 40 specific customer groups. Then, the brand providing proof that social media automatically identified the most critical said. “You need to be able to look into past percent capacity. Adaptive Computing’s managers connects celebrities with specific advertising actually works proves a greater risks, narrowing down the massive amount and the future and figure out where to put “Honestly, these guys own an incredibly intelligent workload automation enabled campaigns. The company has over 2,000 challenge than competition. “Anybody can of vulnerabilities the government would things.” valuable IP portfolio with 33 patents. the computer giant to operate at 100 In essence, Adaptive Computing is celebrities in its network. Some come to get a celebrity to tweet but finding the right have to assess manually. “Typically, only percent capacity, saving over $100 million target audience is something that very few 5 to 10 percent of all vulnerabilities are Based in Utah, the company serves the inventor of this type of workload the company included in partnerships with a year. companies do,” he says. critical,” Fantuzzi explained. “You’re not over 300 customers, each a household management and Cloud Computing,” said talent agencies. The celebrities get advice fixing everything. Businesses just need to name. Its customers include financial Chris Stone, Managing Director EPIC from Adly about what is occurring at the TH1, the world’s fastest computer address criticality. Our predictive system institutions, the oil and gas industry, Venture Funds. “Adaptive Computing brand level and what new categories they from 2010 to 2011, ran 2.566 petaflops, works to identify and prevent risks before research organizations and governments. sells two product lines based on the Moab can get involved in. consuming over four megawatts of power, they occur.” Its customers drive seismic research for oil technology: Moab Cloud Suite and Moab which cost about $3.5 million annually Adly has worked with various large Agiliance and gas and studies to cure cancer. “One of HPC Suite. They solve different, but in power. Yet it, like most in the high enterprises, including Coca Cola, L’Oréal, Growing about 65 percent annually, reasons I love working for Adaptive com, related, problems within Cloud and HPC www.agiliance.com performing computing space, operated at Disney, Canon and more. Based in Los Agiliance serves about 100 large name we help solve some of the world’s most environments. Without either of these only a 40 percent utilization rate. Angeles and New York, the company companies, ranging from financial services important problems, as oppose to getting products, data centers are wasting millions Joe Fantuzzi employs 11 people. In May, Adly joined a to commercial enterprises to government people to click on more ads,” Clyde said. of dollars.” “The math provides tremendous savings,” campaign with State Farm insurance that sectors. Customers are at high risk with “It’s tremendously rewarding.” Growing Security said Rob Clyde, CEO of Adaptive starred the NBA’s Chris Paul, and tweeted vulnerabilities that could take down a far faster than the $ 1 billion cloud market, Computing. Most companies operate from his account. “We targeted over 30 government or institution. Its clients the company doubled its licenses last year. California at an 8.5 utilization capacity. Adaptive million people, specifically men ages 13 include the HHS, NASA, Fiserv, Safeway, Its customers are global. In addition to the Computing can drive that up to 25, 35 or Adly to 45 located mostly on the coast, with Exelon, Cisco and a number of unnamed US, the company has sales offices in the Yes 45 percent. California being the number one market,” intelligence agencies. UK, Germany, Russia and Singapore. It www.adly.com Delph says. Achieving over 50 to 200 percent additional competes against VMTurbo. “ESG believes that commercial products » Security is the haystack, and risk is the efficiency, the company provides workload Walter Delph for IRM are now available as an alternative Adly charges the brand according to how needle. Agiliance streamlines its clients’ management to some of the world’s largest The company was originally founded to traditional consulting-based customized deeply they are engaged with that celebrity. security efforts to target only those security computer installations. It provides the in 2000 by David Jackson, who later Social Media solutions,” said Jon Oltsik, a Senior A campaign that involves pictures and holes that most open up a company to ability to do self-service through a service brought in his brother Michael Jackson Principal Analyst for ESG. “Agiliance videos would cost more than a couple risk, effectively separating “risks to the catalog in an automatically provisioned to handle business logistics. Both started California provides a turn-key platform for customers of Facebook statuses, for example. The commerce server from risks to the coffee system. But its core strength is it does in the business with four guys in a trailer. to integrate and consolidate their tools and company doesn’t disclose details on its server,” as the company’s CEO Joe Fantuzzi all in an optimized fashion. It consolidates A thought leader well known in the Yes processes, while moving closer toward the revenues, but it is still unprofitable. But puts it. Providing continuous monitoring workloads to deliver extreme efficiency computing space as a founding member goal of integrated governance and security things are busy at Adly, which bodes well on all its assets, Agiliance only interrupts a that has deep impacts to a company’s of the Global Grid Forum and a member risk management.” for business. “August was moderate until business in the case of critical security risk bottom line. of the Department of Energy’s Scalable » Founded 5 years ago, Adly uses cross- the craziness of back-to-school time, and that requires a company’s direct action, System Software Initiative, David Jackson platform social marketing tools and Such traction earns the company revenues until Christmas it’s going to be the craziest using over 50 various feeds to provide The company has 27 patents issued, with brought in substantial clients that integrates within Twitter, YouTube between $15 million and $25 million. time,” he says. user, event, threat and vulnerability inputs
128 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 129 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Fantuzzi estimates the company could be AgilOne increase in email revenue year over sits on AgilOne’s board. “With AgilOne, multi-transport connectivity (GPRS, SMS, 1 automotive supplier categories, including earning $50 million in three years, and year after choosing AgilOne’s systems. companies can deploy an enterprise- voice, digital over voice) to bring services Sprint (U.S.), Vodafone (Western Europe), over $100 million in five years. About 15 to www.agilone.com Lumens used AgilOne to reduce its email caliber analytics system at a low cost and content into an entire ecosystem, Telenor (Eastern Europe) and China 17 percent of its business is international, unsubscribe rate by 50 percent. and then rely on the system to generate essentially delivering software and web Unicom (China), Bosch, Continental, primarily Europe with a small footprint in Omer Artun recommendations and campaigns that will services to vehicles and other devices. Panasonic, LGE, Delphi, Hitachi, DENSO, Australia, Singapore and the Middle East. With a $2 billion market opportunity, immediately improve their relationships Automakers simply cannot keep up with and Clarion. Cloud Computing growing at 100 percent annually or with customers and grow profit margins. the app development and hardware/ Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Agiliance was doubling every year, AgilOne serves 60 Every customer I speak to is blown away software integration requirements, so Airbiquity plans to launch soon a global founded in 2006 by Pravin Kothari, the co- California to 70 customers and about 100 different by the impact AgilOne made on their Airbiquity provides a platform with user deployment based on its hardware and founder or ArcSight which sold to HP for brands. Clients include Bosch, ideeli, business.” portals and integrated apps to simplify software integration expertise with a top $1.5 billion. Kothari believed early on that Yes Moosejaw, PetCareRx, and Shazam. Most management and access. It enables tier OEM that will cover 50 countries in the security industry would move from of its focus is the US, though 25 percent Artun strives to reach $60 million to $80 Google search, Facebook, Pandora, speech over 30 languages. compliance to risk identification, and built of its base is in Europe. It is working on million in revenue in the next four years. recognition services, safety, security and the Agiliance RiskVision platform in about » AgilOne strives to deliver predictive expanding into China. In terms of revenue, diagnostic software to be implemented in a But vehicle connectivity is only one vertical a year and half, launching to customers in marketing analytics to the masses. the company earns more than $5 million “Most business users still don’t know how car with significantly less effort on the part of several the company can address. The late 2007 with ill-fated timing. Though mid Whereas marketing service providers but less than $20 million. to understand their own data,” Artun said. of the manufacturer. company soon plans to partner with mobile 2008 through 2009 proved to be bad times like Adobe and IBM typically serve large “It is still being managed by IT people, operators and providers in other m2m in the face of the economic downturn, companies with multi-million dollar The company has had zero attrition. “Our not business people. This technology play Rather than expensive recalls, updates can application areas such as medical devices, Fantuzzi joined the company in 2010 and marketing budgets, AgilOne provides customers really value our services,” Artun is the solution to understanding data in a be made literally with the turn of a key, home automation services, and utility helped it to articulate and scale in a better marketing intelligence in the range of said. meaningful way.” automatically downloaded at the start of an services. Jumpa expects partnerships to be market climate. The company has been on $100,000 annual subscriptions. It provides engine. formed in 2014, with products and services Artun, who founded the company, holds a growth trajectory ever since. clients data driven strategies on when hitting the market in 2015 or 2016. a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience to send emails, when to make offers to Yet unlike Hughes Telematics, which and Physics from Brown University, but In an effort to identify new opportunities The company has raised over $20 million a customer about to churn, and how to is limited to Verizon as a result of their has a deep history in marketing analytics. Airbiquity in the connected vehicle services and in funding, a moderate amount for a big market to customers based on personal acquisition, Airbiquity can work with He spent three years as a consultant with broader machine-to-machine marketplace, data company. Investors include Castile demographics. www.airbiquity.com anybody. The company’s technology Ventures, Walden International, Intel McKinsey & Company, consulting high- is present in 50 global markets in 32 the company recently hired Yusuf tech and retail companies on strategy Nahmiyas as Executive Vice President of Capital, and Red Rock Ventures. Fantuzzi “We open up predictive campaign Kamyar Moinzadeh languages, and has spent millions to is in discussions to raise growth equity to management capabilities to the masses,” development, before serving as VP of integrate regulatory and privacy issues in Corporate Development. He will oversee expand distribution globally and to make said Omer Artun, CEO of AgilOne. “We Strategic Marketing at CDW/Micro Software each market into its platform, enabling strategy as well as play a joint leadership adjacent acquisitions. built our system from the ground up to be Warehouse. He then worked as Sr. Director auto manufacturers to customize by role in Airbiquity’s business development scalable and easy to use in an SaaS model of B2B Marketing at Best Buy at its newly Washington market while adhering to mandated initiatives. Nahmiyas previously led a Fantuzzi recently got a call from a that addresses the mid-market rather than founded Best Buy For Business division. policies. “Going global has really been a big 17-year investment banking career with Malaysian system integrator, a good sign just the Fortune 1000 companies.” “I got calls from Apple, IBM, to do similar Yes differentiator for us,” Jumpa said. “It has JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and UBS Agiliance is solving a global problem. This marketing for them, and realized a lot of been a priority since the beginning.” specializing in the technology, media and is only the beginning, Fantuzzi explained. AgilOne also simplifies clients’ data marketers facing these data challenges,” telecom (TMT) verticals, and was co-head through data cleansing, data matching, Artun said. “I realized I could build a » Airbiquity’s Chief Revenue Officer David Airbiquity is the only company that has of TMT M&A at UBS. “We have the ability to penetrate the same and data deduping. It can quickly correct business against it.” Jumpa likes to point to Verizon’s $612 developed an end to end system that allows sectors in Europe, Asia, and the Middle Founded in 1998, Airbiquity began and standardize names, addresses and million purchase of Hughes Telematics an auto manufacturer create, deploy and East to be able to realize quite a bit of He founded AgilOne in 2006. The offering car manufacturers a unique phone numbers. It clusters various client Inc., a provider of wireless-enabled services manage automotive telematics solutions growth,” Fantuzzi said. “We’ll likely need company landed its first customer in 2008 technology to send data over the existing data points in order to target behavior to cars, as a sign that the automotive sector in this way. It monetizes through licensing to do it through partners, because they and seriously started marketing its services digital voice channel when analog lines and interests. “The more you know about offers “the largest market opportunity for revenue from its IP patent portfolio, as have the knowledge of the customer while in 2010. prevented data transmission. It relaunched your customers, the more you can predict any wireless carrier.” Being able to connect well as subscription rates of the Choreo we provide the technology that makes risk its R&D efforts in 2006 to develop a cloud about customer behavior in order to specified carriers to a vehicle system can platform. Customers include Ford, Toyota, management streamlined and affordable.” Based in Mountain View, Calif., the based service delivery platform that market proactively,” Artun said. “Often, be a luring customer incentive to switch BMW, GM OnStar, Renault, Nissan (Leaf, company has raised $16 million from allowed car manufacturers to more easily these analytics get stuck in a PowerPoint to providers compatible with that vehicle. Altima and Juke models) and Shell Fleet The company competes against Microsoft Sequoia Capital and the Mayfield Fund. deliver vehicle services at the make and and don’t see the light of day. We make it With an average of three mobile phones Management. It also serves other customers IT Solutions and EMC RSA. Artun is contemplating an IPO in the model level, and transitioned from a core operational, available in real time at any per family, the math quickly adds up, and partners in the wireless carrier and tier future. touch point of the customer, so our clients Jumpa contends. can start communicating with these people “In five years, CMOs will be spending Airbiquity is the company behind Choreo, immediately.” more on IT than CIOs, but they don’t a cloud-based machine to machine (m2m) have the tools they need to make sense of One unnamed $100 million general service delivery platform that enables all the data they’re collecting,” said Bryan sporting goods company saw a 125 percent Schreier, a partner at Sequoia Capital who
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component company to a service delivery AirWatch and has the flexibility of being deployed more acquisitions and grow globally. analysts must circumvent the potholes Alteryx currently serves over 300 enterprise company in 2007. Today, the company has in the cloud or on-premise. This helps Indeed, AirWatch recently acquired the of multiple data platforms like Hadoop, customers and approximately 25,000 users, over 600 patents which decorate its Seattle- www.air-watch.com companies reduce costs and strengthen management platform for Motorola at various relational databases, flat files, or growing significantly at 40 to 50 percent based corporate offices as wallpaper. customer relationships, while mitigating the end of Q2 2013. “We only gave up 15 social media streams. The challenge is per year. Its clients include retailers, John Marshall security risks through data loss prevention. percent of the business, and now with the how to streamline this data into a single telecommunications companies, consumer Airbiquity has raised over $75 million In addition, AirWatch’s support network extra funding we are ready to push ahead interface so data analysts are not weaving package goods companies, pretty much from Acorn Ventures, Ignition Partners, Mobile integrates with complementary players globally,” Marshall says. all over the road. anyone driving customer analytics. It has a Kirnaf Ltd, and Shell Internet Ventures. in the mobile ecosystem, including 96 percent renewal retention rate. Georgia leaders in network access control, unified The company grew its employee base from Alteryx specializes in blending data from “Because Airbiquity’s patented aqLink™ communication, WLAN, certificate- 100 people to 300 people in 2006 as it a variety of sources onto a single central It’s Alteryx’s steadily growing client roster technology moves critical data across all Yes based authentication and public key entered European markets that same year. platform. It centralizes data from Hadoop, that cements its place in the market, global wireless networks, location based infrastructure, directory services, business “When we go into a market we want to flat files, social media streams, relational contends Jai Das, Managing Director of services and products can be developed intelligence and telecom management. be the market leader,” Marshall explains, data bases and other formats. In real time, SAP Ventures, an investor in the company. and brought to customers and consumers » As more businesses move from “We decided to scale much faster than our it can launch predictive analytics against alike, quickly and with more flexibility,” computer-based data systems to their own “AirWatch allows us to set security policies competition, especially since we were not the centralized data. Its software suggests “The biggest advantage for Alteryx is that said Petra Koselka, vice president of Shell mobile devices, a comfortable and secure on our group of mobile users and more the first ones in most of those new markets.” strategies for proactive decision making they have a set of very happy high-profile Internet Ventures. mobile management system becomes importantly allows us to remote-wipe With its 1,300 employees today, the from a variety of streams of complicated customers. All these customers have given crucial for a company’s operations, and a phone or tablet if lost or stolen,” says Atlanta-based company faces competition data, no call to the IT department required. Alteryx scale in revenues and number of In addition to Verizon’s Hughes the Mobile Device Management (MDM) Darin M. Adcock, CIO at Dowling Aaron from players such as SAP in Germany and customers that no new start-up can match,” Telematics, Airbiquity competes against market becomes more competitive. law firm in Central Valley, which uses Blackberry around the globe. “We provide a very seamless workflow for Das said. “The technology that Alteryx has Wireless Car, but neither share Airbiquity’s AirWatch is a growing enterprise-grade AirWatch as their provider of Mobile data analysts to be able to blend, model and developed gives them an unfair advantage breadth of services or experience with company for MDM, Mobile Application Device Management (MDM) software. According to Marshall, AirWatch’s local publish without an intensive programmer against the larger incumbents. Just like tier 1 hardware, according to Jumpa. “It Management and Mobile Content Some of the security policies include presence and support services are its main required to be able to do their work,” Tableau has enabled the knowledge worker is instrumental that we are working with Management solutions that attempts to prompts to enter passwords, automatic benefits compared to other companies said George Mathew, President and Chief to visualize data easily, Alteryx is enabling the largest part of the supply chain,” Jumpa become one of the main global players in wipe after 10 failed password attempts, and in the industry. AirWatch has clients in Operating Officer for Alteryx. “Our focus knowledge workers to easily analyze all the said. this market over the next few years. a screen lock after 5 minutes. “We have had 150 countries and supports more than is on the data analyst and her ability to be data that they have but can’t use since they attorneys’ phones lost and stolen, so the 18 languages. Apart from its Atlanta productive as an individual.” don’t have a Ph.D. in Statistics.” Thanks to high double digit revenue John Marshall and Alan Dabbiere founded ability to remotely wipe the phone back to headquarters, it has active offices in growth, the company will achieve net the company in 2003. They are both former factory specs is important,” he adds. Bangalore, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Milton Alteryx’s differentiation is its ability Nearly 91 percent of Alteryx’s base is in the positive cash flow in 2013. Jumpa strives employees of Manhattan Associates, a Keynes (U.K.), Singapore and Washington, to empower a single data analyst to US and Canada, but many of its customers to see Airbiquity become the standard for supply chain solutions provider. The “One surprising benefit was the decrease D.C. accomplish the analytics of large teams use its solutions on a global basis. m2m connectivity, in not only vehicles, but company first helped organizations in need for corporate laptops since users through a DIY spirit. Its secret sauce is its McDonald’s entire growth strategy for medical devices, homes, and any device manage heavy duty devices (unlike today’s (attorneys) are becoming more productive In a competitive market for mobile lightning fast analytics engine, packaged China is based on data Alteryx quantifies. that could benefit with a connection to smartphones) found throughout the on their personally-owned mobile devices,” management services, AirWatch has to with a world class user experience that The company has also seen tremendous the internet and services delivery. He supply chain. “In 2003 mobile wasn’t as Adcock says. Dowling Aaron firm won a fight hard, but its growth rates bode well essentially turns data analytics into a real interest from the UK, and seeks another envisions Airbiquity earning $300 million developed, but the management market Nucleus Research ROI award showing a for the future. force for better decision making. funding round for its UK expansion by to $400 million over the next several years. was maturing quickly. As I met with the return of 442 percent they earned using early next year. So far, it has raised $18 Walmart uses Alteryx’s solution to analyze Apple team and as I saw that they were AirWatch’s MDM solution. million from SAP Ventures and Toba “Some of largest fortune 500 companies profit and social media data by its global shifting to smartphones, that was the pivot Capital. and the largest service integrators are analytics team. The company was able to point of the company- we saw the industry Even though the software is sold on a entering this market,” Jumpa said. “They Alteryx recognize that it was actually Feb. 13, not And the potential for growth is huge. ahead of time and from there we’ve never traditional license, about 80 percent of recognized it is big enough to be a Feb. 14, that had the best Valentine’s Day Mathew compares the well-over $10 looked back,” says Marshall, today the AirWatch’s more than 7,000 clients prefer www.alteryx.com controlling point for other machine to sales, and that date could vary depending billion market for business intelligence CEO of AirWatch. to use it on a cloud basis, paying a monthly machine markets. We are going to have so on which day of the week it fell on the analytics to the CRM market before fee. Today, the company has at least one Dean Stoecker many tier 1 providers using our API that By 2006, when smartphones and tablets data center on each continent. calendar. Retailers are able to use Alteryx’s Salesforce turned it upside down. “CRM it allows us to expand partners across the entered businesses, access to corporate Software approach to data to be able to judge the was an active and significant market back b o ard .” information on mobile devices became The company does not disclose any effect of weather patterns on sales and how in early 2000s. Salesforce came in and financial information, but “see[s] an IPO California that can vary according to region. Nine disrupted both the high end and low end crucial. AirWatch changed its focus to manage the security, email, applications down the road,” Marshall says. In February out of 10 of the top telecommunications of the market very significantly,” Mathew and mobile content, where it is still 2013, AirWatch raised $200 million a Yes companies in the US use Alteryx to said. “The next big area of disruption in the engaged today. Series A led by Insight Venture Partners understand the relation between drop call business intelligence analytics space comes (Accel later added $25 million to the volumes and customer churning, gaining when companies like Alteryx bring more The AirWatch platform was developed to funding pot when AirWatch expanded » On the highway of big data, speed is king. an ability to target dissatisfied customers affordable and innovative alternatives to integrate with existing enterprise systems the round). The company aims to make To make sense of it in real-time, however, with special offers and rewards before they the traditional BI vendors.” leave for a competitor.
132 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 133 Top 100 Companies: North America
Growing at 30 to 40 percent per year, applications using the network, or the cloud, recovery. And the customer only pays if Alteryx earns revenues north of $20 so there is no need for agents and upgrades recovery proves necessary. “The velocity of million and has been profitable for several are “silent.” Since the platform is agent- the growth of data is fast and in the current years. Mathew expects the company to less, major security risks are eliminated model you pay more for recovering more reach $70 million to $80 million over the because Asigra’s system does not require data, but you don’t really recover more,” next few years. He strives to make Alteryx an open port. Moreover, Asigra meets the says Farajun. “Lowering the price per unit the next great business analytics company most stringent compliance requirements doesn’t solve the problem, it’s a race to the to earn several hundred million dollars in of healthcare and government enterprises, bottom. Today you pay per megabyte that revenue. having National Institute of Standards you backup, so your cost goes up as you and Technology (NIST)-approved Federal create more data, inevitably. Eventually, “If you look at the sheer magnitude of the Information Processing Standard (FIPS) you’ll stop using this service.” generational shift that’s underway, the 140-2 certification. next big thing in this space is the analytics “Asigra, a private company that answers space,” Mathew said. “We are in the early The company started when David Farajun, to no one but themselves, can afford innings of that shift.” The company is Asigra’s founder, had a hard drive crash on to disrupt the entire industry’s pricing based in Irvine, Calif. him. He realized people would lose more practices, the same way Amazon has done data as computers evolve. for the backup market,” Duplessie says. “Once people start paying for recovery, By the time the market started to move, they will never go back.” Asigra was already established. “The cloud Asigra started about five years ago, but we were the Currently, Asigra has three main first ones in the world to do backup using competitors, all strong players in the www.asigra.com the Internet, which wasn’t even called the market; but none use the same pricing cloud back then,” says Eran Farajun, EVP model. CommVault Systems and Symantec David Farajun for Asigra. Corporation are both United States-based Software publicly traded software companies, with “Interestingly, Asigra almost Symantec a member of the S&P 500. singlehandedly invented the cloud backup Ontario EMC’s Avamar data store systems also business 20 years ago,” says Steve Duplessie, provide competition. founder and senior analyst at Enterprise No Strategy Group, who has been part of the Asigra’s tracking software can keep tabs on data storage industry for 25 years. “The specific information. For example, if only a market is now catching up and running company’s Dell computers fail, Asigra can » As a pioneer in the cloud backup market, right at them. As the market continues to isolate those machines and fix them. “The which keeps growing as companies store evolve, they will probably become more backup business doesn’t want you to know more data, Asigra aims to serve the top of and more dominant as the arms dealer to how much you recover so you won’t realize the industry pyramid. With its 26 years of those who wish to provide this service to how little you recover,” Farajun says. experience, this company’s cloud backup, customers,” he says. recovery and restore (BURR) platform The company does not sell the platform now powers over 550,000 sites worldwide. Asigra still focuses on Canada where its directly, but partners with managed And according to its management, this is 100 employees operate, but has customers service providers and resellers. Farajun only the beginning. all over the world. That list includes HP bootstrapped the company with no and Verizon, as well as end customers such contributions from venture capitalists, and Cloud systems are easier to deploy and as GoodYear, Red Cross and Toyota. the company is not looking for additional support compared to regular backup investments. Asigra doesn’t disclose details systems. Traditional backup softwares According to Duplessie, Asigra stands out about its revenue. require several steps to perform their compared to other players in the market. duties. For example, a company has to take “They have the most customers backing up “We could have sold a company a while an inventory of all servers and applications the most data in the cloud by a mile and ago and we declined it,” Farajun concludes, that need to be protected, and then disclose their technology is way ahead of anything saying that the biggest challenge for Asigra the network information and share it with else out there,” he says. is marketing the recovery license model. the service provider using the non-cloud system. But Asigra’s real killer, Duplessie says, is “The only issue for them is how fast will the its pricing model. Most companies charge market continue to evolve in their favor,” However, Asigra backs up systems and for the backup service; Asigra charges for Duplessie says, “I don’t see backup and
134 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
recovery problems going away — quite the The company now provides enterprise Another organization which employs AtHoc has been funded by major investors Autonomic the electrical simulation when placed contrary, so it’s just a matter of how much deployment for the entire U.S. Air Force, AtHoc;s technology is Eastman Chemical including U.S. venture capital firm against the cheek until the pain stops. longer will companies struggle with doing the Navy, and the Marines. It is also in Company, a global specialty chemical Greylock and Intel Capital, the investing Technologies it poorly by themselves, especially as data the process of supplying solutions for company headquartered in Kingsport, arm of the technology giant. The firm has “Autonomic Technology’s approach becomes more remote and dispersed.” the Army. Working in this challenging Tennessee. Eastman uses the system to been profitable since 2008 and has grown at www.ati-spg.com provides acute relief for many patients environment has allowed the company to warn employees about severe weather a rate of 50 percent a year for the last seven and has been observed to reduce the develop its services further. events, business-critical information and years. AtHoc currently employs roughly Ben Pless number of headaches in some patients as emergencies that could occur at the site 130 people and generates revenues in the well,” said Ben Pless, CEO of Autonomic “It allows us to fine tune the capability such as fires, chemical spills or active tens of millions of dollars. The company Medical Devices Technologies. “For these patients, it’s life AtHoc in a very demanding environment — an shooter situations. Eastman previously still places high value on research and changing and there’s really no other option environment where the organization is for them.” www.athoc.com used a mix of systems to relay information development, and around 40 percent of California very focused on emergencies and critical to employees, including 250 phones at staff works in the R&D department. “We communication. Critical communication Clinical studies indicate that 65 percent Guy Miasnik fixed locations, 3,500 hand-held radios, are strong believers in innovation and Yes is an integral part of the crisis management and a pager system. The company asked what we are seeing is that there is a huge of the device’s users experienced clinical benefits, with 40 percent experiencing Security work flow and we’ve optimized very much AtHoc to provide a solution that would opportunity for innovation in this space,” how this should work in a very skilled integrate existing devices into the platform Miasnik says. » For cluster headache patients, thinking an 80 percent reduction in the number of headaches, and a large number in the California organization,” Miasnik says. “If you think and also used new technology to notify all itself can be a debilitating process. Those about the millions of soldiers worldwide, its employees. The firm has enjoyed considerable success afflicted suffer an average of 15 acutely study alleviating the headaches altogether. The company received the CE mark in Yes the system is protecting all of them in a over a relatively short period of time. It painful headaches per week that can very robust manner.” “We have implemented an alerting holds a 65 percent to 70 percent share bring any day to a screeching halt. Cluster February of 2012, and has been selling in system that ties in legacy devices but it of the federal market, but its goals now headaches are one of the most severe pain a controlled release fashion to half a dozen The AtHoc Interactive Warning System sites in Germany and Denmark. It has a » In a moment of crisis, communication also supports new technology. When you include expanding into additional sectors. syndromes known. The standard current leverages IT networks, and any other feasibility study approved by the FDA, is vital. And the more people that are include traditional telephone, cell phone “The capability is not just governmental- therapy involves injecting sumatriptan, a infrastructure it can use, to send out and is in discussions on the possibility of involved in the crisis, the more important it and text message devices, there are now nine orientated, it applies to any industry or any synthetic drug that doctors recommend information to every individual in an going to a straight pivotal trial due to the becomes. For companies and organizations different ways that we send out messages organization that has the mandate and the not using more than 12 times per month organization, or in an area. Every device success it has already had in Europe, rather with a large number of employees, to our employees and contractors,” says responsibility to communicate and take in order to not worsen the extent or that is connected to the network of a than doing a feasibility trial followed by a communicating with all of them during an Keith Bennett, area supervisor for plant care of its people,” Miasnik says. frequency of the headaches. As patients military facility, for example, can be used to pivotal trial. emergency can be extremely challenging. protection services at Eastman. typically experience four times that alert individuals. Every individual who has The company also aims to grow its However, one company in California amount of headaches, the approach barely a smartphone, tablet or other connected “The AtHoc system allows us a single user international presence and to continue “The ATI Neurostimulation System is has made it to the forefront of the crisis touches the surface when it comes to pain mobile device can send information about interface, so in our dispatch center we launching new technologies that can be well tolerated and can be used as often communication industry, and has management of cluster headaches. the danger back to the system administrator have one person who enters the message, used in its communication system. as needed, without daily limitations developed a system that can save time, or emergency services. from a pre-built message template, and or stimulation-induced side effects”, money and, most importantly, lives. Autonomic Technologies offers a reversible that one message goes out to all devices AtHoc can legitimately claim that it and adjustable option in treating the said Prof. Dr. Rigmor Hoejland Jensen, If, for example, a fire were to break out improves the safety of soldiers, nurses, Director of the Danish Headache Center at AtHoc has offered mass crisis simultaneously,” he adds. debilitating pain of cluster headache. The at a university that used AtHoc, students students, teachers, employees and the Glostrup Hospital in Denmark. “Based on communication systems since 2005. The company alleviates chronic headache pain would be notified of the emergency using AtHoc is not a supplier of communication general public every single day. And the the results of the study, this new treatment technology it utilizes was originally aimed through the electrical stimulation of the multiple communication devices. Those infrastructure, but instead leverages the impressive array of clients it boasts means option offers a significant improvement in at a different sector, before the company sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a nerve students could then aid emergency services existing infrastructure in whatever way the firm’s investors must be feeling pretty quality of life to the majority of patients.” realized the huge potential latent in the bundle located deep in the face, behind the by supplying information like videos or it can. The local network is one of the safe as well. crisis communication field. AtHoc took root of the nose, that has been a clinical photos of the fire, or could simply use primary infrastructures AtHoc uses, but if In the US and Europe, the cluster off when it won a contract with the U.S. target for pain relief for over 100 years. the system to confirm their own safety. this is not working due to the crisis, then headache market alone offers a $3.5 billion Department of Defense. The U.S. Air Force While prior therapies treated the SPG Management and safety professionals the AtHoc solution can also work with opportunity. Often thought to be a rare had previously used sirens and radios as its through lesional and pharmacological would also be able to quickly establish that the area’s carrier network to reach mobile disorder, cluster headaches are actually primary form of communication in a crisis, approaches, Autonomic Technologies uses employees, students or soldiers were okay devices. AtHoc can also tap into mobile as common as Parkinson’s or multiple but wanted a better solution, more suitable neurostimulation through physiologically- using the personnel accountability system applications and older technology, like the sclerosis, Pless said. The company expects for today’s connected world. blocking higher frequencies on the SPG, AtHoc offers. radios used by Eastman. directly targeting the neural site associated to offer limited release as it develops the market, addressing cluster headaches first. “The Department of Defense contacted with the generation of cluster headache In the future, it plans to also adapt the AtHoc based on their market research pain. The procedure involves inserting technology to migraine headaches, a much and industry referrals and, based on the the ATI Neurostimulator in a minimally bigger opportunity for revenue. requirements, we initially developed the invasive operation through the mouth in capability for several facilities in the U.S. a noninvasive, non-scarring operation. A Competitively, the Leiden University Air Force,” says Guy Miasnik, president hand-held remote controller then provides and CEO of AtHoc.
136 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 137 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Medical Center is conducting a sizable already. Tax code can differ by the street that help support them. Avalara has proven Based in Bainbridge, Wash., Avalara has Every node of the network is self-routing innovative product applications that allow occipital nerve stimulation study to or the block. Businesses next door to each services that have helped many businesses.” raised about $69 million from Battery and able to detect other nodes, dynamically users to integrate personal health data to treat cluster headaches, with completion other could conceivably face a different tax Ventures. Though McFarlane declined to updated and optimized, enabling messages lead a healthier lifestyle. expected in the next couple of years. The code. It’s enough to keep an accounting Though its primary focus is in the United give specifics, he allowed that sales and to be rerouted in the case of node occipital nerve stimulation approach department up all night digging through States, Avalara can also calculate tax codes revenue are “moving towards that magic failure. The solution requires no upfront Its apps include Fitness Buddy, Instant provides only preventative benefits, while shoeboxes of sales receipts, literally. in over 80 countries. About 2 percent of its high end number mark of $100 million.” investment, and can be customized to a Heart Rate, and Argus. Released in the Autonomic Technologies provide acute business is international, which McFarlane facility’s unique needs. summer of 2013, Argus works as a life and preventative benefits, Pless said. Avalara specializes in managing sales expects to grow significantly in the next fitness app that can monitor just about any Occipital nerve stimulation is also more tax obligations end to end. Connecting few years. Awarepoint Awarepoint’s systems are used by over activity. By measuring multiple activities, invasive, Pless indicated. “We really think tax codes by location across not only the 180 medical facilities, including academic the app makes it easier to track correlations www.awarepoint.com as this market develops, there will be room country but on a global scale, the company The company was founded in 2004 by institutions, hospitals, doctor offices and to make comparisons. The app tracks for multiple techniques,” he added. automates complying with statutory McFarlane, Jared Vogt, and Rory Rawlings. other institutions. It tracks nearly 300,000 walking, running or biking without relying Jay Deady requirements in real-time. It based its technology on a working model radio frequency identification devices. on cell tower signals and thereby not Founded in 2007 and based in Redwood its CTO Rawlings created. Sales began in Customers include Texoma Medical draining the battery. The app saves power Other City, Calif., the company has raised $52 “Over the years, enterprises have built 2005. To remain viable and get a solid chunk Center, Thornton Hospital at UCSD by using the accelerometer of the phone million from Aberdare Ventures, Novartis expensive on-site solutions tied into of the market, Avalara has steadily built Medical Center, and the UCSF Medical to track movements. Once the user is California Venture Funds, Kleiner Perkins Caufield accounting systems because they had its taxation automation content through Center. detected traveling at a certain speed, a run and Byers, Versant Ventures, InterWest the IT departments and wherewithal acquiring other companies, most notably timeline is registered and the app switches Yes Partners and the Cleveland Clinic. It to implement costly six digit systems,” Tax Matrix, which provided it with over 10 Jay Deady, CEO of Awarepoint since 2010, to GPS for more precise monitoring. If expects to raise another round of $20 McFarlane said. “Avalara brings this level million UPC codes. Other key acquisitions previously served as the executive vice GPS fails to register movement, the app million to $30 million to fund growth of automation to the common man. It include New Horizons and ISPI. “We’ve president of client solutions for Eclipsys, assumes the user is using a treadmill and » Awarepoint provides workflow and further US studies. Pless expects its provides the flexibility of the enterprise been highly acquisitive around content senior vice president and general manager deactivates the GPS. automation and tracking solutions to European business to be profitable by 2016. but doing it in a way that works with small because that’s the best and fastest way to of revenue cycle at McKesson Provider hospitals to automatically collect and In the next five years, he hopes the company business. A business using Avalara doesn’t distinguish ourselves,” McFarlane said. Technologies, and has held general The app also tracks the amount and quality of analyze data on asset management, patient will reach $100 million in revenue. have to break the bank to know they are manager and vice president positions a user’s sleep, optimizing its alarm clock to go throughput and compliance challenges. compliant. We revolutionize the way sales Though other companies like Vertex with Cerner Corporation and ADAC off at the point in a sleep cycle most suitable The company claims to differentiate have developed similar solutions on Healthcare. for waking up. The app also monitors the from other real-time location systems tax automation happens for small and the enterprise level, Avalara is the only user’s consumption of water, coffee and other (RTLS) as the first all-inclusive software medium size businesses.” company of its kind to address the small Based in San Diego, Awarepoint has drinks. Honeycomb-like cells show user and services package that handles the Avalara business market. Another competitor is raised over $41 million from the Heritage behavior that can be easily scrolled for quick complete spectrum of a medical facility’s Through automating the compliance of Taxmarc. “We don’t see a lot of competition Healthcare Innovation Fund, Kleiner viewing. Holding down a cell for two seconds www.avalara.com needs on a single platform. This resulted statutory compliance, Avalara claims to at the SMB level,” McFarlane said. “We’ve Perkins Caufield & Byers, Cardinal integrates activity data. The app can also take from its recent acquisition of Patient Care deliver its clients a 90 percent ROI within connected to over 250 manufacturers and Partners, Venrock, Jafco Ventures, Avalon pictures of food and categorize it into six food Scott McFarlane Technology Systems. the first year. It primarily serves small to have locked up the middle tier market. Ventures, New Leaf Ventures, and Top Tier categories like vegetables, dairy and grains medium size businesses, as well as many Really, our biggest competition remains Capital Partners. to capture nutritional data. Photos can easily Cloud Computing The company’s aware360Suite automates household names. About 20,000 clients the status quo.” be shared on Facebook or within the Argus and streamlines key processes of a use its calculation services for a total of community. The app synchronizes with other Washington healthcare environment. It automates the over 80,000 users. The company tabulates Tax code does not tend to be a sexy subject, activity tracking apps, and runs continuously management flow of clinical units, locates millions of rates per year, and expects to so the company adds a bit of fun to its in the background of the phone. Yes medical equipment and automates the tabulate over 2 billion tax transactions marketing pitches with a focus on the color Azumio management and cleaning of those assets, this year. Filing about 400 million to 500 orange. All employees are encouraged to Though the Argus app synchronizes with automates the distribution of medical trays, www.azumio.com million tax returns this year, Avalara will wear at least some orange to work. It ferries a few devices currently, including heart » Avalara’s Founder and CEO Scott monitors healthcare hygiene practices, and be used to process about 3 to 4 percent of guests to its offices in an orange taxi. Even rate and step track monitors LifeTrak and McFarlane remains ambivalent about manages temperature control as well as Bojan Bostjancic all sales tax in the United States. It has been the toilet paper in its offices are orange. New Balance LifeTRNR. It also works with the potential passage of the Marketplace bed turnover. The company claims to be growing 50 percent annually for the past a Withings connected weight scale, Map Fairness Act of 2013. Not because his able to completely manage every aspect of Mobile several years. Yet the market Avalara faces is definitely hot. My Fitness and Glucose Buddy, which it company’s tax automation services are a hospital with minimal hardware and no McFarlane described Avalara’s potential as acquired from the developer SkyHealth. not poised to make a lot of money if hard wiring. Sensors are simply plugged California “We are web architects, designers and a “payroll opportunity. Any accounting Future integrations are planned. states require out-of-state businesses like builders but our clients want more from department could do its own payroll and into electrical outlets, providing data on Amazon to collect sales tax, but because Yes us,” says Amit Bhaiya, Co-founder and W2’s, but they choose to outsource it location, use, cleaning and maintenance. The company sells premium apps and holds the company already faces plenty of President at Dotcomweavers, a client of because it’s simpler and cheaper. Avalara is Battery powered tags are attached to a number of licensing deals with partners demand dealing with tax codes as they Avalara. “With each ecommerce solution the same way. Every business must file a tax equipment, with patient battery powered that use its APIs or customize its apps. The currently stand. With more than 11,000 » With more than 30 million downloads, we integrate, we should not only be able return to register in a city. I look towards tags attached to belt clips or ID badges. company plans to eventually implement a taxing jurisdictions in the United States, Azumio is a leader in biofeedback apps to share critical information that affect the market for sales tax filing to be at least 7 subscription model to provide access to its small businesses have plenty on their plates on mobile devices. The company creates business decisions but also offer products million businesses in the US alone.” data.
138 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 139 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
The company’s first app, Instant Heart however, fall far from the budget of the Mr. Kalman estimates the company faces a tremendous,” Mr. Kalman said. “We are from small startups to giants like Kellogg’s, the value of the service on a small scale, Rate, measured a user’s heart palpitations small to medium-sized business. While billion dollar market in the U.S. alone, not addressing an underserved segment of the Comcast and Etsy. they often choose to adopt it for broader through a smartphone camera. The app there are affordable ERP alternatives for to mention the rest of the world. Though market that’s never seen much attention.” use. Ms. Harris reports that 33 percent measured heart rates when a user held a the little guys, these are often feature light BizSlate has so far only offered its platform A Bloomfire network allows a manager to, of Bloomfire’s customers upgrade their finger over the lens for 10 seconds. and fail to meet the unique needs of a small domestically, it is designed to handle say, post a screencast explaining a problem service for more users every quarter. business managing inventory challenges. multiple currencies and languages for a and put it in an easy-to-find place that allows Azumio was co-founded by CEO Bojan potentially global offering. Kalman expects the relevant people to see and respond “For us [Bloomfire] is like sliced bread,” Bernard Bostjancic and Peter Kuhar. Targeting clients in the range of $50 BizSlate to fully launch to market over the through collaborate problem-solving. said Tricia Dempsey CEO of the IT Bostjancic previously founded Telsima, million to $200 million in revenues, next four to six months. Bloomfire jobs site Agile. Dempsey uses Bloomfire a 4G wireless startup, and co-founded BizSlate provides an SaaS ERP system Mr. Malloy believes that individualized as a replacement cumbersome paper www.bloomfire.com LiveCLIQ, a mobile streaming video that’s specifically designed for small Founded in November of 2011, BizSlate networks are the business communication documentation. “We used to have an service. businesses. It helps clients get a handle on sprang from Kalman’s experiences founding tool of the future. The technology of cloud operations manual. We printed a new one Craig Malloy their inventory, providing greater visibility EZCom Software, a B2B platform that storage has allowed for the creation of a every time we hired a new employee. It was “Azumio’s success has been based on web-based, scalable enterprise without the for faster decision making. Its platform provides affordable ecommerce solutions to Cloud Computing three inches thick. Oh my gosh, as soon as providing easy-to-use biofeedback tools delivers affordable enterprise capabilities small to mid-sized retailers. That company manpower and monetary commitment of you printed it, it was outdated.” Now all accessible on a device that more than 35 having a room full of servers. with a core of features “written around served a similar customer demographic as Texas of Agile’s documentation is found on a percent of all American adults already have what small distribution companies need to BizSlate, and received a number of requests Bloomfire network. – the smartphone,” said Bojan Bernard Mr. Malloy discovered Bloomfire when survive,” explained Marc Kalman, Founder from small businesses to be able to manage Yes Bostjancic, Azumio’s co-founder and CEO. and CEO of BizSlate. “We are challenging inventory from a trading center floor. Mr. using it as a sales tool in his previous Reid Wender of Triad Semiconductor the system. We looked at every single way Kalman researched the issue and discovered position as CEO of the video conferencing credits Bloomfire with salvaging his The company has raised investment company Lifesize. He was so happy with company’s internal communication. “I every ERP systems have been developed the market lacked any viable, affordable » Social media is typically a huge drag funding from the Founders Fund, Accel how the Bloomfire functioned that he said to my employees, ‘email is killing us.’ I and we broke that mold. solution for small businesses. He launched on productivity. Studies vary, but most Partners and Felicis Ventures. decided to go ahead and buy the company. printed out a thread of emails on a subject BizSlate as a hybrid between the expensive estimates place the amount of lost revenue “We believe that BizSlate is the first The choice allowed him to venture and it was a 4000 word document that yet feature rich systems and the cheap but from time spent on Facebook in the “Azumio’s vision of providing simple system for the SMB market that offers into a new territory while still utilizing just gets lost somewhere in the bit bucket. very limited offerings aimed at SMBs. billions of dollars annually. Our impulse solutions for the biggest health problems out of the box tools to managing a wide his expertise in video collaboration. Bloomfire helps eliminate that amnesia.” to share, comment and interact online really resonates,” stated Founders Fund’s range of products as if they were living Mr. Kalman invested $700,000 of his “I wanted to do something in cloud Mr. Wender runs a pair of Bloomfire is becoming an integral part of human Brian Singerman. “Mobile technology breathing entities with their own unique own money into the company, and raised software, recurring revenue. I could see networks: one for his employees, another behavior. For many, the solution is to block is changing the healthcare industry and characteristics,” Mr. Kalman continued. around another $300,000 from angels. The that was where the world was going,” he for customers. social media sites and stifle that behavior. Azumio is part of the next generation of “We provide what small businesses need, company is currently raising a Series A. said. “As we dug into Bloomfire, it is this But what if there was a way to harness our companies leading this transformation.” including mobility with the ability to enterprise social software world that is Perhaps the best example of Bloomfire’s newly-developed need of social interaction access systems in real-time from anywhere, BizSlate partners with R.E.R. International starting to overlap and converge with the potential is how it is used by Surfset as a means of boosting productivity, rather whether on the floor of a trade show to to enable its customers to more easily conferencing and the collaboration space.” fitness. Surfset has more than 100 global than hindering it? show to a prospective customer, or on the produce high quality UPC tickets and Bloomfire’s key function is organizing locations that teach exercise classes hangtags, as well as item level RFID tags. and streamlining the communication bringing the principles and moves of road or in a hotel. Our customers always That’s what Bloomfire seeks to do. stream within a company, according to surfing to people who may not have access BizSlate have access to what’s going on, in real-time, Bloomfire creates an inter-company “Our partnership with BizSlate will the company’s vice president of marketing to the water. Surfset uses Bloomfire to at the click of a button.” social network that turns time-wasting help small and medium size businesses Heidi Farris. “People at work are just connect its network of more than 600 www.bizslate.com into efficiency. News feed posts become One footwear client spent weeks updating effectively and affordably manage their pummeled with questions all day long,” trainers spread out as far as California, company-wide bulletins. Youtube clips its roster to handle the different types supply chains and create a seamless she said. “Being that internal social Russia, Chile and Australia. “[Bloomfire] Marc Kalman become training videos. Stylized photos of of inventory. Through BizSlate, those process for securing the UPC and RFID network allows them to be more prepared is our primary learning resource,” said lunch become calls out for collaboration. Cloud Computing same changes can be accomplished in an tags and labels required by their trading to answer those questions.” Sarah Ponn, Surfset director of marketing partners,” said Daniel Etra, CEO of R.E.R. afternoon. “Every company has this problem of and training. Surfset’s core business is International. “We value the reputation, Bloomfire was a small startup with just New York sharing important business information dependent on cohesiveness of its brand Still in beta, the company is in what Mr. expertise and customer focus that BizSlate five employees when Malloy took them with others, whether they’re down the hall and consistency of its instruction. The Kalman termed “quasi-marketing mode,” brings to the table.” over 22 months ago. It now has more than No or on another continent,” said Bloomfire company has to constantly update its serving an undisclosed number of clients in 200,000 users, an increase of 200% from CEO Craig Malloy. “Bloomfire is at the classes to avoid staleness while ensuring apparel, footwear, housewares, electronics Mr. Kalman plans to build BizSlate quickly a year ago. The key, said Ms. Farris, is the core of trying to solve that problem.” that its service remains uniform in every » Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other verticals. The beta clients form into a solid player in the ERP space over the low barrier to entry for the service. The location. Bloomfire allows Ms. Ponn to next three to five years. He views BizSlate tools help suppliers deal with supply and a steering committee to offer feedback Bloomfire’s networks are cloud-based Bloomfire interface is built to be intuitive post documentation, videos and music as a billion dollar opportunity over the next operational issues, keeping track of an item on the product as the company tweaks forums that create a “time shifted, to anyone who is familiar with a social with specific protocols for classes while several years. as it moves from the warehouse floor to the its features. “The feedback we’ve gotten is searchable and indexable place where you media platform, making assimilation swift. allowing for questions and feedback all in truck to the shop through a streamlined phenomenal,” Mr. Kalman said. “We are go to find all of the information,” according The most basic service starts at just $200 a the same place. “It’s pretty much mission “When you look at what the large scale process. Most of the legacy solutions, delivering features that have never been to Mr. Malloy. The company’s clients range month for up to 25 users. Once users see critical for us.” Ponn said. available at this level of the market.” ERPs have been doing, the opportunity is
140 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 141 Top 100 Companies: North America
Before entering the business world, Mr. on a mobile device, and so, despite many fast, secure payment options that would Malloy was an officer in the U.S. Navy, consumers browsing e-commerce sites on benefit both consumers and merchants. In he said that his experiences as a leader tablets and smart phones, few actually pay October 2012, Braintree raised $35 million in the military have greatly benefited his on them. However, that could all be about in a Series B round of funding which was led business work. “One of the core tenants to change as new companies seek to make by the venture capital firm New Enterprise of my military experience… is the skills e-commerce payments on mobile device Associates, and also participated in by of leadership, of rallying a team around a easier than ever before. existing investors such as Accel Partners. particular mission or objective, treating your people with respect, getting people to One company doing just that is Braintree, “Braintree is kicking down both the do things that maybe they didn’t think they a payment platform that is used by technology and business road blocks that were able to do. The authentic presence companies such as AirBnB, Hotel have made online and mobile payments of humble service leadership aspects that Tonight and Angry Birds. The company challenging for developers and a hassle come forward in most military officers I is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and for consumers,” says Ravi Viswanathan, think translates very well to business,” he was established in 2007. Braintree offers a General Partner of NEA. “We believe said. payment platform that offers tools such as Braintree has the strengths to challenge single click purchasing, mobile payments, all the incumbents in the payment space. That respect flows down to customers as support for 130 different currencies and This investment reflects our confidence well. All three companies interviewed gave recurring payments, among others. in the technology, team and international high marks on Bloomfire’s communication capabilities Braintree has built.” and responsiveness in adding new features. In 2012 the firm bought the peer to peer payments company Venmo. This gave As with all payment solutions, security is It’s that constant need to improve the the company a further boost in the area a major issue. Consumers are generally service that will decide which company of mobile payments, and it now offers suspicious of any payment system that fills the ever-increasing market space customers the chance to pay with a single is simple to use, fearing it may be less the Bloomfire exists in. Social media touch on any apps or websites that are on secure. However, the Braintree system will continue to increase in prominence the Braintree network, without having to has made it more secure at the same time in our everyday lives. We are constantly register payment information. as easier to use. The Venmo touch system connected in our homes, on the road and, offered by Braintree fingerprints a device, Malloy hopes, in our offices as well. “I would say this path we’re on now is really which means it takes into account the helping consumers and merchants connect behavior of the user, in order to spot when with one another and helping to deliver an uncharacteristic payment is made. next generation purchasing experiences If a payment is suddenly made from a Braintree — that’s when that really started to come different country, then previous payment together, when Braintree and Venmo came solutions would automatically suspend braintreepayments.com together,” says Bill Ready, CEO of Braintree. the credit card or payment capabilities of the consumer. However, with the mobile Bill Ready When Braintree made the acquisition of solution, Braintree is able to communicate Venmo, it was acting on a long standing with the consumer through the app Internet/Online belief of Mr. Ready’s that mobile devices itself and ask for a security code for the would become the primary computing consumer’s credit card, or some piece of Illinois devices within a short period of time. “I their mailing address and other things that started thinking should we build our own only they would probably know. Yes consumer experience? Or is there someone out there who is building a great consumer “That way we can be easier and more mobile payment application that could be secure because that interaction becomes » Mobile technology is on the rise. The the consumer side of this offering?” says more secure even than your credit card number of mobile applications on the Mr. Ready. “Then I found Venmo and was, because had your credit card been market increases significantly every single I thought oh my God, this is beautiful, stolen and people start running up a bunch day, and people are doing more and more people raved about the application, it made of purchases, the credit card company has using their mobile devices. But there are payments fun.” to say, do I pull the trigger and shut this some things that people still have trouble down? Or is it really you?” says Mr. Ready. doing on their smart phones and tablets – The two teams complimented each other “So you have to wait longer before you making payments. Data entry can be tricky well, and set off on a path together to deliver shut it down. If we start to have suspicion,
142 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
because we can ask you simple things, we One such company is Brand.com, which exonerated from. However, since it was Bright use and maintain, scalable, reliable and various solutions,” van Leeuwen said. “It’s can be much more secure by addressing itself went under a change recently. The once public record it stuck on the very top secure. All deployment and provisioning his baby, and maybe his job, that is on the suspicious activity much more quickly company bought the rights to the name of the first page of Google and haunted me Computing issues are solved for the lifetime of the line. That competition has proved far more because we don’t have to be so draconian Brand.com having previously been called in everything I did.” system, user-friendly dashboards enable significant than our actual competitors.” and just shut things down.” Reputation Changer. The company www.brightcomputing.com monitoring and visualization and workload provides a reputation management service I am very glad and thankful that I made management, security and application- Bright Computing was spun out of Cluster E-wallets have been available for a fair few that offers companies the chance to the decision to hire Brand.com. In three Matthijs van Leeuwen specific functionality is included. Vision, a $20 million cluster design years now, but none of them have taken off. improve reviews and clear negatives. months they moved the one negative item. company founded by van Leeuwen in 2003. Mr. Ready believes that is because of flawed This will sound unbelievable but when Software Bright Computing is based in San Jose, That company spent four years building strategy. “I think the first wave of e-wallets “Really what we do is we pull together they first posted all the new content I California and serves over 200 customers, the foundation for Bright Computing’s failed because they were solutions looking company’s media strategy and PR strategy actually could not even find the negative California 50 percent of which are sold to through technology before Bright Computing was for problems. So the first view of e-wallets and help them to tell their story online,” item. It went from being the third item on resellers. It also sells through OEM partners launched in 2009, followed by an ING as tap to pay in the store, there really wasn’t explains Mike Zammuto, President and first page of Google to the 11th page. It Yes like Dell, Cray, Cisco, and Acer, and over undisclosed investment in 2010 of several a problem to be solved there. There are COO of Brand.com. “Specifically what we has since settled and stayed on the third to 30 system integrator resellers across the million dollars. 2011 prove to be the few things in my life easier than swiping intend to do which is very different to what fourth page on Google.” world. breakout year as the company doubled in my card at the checkout counter,” says Mr. a PR agency would do, is we’re a technology » Bright Computing size with a 100 percent annual growth rate, Ready. “People don’t want to do data entry platform for helping companies to Improving search results has been a Bright Computing has been firmly which it has sustained ever since. on a touch screen. Solving that issue is a influence and manage their people’s online business for a long time, but changes in the Computer clusters come in all shapes established as the go to solution for Boeing, massive pain point for both the consumer researching activity.” algorithms used by search engines such as and forms. They can include HPCs (high Cisco, Dell, and Cray. Dell and Cisco in and the merchant so we’ve provided tools Google are making it a more complicated performance computers), Hadoop clusters, particular have been ramping rapidly, for that.” The company doesn’t just serve businesses; task. “It’s definitely getting more complex, server farms, private clouds, storage with a quarter of the company’s revenues celebrities, politicians and individuals also the thing that is really driving the clusters, and database clusters, and each coming from Dell alone. Bright Computer’s Caring.com Braintree has certainly made a big impact use the service in order to improve their complexity is there have been a few big earnings have doubled annually for the last can operate on a different platform. These www.caring.com already on e-commerce, and the company online image. The majority of clients are trends that have led to an increase in user clusters need continuous provisioning couple of years. Customers include Oak has high ambitions for the future. “We most concerned with search results, and generated content, from social media to Ridge National Laboratory, Texas A&M and management, monitoring and Andy Cohen think that we have the opportunity to how to get the best out of them. “What question and answer sites and so on. A virtualization. University, and Lincoln Financial Group. be as impactful to the next decade of companies have previously have done well couple of years ago Google in particular Internet/Online e-commerce as PayPal was to the last,” is they’ve built a useful website, maybe saw this trend and saw people using Bright Computing removes some of the “I think partnering with Bright was pretty much a no-brainer,” said Paul Del Vecchio, concludes Mr. Ready. had a good social media presence through various SEO tactics to promote content frustration associated with clusters by California their PR, social marketing companies,” in search results that didn’t add enough providing a universal and user-friendly Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer for Cisco. “They made doing business with them so says Mr. Zammuto. “But what they haven’t value to the searching. So they began platform to manage them. The business-to- Yes done is look at online search results as an making a series of algorithmic changes business software company specializes in ridiculously easy I would have been foolish asset that should be guarded and protected at an increasing frequency, starting with IT systems management, specifically bare not to engage. When something just works, it leaves you free to focus on customers, Brand.com and grown and managed and so on, so the Google Penguin and Panda updates metal and cloud provisioning, as well as » Rarely does one plan to become a parent and that’s exactly the reason why I engaged that’s where we come in.” that have really dramatically increased the monitoring and management of cluster to a parent. When seniors require assisted them in the first place. From where I sit, the www.brand.com the complexity of these things,” says Mr. systems in a data center. living, it often results from a sudden event- Brand.com offers a platform for analyzing, decision to utilize Bright Cluster Manager Zammuto. a doctor’s diagnosis, a broken hip, or the tracking and reacting to negative online “Cluster tools are rarely designed to work has been the smartest move I’ve ever made.” Michael Zammuto sudden realization that the Alzheimer’s has reactions of various kinds. “So in particular “That’s very good for us, to be transparent, together,” said Matthijs van Leeuwen, reached a critical level where independence we will publish sponsored stories on those because our focus is on doing what the CEO and Founder of Bright Computing. The company’s solution is sticky, as its Marketing/Advertising/SEO is no longer possible. Adult children who news sites. In addition to that we have a search engines want you to do. There are “Migrating the multiple learning curves clients tend to rely on it heavily and suddenly find themselves being parents to pretty big network of bloggers and things players in this space who have sort of requires tremendous expertise and changing vendors would require a refitting Pennsylvania their own parents are often caught up in an like that and the intent here is to come taken a different route of using automated scripting from expensive administrators. of the entire database. It competes against isolating pattern of confusion, feelings of up with useful informative, educational techniques or things like that, grey hat or We start with a single cluster management heavyweights such as IBM, HP, and SGI, No ineptitude and guilt, with little resources to online assets that help a company to even black hat techniques and try to trick agent that provides all the functionality but is the only universal offering. “Really, help and nobody to confide in. promote itself,” says Mr. Zammuto. the search engines. That will only increase required. You don’t need to roll your own our biggest competition comes from » Any business operating in the modern the rate at which they mitigate those things anymore. With one piece of software, the internal systems administrator who technology era knows that marketing and One user of the Brand.com service, who and it’s been very positive for us because an Bright computing provides you everything has spent all this time scripting together brand reputation are of high importance. wanted to remain anonymous due to the added complexity is added to the value of you need.” As a result of this, an industry has emerged nature of the problem solved by the firm, our service, its created additional barriers where companies are managing the online said the company had helped him out of to entry and that’s very positive for us,” he Bright Computing’s single cluster reputations of firms and are seeking to a tricky situation. “I, like many others had adds. management provides all the functionality help remove the negative associations a negative item sitting right on the very required in a single, centered relational some suffer on search results in particular. top of the first page of Google. This was a database that stores all configuration and negative court case that I was completely monitoring data. The system is easy to
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Caring.com provides a resource for adult After raising money in 2007, the company Causata increase in application conversions when “The acquisition of Causata is another improved survival,” said Krisztina Zsebo, children caring for seniors. It provides not launched in 2008, and reached a million making personal offers. Subscription important step in executing on our strategy CEO of Celladon. “It’s a cutting edge only original sourced articles on senior unique monthly visitors in its first four www.causata.com renewals typically see a 5 to 10 percent to help organizations get closer to their solution that’s a win-win for the changing care, medical issues, or lifestyle advice, years. reduction in churn, simply by pitching customers by providing real-time solutions healthcare environment. This is not an but also a detailed rating and review Paul Wahl a special offer right at the anticipated which address the entire customer journey incremental benefit. This is a paradigm system on assisted living facilities in the With 43 million people caring for a senior in point of cancellation. Automotive dealers across touch points.” shift in terms of heart failure management.” US, essentially a Yelp or a TripAdvisor the US, the assisted living industry eclipses Software typically see a 10 to 15 percent increase in for nursing homes. It also serves as an the wedding and baby businesses at nearly conversion rates for test drives or quotes. With an estimated 450,000 potential anonymous social media center for a trillion dollar industry. As populations California patients in the US alone when the product families to connect and discuss concerns, continue to age and seniors living into the Causata serves customers that number in Celladon finally gets to market, the solution has questions and frustrations. 80s and 90s become increasingly common, Yes the double digits, typically large Fortune multi billion dollar revenue potential. several public companies will certainly 1000 companies. It has been doubling its www.celladon.net “Caring.com in a sense provides on the emerge in this space, and Caring.com client roster on an annual basis. Clients The company was founded in 2004 based on job training for people who suddenly find hopes to be one of them. The company’s include a top 10 global auto manufacturer, scientific research on animals that showed » Causata turns every website into an Krisztina Zsebo themselves responsible for caring for a user base and extensive reviews of assisted informed but savvy salesman who knows a leading global digital agency, and a a genetic approach could successfully target the enzyme. Celladon conducted loved one,” said Andy Cohen, CEO and living facilities are unmatched on the how to make the perfect pitch at exactly leading anti-virus software provider. Life Sciences/Biotech Co-Founder of Caring.com. “We give our market, giving it an easy two to three year the right time. The company provides Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies in 2007 and Based in San Mateo, Calif., the company 2009, and launched a confirmatory study visitors peace of mind and let them know head start. intelligence and insight around customer California they are not alone in this. We have a very data to create more meaningful digital was founded in 2009 by Paul Phillips, with 200 patients in August of 2012. Based in San Mateo, Calif., Caring.com a pioneer of data driven analytics who strong social mission. The ad dollars pay experiences, and in turn, deeper shopping Yes Depending on the results of the studies, the bills, but the thank-you notes keep us has raised $23 million from DCM, Intel carts. previously founded Touch Clarity, an going.” Capital, Shasta Ventures, and Split Rock online content targeting platform used by Zsebo expects the therapy to be on the Partners. Cohen expects the company to Amex, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. market by 2017. It collects first party information from » Despite its $40 billion annual cost to the Launched in January of 2008, Caring. be profitable by next year. He anticipates He spent four years building the platform owned websites, email campaigns, healthcare system and an annual 300,000 com receives 2 million unique visitors the company earning $100 million in to include data integration, predictive Celladon has raised $120 million from a marketing campaigns, CRMs, and social deaths in the US alone, heart disease has yet every month, a number that has doubled revenue in the next three to five years. analytics and real-time decision making. number of investors that include Pfizer media applications, pretty much the entire to see any major medical breakthroughs in in the last two years. It focuses entirely on The company landed its first customers in Venture Investors, Johnson & Johnson gamut where a customer has optionally the last 20 years. Heart failure results when the US market, though Cohen imagines “Online advertising and marketing for 2010, adding a customer or two for the next Development Corp. and GBS Ventures. It interacted with a company. It brings all the heart cannot pump enough blood the company will eventually expand senior care is probably three to five years couple of years. Today, it typically recruits is currently in discussions to partner with this data into a single view. Using pre- to keep fluid out of the lungs, causing internationally. behind the rest of the market, with the five to 10 new customers per year. a pharmaceutical company in order to built connectors to web and social media frequent and expensive hospitalizations vast majority of the advertising dollars still accelerate time to market. analytics systems, it then maps or stitches at an estimated $20,000 per visit. More After launching its referral service in being spent primarily on print media,” said Causata competes against IBM and an individual identity for that user, creating than half of those who suffer a heart January, Caring.com has signed referral Tom Blaisdell, General Partner at DCM. Adobe, but features a homegrown software “MYDICAR has demonstrated clinical a customer timeline in real-time which attack are dead within five years. Science contracts with seven of the top 10 assisted “Caring.com is creating the first online program, rather than a best of breed benefit in human clinical trials and we is then ran through a predictive analytics has identified a key enzyme deficiency in living providers. The Assisted Living ‘level-playing field’ advertising platform model based on numerous technologies believe that it has the potential to be a much engine to anticipate customer behavior. advanced heart failure: SERCA2a, which Federation of America promotes Caring. for all the senior care facilities and services achieved through multiple acquisitions, for needed new treatment option for patients Causata enables personalized marketing controls contractions and relaxations in com list of providers as “a preferred that will enable them to shift their print a platform that is more ubiquitous, Stone with advanced heart failure,” said Barbara based on real-time user behavior in order the heart. A number of traditional drug provider of Internet referrals.” The dollars to online, finally allowing them to contended. Dalton, a partner with Pfizer Venture to pitch the ideal offer. discovery methods have targeted the company’s revenue stream has been realize the benefits of online advertising Investments and the chair of Celladon’s enzyme and failed. board. doubling annually with an increasing base that so many other segments of the “Ninety percent of the time, you shouldn’t With $23 million raised from Accel coming from local advertisers. Over half economy have embraced. The disruption Partners, Causata has already had its exit place the ad or make the offer,” said Thanks to new advancements in gene of its revenue now comes from the assisted for this industry will be seismic.” through an acquisition last August by Celladon filed for an IPO in October. The Brian Stone, Causata’s VP of Marketing. therapy, Celladon hopes to be the first to living industry. NICE, the customer analytics platform, for number of shares and price range have yet “Causata helps marketers take advantage succeed and change the nature of heart an undisclosed amount. to be determined. of the very specific window of time when disease forever. It is currently developing The company was inspired with Cohen and a consumer is ready to buy. We provide a MYDICAR, a genetic enzyme replacement Caring.com’s CTO Steve Fram’s experience “Many of our customers interact with Running multiple studies in Europe and 365 degree holistic view of each customer, therapy of SERCA2a that has demonstrated caring for their own mothers who faced consumers in a siloed environment, Israel, Celladon is expected to launch to in real-time, to help marketers predict the an 88 percent risk reduction in heart failure debilitating diseases. Fram was the CTO leading to a disconnect between different market in those regions by 2017. It is based customer’s mind and intent.” related hospitalization in Phase 2a clinical of BabyCenter. “We realized you needed touch points such as the company website, in San Diego. trials. By providing patients with the much the same type of handholding when taking mobile app, stores and contact centers. The results are measurable and needed enzyme, the therapy improves care of a parent,” Cohen said. “Our vision These organizations are looking for the A biopharmaceutical veteran with 24 years meaningful. Financial services customers heart failure symptoms and quality of life was a BabyCenter for elderly care. We offer ability to tie together Web-based and of experience, Zsebo remembers how typically experience a 20 percent increase with no drug related toxicities observed. back in 1992, nobody paid attention to low beam headlights to tell them what to in application conversions using the contact center interactions for better and expect financially, legally and emotionally.” more efficient customer service,” said Zeevi monoclonal antibodies. software. Marketers see a 20 percent “This therapy essentially translates to Bregman, President and CEO of NICE.
146 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 147 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
“Now, after 50 years of failure, monoclonal Deployment, which allows customers percent last year and will likely grow 70 “With the proliferation of end points Headquartered in headquartered in El offering platforms for developers to build antibodies are one of the major drivers for to be fantastic critics while being part of percent this year. driven by our mobile society, the customer Segundo, Calif., the company has raised $21 on, is growing fast. the biotech industry and pharmaceutical the process. From day one, we implement has spoken,” said Cliff Young, Founder and million of venture investment. Young strives industries,” Zsebo said. “We think gene software that can be personalized.” Groves expects Centric Software to be a CEO of ClearPath. “They want to access any to build ClearPath to a billion dollar business Continuuity offers an application therapy heading the same direction.” $100 million company in the next three to device from wherever they are. The cloud in the next five years, most likely through framework that sits as a layer on top of Centric Software typically triples its clients’ five years, with the potential to be worth offers numerous benefits for enterprise as leveraging major partnerships, he said. Apache Hadoop, HBase and other Hadoop productivity without adding to their several hundred million dollars. The well as the consumer. As we move towards ecosystem components. “I’ve been doing headcount, essential for any brand dealing company has raised $54 million from Oak a user driven type of network consumption “As more and more users become mobile application development in big data for as with robust growth but with no room to Investment Partners, Masthead Venture model, it is really changing the demand users and networks get increasingly more long as just about anybody, and it’s really Centric hire. Administration, meetings, and data Partners, and Boston Capital Ventures. It profile in the networking space in ways that complex and expensive to manage, we hard,” says Continuuity CEO Jon Gray, Software checking are reduced to a minimum, is seeking a Series D to expand into China prove highly disruptive.” will see a major shift towards cloud based formerly of Facebook.”There’s great power freeing the team to concentrate on the core and finish its European expansion. services,” Young said. “ClearPath is a clear in this platform but the technology is quite ClearPath’s clients typically shave their leader in this space with the opportunity low level, it’s very new and it’s very raw. It’s www.centricsoftware.com product. “They get to exercise their skills, rather than attend endless meetings to Founded in 2004, the company is costs by five to 10 times, not considering to deliver increasingly more value to difficult to manage.” installation, ongoing maintenance and our Partners & Customers as we add Chris Groves check the status of a design,” Groves said. headquartered in Campbell, California, with offices in France, Italy, London, and implementation costs, shipping and other additional service capabilities. This is the This is where the Continuuity platform logistics associated with a traditional most exciting time in networking since the comes in to play. The company is mainly Internet/Online Gianni Donati, Production Manager of Spain. The company competes against SAP Triple Aught Design, Centric Software’s and Siemens. solution, according to the company. “The dawn of the internet. We are benefiting by targeting two channels – the enterprise savings are prompting serious changes in tail-winds in cloud, security, mobility, & players in markets such as financial services California first customer to use the software to deploy to the Amazon.com EC2 cloud, said the a market we see ripe with opportunity,” software defined networking.” and telecoms, and also the early adopting technology firms. “Companies who have Yes platform’s flexibility is key. He added that Young said. this enables customers to evolve with the The company competes against VMWare already used Hadoop and have things in demands of the market. ClearPath The company’s market includes consumers and Citrix. production, they understand more than who purchase personal accounts to share anybody how hard it is and how there is » Retailers typically introduce tens of “The system is able to grow with us Networks with families, service providers, and very little reusability when you build on top thousands of new products every quarter. and be continually modified for further enterprises, which Young estimates to be of these, and it’s also very difficult to train Rather than the traditional four seasons, www.clearpathnet.com requirements,” Donati said. “Over the last about 30 million to 50 million businesses the rest of your team to use it. Often we’ll brands market up to 10 to 12 seasons Continuuity two years of integrating the system to our globally. Consumers gain personal secure go to a company, they’ll have something annually, constantly churning out new Cliff Young design and development process, Centric’s access points that can be used by multiple www.continuuity.com in production in Hadoop but there’s really designs and products. This can be its (one) source of information has greatly devices, as well as the ability to control only one person who can code it, maybe own juggling act. And with 90 percent Virtualization improved our ability to accomplish our content access for children. In an era when Jonathan Gray two,” says Mr. Gray. “So we’re able to bring of a brand’s revenue coming from new business goals.” managers are encouraged to cut costs in a raise up the level of traction a bit and products, the stakes are high. California amidst rising expenses, enterprises gain Big Data/Storage open up the door for their developers. Now Triple Aught Design is only one of an ability to manage a virtual distributed it’s not just one developer who has spent the Centric Software simplifies the process Yes Centric Software’s success stories. United workforce with proliferating endpoints California past two years playing with Hadoop, their of product lifecycle management with Stationers tripled its business while securely at a more affordable margin. entire team can now build applications on an automated system that synchronizes improving on-time delivery to customers Service providers gain differentiation in Yes top of the cluster.” » Founded in 2002, ClearPath Networks the development process. Its Web 2.0 from 68 percent to 98 percent. Eastern Bell an increasingly commoditized market. had its head in the Cloud long before cloud software manages every part of the process gained several million dollars in its first “This can absolutely be a game changer for On the other side of their sales focus is associated with launching a new product. computing was coined terminology. The year of using the software by improving service providers,” Young said. » Big data is an unstoppable trend, but in the large enterprises, which are generally The company designed its software so company launched the world’s first cloud product margins. Vasopro Sporting Goods order to properly take advantage of the all looking for a platform as a service (PaaS) managed network services platform in that anyone on the team, from designers improved its productivity by 70 percent. Its global footprint includes North this concept has to offer, applications must layer. “In the telco and financial services 2004, two years before Amazon released to engineers, can use it; no programming America and the APAC region with a focus be built on complex, powerful software today there are thousands and thousands its Elastic Compute Cloud that made knowledge required. In addition, the “In this industry, 18 months is an eternity, on India. It is working on expanding its frameworks such as Apache Hadoop. These of on staff developer so they really the Cloud a household computer term. system is easy to customize while still six seasons or maybe more,” Groves said. sales offices to provide more people on can leave in house developers struggling understand the value of having a developer ClearPath Networks provided the first prioritizing industry best standards. “The ability to invest the system quickly the ground for a more local sales presence, for the time and resources to build valuable PaaS to rapidly enable their development and get the ROI immediately is an extreme on premise network & security services Young explained. Partnering with some of applications, and this is why a new sector, resources to develop and bring online new “For our customers, new products are the advantage.” managed from the Cloud. The company the largest service providers and telecoms applications,” says Mr. Gray. lifeblood of their business,” said Chris enables clients to leverage multiple mobile in North America, Europe, and APAC, Groves, CEO of Centric Software. “We Addressing a $15 billion market with devices across multiple networks securely, ClearPath grew by more than 46 percent in provide a way to seamlessly integrate all over 70,000 prospects for its software guarded by strong authentication security 2011 and 40 percent in 2012. The company the processes and manage all of them in a worldwide, the company serves over 50 measures. Providing seamless transparent was profitable last year at $1.7 million six legged race. We build software that can customers on a global basis, mostly fast- access to the user, its systems feature innate EBITA, and expects to be EBITA positive show the designs in implementation, so moving consumer companies above $50 scalability at an affordability that costs as this year. they can quickly be altered. We create Agile million in revenue. Revenue grew 80 little as 20 percent of the industry standard.
148 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 149 Top 100 Companies: North America
Continuuity’s customers have found Couchbase thousands more deployments of its free the platform to be of great help to their community edition. developers. “For our customers, the faster www.couchbase.com we can provide purpose-built applications Couchbase gives customers a number to drive real-time insights into their data, Bob Wiederhold of advantages. Whereas most NoSQL the smarter and more informed their databases are optimized either as key decisions can be, and the better the ROI Software value databases or document databases, on their data assets,” said Jeremy Pinkham, Couchbase can handle both. It stores and CTO of Lotame, a data management firm. California retrieves JSON documents and provides “With Continuuity Reactor integrated into a powerful key-value data store. The Lotame’s DMP, our development team Yes product also includes a built-in caching can focus on bringing new innovative layer that provides the low latency and applications to our customers faster, high performance customers need. While addressing a broader set of use cases.” » Databases are constantly evolving, from several competitors come from just a the large mainframe databases in the ‘50s database basis or a distributed system basis, The firm announced a funding round last and ‘60s to the relational databases that Couchbase provides the best combination November, when it raised $10 million emerged in the ‘70s. of distributed caching and core JSON in a Series A round, which was led by database capabilities. Battery Ventures and Ignition Partners. And now, 40 years later, with Facebook That brought the company’s funding total likes, social graphs, and the massive The net result of its architecture and to $12.5 million. Andreesen Horowitx, amount of detailed data that internet features is that Couchbase is the best Data Collective and Amplify Partners also powerhouses generate every day, databases NoSQL database fit for applications that participated in the funding round. are changing once again. The rapidly require reliability at scale. For example, increasing volume, variety and velocity in 2012 when the game Draw Something The company has witnessed early success, of data, which supports apps that must be went viral, scaling up from 0 to 50 million but it is still operating in a challenging online continuously to accommodate huge registered users in 50 days — OMGPOP market. “One of the big challenges is that numbers of users globally, has led to the simply added Couchbase servers — we want to stay ahead of the curve but the evolution of a next-generation database expanding from 6 to 90 servers to meet the curve is moving rapidly, so we also need technology — NoSQL. capacity, without ever going offline. to be moving rapidly,” explains Mr. Gray. “When we started the company we were NoSQL technology leverages new data “We provide the scalability and cloud first and now we’re definitely an formats, such as JSON , or Java Script performance of a cache with the durability on-premise first company. That may shift Object Notation, documents, that are ideal of a database in a single product,” said and next year things may change. Part for the data behind interactive web and Rahim Yaseen, Senior Vice President of of it is the stability and reliability of the mobile applications. As a result, modern Product Development for Couchbase. “If technology.” applications are often a mismatch for the you simply approach the problem from the more rigid schemas of relational database database side of the house, you won’t have In order to stay ahead of the curve, management systems because they are no that. Even a large scale traditional database the company invests a great deal of its longer designed to operate on low-level system is not designed to operate with tens resources into research and development. rigid data structures. of millions of users without a caching tier Of the 24 people the firm has employed, fronting the database.” with more joining regularly, around 18 Couchbase emerged as a NoSQL company of those are in research and development in 2009, and enjoyed strong early adoption Yet Mr. Yaseen does not compare positions. The majority of people added among web community sites who valued Couchbase to relational databases. “This in the last six months have been customer the performance and scalability benefits is not a DBMS replacement model,” he facing, as the company looks to expand its of its distributed database technology. said. “That would be a failure for us. We reach, as it only went to market with its Today, it serves some of the largest internet are addressing new markets that have product earlier in the year. companies, including Paypal, LinkedIn, yet to be created for which we need new Salesforce, Adobe and Orbitz, as well as a data management solutions. For example, For the company now, its goals are clear. growing number of enterprise customers if you were to build future medical “We’d really like to establish and create this such as Nielsen, Sabre, McGraw Hill. It instrumentation systems that deeply application server space in Hadoop and serves more than 350 customers with over instrument the wide range of all bio we’d like to own it,” concludes Mr. Gray. 9,500 paid deployments worldwide, and metrics that occur within the human body,
150 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
you would not use a relational database, close as it gets to a foolproof blueprint The company is constantly evolving its Crescendo Crescendo Bioscience uses advanced physician gain incremental clinical insight. but rather a database that can support for success in the modern entrepreneurial product line, and pours a huge amount modeling techniques to identify the Patients get a definitive score and can track unstructured and semi-structured data.” world. Those who have grasped the idea, of its resources into development. “Over Bioscience signatures and patterns of specific their progress. This leads to greater patient and executed it perfectly, have risen to the 50% of our resources are spent building biomarkers that track the biological engagement, as well as better adherence to Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the top of their respective verticals. In 2008, new product formats that are innovative, www.crescendobio.com pathways of disease and mechanisms treatment and drug protocols.” company has raised $31 million in venture Andrew Grauer, a sophomore in Cornell in terms of new online flash cards, online systemically activated to provide greater funding from Accel Partners, Ignition University, applied that formula to the brain games, online tutoring and other William Hagstrom insight to clinicians as they manage Rheumatoid arthritis is just the beginning. Partners, Mayfield Fund, and North Bridge education sector, and now millions of different formats. Literally, over 50% of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, The company plans to develop similar Venture Partners. students take advantage of the services his our team are software engineers, product Life Sciences/Biotech starting with rheumatoid arthritis. tests for juvenile idiopathic arthritis, company, Course Hero, offers. managers, analytics and web designers,” It essentially makes the tracking and ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, “The key issue behind the rise of both says Mr. Grauer. California assessment of these diseases much more and systemic lupus erythematosus; each NoSQL and Hadoop is that they offer Throughout school, teachers, students, quantifiable and less subjective. starting in the U.S., then expanding to schema-less approaches that free the tutors and TAs were creating all this valuable These investments seem to be working, as Yes Europe and eventually into Asia. developer from having to predefine the information and a lot of the time we didn’t users of the platform have given the website The company’s first test, Vectra DA, data structures and thus have immense actually share it, especially students,” says good reviews. “Everyone has a different measures inflammatory disease activity Rheumatoid arthritis alone is a $1.5 billion flexibility,” said Robin Vasan, Managing Mr. Grauer, CEO of Course Hero. “And I learning style and not every textbook is » Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in rheumatoid arthritis patients based market. Globally, multiple autoimmune Director at the Mayfield Fund. “In found that to be a huge opportunity where right is for each student. Therefore, I found are some of the most difficult to manage on 12 discrete biomarkers, by assigning diseases present a $3 billion to $5 the specific case of Couchbase, their we could start taking that information in Course Hero to be very beneficial during as vastly different symptoms manifest an easy to understand score from one to billion market. “Crescendo Bioscience groundbreaking technology is the ability a crowd sourced way so it was affordable.” my college experience, since I could access in different people. Therapies that may 100, providing doctors with an objective is clearly pursuing a multi billion dollar to combine in memory caching with flash and use materials from other courses using be highly beneficial to some patients fail and precise basis to assess shifts and opportunity,” Mr. Hagstrom said. or disk-based persistence –to do this for Mr Grauer’s ambition was to connect a variety of teaching styles on similar to work in others with the exact same movements in a patient status and facilitate both key-value and document/JSON type students directly with content created at subject matters,” says Tyler Bean, of Boston diagnosis. Tracking disease progression improved treatment decisions throughout Launched in late 2010, Vectra DA is now data – and to allow seamless scalability and the school, rather than have them go to College. for many of these chronic illnesses and the the course of disease. used by more than 20 percent of the 3,500 replication within a cluster and across data another student or a teacher. “Ever since effect of their treatments rely on highly rheumatologists in the U.S. and more than centers.” then its been that same idea of building a Course Hero is growing rapidly, and the subjective methods that are difficult to “I find that the Vectra DA is a big benefit for 60,000 patients have received at least one quality base of content tools and services firm’s biggest challenge is to recruit the quantify and accurately reproduce. my patients,” said Dr. Alvin Wells, an MD test. In the last year, use of the test has Company growth has been phenomenal, that help students succeed and learn more required people to facilitate this growth. at the Rheumatology & Immunotherapy grown by over 2.5 times. It recently gained Mr. Yaseen said, with the first few months of effectively in their courses when they are “Over 80% of our costs are people related, For example, the most common Center in Wisconsin. “It allows me to get a Medicare acceptance and is now available 2013 yielding more business than previous enrolled in school. That’s never changed,” so human capital literally and figuratively measurement for the extent and severity better assessment of the disease activity at in all 50 states. So far, the test is only years combined. He views Couchbase as a he says. is the most important thing driving Course of rheumatoid arthritis includes a that point in time. It can be performed in offered in the U.S., but the company hopes billion dollar opportunity, and the next two Hero. So the idea of taking the time to hire physician’s external examination of a a timely manner that does not disrupt the to launch in Europe over the next 12 to 24 to three years will bring great acceleration The idea works so well in education now great people, not just in terms of IQ, but patient comprised of squeezing the joints flow of my day.” months. It is currently working with over a as NoSQL goes mainstream and the because of the change in the way content also persistence intelligence and emotional in a patient’s hands and other digits to dozen European collaborators that provide company reaches mass production. can be distributed, according to Mr. Grauer. intelligence is extremely important to me,” approximate the level inflammation and Typically, rheumatoid arthritis patients are rheumatology samples and data. As the cost of software and hardware has says Mr. Grauer. pain at that point in time. This subjective assessed two to four times a year in order to plummeted, more connected devices are assessment is used to determine a track the progression of their disease and Crescendo Bioscience’s test can potentially being sold and it is much easier, faster and The company’s focus continues to be on treatment plan for a debilitating disease the effect of interventional plans. Vectra save time and cost in the treatment of Course Hero cheaper to distribute the content gathered the products it offers and it has ambitious that can lead to cardiovascular disease, DA provides actionable information to a disease, which makes their approach by Course Hero to the students who want targets for the future. “For this calendar myocardial infarction and stroke as well as physicians at each step of the process attractive to insurance companies. Additionally, Vectra DA provides www.coursehero.com it. Previously, players in the education year we’ll have about 100,000 plus paid structural issues such as joint destruction, including therapy response, isolating the sector have been forced to sell to the large customers, and our goal is to double bone erosions and cartilage degradation effects of confounders and comorbidities as useful information to pharmaceutical companies developing new therapies by Andrew Grauer institutions such as the universities and again in the next calendar year. For us it’s which can lead to joint replacement well as identifying patients at most risk for schools, which causes higher barriers a combination of launching a number of surgeries. joint damage and those that have achieved demonstrating the speed and significance Internet/Online to entry. Now businesses can target the new product formats. We’ll start building a state of disease remission. Patients can of drug response. “It’s unusual in the students directly. out best of breed actual full curriculums of Given the level of disability in rheumatoid also self-track their disease symptoms and healthcare industry to find a business California courses, we’re going to start building those arthritis, up to 50 percent of patients leave progress between visits with the mobile model that benefits patients, doctors, Course Hero also changes the supply out as well,” concludes Mr. Grauer. the workforce within five to 10 years of app MyRA, currently available in iOS with insurance and pharma companies all at the No and demand dynamic of education. The diagnosis. With 10 biologic therapies on the an Android version expected in the next same time,” Mr. Hagstrom noted. students supply the vast majority of the market, early and accurate identification 12 months. content, and are also the consumers of a patient’s exact disease status can vastly Based in South San Francisco, Crescendo Bioscience has raised nearly $100 » Aggregating quality content and themselves, meaning they are both the improve interventions and increase the “Vectra DA provides a level of resolution, million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & distributing it to those who want it is as demand and the supply. rates of remission, thereby improving the accuracy and speed to be able to facilitate lives of the more than 4 million people better decisions for a disease that moves Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Skyline around the globe who suffer from the very rapidly,” said William Hagstrom, CEO Ventures, Safeguard Scientifics and Aeris disease. of Crescendo Bioscience. “We help the Capital. The company also has a strategic
152 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 153 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
partner, Myriad Genetics. Mr. Hagstrom “We’re thrilled to introduce this user- “Cvent’s platform has proven to be a pathogens and gets rid of them without all start off with, let’s focus on the science to the future, we have the potential to is targeting profitability in the first half of friendly mobile app. It is designed to valuable resource to our planners,” said adversely affecting healthy tissue. and let’s focus on the unmet medical need, become [a] fully integrated biotechnology 2014. Crescendo expects to exceed $30 eliminate the traditionally cumbersome David Peckinpaugh, CMP, president of and then we can figure out what’s the best company that, most likely through co- million in revenue this year. and manual check in process that is still Maritz Travel and Experient. “In the two “There are many proteins made in cancer partnership strategies, what’s the best development and co-commercialization prevalent throughout much of the meetings years that Maritz Travel has used Cvent’s cells that are good targets for antibody way [to create] shareholder value,” Exter arrangements, has the potential to “Crescendo Bioscience and Vectra DA and events industry,” said Brian Ludwig, platform, this unique solution has been therapy ... [but they] are often found says. “We really want to focus upon those commercialize our own products to reach represent not only an innovative technology senior vice president of sales at Cvent. extremely beneficial to our business by throughout the body in healthy, normal places where there [are the] breakthrough patients directly.” in a focused market, but also have a strong “OnArrival will help our customers gain enabling our planners to research and tissue,” McCarthy says. “The collateral technologies ... and there is that unmet business model and highly experienced efficiency, minimize lines for attendees source world-class destinations, at premier damage that can ensue from dosing a medical need. Because that, quite honestly, Pharma partnerships make access to global management team—all critical factors and be perceived as a cutting edge event venues for our clients, and we look forward patient systemically with an antibody for me, is the coolest thing in the world.” markets attainable and let CytomX grow in Skyline’s decision-making process to host. With a simple swipe of a finger or a to providing the same level of service to our can be that you see significant toxicities its international footprint — but that will invest,” said Leon Chen, Ph.D. at Skyline quick scan of a QR code, the app allows association, tradeshow and government in normal tissue when what you’re really Capital can also come from partnerships come later. “Realistically for an emerging Ventures. for simplified event access and removes clients under the Experient umbrella.” trying to do is to eliminate the tumor.” with pharmaceutical giants, who help biotech company we would most likely the need for unorganized and out-of-date give the company’s platform legs. Funding focus on the North American market in printed lists.” CytomX drugs aim to avoid hurting gets traded for focused, niche scientific terms of any direct commercialization that patients (through raised toxicities) when we do,” McCarthy says. “But the industry’s Cvent The firm also recently launched a new trying to help beat tumors. innovation in symbiotic deals. “Pharma is evolving at a very rapid rate, and who support center for its customers. The CytomX willing to put down significant amounts of knows what additional models might be “The Probody idea is to make an antibody capital to access this type of innovation,” out there and available to us in the future.” www.cvent.com company partnered with Salesforce.com Therapeutics in order to offer the new resources. The that would only be able to interact with the McCarthy says. “It’s much easier for us diseased tissue and not with healthy tissue, Reggie Aggarwal support center includes a knowledge base www.cytomx.com to innovate as thirty people in south San which is fully searchable. This features and that in doing so, open up what we call Francisco all in one building than it is for therapeutic [windows] for the drug and Software training videos, step by step instructions Sean McCarthy a major multinational pharma company to allow us to dose patients more effectively,” and guides. Cvent clients are also able to innovate when their discovery scientists he says. Drillinginfo Virginia sign up to online courses and in-person Life Sciences/Biotech are spread across the globe in multiple training session, and also submit questions. time zones.” McCarthy calls the antibody drug market www.drillinginfo.com California Yes “established,” with companies like Abbott “Our team is committed to offering This past June, CytomX received a funding and Genentech promoting Humira Allen Gilmer our clients world-class support for our Yes boost from Pfizer, who they’ll partner with (labeled the first $10 billion antibody » entire event management platform and to create and promote Probody solutions. Cvent, a cloud based event platform, drug) and Kadcycla, respectively. Bringing Cloud Computing helping them maximize their use of our The deal entitles CytomX to around $635 recently went public, highlighting the value products to patients, he says, requires products,” said Manjula Aggarwal, senior » million, put to various uses. Texas of the company, and the market it operates In the fight against cancer and other substantial funding. in. vice president of client services at Cvent. diseases, treatments sometimes target sick “That alliance for us is a huge milestone “While our client services representatives cells embedded in healthy tissue; meaning Yes Early on, angels provided Series A because it says that one of the major The Virginia based firm, which offers are always available to assist our customers, when pathogens are eliminated, the baby’s capital to get CytomX up and running. companies out there (in this case in solutions to event planners for various the new support center provides our clients thrown out with the bathwater. Venture financing came later when oncology) has put a stamp of approval tasks such as event registration, venue with direct access, right at their fingertips, » Years ago, investing in the oil and gas Third Rock Ventures led a $30 million on CytomX technology and the Probody selection and email marketing, announced to an extensive database of information CytomX and its Probody Platform work sector was a real gamble. Funding ventures Series B in 2010 with the Roche Venture concept,” McCarthy says. the pricing of 5,600,000 shares of common about our products, giving them the option hard to make sure treatments don’t take Fund contributing. Canaan Partners involved aiming for the right well and stock at a price of $21 per share. Shares the good with the bad, targeting harmful to search for information or troubleshoot spearheaded an expansion of the Series B Down the line, CytomX anticipates future landu using a bunch of papers and relying proteins in cancer cells without raising began trading on August 9th and by the at their own convenience.” round two years later, growing the funding partnerships and an expanded role in the on experts’ advice. Today, better analysis toxicities. end of the month were priced at above $35 pot to $41 million. biotech marketplace. “If we fast forward of the market allows investors to target the The company’s platform has proved popular a share. two or three years, CytomX will be a right places to drill. One of these analytic among the travel and events planning Founded in 2010, the San Francisco-based McCarthy believes CytomX’s investor base company that is running its own clinical systems is Drilling Info, which provides Earlier this year the company announced industry. Cvent signed an agreement in company evolved from a 2006 LLC out of helps set it apart. “Third Rock Ventures trials and treating patients with Probodies the most recent research and information a new mobile application called OnArrival, July with Experient, a subsidiary of travel University of California, Santa Barbara. ... have been very focused on funding under trials we’ll be running ourselves,” about land titles, mineral leases, well- designed to help customers streamline program provider Maritz Travel. Experient Co-founding scientist Patrick Daugherty transformational science over the last five McCarthy says. “And then looking further completion (which gets a well ready for the onsite event check in process. The selected the Cvent platform for preferred sought to modify antibody genes to make or six years, and funding companies in a application works together with the use with its clients. Through the agreement, therapies more effective. “The intellectual way that they’re set up to succeed,” he says. Cvent event management platform which Experient is expected to use the Cven property coming out of UCSB, we have provides event organizers with real time Supplier Network to source more than two exclusively licensed into CytomX,” says Third Rock Ventures partner Neil Exter, registration lists onsite and gives them the million hotel room nights annually. CytomX CEO Sean McCarthy. Years of who serves on CytomX’s board, says their ability to run attendance reports on the research and experimentation yielded meetings begin not with the books, but main platform. the Probody, a molecule that locks onto with a scientific state of the union. “They
154 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 155 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
drilling) and well-production data, and today but we are specifically strong in currently serves 3,000 customers, with a 10 Elance was bootstrapped until the first round of Rosati. He explains that 50 percent of allows oil and gas market participants to Africa, South and Southeast Asia and percent yearly growth rate of subscribers, investment took place in 2012. the company’s investments account for make well-informed decisions about their Central and South America,” he explains. Gilmer says. Half of that 10 percent are www.Elance.com market expansion and 50 percent for investment. In 2009, Drilling Info acquired HPDI (now new and half upgrade their subscriptions In the past, the vast majority of freelancers infrastructure and new technologies. “If DI Desktop), a nationwide production to higher level products. Fabio Rosati were hired by aggregators. In a market we’re able to collect and analyze more The system includes important industry data provider, and expanded their North where 90 percent of businesses in the U.S. data, and personalize the matches, we can data on prime acreage, lease boundaries, American operations. One of Drilling Info’s biggest competitors Internet/Online hire contingent workers (data from the reduce time-to-hire and be more efficient,” well histories, permits and more using is the American corporation IHS, which American Staffing Association) there was he says. interactive maps and digitized documents. “When we tried to raise money for this is used by businesses and governments California room for more hiring platforms. The DI [Drilling Info] Geology service we had a business plan that was not VC- in more than 165 countries and had “They had a great workflow process to allows analysis of an area of interest and friendly, because they wanted us to do been around for years. Petroleum Geo- Yes Freelancing has become the “sole source manage our jobs and keep track of hours, identifies payzones — areas that yield oil something small. We gave up on them and Services (PGS) for marine seismic and of income” for 48 percent of respondents and a ‘work view’ option to follow along and gas. It includes scanned files that allow got professional funding from people like electromagnetic services and products is according to a survey of freelancers our contractors to see their work,” says the user to locate major flooding areas. The us. Years later, I met someone from these another competitor located in Norway. » As many enterprises in the world expand conducted by Elance in 2012. Some think Xan Hood, founder of Buffalo Jackson, Geological Data Center, a 6,000 square foot VCs and he said ‘I finally understand what That company provides international their freelance-based staff, hiring platforms freelancers lack specific skills or education. an American clothing and leather goods warehouse of proprietary paper assets, will you guys do,’” Gilmer says. data and has 35 offices worldwide, with for independent contractors become key Elance’s survey proved them wrong, as company that has worked with Elance be available to subscribers via the platform. employees of more than 70 nationalities. A for efficient HR systems. This becomes 69 percent of respondents held at least a to find subcontractors in areas of SEO, The company grew from zero to 40 million smaller competitor is the private P2 Energy even more important when online hiring bachelor’s degree. In addition, the “Elance branding, accounting, and programming. Drilling Info’s Production Charting dollars in revenues with $6 million primary Solutions, which provides similar data to of professionals can be accomplished easily University” tool helps freelancers develop “We have been able to keep our overhead application analyzes the state of decline investment in pre-A rounds over the first Drilling Info to both the oil-and-gas sector on a global scale. skills that are in high demand through low by hiring more specialized sub- wells are in and project what condition two to three years of its existence. Initial and the alternative energy sector. their 400 online tests. contractors instead of full-time employees, they’ll be in soon. Production information funding came from individual investors, Elance is a global online staffing platform saving our small startup costs, but still in the U.S., Canada and more goes as far mostly from the oil and gas industry “and “Drilling Info provides the most advanced for independent freelance professionals. According to Elance, the skills most allowing us to grow and expand into more back as the 1930s and 1950s, while the one architect,” Gilmer says. He adds that data, analysis and decision-support solution Independent contractors can create demanded of freelancers in 2011 were PHP contract workers than we could have system also tracks live drilling progress in the company has been profitable on a for the E&P industry via an integrated SaaS- online profiles, submit proposals for jobs programming, WordPress programming, otherwise in specialized areas,” he says. specific areas, such as Texas and Louisiana. cash-flow basis in the past few years, and based solution,” says Parekh, “All this leads and receive payment through the Elance article-writing, graphic design, and HTML Drilling Info’s team of geologists, engineers reached break-even in 2005. He aims to to better productivity and better results for website. Businesses, on the other end, can programming, all of which can be done Other sites that provide similar services are and analysts put together current studies become a company that’s mid-$70 million customers.” As it expands internationally, use the website to post jobs and search remotely, or a world away. Guru, Freelancer and oDesk. “We focus on shale oil and gas in the U.S. and in in size by the end of 2013. adds new data products and increases its for freelancers while evaluating them on high-quality clients and have higher Which freelance jobs pay the best? international markets that concentrate workflow software capabilities, Drilling according to their qualifications, work community earnings than any other system,” Information technology jobs such as on where the best oil-and-gas producing Funding came in 2012 with a round led Info’s faces the challenge of continuing to history, ratings, portfolios, and skill test Rosati says. Elance freelancers have earned web and mobile programming and acreage is and who the top operators are. by Insight Venture Partners amounting to achieve profitable growth while scaling scores. Once a contractor is selected, the nearly $800 million to date, altogether, $300 development account for the majority of $167 million. “As the U.S. continues on its infrastructure and its employee base. project’s files can be exchanged through million of which was earned in the past earnings on Elance (59 percent), followed Drilling Info started in 1999 as an online path toward energy independence, Drilling Insight believes that Allen Gilmer and the Elance system. year, according to the company. permit-and-completion mapping database. Info’s data intelligence tools are essential his management team can deal with this by creative jobs (24 percent), marketing (7 “We were a bunch of independent oil and for oil and gas market participants,“ obstacle easily. In 1998, Elance founder Srinivas Anumolu percent), and operations (7 percent). In addition, Elance provides payment gas producers, frustrated with access to says Deven Parekh, board member and was inspired by a single article titled: protection for fixed price and hourly-basis Contractors and businesses pay information,” says the company’s CEO, partner at Insight Venture Partners. In “The whole market for decision support “The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy”, jobs. “We have the most sophisticated commission fees to Elance for every job, Allen Gilmer. In the past, most of the February 2013, Insight led the $167 million is worth a couple of billion dollars, and published in the Harvard Business Review. workforce management system, and making for a simple business model. The information was in a physical format, investment in Drilling Info. The two work we’ve entered the unconventional side of He recognized the need for technology companies are actually bringing their own service can measure both hourly-rate jobs requiring producers to collect massive closely together on the company’s strategy. it, with a predictive way to most efficiently capable of supporting virtual work and contractors on to our system,” he says, with automatic timesheets and project- amounts of paper before turning it into “Insight has assisted Drilling Info with maximize investments,” Gilmer concludes. created the first version of the site in mentioning that Mozilla chose to manage based jobs, with statements of work or digitized information. Gilmer’s team three acquisitions since our investment, With the increasing need for better ways 1999. Two years later Elance introduced a its net of freelance engineers on the Elance milestones. Elance automatically includes wanted to change that. the most recent of which was Transform to analyze data in the oil and gas industry, vendor management system (VMS), and platform. a service fee of 8.75 percent in every salary Software, the industry leader in analytic the company’s technological innovation in 2006 Elance sold its enterprise software offer that contractors send out to potential In 2004, Drilling Info acquired a historical interpretation and modeling,” says Parekh. can serve as its key to overcome the division and began to develop its current Elance estimates its market at $1 trillion, employers. Additional revenue comes database from PennEnergy and started competition and grow in the future. web-based platform for online work. at more than $400 billion in U.S. and $400 its own consulting group, and by 2008 Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Drilling from paid membership plans, which allow billion in Europe. “We’re growing at 50 the company launched into the global info has close to 500 employees in Austin, “I made a decision to sell since I saw contractors to submit more than 40 job percent year-over-year, with almost $200 arena after signing a joint venture with the UK and Singapore. an opportunity,” says Fabio Rosati, proposals per month. million in revenues in 2012 and $300 U.K-based partners. Today, international Elance’s CEO. “We presented a plan to million in 2013,” Rosati says. The company raised money in 2007 to sales make up 10 percent of Drilling info’s The business generates revenue from one- our investors to build a direct-to-talent expand into more markets such as Europe, totals, Gilmer says. “We work everywhere to-three-year subscriptions. Drilling Info platform, and similarly allow individuals The company is headquartered in the and is currently not profitable. “We’re to be directly hired.” The new company U.S. with additional offices stationed in making a lot of investments today,” says London, Oslo, Berlin and several U.S.
156 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 157 Top 100 Companies: North America
cities. Countries with a large enough user- downtime and slash incident investigation systems and located in Alexandria, VA. base get an “Elance ambassador,” of which time. Evolven’s IT Operations Analytics VSE installed Evolven’s application and there are currently more than 100 spread help accelerate incident resolution, avoid had a complete operational system in Real-Time Advertising across different markets. harmful and risky changes, and assess and less than one day, and above the initial optimize IT operations performance. requirements that VSE had, according As of February 2013, about 500,000 to Chivers. “As a Federal Contractor Deserves Real-Time Analytics businesses use Elance. Despite 2 million Based on the size of the managed supporting the Federal Government, VSE freelance professionals from more than technology environment, a subscription competes all procurements, and during the Introducing Metamarkets’ Visual Analytics Engine, designed for 150 countries already registered on the model and licensing are available for procurement process we have found that site, Elance still pushes to build market customers. “We operate using a ‘land Evolven was the best value for the services media buyers, publishers, and ad marketplaces. awareness. “The numbers are still small and expand’ approach,” says Gilenson, that it provides compared to other vendors compared to the size of the market, and we explaining that from the subscription with similar applications,” Chivers ads. know that there are a hundred times more moment, the solution can grow in two freelancers and businesses,” Rosati says. dimensions, either through additional The company is developing new products, teams that start to use Analytics results to while finding new partners across the get insight into areas of their responsibility, globe. “Our focus is on growing revenues or through the distribution of Evolven to from software licenses while our partners additional environments to include them expand their value added services including Evolven into the analysis process. or based on Evolven’s technology,” Gilenson www.evolven.com says. In three rounds of funding, the company raised a total of $16M from Pitango Venture IT Operations Analytics was identified Sasha Gilenson Capital and Index Ventures. The company by Gartner as an on-the-rise, strategic Software reached profitability in 2012. However, area of IT management. The change and the management decided to utilize its configuration management segment, where New Jersey investment to expand the team and focus Evolven started, was estimated around on continuous growth. “Our decision $6B last year, by various industry analysts. Yes on the timing of additional funding will Gilenson estimates that the company will be defined by our ability to fulfill the reach the size of $30M by 2015. growth opportunity. Current feeling is The key indirect competitors the Evolven » IT operations teams can confront that we will not be able to address market has are Splunk, headquartered in San overwhelming and dynamic data that may demand without significant expansion,” Francisco with 600 employees worldwide, disrupt the performance of their business Gilenson says. and TripWire, headquartered in Portland, operations. Evolven aims to solve these “We need to grow and expand very rapidly Oregon, which has operations in 15 issues using innovative analytics. in all dimensions,” he ads, as he mentions countries. Gilenson says that the company “I saw how many enterprises were the sales teams, product and marketing. doesn’t have direct competition, “Our frustrated with critical business systems “The entire sales team has names starting differentiation lies in applying analytics to going down or underperforming, and with J, so there is an unofficial belief in the the change and configuration challenges,” how complexity and gaps in IT operations company that a salesperson should have he says, explaining that this application to Featuring created problems that no technology ‘the right name’ to succeed,” Gilenson ads. IT analytics doesn’t exist in other solutions. filled,” says Sasha Gilenson, Founder Audience Analysis, Uniques, Bid Management, Price and Revenue Optimization, Evolven has 25 employees and serves about “Evolven’s solution turns a pile of data and CEO for Evolven. Gilenson founded 50 customers in the U.S., Europe, and the into actionable insights,” says Rona Inventory Visibility, Reporting and Collaboration Tools Evolven in 2007 after spending 13 years at Middle East. Segev, a General partner at PITANGO. Mercury Interactive (which was acquired Pitango decided to invest in Evolven due by HP), developing the company’s Business “Using Evolven we’re able to know exactly to a strong and growing market need, Technology Optimization (BTO) strategy Metamarkets’ award-winning, cloud-based service is built on the online advertising industry’s most what has changed in our environment, unique technology that can really disrupt and establishing Mercury Interactive’s investigate incident root-cause, maintain the industry and a strong founding and Software as a Service (SaaS) group, and powerful, integrated stack of data management, analysis, and visualization tools. Our technology environment consistency, validate changes, management team. “Evolven is really at more. and eliminate configuration drift,” says the beginning of a strong growth curve. puts your data at your fingertips with an intuitive, interactive, and visual interface. Dave Chivers, Vice President and Chief Evolven applied a new analytics approach to With dozens of blue chip customers Information Officer of VSE Corporation, resolve change and configuration challenges already on board, technology that is way which focuses on improving governmental and dramatically minimize the risk of ahead compared to any other company For more information,visit metamarkets.com
158 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
in the market and strong and growing marketing platform to minimize its costs, Qualcomm Ventures and Charles River website to complete paperless billing sign service and want to use it. It’s a service that Bonnie Crater, CEO of Full Circle CRM. market demand — we believe Evolven is dropping its price per download to a mere Ventures. It employs 140 people and up, downloading all available documents can make just about anyone’s life easier.” The remaining 20 percent is an experiment. well poised to disrupt the industry,” Segev 26 cents. competes against Taptica. for the past year to create a digital file How does an advertiser measure success concludes. cabinet. The inbox features digital copies A founder of three successful previous from failure? It then developed a corporate product that With the mobile app market expected to of a user’s bills and relevant due dates. A companies, Pareek was inspired to launch provided a complete network to all app be $80 billion to $100 billion over the next premium version of the service also enables the company from his own frustrations Full Circle CRM provides the only advertising sources, a complex system that few years, Adler anticipates tremendous automatic bill pay. with bill pile-up. His most recent company, marketing performance management varies according to the type of ad as well as opportunity for his company. As apps AdviceAmerica, was a wealth management tool built completely on Salesforce.com. Fiksu the type of app. transition into cars and televisions, and Aside from the premium bill pay function, enterprise class platform. He understood This allows the company to manipulate digital downloads for goods and music the service is completely free, with the bill the problem of bill management, and when and measure data in a complete historical www.fiksu.com Through a simple SDK with a user- become more popular, Adler does not see providers picking up the tab, saving at least he looked into existing solutions, found record so it maintains its integrity, without friendly data interface, the product why Fiksu could not eventually be a multi- $1 per bill in postal and handling fees off that most services required the user to the standard workflows of the marketing Micah Adler optimizes performance results for expense billion dollar company. their own balance sheets. register with each company, which proved team rendering it invalid or corrupted. The and effectiveness. It improves not only Mobile too time consuming. “We knew that digital company’s software enables the marketing the rate of downloads, but the quality of “We’re starting to see larger clients enter “Ultimately, the household is going to was the way to go, but it had to be an easy department to accurately measure every those downloads as well. Whereas only the mobile app market with more serious go paperless. The writing is on the wall,” Massachusetts service to join,” Pareek said. “The more we face of a marketing campaign. 20 percent of downloaded apps are used investment potential,” Adler said. said Purna Pareek, CEO of Finovera. “The looked at the problem, we realized it was beyond the first day, and only 5 percent of mail is the last digital hold out. Finovera “The next big trend in marketing is being Yes indeed solvable, but difficult. It required a apps beyond the first month, Fiksu’s users provides a digital file cabinet in the cloud complex solution.” able to measure effectively,” Crater said. see a 50 percent adoption rate for their with all bill statements, notices, or what “Often, sales and marketing teams don’t apps. Typically, Fiksu improves the cost for you ever you choose to upload and store.” Finovera will first concentrate on the US have the right data to be able to have » Fiksu’s first customer for its mobile app marketing an app by a factor of three. Finovera market, and then adapt the software to a productive conversation and work marketing platform was itself. Founded The company competes against Dropbox, other countries. Digital bill pay is further together. We solve that sales and marketing in 2008, the company was originally www.finovera.com “We make it very easy to reach mobile users PayTrust, eBills and BillingOrchard, but evolved in Europe, with many national divide with our software. We can define founded through the marketing efforts through a single platform,” Adler said. “We these services require the user to make post offices implementing their own digital what is not doing well so budgets can be of its own app, Fluent News Reader. That Purna Pareek establish a great degree of efficiency so a connection to the provider. Finovera alternatives to cut costs. adjusted successfully.” app was lucky enough to have a successful our customers do not pay more than they provides a one-step, simplified approach launch and was featured in the New York Internet/Online can afford. And we provide visibility into that makes paperless adoption as simple The company has raised seed and angel Founded by ex-Salesforce talent, the Times, resulting in tens of thousands the true value of users so our clients can as setting up an email account. “Most of investment, and plans to soon raise a Series company grounded itself in Salesforce’s of downloads. However, the flow soon California optimize every cent.” these solutions are time consuming, which A of around $5 million. platform from the beginning. Crater dwindled to a trickle, dropping from is a huge barrier to adoption,” Pareek worked as marketing VP for a number of thousands of daily downloads to a mere No The Boston-based company first launched said. “Finovera uses very complicated, “It is clear that digital billing is the wave of different companies, helping to bring them handful practically overnight. in beta to 10 customers around 2010, sophisticated technology so that set-up is a the future,” Pareek said. “We simplify the on to Salesforce, and later went onto work with a full public launch in April of 2011. simple one step process.” sign up process, and in turn, simplify the for Salesforce itself. She got a call from Such experiences are typical with apps — » The mailbox is a money pit for consumer Last April, Fiksu marketed its billionth lives of our customers significantly.” Andrea Wildt, a former product manager even those with heavy traction initially businesses. Businesses send out over 30 download, generating over 100 billion Finovera beta user Toby Salgado described for Salesforce’s marketing project, who soon find themselves spinning their billion paper bills, statements and notices launches, registrations, and in-app the setup process as “a breeze,” though it worked as a consultant for companies that wheels. Micah Adler, Fiksu’s CEO, was every year, costing more than $30 billion purchases. Growing over 300 percent required a verification by his bank because had difficulty measuring their marketing not about to give up, however. A former in postage and handling fees. Despite annually, Fiksu today serves over 400 he had not previously used Finovera efforts. The two joined forces with Dan tenured professor of Computer Science pushes from financial services and utility Full Circle CRM customers, including Groupon, which servers. “After using the service for a while Appleton, who had written several popular at the University of Massachusetts, Adler companies, paperless adoption currently uses its marketing to improve download I have found it extremely useful,” Salgado Windows programming books. They built helped launch four successful companies lingers below 11 percent. Most people www.fullcirclecrm.com quality. said. “I have actually saved a bunch of the platform for Full Circle CRM over the that used computer science and algorithms simply do not have the time to sign up money because of Finovera. When I only next year and a half. to make digital marketing more efficient. for paperless billing with every provider, Bonnie Crater “We’re a commerce business, and we got paper statements I never really looked He observed the inefficiencies inherent leaving the bills to pile sky high on the need our advertising to be efficient,” said at them, and now because I have 12 months “We realized that sales and marketing in marketing an app. Fluent News Reader kitchen table. Cloud Computing David Katz, Vice-president of Consumer of statements I have found myself digging people did not have right data,” Crater was marketed through three different Mobile at Groupon. “We don’t just want Finovera makes that proverbial pile of through them.” California said. “They are only guessing. We sought to companies, for example, costing the downloads — we want new customers who bills obsolete. Within a single ten minute remove the guesswork.” company $3 per download, an expense are going to love the app and hopefully Taking its time to get the process right, the sign-up process, the company’s software Yes that made monetization nearly impossible. buy Groupons. We look to Fiksu to help company only recently came out of a private They launched Full Circle CRM at automatically signs a user up for paperless us find the pockets of ad inventory with beta program with 1,000 users. “We’re early Dreamforce in fall of 2012. Already, they “We found tremendous inefficiencies billing with every provider she does users most likely to become loyal Groupon in the process, but we’re seeing a lot of pent have over 15 customers on the platform, in how mobile apps are marketed, and business with. The user simply logs in to » Even in a well-run marketing campaign, customers.” up demand,” Pareek said. “Pretty much ranging from tech to financial services realized we could do better,” Adler said. Finovera, and the company’s software only about 80 percent of the marketing everyone we talk to are excited about the to telecommunications, including Good automatically goes to each business’s dollars are actually spent correctly, asserts In six months, the company developed a The company has raised $18 million from
160 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 161 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Technology and Java. It has been growing Gainsight “Recurring revenue business models have “In the past it’s been a concept that has as simple as the home scale, to know what smart appliances or smart air conditioners. at over 100 percent annually. permeated most industries and companies been around for many years, but there’s not their weight trend is or what their health Over the next three years, that should www.gainsight.com are realizing that customer retention is been the technology available to actually status us.” change. But everybody is working on it, The company’s market is currently entirely just as strategic as customer acquisition,” push it forward,” says Peter Cooney, right. So, you’ll see those things over the focused on the US, though it plans to Nick Mehta said Roger Lee, general partner at Battery Practice Director at ABI Research. “So I A typical client of GainSpan’s will order next two or three years.” expand into Europe by 2014. It raised seed Ventures. “Gainsight, with its innovative think being able to connect wirelessly is between 25,000 and 100,000 pieces of funding and is currently raising a Series A. Software technology, is helping businesses navigate the main thing driving it forward.” its technology per year, according to Mr. this transition and maximize revenue from Winner. An example would be a firm As Salesforce is an open source model, a California existing customers.” One company which is supplying the tools launching its first thermostat that is WiFi competitor could try a similar approach, for the internet of everything is GainSpan, enabled, while around 30% of the firm’s Gen-E Crater admits. Full Circle CRM has built Gainsight’s founder, Jim Emberlin a Californian firm which designs and customers are starting on their second Yes www.gen-e.com a robust platform, however, that would previously created Host Analytics, a markers low power Wi-Fi semiconductor project. take at least two years to duplicate, giving provider of cloud-based corporate products and solutions. “We support the Casey Kindiger it a considerable head start. Plus, the » Gainsight, which was formerly known as performance management software. With internet of things market. The company The draw to work in this area was not just company’s previous roots in Salesforce the obvious potential for riches, as Mr. JBara, helps companies reduce customer its latest round of funding and its name was started in 2006. It was incubated Software also give it an edge on the market. “Our attrition by leveraging big data. The change last April, Gainsight hired Nick inside of Intel,” explains Greg Winner, Adams explains: “When you see a new company is an expert at building products technology that has the chance to change company performs customer success Mehta, formerly CEO of LiveOffice, a President and CEO of Gainspan. “What California on the Salesforce platform,” Crater said. management. Its tools monitor customer cloud-based archiving company that was we’re not doing is phones, TVs, PCs and the way people do things and improve not “We know Salesforce customers. We only the energy consumption, the way satisfaction and use of a product in order acquired by Symantec. tablets, that’s not us. Yes are Salesforce customers. We know the to predict customer behavior. people live and can make a positive impact, ecosystem personally.” A thing [in this sense] is really something you want to be involved in something like that’s powered by a microcontroller. There t h at .” The company utilizes big data from sales, » Gen-E makes it easier for companies Though the company is early in its are more than 10 billion of those.” usage logs, surveys, and support tickets to step into the automated world of inception, Crater expects it to be earning GainSpan Mr. Adams was involved in the company to establish a customer health score that information systems. The company’s $50 million to $150 million in the next Examples of the appliances which use when it was being incubated at Intel, while identifies churn risk before the client www.gainspan.com Resolve Social IT process automation three to five years. She views Full Circle Gainspan technology are smart plugs, Mr. Winner was working for a competitor jumps to a competitor. It monetizes on (ITPA) speeds up the adoption of CRM as a billion dollar opportunity. air conditoners, body fat scales, wireless for just short of a year. This gave him the an SaaS model, with priced based on the Greg Winner process automation by providing speakers and many, many more. The opportunity to see the market and the number of users per month. In addition administration services for Resolve and If implemented early, the Full Circle company doesn’t design the actual customers, while Mr. Adams was primarily to reducing attrition, Gainsight, which is Other Tivoli Automation softwares. For example, marketer can adjust its outreach to optimize products, it embeds its technology into involved in the technology. based in Mountain View in California, also Gen-e arranges critical IT processes across customers, maintained Denis Pombriant, them, which means it works closely with works to identify clients with potential up- California different systems and cloud environments. Managing Principal of Beagle Research, manufacturers. This can sometimes be a Gainspan sets itself apart from the sell opportunities. Once administration is better taken the CRM analyst firm. Proactivity is the challenge for the company. “One challenge competition in the market in many ways, Yes care of, businesses can focus on other point of big data, Pombriant said. is the development cycle is longer for one of which is security. There is an “Data is transforming industries and improvements, such as innovation and these types of products. Number two — emphasis on security in this field as the business processes around the world. customer service. “Analyzing the sales data isn’t going to the customers don’t have a background in items in the internet of everything are Yet many companies today still don’t » The number of wirelessly connected change it, but the resulting information will WiFi and the IT content, the networking connected to people, and as such can be leverage data to understand their existing devices on the market in 2012, reached 10 Gen-E was founded in 1999, with a inform future sales processes and improve and mobile apps. Maybe the third thing very personal. Something as simple as a customers after they come on board,” said billion, according to recent research. The focus on ITPA and later on IT service the probability of success,” Pombriant said. is you’re going in an explaining how WiFi thermostat in a house, if accessed by an Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight, which report from ABI Research also forecast that management (ITSM). Since then, the “At its core, data is just data. It doesn’t can actually be a low power. We were one outside source, could tell a stranger when was founded in 2012. “Companies, from this figure will reach around 30 billion by company has created an enterprise software become useful until someone transforms of the first companies out there explaining someone wakes up and goes to sleep. healthcare to financial services to retail, 2020. These connected devices all make up for hundreds of telecommunication it into information that people use to that there’s maybe a better way to approach “That’s something that are competitors, are moving to a model where financial one concept – the internet of everything. service providers, financial services firms create knowledge upon which they make this stuff,” says Mr. Winner. they probably do not spend enough success depends on customer success. and large enterprises. Headquartered in decisions.” time on, if you connect things that are Gainsight’s mission is to help businesses of The internet of everything, also called the San Clemente, California, the company Aside from better infrastructure and very personal to you to the internet, the all sizes reduce customer churn, drive up- internet of things and machine to machine currently operates with 100 employees The company is based in San Mateo, Calif. wireless connectivity, there are other factors security that needs to go with it can’t be sell and maximize customer satisfaction by (M2M), has long been discussed in the in North America, Europe, Australia which have spurred on the success of the underestimated,” says Mr. Adams. using big data analytics to power insight technology community, and in essence and Asia. The number two credit card internet of everything, and also Gainspan. and action.” means connecting pretty much everything processing company in the U.S , the third We connect things to the internet and then It’s clear this a growing market, but the through the internet. However, until now largest wireless carrier and the fourth people to those things, the consumers have evidence is not quite in the high street on Gainsight’s early customers include well the concept has not taken off, mainly largest bank in the world are also part of got more sophisticated,” says Lew Adams, a large scale. “Even today people are not established names in the SaaS space, such due to the limitations in technology and the client list, according to the company. CTO of Gainspan. “Consumers are used shipping smart appliances in any kind of as Marketo, Jive Software, Informatica, infrastructure. But now all that is changing. to connecting to the internet instead of volume. So, it’s still one of the emerging and Eloqua. It has raised $9 million from “One of our large wireless carriers uses just making phone calls and so now they application spaces,” says Mr. Winner. “Even Battery Adventures. our product every time someone calls the are connecting to devices like something today, you go to the store, you don’t see
162 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 163 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
customer care server. They pull up our profitability in 2013. “We expect to be at or a firm for annual employee surveys. He Yet it’s the employers who are reviewed that jobs resource has been able to cross the set of eyes, available anywhere, anytime, product to diagnose the customer’s issue, near 15 million revenue by 2015,” he says. accidentally left the company’s executive pay Glassdoor’s bills, not the employees chasm and offer this type of value to both with an Internet connection.” it looks at the network to see the clients book in a conference room, complete doing the reviewing. The company is job seekers and employers. We chose to performance, billing information, changes “Me and a couple of other founders with printed off employee stock options, actually in the job recruitment business, invest in Glassdoor because we strongly Hoover himself was introduced to on the infrastructure, the product takes organically built the customer base” salaries, comments, and other qualitative and it is Glassdoor’s transparency that believe in the direction the senior leaders Grammarly as a registered user. A prior all the information and put it in a non- Kindiger says. In 2012 they partnered with data, information definitely not meant for gives it a leg up. A Glassdoor Whitepaper are taking the company and future for the venture capitalist for General Catalyst technical way. This way, it reduces the a California-based private equity partner, public consumption. found that when an employee researches a business.” Partners, Hoover sought ways to ensure his problem of ‘let me take the information Solis capital partners, which invested in job, she is 22 percent less likely to attrite out emails and other communications sounded and get back to you’,” Casey Kindiger, Gen- the business. The company isn’t looking An assistant found the book the next day, of the company than someone who never their best. He looked up Grammarly, and e’s President and CEO, explains. for any specific funding at the moment, no harm done. Yet the question burned researched the company. “Glassdoor’s 13 was so impressed with the company that but Kindiger is “exploring all options.” in Hohman’s mind: So what? If one left million unique monthly visitors tend to be he left his investment career to become its A large part of the company’s management photocopies of anonymous salaries, stock very educated, more selective and the kind Grammarly CEO. team earned their business skills while “We’re good at making existing customers options, and critiques from each company of person who can be choosy about where www.grammarly.com previously working for Deloitte. Kindiger, buy more products,” he says. “The employee on every desk in the office, they want to work next,” Hohman said. The product features highly sophisticated for example, was a consultant for leading challenge is to scale and get new ones at would the world stop spinning? algorithms that run on cloud infrastructure, “Our audience makes an attractive market Brad Hoover companies at Deloitte’s Enterprise Systems a faster rate.” One way to reach that goal for employers to recruit.” boasting a higher degree of processing is offering a community edition for free “We had always claimed to value power than a desktop model such as management practice and later served as Cloud Computing the Vice President of Professional Services so customers can trial the software, and transparency as official public policy Glassdoor’s products are designed to bring Microsoft. The company runs on an SaaS another is creating a software-as-a-service because it made people do their jobs better,” platform, with subscriptions ranging for Tidal Software, Inc. (purchased by employers in contact with candidates best California Cisco in 2009), a provider of intelligent version during 2013. said Hohman, Glassdoor’s Co-founder suited for each hire. The company is paid anywhere from $3 per month to $140 per and CEO. “We’ve always tried to run the year. Most users access the service through application management and automation on a performance based advertising model. No solutions. Maybe thanks to that, Gen-e has Gen-e faces competition from companies company so we could look anyone in face the Grammarly website, loading content teamed with Tidal Software in the past. such as ServiceNow, which launched its and explain why their salary was different Glassdoor serves 750 clients, including through a copy and paste function and then IPO last year for $1 billion size, one of from anyone else. We realized that this big name corporations like Facebook, checking it through the cloud, or through a » Grammarly’s English grammar tool was From Tidal Software, Gen-e went on the largest IPOs in 2012 in this space. information, while rather uncomfortable Amazon, Groupon and Pepsi, but also Microsoft Office plug-in. The paid product developed by people who speak English to foster alliances with other leading ServiceNow provides cloud-based services at first, ultimately make individuals and smaller mom and pop operations of fewer comes with a free trial period. The company as a second language but wanted to write ISVs including Micromuse, Remedy, to IT operations, focusing on the internal the company perform better.” than 30 employees. Over the last four years, also offers Light, a free grammar checking like it was their first. A cloud-powered InfoVista, Peregrine and IBM. IBM’s help desk, with a ticketing tool that revenues have grown 196 percent CAGR. browser extension for Chrome, Safari and grammar tool, Grammarly is the brainchild Tivoli Automation software soon became captures information. And so Glassdoor was born. Since its Firefox. of the development team of MyDropBox, the main software that Gen-E’s centers of foundation in June of 2007, Glassdoor With $14 billion spent on job advertising one of the leading detection products that business focused on. As the need for better IT systems grows, has grown to a community of 20 million annually, Glassdoor strives to be the largest Santosh Mankala, a software engineer at was sold to Blackboard. As a reward, the Gen-e will face more competition, as well members with 13 million unique visitors job posting website with revenue in the Salesforce.com whose first language is not founders told the development team to “We started as a service display, that was as a growing market for its products. every month. Over four million pieces billions, similar to LinkedIn or Monster English, said he uses the service for nearly take a year off and solve the most intriguing the fastest way to make impact, and then of content have been contributed to the in its heyday. “2008 was one of the worse every form of written communication, problem to inspire their talents. partnered with companies and built the community, including salary information, times in history to launch a job website, from email to Facebook to writing letters, service solutions on top of that”, says opinions on management, and insider yet we managed triple digit growth rates,” “pretty much anytime where grammar Deciding to tackle the complexities of Kindiger. Gen-e pivoted to software in interview tips. The service provides input Hohman said. “If we can do that in a year matters,” Mankala said. Glassdoor the English language, the Ukrainian team 2009, when it bought its Resolve Social on over 250,000 companies from over the world falls off a financial cliff, we clearly developed what Grammarly’s CEO Brad ITPA software and hired the founder of 190 countries and 100 currencies around have a huge opportunity as the economy “The chrome browser plugin is very www.glassdoor.com Hoover calls “the world’s best grammar that startup to launch it. the world. “We serve far more than just accelerates out of the recovery.” useful,” Mankala added. “Nobody can beat checker that’s unquestionably superior” a North American need,” Hohman said. Grammarly for ease of use and reliability. I Robert Hohman to the stock grammar or spelling checkers The business model is based on an initial “There is incredible global demand.” Headquartered in Sausalito, Calif., know that I have a better chance of being provided through Microsoft Office or license with an annual maintenance Glassdoor has raised $42.2 million from successful at work now because I write Social Media Google Drive. contract. Gen-e has over 100 customers That fact was clearly evident from day its founders, Benchmark Capital, Sutter English well.” in the U.S. and Europe, and two large one. When launching, the company had Hill Ventures, Battery Ventures and DAG California “Our developers created a product built customers in South East Asia as well, speculated that if it could just get 10,000 Ventures. The company was founded in 2008. for users by users, and that combined with through its alliances. company reviews in its first year, it would The developers spent a year building Yes the depth they’ve already achieved in the be off and running to a respectable start. “The key to Glassdoor’s long-term success the product and immediately launched natural language processing space allowed The company was profitable from 2003- Yet Glassdoor managed that benchmark lies in its continued innovation and it to market, landing users soon after. us to create a truly exceptional product 2011, according to its management. “We in its first 48 hours, with reviews on investment in its workforce,” said Neeraj Today, over 3 million registered users use » The inspiration for Glassdoor’s that’s been evolving ever since,” Hoover ran a profitable bootstrap business,” companies from over 89 countries. The Agrawal, a Battery Ventures General Grammarly, doubling in size annually, with approach to company transparency said. “Our ultimate goal is to improve says Kindiger. Revenues went down in company has steadily tripled its base every Partner. “The company has consistently 700 thousand Facebook fans. It also serves was the complete result of a screw up. communication among the world’s two 2012 since the company invested a lot of year for the last six years. worked hard to push the envelope in the 150 institutional clients such as universities, Robert Hohman worked as an executive billion English writers. We act as a second money in marketing, but Kindiger expects at Microsoft and Expedia, which hired employment industry, and no other online enterprises, and other educational entities.
164 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 165 Top 100 Companies: North America
The company is completely bootstrapped, ”I was surprised to find that all the profitable by the end of 2013. For him, the and in part funded from the sale of ambulatory service lines, like labs, didn’t focus right now is expansion, even before Mydropbox. The company has been have a great way of communicating with cash flows: “Our goal is to be pervasive profitable for over a year, but plans to their clients,” says Brad Bostic, Founder and become a global platform. It’s really all Conversion Rate Enhancement Rate invest that profit back into R&D as the & CEO of hc1.com. Bostic has founded about adoption for us,” he says. product continually evolves. several technology companies and built up ventures in the mobile, SaaS, and “We’ve been nontraditional in that 10% “Natural language processing is part of enterprise software markets. His interest regard,” says Bostic when asked about 40% 38% 10% computational linguistics, one of the most in entrepreneurship drove him to create his investment funding. “We had a lot cutting edge areas of computer science,” entrepreneurial spirit made him create of access to investors and raised $14 35% Hoover said. “We are solving a very hc1.com as he observed the changing million by this point, mainly through 31% 8% meaningful problem in that space, which healthcare landscape in the U.S. angels,” he says. Other investors include 30% takes considerable resources to get right.” Elevate Ventures. Since the company is More than 500 healthcare organizations considering accelerating expansion, Bostic 25% 6% With offices in San Jose and Kiev, across the U.S. use hc1.com today. It is may seek new investment routes. 5.3% Ukraine, Grammarly’s user base is split a subscription service, and clients pay 20% 50-50 between domestic and international according to the number of users they One of the challenges for hc1.com’s scaling markets. It serves not only the 1.5 billion bring to the platform. Since the company’s plan is “replacing spreadsheets,” a status- 15% 4% non-native English speakers, but also service is cloud-based, there is no payment quo approach that has been part of the 20% 47% the 500 million people who have spoken for hardware. healthcare market for years. Another 10% Increase Decrease English all their lives. So far the company challenge is finding the right people 2% concentrates only on perfecting English The majority of hc1.com’s clients come outside of the U.S. to join the company. grammar, a complex problem Hoover from the U.S., but some are located in Right now, for example, the bulk of hc1. 5% expects will take the company five to 10 Canada, the U.K., and Europe, as well com’s employees work in Indianapolis. years to get right. After that, Grammarly as more far-flung regions. One of its 0% 0% plans to address other tongues, as its code customers, for example, is an Australian While hc1.com is focused on healthcare Before ORA With ORA Before ORA With ORA base has been specifically designed to be company called Sonic Healthcare Limited, activity, its competitors are more generic adaptable to other languages. Grammarly which provides laboratory pathology and CRM-type systems that focus on logging n=101 surgeons: 49 reported no change in conversion rate n=69 surgeons: 22 of 69 reported no change in enhancement rate strives to conquer the world, one language radiology services. business activities, such as phone calls and at a time. messages, for healthcare systems. Among Other clients include Alere, which them: Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics provides health management solutions, healthcare management solutions, and health monitoring products, and wellbeing others. According to Bostic, hc1.com’s services for patients and healthcare system is also more secure than generic hc1.com professionals in more than 25 countries systems. “We go well above and beyond around the globe. The U.S.-based HCA what the U.S. Department of Health and www.hc1.com Healthcare (corporate operator of hospitals Human Services requires,” he says. Superior Clinical & Financial Outcomes, and health systems in several parts of the Brad Bostic country) and Alegent Creighton Health “Unlike past CRM tools that only reach out to the sales force, we have the entire Continuously VerifEyed Cloud Computing also use hc1.com’s solutions. Bostic hopes to more than double the number of company on hc1 and leverage it for improving our internal workflow and WaveTec, the leaders in intraoperative aberrometry, have raised the bar once again! Indiana customers his company currently serves by the end of 2013. business processes,” says Ken Cerney, CEO ® ™ of Manhattanlabs, a clinical laboratory in Now, ORA System with VerifEye users can continuously verify the refractive state of No According to the company, hc1.com has New York which uses hc1.com’s solutions. the eye during cataract surgery resulting in superior clinical and financial outcomes. triple digit annual percentage growth. “We’re in investment mode but we’re Manhattanlabs also claims hc1.com’s » In a world where customer relationship generating meaningful cash flows,” Bostic system improved their customer service, management (CRM) solutions have adds, “The value of all of the contracts which is critical to meeting the demands To learn more about WaveTec and the ORA System’s become uniform for varied business that we’re signing is increasing [at] a of its Manhattan clientele. “We’re able activities, a more targeted approach may contribution to refractive cataract surgery visit our website quarter-over-quarter percentage rate.” to not only retain clients but grow our work better. Hc1.com is the only cloud- The company does not disclose revenues, existing business by being a valued added at www.wavetecvision.com. based CRM solution designed specifically but Bostic hopes the company will be partner with our clients,” Cerney says, “We for medical laboratories.
Reference: Impact of ORA on Refractive Cataract Surgery and the Premium Channel. SM2 Strategic. © 2013 WaveTec Vision. All Rights Reserved. VerifEye is a trademark and WaveTec, the WaveTec logo and the ORA System logo are registered trademarks of WaveTec Vision. 80091 Rev A 06/13
166 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
resolve issues quickly and have a better way Inc. He worked at both companies as they customers with a full suite of messaging Influitive “It became apparent to me that the reason in a new multi-billion dollar Advocate of communicating that with the necessary went public. In addition, Lal was appointed products.” Infinite Convergence supplies why was that we were not focused on the Marketing space that is forming.” people across our organization. We find by the Obama administration to serve as products that Nokia Siemens Networks www.influitive.com advocate experience, the feelings that they that as a whole, we’re much more proactive a Director of the United States National resells to its cellular operator customers. needed to have to significantly increase For now the firm is in a unique space, and than reactive. The insight that it gives us is Broadband Taskforce. Mark Organ their activity.” has yet to encounter direct competition in ke y.” “It’s always tough to be able to make an the B2B market. There are similar firms in “When you want to send an SMS from impact when you’re starting up,” Lal says. Software Another factor which influenced Mr. the reference automation and case study “This is exciting since it’s a fulfilling Verizon to AT&T it goes through a gateway “It was important to partner up with the Organ’s creation of Influitive was the and testimonial automation area, but opportunity to impact the world, apart that allows large carriers to connect with right channels.” The company originally Ontario lasting impact of the Salesforce.com city Organ says no other company has made from making money,” Bostic says. His other networks on a global basis,” Lal says, partnered with MSN and Motorola and tours, which convinced him of the value in a program which is advocate-facing like company will help healthcare systems tailor explaining the SMS Gateway product that established its legitimacy within the Yes engineering meetings and conversations Influitive yet. “There are players on the B2C customer service to fit digital needs. the company provides. two companies’ customer base. “We’ve between relevant advocates and side that have a campaign-like concept, architected it to make sure that there is prospective clients of a company. Another blasting potential advocates once a quarter According to the company’s Mobile solid redundancy in the product and no » Sometimes a company bursts into realization was that advocacy should be with emails asking for advocacy, but we Messaging Trends study in 2013, 91 outages, and we believe that our product existence as a result of one great idea, the ultimate goal of the company. “After a think that is wrong-headed and instead percent of mobile phone owners read is better engineered than our competitors’,” lot of thinking, I decided that the real goal Infinite while other times it is a result of a number we champion an advocate nurturing mobile messages within 15 minutes of Lal says. was to generate customers so delighted of realizations all coming together at approach, with an exclusive hub tailored receiving a notification. Moreover, 45 that they would refer us to others regularly, Convergence the same time. For Mark Organ, CEO of for each individual advocate, driving the percent of mobile phone owners use mobile With an average 25 percent growth rate, because these advocates help the company Influitive, it was the latter. While in charge strongest response,” he says. messaging for business correspondence Infinite Convergence broke even two years grow with maximum speed and efficiency. www.infinite.com of his previous company, Eloqua, he drew and 90 percent use texting most often to ago and has been profitable since. “If you Advocacy was the goal,” he recalls. Influitive has new product launches on on several different insights to inspire the Anurag Lal communicate with colleagues. However, look at the state of the economy and the the horizon. “We have two new products advocate marketing firm he runs today. only 36 percent of mobile owners subscribe competition, it’s a solid track record,” Lal The final insight which influenced Mr. that we want to see be successful: Telecommunications to text messages from businesses, while 61 says. Organ regarded the power of social gaming. The first of these insights was realizing the AdvocateAnywhere, which enables percent of them say that official information Mr. Organ was previously involved in a value of referral leads. A suggestion from a companies to invite users to advocate Illinois from employers is most valuable. “Investors look for this level of discipline,” pioneering sports social gaming company venture capitalist back in 2005 prompted right from within their software products he adds. Since becoming profitable the as an investor and a director. While a study into the reasons why some sales according to programmatic rules; and No Infinite Convergence sells its products to company is no longer dependent on working with this firm, he realized that are closed in four days rather than four Maven, which provides advocates the mobile operator community or to large investment funding. “It’s better to have the gaming space was light years ahead of months. “In every case, these best-in- with a roadmap and execution service enterprises, and the pricing is determined strategic investors that help the business the B2B enterprise software market with class buying processes were crawling with for maximizing their influence with » Infinite Convergence Solutions provides by the volume of traffic (transaction and add value to our position in this space,” regards to a number of features crucial to advocates,” recalls Organ. “They were often companies they care about,” says Organ. messaging and mobility solutions to base) or by the subscriber base. Infinite Lal comments. The U.S. is the company’s customer satisfaction. referred in by multiple advocates, they saw telecom operators around the globe. The Convergence was among the first main market, but Infinite Convergence The firm is also starting to get into other the most relevant customer success stories solutions include call and messaging companies to deploy commercial long- also operates in Asia and Europe. Organ’s insights have made for a successful forms of advocacy, such as employee, on our website, and the most satisfying features that create an enhanced address term evolution (LTE) service, or 4G LTE, company. Earlier this year Influitive channel partner and sales-drive advocacy. Infinite Convergence has close to 200 reference calls to help close quickly. book comprised of pictures, audio, video, a standard for wireless communication of announced it had raised $7.3 million This will be done in some cases through employees and is currently looking to Referral leads in particular were incredibly and animation for messaging users. high-speed data for mobile phones and in Series A funding from Hummer partnerships, and the firm has already data terminals. expand and invest in R&D infrastructure valuable – we calculated the value to be Winblad and Relay Ventures, with existing integrated with companies such as as well. “I understand how to leverage my around 10x the value of ordinary leads, The company is funded by India-based investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, DoubleDutch for mobile event automation The company doesn’t disclose its total experience so we can scale the company because of their speed of closing, low cost Infinite Computer Solutions and was New Enterprise Associates, Illuminate and review sites like Salesforce.com’s number of customers, but it has less than and so far we have been effective. We will of sale and service, higher order size, and created as a result of Infinite’s partnership Ventures, Resolute VC, Common Angels AppExchange, G2Crowd and TrustRadius. 100 clients today. More than 200 billion continue that and make sure that we don’t with Nokia Siemens Networks. “We higher propensity to advocate themselves and other angel investors and firms also The firm is also considering acquisitions recognized the value and talent that we potential customers operate in the market. stumble when it comes to execution… once they became paying customers.” participating. For the kind of market growth you want, in order to obtain the technology it needs acquired and the strength of the mobility to expand into other areas, as it has done “Infinite Convergence has the best you don’t take the eye off the ball,” Lal Organ soon realized that it was not just space,” says Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite “This is a team that has pioneered a multi- previously when it acquired Engagio, products and services team in the concludes. referral leads that were valuable. “Every Convergence Solutions. Lal has over 20 billion dollar industry in cloud-based for advocate discovery and tracking messaging business,” says Rich Danstrom, time a customer, analyst or investor would years of experience in technology, IT and marketing automation,” says Alex Baker, functionality. telecom services. He has served as senior Director of Product Management at Nokia ask for three customer references, it would principal at Relay Ventures. “We are seeing vice president and global service provider Siemens Networks, “These products and be a hair-on-fire exercise,” he says. He companies increasingly dependent on peer at Meru Network and Chief Business the development team were spun-off from explains that there were never enough referencing for acquiring customers, and Development and Sales Officer at iPass Motorola and continue to serve those case studies to cover all of the use cases the believe that Influitive’s advocate-centered, company needed. self-service approach is going to win out
168 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 169 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Intacct manage compliance and auditing, and focus industry. “Financial management is the The company tries to make the lives of advantage. A recent deal with Novation Jasper Design on strategic changes, such as our current largest business applications sector and patients and surgeons easier through puts Eigr Technology within the grasp of www.intacct.com initiative to move to a rolling 12-month what’s so cool about it is every company their technology. Sawyer knows that 65,000 member hospitals and affiliates. www.jasper-da.com forecast,” says Sam Kashy, Director of needs financial management,” concludes with small incisions come big challenges, Robert Reid Business Development at Tandem HR. Mr. Reid. and these problems will only grow more Last March, Invuity set out to raise $10 Kathryn Kranen “Intacct has proven invaluable in giving complicated with minimally invasive million in fundraising and ended up with Cloud Computing us a single version of the truth, as opposed and minimal access surgeries on the rise. $25 million. The Series D round, led by Software to financial data stuck in spreadsheets and “We’re doing more and more nipple- Valence Advantage Life Sciences Fund California different accounting software packages.” Invuity sparing mastectomies,” says Dr. Beth II (“Valence Advance”) joined previous California DuPree, breast surgeon at Holy Redeemer investors, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & The company attempts to differentiate itself Byers and InterWest Partners, with new Yes www.invuity.com Philadelphia. “You’re kind of operating in Yes from a competitive field in multiple ways. a c av e .” funder Wexford Capital. Sawyer says The cloud solution gives it advantages Philip Sawyer Invuity has already reached a $9 million » At its core accounting is a simple over the legacy providers, as it delivers “It’s very hard to see well enough to be run rate and that he expects the company » “If you were trying to test a car, you principle. The income of a company real time information, more insight into Medical Devices able to do the procedure through one to grow by at least 100 percent each year. would have to think about all the different on one side, and it’s expenditure on the the business and more visibility than on- small incision,” Sawyer says. “[Leading scenarios to break its functionality. That’s other. But in practice, it is much more premise solutions. Mr. Reid also says the California surgeons] ... say it can be done without The near future may bring new products, what people do with chips,” explains complex, and through this complexity firm has an advantage over other cloud our technology, but it’s really difficult to new specializations, and both vertical Kathryn Kranen, President and CEO of it is able to give companies the means based providers as the company’s offerings Yes do without our technology because we so and horizontal growth for the company. Jasper Design Automation, an Electronic to make their operations more efficient have “more depth of functionality in the brilliantly [illuminate the deep surgical Right now, Invuity sells to more than Design Automation (EDA) company for and profitable. This has led to a number accounting areas and financial areas.” This cavity].” 150 hospitals, but the company sees the design and verification of electronic of firms attempting to make accounting claim has been backed up by the American » When surgeons operate in the dark, the that number growing significantly every systems and semiconductors. Kranen has Institute of Certified Public Accountants, easier through software and tools designed right technology can light the way. Invuity’s When DuPree switched to Eigr tech, she quarter. He also anticipates digging deeper over 20 years EDA industry experience, which gave Intacct an exclusive to make the whole process smoother and proprietary Eigr Technology provides traded a headlamp for Invuity illuminated into the hospitals Invuity already serves. but rather than joining the older players in endorsement. “The people that know the simpler. illumination in the operating room where retractors. Because they do not conduct Sawyer puts their primary target U.S. the market, she chose to join Jasper, which most about accounting, they are the ones it is needed most. heat and they retract tissue without market (spine, ortho and breast oncology) targets specific and complex software that are endorsing our solution and it’s One company working in this arena is harming it, the company’s retractors at $836 million; when Invuity breaks into verifications. Intacct, a Californian bases company really because of that depth,” says Mr. Reid. An orthopedic surgeon and optical protect skin and reduce tissue trauma, she other segments, that market grows to specializing in financial management engineer, Kenneth Trauner and Alex says. In addition, a constant and reliable $1.7 billion. And though the company is What is the EDA industry all about? Intacct works in a crossover of two fairly tools offered through the cloud. “We are Vayser, founded Invuity in 2004. Currently, source of light gets patients off the table concentrating on perfecting their model in Mathematical software verifications technical markets – software and financial providing the tools to be able to help the the company focuses on providing surgical more quickly, as surgery no longer stops the United States, that is just for now. “Over explore every possible corner case to management. One challenge for the companies that we serve understand what visualization devices for spinal, orthopedic, each time nurses had to adjust DuPree’s the next couple quarters [we’re] going see if it’s possible to break a software’s firm has been finding the right people. their overall expenses and what are their breast and thyroid oncological procedures. headlamp. “My OR time got faster because to be getting to more and more critical functionality in order to make sure that a “We view ourselves as being a partner overall revenues,” says Robert Reid, CEO when you can see, you’re not stopping to mass in our initial domestic efforts, and I chip or a piece of software works. When with our customers and we’ve created a of Intacct. “We help them automate those For breast cancer patients, Invuity’s tech reposition constantly,” she says. “In today’s think we’re going to start focusing more a company builds a chip, that company customer centric organization,” says Mr. processes to collect that information so you could make all the difference. Proper in- healthcare climate, saving an hour in the on international [sales],” Sawyer says. “We needs it checked for various potential bugs Reid. “So finding people that understand don’t have to have as many accountants on situ lighting may spare patients an extra operating room is a huge savings because have made some recent forays in talking — which is where Jasper comes in. staff and it also gives you more integrity of accounting, that understand software (and more visible) incision scar and you’re not wasting the healthcare dollars with some Japanese distribution options.” and automation and also provide a great information. Most importantly, what most enable surgeons to perform nipple-sparing by keeping the patient on the table longer.” Going international will approximately Jasper is involved in three main markets, customer experience is what we need to organizations want from their finance mastectomies (breast surgeries) more double Invuity’s market to $3.4 billion. which cap at $8 billion altogether. The get in regards to our employees, and that’s departments, is getting insights into what’s effectively—with huge psychological and Invuity has an ear to the ground and really largest one is the $7 billion Electronic probably the biggest challenge — finding going on with the business.” cosmetic benefits to the patient. listens to what surgeons need, DuPree As for Sawyer, he is motivated by the power Design Automation (EDA) and all those elements together.” says. Currently, the company is working his company’s critical technology has to intellectual property market, essential to These insights include finding where there But to pick a procedure, women first have on a new type of illuminated retractor she facilitate minimally invasive and minimal the development of semiconductor chips Intacct has set itself targets over the next are opportunities to take advantage of and to know what their choices are. “Nipple- asked about. “From the very beginning, access procedures. “It’s an interesting and electronic systems. 18 months to expand its offerings to its where there are potential risks which need sparing mastectomies have become a very they said, ‘If there’s anything that we’ve progression, the more [people] learn about customers. The firm is also looking to to be mitigated or eliminated. hot topic, in particular after the Angelina missed in the design or anything else that what we do, all of a sudden, excuse the Other markets include formal verification expand its partner network by finding Jolie [double nipple-sparing mastectomy] you need, please tell us because our goal is pun, but a light goes off in their head,” (based on mathematical algorithms) and other best in class providers. The network One of the company’s customers, Tandem announcement,” says Phillip Sawyer, CEO. to try to make your life easier,’” she says. Sawyer says. “[ ... ] [Surgical] illumination digital functional verification, focused is currently made up of about 120 HR, has enjoyed numerous benefits since “Prior to that announcement 70 percent itself was not in the past seen as such a sexy on the verification of expected behavior, members today in different areas such as switching to the Intacct system. “With of women didn’t really have a good sense Invuity’s tech is more effective for its latent area. But when you learn about what we’re debugging and the correction of defects. Intacct, our finance team now has much customer relationship management, tax of their options when they were told they potential. Development took several years, doing and see how sophisticated it is, and more time to analyze data, as opposed to and professional services automation. The had to have a mastectomy.” Invuity’s breast which Sawyer says the founders were not dynamic, people realize just how enabling Founded in 2003, Jasper has been profitable firm has ambitious targets and is looking worrying about data entry and processing cancer surgery site launched two days later. happy about at first, but played to their it is.” since mid-2010, for 12 consecutive spreadsheets. We can look at trends, to make the most out of an ever growing
170 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 171 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
quarters. With 35 percent compound Finding talent and growing fast is the Jumio can complete an online or mobile The company serves about 60 percent of its Kargo ourselves as the single company out there annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2007, biggest challenge that Jasper faces. “Since transaction in as little as five seconds. A base in the U.S., and 40 percent in Europe, that is best positioned to help these major the company is growing about seven times it’s a very specific domain, we find the customer presents their card and/or I.D. to with plans to expand into Asia over the www.kargo.com media companies transform and adapt to faster than the EDA industry. The business talent where it exists and we grow it the camera of their device or computer, the next year. this new world. And that’s what we do.” model is based on subscription software, there,” Kranen says. The company is company then digitally scans the card or Harry Kargman with a more than 90 percent renewal rate, headquartered in California, with R&D I.D., testing holograms, letter shadowing, Jumio was founded in 2010 by Daniel Kargo was founded in 2003, but in 2008 it according to the company. “We expand located in Brazil, Sweden and Israel. In and pixels for distortion or alteration as a Mattes, who previously set up JaJah, a Mobile bought out all of its investors and has been about 25 percent per year per customer 2004, Jasper acquired SafeLogic, a Swedish means for authentication. The company VoIP service provider that was an early growing organically since. The company because they get more products,” Kranen formal verification software company, and can authenticate credit cards, I.D.’s, and competitor to Skype. JaJah had been a target New York counts ABC, CBS and Warner Brothers adds. established a team there. The company also passports from more than 60 countries, of cyber criminals, so Mattes developed among its client list. grows its own team, marching employees providing a secure verification process fraud control procedures that eventually No Four rounds of funding have yielded $33 through the quality assurance department. that’s fast and seamless with minimal became the company’s chief selling point There are a number of challenges that a million in paid-in capital for Jasper. Its Some even move to application developing. effort required by the consumer. About 7 when it was later acquired by Telefónica. company can encounter when designing investors include Accel Partners, Cambrian to 10 percent of the payments that Jumio The idea for credit card and I.D. verification » A recent report on online trends a mobile app or site. “One of the issues is Ventures, and Foundation Capital. Bringing all of these 120 employees assesses are deemed fraudulent. came to Mattes after he spent five hours showed that the mobile is one of the most that the market itself changes much more together isn’t easy, but the company puts trying to verify his identity while buying underserved media in the world right now. rapidly than any market that we’ve dealt “I felt that Jasper had the opportunity to a lot of effort in multi-national events for Embedding its technology within a friend a plane ticket shortly after he had Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers partner with before so we see most of the mobile be the next major EDA company because them. “People need to mix in order for e-commerce websites and mobile apps, the moved to a new country. With his passport Mary Meeker released her annual report in devices get replaced within two or three the focus was verification, not physical the diversity to be effective,” says Kranen, company features two products: Netswipe, beside his phone and computer, he asked May this year and revealed that while total years here in the U.S.,” says Ian Finley, design. Jasper was not saddled with the explaining company events that bring its which turns a shopper’s mobile device himself why he couldn’t just show the internet advertising spend reached $37 Research VP at Gartner. “So all of the business model anchor that plagues several international employees together allow into a credit card scanner; and Netverifiy, website his credentials just as he would at billion in 2012, mobile ad spend was only machines that you’re supporting whether of the larger companies,” says Mike Schuh, for faster response to customer needs, which enables real-time I.D. scanning and the front desk of an airline. Jumio’s name around $4 billion. But people spent 12% it’s on the consumer side or the end user general partner at Foundation Capital, who as answers can be found from different verification. is actually an acronym for Just Use My I.D. of time of their time on mobile devices, side, and all of the operating systems are has been working in the industry for over sources around the world. “If people weren’t Online. which accounted for just 3% of advertising being updated at a very fast pace. It’s a very 40 years. connected and didn’t have someone’s Skype Mobile payment fraud cost businesses spending. This marks a large potential different pace to what we saw in the PC address, we wouldn’t be able to respond so and consumers hundreds of billions of Based in Palo Alto, the company has raised profit area for any businesses working in world and maybe even the web world.” Jasper competes with three major public fast,” she says. dollars a year. “Yet it can be too easy to let $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz the mobile sector. companies in the EDA industry: Synopsys, the medicine kill the patient,” said Marc and Facebook investor Eduardo Saverin. “The other problem is the diversity of Cadence and Mentor. “Jasper wins because Barach, CMO of Jumio. “A bank wouldn’t Barach expects Jumio to be a multi billion One firm operating in this sector with things you need to support. In a typical of superior technology and a winning sales ask you to walk into their branch to verify dollar company in the next three to five considerable success is Kargo, a mobile year over 200 new mobile devices will be process,” says Schuh. All three competitors Jumio your identity when signing for an online years. It competes against IDChecker, publisher platform, headquartered in New released. And we don’t have one major sell hundreds of products within the same loan, for example. You need to find ways IDology, and RSASecurID. York. For a long time the age of mobile has operating system that we have to deal domain, while some are sold to the same to reduce fraud while improving the with, there are at least two, and depending www.jumio.com been approaching, but it finally appears customers that Jasper serves. But each customer experience. Ours does both. “Mobile commerce is on fire around the to have arrived, and has brought with on how you count, two and a half or three only produces one product that challenges We minimize fraud by bringing a fun and world; e-commerce growth rates in nearly operating systems that are very different Daniel Mattes it a new set of challenges for publishers Jasper’s specific technology. exciting payment method to a typically all markets are between 10 to 30 percent and advertisers alike. When internet that you have to support,” he adds. boring process.” per year,” said Scott Weiss, a Partner at advertising and publishing broke through, “We have a high-end self-service, where the Mobile Mobile is also a lot more energy and Andreessen Horowitz. “Jumio is well- some major publishers reacted slowly, and customers make the methodology change, As a result, Jumio’s clients typically see positioned to capitalize on this growth resource dependent than other forms of California were left behind as the internet revolution accelerating the time-to-methodology media. “The biggest single problem both a 15 to 30 percent improvement in their by working with the main ecommerce took place. Today, firms are scrambling change.” Kranen says. “Most companies shopping cart drop off rates, with an providers in each market to provide them for advertisers and for publishers is they Yes to make sure the same doesn’t happen in our industry will deliver responsive believe that if they invest in a app or site average of 20 percent. Its payments and with services that reduce payment friction to them in the mobile space. This is the support, have a technology class or a that they’ve met the requirement. And identity authentication platforms serve a and fraud potential. Jumio is in the unique problem that Kargo solves. number that you can call, but we walk variety of markets, including the financial position to digitize and certify every what we’ve realized is that the hardest part » Purchasing items face to face can be as in and help customize the support and sector, the sharing economy, retail, and the credential we own.” is not developing an app or site, anybody simple as swiping a credit card. Mobile “We’ve gone into 60-65% of every major training.” travel sector. Customers include Western can do that. The hardest part is once you’ve shopping, in contrast, requires jumping media company, and said look, this is Union, Fab.com, and Travelocity. The clearly a growing opportunity, this is an developed it, maintaining it. That’s the Jasper has direct sales in the U.S. and through multiple hoops of complex card company expands monthly at double digit area where you haven’t built the resources issue,” says Mr. Kargman. Europe, with a distribution network in entry and password validations, which can growth rates. “We’re in the very early stages because you haven’t had time or because Japan, Asia and Israel. Its clients include lose many shoppers along the way. A 2013 These issues can potentially play in the of this, and frankly the market is too, but you wouldn’t get adequate ROI on it and top consumer electronics companies Consumer Mobile Insights study found favor of Kargo, with companies being we see this as a very broad and relatively we think that this is an area where we can and the top 10 out of 15 semiconductor that nearly two-thirds of mobile shoppers put off conducting their own mobile horizontal market which touches virtually bring a lot of value in terms of driving companies in the U.S., Costa Rica, China, abandon their purchases, about 40 percent applications and campaigns, and turning every mobile user,” Mr. Barach said. that business,” explains Harry Kargman, U.K., France, Germany, Canada, India, of which dropped off due to a difficult to the companies with the most experience. founder and CEO of Kargo. “We see Japan, Korea and others. checkout process that took too long.
172 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 173 Top 100 Companies: North America
Despite this Mr. Kargman believes that, with Kony ensures an app only needs to be shift towards multi-channel architecture, his company free of major competition, the built once and helps the vendor correctly when apps are designed first for devices threat of companies developing mobile generates native web experiences as needed. and sometimes only for devices, which solutions in house is the biggest threat to It also claims to be the only company to Mr. Parasnis estimates to be in the tens of the company’s future success. Kargo offers offer an app development platform with billions of dollars, if not in the hundreds. a complete solution to companies, and this management and security tools as part of Kony aspires to be one of the top three means there is a chance that companies the package. The company provides mobile vendors to capture a sizable portion of that could put together solutions through a SaaS applications for enterprise processes, market. “We are currently well positioned,” combination of offerings from different such as CRM, HR, and workflow. Its service Mr. Parasnis said. “There is no reason why companies. level agreement mandates that its platform we can’t have sizable double digit share of is updated within a fixed period of time of a that multi billion dollar market.” But the company is in a very exciting new ecosystem release. When iOS 7 hit the period of growth, and Mr. Kargman now market, for example, its customers did not Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., Kony has aims to grow internationally through an need to change a thing. raised more than $50 million from Telstra office in London in the next 12 months, Ventures and Insight Venture Partners. and continue to build at home. “We’ve been This fall, the company released the Kony growing 250-300% year over year, which is Experience Cloud, which it claims to be the “Kony offers business and enterprise pretty amazing. We’d love to continue that industry’s first product suite to cover app customers a library of innovative pre-built growth. We have a number of really great development, security and prepackaged mobile applications including the Kony media partners but we’d like to keep on SaaS enterprise applications under a single Platform that enables customers to write growing that and double in size in terms offering. As a result, Kony offers what their own applications and deploy them of total number of ad impressions under its President Abhay Parasnis describes across multiple channels simply and at management,” he concludes. as “without a doubt the best in-class app low cost,” said Telstra Ventures Managing development solution for multichannel Director Mark Sherman. “For Telstra, app development, whether browser, iPhone our investment is a win-win – we are or tablet.” investing in an innovative company and adding immediate value by being able to Kony Solutions “Most players force you to choose one or the offer Kony’s products to our business and other. Kony is only solution at enterprise enterprise customers.” www.kony.com grade maturity that truly allows customers flexibility and choice of covering whole New startups may develop similar point Raj Koneru spectrum, from native app development solutions, Mr. Parasnis admitted, and it will be Kony’s challenge to stay ahead of them. Mobile to HTML5 and web app development to hybrid,” Mr. Parasnis said. “Our mission and focus is to come up with best of products and technology and Florida Kony is one of the fastest growing actually get them deployed with biggest companies in enterprise mobility, according household names,” Parasnis said. “We Yes to revenue, with triple digit revenue growth aren’t really worried about next innovation for the last several years,. It serves some of because it’s always a great thing for the the largest banks, hotels, and airlines in market.” » Founded in 2007 at the dawn of the the world. Its apps are currently used by smartphone revolution, Kony Solutions 20 million to 30 million active users. Apps Kony competes against IBM and SAP. realized early on that software was only based on Kony platforms log more than a Rather than offering a shrink wrap product, one of the challenges businesses faced in billion sessions per year. Citibank, one of IBM is more of a services company and navigating the emerging landscape. its largest customers, uses Kony to power does not offer an all in one solution comparable to Kony’s, Mr. Parasnis argued. Kony has served as more than just a its app in 38 countries. Three of the top SAP, on the other hand, is more focused programming platform for its clients, five healthcare providers are Kony clients. on applications without a strong platform and has become an ambassador to help Kony recently announced a partnership DNA, he added. “Clearly, the market is enterprises adapt and thrive in the quickly with Aetna to standardize all internal and large, so these companies are likely to come evolving mobile world. The company customer facing apps on its platform. up with a similarly broad vision, but not a provides a set of frameworks, tools, and Kony is the largest pure play vendor single vendor offers our expansive breadth backend services that allow an app to work focused on delivering enterprise mobility, of offerings.”. across all platforms and ecosystems. Mr. Parasnis said. Its market includes the
174 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
“Enterprise mobility is by far one of the A Bristol-Myers Squib analysis of 1,000 including Applied Biosystems, Fluidigm LeadBolt on its platform, with a growth rate in Linkable most exciting markets in the enterprise compounds using Labcyte’s approach led and RainDance. the triple digits. Recently surpassing landscape, right up there with big data,” to a 46 percent increase in active drug www.leadbolt.com Millennial Media in terms of integrations, Networks Mr. Parasnis said. “We serve a market well candidates, identifying a range of therapies “Labcyte fits right in with the trends the company is one of the top three most poised to explode. Kony is a company at that would otherwise have been missed. towards smaller sample size, less reagent Dale Carr integrated Android ad networks, just www.linkablenetworks.com the right time and place in this market. We AstraZeneca used the technology to use, and most importantly better results behind Google. “Our challenge is to make are at the center of a significant disruption.” discover a new class of cancer therapeutics, due to the precision of the dispensing and Mobile our name synonymous with becoming Tom Burgess thanks to an accuracy that was up to 300x the lack of modification to the sample the solution of choice, and the way we do greater than serial dilution and traditional contents due to surface binding on California this is to continue to innovate,” Carr said. Marketing/Advertising/SEO liquid handling would have allowed. The dispensing tips or channels,” explained “Google is really good at what they do, but Institute of Molecular Medicine Finland Craig Taylor, General Partner at Alloy No their focus is on Google banners. They Massachusetts (FIMM) used the approach on testing Ventures. “It is clearly being recognized don’t have the depth or service innovations Labcyte individual patient cells to determine by Pharma that better data earlier in the we have. For us, customer service is key.” Yes discovery process is critical and being www.labcyte.com alternative treatments for leukemia where » With over 1.7 million apps scattered the initial chemotherapy failed. off by a few degrees at the beginning of a across the iTunes and Android markets, LeadBolt serves a global distribution of launch is going to cause wide variations customers, particularly in the US, Africa, » Mark Fischer-Colbrie “the chances of your app actually being Linkable Networks makes clipping Its unprecedented accuracy led Labcyte later in the development.” discovered is practically its own lottery China, Korea and Japan. coupons passé with its card-linked offers. Life Sciences/Biotech to be used by the top 20 pharmaceutical ticket,” LeadBolt’s CEO Dale Carr asserts. The service keeps deals latent on your card firms and is now in use for molecular Because its technology can be applied to so Carr co-founded LeadBolt alongside his until redeemed via debit, credit and PayPal many areas, Labcyte faces an astounding brother Marc Carr after his own experiences California diagnostics and all areas of genomics and Pronounced like the verb lead, LeadBolt transactions. Co-founder and CEO Tom proteomics. The company’s technology is variety of markets, including genomics provides a mobile and web advertising in the mobile ad industry. “Looking at Burgess is taking couponing paperless, ($225 million), proteomics ($180 million), the pain points of application developers, Yes used by hundreds of research companies, network for app discovery. It goes beyond and disrupting established industries at the including the top five CROs of China. cell assays ($210 million), and drug traditional banner ads to offer ample we recognized early on that most in this same time. Customers include Lilly, Southern discovery ($225 million.” flexibility in advertising for every phase space simply took what they saw on the web, put it on a mobile device and called » Drop by drop, Labcyte revolutionizes Research, and Pfizer. About 50 percent of of an app’s activity. Featuring a total of “It’s not another mousetrap. This is Fischer-Colbrie expects Labcyte to be it online advertising,” Carr remembered. just about every area of life science its sales are international. The company 10 different ad units, LeadBolt’s platform something brand new,” he says. “And it is generating revenue north of $100 million “We saw inherent problems with banner research. The company uses a low level has direct sales offices in North America, includes audio ads, in-app alerts, videos, going to have a multi-billion dollar impact in the next three to five years. blindness and dismal click-through-rates, of ultrasound energy to accurately Europe and Japan. It has had a compound app walls, and banners. on marketing and advertising.” so we designed a mobile platform uniquely measure minute quantities of laboratory growth rate of 20 to 30 percent. “This is a massively game changing tailored to the mobile space to disrupt the Burgess is used to shaking up the status quo. samples at an unprecedented degree of “As a user plays a game or interacts with The company has come a long way technology,” Fischer-Colbrie said. “The i n du s t r y.” Before the company’s founding, Burgess granularity. It transmits a sonar pulse application, they are receptive to different since Richard Ellson and others started ramifications for medical discovery are saw two factors guiding the trajectory through an acoustically friendly container advertising messages, in different formats it in a garage in Cupertino, Calif. in huge. People have used this technology to The brothers spent about 12 months of the coupon industry, and hurried to into a layer of liquid, causing a specified at different times,” Carr explained. “We 2000. He figured out how to focus the discover drugs they did not know existed. designing the platform in a garage. Once it capitalize on their convergence. “We try to amount to release onto an inverted plate. give the developer the opportunity to sound on a consistent basis for universal This technology cannot be replaced and launched to market, however, the company be skating all the time to where the puck’s Controlled strictly by sound waves, implement different formats at specific measurements, enabling the automatic provides foundational benefits to a wide attracted 10s of thousands of applications going to be as opposed to solving today’s every droplet released is the same as the points in the app lifecycle. We are disrupting transfer of cells, blood, serum, DNA range of customers.” in its first several months simply through problem,” Burgess says. “With Linkable ... last for an unparalleled accuracy that the mobile advertising space by providing and compounds. Over the years, he has word of mouth. “It grew beyond our part of it was due to the fact that there’s a completely revolutionizes the degree to real opportunity for greater discovery. We developed the process through 62 patents. expectations, mostly through organic new banking regulation termed the Durbin which laboratory samples can be studied. deliver quality users who will truly engage means,” Carr said. “We hardly spent a dime Amendment ... the other was that in the The technology is capable of delivering a with an application.” Labcyte has raised $53 million, a relative on marketing.” couponing and promotional space of retail, sample down to the billionth fraction. small sum considering the extent of Proof of its approach is in its exceptionally it is all heading digital.” its portfolio. Its investors include GE Bootstrapped, the company is based in Los “No matter what area of life sciences high click through rates of 8 to 9 percent, Ventures, Abingworth, Alloy Ventures, Angeles. Carr looks towards LeadBolt as a The 2011 Durbin Amendment limits you look at, whether drug discovery or and conversion rates of 5 to 6 percent. Cross Atlantic Partners, Delphi Ventures, multi billion dollar opportunity. interchange fees (i.e. transactional costs) diagnostics, where there is any kind of Comparatively, typical CTP’s in the H&Q Healthcare Investors (HQH) and to consumers using debit and credit cards. liquid transfer, our systems prove beneficial industry are less than .5 percent, Carr said. H&Q Life Sciences Investors (HQL). “When you look at the success mobile has Burgess knew this new regulation would in ways that are pretty staggering,” said had, the revenues on the mobile side could cut down bank revenues from these fees, Mark Fischer-Colbrie, CEO of Labcyte. In addition to app discovery, LeadBolt Bolstered by technological advances, the easily be hundreds of millions of dollars,” and that banks would need fresh ways to “You get incredibly better data results while also provides apps with a valuable means push for greater accuracy in biological Carr said. “Without any advertising make up the difference. “The consumer reducing costs and increasing reliability of monetization through the advertising of fluid samples has led Alloy Ventures to whatsoever, we’ve gotten our name out using their cards to spend, the need for and throughput. The benefits are amazing other apps. invest in a number of companies promising there. The challenge will be evolving into the banks to drive us to spend, the interest for all areas of life science research.” greater precision in biological research, Serving the mobile ecosystem estimated a sizable company that can still offer that in the retailers wanting us as consumers by Gartner to be $25 billion in 2013, one-on-one service.” to spend; all those things are connected,” LeadBolt has over 15,000 applications
176 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 177 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Burgess says. Now, Linkable Networks “We sat down as a team and said, ‘We’re Manta NVP back when the investment was to a specific number to join the rewards developing countries have adopted similar serves as the tie that binds them together. not gonna do that, we’re gonna go after announced. The website has more than program, instead of holding the line at rules especially in the past two to three this item level, this SKU capability,” he www.manta.com 11 million registered users and 87 million the [register] while signing up,” Courtney years. Pre-Durbin, credit card companies used says. “Now picture sitting in a boardroom company profiles. explains. bank-funded loyalty programs to convince with all your investors sitting around you, Steve Jaffee “If you spent 30 years building your brand customers to use their card over their all watching the entire market exploding.” Analytical tools measure real-time you would want me to use the science about competitor’s card or cash. But Linkable Social Media campaign performance and allow business consumer’s behavior without alienating Networks does that job for companies, Specializing in SKU put the company on a mBlox owners to change them accordingly, your client,” Courtney adds. persuading consumers to swipe cards that path less traveled. Luckily, it led to success. Ohio while a map shows where they perform offer deals. So now, instead of bankrolling best. Messages can be created according Investors in mBlox include Norwest www.mblox.com cash-back programs, financial institutions “Everybody in the room looks at the Yes to past or present behavior, location, or Venture Partners, Scale Venture Partners, connect with product marketing team and is like, ‘Okay, if you guys really user-defined events. “If you are doing Novus Ventures, Trident Capital, Avanti Tom Cotney departments who pay for ways to get think that’s a good idea,’” he continues. business in the U.K., France and Australia Capital and EDB Investments, all of which “Fortunately for us, a complete risk has have invested in a few rounds through digital coupons to consumers—and card » Small businesses often share the same Mobile and you have a loyalty app, but you want companies get a place of honor in customer turned out to be easily the best value profit problems. Although different industries to target a specific geography, we can 2010. NXT Capital, an independent and biggest differentiator that we have now commercial finance company based in wallets. offer a wide variety of challenges, many California draw a radius around your store and send in the market.” have found collaboration can help achieve messages within that radius,” Courtney Chicago, invested $14.5 million more in To couch deals in transactions, Linkable mBlox recently. better results. Manta, an Ohio based Yes says. In addition, in-app rich messages can Though Burgess is not new to the funding started with major payment companies. company,offers a network dedicated to deliver text, pictures, HTML, audio, video, game, he still finds it difficult. “At Linkable, The company made about $141 millions in Currently paired with industry giants like small businesses to help them grow, find YouTube videos and Twitter feeds. MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and American we’ve gone through the first stage of a revenue for 2012, according to Courtney. new partners and ultimately generate » “Our market is comprised of brands Express, the company has leveraged its funding effort where you’re selling a dream While emails have been used for consumer more profit. that believe that mobility is a useful way partnerships into massive market reach. and a promise,” he says. But that promise relations for years, text messages may “Our challenge is to make it easier to do to talk to their customers, and that they business with us,” Courtney says. Merging “Today we serve every cardholder and has yielded results. This year, Linkable “Manta is in a very unique position as the be more effective. According to research can do business via the phone,” says Tom an in-app capability with many telephone Paypal account holder in the U.S. market,” increased customer basket size by 50 online hub for small businesses to engage conducted by mBlox, text messages are Courtney, mBlox’s CEO, who believes companies’ infrastructure and making Burgess says — i.e., the 180 million people, percent for Minnesota grocery Lunds with their entire network and ultimately opened 95 percent of the time, within 14 that a mobile relationship with customers, it seamless for the end-user can be very give or take, that use payment cards in one & Byerly’s. And the company has raised sell more,” said Pamela Springer, CEO of minutes of being delivered — unlike emails via apps and text messages, provides a difficult. “It shouldn’t take a long time to form or another. nearly $20 million to date through venture Manta, last year. “Small businesses are a that are read within 6 hours once they’re more effective way to connect than most execute a marketing strategy, and people in capital investment. critical ingredient for the nation’s overall received, with an opening rate of 11 percent. methods used today. the marketing business sometimes need to Linkable’s patented capabilities set it apart economic success, which is why we’re “In the early days, the email was abused by from competition. The service offers “What’s really exciting now is they actually react to competitors immediately, so we’ll committed to continuing to evolve our mBlox provides a mobile engagement all kinds of advertisement, and now you promotions at the SKU (stock-keeping have product, they have the service live have to speed up that process,” he says. platform to deliver innovative and easy-to- platform that enables companies to reach can see how [much] less effective it is,” unit) level, while others do not. Promotions in the market today,” says Eric Hjerpe of use tools to help SMBs grow efficiently.” mobile device users worldwide with SMS, says Courtney, explaining that the amount at the SKU level mean customers get Kepha Venture Partners. “As Tom said, However, the company is committed push and rich push messaging, according of spam and advertising via email caused deals on individual products instead of [before] it was a PowerPoint presentation. to reach every country, even if it means The company’s services have gone down to a customer’s location and activity. The users to immediately delete emails. But text entire baskets. So instead of $10 off your And now they’ve proven that they can negotiating with their competitors for well with users. “Having my business company has reached more than 800 messages get read. “We are used to getting purchase, milk rings up $1 less, without a actually link the banks, the credit card mobile routes, while their direct connection on Manta gives me the peace of mind to operators in more than 180 countries so far, emails from sources that we didn’t approve, word to the cashier. holders, the card networks—the Visas and with telecommunication companies gives know that my customers and partners can which adds up to 6 billion mobile devices while SMS are more personal,” he says. MasterCards, and the advertisers.” them much lower costs. find me online and on the go — and that I worldwide. Customers include financial Though the gamble to focus on SKU can find them,” said Timothy Schar, CEO mBlox focuses on improving relationships As for the future, Burgess says it is too early institutions, retailers, transportation firms, mBlox is the FIS enterprise platform paid off for Linkable, Burgess calls his of K-9 Patrol LLC. “I’m making better with existing customers. They stand in to think of an exit, but Linkable is happy to entertainment and media companies, and for SMS messaging to millions of end decision to sell specific deals a nailbiter. connections and I’m getting advice from contrast to businesses that charge users for have nabbed the worm larger companies consumer brands. customers through FIS’s client relationships “In this card-linked offer space, we’re experts, it’s helped me grow my business text messages sent to them, unasked for. the only company that built, from the are now checking the ground for. “It’s with financial institutions across the globe. exponentially.” Many of the company’s customers are Regulation on text messages also helps to very beginning, that ability to provide a likely we will see overtures from potential “This keeps FIS clients directly connected banks, which use text messages for a preserve the value of this medium. Many promotion on a specific item,” he says. acquirers ... after we reach that metric of to their end customers and keeps mobile In April 2012 Manta secured $44 million variety of services, including fraud alerts. countries have very specific restrictions “We made that decision when the rest of showing our success,” he says. “It’s gonna customers directly connected to their equity investment from Norwest Venture “If you have a debit card that’s been used on text messages. The U.S. and the U.K. the marketing world was going after local.“ be an interesting 2014 for us because the banks,” says Doug Brown, SVP & GM of Partners. “Manta is the de facto platform in a city that you don’t usually visit, you have aggressive privacy policies, while LivingSocial and Groupon glittered as the big companies are starting to sniff around for small businesses to connect with might receive a text saying ‘are you in newest and shiniest things in the digital and we’re meeting with them already.” customers and each other, as evidenced Indiana today?’” Courtney says. Retailers, coupon space; but Burgess stuck to the by the company’s more than 25 million on the other hand, can use text messaging potential of SKU, selling investors on his unique monthly visitors and over 3,000 for their rewards programs. “A mobile idea. business owners joining the community reward service can ask you to text JOIN daily,” said Jon Kossow, general partner,
178 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 179 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
FIS Mobile, adding that mBlox reaches Department of Veterans Affairs and more solutions, but having the source code gave Metamarkets industries for over 30 years. “Meeting Mike MoPub Marketplace, the world’s largest across carriers and demonstrates a greater doctors than any other EHR. us the ability to affect change without and seeing what Metamarkets could do, I RTB exchange for mobile apps. commitment to partnership than other the need to wait for a vendor to do the www.metamarkets.com realized that this was transformative and providers. Medsphere’s offering is OpenVista, also programming,” said Steve Art, Senior Vice this is going to be a gigantic trend in the The company is still in venture-backed, open source and based on VistA. The President and CIO of Lutheran Medical Michael Driscoll few years,” Rieman says. high-growth mode, and thus not profitable Italy’s CLX Europe (which provides media company continually adapts it to meet Center. “With this system, my customers yet. The biggest investor in Metamarkets is solutions) provides an example of an the needs of the commercial market. see I.T. as being more responsive.” Software The initial idea was to develop data assets, Khosla Ventures (founded by the Indian- mBlox competitor in the messaging space. Medsphere has invested millions of but soon the founders understood that American businessman and venture Companies like Xtify and Urban Airship dollars in added functionality to create an Medsphere’s biggest client is the federal California they needed to do more — like offer capitalist, Vinod Khosla) which invested that offer in-app messaging are becoming affordable EHR that can be implemented in government, through which it indirectly visualizations of the information, making $15 million in Metamarkets. “Khosla’s style strong competitors as well. “They try to as little as six to nine months at a fraction serves 371 ambulatory clinics in the Indian Yes it easy to digest. is not to go for a small win, he has a long- help a developer build an app, while we of the cost of industry competitors. Health Service. In addition to a number of time vision for the company, so I expect focus on brands that already have an app,” state agencies, the company also serves “The sources of data have been growing that we’ll be growing the business with Courtney explains the difference. “Our whole philosophy is to take the best about 25 commercial hospitals and health » As marketing moves from the pages dramatically, as well as more highly scaled venture backing,” Driscoll adds. Additional practices of our clients and add them to the services with a range of 100 to 500 beds. of newspapers to the digital world, data computation that are applied to aspects investment of $8 million came from AOL “We are on a rate of two markets per year,” pot so that everyone can share in a more The profitable company maintains growth can be easily aggregated and marketing of life that have not been applied before. Ventures, IA Ventures and True Ventures. Courtney says. The company will operate cohesive platform,” said Irv Lichtenwald, rates close to 40 percent. managers can track their audience’s Computers are talking to computers to in South Africa and Brazil by the end of CEO of Medsphere. “By sharing, reaction to different campaigns. Every generate the data, but humans are out of “We yet have not seen many competitors 2013, while direct connectivity in Japan cooperating, and collaborating, we keep Medsphere’s current base is primarily second, the RTB (Real-Time Bidding) the loop, and that’s the missing piece,” doing exactly what we do,” Driscoll and south east Asia is coming up in 2014. costs down for everybody. Taxpayers made up of hospitals that rely heavily on advertising industry produces millions Rieman says, noting that this is part of says. However, many of Metamarkets’ Even though the competition will evolve as have already spent billions developing a Medicaid recipients. Yet Mr. Lichtenwald of data events. Now, the problem is how what Metamarkets’ product aims to solve. customers have already built a similar well, the company already has its foot in system, so why not make it accessible and envisions eventual wider spread adoption can you take all of this data and generate platform themselves, so Metamarkets An advertiser who is trying to sell a the door, or even both of its feet — a good affordable to everybody?” by the medical community over time. an easy-to-understand conclusion? And has to compete with them. Domo, a new product in any in any digital form can see head start in a promising market. While the company is so far focused how can you get that bottom line as fast as SaaS company launched by Omniture co- Medsphere has never had a client pay more right away how many people clicked on the solely in the US, Mr. Lichtenwald has possible, when the market changes every founder and CEO, Josh James, is one of than $3.5 million over a five year contract. ad and bought the product, or how many had conversations with a number of half an hour? Metamarkets’ competitors today, located Proprietary systems can cost four to 10 partners and governments to expand of them played an online game associated in Salt Lake City. “We are on the center Medsphere times as much. internationally. Metamarkets provides a real-time analytics with it. The information is also segmented of the ecosystem when others are on the service for digital advertisers that provides by age groups, geographic regions, etc. edges,” Driscoll explains, saying that while The benefits enjoyed by the health care Medsphere, which competes against information to the marketing world. The “We don’t just display the metrics, but we Domo is building a dashboard for CMOs, Systems providers which use these systems have Cerner, Epic, and NextGen, was founded company leverages a SaaS platform which allow the users to interact with the data, as Metamarkets is focused on the exchanges been passed on to the patients. “Medical www.medsphere.com in 2002, by doctors who had encountered offers rapid deployment and ongoing opposed to just asking questions,” Rieman themselves. records have been proven to save lives,” Mr. the VistA veterans system during their management of campaigns, including web, adds. Lichtenwald said. One Medsphere client Irv Lichtenwald coursework as medical students. They video, and mobile displays of data. Tableau Public, a free software that creates saw an 88 percent reduction in Central obtained the source code for the system “Metamarkets provides us with a near- interactive data visualizations for the web, Software Line Associated Primary Bloodstream under the Freedom of Information Act “The CMO may have more budget than real time visualization of how our digital is another competitor, but doesn’t focus Infection rates and had an average of two and developed their commercial solution. the CIO with all of content being online advertising business is performing, on marketing as much as Metamarkets. California fewer deaths per month. Medsphere’s first few years proved to be and users that need more personalized impression by impression, across all our Moreover, both Salesforce and Adobe are what Mr. Lichtenwald terms as “the drama and mobile information platforms,” says audience segments. What’s selling, what’s also building technology for advertising. Within two weeks of implementing the Yes years,” ending with the founders leaving Michael Driscoll, CEO & founder of not, and where the opportunity lies. They system, New York City’s Lutheran Medical the company. Metamarkets. bring highly actionable insight that’s Technology, speed and scale remain key Center had its physicians ordering 98 accessible by everyone in the team — not to Metamarkets’ success, as they provide » Electronic health records are increasingly percent of their medications electronically. Though Medsphere has raised a total of The company was essentially the product just the data analysts,” says Jon Slade, customers infographics with real-time data being used in health providers across the It saw such a significant reduction in the $53 million in investment, it has received of a marriage between two worlds, digital commercial director of digital advertising in a fast-moving marketing world. “A lot U.S. and the world. The benefits are clear number of lab tests being ordered that only about $13 million since relaunching media and big data technology. Driscoll at the Financial Times. He adds that the of technologies are built for a world that — easier access, better efficiency and the employees first assumed there had been itself in 2006. Investors include Azure is a serial entrepreneur who has built data decision to choose Metamarkets was moves in minutes, hours and days, but potential to save patients’ lives. some mistake. Instead of a complicated Capital Partners, Epic Ventures, Thomas platforms for enterprises in media and life driven by the need to build a custom tool. we build for milo-seconds,” he says, “For prescription ordering system involving Weisel Venture Partners, and Western sciences. “When I came across the data of a long time people worked with data have Unlike traditional industry approaches multiple paper faxes and reentries, orders Technology Investment. the digital media it was like a kid in a candy “130 billion micro transactions happen [used] spreadsheets, but we’ve built a visual that design record keeping systems were instead signed by doctors directly store,” he says. Driscoll joined forces with on the web daily, and Metamarkets works interface for working with data, changing from scratch, Medsphere Systems, a San into the system, removing all potential Dr. Deborah Rieman, a legendary industry with 10-20 percent of that flow,” Driscoll the way people deal with it.” Francisco-based EHR provider starts transcription errors. executive and chair of Metamarkets. She adds. Out of 42 exchanges that exist in with the VistA EHR, an open source has worked in the computer software, the market, the company works with large The current goal of the company is to “Not only was Medsphere an order of system funded by over $8 billion in networking, and communications exchanges like the Financial Times and stabilize itself among its current customers, taxpayer money, which is used by the U.S. magnitude less expensive than other
180 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 181 Top 100 Companies: North America
becoming the main tool that they use in “The data analytics market is rapidly MuleSoft order to look at their data. growing as customers seek real time insight allowing them to better connect with www.mulesoft.com Metamarkets has a loft-like office space in their consumers through highly relevant the heart of San Francisco, made with bricks products, offers and services,” Gary Kearns, Greg Schott and beams of red wood, covered with the Executive Vice President, Information team’s favorite charts and visualizations. Services for MasterCard Advisors said Cloud Computing These charts are “mathematical looking at the time of the investment. “We went pieces of art,” Driscoll says. The artistic through an extensive process to choose the California side of data visualization is important to right partner and Mu Sigma’s innovation Technology that users trying to make sense of huge chunks labs and capabilities make them stand out Yes of information. And if you can hang it as best-in-class in this field. By combining on a wall, you may like seeing it on your MasterCard Advisors’ purchase behavior smartphone’s screen. insights with Mu Sigma’s expertise we will » illuminates This is the dawning of the age of APIs, be able to drive faster innovations in data where developers have one main problem: analytics solutions and deliver them on a too many endpoints. With so much surgery broader scale, globally.” data in the ether and growing use of Mu Sigma mobile and cloud technology, it’s difficult It’s clear the company has attracted a lot of connecting dots and directing information www.mu-sigma.com investment, and is now looking to expand along digital routes. MuleSoft “provides quickly in the U.S. The company recently a packaged integration experience for Dhiraj Rajaram announced it was opening a new Analytics enterprises in need of a comprehensive and Center in Austin, Texas that will employ simple solution to connect the explosion of “ This is truly an enabling technology that allows me to expand my use Other 300 full time decision scientists plus endpoints,” according to the company. support staff. of minimally invasive surgery and other advanced spine technologies, Illinois Currently, the company reports MuleSoft’s to the benefit of my patients.” “Our client base is growing swiftly all over products reach 3,200 companies in Richard D. Guyer, M.D. Yes the world, and having a large analytics production, and 35 percent of the Global Past President of North American Spine Society center in the U.S. will help us better serve 500. More than 150,000 developers use Chairman, Texas Back Institute Research Foundation clients who need rapid turnaround on their systems rather than custom code–– » their analytics projects,” said Mr. Rajaram, The digital revolution brought with it a or, put another way, developers use ® vast increase in the amount of data being founder and CEO of Mu Sigma. “With MuleSoft to skip out on digital drudge Invuity solves today’s key clinical problem of access and visualization in minimally created every day across many sectors. decision scientists in both Austin and work. In 2003, Ross Mason created the invasive surgery with brilliant illumination. Its proprietary Eigr™ Illumination Technology Bangalore, we’ll essentially have 24-hour For many industries this data provided a “Mule project,” named for the so-called directs, shapes and projects bright, white light inside the incision precisely where it is rewarding challenge, if companies could coverage for clients.” “donkey work” put into API integration. collect, manage and analyze it correctly, Now, the company, headed by CEO Greg needed — enabling surgeons to operate with greater efficiency and reduce surgical “We believe that low-cost experimentation they could develop business insights Schott, links SaaS and enterprise apps time through better visualization. is going to be key to any organization’s beyond anything seen before. for a long list of big-name clients. Used success with analytics, and our new Austin in production, processing transactions, For companies such as Mu Sigma, this facility provides an environment that and elsewhere, MuleSoft partners with provided an opportunity. The company fosters this culture,” Mr. Rajaram added. massive vendors and service providers like was founded in 2004 by Dhiraj C Rajaram. MasterCard. The company’s big data analytics services In 2008 the company raised $30 million are offered over a range of verticals, in institutional investment from FTV First VC funding came in 2006. Today, including technology, healthcare, Ventures, now called FTV Capital. In April their list of backers includes NEA, pharmaceuticals and banking. Mu Sigma 2011 it raised $25 million from Sequoia Salesforce.com, Hummer Winblad is growing at a rapid rate, and is hoping Capital and later that year raised another Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture to declare itself the undisputed king of big $108 million in another investment round. Parnters, SAP Ventures and Bay Partners. data analytics in the future. The company, headquartered in Chicago, Their most recent round led by NEA this cervical spine lit cervical spine unlit Illinois, received another $45 million in past April brought the company a windfall February 2013 from MasterCard. of $37 million; to date, MuleSoft has raised $81 million in all. Transforming MIS Through Advanced Visualization Invuity is a registered trademark and Eigr is a trademark of Invuity, Inc. www.invuity.com ©2013 Invuity, Inc. 11160 Rev. A
182 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Word on the web post-financing had news 2013, MuleSoft was named a top workplace Myriant Myriant currently is in start-up operations “It is a perfect storm of factors that are computer science, Mr. Hammond led a lab sources speculating an IPO would soon in the Bay Area by the Bay Area News at its flagship bio-succinic acid refinery driving the market opportunity,” Ms. at Northwestern University that partnered follow funding. Group for the second year running. And www.myriant.com in Lake Providence, Louisiana that will Hager said. “This can be a fairly lucrative programmers with journalism students. on its leadership page, the company states produce 30 million pounds of product and profitable business, especially if oil They designed a content aggregation On the same day the company announced a mission less to do with profit-making Stephen Gatto every year. It is in preliminary engineering prices continue to rise.” system based on data analytics over a 10 its financing, they also debuted news and more to do with providing value to stages for another U.S., with construction week period, and were so excited by what of their trademark tech, the Anypoint customers: “Our goal is for our colleagues Life Sciences/Biotech expected to be completed by the end of they leveraged that they expanded the Platform. MuleSoft claims it’s “the first to say that at some point in the future, ‘I’d 2015. Through partners, the company also scope of the project, launching Narrative and only complete integration platform to work with that team again in a second.’ Massachusetts produces bio-succinic acid at small plant Science in 2010. enable connectivity to any application, data By meeting that goal, our customer and in Germany that manufactures about 3 Narrative service or API, across the entire cloud and company success will continue to follow.” Yes million pounds per year, and is in the Science Though Narrative Science began first on-premise continuum.” process of forming a joint venture for the serving news outlets (it writes all of Their philosophy turned execution strategy commercialization of the technology in www.narrativescience.com Forbes earnings previews and other MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform puts SaaS, seems to be working just fine. Recent » Plastics have traditionally been produced South East Asia. financial reports), the real meat of its mobile and on-premise systems under numbers put 10,400 integration apps on the from oil. But using a process remarkably Stuart Frankel business is financial reporting, client one jurisdiction so that companies can company’s CloudHub iPAAS (integration similar to brewing beer, Massachusetts- Myriant was formed from the research communications, internal sales reviews, link fragmented or separate systems. Platform as a service). And as for market based Myriant produces the same chemical of Lonnie Ingram, a distinguished Software and pretty much any instance when an Connectivity is crucial in an age of New potential, they’ve got the whole world and intermediates from sugar derived from professor at the University of Florida who understandable story needs to be told Enterprise, the company said in its release; its various APIs at its fingertips. In June, plants, at a price that would still be developed a process to produce ethanol Illinois quickly and succinctly from raw data. and a hyper-connected world needs a MuleSoft announced CloudHub would competitive if oil cost only $45 a barrel. from renewable cellulosic waste materials. One partner, Game Changer, produces simple yet efficient way to ensure data be available internationally. “Integration He teamed up with serial entrepreneur Yes a scoring app that writes little league gets delivered and applications perform apps on CloudHub can now be deployed “We hope that 100 years from now, our Stephen Gatto. After first concentrating softball feats with all the punch of a sports perfectly across the infrastructure. with one click to any CloudHub region in children will look back and wonder on fuel production, the two pivoted to a journalist, based on referee data and the Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas with why we ever produced plastics from biological process to produce chemicals » Spreadsheets are tomorrow’s punch card bleacher Tweets of parents. According to the MuleSoft, the past data centers distributed across the world,” petroleum in the first place,” said Susan , launching Myriant in 2008. Myriant system, on the brink of extinction like year’s seen tremendous growth in market the release says. Hager, Senior Vice President, Corporate competes against Reverdia, a company the 8-track and pager, asserts Narrative Narrative Science’s programming language penetration and revenue. From April Communications and Government Affairs that produces similar chemicals using Science’s Chief Technology Officer Kris is easily applied to financial research 2012 to 2013, bookings ramped up 171 MuleSoft HQ is in San Franscisco. This at Myriant. “It doesn’t make any sense when yeast that also has a chemical refinery and Hammond. “We will be amused and reports. One agency client held over 35,000 percent year-over-year; and in August, past April brought regional headquarters the chemicals to make plastic can readily is making and shipping product. Other amazed that we ever interacted with a global equities and wrote comprehensive they reported a 116 percent year-to-date to Buenos Aires and Sydney. “In addition be made from renewable plant matter in a companies like BioAmber and Succinity machine that way,” he said. reports based on its data on an on-demand increase in license revenues. Also in 2013, to the strategic expansion in these areas, way that is ecological and sustainable.” use similar processes. Yet Myriant is the basis, which took an analyst an average MuleSoft acquired ProgrammableWeb, the the company...continues to see significant only company that sequesters carbon, Narrative Science creates stories from week to write. Narrative Science can online hub for API developers. sales growth and continued momentum Myriant uses a fermentation process that resulting in a substantially lower carbon structured data, written by computerized produce a similar narrative in about two in emerging market territories, including mixes sugar and anaerobic bacteria with footprint. “There is room in these markets algorithms in a matter of seconds. seconds, enabling that client to offer the “MuleSoft and ProgrammableWeb Africa and the Middle East,” the release sequestered carbon from the atmosphere for competition, and it only helps to Its machines write prose “essentially service on a subscription basis to every share a common belief in the web as a states. “MuleSoft’s expanded presence to produce chemical intermediates that can further validate what we are doing,” Ms. indistinguishable from what’s being client, with minimal expense. platform,” says ProgrammableWeb CEO across these geographies is the first be used in a wide range of consumer and Hager said. written by human beings,” Mr. Hammond Adam DuVander in an April blog post of the many new regional operations industrial products. “We’ve optimized a said. “We’ve never had anybody read it and “Narrative Science’s artificial intelligence on the partnership deal. “The world is planned that will include sales, pre-sales, metabolic pathway in a naturally occurring Myriant has raised approximately $130 say this was written by a machine.” platform analyzes data and communicates more connected and APIs are the conduit consulting services and technical support, anaerobic bacteria to produce more of million from the PTT Chemical Group. this information in a way that is easy to through which information flows between to cultivate rapid acquisition of customers one chemical and less of another,” Ms. “The involvement in the succinic acid The core DNA of the company relies on a read and understand,” said Steve Bowsher, websites and to an expanding array of and international expansion of MuleSoft’s Hager said. “We are creating tremendous plant in Louisiana … is the strategic entry cohesive partnership between engineers Managing Partner at IQT. “We believe devices. MuleSoft helps organizations ecosystem of system integrators and environmental benefits while producing a point that will not only accelerate the and editorial staff. Programmers designed these advanced analytic capabilities can make these connections that power their partners.” clean chemical.” commercialization of bio-based products the core platform in consultation with be of great value to our customers in the own apps, or those of their partners and but also strengthen our competitive content architects from a journalism Intelligence Community.” developers.” APIs allow content to flow freely across Myriant serves the bio-succinic acid advantage in bio-based technology,” said background with a rich understanding platforms, and in an increasingly digital, chemical market worth about $7.5 Veerasak Kositpaisal, Chief Executive of communication and language The company serves about 45 clients, Accolades earned by the company include cloud-based ecosystem, that’s imperative. billion globally. It is also in pilot stage Officer of PTT Chemical, in a statement. manipulation. mostly in the U.S. with a few in the U.K. It AlwaysOn Global 250 Awards, STEVIES And with so many clients already in their development to produce bio-acrylic acid, is focusing first on the U.S. market due to and CODiE recognition as winners portfolio and reports of an IPO ahead, a super absorbent polymer used in paper The company estimates it could release 700 The company’s technology resulted from a the acceleration of its growth. “We think and finalists. However, the company’s MuleSoft seems to have assumed the towels, tissues, as well as every baby diaper million pounds of product on the market collaboration with Northwestern’s Medill the global market is a distraction at this dedication to creating a happy work mantle of market leader well. and feminine hygiene product in a market in the next 10 years. School of Journalism. A professor of point,” Mr. Hammond said. environment for employees impresses as estimated at $22 billion. much as its formidable financial success. In
184 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 185 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Narrative Science has yet to face head Neuronetics Rhodes’ treatment took six weeks. TMS develop once FDA allowed the company to Neuronetics has two main competitors that Nextiva to head competition, Mr. Hammond Therapy is available by prescription only market the product,” he adds. focus on treatments other than medication said. Several other players are doing www.neurostar.com and is delivered under the supervision of or Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). www.nextiva.com comparative work, but tend to have a a psychiatrist, while patients are awake. “It Rhodes was denied coverage by her Cyberonics, Inc., which is a public medical vertical focus. Automated Insights takes Bruce Shook feels like a ‘nuggi’, but it’s a very specific insurance company twice until the technology company based in Texas, Tomas Gorny a similar approach, but focuses on sports intense tapping”, she describes, “I was so decision was reversed. “I was a shell of a developed the FDA-approved the Vagus publishing. The French company EasyOp Medical Devices hypersensitive at that time that even a foot women, but what did I have to lose? There Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy system Telecommunications also works similarly, but through straight rub would have bothered me, but within a is the fear and doubt factor, and there was that uses a surgically implanted medical software installation with tools that are Pennsylvania week I got adjusted to it,” Rhodes says. an apprehension because it was new and I device to deliver pulsed electrical signals Arizona somewhat less flexible, Mr. Hammond said. didn’t know what to expect,” she says. to the vagus nerve. Another competitor The company’s technology is well protected Yes Magnetic field pulses are generated and is an Israeli company called Brainsway, Yes with several patents granted and a number aimed at the left prefrontal cortex, an area According to Neff, the company has which uses a similar treatment that is also pending. “We are unquestionably the leader of the brain that has been demonstrated reduced its risk profile significantly since FDA-approved. “We produce a [more] in terms of platform,” Mr. Hammond said. » “I can’t believe that I sit in a chair, my to function abnormally in patients with the FDA has cleared the product for sale. specific and targeted brain stimulation » A provider of VoIP communication “It would be shocking if somebody would head gets tapped, and I want to live again,” depression. These magnetic fields are Neuronetics is expanding insurance than Brainsway, while they’ve had more technology for small businesses, Nextiva be able to catch up to us today.” says Martha Rhodes, one of the first the same type and strength as those used reimbursement coverage for treatment side effects and a very different approach,” has a unique background when it comes patients to be treated with Neuronetics’ in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and developing clinical data to provide says Shook. to helping SMBs bridge the digital divide And its technology is still in the early technology. “This treatment is very quite, machines. Once inside the brain, the more proof for the efficacy of TMS and in phone services. Founded in 2006, phases. Its content may sound human, but but its very real.” After years of taking magnetic field pulses activate an electrical researching determining what types of “It’s not a quick fix, you’ve got to be the company is owned by Unitedweb, is still years away from winning awards. Yet medication that didn’t help her depression current causing the neurons to become psychiatry practices are likely to succeed patient,” Rhodes says. However, after about a group of investors and entrepreneurs Mr. Hammond was asked by the New York and caused harmful side effects, she started active and the release of neurotransmitters. with it. two weeks of treatment, Rhodes says she that invests in startups that help small Times if a computer could win the Pulitzer TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) felt a difference. “I woke up on Saturday companies leverage the Internet with “Completely new treatment modalities Prize in 20 years. He actually gives it only treatment in May 2012. Neuronetics makes profit from selling the morning and I realized that something technology previously only affordable often take a protracted period of trial and five, and claims that it will be Narrative TMS NeuroStar machines, but also charges was missing, it was this feeling of having to large corporations. Other companies error – both in developing the market Science that pulls it off. Neuronetics is a medical device company the psychiatrists for each time the machine to do with another day of living,” she says. under the Unitedweb umbrella include and in developing the data that drives the developing non-systemic and non-invasive is used. In addition, the company generates “It was a lightning feeling, very subtle but Endurance International, one of the largest market – before there is broad adoption, Headquartered in Chicago with offices in therapies for psychiatric and neurological revenues from sales of a disposable unmistakable. I got up and I looked the web hosting companies in the US, and but we think Neuronetics is well on its way New York City, Narrative Science has raised disorders, using MRI-strength magnetic foil called Senstar, purchased with the same but the light in the room felt different, SiteLock, a web security company. venture funding, including an undisclosed field pulses. “Many obstacles come up machines and used for every treatment. to breaking through into broad adoption,” the air was clearer for some reasons.” Her amount from In-Q-Tel, the venture firm when developing a new kind of therapy,” Neff concludes. Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression Nextiva carries on this tradition by that invests on behalf of the CIA. says Bruce J. Shook, President and CEO The company had 5 rounds of financing (HRSD) test results also changed, and offering SMBs an affordable yet effective 500 NeuroStars are currently found in of Neuronetics. Convincing both investors since 2003, and their backers include went from 28 (a score indicative of very way to host their phone services in the clinics across the U.S. In 2012 the company “Narrative Science is going to be the way and regulatory authorities of the tech’s included some of the most successful severe depression) when she started, to 0 cloud for easy, universal accessibility. On began selling the product in the UAE, through which the machine explains itself power, then a new audience of patients to venture capital firms in the life science by the end of treatment. average, its customers achieve a 65 percent Japan, Saudi Arabia and more. “We wanted to us, and it definitely has a lot of explaining use it, remains a difficult task. Plus, training industry. Among them: Investor Growth savings over their previous phone service, to be in markets where we thought that to do,” Mr. Hammond concluded. psychiatrists to use the new machine adds Capital, New Leaf Venture Partners, “Part of this treatment is that you have to according to the company’s own claims. there is a medical need and that there will another expense. Interwest Partners and Pfizer. “We are do your part,” Rhodes explains. She still has Nextiva has offered its platform in the be sufficient resources to pay with cash,” at the process of looking for new forms to keep track of her diet and hours of sleep, cloud since 2008. On an SaaS model, it says Shook, as he mentions that Europe is NeuroStar TMS Therapy, a non-invasive of financing, such as equity, debt and and she’s not allowed to drink. In addition, monetizes its services based on a monthly not part of the plan yet. “European payers depression treatment, was cleared by combinations of the two,” Shook says. she must undergo treatment every once in rate. There is no upfront capital investment are relatively difficult, and they also pay far the FDA in 2008, for use on patients a while for maintenance. or IT knowledge required. that who have not benefited from taking “We were completely convinced that there less for drugs in Europe than we do in the antidepressants. is an enormous need in the treatment of states,” he says. The World Health Organization has “Our technical expertise gives us a major depression for new and innovative estimated that by the year 2020 major distinct, competitive advantage over the The company had treated approximately A recent survey estimated that 16.2 therapies – that the available drugs often depression will be exceeded only by entire market,” said Yaniv Masjedi, VP 13,000 patients since its launch in the U.S., percent of the US population — more than don’t work well, and frequently have side ischemic heart disease in global disease of marketing at Nextiva. “We’re enabling according to Shook. Outside the U.S., a 30 million people — suffer from major effects that are really unacceptable and burden. Even though that’s unfortunate businesses to have an affordable phone first clinic in Japan offering NeuroStar depression in their lifetime. Many patients limit their use,” says Sherrill Neff, founding news for us, it might mean good news system in the cloud and work the way treatment opened recently and first with major depression find antidepressants partner of Quaker Partners, which invested for Neuronetics, or the TMS market in they want to work, whether via voice, installations in Saudi Arabia and UAE are unhelpful, while more than half of patients in Neuronetics in 2006, when the company general. a cell phone, on a beach or anywhere expected in the last quarter of 2013. on antidepressant drug therapy report side had their pivotal trial data, but had not yet they’re traveling for business. You can fax effects such as sexual dysfunction, weight received clearance from the FDA to market gain, sleep disorders, etc. Thus, there is a their product. “What was less clear was large need for a different solution. how the market and reimbursement would
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anywhere with Nextiva, manage multiple required technicians and infrastructure. NuoDB, now six years old, came about at about $30 billion, an opportunity which positions itself well to serve and support a to your datacenter there is no degradation offices and virtual employees seamlessly when co-founder Jim Starkey solved a will swell by roughly 10 percent ($3 billion) changing world, one that’s leaving behind in performance,” he says. “There is no and centrally in a way that is easily scalable. With Nextiva, it was simply a matter of fundamental problem for enterprises. In per year. That number is set to grow, and terrestrial bindings for the cloud. diminishing returns of scale.” We’re leading the way for phone migration.” plugging new phones into the Internet. the past, geographic as well as technological fast, as the world produces more and more “This proved critical,” company owner limitations kept databases bound to one information. This past September, the Instead of buying shoes two sizes too big, The company’s platform, Amazing Service, John Lepore explained in a testimonial. machine. Now, NuoDB’s product helps company’s freemium product had attracted or datacenter infrastructures that don’t features high levels of redundancy with a “In that period, it was important for those businesses spread their information all downloads from more than 10,000 users. suit storage needs, companies may opt for focus on quality and reliability, according customers to be able to reach us, file their over the world on systems that stay up all Nutanix Nutanix’s ability to stretch. “Building an to Masjedi. This allows for little to no claims, and just know we were there. We Prominent customer Dassault recently elastic fabric is a very unique challenge, day, every day. www.nutanix.com hold time, and 95 percent of calls to be wouldn’t have been able to do that with a became more than a consumer of NuoDB’s to makes ure that you can start with four answered by the second ring. Customer traditional system.” The company’s DBMS leverages geo- solutions. The company invested in machines and grab a fifth machine, and a Dheeraj Pandey service is another focus. The company distribution, which allows enterprises NuoDB’s most recent, $14.2 million sixth one, then a fiftieth one, a hundredth strives to resolve any issues or questions to run connected database systems on funding round. Prior backers include Big Data/Storage one, and as you keep doing this, you have on the first customer call. “Nextiva is more different continents. Its technology works Morgenthaler Ventures, Hummer Winblad a very seamless transition with growth,” than a phone provider, but a partner who like a flock of birds. No one node leads it, Venture Partners, and Longworth Venture California Pandey says. “I think it’s actually one of helps them grow their business,” Masjedi NuoDB so the architecture offers no single point Partners. Now, total backing behind the the biggest challenges in infrastructure said. “We are enabling businesses to have www.nuodb.com of failure. And the formation also allows company comes to $26.2 million. Yes Nutanix is actually solving.” conversations that are critical to business for rolling upgrades, with businesses able NuoDB’s disruptive — and importantly, Founded in 2009, the San Jose-based success.” Barry Morris to take machines off the system without patented –– technology neutralizes company has strode quickly and compromising it. “As long as there are two » Nutanix changes how enterprises store Serving over 60,000 business customers in competitors, though Morris says it’s powerfully into the enterprise IT market. Software machines running you’ve still got a running their data, enhancing operations and the United States, Nextiva focuses on the not for lack of trying, talent or funding This past May, after six quarters of sales, database,” Morris says. That’s crucial for cohesion across virtual machines and small business market, from a two person they’ve been unable to take on NuoDB. Nutanix achieved an annualized run rate Massachusetts eliminating downtime, which costs one of replacing the need for a centralized data startup to a 150 employee established The company has built and patented the of over $80 million. NuoDB’s customers $1,000 a second and infrastructure. business with multiple locations. Though Yes $24,000 to $36,000 per outage, as systems jet engine, he says; therefore challengers Early on, Nutanix preached about their Masjedi declined to state a growth rate, go down for 4 to 6 hours. have no choice but to try and make a “We try to bring the goodness of the revolutionary products to unbelieving he described its client acquisition as “quite faster propeller engine. They’re trying to consumer cloud, its central architectures to listeners. Pandey says they were evangelical accelerated,” and a 2012 press release states » The database industry is in flux. The That same global functionality provides inflict incremental improvements upon a the masses,” says Dheeraj Pandey, Nutanix in spreading the word around the market the company has had 100 percent growth cloud is calling to companies, and they have NuoDB customers like Fathom Voice, product which NuoDB has replaced. co-founder and CEO. The company has that datacenter infrastructures could be for several years. Much of its expansion responded by building fresh frameworks a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) made it their mission to spread and simplify With little threat from competitors, it may different. “Three years ago, most people comes word of mouth as its customers to support a move skyward. But when a company, with the technology they need to access to storage across a connected virtual seem that success for NuoDB is secure. would scoff at us. ‘Do you know what you’re recommend the service to others. “We have business outgrows its data solutions, it may serve customers around the world without platform. There, Nutanix’s software-define But Morris worries less about watching talking about? Has this ever been done?’ a sizable pool of clients, but there’s still lot seek a system that fits in with incumbent overhauling their system. “The world was solutions perform data triage and optimize the company’s back than he does scanning Because you’re trying to collapse the entire of room to grow,” Masjedi said. “There has practices — a brand new architecture that built on SQL, good or bad or whatever,” its movement. the horizon, where he sees convergence datacenter into single server machines that been a great source of continued as well as incorporates old structural beams. In the says Cameron Weeks, CEO of Fathom approaching. Soon, everything — from everything would be virtual,” he says. “A new business.” database industry, this means a cloud- Voice. “So Fathom can’t just go in and say, “We’re building and delivering and selling consumers’ cars to their refrigerators lot of people really were naysayers.” based infrastructure that keeps Structured ‘Okay, great, we’re gonna drop our SQL Google-like infrastructure for the masses Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., Nextiva is statements and we’re going to move over to — will be on the Internet; and all those to build private clouds,” says Howard Ting, Query Language, or SQL. Bipul Sinha, partner at Lightspeed Venture profitable. a new, non-structured data format.’” elements will have to communicate with vice president of worldwide marketing. Partners, has been involved with Nutanix NuoDB’s distributed database management extremely responsive database systems that “Our belief is that enterprise IT, for a long Masjedi contends that SMBs transition to since day one — before the company system (DBMS) gives enterprises both: Customers of NuoDB’s product include allow for large-scale concurrent access, time, has been way too costly, way too VoIP services is only beginning. “We see a had a single employee, he says. Sinha the capacity to run SQL and head to the AutoZone, Zombie Studios, and France’s Morris says. “It requires the database to complex, way too hard to scale,” he says. lot of opportunity for cloud communication seeded Nutanix in 2009 at Blumberg cloud. The company, based in Cambridge, Dassault Systèmes, the second-largest be spread out across lots of locations and “And so we’re attacking those issues.” as a whole as more people recognize the Capital before heading to Lightspeed. Massachusetts, stands alone as the front- software provider in Europe behind SAP. to be able to run in multiple locations so benefits of business communication in Later, Lightspeed and Blumberg Capital runner in what its CEO Barry Morris calls The company operates via a freemium it’s accessible locally, but still is a global Ting says Nutanix beats out traditional a cloud rather than an office,” Masjedi invested in Nutanix in 2010, raising $13.2 a one-horse race. model in a massive market getting even database,” Morris continues. “That’s an datacenter infrastructures through better said. “The reality is a majority of small larger each year. Morris says industry area we’ve been putting a lot of time into.” economics, linear scalability and simplicity million in Series A. Two more rounds have businesses are still using landlines.” research gauges the entire database market of delivery. With Nutanix’s ability to host brought the company’s total funding to Smart devices will proliferate as smart predictable amounts of virtual machines $72 million, with Nutanix reporting both One client, John Lepore Insurance, had home and smart car markets explode in in their appliances, capacity grows as Series B and C were oversubscribed. Other its offices devastated by Hurricane Sandy the future. Morris anticipates NuoDB’s companies need it without a requirement major investors include Khosla Ventures, in 2012. The insurance company needed revenue will increase by 3-4x for “some to overprovision, the company says. “Our Battery Ventures and Goldman Sachs. to have phones up and running quickly years to come,” and says the startup has scalability is extremely linear, meaning as to deal with the influx of calls from storm “Nutanix’s bold vision was that because of the potential to build up to a company you continue to add more and more gear victims. A hardwired system would have with revenues in the billions. Now, NuoDB the virtualization innovation that VMware
188 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 189 Top 100 Companies: North America
GPS INSIGHT FLEET & ASSET TRACKING SOLUTION did, it is now possible to build this fabric OncoMed way OncoMed stacks the pipeline makes compute layer that brings storage and other it special. “For most biotech companies, resources together in a single appliance,” Pharmaceuticals any one of these molecules would be a Sinha says. “You don’t have to separately company in and of itself,” says US Venture string things together to be able to provide www.oncomed.com Partners general partner Jonathan Root, applications and resources.” an OncoMed investor. “Imagine any Paul Hastings one molecule being the foundation of a In a market filled with giants, Nutanix company [in] any other circumstance, and cut its teeth in the midmarket. After all, Life Sciences/Biotech here’s a company with only [85] people that Ting notes, big companies can put up is developing five.” bigger fights when change comes their California way. “I think we’re starting to get into From the outset, Hastings says, that enterprise market, that Fortune 500 Yes the company developed antibodies . market domestically, the Global 2000 simultaneously, rather than take single nt me market internationally,” he says. “We’re solutions to clinic, then go back to the ge ana going to continue to build our base in » In battling cancer, OncoMed cuts the legs blackboard after deployment. The result: t m Your h in flee the midmarket and we’ll continue to do out from under tumors as they try to grow. five drugs in the clinic and more than 16 elping hand well there...then we’re going to do a lot of The biotech discovery company develops clinical trials, “all targeting cancer stem hi-touch selling, going into those Global treatments that target cancer stem cells, cells,” Hastings says. What’s more, there’s 2000s.” tumors’ roots, in an attempt to prevent four additional investigational new drug them from metastasizing. applications (INDS) coming soon. “Once we establish ourselves as the datacenter standard inside one of those “A cancer stem cell antibody is targeted at Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of The Premier large companies, then we’re talking about a population of cells or a small population patients in OncoMed’s market. Hastings TRACKING SOFTWARE FOR YOUR FLEET probably hundreds of millions of dollars of cells inside a tumor that’s responsible for says their opportunity is in the billions of of buying potential over several years,” the growth and metastasis [of] that tumor, dollars, and that OncoMed strives to serve he says. Though Nutanix’s financials and so the way that tumor finds its way into all cancer patients. Any person with solid or capabilities put the company in the big other organs,” says OncoMed CEO Paul liquid tumors; hematologic malignancies; leagues, Ting says there’s still much to do— Hastings. “We’re targeting ‘the bad guy’ in colon, lung, or pancreatic cancer; or those especially considering what he calls the the tumor.” “who would be candidates for not only the TAM, the total addressable market. “When clinical trials of our drugs but ultimately for I drop that number, the $100 billion OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, located in the commercial use of our drugs,” Hastings number, I’m not suggesting that entire Redwood City, CA, evolved from biological says, falls within their target market. market is available to Nutanix today,” Ting research on cancer stem cells completed says. “But if you look at all the purchases by Michael Clarke at the University Serving this sector — and doing so of storage and servers in the enterprise of Michigan prior to the company’s prosperously — requires quite a bit of IT market, you’re looking at about a $100 founding in 2004. According to Hastings, capital. In total, OncoMed raised more than billion.” that research became the cornerstone of $360 million prior to their initial public OncoMed’s discovery platform; today, the offering. Venture capital funding came With huge numbers on the horizon, company is singular for its technology, as from nine firms: first, Latterell Venture Nutanix stays ambitious, reminding itself well as for its treatment implementation Partners, USVP, the Vertical Group, and these are early days.“We’re very proud of strategies and its philosophies. Morgenthaler Ventures in Series A; then what we’ve done to date, but we’re also Delphi Ventures, Phase4 Partners, Adams very humble when we look out at this $100 “It’s very unusual to have a company that Street Partners, De Novo Ventures and billion dollar market, when we look out is a discovery company; in other words, a Bay Partners, added in Series B. The latter on who else is in the landscape,” Ting says. company who takes its own patents and round eventually raised $169 million “We look at companies like IBM, HP, the makes its own discoveries and develops according to press releases from November kind of deep pockets they have, or EMC those patents and discoveries into drugs,” and December of 2008. and Netapp, look at all these startups being Hastings says. “It’s very unusual that funded with lots of great smart people [OncoMed], at such an early stage, has so Monetization opportunities as well as there. We say, hey it’s still very early, it’s the many products in the pipeline, what we call capital infusions for OncoMed come top of the second inning.” Batter up. multiple shots on goal.” from partnerships with giant, global pharmaceutical companies. Of the more 866-477-4321 • gpsinsight.com 19001 N. Scottsdale Rd. #400 One drug’s the norm for pharmaceutical than $360 million raised, $160 million came companies, especially the smaller ones. The from the company’s strategic pairings with [email protected] Scottsdale, AZ 85255
190 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Bayer HealthCare and GlaxoSmithKline OnForce themselves as Comcast Contractors, which vertical that we would go after, especially cataract surgery with femtosecond laser Paymetric (GSK). According to OncoMed’s website, helps the company present one unified with the demographics changing, but that’s technology. As a result, it improves levels teaming up with GSK may bring in more www.onforce.com front to the customer. the next horizon,” says Orfao. of control, precision and efficiency. Rather www.paymetric.com than $694 million, while their 2010 deal than doing the operation by hand, surgeons with Bayer earned the company $40 Peter Cannone “You can find an ... independent contractor One surprising partnership is with using OptiMedica conduct at least some of Asif Ramji million immediately, and $387.5 million in your area code that will pick up the Manpower, a staffing company that the incisions using computer guided lasers. per program “for each antibody or protein Other event that you routed within minutes and competes with companies like OnForce. Security therapeutic successfully developed” — plus you’ll have somebody solving your issue “We help them deliver micro tasks that they Licensing pattern scanning laser royalties with strings attached. Bayer also Massachusetts shortly,” Cannone says. can’t deliver to some of their larger clients,” technology from Stanford University, Georgia pays OncoMed $112 million per program Cannone says. OnForce is currently OptiMedica produces the PASCAL® (again, plus restricted future royalties) for Yes OnForce developed a mobile app for iPhone working on partnering with several other (PAttern SCAn Laser) Method of Yes small molecule candidates, according to and Android with push notifications about large global staffing companies. These photocoagulation that it claims to disrupt their alliances web page. Through these events and instant approvals of service enterprises can’t deliver on short-term, the retinal photocoagulation market partnerships, OncoMed’s able to reach » Finding an IT technician can be a events by the technicians. OnForce gives outcome-based staffing solutions like through improved precision and control. » Even the most successful companies international markets. “In essence we’re nightmare for any business. For this the technician a GPS that maps the events. OnForce. In less than four years of launching the need continually to evaluate strategy. As already a global company because our reason, OnForce developed a source for Then the technician clicks the “on-site” product in 2006, it had shipped more than technology advances, so must businesses. collaborations are global,” Hastings says. on-site tech talent and has connected more button so the client knows an expert is According to OnForce, annual gross 600 PASCAL units in more than 40 markets But that doesn’t make changing any easier, “We’re doing clinical trials in Australia, than 100,000 IT independent contractors present. “Instead of an hour event, the revenue amount to more than $43 million around the world. Its systems have been especially for a payment solutions firm New Zealand, and Europe and eastern to businesses in the U.S. and Canada. technician is there for about 45 minutes, and the company reached break-even in used to treat more than 750,000 patients moving from a licensed software model to Europe, as well as in the United States and meaning that he can go to another event 2012. and deliver more than 30 million patterns. a Software-as-a-service model. North America.” OnForce started in 2003 with a directory and earn more revenue, while the client of professionals that became a Workforce saves time,” Cannone explains. “We are in Canada today and looking at Last August, OptiMedica was acquired by In 1998, two former SAP employees OncoMed went public on July 23 of as a Service (WaaS) solution. The company Europe at the end of this year or in the Abbott Medical Optics for $250 million, founded Paymetric in Houston, Texas. this year, selling 5.52 million shares of has expanded internationally and now “With the macro economic environment beginning of next year,” he says. The U.K. plus another possible $150 million if certain The firm was created to solve a problem, common stock at $17 per share. According targets more than 20 IT and computer changing, more companies are looking for and Germany were the first markets to benchmarks are met. Abbott specializes in as enterprise accounting systems were to a company press release detailing engineering-related industries. outsource flavor,” Cannone says. According implement OnForce’s model. Entering the vision improving technologies with its a not able to handle electronic payments second quarter 2013 financial results, to a recent study by MBO Partners, there European market will be relatively easily, portfolio of cataract, refractive and eye care as part of normal data flows and business total capital raised at the IPO amounted “We created a valuable proposition that are nearly 17 million independent workers especially through current international products. processes. The company won SAP’s to approximately $87.3 million, “after allows you to find, manage and pay for the in the U.S. today – a population that’s enterprise clients like Apple. Keeping Pinnacle Award in 2002 and 2008. deducting underwriting discounts and entire labor event,” says Peter Cannone, expected to grow to 50 percent of the up with the market’s demand for more “OptiMedica’s Catalys system enhances commissions but prior to the payment of OnForce’s CEO since 2007. The company American workforce by 2020. This result professional contractors is expected to be Abbott’s leadership position in vision care Paymetric provides integrated and remaining offering expenses payable by charges a fee for the customer or business points out the need for better management one of the company’s major challenges with the addition of a state-of-the-art secure payment acceptance solutions to OncoMed.” Collaboration revenues for to publish an event on the OnForce of independent contractors in the future ahead, but a good one to have. laser cataract technology to our portfolio,” enterprise companies, which enables them second quarter 2013 were $2.9 million, platform, and collects a percentage of that beyond the IT sector. Of the 1,800 said Murthy Simhambhatla, senior vice to streamline their order-to-cash process, which meant a net loss of $9.6 million. But event from the independent contractor. individuals surveyed by MBO, 57 percent president of medical optics at Abbott. reduce the scope of financial burden for Hastings says that’s normal for a company actively chose to become independent “OptiMedica’s technology combined with achieving Payments Cards Industry (PCI) putting big money into discovery. “I was impressed with their technology contractors. OptiMedica Abbott’s global market presence, offer the compliance, and improve their return on platform and their ability to source on- potential to provide advanced cataract electronic payment acceptance. “It’s been a tough economy and businesses “What these losses are, is us spending the site technicians nationwide,” says Daniel www.optimedica.com treatment options to more patients around cash that we’ve raised,” he says. OncoMed is Herscovici, Vice President of Comcast, want to get the professionals that they the world.” It was in 2009 that the company switched need according to picks like seasonality eight years old; and according to Hastings, which uses OnForce’s services. Herscovici Mark Forchette to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, drug development often takes between 10 founded XFINITY Signature Support as or big product shipments,” says David Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., OptiMedica the same year that, Asif Ramji, now CEO and 15 years. So while he doesn’t expect an part of Comcast almost three years ago Orfao, Managing Director at General Medical Devices has raised venture funding from Kleiner of the firm, joined Paymetric. “I came to OncoMed product to hit markets in the and was looking for on-site tech support. Catalyst Partners, which invested more Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alloy Ventures, the business in 2009 and the objective was very near future, he’s not worried about “They were great partners and worked than $10 million in OnForce over the past California DAG Ventures, BlackRock, and Bio*One to transform the business from a licensed what will happen, financially-speaking, to modify their business model to meet seven years. General Catalyst Partners Capital. software model to a software as a service once drugs are deployed. our needs. We’ve used them hundreds of also brought in Accel London to invest Yes model. We were able to convert virtually times a month over the past two years,” in OnForce, while other investors include every single one of our customers from “We don’t have revenue coming in from Herscovici says. “Their techs have a strong North Atlantic Capital. licensed software to SaaS and triple the products yet because our products have technical skill and a customer-friendly » OptiMedica develops ophthalmic client base at the same time,” he recalls. Even though OnForce and its investors not been approved on the market,” he approach which is how they earn their devices to improve patient outcomes in eye focus on IT services and electronic devices, says. “But when they are, one swings into business everyday. I use them both for my surgery. Founded in 2004, the company “We created a new direction for the the company is also considering moving profitability rather rapidly.” residential and small business customers.” developed a non-invasive technique that business and the way that we looked at it into the healthcare and energy markets. The OnForce technicians present replaces the inconsistent manual steps in was licensed software in our particular “The healthcare market would be the next industry was not going to solve a very
192 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 193 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
dynamic problem. Licensed software channels, secures all of those channels and biggest buzz word. Now, the company has Gallivan says it is mostly developers In future, Pentaho won’t always serve period because their offline property was needs patches, upgrades and it’s constantly integrates them back into the enterprise.” fallen into a leadership role synthesizing that want Pentaho free, where Pentaho clients who understand the nuances of the moving online,” she says. “At the same an operational burden for the enterprises, and deploying big data to help enterprises Enterprise offers features that developers big data marketplace. Customers today time I recognized the fact that less than 10 so deploying through a SaaS model gave The company is eyeing international strategize next steps. do not necessarily need, like those dealing do not just want a product—they want percent of advertising dollars were being the client the leverage of being able to have expansion in the next 18 months, and is with customized user interfaces, disaster tutoring, guidance and education. And spent online.” updates and enhancement to their solution aiming to establish a presence in the U.K. Pentaho serves customers a fused cocktail recovery and security. while that will require more time and without creating an operational burden for first. “We have a really deep relationship of information culled from varied resources effort on providers’ parts, companies like Perfect Market aimed to capitalize on the them,” he adds. with a channel partner that’s in that available to the company through its “tightly Meanwhile, the company’s open source Pentaho are ready to take on the teacher’s influx of spending online, and to help market today which has 16 sales people. coupled data integration and business origins fit perfectly with the architecture of mantle. rescue an industry on its tiptoes in deep To Ramji and Paymetric, the move made We have some partners and resources that analytics” platform, the company says. other applications in the big data space. “A water. “I always say there will be a giant sense. “We definitely see a trend towards will provide guidance and insight on that. Their integrated approach differentiates lot of the more popular big data tools are “They want the cookbook, the big data sucking sound of dollars moving up from SaaS,” Ramji says. “The large enterprises We’ve actually already identified talent in them from their competition. “Right now, open source in nature...so the technologists cookbook,” he says. “We’re working on not offline to online, and that it had a kind of don’t want to be managing many different that market as well that we want to bring no one really can do the blending in an on- within our customers that are putting only providing the technology, but because a noble twist to it where we could actually solutions, they would rather have domain on board,” Ramji says. demand, real-time way so that a business together and building out these big data we have so much experience now these in help an industry which I believe is very expertise and in our situation specifically user can actually mash up data from their infrastructure ecosystems, they’re not only all these deployments, we’re helping put the important,” she says. for our industry we’ll definitely see more NoSQL database or their Hadoop cluster comfortable with open source, but prefer big data cookbook together.” of that.” with relational data sitting in the EDW open source to legacy software vendors,” Perfect Market’s proprietary technology [Enterprise Data Warehouse] in order Gallivans says. “Reset the dial ten years increases engagement, traffic and content A report by Gartner late last year revealed Pentaho to really understand a 360 view of their ago, large enterprises were allergic to open monetization for publishers. Its Digital SaaS adoption has grown dramatically Publishing Suite helps companies manage www.pentahobigdata.com customer,” Gallivan says. source.” among users of enterprise software Perfect Market their social presence, optimize SEO and solutions. According to a survey conducted Though crowded, the market for big data “Now the paradigm has shifted dramatically, target the right readers and users for the Quentin Gallivan www.perfectmarket.com by the research firm, 715 organizations have analysis is both large and lucrative–– particularly around these big data right stories. been using SaaS for less than three years. especially for companies that build moats architectures and big data infrastructures,” Software Julie Schoenfeld and differentiate. Pentaho currently serves he says. “Pentaho being a commercial open “We created a product called the Digital “Seeing such high intent to increase Publishing Suite, just one line of JavaScript California the Business Intelligence analytics needs source technology, there’s a propensity to Cloud Computing spending isn’t a huge surprise as the of companies like Telefonica, Lufthansa, use Pentaho to connect, to move, blend, allows publishers access to this enormous adoption of the on-demand deployment functionality which we call adaptive Yes Marketo and ModCloth. According and analyze data from all these disparate California model has grown for more than a to Gallivan, the company targets two big data stores.” publishing,” Schoenfeld says. “And what decade, but its popularity has increased we mean by adaptive publishing is that we multibillion dollar markets: the big data Yes significantly within the past five years,” says Last October, the company raised what could want to be able to understand where the » When it comes to data, customers want a market and the embedded analytics Charles Eschinger, research vice president be its last funding round before a public person is coming from in order to deliver steady stream uninterrupted by bottlenecks market. In total, they face a $16 billion at Gartner in a press release. “Initial offering. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) them the best experience in that moment.” and dams. They need it for use on multiple opportunity, with that number growing to » In online publishing, some stories concerns about security, response time led the company through a $23 million platforms, and they need it five minutes $42 billion by 2016, Gallivan says. guarantee hits. Others, while not less and service availability have diminished Series C, with prior investors Benchmark With newspapers, nobody needed to ago. Pentaho blends data from different important, prove less popular––until for many organizations as SaaS business Both markets are merging; and expanding Capital, Index Ventures and DAG Ventures read niche pieces, as long as they bought sources to highlight what’s important and Perfect Market gets them into the right and computing models have matured and as they do so. “It’s a very large total contributing. With that money and past the newspaper. On the web, hits generate ensures users have the information they hands. adoption has become more widespread.” addressable market today, a fast-growing fundraising efforts, the company is “scaling revenue; suddenly less buzzy stories (which so desperately require across the distinct and larger total addressable market very nicely,” Gallivan says. make up the majority of content on sites) digital environs they hop between. “When we started doing this, the One of the company’s key features is its needed an audience. Perfect Market gave tomorrow, and the exciting thing for us is conventional wisdom was that you couldn’t ability tokenize raw credit card data, Importantly, his reference to scale them one by promoting content in the “The enterprise-driven reality is these this market really is open to new entrants,” make money on news,” says Perfect Market which means leaving tokens in the place inherently covers the company’s strategies long tail, so called because of its place on large enterprises want to be able to build Gallivan says. “[Legacy technology CEO Julie Schoenfeld. “What we discovered of important data. Ramji says that there for further globalization. Pentaho, with its the graphical representation of stories- a big data ecosystem where they’re using vendors’] technology does not lend itself is that it’s really all about finding the biggest are two main problems Paymetric solves. HQ in Orlando, already does 40 percent by-hits. “What happened particularly in Hadoop, NoSQL databases like MongoDB to transition very easily into the new world audience for a particular topic.” “One is data security and the second one is of its business outside the United States, news organizations is the station would and analytical platforms like Greenplum, of big data, open source databases and payment complexity. Payments are a very Gallivan says. In coming years, he would create today’s news and then they would Aster Data, Vertica, and want to be able to blending analytics on the fly.” Perfect Market came out of Pasadena-based dynamic, constantly evolving need. For like to see that percentage increase to half be onto the next story,” Schoenfeld says. move data freely across those platforms,” incubator Idealab in 2007. Schoenfeld example we solve for these large enterprise Pentaho has a few things going for it to of all business done. “I think a lot of it came “They weren’t really thinking hard about, says Pentaho CEO Quentin Gallivan. “And witnessed rapid changes in the publishing ERP deals working with solutions like entice customers to try their product, such from the DNA of the company and the fact ‘How can I surface that piece of content then at the end of the data pipeline have industry as content switched from IRL SAP so we have B2B business taking place, as a free download and an open source that [Pentaho] is an open source company twelve months from now?’” Perfect Market business users analyze their data quickly in to URL. Media was moving online, with be it call centers, be it kiosks, website, model. Gallivan says tens of thousands and open source has been very much a pioneered a way to monetize that content a visual way.” money trailing slowly behind it. “It was e-commerce stores, mobile device, point of of companies use Pentaho’s community global movement,” he says, citing Europe becoming increasingly obvious at that and get ad money in publishers’ pockets. sale; so as new payment channels emerge, Pentaho’s founders built their platform in edition, no charge, while over 1,000 (closer and Brazil for their foresight regarding point that traditional media companies When Perfect Market first emerged out of Paymetric manages all of those different 2004, long before big data became tech’s to 1,200) ante up an annual subscription. open source technology adoption. were going through a very disruptive
194 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 195 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Idealab, Schoenfeld’s track record alone nothing. The explosion in sheer number The company not only offers connectivity, Elliott looks at 2013 as Pertino’s test customers like Arris, Cisco, Pace and he continues. “Given that Wi-Fi becomes attracted investor attention. This company of content providers creates upheaval, but but also network services such as firewall market, with 2014 becoming its revenue Technicolor “in support of deployments dominant...it has to work.” is the third she’s started, created and aired also new potential customers. URL filtering and WAN optimization, year. He sees the company’s potential to be at service providers including AT&T, for fundraising. “As I learned more about all able to flip on and off instantly on an eventually similar to competitors such as DirecTV, Belgacom and Telefonica,” Heidari says Quantenna tapped the ten the market opportunity, I was telling Julie, “I think most of these organizations are SaaS model. Networks can be spun up and Cisco or Juniper Networks. “If we can spin according to Heidari. In recent years, high- percent of the market looking for high- whenever you think the time is right we’d strapped for resources, so they actually turned off at will. With databases in Tokyo, up a global network in five minutes, we see performance Wi-Fi solutions appealed to performance solutions; i.e., the peak like to be involved,” says Larry Orr of want us to provide full-service,” Orr says. Hong Kong, Sydney, Ireland, London, and real opportunity,” Elliott said. “We’ve done 10 percent of a $6 billion market, he notes. of the pyramid. In a market he says is Trinity Ventures. “But [as we move the] technology more the United States, Pertino has the ability a lot of market estimates, but we look at consolidating, competitors must set towards self-service, we can expand our back-up the networks on several databases being able to charge SMBs less than what “But that 10 percent is growing while the themselves apart if they want to succeed. Schoenfeld brought them on board footprint into smaller publishers over to prevent an outage or a natural disaster they’d pay just for the support while being market itself is growing, too,” Heidari says. Price wars increase competition in the immediately after Idealab plugged in seed time.” from affecting the network. very profitable.” “We expect that the need for the high space as companies race to keep production funding. Later rounds saw happy customers performance and reliability of the Wi-Fi costs low. circling back to invest; they’ve raised $30 “We offer big IT for the little guy,” said market by 2015 becomes 25 percent, and Steve Goldberg of Quantenna investor million total in venture financing and debt. Craig Elliott, CEO of Pertino. “We bring the market size itself would grow to $8 Venrock says Quantenna faced adversity “Where things started to get exciting was the democratization of technology to billion.” Pertino Quantenna in battling competitors and keeping costs when our first customer, the LA Times saw SMBs. With no configuration or hardware, Heidari reports one and a half billion new low. “The biggest challenge for many such tremendous performance with our we build computer networks as fast as a www.pertino.com www.quantenna.com Wi-Fi devices were sold in 2012, and that semiconductor companies is chasing product, that they rolled us out to the rest of snap of the fingers.” the Tribune property, and then the Tribune number is supposed to jump to more than 2 the rapid pace of cost reduction and Craig Elliott Sam Heidari billion in 2015. “Wi-Fi’s not only becoming technology evolution,” Goldberg says. called us up and said they’d like to invest,” Though the company began with SMBs in the dominant interface, it has become With semiconductors, the smaller the chip, Schoenfeld says. “When your first customer mind, Elliott soon realized it faced even Cloud Computing Telecommunications the sole interface for many devices,” he the less it costs (as manufacturers fit more makes an investment that’s always a great larger demand from corporations seeking sign that you’re on the right track in helping says. Devices used for entertainment chips on wafers that stay the same size); California to create temporary networks. “We don’t California them solve their problems.” purposes primarily serve as vehicles for and the technological process creating the have any problem finding opportunities,” video streaming. Heidari states that by chip determines its size. Yes Elliott said. “We’re focusing on the use Yes Schoenfeld says Perfect Market serves a 2016, video will account for 86 percent of cases that are first in line right now.” massive industry: everyone who publishes consumer traffic. “Things moved so quickly in the Wi- content online. However, they concentrate Fi space that it became such a great » Pertino enables entire cloud networks Increasing computer accessibility has been » (for now) on 2.5 percent of that space. She Quantenna Communications wants Companies create products with opportunity for so many companies that... to be established with the simplicity of a a cornerstone of Elliott’s career. To pay for says though 10,000 publishers fit PM’S to make cost-effective wireless run like Quantenna’s chipsets inside them to demand started to rise, buying started to go veterinary school in the mid-80s, Ellliott customer profile, they look to tap the click. The company creates cloud networks wireline—specifically when streaming live enhance connection consistency and speed. up, the user started to expect lower prices,” sold a record number of Apple computers, top 250 that drive 70 percent of traffic. of shared computers with a simple software video. The company’s chipsets help provide Among those products: gateways, access he says. Changing the technological process which won him a Porsche and a personal “These are the very large accounts like installment and emailed invitations for customers a consistent Wi-Fi connection points, set-top boxes and outside hotspots. that makes chips can cost $10 million to meeting with Steve Jobs. Rather than NBC and CNN,” she says. “It was our goal other computers to connect. It establishes for entertainment, surveillance and other But the hardware is less important than the $20 million—but the company’s chip sizes becoming a vet, Elliott instead worked to penetrate these markets from the large cloud networks to enable any business, streaming solutions. connection that gets users online — and have shrunk from 90 nanometers to 40 for Apple for the next 10 years before end of the business first and then move to no matter the size, to create secure cloud that is what Quantenna strives to provide, nanometers over the years. “They’re going leaving in 1996. He also served as CEO of the smaller accounts as we were growing.” networks instantly, eliminating the need CEO Sam Heidari knows customers feel perfectly. “[With cloud storage], you are to have to stay on that curve,” Goldberg Among their high-profile clients: The New for expensive equipment or complicated Packeteer, a company that specialized in at a loss when Wi-Fi misfires. “They walk using your device in your hand as a dumb says. “I think when the market started York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NBC configurations. networking appliances, through its IPO. from the living room to the bedroom; the screen to communicate to the storage to move two and a half years ago, the News, and Business Insider. As of now, Pertino’s co-founder Scott Hankins also Wi-Fi doesn’t work or the performance content and computing and pull the company reacted very quickly, determined information from that,” Heidari says. “If more than 200 publishers use their tools. Pertino’s services work similar to Dropbox, worked with Packeteer, and was frustrated is not as stable,” Heidari says. “We have what they’d have to do to get the next chip but instead of just files, it allows the sharing by the company’s new innovations that taken Wi-Fi to the next level, and we have the connectivity doesn’t work, then you’re out, and the next smallest process mode.” A 2013 report from Perfect Market of desktops and applications, pretty much could not be easily implemented into gone from just convenience of the Wi-Fi to just left with a dumb screen; and most of Funding proves helpful when the market announced that news sites using their tech anything that can be shared in a local area. already established appliances. The cloud connecting the quality of the service with these dumb screens, their connectivity’s demands capital-intensive innovations. saw 220 percent growth in visits, year-over- The company enables three individuals, instead provided an infinite and elastic Wi-Fi.” Wi-Fi.” Since 2006, Quantenna has held multiple year. Currently, they serve approximately using up to three devices, to connect into resource. Hankin and co-founders Andrew “If the Wi-Fi doesn’t work, then you’re... funding rounds and raised approximately 292 million monthly uniques worldwide a shared network for free. Beyond that, the Mastracci and Michael Cartsonis spent 18 “Something which was only achieved with disconnected from the world, basically,” $70.7 million between Series A and E. And and over 2.5 billion ad impressions a month, company charges $10 per month per user months designing a platform that could wireline before now can be accomplished and their revenues are in eight figures. for an unlimited number of users. Pertino easily be established in the cloud. with Wi-Fi,” he says. currently offers services in a limited release As the company grows, so will its audience. beta with support available to Windows Based in Los Gatos, Calif., Pertino has Quantenna, the fabless semiconductor As Schoenfeld says, $500,000 is the new with iOS and Android expected shortly. raised $29 million in venture funding from company founded in 2006, serves OEM $5 million; and companies are building The company currently serves over 1,000 Jafco Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners online publishing platforms for next to networks and 1,000 companies. and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
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in April 2012, RUSNANO, Sequoia Capital background and expertise, plus helpful Qwilt combines proprietary innovation Growth Fund and all previous major insight from an investor, showed online with off-the-shelf hardware to provide investors financed a $79 million round. video’s market potential. “One of the users entertainment solutions that won’t venture investors, Redpoint, is an investor break the network’s back. “You may think “They’ve [changed the chip-making in Netflix,” Fisher says. of it as kind of video servers [farms] that process] twice now in the last couple are very effective, that behave and act like of years and went from being a little bit In 2011, Qwilt raised $24 million over a Netflix server, a Youtube server,” Maor behind in the market to being now right in two rounds, backed by Accel, Redpoint, says. “We have like 10 patents that are TM the front,” he says. Crescent Point Group and others. Most being filed today because we have been recently, Bessemer Venture Partners able to develop certain algorithms that Goldberg gives Quantenna’s global led a $16 million Series C, with Accel allows us to do all that very effectively and engineering team credit for minimizing Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Marker in real time in the network.” chip size. The company established itself LLC contributing this past July. The internationally first, then tracked back capital influx will help Qwilt infiltrate The company’s controller saves the to the domestic space; now, it is making international markets further and satisfy network from video overload through moves in Asia. “Our first deployments global demand for their QB-Series Video transparent caching: the process of storing were in Europe,” Heidari says. “And we are Fabric Controller. popular videos nearby so they don’t have getting a very good footprint in the U.S. to drive across the entire network to reach and in North America now, and the plan Currently, the company’s on a trajectory users. “If you and I and all of our friends would be to explore Asia next.” to hit a sales landmark: breaking into in the neighborhood want to watch the double digits. “We are very close to latest “Iron Man” movie there is a separate [hitting] $10 million [in sales] this year,” stream of that movie set up for each and every one of us,” Fisher says. “We’re just says Qwilt CEO Alon Maor. “We have hit Servers + Storage + Specialty Appliances = All In One Platform = Qwilt $1 million less than six months since the simply using this caching technology to take that redundancy out of the delivery launch of the product, and I would say system and deliver it locally.” www.qwilt.com ... we are measuring success by customer satisfaction.” Alon Maor Qwilt’s tech is special because it makes judgment calls autonomously. “We Those customers are well known to the make software that runs on off-the- Telecommunications networking space. “We sell to network shelf hardware and we sell it to network operators of all types; that would include California operators, and they put it in the network cable companies like Comcast, telcos like in the neighborhood or in the city,” Fisher AT&T, and mobile operators like AT&T Yes says. “They make intelligent observations and Verizon,” Fisher says. “We do that about the video traffic ... and then they worldwide.” make intelligent decisions about what’s Powered by inline, accelerated global deduplication, compression and optimization. » Qwilt’s video fabric controllers ensure popular or trending, and then what to store Online video’s a big problem for network faster and smarter delivery of the most locally or cache there in the neighborhood operators globally. Fisher compares the popular video content on the web. or the city.” Importantly, an adaptive Internet to a highway. Video is transferred Whether consumers are grabbing funny brain is packed within that off-the-shelf across the network like cars drive down videos from YouTube or streaming live TV, hardware. Leaving the hardware to others roads. When a video’s popular, data’s sent Qwilt lightens the network’s load with its allows Qwilt to “ride the technology local caching capabilities. across the network over and over again. curve,” Fisher says. The result: bumper-to-bumper traffic. “We make video go faster. And that video Plus, Maor says deployment’s simple. “It’s might be anything from Youtube to Netflix According to Qwilt, on average, Americans plug-and-play in a manner [customers] to Hulu to any number of sites around the currently watch around 15 minutes of were not used to [getting] up until now in world,” says Mark Fisher, vice president of online video a day. That quarter of an hour the application networking environment,” marketing and strategic development. per day (16 gigabytes of data a month) is Maor says. “Some [customers] compare it Scan for your copy of the responsible for around two thirds of online to the change that iPhone did in the mobile ESG Report on Qwilt’s co-founders, Alon Maor and Dan traffic. And because popular videos are space for handsets back then.” . Sahar, formerly of Cisco and Juniper sent repeatedly across the network, ten SimpliVity’s OmniCube respectively, united networking and percent of titles streamed amount to 90 Some people think their neighborhood’s storage in the company in 2010. Their percent of all video traffic. pizza is just better; with local caching tech,
198 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Qwilt says their performance really is. “We innovative identity ecosystem solutions in RetailNext stores or more, he estimates the business “As it often happens, RetailNext’s early launching. Everybody that we spoke to can deliver a better quality stream when we various market sectors. Resilient is leading could easily approach $200 million in traction created a number of copycat instantly gravitated. They knew this stuff is do it from nearby in the neighborhood,” 20 organizations to develop two pilots with www.retailnext.net revenue if it can capture at least 10 percent competitors,” said Vivek Mehra, a Partner important and didn’t know how to generate Fisher says. And while delivery’s local, the aim of improving information access of the market in the U.S.. Grabbing 10 at August Capital. “While competitors are useful content out of it,” Heyneker says. Fisher calls the need universal. Qwilt’s and exchange in healthcare and education. Alexei Agratchev percent of the global market could easily mostly in trial with a few stores, RetailNext already serving customers in Europe fetch a billion dollar run rate is it executes has market share leadership analyzing over Instead of reading and responding to and Asia, and looks to plant deeper roots “2013 has been a groundbreaking year Big Data/Storage well. “We think there will be massive 500 million shopping trips a year in over online reviews from several websites, the in other markets. With a growing sales for us so far. We are now working with a companies developed in this space, and at 20 countries.” platform saves time by aggregating all the presence in both Latin America and leading IT equipment manufacturer in California this point we are the market leader,” Mr. relevant information in one place, sorting Europe, they’re set to make the world wide Silicon Valley, and continuing to execute Agratchev said. the reviews by site, date or sentiment. web’s job a lot easier. delivering the healthcare and education Yes Moreover, a business owner can also view solutions awarded by the NSTIC grants,” Serving over 100 distinct retail brands, reviews competitors receive. said Bill Coleman, Chairman and CEO of with over 30 new logos added in the last Revinate Resilient. year, the company is well on its way. It The software includes various management » When RetailNext launched its in- www.revinate.com store tracking analytics platform in has grown an impressive 235 percent for options. Analysis tools that interact with Resilient The Trust Network platform gives the last several years, and plans to triple Facebook allow businesses to manage all the 2007, the market was wide open. Google Jay Ashton customers the opportunity to use a neutral Analytics was already a familiar part of its base this year. With clients across the content on their pages, track performance Network peer-to-peer system to share sensitive over time, and divide likes and users by the e-commerce landscape to measure globe, its reach extends into the UK, Software www.resilient-networks.com information securely, while maintaining conversion, but nobody had yet figured Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, city or source (mobile, computer, etc.). the individual governance and policies of Through Revinate, enterprises can also out a way to track similar metrics at an on- Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Dubai, Hong California Bill Coleman each of the participants on the network. premise store. Kong, Mainland China, Vietnam, Korea, keep an eye on social networks and similar sites in Europe, South America, Asia and Japan, Singapore, US, Mexico, Canada, and Yes Software Back in 2011 the company announced it RetailNext was the first company to Brazil. Customers include Bloomingdale’s, the Pacific. had secured over $5 million in funding provide such analytics. Using standard off Montblanc and Verizon Wireless. from Alsop Louie Partners and angel Guest feedback can be routed for follow- California the shelf video technology to watch and » The old guest book that any hotel, investors. Stewart Alsop, the co founder of The company was born our of Mr. up, making engagement with guests analyze customer behavior, the company restaurant, bar or spa used to have has Alsop Louie Partners joined the board of Agratchev’s own frustrations developing faster and more personal. The software Yes identifies what type of person walks into a long ago turned into millions of tweets, directors. “I personally believe Resilient’s a security system for Cisco. He researched can be used by front-desk staff, sales and store and what catches their eye. It surveys Facebook or blog posts, Foursquare tags Trust Network is the solution to the over 70 different video analytics companies, marketing executives, general managers which displays prove most successful with and online reviews. Understanding what identity and trust challenges that impede but realized that while these companies and corporate users. » One of the hardest elements of internet what types of customers. It also measures your guests think about your business is data sharing across healthcare information provided detailed in-store data, there was security is establishing identity. When shopping behavior through point of sale now easier and faster, but aggregating all of systems,” Mr. Alsop said when the financing little focus on what to do with the data Revinate has several competitors in its a user accesses a system online, it can be systems. Though it doesn’t track data the data in one place can be hard. Revinate was announced. once it was derived. After raising its first market. Some are horizontal players, extremely tough to establish that they are on individual customers, it can identify is a software platform for the hospitality venture fund in 2008, RetailNext landed such as Medallia and Radian6, which deal who they say they are. However, this is an everything a shopper does when he or she industry that focuses on analyzing online Privacy has become an even bigger issue its first two customers in 2009, including in several industries, whereas Revinate area where the security offerings on the walks into a store in an aggregated manner. reviews and social media, and allowing in recent times, as accusations of mass American Apparel. The company publicly focuses on hospitality. Cymfony in the U.S. market are catching up. businesses to connect with travelers and surveillance by the National Security launched in 2010. and TrustYou and ReviewPro in Europe The company then compiles this data into control their online reputation. Resilient Networks is the developer Agency (NSA) have been made following a single location with its own proprietary are smaller competitors, “They needed the leaks of former NSA employee Edward “We’ve been selling about three years no to deal with 18 different countries where of the Trust Network platform, which algorithms to suggest what steps companies Revinate was founded in July 2009 by two Snowden. It remains to be seen how with a ton of R&D investment, but we feel we were the dominant player within the aims to resolve digital identities with can take to boost their sales. The company high school buddies, Jay Ashton and Marc these revelations will affect the trust in we’re just scratching the surface on what U.S. market and have a natural benefit in real world identities. The San Francisco also offers a voluntary opt-in mobile app Heyneker. Ashton was President of Five companies offering privacy, but the market can be done,” Mr. Agratchev said. “We are terms of being based in Silicon Valley,” says based company has developed a system that allows store tracking of individuals for Star Alliance, an online travel agency for may even see as a boost as companies look very much an innovation R&D business at Heyneker. NewBrandAnalytics, another which allows its customers in education, deeper analytics. luxury hotels, while Heyneker was a top to ensure that their privacy is even more this point.” U.S.-based competitor, is more restaurant- healthcare, government and supply chain sales executive at Akamai Technologies, closely guarded. The constant threat of focused. build Trust Networks which allow sharing The average RetailNext client sees double an internet content delivery and web and collaboration of information within cyber criminals and corporate espionage digits sales increases in the first six months, Though it was slow going early on, the application acceleration service. Revinate leverages a SaaS model, and their own ecosystem while preserving is also a factor making this market one to according to the company’s own claims. market shifted decidedly in RetailNext’s watch over the next few years. position in 2012 as larger companies chose its revenues are based on a monthly security and privacy. “The genesis came when hospitality RetailNext to deploy on a massive scale. subscription, with no extra charge for About 13 competitors have sprung up just technologies used for hotels were old and training or support service. In September last year Resilient was awarded in the last 18 months, estimates Alexei there had to be an opportunity to create Based in San Jose, Calif., RetailNext has one of five National Strategy for Trusted Agratchev, CEO of RetailNext. This only a better software,” says Heyneker, today raised $29 million from StarVest Partners, The company doesn’t disclose its revenues, Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) grants, serves to substantiate the company’s the VP of Sales & Business at Revinate. August Capital, Nokia Growth Partners but claims 50 percent to 100 percent year- given to consortiums that demonstrate market. Selling to large retailers with 30 The two built three prototypes and did and Commerce Ventures. over-year revenue growth. “We run it their homework for nine months before
200 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 201 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
as close to profitability as possible,” says folks 15 hours away feel connected to the “For seven years I was running that business Steingard, CEO of Laughing Man Coffee & functions. SimpliVity trumps disorder and on those OmniCubes, anywhere in the Heyneker. The company went from two mother ship,” Heyneker ads. and just being very frustrated with the Tea, a New York based coffee shop. “With offers companies a streamlined solution in world by a single operator from VMware offices to seven offices, and increased technology available to me and Windows the iPad mini we can take the extra step one product: the OmniCube. vCenter that is very familiar to all VMware employee count by 50 people in one year “Revinate’s biggest challenge is to manage in general,” recalls Mr. Richelson. “All the of taking orders further down the line, administrators.” to reach 80 worldwide workers. More than and capitalize on the opportunities for point of sales systems ran on Windows outside or where we need to. It helps move 20,000 customers in 132 countries already accelerated international growth and to so that meant I had to have a server in the line, but more importantly it sends a With SimpliVity’s products, customers get use Revinate; on that list are chains like supporting it’s expanding global customer the basement and multiple Windows XP great message to our customers that we are “If we were to summarize the fate of today’s more space and burn through less money Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton. Bootstrapped base. To meet these challenges, the machines to ring up customers.” continually working to make their coffee data center, what we see is customers building their IT infrastructure. Three at first, now Revinate is supported by company is localizing products and the experience better.” need to buy about eight [to] 12 different or more OmniCubes cuts total cost of angels. company is expanding its presence with In 2008 Mr Richelson went on vacation, products to build their IT infrastructure,” ownership by three, Kempel says. seven international offices, to meet massive and while he was away the point of sales Shopkeep has a good portion of a soon says SimpliVity’s founder and CEO Doron Revinate’s Series A funding round in customer demand locally wherever they system crashed, bringing his operations to to be expanding market. It will surely Kempel. “They buy those eight to 12 Kempel founded SimpliVity in 2009 August 2012 amounted to $14.5 million, may be around the world,” Hornthal says. a halt. When he got back from his holiday not be long before the bigger companies different products from as many vendors, after his previous company, Diligent with investors such as Benchmark, he began searching for a cloud based point see the sense in a tablet and application they train as many software professionals Technologies, was acquired by IBM. Formation8, and Rich Barton contributing. Online reputation has become one of the of sales solution, only to find that there solution to the point of sales problem. The from their companies...[which] is very SimpliVity started selling its products in “It’s possible if we need more capital, but top benchmarks measuring the success weren’t any available. “I decided I was company, understandably is enthusiastic expensive and complicated.” early 2013, and Kempel says the company we are financially strong with the majority of hospitality services, and Revinate aims going to start Shopkeep at that time and for the future. is on track to “eclipse double digits [in of the funding from the A round still in to become the “one stop shop” for the here we are today 7000 customers later,” “The OmniCube offers all the functionality the millions]” in revenues in its first three the bank,” Heyneker says about additional industry. “The stickiness of the service is says Mr. Richelson. “We have a great opportunity here because of all [these] products,” Kempel says. “We quarters selling product. Prior to this rounds in the future. huge,” says Heyneker. the way we deliver our software to our have developed a very rich functionality fall, the company had raised $43 million Shopkeep’s offering is very simple — it takes customers, basically automatically online, stack, the OmniStack, that includes each in two series. Investors included Accel “With a background in travel, I know an iPad and turns it into a cash register. has never been done in this industry and and every function [of the other products] Partners, Charles River Ventures and that online reputation is critical to the The application is downloaded onto the over time as the industry changes we’re just and all of that runs within one OmniCube.” Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers; as well success of hospitality, considering that iPad and for a fee of $49 a month, it can going to accelerate. As long as we continue as Kempel, who self-funded the company the client retention and expansion are ShopKeep POS ring up sales and track sales, inventory and to do a great job and make our customers The OmniStack’s three pillar technologies for its first year. Most recently, SimpliVity — the Virtual Resource Assimilator, Data ultimately all about guest satisfaction,” www.shopkeep.com employees, all through the cloud. happy, we’re going to do a really good job,” announced an oversubscribed Series C says Jim Hornthal, Managing Partner at concludes Mr. Richelson. Virtualization Engine and the Global funding co-led by Kleiner Perkins Growth The market is not without competition, Federated Architecture — run on x86 Hornthal Investment Partners, who is both Jason Richelson and DFJ Growth, with Meritech Capital an investor and a member of the board of and there are several other players servers. The assimilator does just like Partners and Swisscom Ventures also it sounds. It takes on the jobs of up to Revinate. “With more than 450,000 hotels Cloud Computing trying to get a piece of the point of sales participating. worldwide, Revinate has the opportunity application space. But Mr. Richelson twelve other products and makes them SimpliVity its own. It also enables the creation of a to develop highly specialized solutions that New York believes Shopkeep is standing out. “I think Today, SimpliVity’s total addressable the most important differentiator of the big shared resource pool and keeps Input/ market matches (or exceeds, depending can change the way that hotels learn from www.simplivity.com Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) and engage with each of their guests,” he Yes four is that we’re really the open choice for on how you measure it) that of VMware, small retailers. I think retailers really need and capacity spread evenly between “which is the primary hypervisor that we says. Doron Kempel that openness and the ability to choose the servers as they are added on, Kempel says. support,” says Tom Grave, the company’s The virtualization engine deduplicates, Revinate had to quickly invest to expand » Small businesses have plenty of obstacles payment processing for their point of sale Virtualization vice president of marketing. “The VMware compresses and optimizes data through from a U.S.-centric company to a platform in their paths when they start up, which is and I think that’s going to be the key to us slice alone is probably at $30 billion the OmniCube Accelerator “in real time that delivered localized applications and why many of them use the latest business taking over this market.” Massachusetts dollars of annual infrastructure...and then and in section...in fine grain level at 4 products overseas. “Our customers have applications to make life easier for you go much further than that,” he says. “When you go into a retail store, retailers kilobytes to 8 kilobytes, once and forever,” hotels all over the place, and because of themselves. One problem for businesses Yes SimpliVity caters to companies that range want to choose what they are going to sue he says. Crucially, these processes take their broad footprint, it required us to with physical stores, is finding a point of radically in size: from dentist and law for every function of their store. The point place at all stages of the data’s life cycle: be global quicker,” says Heyneker. The sales system that is both affordable and offices to manufacturing facilities to huge of sale is one part but everything has to primary, backup, WAN, archive and cloud. company has seven offices located in San easy to use. Now mobile applications and » In the past, IT infrastructure has required telcos, Kempel says. As of now, they have integrate with the point of sale,” he adds. Francisco, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, devices are providing an answer. one of everything. Different products partnered with nearly 100 companies to Lastly, the federated architecture “allows... Munich, Amsterdam, and Abu Dhabi. In from different vendors served different provide their infrastructure integration One of the benefits of the Shopkeep system global management of all the OmniCubes addition, Revinate plants “ambassadors” One of the companies operating in this purposes, leaving companies with up to services. is that retailers can have more freedom to and all the virtual machines that run in countries that have strong startup space is Shopkeep, which was founded in 12 boxes in their stack, all with distinct walk around the shop, and take the point communities, such as Germany, Romania, 2008 in New York. The company was born of sales system with them. “We like our Serbia, Turkey, and Egypt. out of the sheer frustration suffered by the guests and we like to see them, so the most founder and CEO Jason Richelson, who important thing for me is that we welcome As it goes global, the company must make owned four retail stores including a wine them right away so they never feel like sure that its platform keeps consistent in store in Brooklyn. all countries. “We are making sure that our we are too busy for them,” says David
202 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 203 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Though most of SimpliVity’s clients come Skybox design a satellite the size of a dorm fridge “SmartDrive believes every commercial The Salvation Army, Loomis, and Ampco am convinced there is no doubt this will from the United States, 15 percent to 20 that used software based systems for easy fleet in the world has an opportunity System Parking. Mitgang expects revenues absolutely be a billion dollar company in percent hail from Europe, where according Imaging integration and linking of imagery and to save lives, save fuel, and materially north of $60 million in the next two years. the next few years,” he said. to Kempel, they began operations this high definition video. The software enables improve their financial performance past April. “And we just closed a deal in www.skyboximaging.com the storage of large amounts of data that through driving optimization,” said Steve Founded in 2007 and based in San Africa,” he says. SimpliVity, located in can then be processed and distributed over Mitgang, CEO of SmartDrive. Diego, SmartDrive has raised over $100 Westborough, Massachusetts, is currently Thomas Ingersoll the web. million from Oak Investment Partners, concentrating on growing quickly, Kempel SmartDrive’s technology monitors driving New Enterprise Associates, and Stanford SnagFilms The company, based in Mountain View, performance through video recording and University. says. Adoption rate of the company’s Big Data/Storage www.snagfilms.com products has exceeded expectations. California, is on track to launch its first two driving analytics directly derived from the satellites in 2013. It has raised $91 million vehicle’s computer. The company installs “SmartDrive clearly leapfrogged the California Rick Allen Putting both big words and buzz words in investment to date. two cameras in each vehicle- one focused competition and is now in a position to further its lead as they continue to aside, SimpliVity makes peoples’ lives Yes on the road, the other on the driver. Rather Entertainment & Media easier, as it facilitates simpler solutions than simply relying on accelerometer data build upon what is already the most comprehensive and easily scalable to infrastructure issues and emancipates that can result in false positives, SmartDrive Washington D.C. employees from drudge work. Jon » Skybox Imaging offers a high definition ties directly into the CPU of the vehicle, product offering in the industry,” said SmartDrive Bandel Carano, Managing Partner at Oak Bartelson, assistant CIO at Worcester video of the earth which derives which analyzes for acceleration, speed, Yes Polytechnic Institute, believes SimpliVity unprecedented data only visible from Systems throttle, and other factors. Certain driving Investment Partners. delivered a couple of his staff from days space. Integrating web technology and a behaviors prompt the cameras to record While there are plenty of fleet management of labor on a project. ”If we...built out this networked constellation of microsatellites, www.smartdrive.net and store video, which is then viewed and » When Ted Leonsis retired from his tracking systems, no competitor uses document management infrastructure on the company enables affordable, reliable analyzed by SmartDrive. If a driver is in position as vice chairman of AOL in 2006, video and data analytics directly tied our own from scratch, it probably would and frequent high resolution satellite Steve Mitgang error, the company then contacts the client he pursued one of his passions and made a into a vehicle’s CPU system to track have taken us a number of weeks to get imagery. As the company explains on its and the driver with coaching techniques film. As with most of his previous projects, safety, Mitgang claims. The company has the baseline infrastructure set up,” he says. website, the company’s goal is to “empower Other for better driving. the film, a documentary called Nanking, invested over $40 million in its IP with “Whereas we had the SimpliVity engineers commercial and government customers was a success. It was accepted into the When it comes to accidents, that data substantial barriers to entry, including in here to do the deployment in a single to make more informed, data-driven California Sundance Film Festival and opened on proves invaluable, often for the sake of time, investment and experience. day...so that would [have] saved probably decisions that will improve the profitability the event’s first night. It was then bought the drivers. SmartDrive captures relevant two staff people...[about] 60 to 80 hours of of companies and the welfare of societies Yes for distribution by a studio. It was then data that actually clears the commercial SmartDrive’s potential is as open as physically moving equipment around and around the world.” that Leonsis realized how broken the driver in 80 percent of cases. In 90 percent the road. “Data analytics is the sleepy connecting it, configuring it.” independent film industry was, and set » of collisions involving a commercial giant in the industry of transportation,” The company uses inexpensive consumer Vehicle crashes happen every five about fixing it with technology. Though what it does can be hard to explain, hardware to circle the earth with a planned seconds in the United States, resulting in a driver, the non-commercial driver is at Mitgang explained. A previous senior vice president of Yahoo’s advertising products the reasons to use SimpliVity’s technology constellation of more than 24 satellites fatality every 12 seconds. Over $230 billion fault, despite the fact that police cite the “I shot the film in digital and then the as well as CEO of Veoh, the Internet aren’t. “We don’t have to spend extra money that capture every meter of the earth with are spent on collision claims, weighing commercial driver 70 percent of the time. studio told me it was going to convert it television company now part of Qlipso, on storage because the data’s deduplicated high resolution imagery. It enables real- down 2 percent of the US GDP. “Video is absolute proof of what was done into analogue, which was amazing to me Mitgang understands the importance of and it simplifies our backup processes time imagery of the same spot several wrong, but also what was done right,” as I’d spent my career turning analogue data analytics to the bottom line. When it pretty significantly,” Bartelson says. “I’d say times per day. The company can spot the Providing operators feedback based on Mitgang said. things into digital services,” Leonsis says. comes to the highway, that value translates in a nutshell the data deduplication, the number of cars in every parking lot of analytics and driving behavior, SmartDrive “It was January and they told me that my In addition to collecting data designed not only in dollars but actual life. The backups, and the reallocation of my staff a commercial franchise, or the number Systems lowers collision frequency by film would be distributed in December, to increase driving safety, SmartDrive impact on a thousand unit commercial resources were the big hitting points for us of fuel tankers in a particular region, for 50 percent. Through the company’s and it would take literally almost a year also monitors data to optimize vehicle fleet is about $5 million per year, not even here.” example. It can track the rate of electricity groundbreaking video and vehicle analytics to get it into cinemas. Then there were efficiency. Its smartphone apps make a considering instances of wrongful death in a developing country, and estimate the platform serving largely commercial 8,000 movie theaters in North America game out of fuel savings, keeping score when the commercial driver is not at fault. economies of any place on earth, purely vehicle fleets, its clients save 60 percent that had 30,000 screens, and only 500 of on each driver while providing tips to from the photographic data streamed from of collision oriented costs per year, which those screens would show documentary or improve. On average, the company is able With over 300 million trucks globally, its satellites. translates to about $1,000 to $7,000 per independent films.” vehicle per year in savings, to say nothing to boost fuel efficiency for its customers by Mitgang estimates the addressable market Skybox Imaging was founded in 2009 by of the countless lives saved. Its impact on a 10 percent. in the US is about 25 million vehicles, four Stanford graduate students. They first 5,000 vehicle fleet is about $5 million per not including the government sector. “I teamed up to compete for the Google Lunar year. Spending about $500,000 per quarter The company specializes in commercial Prize and the $20 million the web giant had before signing onto the service, the average fleets, with a focus on transit and offered to the first team that could land a SmartDrive customer’s collision costs drop commercial trucks, serving about 250 rover on the moon and send back pictures. to about $125,000 after implementation, customers with roughly 30,000 vehicles on Though the award was canceled following according to data from Aon, the global risk its system. It has been growing an average the financial collapse of 2008, the team did management firm. of 90 percent per year. Customers include
204 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 205 Top 100 Companies: North America
“You make a movie, you wait a year and which are made available to users who ambitions do not stop there. “I would like then you have to market it and advertise are subscription holders of those sites. Snag to develop a library that is as large and promote it in newspapers. So I just said SnagFilms also licenses films for television, as some of the biggest cable companies there’s got to be a better way.” theatrical release and for DVD release. out there, and I would like us to go from Finally, the firm’s technology has become primarily a North American destination Improving Consumers’ Leonsis, together with Rick Allen, widely prized in the media sector, so the to a global destination ... I think we created SnagFilms, a New York-based company has begun licensing out some of should become the place where if you love website which is the largest distributor it on a business-to-business basis. independent films and documentary films Connected Device Experience of independent film that features a social then we’re your go-to place as a consumer media platform to provide the viewer The company helps to revive interest in to watch and share all these movies,” ASSIA helps service providers meet growing customer recommendations of what to watch and an independent and documentary films. “I concludes Leonsis. demand for high-performance Internet access. enhanced viewing experience. think the cold truth is that the documentary- making film business is almost dead with The website makes intelligentsome very obvious exceptions,” Guthman recommendations for its users using a says. “But this [revival] was part of Ted’s range of factors. “First is the content of the original concept for SnagFilms, and I think Snapfinger films themselves, we’ve really tried to be it’s absolutely great, that this gives a means www.kudzuinteractive.com as resourceful as possible on the metadata of distribution.” we have on each film,” explains CEO Rick James Garrett Allen. “And then the algorithm gets smarter “There will come a time very soon within based on the individual’s viewing habits five years where we will be able to raise Internet/Online and also what their friends are viewing.” money for documentaries based on the online distribution. Even five years ago Georgia “And then human intervention, in other when they started SnagFilms we didn’t have words we’ve put a kind of editorial sensibility tablets, now you have a great opportunity Yes into it as well,” he says. “So we’re providing a to create a production model for making range of pathways for folks to find a way into documentaries. I know that SnagFilms has a very large collection, there are now more enterprised a few documentaries already. » In the 21st century, customers want than 5,000 films in the library.” The time is coming because I think they’re websites and other media to know poised to take off, I’m very sure of that,” he their habits. Personalization ramps up The SnagFilms collection of films can be adds. viewed on its website, and also on a huge engagement and even re-establishes consumer loyalty. Los Angeles- digital network of affiliated websites which Leonsis points to other factors in headquartered EMN8, which acquired include Hulu, IMDB and YouTube. For those addition to SnagFilms that are helping Georgia-based ordering portal Snapfinger, making the movies, the rewards are plenty. the documentary-making industry take provides companies with engagement off again. “You have Kickstarter, which is and CRM solutions that pique customers’ “It’s been great working with them, I’ve helping filmmakers get films financed and interest and provide measurable returns been very happy,” says Les Guthman, you’ll see a lot of work there, and we’re for restaurants in the quick service and fast producer, director and executive producer really the first company to create a home for casual space. Now, the company emerges of Outside Television. “They’ve gotten our independent filmmakers and documentary with a new name, Tillster, meant to evoke films on Hulu, on Epic films in Europe, all of film makers,” he says. the means of distribution. That’s something mobile, millennial agility as well as unite that has been extremely valuable for us. According to Allen, the company has EMN8 and Snapfinger. We’re on every mobile phone and tablet, been doubling revenue every 12 months EMN8 acquired Snapfinger this past our viewership increases every quarter, and is now aiming to accelerate further, summer, almost half a year before the our revenues increase every quarter for the particularly with the launch of the new site. rebrand and after raising $50 million in most part.” “We want to learn from people’s reactions to growth capital. The round, led by Sid the new site because we’re rolling out all this R. Bass Associates with Allegis Capital SnagFilms has a number of revenue functionality and design and new content Learn more about participating, enabled EMN8 to both streams. Firstly, the films hosted on the ... and then we’ll take the best aspect of that snap up Snapfinger (now a wholly-owned website are done so on an ad-supported and roll it across to our applications in the better broadband subsidiary) and to further pursue domestic basis. There are single pre-roll ads and mobile and home environments,” he says. [email protected] mid-roll ads every 8 minutes to 10 minutes, and global development. Prior to that similar to Hulu. The company also provides This young company has already done funding, Snapfinger’s parent company +1-650-654-3400 a small set of films to paid platforms, wonders for a struggling industry, but its Kudzu raised $7 million for Snapfinger in a 2010 Series B round led by Norwest 206 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Venture Partners. Snapfinger CEO Jim covering the vast majority that are in the Faily expects that by 2014’s end, half of Field representatives check up on customers Mobile started out building custom apps says. “We’re finding we’re having to do Garrett says the company had raised marketplace,” Faily says. “When a consumer all business coming to the company will (consumer goods companies, pharmas, and switched to prepackaged apps to a certain amount of education which is about $15 million in all. In the nine years places an order,[it] goes all the way from arrive from outside the U.S. Right now, the banks, etc.) for answers. Do clients have match marketplace demand. Most of their a good thing, we’re happy to do it, it just since founding, Snapfinger has provided our system into the point of sale and platform focuses on APAC (specifically everything they need? Are products roughly 500 customers come from Latin means that we find adoption is slower than services to upwards of 8 million people in appears in [a restaurant’s] kitchen display India through the China basin, Faily says) displayed on the right shelves? Reps often America and western Europe. Spring we had hoped,” he continues. 5,000+ localities. systems.” The company monetizes in two as well as expanding further into Europe. use mobile devices to record orders, take Mobile’s largest client is Unilever in Latin ways: first by taking a cut of transactions “We will be live in Q1 and Q2 next year, pictures and collect data on their visits. America; other customers include CPG Spring Mobile helps its clients ramp up Tillster CEO Perse Faily knew a combined (competitive percentages lower than specifically around Hong Kong, Vietnam, But when the Internet connection is bad, a (Consumer Packaged Goods) brands like employee productivity. According to EMN8 and Snapfinger would reach and industry challengers, says Faily) and by Thailand, and some other Asia Pacific pen and paper replace high-tech solutions. Kraft, L’Oreal, Nestle and Red Bull. The company research, reps complete 30 percent serve a wider audience of restaurateurs. operating CRM platforms for clients like markets,” she says. The second half of The worst part: when the network is down, CPG market could swell to $2 billion, more visits per day using Spring Mobile’s “Snapfinger had a significant footprint in Burger King, who taps Tillster for email and 2014, she continues, Tillster will reach out workers have no way of knowing whether according to the company. applications, ensuring the company is a fast casual; we had a significant footprint in mobile marketing programming. to Latin American markets. products clients order are in stock or priced friend to both field reps and the corporate quick service restaurants,” Faily says. “We properly. Investments meant the company lost out offices they belong to. “We are in the early, felt that coming together, we would really Tillster faces a massive total addressable A new brand name and insight into global on profitability this year, but Keane says early innings of mobile software, and every be the undisputed leader in serving the market as it offers companies different demand will ensure Tillster sticks to an Spring Mobile Solutions makes its next year Spring Mobile will see plus signs single business application has to live in needs of what I call multi-unit restaurants.” services and penetrates an immense, upward trajectory. Though EMN8 was mobile apps accessible offline, allowing on the books. “[This year,] revenues will a mobile-first workforce,” Sakoda says. international fast food and quick service listed as pre-IPO, Faily says the company representatives to do business where [be] about $80 million USD. And we expect “There’s a lot of business applications that Garrett, now Executive Vice President industry. Faily says 2012 saw 30 billion now targets new markets, continuing to others cannot. In addition, the company’s to grow that dramatically starting in ‘14,” need to be written for mobile, and Spring and Chief Revenue Officer of Tillster, U.S. fast food orders and 100 million scale. However, Tillster bucks a trend comprehensive application platforms give Keane says. “With regard to profitability... is one of the best-positioned players to do also believed their companies were globally, and measures the American sometimes associated with growth-stage employees the tools to complete all kinds the company essentially will be profitable that.” complementary. “What I [have] set out to fast food segment at $160 billion. “You’re companies: small revenue gains during of on-the-job tasks, no hassle. “We provide in ‘14.” do is to put together the types of companies talking about a market that is $300 periods of intensive expansion. “We’re apps to those people in the field to be able that can deliver a comprehensive solution million, $400 million in terms of multi- seeing 200 percent year-over-year growth to do their job,” says CEO Conor Keane. New Enterprise Associates partner and to the industry across all devices, regardless unit side,” she says. Plus, more customers in terms of revenues,” Faily says. “And Spring Mobile Solutions investor Jon of venue, and focus on bringing together are looking for digital solutions to what we’re expecting in terms of next year Spring Mobile Solutions collects, houses Sakoda reports the company’s total funding SS8 the power of customer data and customer and deploys data to make the jobs of field at $94 million and said major investors marketing, couponing and loyalty issues is probably closer to 300 percent growth www.ss8.com engagement across the ordering payment around the world. Research conducted year-over-year.” representatives easier. The company’s include Goldman Sachs, SAP Ventures and and frequency, loyalty process,” Garrett prepackaged applications allow employees NEA. in Paris put half of customers keen to Dennis Haar says. “EMN8 and Snapfinger is just phase order food via digital methods, and 40 to not only process transactions “on the Unlike many companies that start in one of that building block.” percent alleged personalization elements fly,” Keane says, but to recommend related Security would bring them back to restaurants. If products at the point of sale. “Usually we the United States and branch out from Now, newly-rebranded Tillster leverages a Spring Mobile there, Spring Mobile Solutions tapped a brand remembers customers’ favorite can push additional collateral [to] that California comprehensive platform of products and dish and helps them order it conveniently, [rep] onto his device, and we can talk to the opportunities in Latin America and services. The company handles ordering, Solutions Europe, then turned their focus elsewhere. across channels and locations, they’ll tie store manager about new products,” Keane Yes delivery, marketing and analytics for its themselves to that company. Tillster turns springmobilesolutions.com says. “So I’m pushing information into the In September 2012, the company moved clients, more than 40 of the industry’s those Ifs into Whens. hands of that salesman, enabling him to be into its “permanent U.S. headquarters” in biggest players. They integrate solutions Reston, Virginia, according to a related Conor Keane smarter.” » The increasing sophistication of through mobile, tablet, online, call centers release. Though the online ordering and cyber crime has spawned countless new and kiosks, and make payment smooth Their mobileRetail app walks field reps restaurant marketing segment may seem Software industries, all involved in securing the for restaurant-runners, no matter which through drop-ins, recommending what Sakoda says the United States came late saturated, Faily says her company faces web from immoral users. One of these channel it arrives by. “What we have evolved to look for and establishing connectivity to the mobile party. “In the U.S., we had no competition when customers consider Virginia industries is surveillance. and developed is a digital store platform the total package Tillster offers. They don’t between scouts and the home base. “It’s this Software-as-a-Service revolution, and so most U.S. companies were fixated on that has ordering as one component, a do battle with strictly ordering-oriented Yes a guided execution for that visit,” Keane SS8, which stands for safeguarding society Software-as-a-Service,” he says. “In Latin second component is a digital couponing portals like Seamless and GrubHub, but says. “[If] his job is to check that stock is always, provides the tools to legally America, they skipped Software-as-a- engine...the third component is loyalty,” rather with the various fixes clients employ. in the right place...he would go to a series monitor public and private networks. Service and they went straight to mobile Faily says. “[Competitors] may have loyalty solutions, » Spring Mobile Solutions feels for field of checklists in our app and gather the Its technology has the ability to interact s oft w are .” they may have a couponing solution, or representatives: company operatives information, take pictures of the display, with any kind of network or equipment, Tillster concentrates on the multi-unit they may have an ordering solution,” Faily whose jobs take them out of the office. send all that back to head office [that] such as a device, switch or router, thanks ecosystem, franchise restaurants and According to Keane, the U.S. is unique in says. “We bring the entire platform [that] The company’s mobile applications enable then can see in real time.” Spring Mobile’s to extensive partnerships with providers chains like Applebee’s, Pizza Hut and its attitudes towards mobile development, makes it much easier for them to deploy employees to interact with data even other products include sales, delivery, and such as Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson and Cisco. KFC. Through the company’s products, and Spring Mobile is now adapting to the these solutions.” when they are offline; which is crucial for distributor insight applications, as well as a Its tools are used by police agencies for customers can place orders transmitted market’s particular needs and levels of workers roaming cities recording product mobileCloud Application Suite. investigative work, as well as by enterprises directly into restaurants’ point-of-sales concern. “I sense that we’re in a position In coming quarters and years, Tillster orders and other information. to identify cyber crime taking place inside systems. “We have over 15 POS integrations The company owes its origins to Sao where we end up educating [the U.S.] on will grow both at home and globally. of their networks. Paulo, Brazil. Founded in 2001, Spring mobile...about offline and usability,” Keane
208 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 209 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
“We provide solutions that cover The company serves customers in 35 gossip for 18 to 20 year olds because of “The last thing they know is how to react dollar business over the next two years. marketing agility, and a negative effect on a comprehensive communication countries around the world, with a heavy a new video release, for example, the to all those conversations across diverse site performance, Tealium says. intelligence solution in a very structured presence in North America, Latin America, company will purchase adverts on blogs, audiences. Facebook and Twitter are “We are doing something very unique,” he manner that can be used as forensic Western Europe and Asia. Its business has Facebook pages, and fan sites related to constant sources of chatter, and it takes said. “We have the right technology with In the past, tag implementation fell to evidence in a court of law,” said Dennis been growing between 25 to 30 percent Britney Spears. When the conversation technology to make sense of it all. We are the right solution everyone needs. It’s now technology departments, who rolled up Haar, CEO of SS8. “That has been a big key per year. About 70 percent of its base switches to the iPhone or Justin Bieber, at the right place at the right time.” a matter of letting people know it exists.” their sleeves and dove into code. “Asking a to our success.” includes service providers, and 30 percent Taykey follows on the cusp of each trend. web developer to do tagging for you is like are government agencies. Its enterprise Mr. Avner launched Taykey shortly after asking a Cordon Bleu chef to prepare your According to Mr. Haar, SS8 differentiates opportunity is just beginning, Mr. Haar “Taykey finds what their audiences are serving his mandatory stint in the Israeli grilled cheese sandwich,” Behnam says. “It’s from industry leading competitors such said. “The potential for the enterprise is talking about and put them the middle army. He had a background in coding grunt work.” Marketers wanted to measure as Verint and NICE Systems by focusing huge, and will probably become our largest of the conversation so they are always and building websites, and realized the Tealium analytics, and IT had no problem passing not only on voice but actual data. “A lot of segment over time.” prime time,” explained Amit Avner, CEO trove of personal information people were the tagging torch; but both faced limited network providers are only beginning to of Taykey. “Up until now, advertising has sharing on social sites. “I realized if I could www.tealium.com options as tag management required a move from a traditional TDM network to Based in Milpitas, Calif. and employing always been planned, but plans fail to aggregate what people were talking about technical touch. an I.P. network,” Mr. Haar said. “SS8 is on 150 people, SS8 strives to become a $100 keep up with the social world. We help in one spot, it would be very valuable,” Mr. Jeff Lunsford the cutting edge of navigating I.P. data. We million business over the next three to advertisers plan for the unplannable. Avner remembered. He soon observed Belying a complex problem, Tealium became experts in how a network operates, five years, according to Mr. Haar. Since Brands become more agile as their ads that data alone was not enough. “I realized Hardware provides a comprehensive and easy-to- how packets flowed through network, how restructuring to focus solely on security in become more responsive to what people people didn’t need another screen of big use solution for marketers. From last year we can retrieve and reconstruct them. That 2009, the company has raised two rounds are talking about and sharing all the time.” data. They needed tools to make sense of it. California to this year, their client base doubled to ability honestly comes from fact that we of funding totaling $22 million. It is So we built a platform that could optimize, 300; Behnam hopes to double that number are a silicon valley based company with a considering another round within the next One client, a recently launched mobile change and execute base on what people Yes again in the next year. A growing list focus on packet capture and analysis, and year to build its market on the Intellego carrier, used Nielsen stats to measure its were talking about in real-time, and what of customers meant financial growth in we turned that into a system.” product. campaign, and found Taykey to be the they would talk about next.” The platform 2013, and the first half of the year saw number one provider in brand recall. was built in two and a half years. » Tags collect crucial information for digital a 280 percent increase in revenue for Stemming from a 2001 acquisition of a “We’ve built a broad, end to end solution Taykey improved results by 16 percent marketing vendors, but implementing the company. Tealium sizes their total company that started in this business in the that includes the network side as well as compared to any other provider, and Taykey currently earns eight digit revenues them can create problems. Tealium puts addressable market at $2 billion, and as late ‘90s, SS8’s monitoring tools are deeply the analytics,” Mr. Haar said. “As the world ranked as the number one service in terms and plans to reach profitability in 2014. tag management back in the marketer’s of August served big-name companies entrenched. It began with its first product increasingly revolves around networks of actual purchases made, delivering a The company partners with Facebook, domain with a single tag, to the relief of like Lufthansa, The Weather Channel, Xcipio, a lawful interception system where communication becomes so jump of 41 percent against any other Twitter, Google, and other social tools for companies’ IT departments. Vodafone and others. that enables service providers to service intensive, we’ll see a tremendous shift at competitor. real-time inventory, but has yet to face any warrants from law enforcement agencies. how policing is done. We are just at the real competitors, Mr. Avner claims. It has Founded in 2008, San Diego-based Tealium Behnam, his co-founder Michael Anderson, Taykey features three products dedicated The tool can handle an entire network with beginning of a massive change that will over 10 patents protecting its technology. radically simplifies the tagging process for and much of the Tealium team worked to social, video and display and targets the a single warrant entry that can be managed transform the world.” “Just seeing what people are talking about marketers. “We built a single tag solution together previously at WebSideStory, 10 to 20 percent of any advertising budget by multiple police organizations. is easy, but excavating known data is very that allows our customers to deploy a single a digital marketing and web analytics that needs to be responsive and dynamic hard,” Mr. Avner said. “Companies like tag on their website,” Tealium co-founder company eventually acquired by Omniture Last year, SS8 introduced Intellego, in real-time. Estimating the overall Salesforce’s Radian6 can help you with the Ali Behnam says. “Through a management (now part of Adobe Systems). Tealium which serves as a monitoring center and advertising market at $100 billion, Avner data, but they don’t tell you what to do with console, a business user can log in and evolved from Behnam and Anderson’s reconstruction and analyzation system for Taykey pegs the company’s market valuation at it because that is very difficult. We’re really automatically deploy all the different post-acquisition web analytics consultancy voice and data communications. It sells $20 billion. www.taykey.com not worried about any competition.” tags...analytics, advertising, affiliates and charged with resolving confusion faced by the system to law enforcement agencies whatever else.” companies switching from WebSideStory’s to analyze intercepted communications, Taykey works with over 120 clients, mostly Amit Avner Based in New York, Taykey has raised tools to Omniture’s. IT departments said but can also service enterprises to analyze Fortune 500 companies, including GE, $17 million from Tenaya Capital, Sequoia Tags tell digital marketing vendors what’s swapping systems would take a long time — American Express, Paramount Studios, activities on their own networks. Marketing/Advertising/SEO going on with their clients’ websites and in one case, 12 to 14 man-months. “Really ABC, Miller Coors, Bell, and Mercedes. Capital, SoftBank Capital, and Marker. collect data that give color and context we’re talking about [migrating] from one The Intellego tool opens SS8 to a third Most of its base is in the US, but it recently New York “Taykey is creating a new channel for around online marketing performance. tag to another,” Behnam says. “So we came market, the enterprise world, which opened an office in London to launch its advertising to enable brands to be agile and According to Tealium, tags are bits of up with...what we called universal tag at the Mr. Haar described as “a very exciting international expansion. It plans to open Yes responsive to what their audience is paying code that can help with advertising and time, but the idea is, look, it’s ultimately not opportunity” as there is a growing additional offices in the U.S. and Europe attention to in real time,” said Douglas affiliate programs, provide analytics, and about the tag, it’s about the data.” requirement for companies to monitor over the next year, and target Germany, Leone, General Partner of Sequoia Capital. incorporate personalization services onto their network for illegal activities, whether Holland, and France. The company has » Taykey’s advertising engine determines “Their revenue and talent growth in the last pages. In small numbers, tags won’t give The company recruited industry vet Jeff fraud or insider trading . “We can help these been growing at a staggering 450 percent what specific audiences are talking year proves the market’s desire for topical marketers too much of a problem; but as Lunsford to serve as its CEO in 2013. companies identify criminals working annually. about in real-time, and then purchases marketers mature, the number of tags Lunsford’s history with Behnam and inside their networks perpetrating these advertising.” advertisements in mediums relevant to they need to deal with increases. More Anderson preceded Tealium, as he’d crimes.” “Coca-Cola sells over 1.7 beverages per those topics. If Britney Spears is the latest day across 202 countries,” Mr. Avner said. Avner strives to build Taykey into a billion tags equal increased IT costs, lack of successfully taken WebSideStory public
210 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 211 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
after a failed attempt by other leaders. “I no reason this market won’t be as large as The process is not as easy at it appears. base, whereas before the business had TouchCommerce content, targeted marketing solutions, a live knew if we had Jeff involved he would be web analytics which produced billions of Teladoc’s platform navigates the complex focused solely on direct employer sales. assistance solution like chat or call back, able to connect us to the VC community equity value for investors,” Agrawal says. medical regulatory environment, and then This past year, it expanded into hospitals. www.touchcommerce.com and a survey engine to gauge customer and to guide us properly on how to raise And with Lunsford at the company’s helm, uses sophisticated tools to assign the best satisfaction. The company also enables money,” Anderson says. When they Behnam says Tealium’s on its way to a suited physician, who must be licensed to Teladoc recently formed a partnership with Bernard Louvat co-browsing which allows the customer decided Tealium had traction, Lunsford public offering. “We are now on the path practice in that particular patient’s locality. Healthspot, a manufacturer of healthcare service representative to view the webpage sent them to meet a VC contact in the Bay to IPO thanks to his joining the team,” he kiosks, to establish medical kiosks in Internet/Online the user is visiting. Area. says. “Our business seems simple on surface, corporate and retail settings. It expects the but not it’s not that easy or others would kiosks to be on the market by the end of the California Typically, TouchCommerce can improve “Ali and I jumped on a plane, put on a suit already be doing it,” said Jason Gorevic, third quarter. the revenue of a website by 20 percent and a tie and went out there. By the time we CEO of Dallas-based Teladoc. “Often, Yes without any increase in traffic. Customer landed Jeff had lined up seven meetings,” Teladoc interesting innovations in the medical The company has raised $40 million from satisfaction with the service is typically Anderson says. “It was premature at that space have not taken off because of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Cardinal 90 percent. Fully deploying the company’s time because everybody wanted to give lack of a full service solution enabling www.teladoc.com Partners, HLM Venture Partners, Trident » Typical website conversion rates are less technology typically drives customer costs us ten million dollars...but it was great adoption by the patient and doctors. We Capital, and New Capital Partners. It than 3 percent. TouchCommerce’s website down 20 percent. experience for us to be in front of the VC are a true clinical services company that Jason Gorevic expects to be cash flow positive by next personalization targets the portion of the [community].” uses technology to deliver a remedy.” “The results we deliver for our clients are year. Gorevic envisions Teladoc becoming ecommerce audience that disappears into Other a $100 million company within the next significant,” said Bernard Louvat, President “More importantly from a strategic The company’s adoption rates prove cyberspace. three to four years. & CEO of TouchCommerce. “We retain perspective, we laid the groundwork of it is onto something. Serving over 5 95 percent of our client base every year. Texas The company targets high value what we intended to do and what we million members, Teladoc does 12,000 In the markets we target, this level of Teladoc holds an excellent market position ecommerce segments where the insight intended to build...when we came back consultations a month, with plans to personalized customer service is essential. Yes due to a number of trends, including more of a salesperson might help the customer to them six months later we could show do over 150,000 this year. Its adoption Customers expect it. Without anyone on mobile population, increased smartphone make up their mind, such as insurance them whether or not we were successful,” rates have dramatically increased by 125 hand to answer their questions, you’ll lose usage, need for 24/7 access to care, 30 to packages, luxury vacations, high-end retail he continues. percent year over year. For the past three them to a competitor.” » Wake up on the wrong side of a cold 40 million newly insured (most without years, the company’s membership survey items, and other valuable commodities that tomorrow morning, and you might spend a primary care doc), many using the ER Lunsford and other private investors has indicated a 91 percent resolution could require research before purchasing. TouchCommerce monetizes through several hours in a waiting room the next funded a $1.1 million round in January rate. 350 doctors are on the platform. as their primary care vector at a cost of TouchCommerce works to not only a monthly fee for technology and day, hoping for a doctor. Or you could of 2012. In the summer of 2012, Battery The physicians are typically semi-retired, $1000+/per visit, employers interested in provide a personalized experience to better services, as well as a performance pricing call in Teladoc and interact online with a Ventures pumped in $10 million of a $10.5 emergency professionals on downtime, or increasing productivity and enhancing optimize sales, but to identify when it is component based on measurable results. physician licensed to practice medicine million Series B. Both the funding pot and doctors looking for supplemental income. health benefits at a reasonable cost, time for a salesperson to step in to answer It’s this key difference that separates it in your area, all inside a median response investor base grew this past April when according to Dana Mead, a partner at questions or advocate a sale. time of eight minutes, for a cost of $38. The from competitors such as LivePerson and Tenaya Capital led a $15.6 million Series The company typically works with large Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who sits company guarantees a patient with a board Oracle, Louvat stated. “We are tied in with C round, with Japanese firm Presidio employers or insurance plans. Customers on Teladoc’s board of directors. The company provides an online certified, state licensed physician within the client for the success of the program,” Ventures and Battery contributing. include AT&T, MetroPCS, Aetna, and personalization engine that targets user one hour or it’s free. Louvat said. “It’s a unique model. We work BlueShield of California. “While I wouldn’t characterize the service behavior to deliver personalized results at every day to optimize the platform, and Battery’s Neeraj Agrawal says he was as disruptive, Teladoc[s applications can just the right moment. Its software places Teladoc is the nation’s first and largest mutually benefit from the upsides our drawn to Tealium’s team and their The company is north of $10 million, south be disruptive, in that they enable highly a cookie on a user’s browser to observe the telahealth provider. The company service provides.” disruptive technology. “What they’re of $50 million. Revenues last year grew at quality, rapid access to highly trained user’s interaction, which products they are connects patients to board certified actually providing is this kind of data 74 percent, and this year at 80 percent. healthcare professionals 24/7 via a PC or interested in, areas of the website they tend physicians licensed in the patient’s location Focused on large customers, the company abstraction layer,” he says. “People want mobile phone,” Mead said. to linger, offerings they still need to make within eight minutes of the initial call counts 10s of customers, not 100s, to spend comparable amounts on tag Founded in 2003, the company has up their mind about. It then modifies the placement. It is designed to supplement, because its model best suites enterprises. management as they are willing to spend come a long way from its beginnings. The company competes against 1Life webpage to offer personalized content. rather than replace the family physician. Its top line revenue grew 35 percent last on say, Omniture for web analytics. If you “The platform looked like it had been Healthcare and American Well. Finally, its software follows the interactions Patients connect over the phone, or in year. Operating in 15 countries, its focus look at Omniture today within Adobe, it’s designed in a dorm room, because it was,” of the user to determine when a salesperson states that allow it, over the Internet includes North America, the UK, France, probably a $500 million revenue business, remembered Gorevic when he joined is needed, providing an online chat option through a smartphone, tablet or PC. The Germany and the Asia Pacific regions. and we believe that Tealium has the same the company in 2009. “It was a good physician makes a diagnosis through the with a sales representative when the self- opportunity.” idea but had a lot of fleshing out to do.” The company was founded in 1999 conversation or by looking at various service model has broken down. A self-described “recovering health plan originally as InQ, offering web chat symptoms shown through video. She can Agrawal says Tealium’s market executive” who formerly was president TouchCommerce provides a highly services for ecommerce sites. After landing then prescribe medications electronically. opportunity, with its similar size to that of of Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Gorevic sophisticated targeting engine that Sprint as a customer in 2006, the company Payments are also electronic, done at the web analytics, is what brought Lunsford brought experience of the healthcare can segment a population to deliver developed its approach to streamline sales on board as CEO. “He talks about the time of service, saving the physician the industry to the company. He optimized the hassle of billing the transaction. personalized experiences. It creates service for ecommerce, rebranding itself as market opportunity...exactly in the same platform for scalability, and began to bring engagement applications like personalized TouchCommerce in 2008. Early customers way I just described it, which is: there’s on new health plans to expand its client
212 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 213 Top 100 Companies: North America She’s a Patient, Not a Pin Cushion include DirectTV, Bell South, and Virgin debt that outweighs the gross domestic its students from the financial aid AccuVein vein illumination allows clinicians to locate veins for: Media. product of most nations. requirement of taking a full course load, which helps them better accommodate a Based in the US with offices in Los UniversityNow slashes costs by redefining part-time schedule that can accommodate • IV Starts • Blood Draws • Sclerotherapy Procedures Angeles, San Diego, Paris, & London, the educational model. The social based a career or family, Wade argues. The TouchCommerce has raised $35 million venture is the parent company of two company lowered its acquisition costs with in venture funding from Sierra Ventures, universities, Patten University and practically no spend on marketing, and Emergence Capital, Hudson Ventures, New Charter University, that provide empowers its students with data-driven Dolphin Equity and Partech International. competency based education, meaning a adaptive learning software that details the It earns between $30 million to $40 million student’s degree is based not on seat time areas students are having trouble with and in revenue at a 10 percent profit margin. in the classroom, but on a demonstrated what they need to learn. Taking exams mastery of the required skill set. Skills are considered a privilege, not a deadline, “What makes TouchCommerce unique based, the education is obtainable at a which students may only take once the are the results we achieve and the market-transforming affordability. program knows they can pass. “The days business system we’ve designed to achieve of sitting around campus playing Frisbee those results,” said Jeffrey Stiefler, a Through its use of online lectures, in between classes is not the reality of venture partner for Emergence Capital discussions, and tutoring, the company students today,” Wade explained. “We Partners who serves as Chairman of brings down the cost of a college education provide a better experience for people.” TouchCommerce’s board. “Some firms to $11 a day, or $199 per month, essentially provide only software and leave it up to providing an accredited college degree for UniversityNow was first launched in the customer to figure out how to use it the price of a cable bill. 2010 when it acquired Patten University. effectively. Other firms provide consulting It assembled a software team to develop or analytical services that provide advice, At $3,948 annual tuition, an employer its digital educational model. In 2012, but not results. Almost none tie their assisted tuition benefit of $5,250 means it launched New Charter University, results directly to those of their customers. that most students with employer its flagship school that is 100 percent This unique approach has allowed us to assistance can pursue their degree for free. online and fully accredited by the DETC optimize — not just improve — results for Accrediting Commission, the same some of the world’s leading companies.” Yet the company is different from most crediting body that validates the University online higher education offerings because of California or the USC. It launched it delivers real value without diluting Patten University Online in March, and the quality of the education attained, started accepting students in June, with contends Gene Wade, Founder and CEO several hundred students enrolled, signing of UniversityNow. If 30 students take an on an average of about a hundred a week. UniversityNow online course for $1,500, contributing a combined tuition of $45,000, minus www.unow.com The company has raised a total of $42 perhaps $3,000 for the online instructor, million from Bertelsmann SE & Co., where does the remaining $42,000 go, the Gene Wade KGaA and First Analysis Corp., University educational innovator questions. Ventures, Bertelsmann, Kapor Capital, Internet/Online Novak Biddle Venture Partners and “It just doesn’t cost that much to educate Greylock Partners. people online,” Wade said. “We saw California enormous opportunity to lower the price “UniversityNow is leading the way in point. By doing so, we are changing the Yes ushering in the next generation of online paradigm as well as the assumptions of degree programs,” said Corey Greendale, how people learn.” Vice President at First Analysis. “Given » Higher education hangs by a thread its technology and business model, it is UniversityNow was the first educational uniquely poised to transform the higher on the brink of a cliff, a $1 trillion cliff entity to refuse Title 4 funding, freeing to be exact. Student debt has surpassed education landscape.” the trillion dollar mark, outpacing credit card debt in a bubble reminiscent of the housing crisis. Institutions continue to rely Visit www.accuvein.com to see the device in action on expensive outdated models while public funding gets gutted, forcing not only the or call 1.888.909.8888 for more information student but an entire society to carry a
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Accuvein_Ad_R5.indd 1 6/18/13 10:43 AM Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
About 5 to 7 percent of its enrollment “Where we find ourselves today is to LTE and as a result it’s kind of a shell Venafi “Certificates open a door,” he says, as do others just don’t seem as concerned is international, with students coming continuing to leverage that capability game where the old technology has more keys. Secure Shell (or SSH) keys allows about potential attacks. Hudson says from Asia, India, and Africa. It should be but in a much broader fashion,” says Jim subscribers and the new technology has www.venafi.com data to proceed across secure channels and Venafi faces challenges in the form of earning revenues in the 10s of millions Knapik, CEO of Vantrix. “We’re continuing higher bandwidth, but its likely to get provide privileged access. Venafi connects companies unafraid of threats they can’t of dollars soon and is approaching to support that product line. But what congested as well because users continue Jeff Hudson to over 300 systems to patrol behavior and see. “Technologists, that have grown profitability. UniversityNow intends to we’ve done is we’ve adapted our capabilities to exceed the available bandwidth by and squash threats to security. up running these systems that we so eventually extend its model to a larger in understanding in transforming media, embracing new applications.” Security much depend upon, don’t think big,” global community. not only to ensure that it shows up the When the web was young, certificates and Hudson says. He describes a frustrating right way on a destination device, but also The market is fairly crowded, but Mr. Utah keys could be managed easily through conversation with a senior IT executive “We have a really decent shot at being to adhere to the policies that the operator Knapik believes the company’s history manual processes and in spreadsheets. where someone needed convincing that one of the most significant education sets forwarded.” gives it an edge. “We feel quite advantaged Yes After all, Hudson says, only one certificate malicious data threats existed and could companies in the US, possibly the world,” in our background because from the existed in 1995. There are billions now, with cause severe damage. Wade said. “It’s not because we’re geniuses, Those policies include the prioritisation of beginning we’ve focused on multi a similar number of keys part of companies’ but because we showed up at the right time different types of media, as one example. media with predominance in video. We » For Venafi, data security’s not about security arsenal. Their explosive growth “He said, ‘Unless I have proof that we’ve with a model that meets the market. We A large number of people have their have a relationship with a university in technology. According to the company, it’s coincides with an enterprise’s inability to been attacked a hundred times, I can’t are offering education for a dime when the applications set to automatically update. Montreal called DPS where we have a about protecting trust. maintain order for these privacy controls. worry myself about it. What I have to do is current system charges a dollar.” This means while there are other users joint development program with them, I have to pay attention to those things that trying to watch or stream a video, the with shared support from the Canadian Venafi keeps eyes on companies’ systems Venafi serves top companies in a massive, are visible to me right now,’” Hudson says. automatic app downloads can congest the government. That allows us to really dive when they’re not looking. Their next- and growing, market. Gartner says the “So I said, ‘What you’re saying is I’m telling networks and make it harder for those deep into techniques that allow us to generation cybersecurity trust protection global security technology and services you, you have early stages, or maybe even Vantrix watching videos to do so. Through the process video more efficiently than any of solutions police access, checking the IDs market is supposed to grow to $67.2 later stages of cancer but you don’t feel it. Vantrix platform, network operators can our competitors.” of those (people, servers, virtual machines, billion in 2013. They reported an 8.7 So you’re [ignoring] that and you’re gonna percent increase in the industry’s size www.vantrix.com throttle and application download or delay clouds, mobile devices and more) pay attention to the hangnail on your little it so users who need the higher latency Vantrix has expanded internationally and requesting to enter or get information, the since last year. “We have like, a couple finger.’” has installations in the Asia-Pak region, hundred of the top of the Global 2000 as Jim Knapik more critically can have a better viewing company says. experience. Europe and Mexico. The company is our customers, all the big name brands As web access becomes widespread and Mobile also starting to penetrate India and parts In order to protect companies from you know,” Hudson says. “They have tens people trade a limited view of its potential Earlier in the year Vantrix announced the of Africa. The firm’s goals are to keep prying eyes and malicious attacks, Venafi of thousands of these things, and so what’s for the Internet of things, attacks will Quebec closing of a $4.5 million venture loan from expanding into new territories. “I expect watches over their cryptographic keys and happened is, they’ve lost track of things only become more scary. Hudson, like NXT Capital’s Venture Finance Group. The increased penetration in regions around certificates. Both keys and certificates are that authenticate, they’ve lost of track of others, sees our lives getting more and Yes company revealed it was to use the capital the world. I also expect us to be delivering integral in establishing user and machine these things, the idea of access.” more connected. Tech could soon have the to fund strategic growth initiatives. “We are the first versions of our platforms that identity. “A digital certificate is used to potential to unlock doors, or mess with excited to be a part of the Vantrix team,” allow us to take advantage of the graphics authenticate, or to make sure that you That’s a big problem for companies. Attacks your fridge or fire alarm; and as the stuff in involving malware that mimic or steal keys » The explosion of video content being said Matt Eaton, Senior Associate, NXT card processing within the Intel chipset, know who the other person is that you’re life gets “smart,” Venafi will strive to keep it and certificates, then trick systems into downloaded and uploaded via mobile Capital Venture Finance. “Vantrix’s video something that we’ve demonstrated up communicating with,” says Jeff Hudson, safe and guide its customers to success. “I letting them in, are up 600% this year––as devices has led to an unprecedented bandwidth optimization solutions are until now but we haven’t deployed in a CEO of Venafi. “They come from, in most don’t know how many companies there are they have been for the last couple, Hudson amount of pressure being put on backed by industry leading technologies production situation,” says Mr. Knapik. cases, a third party that vouches for the in the world and that’s how many we want says. Companies aren’t actively tracking network providers. As a result network that have been developed and honed authenticity of the person that holds the to help,” he says. their certificates and keys; and now they’ve optimization firms such as Vantrix, have through more than a decade of research certificate.” been compromised. “We help companies secure and protect been experiencing rapid growth, while and development.” their trust that’s provided through the keys providing the networks with answers. Hudson says certificates also encrypt traffic, Vantrix has positioned itself extremely keeping conversations private. When “The bad guys have figured out that all of and certificates that they use in the face these little pieces that are out there that Vantrix originally found an interesting well as the network operators experience individuals talk face-to-face, Hudson of next-generation attacks,” Hudson says. give access that aren’t being tracked, and so niche aiding the delivery of multi media a huge shift in attitudes towards their new continues, it’s easy to figure out if you’re “We are an integral part of making sure they are exploiting that, they are attacking messages. A lot of messages were not services. “Things are changing so that being watched or listened in on––but the that they can provide and live in a world that, they’re stealing it, they’re creating the deliverable as the sender wanted them operators want to ensure that they are Internet offers an incredible number of with trust. Without us: they can’t.” moral equivalent of fake drivers licenses to be seen, sometimes due to different making money rather than saving money,” portals outsiders can access with ears to for the digital world,” Hudson says. The device capabilities and screen sizes. says Mr Knapik. “With the advent of LTE walls. “If you and I are typing something worst part: it’s what Hudson calls the Vantrix’s original solution helped solve there is additional bandwidth available to each other on a keyboard, that’s going to perfect crime. Villainous entrants fool that by transforming how the message was and it depends on the marketplace and the an ISP, it’s going through servers, it’s going networks into thinking they’re supposed composed by the sender to ensure that it country and the specific location, but in through routers,” Hudson says. “There’s to be there. could be viewed at the destination and some ways LTE is giving them some relief. millions of places where people could deliver the messages with the right music, That’s primarily because some subscribers actually be looking at and listening to that.” While some companies have wised up, pictures, video and the right size. have moved from the previous technology
216 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 217 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
Veracode computer security companies, Symantec challenge is, you know, the days are long.” WaveTec Vision surgical procedure. we re-engineered the device to improve and @stake (Symantec still owns a consistency and accuracy,” Frinzi says. www.veracode.com small piece of Veracode). Today, the One way Veracode helps its clients navigate Systems “The data clearly shows that far too “We took a look at the business model Burlington, MA-based company serves a treacherous waters is through verification. many times surgeries are not hitting and revised it to better reflect what our Bob Brennan seemingly infinite market: the number of Applications that pay attention to security www.wavetecvision.com the target and patients need spectacles customers were looking for, we changed applications multiplied by the number of and adhere to high industry standards get postoperatively or a secondary procedure our commercial organization by bringing Security companies on Earth, though Brennan says the company’s seal of approval: a VerAfied Tom Frinzi to ensure that they can see clearly after some new blood in, and culminated it with Veracode concentrates on selling to large Security Mark. To pass inspection, Veracode cataract surgery,” says Tom Frinzi, CEO rebranding and reintroducing the product Massachusetts corporations and their software providers. puts software through its paces, grading Medical Devices and president of WaveTec. “We believe the late in 2011 at the American Academy “We have thousands of software vendors responses on the Common Vulnerability time has come for cataract surgery to really of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting, and Yes that we sell to, and hundreds of the worlds Scoring System. Those that show their California perform more like a refractive procedure from that stake in the ground forward, the largest companies,” he says. Currently mettle versus typical development mistakes leaving the patient fully corrected and not business has really taken off.” Veracode secures applications for about pass with the company’s official okay. Yes in need of glasses or contact lenses.” » In the past, securing software meant 350 of the Fortune 1000. WaveTec’s main competition comes knowing its source code––basically, its Veracode’s industry position slightly Aside from helping improve the quality from technology that offers preoperative DNA. But just as McDonalds won’t reveal They cater to the biggest and they’re outside the fray works in their favor. As » Cataract surgery is one of the most of life for millions of Americans, this biometry. Frinzi says there is really no what’s in its special sauce, developers keep backed by big names in VC, including experts, they watch over their clients common procedures in the United States. technology also provides a hugely direct competition, although there will a tight lid on software source code. So Atlas Ventures, .406 Ventures, StarVest and from a slightly higher plane, scanning for Figures from the Centers for Disease profitable market for WaveTec. “The undoubtedly be players entering the Veracode came up with a way around trade Meritech Capital Partners. Most recently, trouble. For now, this perspective suits Control and Prevention (CDC) show that market is certainly compelling,” Frinzi same space at some point. The WaveTec secrets to help companies protect their the company raised money in April 2012, them perfectly––as is their related financial an estimated 20.5 million people over says. “If you look at it from a pure dollar technology has guided well over 80,000 applications. bringing total reported funding to $74 independence. Their compound annual the age of 40 in the U.S. have cataracts in point of view it’s close to a billion dollar procedures and has already captured million. Though “you could imagine it’s a growth rate has been in the 75th percentile, one or both eyes and 6.1 million people market opportunity. When you look at approximately 2.3 percent market share “Veracode invented a technology that little bit more than that,” Brennan says. Brennan says, “and we’re expected to be have had their clouded lenses removed the number of potential installation sites of total cataract volume in the U.S. since it doesn’t need the source code to be able north of $50 million this year.” He expects and replaced with a lens implant. But around the world, it’s well over 14,000 was reintroduced in 2011. to understand where all those holes or Veracode’s job has become increasingly Veracode will cross into the black some the procedure often leaves patients still opportunities for us. To put that in vulnerabilities [are] in the software...in the difficult in a digital age in which apps time in the next year despite operating requiring glasses after surgery. The latest perspective, to date we have 224 systems Demographics play to WaveTec’s favor same way that you could take a thermal have historically been rushed to market. under a fast growth analysis. diagnostic technology is changing that for installed, predominantly in the U.S. There’s – the baby boomer generation is now image of your home to understand where Developers focused on what software could good. still a huge runway in front of us to take fast approaching the age range where all the drafts are,” says CEO Bob Brennan. do and how fast they could deploy it, rather In the long run, going public’s not out of advantage of.” procedures, such as cataract surgery, are “And then we go caulk them up.“ than on potential threats to its wellbeing the question. “A possible IPO is definitely Prior to the availability of the new common. This is a generation that has and the data it housed. Concerns only grow on the table,” Brennan says. “We’re building technology, surgeons could only conduct WaveTec’s technology has also attracted witnessed great leaps in technology, and as Crucial to serving companies and securing when data moves to new devices and onto a business that’s a compounding annuity, pre-operative testing through the clouded a healthy level of investment. In June this such their expectations for being glasses- their data is a little bit of distance. “We foreign and somewhat unsteady terrain, that over time will generate very strong free lens to estimate the power of the implant year the firm announced it had expanded free after surgery are much higher. don’t actually need to be in the house, we i.e. mobile. But according to Brennan, cash flows.” But for now, the company’s a the patient would need, and gauge the on its D2 round of funding and raised $11 just need to be able to take a picture from Veracode’s ready for what’s next. little wary of going to Wall Street. magnitude of the astigmatism that existed. million. All of the firm’s existing investors “I think all of this has come together at a the outside,” he says. “We can tell where the Historically, the patient would then have to participated, and were joined by a new lead perfect time to create consumer demand, holes are and help plug those up so you can “We are further along as it relates to mobile “We see the usefulness for our customers in wait 30, 60 or even 90 days to understand investor – Foresite Capital Management, of as well as professional demand to improve go much further, much faster in leaning on applications security than anybody,” he Veracode being independent so that there’s if the surgery has been a complete success San Francisco. Among previous investors: clinical outcomes. A technology like technology to improve your business or says. “We’re further along as it relates to an independent third party that is attesting and if glasses were no longer required. Accutive Medical Ventures, De Novo ours fits well into what’s been happening your life.” web applications security than anybody, to the security of the software that runs Ventures, Versant Ventures and Burril & in the marketplace. We think that the [and] we’re way further along as it relates their company,” Brennan says. New technology now offers surgeons Company. demand is going to continue to be strong Instead of delegating security tasks to to code security for applications that are the chance to conduct diagnostic testing and we really look at our technology as disparate vendors, developers can use written inside of a company.” during the operation, after the clouded It’s fair to say WaveTec struggled to make a gateway technology for those whom Veracode’s cloud-based platform for lens is removed. The company providing an impact during its early years, and the want to improve the refractive outcomes application diagnosis and treatment. That doesn’t mean Veracode has it easy, this technology is called WaveTec. The major turning point was the appointment of cataract surgery in the next five to ten First Veracode spots weaknesses, then helping its clients take the temperature firm, headquartered in California, has of Frinzi. “When I took over the company years,” concludes Frinzi. recommends and implements strategies of third party applications that may or developed a system that raises the bar over two years ago we really took the for beefing up security. They’ve had two may not pose threats to security posture. in diagnostic devices for the eye in the time to re-look at the technology and patents issued while Brennan says eight “Everybody’s reliant upon so many healthcare sector. WaveTec’s technology have been filed. interdependent parties to run their is called ORA (Optiwave Refractive enterprise that that third party risk that’s Analysis). WaveTec recently launched an Veracode was founded in 2006 out of two taken on is an enormous risk,” he says. upgrade to their technology (the ORA “And helping our customers meet that System with VerifEye), which offers refractive information throughout the
218 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 219 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
YapStone the web or Yapstone’s mobile app. Last In June 2011, the company announced a Zend available in the open source space, such creators of PHP gives Zend a formidable year, the company’s revenues reached $50 million financing round led by Accel as application management capabilities, edge in the market, Gutmans contends. www.yapstone.com $68 million, with business “growing Partners and Meritech Capital Partners. Technologies better performance and scalability. It substantially this year and next,” Golis says. Today, Golis says that the with the monetizes on a subscription model, either “Since we helped create PHP, our Matthew Golis company’s current growth rate, a public www.zend.com through an on-premise per-server basis or understanding helps us help others Yapstone differentiates with its focus on offering presents not just a possibility––but on a capacity basis in the cloud through innovate in the PHP market,” Gutmans Other distinct verticals. Through partnerships could be attainable 12 months out. Andi Gutmans providers such as Amazon and IBM. said. “This is just the beginning. We’re and acquisitions, the company has grown Zend is unique in its ubiquitous partner helping to change the world as PHP California from an apartment rental payment portal Though Yapstone serves segmented Cloud Computing ecosystem that includes Amazon, IBM continues to build momentum.” to a comprehensive API that powers markets, split up from property and non- and Red Hat, providing customers a wide Yes payment processing across industries. In profit verticals, in total they face a $700 California choice of deployment with dependable Profitable, Zend has raised about $56 2011, Yapstone teamed up with HomeAway billion opportunity. In the future, Golis says consistency. million from Viola, Greylock Partners, to facilitate debit, credit and e-check they’d like to create a product that interacts Yes Index Ventures, Azure Capital Partners, » Though it powers online payment, transactions paying customers for use of even more directly with the consumer. Considering the PHP market alone, Zend Intel Capital, and SAP Ventures. The ePaaS (ePayment as a Service) company their vacation homes listed on HomeAway “After 14 years, we have such phenomenal addresses a market easily worth billions of company is headquartered in Cupertino, Yapstone doesn’t directly compete with and VRBO. Last year, Yapstone brought SEO results as far as renters just wanting to » Coining the company’s name from a dollars. As it continues to add more mobile Calif., with offices in France, Germany, e-commerce transaction platforms like ParishPay, LLC into its fold in order to pay with a credit card online, that we want combination of their forenames, Andi API capabilities, Zend is really addressing Ireland, Israel and Italy. PayPal, BrainTree or WePay. Instead, the further facilitate customers’ electronical to make it even easier for them to do so,” Gutmans and Zeev Suraski founded Zend anyone building cloud applications or “We are excited about Zend because it is company’s coming for what’s in customers’ donations to churches. Though niche, this he says. Technologies on the web’s most popular mobile apps, contends Gutmans, who has in the right market at the right time,” said pocketbooks: checks. division of the non-profit sector proves programming language the two had helped served as the company’s CEO since 2009. substantial, as ParishPay serves 1,000 Thanks to partnerships and market develop in the late ‘90s. They wrote the Cameron Lester, a General Partner at Azure Yapstone serves verticals where payments parishes and according to Golis, is the development, the company, headquartered parser that formed the base of PHP 3, and “As the mobile and cloud disruptions put Capital Partners. “PHP is the enterprise made are normally check-intensive, like largest payment processor in the Catholic in Walnut Creek, California, currently later developed the Zend Framework, the pressure on business, more are realizing environment for web applications. The for apartment and dorm rentals, nonprofit Church. makes payment a piece of cake for its open source web application framework that technologies like Java are not the fact that mobile applications need to be donations, vacation rentals and storage customers, though those clients call varied for PHP 5, as well as Zend Engine, the open most suitable,” Gutmans said. “Everyone integrated with their brother or sister apps facilities. Yapstone pops up everywhere The service fits verticals’ individualistic and disparate countries home. “We still source scripting engine that interprets the is rethinking how they generate apps. on the web gives Zend a clear advantage. clients pay with pen and paper, urging needs, unlike a more generalist platform. have not seen a company that’s either in the PHP programming language that powers PHP has always specialized in the web and Zend has been able to take advantage them to make payment easier on all parties Apartment rent payments to property payments industry or even a technology over 40 percent of the web. Internet mobile. Now that the world is moving its of its market position within the PHP via the company’s platform. managers via credit or debit cards “involves company that can handle a lot of the powerhouses like Facebook and Yahoo are workload into the cloud, it’s a very good community with a strong technology base, a number of different very specific rules cross border types of issues that you see standardized on PHP, a language designed time for us.” backed by strong partnerships with all the In 1999, Yapstone CEO and co-founder around the recurring nature of it, how to internationally,” Golis says. “In the case of for mobile and web that is quickly major cloud providers.” Matt Golis founded RentPayment, Inc., treat things like deposits, how you treat a vacation rental, where you may have a becoming as ubiquitous as the English Zend serves over 40,000 customers. About funding the venture with his own money things like the expiration of a lease,” says traveler coming from Australia that needs language to the programming world. 70 percent of its revenue comes from and that of two other angel investors. With Sameer Gandhi, partner at Accel Partners to pay [a] homeowner in London, we can larger corporate accounts, a shift from a money running out in late 2000, Golis saw (which invested in Yapstone). “All those do things to make it easy and very painless Founded in 2000, Zend offers value added few years ago when 60 percent of its base an opportunity to team up with another specific rules are built into the platform... for that homeowner to receive their services to the PHP programming language included smaller businesses. ZestFinance company in their market headed up by co- so that anybody in this vertical can literally disbursement in pounds regardless of what ecosystem. A leading developing tool for founder Thomas Villante: Yapstone. Today, sign up and use it.” currency the traveler wants to pay them in.” building business critical PHP applications, “We’ve gotten into a very good spot as www.zestfinance.com Yapstone remains the corporate holding Zend Studio provides modern open API enterprises are looking to take advantage company, with RentPayment the product Though Yapstone eschewed venture If Yapstone has its way, checks meant for architecture designed to write faster code of the next generation of apps moving into Douglas Merrill in the apartments market, he says. money to start with, the aforementioned property payment will be replaced, rather for mobile and cloud integrations. Its the cloud,” Gutmans said. Its enterprise deals and acquisitions––plus the prospect conveniently, by pieces of plastic. Zend Server provides storage specifically base has been growing 40 percent annually. Big Data/Storage In the dotcom boom, property managers of building an international office in designed for PHP applications to prevent refused to throw their lot in with Dublin––convinced Golis and Villante performance degradation as well as detect The company serves a global market, split California providers deploying services limited to to bring in outside capital. “It was on the and fix problems faster. The company also 50-50 between the US and Europe, with web platforms. “Back [in 2001], 99 out of heels of the HomeAway partnership, where offers PHP training and certification. strong presence in Germany, France, UK Yes 100 companies shut their doors [to] the it was pretty obvious that we would have and the Netherlands. It also has a small ones that were restricted to only online great visibility into what our revenue Zend works similar to Red Hat, the revenue base emerging from the APAC commerce, and it was only because we growth was going to be for the next several software company that provides open region. » To loan or not to loan: that is the question realized...we could grow the company by years,” he said. “We thought this would be source products it monetizes through faced by many lenders. Applicants go up The company faces competition from other offering offline payment methods...that we an opportunity to get a great valuation, and additional services and support. Zend against data informing banks’ decisions; software development platforms such as really survived.” at the time we had a couple of acquisitions delivers a supported subscription of PHP but when that data is missing or incomplete, that we had our eye on, as well as our that provides value added functionality not Oxagile. Being designed by some of the sometimes the deserving get rejected. Now, the majority of payments comes via expansion to Europe.”
220 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 221 Top 100 Companies: North America
ZestFinance looks to make credit widely ZestFinance has raised three major rounds to join them together to make a final available for people that need it via its since its launch, totaling more than $112 recommendation about whether or not to disruptive underwriting models that million in funding, debt and credit facility. make [someone] a loan.” incorporate big data. Before, lenders caught And though the company doesn’t disclose Put Your Trading System bits and pieces of candidates’ financial revenues, Merrill confirms between 2011 “The cool thing about this is it grabs the histories when considering the chance they and 2012, they grew by a factor of five. best part of what the dude behind the desk could pay loans back. ZestFinance shows did well, which is sort of broader view of them the big picture. ZestFinance’s model combines old-school the applicant, but it does it with getting In the Cloud underwriting views with the more modern the best thing out of FICO, which is credit Founded in 2009, ZestFinance (formerly idea of big data and its objectivity. In the availability,” he says. A fuller picture of the ZestCash) has received attention and praise late 1950s, two men (Bill Fair and Earl consumer could go a long way to helping for its disruptive underwriting models. Isaac) put a new mathematical model called with life’s surprises, including flat tires. Pricing and Distribution Crossing - Internalization “Since the company’s inception, we’ve logistic regression to work identifying good increased net repayment by 90 percent candidates for loans. “What they were able over off-the-shelf industry scores and more to do was using roughly 10 to 12 pieces of Connectivity Smart Order Routing than doubled the number of underbanked data, decide whether anybody could get Zetta.net Americans we can serve,” ZestFinance credit,” Merrill says. Aggregation founder and CEO Douglas Merrill wrote www.zetta.net in a November 2012 release. The same Before Fair and Isaac made the process data-oriented, lending decisions fell to statement claimed the company’s latest Ali Jenab underwriting had default rates 54 percent credit officers, Merrill says. Fair and Isaac’s lower than “the best-in-class industry model revolutionized the old system by Cloud Computing s c ore .” making lending objective (if credit officers didn’t know an applicant, they’d be less California Merrill’s sister-in-law inspired the mission likely to make them a loan). With FICO, behind ZestFinance when she called him judgments behind loan-making decisions Yes with some bad news: she had a flat tire. depended on data at hand. Vick, a single mother of three and full-time Merrill says the underwriting model hasn’t student with full-time job, needed a little » Disaster recovery and backup has been changed fundamentally since Fair Isaac financial help, as she couldn’t cover the cost one of the most important and profitable turned it on its head decades ago. “Despite of fixing her tire. “She called me back that sectors of the IT industry for decades, and the fact that there really has been an night, and I said, ‘Hey Vick, what would is a crucial part of everything done on explosion of computation since then, and you have done if I hadn’t answered my computers. The more data is consumed a huge explosion then of data available, phone?’” Merrill says. “She said, ‘Oh that’s and created every year, the bigger the task there’s still the problem of missing or really easy. I would have gone and taken becomes to ensure it is all backed up. This incorrect data,” Merrill says. “[It] causes out another payday loan.’” challenge makes the market an innovative perfectly good borrowers to be unable to space, and one which, like many other At the time, Merrill had no idea what a get credit. I see that as fundamentally a areas in IT, has embraced the cloud. payday loan was, or that there were 25,000 math problem.” payday loan store in the United States. “So One company offering a cloud solution is To solve that math problem, Merrill, I dug into this because I was interested, Zetta.net, a provider of backup, disaster formerly of Google, put sophisticated tech and I discovered this weird underwriting recovery and archiving technology to in place to vet candidates utilizing tons of problem that was creating these incredibly small- and medium-sized enterprises, data. expensive, opaque and unfair loans called distributed organizations and managed payday loans,” he says. Today, Merrill puts service providers. the payday lending market at around $8 “We take tens of thousands of pieces of information and we pass them through billion. “We look at backup, disaster recovery and 10 independent artificially intelligent archiving today as being three different algorithms,” Merrill says. “And each one Merrill thought people like his sister-in- buckets of software purchase with of those algorithms decides should we law deserved better credit options. “There complicated integration, wanting operating smart-trade.net give [someone] a loan or not. We then ought to be a fair, transparent and lower every night,” says Ali Jenab, CEO of Zetta. take those 10 decisions and we do what’s cost way to allow [a] person to get their net. “We’re simplifying that process by called ensembling them together, we apply tires,” he says. “And I decided to build a having a simple cloud solution. A customer another piece of artificial intelligence company to provide one.” can download a piece of software in 15
222 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America
minutes and be able to back up their time frame,” says Mr. Jenab. “All our focus to phone companies” according to CEO Wilson, a former executive at Amdocs and questions already. The firm’s founder and Since the company was founded in stuff. We report to them every night that right now is to grow our revenues from and co-founder Sterling Wilson. his co-founder know the players well. On CEO Jay Chaudhry set up the company 2008, it has grown quickly. It currently everything ran fine — you basically set it well into mid-seven figures ... to eight the other hand, the controversial issue of with mobile, the cloud and efficiency in boats 10 million paying users from 4,000 and forget it.” figures by end of 2014.” At the same time, it confronts the routine personal privacy is on everyone’s mind. mind. “I focused on three main principles, enterprises, coming from 180 countries. “bill shock” challenge, when subscribers do Benson explains however that “until the one the world is getting mobile and we ZScaler covers over 10 billion transactions The cloud solution works particularly not understand how they consumed data. founding of Zettics, there has not been a need to be able to protect people no matter a day – a transaction means every time a well with companies that have their Says Joe Levy, vice president of strategic company that has approached PII (personal where they are and what device they user visits a web page. Annual growth has data distributed across multiple offices. consulting at Zettics: “The carriers, our identifiable information) and privacy in a are using,” explains Mr. Chaudhry. “The been 100% year after year and it is looking Previously, firms would have had to deploy Zettics clients, can tell the consumer: the three way that minimizes the risk for the carriers second thing – if you really want to protect to keep that constant. The company appliances in all of the different offices, hours of Netflix and the Hulu or Youtube www.zettics.com to having that privacy information released mobile users, you can’t take the traffic employees around 250 people and around but with Zetta cloud solution, only one that you watched the other night, here is unnecessarily.” through a couple of gateways sitting at an 125 of them are in the product delivery piece of software needs to be installed and how much data you are actually consuming. Sterling Wilson office at regional headquarters, you need side of the organization, which covers the firm has a single viewpoint of what Before it was almost impossible to provide With 503 mobile operators tallied by the to build defences all around the internet in everything from engineering to security is happening in its entire operation. The Mobile this feedback to clients.” GSMA, the international organization the cloud because most of the threats come research to delivery of the service. solution also makes a second copy of the for the mobile industry, Zettics has just from the internet.” Obviously, transparency improves carriers’ data on the Zetta cloud, meaning if the Washington scratched the surface. Almost 6.8 billion ZScaler resited outside investment until company loses something, it only takes a interaction as well as customer experience, subscribers have not adopted their cellular “And the third thing was – today a company last year, when it secured $38 million reduces time spent per complaint and short time to recover it. Yes phone as their main interactive vehicles. buys a product from many vendors, many in funding through strategic investors eventually the churn. But the icing on the New devices abound tablets, dual purpose security vendors and they put it at their including Lightspeed Ventures. “Many web The company enjoys high margins due to cake comes from the Dynamic Learning computers, phone-blets galore. With the internet gateway. The traffic has to go from security vendors are putting appliances the business model it employs. “We really process embedded in the technology. » Every day, millions of phone users explosion of mobile commerce, which has one box to the second to the third and the in the cloud and calling it cloud security,” built a high velocity business model – what “Mobile usage transforms behavior receive a customized bill from their leaped from 1% of total Internet commerce fourth. If we did the same thing with a said Ravi Mhatre, managing director at that means is the product gets installed in every day. And if there is a behavioral carrier. It is safe to say that a good percent to 18 percent in just three years in modern cloud based approach, now the traffic has to Lightspeed Ventures. “Zscaler is the only 15 minutes on the phone, we have a great pattern growing in popularity, that we of subscribers end up on the line with countries, carriers will need more ways jump from cloud to cloud, making it worse. company that has the right architecture marketing team, and they drive the traffic do not recognize, we apply those updates their not-so favorite supplier for a frank to scan, explain and monetize customers’ So let’s integrate a lot of these products so to securely enable the mobile, cloud and to us rather than us calling to generate every week for our carriers worldwide,” explanation. Traditional customer service data and behavior. And to defuse irritated we wouldn’t do one aspect of security, we social media applications that often bypass leads,” Jenab says. “All our sales are done according to Levy. representatives may not have all available subscribers’ calls after a bill shock. would do it holistically,” he adds. traditional security altogether.” on the phone. All our territory managers data, which leads to unamicable exchanges. are sitting on the phones here in Sunnyvale Professional investors often can smell huge As a result, ZScaler is much bigger than Despite the number of customers the market potential. Local VCs have banded covering the whole of the U.S. We do six- Then comes Zettics, a Seattle-based a typical start up, and covers many more company has, it is still required to do some with Silicon Valley VCs to put money figure transactions just talking to people company started by industry veterans. angles than most of the security firms evangelism in the marketplace. What we to work. On the Series A and B, $25.8 Zscaler, Inc. on the phone, so that makes our business Zettics analyzes these terabytes of data for operating in the same space. When ZScaler have built is something we call direct to model very efficient.” million has been disbursed by Steamboat came to present the product to potential cloud network, or DCN,” explains Mr. carriers, after the merger of two entities www.zscaler.com Ventures, Voyager, Emergence Capital Ground Truth and Umber Systems, in 2011. customers, it was initially met with Chaudhry. “This means a global network The increase in the amount of data a typical and North Bridge. The latest financing scepticism. “We built a very sophisticated around the internet and no matter where Both founders wisely realized that a single Jay Chaudhry company uses has led to real problems in July 2013 added $8.2 million, with company could best serve this market by architecture because we had no legacy you are, on your PC, your iPhone or iPad, in backing that data up. One of Zetta’s Voyager and Excelstar as lead backers. joining forces to a single platform. Since Security to worry about. So I went and presented your traffic goes through a data centre clients previously had a system which was Erik Benson, a partner at Voyager who then, driven by the insatiable market to these big companies the first reaction that Zscaler has put in place, and your unable to back up the huge amount of put in its first dollars at Ground Truth, demand, it has generated amazing growth. California would be it’s too good to be true. There was policy gets enforced. And that makes the data it needed within 24 hours, meaning then led by Sterling Wilson, justifies his often a feeling of disbelief. But once we got user experience very good. We think the the company could only back up half of its investment: “CMOs are the new CIOs for While Internet-focused businesses already Yes hundreds of customers and now we’ve got DCN will change the way people access data. Zetta was able to back up the same leverage user data, sometimes to a fault, they are driving the purchase of large scale 4000 then that issue went away,” says Mr. the internet from a response time point of amount of data in 90 minutes. “That really phone companies had yet to harness its IT systems to understand their customers Chaudhry. view.” shows the power of sync and replication better in a more real time fashion. Zettics is potential. Although Amdocs or IBM have » Businesses around the U.S. and the world rather than a traditional backup software a category leader with high growth margin Mr. Chaudhry uses the analogy of an thrived with traditional telcos, mobility and have been quick to jump on the potential approach. So that’s one thing that is driving and high growth rate.” airport to explain the benefits of the ZScaler a new set of players in the ecosystem, such of mobile and the cloud. These two huge customers to us,” Jenab says. as Google, Samsung, Facebook or Apple system. A company using several different The company still faces several challenges. shifts in the way business is carried out have called for a technology breakthrough. products to secure its network is like a The company now hopes to grow On one hand, large competitors IBM, brought with them immeasurable benefits, Zettics’ eight patents, focused on Dynamic passenger having to go through several significantly over the next 18 months or Accenture or recent contenders such as but they have also posed questions. Perhaps Learning™, analyzes data from networks to different check points at an airport, and so. “We’ve just closed a Series B so we have Guavus will not remain idle and have built the most frequently asked question has provide granular intelligence to the carriers getting held up and stopped at each one. plenty of cash in hand to go through 2015 an excellent footprint with mobile carriers, been regarding security. about subscriber’s usage and behavior. This With the ZScaler system, all of the check and possibly go cash-flow positive at that which are difficult to penetrate. Of course, singular approach “delivers actionable data Zscaler, a California based internet security are done in one queue, and passengers are firm, has provided many answers to these able to feel secure in a fraction of the time.
224 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 225 Top 100 Companies: North America Top 100 Companies: North America North america Company Age STATE Distribution AZ 1 For more statistics of the CA 60 2013 winners, visit us at Canada 3 www.redherring.com DC 1 FL 1 GA 3 IL 3 Nearly Stats IN 1 MA 7 NJ 1 % NY 5 C60ompanies are Revenue OH 1 based in California PA 2 TX 3 UT 2 VA 3 WA 3 Of the companies + are less than 10 grand Total 100% years old
Sector Big Data/Storage 5 Cloud Computing 15 Entertainment & Media 1 1 Gaming 1 The CEOs Funding 5 Hardware 1 Of all winners Internet/Online (ISP, B2B, B2C, etc.) 9 are Software Average Life Sciences/Biotech 6 For winners Funding Marketing/Advertising/SOE 5 $43M Medical Devices 6 Are CEO Are CEO/ Founders Mobile # Companies 10 Other 6 Average For attending Security 7 Funding finalists Social Media 3 $28M Software 20 Are 1st time Have been Have been Have been Telecommunications 4 CEOs CEO twice CEO three times CEO four times Virtualization 2 Median Funding For winners $29M Employees Of companies Have a graduate Hold an MBA have less than x 5 = 1000 degree 140 employees 4 companies have 0 9 $11,763,222 more than 1,000 employees 1 13 $7,600,000 Patents 2 22 $41,686,957 3 24 $39,077,083 unding 4 15 F $53,696,667 ounds 5 11 $79,324,508 166 79 998Patents Companies5 Average10 # patents otal Average number Median # of R 6 3 $83,966,667 of employees # of Companies have 53% 7 1 T vg. $142,000,000 A of patents 8 1 $87,000,000 % (531 patents) 10 1 $104,000,000 Have no patents Median # patents 42 1 Total 100 $43,210,283
226 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 227 Feature Story Feature Story
Khan Academy an open institution ducation and learning guide the triggered the inception of Khan Academy, Previously a hedge fund manager, Khan’s world. They foster economic a multi-faceted online educational software life took a 360 degree about face towards E prosperity and productivity, provide platform that boasts an expansive range of philanthropy and Khan even recently the basis for democracy, and at the core, 33,000 high quality videos covering a vast joked at a Sierra Ventures reunion that they remain the quintessential ingredients range of content. For parents, coaches, and it was strange for him to be building an to upgrade the human condition. Economic of course students from all walks of life, the organization focused on social value. Now, scholars who have studied GDP in wealthy platform provides relevant and accessible he stands at the forefront of an educational and emerging countries rich have found that material anywhere in the world for free. revolution, adding 49 employees to the growth and success can be largely attributed Khan began to realize the significance team since founding the company. And “Definitely Khan Academy just makes cases. Instead, each student is equipped with “I want to see my kids go to a school where to high levels of intellectual capital. Yet of his work when he started to receive with a recent BBC report claiming that this wonderful mission a reality,” says a smart device or laptop from which they they use tools like Khan Academy so kids by 2013, billions still do not get access to anonymous comments o n his videos — and in June 2013, fifty-seven million children Andrew Grauer, the CEO and founder will interact with an online video. And the can grow at their own pace and operate primary education, let alone do they gain in particular, when Bill Gates used the math globally still did not have access to schools of CourseHero, another pioneer of the teacher, rather than lecturing with chalk and in an inspiring room like this,” Khan says, proficiency in basic maths and sciences. videos to teach his own children. or education, Khan Academy could prove movement to disseminate top-class, board, roams the aisle, diverting individual gesticulating to his own vibrant office. Without this knowledge, social integration to be the vehicle that finally fulfills one of accessible, and affordable education. With attention to each student as and when they “There’s not a bell that rings every 55 and escape from the throes of poverty remain The son of a Bangladeshi and Indian the internet’s many promises at a crucial genuine passion, he adds that “Salman Khan require it. minutes, some of the kids will be working just pipe dreams. The US Department of immigrant, Khan did not plan his career juncture. and his team are able to live and breathe their on math, while some on drama, while some Education listed the worldwide illiteracy in digital teaching—in fact, far from it. mission of helping kids as well as students are painting. The teachers are there to use total at about 775 million for people over around the world get access to education for ... platform provides the data and intervene when the student the age of 15 in Q2 of 2013. With the free. The idealism embodied in that mission needs help and hopefully this frees them up United Nations Educational, Scientific, … you fall in love with that as a human.” relevant and to do more interesting stuff.” and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) accessible material reporting that developing countries only The recipient of three degrees from MIT But the organization’s unabated growth since spend 4.4% of income on education due and an MBA from Harvard, Khan is no anywhere in the it was founded five years ago has not been to inadequate spending budgets, the issue stranger to a world-class education. For world for free. unencumbered, as teachers are sometimes of education provision remains unresolved him, the future of education involves a reluctant to adopt the ‘flipped classroom’ despite the agency’s movement to provide transformation in the way a student learns model. They face inherent problems that “Education for All.” and progresses from a young age. Khan This unconventional setting encapsulates come with students working at their own envisions a curriculum where students Khan’s vision of the “flipped classroom,” pace: how can they complete the curriculum It comes as no surprise then that to most, the must first master a concept, and prove that where the teacher’s time is freed up for 1-on- for the academic year, or will some students notion of a world that grants a “free world- mastery via repeated tests and problems, 1 learning catered to each student’s specific inevitably fall behind their peers? A teacher class education for anyone, anywhere” before moving to more advanced material. needs. Khan Academy’s sophisticated data needs to feel that they did their job, and in seems nothing more than a perceived The vitality of having a strong base analytics dashboard provides an in-depth many cases, it is easier to reject than accept utopia. But just a stone’s throw away from understanding of each concept from which look at a student’s progress, from how many a change in the status quo. “It takes a leap Google’s colorful campus in a secluded to build upon holds more importance problems they answered correctly, to how of faith,” Khan admits “ and the centerpiece corner of Mountain View, an office building to Khan than simply completing a topic long they took, to when they paused a video. remains the knowledge plus these intangible plays home to a team of people dedicated or lesson in the time allotted. While this Based on this granular analysis, the website’s experiences. If a kid is working on a 4th to turning this idealized vision into a structure might mean that students’ work functionality embeds recommendations grade topic and hasn’t reached the 6th grade reality. Up one flight of stairs and across the at their own pace, with some advancing on what topics to study or what videos to topic yet, that’s okay. Eventually he will get hallway is the open entrance to the discrete faster than others, it is crucial that they all view, maximizing the impact of the learning to a better place.” headquarters of Khan Academy. eventually reach the same destination in experience. When the 51 person Khan their own time. Academy team leaves the office each day, Still, with 10M unique users spanning Serendipity often inspires the best they walk past the television screen with the 216 countries and 300M plus lessons endeavors, and now Sal Khan’s story has Imagine a 6th grade classroom that is told perpetually blinking number, the number delivered everyday, it would appear that been told all over the world. In 2009, Khan’s to prepare for a math lesson. Yet the ensuing that discloses that over 5 million practice Khan’s vision is resonating in the global personal YouTube tutorial videos, launched commotion does not feature the traditional problems are answered on the website per community. Indeed, the company is funded to mentor his cousin Nadia remotely, rustle of papers and the unzippering of pencil day. philanthropically and stands resolutely Photo Credit: Michael Collopy, selection of portraits taken during Skoll World Forum 2013 during Skoll World Photo Credit: Michael Collopy, selection of portraits taken
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by its not-for-profit structure, relying on in so many subjects that if you watched one its content beyond maths and sciences into the backing of Google, Bank Of America, lecture per day, it would take over 8 years to fields such as history and geography. the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, cover all of his material. “It’s not traditional and a range of other generous high profile for an executive director to be in the weeds Grauer, who is both a fan and a peer of Budapest individuals to sustain its growth. With and creating content,” Khan says. “I think Khan in transforming the digital learning potential competitors like CourseHero and that’s what is special about us — if you just space, anticipates the company will adopt blossoms with tech talent Coursera, an online course portal with 17M sit at the top and go to a bunch of meetings, a more scalable approach to the way it enrollments, using business models that you lose touch with the product and the produces content. “I don’t think they can despite government red tape allow monetization (the former charges for processes. If I found myself in 5 years sitting be afraid of getting perfect content, perfect premium content, the latter charges students in meetings all day, I would go nuts.” teachers. There is no such thing,” he says. “I to earn “verified certificates”), questions think they should get comfortable making úvelódesi Szint — aka Müszi Innovation Office (NIO) include a task professional: hardly enough to make about the non-profit’s sustainability and But at the rate that Khan Academy is being mistakes as they move fast [and scale], — is a community space and force, Budapest Hub, which aims to define a living. For everything else, you need picked up and used by a global audience, rather than tread softly and pump out fewer ability to scale are potent ones. With co-working initiative right what the Hungarian startup ecosystem connections.” Unemployment in Hungary issues of scale might dictate a new role for pieces of content from fewer people.” growth, Khan does see the opportunity in the heart of Budapest, needs from the government. There’s a tax- remains high at around 11 percent. GDP, the 37 year old visionary. Already, over for monetization in the form of corporate Hungary’s capital. In it, young tech breaks committee, and three groups for which had been shrinking until 2012, is 12,000 lessons on the site have been dubbed However Khan decides to balance his roles M licenses or charging for extraneous tools. innovators sit back in reclaimed furniture, education in entrepreneurship. “Compared now turning a corner. According to the over in 28 different languages to vehicle in the future, it is undisputed that he is the But he refuses to compromise the integrity drink mug upon mug of coffee and lead a to five or six years ago, when there were country’s economy minister Mihaly Varga, of Khan Academy’s mission: “we will never the Khan Academy resource globally. With face of not just the company, but of the revolution in the city’s economy. It might practically no startup companies here, it grew 1 percent last year, and is expected have anything commercial on the site, nor just seven people internally dedicated romanticized ideal of a “free world-class sound like your everyday afternoon in, say, we have information for over 400 startup to rise by another two in 2014. will we charge for content,” he asserts with to producing content for the site, Khan education for anyone, anywhere.” And Berlin or London. But in Hungary, where companies,” says the office’s László Korányi. Academy is increasingly dependent on its millions of kids, like his cousin Nadia, are no hesitation. “Probably the number is at least 50 per cent Thankfully the need to know folks in partnerships — the elite Phillips Andover now dialing up on Khan Academy to access the economy has still struggled to recover higher than that.” high places is scant in a city where initial In fact, Khan personally leads the charge. boarding school is currently generating his tutorials and as a result, are consistently from the 2008 crash, spaces like Müszi are improving their grades and lifestyles. still rather new. overheads for startups are so small. Entire Just before the interview with Red Herring, the site’s calculus content while a recent The NIO has also been closely involved with Slowly, with Khan at the helm, what were buildings in the historic center still lay Khan could be seen recording another deal with the Gettysburg Museum yielded the EU’s Horizon 2020 initiative, which is once far-reaching dreams for the state of Hungary has a population of 9.94m people unoccupied, and rents hover below the math tutorial to go online in his modest a comprehensive set of art and art history pumping $110bn into scientific research global education are becoming distinct and sits in the centre of Europe flanked $300-a-month mark. For this reason other corner office. According to a recent CBS 60 materials. Khan hopes to keep the team as ($34 billion), industrial innovation ($25 Minutes report, Sal Khan has taught lessons lean as possible while the company extends possibilities. by seven states — one of which is Austria, ‘on-the-fly’ ventures such as cafés, room with which it jointly held an empire for billion, which includes investment in key escape games and, famously, the city’s 51 years until the end of World War I. technology and capital for SMEs), and many ‘ruins pubs’, are popping up, making Invaded by the Nazis in 1944, the country ‘major concerns’ ($44 billion, including was soon taken by Soviet forces, under climate change and transport.) whose control Hungary remained until the ...Budapest an attractive But to qualify for NIO funding, fall of communism in 1989. Today it is an entrepreneurs must have money place to set up shop. industrially-advanced nation, with mining and experience abroad. And with a and metallurgy its main exports. Budapest an attractive place to set up shop. stuttering economy and low average salary, “Budapest is a very beautiful city, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s populist those are things many young Hungarians recently there has been a burgeoning bar government has come under criticism for simply cannot afford. In addition many scene with a very special atmosphere,” says new companies complain of being mired perceived autocratic activity. Meanwhile Korányi. “Maybe the only comparable city in red tape and taxes, while cronyism and far-right party Jobbik has displayed in this aspect is Berlin.” corruption remain big problems. vitriolic racism and there are fears it may command Parliament seats come April’s “The high creativity of young entrepreneurs “There are a lot of inspiring stories and general election. Despite that, Budapest, a is a good basis for a rapidly-growing many many great ideas around,” says Olga industry,” says Péter Drajkó, a tourism city of around 2 million, is one of Europe’s Irimas, 33, an art programmer who helps official. Visitor numbers are growing year- most beautiful capitals and a leading run Müszi. “But the environment makes on-year, pumping more cash into the city’s tourist destination. it difficult or impossible. Especially if you coffers. Gentrification also looms large over are trying to stay ethical: not exploit your And its tech community is booming. the costs of smaller ventures. But Budapest employees, not cheat on taxes. There’s a thrilling batch of tech businesses has a history of innovation — from the — presentation firm Prezi and Palo Alto- “You can get a normal job easily if you ballpoint pen to the Rubik’s Cube. And headquartered LogMeIn are two big success accept to be incredibly underpaid,” adds few generations have promised the facelift stories — helped along with state funding. Irimas. “Meaning 500 Euros ($688; the that this one, armed with little more than national average) per month as a young rent checks and a big slice of creativity, is Initiatives led by the country’s National already beginning to deliver.
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the company. Through different characters Alibaba IPO — Mr. Tradition, Mr. Innovation, and Mr. Big Investor to name a few — he Leaves Hong Kong acknowledged the need for the HKEx to Taxi apps modernize, but stopped short of okaying what could be seen as special treatment compete globally for Stock Exchange Sweating towards companies. He emphasized the HKEx prioritized public interest over that sought after markets of the shareholders. libaba, the Chinese e-commerce Kong listing, but the exchange has major Aconglomerate, is ready to go public problems with the way the company is If the HKEx says yes to Alibaba, it will any day now. But a squabble with the Hong structured. negate any argument against similar Kong Stock Exchange has cast doubt on structures that follow, or even precede, Jack Ma’s insecurities over the might of its the company listing at home. Could the the e-commerce group’s public offering. shareholders led to a complex leadership Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange One exception leads to another, then framework that complicates matters with be about to pull off an audacious coup? another, and something the exchange the HKEx. Alibaba has received funding once banned could become commonplace. Wherever, the company lists, the Alibaba from SoftBank, Goldman Sachs Fidelity Now, the HKEx stands at a crossroads. It IPO is certain to eclipse that of Twitter and others, and it has caused Ma to fear for must choose between becoming Alibaba’s and possibly even Facebook. Analysts his control of the company. The founder flagbearer and giving up an incredibly estimate the value of the Hangzhou-based has made efforts to fortify Alibaba against lucrative opportunity. company to be as high as $200 billion. a hostile takeover, possible if SoftBank and Alibaba Group, which bares similarities Yahoo sold shares to a third party looking Chinese investors hope Alibaba lists at axi applications are some early to tell who is going to be the winner.” cash flow position in Brazil. Drandakis to Amazon, eBay and Google, is made up to seize control. home, and want the HKEx to challenge of the most effective estimates that it takes around 14-15 by several highly-successful listing and U.S. stock exchanges. The NYSE and Ma tried to set up a super-voting structure, mobile solutions in the app But for Taxibeat, one country and one local months for the company to make money shopping websites. Nasdaq rank first and second with regards which the Hong Kong stock exchange market was never going to be enough. in a new region. to proceeds raised in 2012, around $23.1 marketplace. The technology Two of those sites are Taobao and vetoed, as the system conferred inordinate After a year of success in Athens, the billion and $22.5 billion respectively, that allows users to hail and track a Tmall, which recently reported sales of power on certain shares. The HKEx T company set its sights on South America, But Taxibeat faces strong competition according to Deloitte. Mainland pressure taxi driver has spawned successful RMB35 billion ($5.75 billion) with a insisted on a one share, one vote policy, a region Drandakis focused on because of from the likes of Uber and Hailo. Taxibeat on the Hong Kong bourse to grit its teeth companies such as Uber, Hailo and gross merchandise volume of more than but Alibaba built up their characteristic the problems taxi services encounter there. doesn’t see Uber, backed by Google, as a and bend the rules is significant. Many 1 trillion on Singles Day, China’s Black and elaborate partnership structure to Taxibeat. But the challenges that arise Taxibeat targets markets where taxis are direct competitor, though the American would see an overseas IPO as a blow to Friday equivalent. In 2012, Alibaba Group appease the bourse. Today, the structure in individual markets, from cities up to hard to hail and the service is poor when startup operates in the same general Chinese exchanges, which lost Baidu in a raked in revenues of $1.7 billion, 61 percent assures that even after an offering, those on regions, make international expansion one does turn up. This strategy allows space. Uber reportedly brings in nearly similar fashion and want to avoid losing more than in 2011. Net income increased the partnership committee will be able to a tricky road to travel. Taxibeat the chance to drastically improve $20 million in revenue every week, ground on global stock markets. Hong from $293 million in 2011 to $717 million nominate more than half Alibaba’s board on existing cab services. according to a leaked document obtained Kong ranked 4th in terms of proceeds in 2012. But it’s not these impressive figures — and by extension, guide the company’s Taxibeat, although not well known in by Valleywag. The company operates in raised (HK$ 89.8 billion or roughly $11.6 In the summer of 2012, Taxibeat launched that are driving the company to IPO. trajectory. Despite jockeying leadership the U.S., has gained traction in emerging a number of cities worldwide, including billion USD) with 62 listings in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, hit Sao Paulo around in an attempt to create the illusion markets such as South America and London, Rome, Tokyo and 32 cities according to Deloitte. directly after, and then headed back to Alibaba’s second largest shareholder is of total share equality, Hong Kong remains European cities like Paris and Athens. The across North America. Hailo is available Yahoo. At one point the California-based Europe to tackle Paris. The company most set against the company’s committee Wherever Alibaba debuts, it is almost company was founded in Greece in 2011 in 16 cities globally across Europe, North internet company owned 40 percent of recently deployed its services in Mexico framework. guaranteed a successful listing. But if the and has raised $4.5 million in funding to America and Asia, but doesn’t cross paths Alibaba’s shares, but since 2012 it has City and will now move on to Peru and Hong Kong Stock Exchange loses out to its date. Its latest round, led by Hummingbird with Taxibeat in any of them. Expect that owned 24 percent. Yahoo has an agreement Such a structure presents no issue for Turkey. U.S. competitors, it sends a strong message Ventures, followed on from angel to change by early 2015, when Taxibeat in place with Alibaba that the Chinese firm American exchanges; both NASDAQ to Chinese companies and investors that investment mainly from Greek individuals. goes after the North American market can buy back half of Yahoo’s stake when and the NYSE okayed it without blinking Taxibeat’s unique user-review model the exchanges in China cannot compete After launching with an initial fleet of 200 itself. the company goes public. Both sides see an eye. U.S. companies like Google and helps drive the company’s success in with the likes of Nasdaq and the NYSE. taxi drivers in Athens, the capital city of diverse markets. While the likes of Uber this as mutually beneficial – Alibaba CEO Facebook have some form of super-voting Greece, the company enjoyed an early and Hailo assign taxi drivers at random The taxi app market will always be a and founder Jack Ma would sleep better shares, and the practice is more common growth rate of 40-50 percent per month. when a customer makes a request for a difficult sector to dominate worldwide, at night knowing he has more control of and acceptable in the U.S. than overseas. cab, Taxibeat allows the customer to select because cities can be so different and his company, and Yahoo would get a huge This type of success is common among drivers based on reviews from previous taxi services even more so. But Taxibeat’s bundle of cash. Reports that negotiations between Alibaba taxi apps, as the major players in the global users. “Customers enforce the quality of strategy of tackling one emerging market and the HKEx had disintegrated led chief industry all dominate their local markets. service they want by rating the drivers and at a time, and complementing them with This agreement, together with pressure executive Charles Li to pen a lengthy, “It’s been proven that it’s a highly local then by choosing one based on this rating,” major European cities, has propelled its from cash-hungry investors, is marching allegorical blog post in September. In game,” explains Nick Drandakis, CEO of says Drandakis. success thus far. The established players Alibaba towards an IPO, and it seems likely the post, he guardedly debated the Taxibeat. “Every company is a winner in in the North American market can expect it will happen in 2014. The only question pros and cons of condoning Alibaba’s their own market. But when they try to The company currently makes a profit in to see Taxibeat in their rear-view mirrors is where? Alibaba appears to want a Hong leadership makeup, all without naming expand there are big problems. So it’s too Greece and has almost reached a positive very soon.
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Acer turns to tan Shih, the legendary founder of Acer, has taken charge But there may yet be hope for Acer. Shih has piloted his company of the company following corporate president Jim Wong’s through upheaval before, and his time at Acer brought sustained resignation, two weeks after the company announced success. Perhaps most notably, Shih debuted his Smiling Curve founder Shih to Wong would succeed previous CEO J.T. Wang. But can the at Acer, a business model exhibiting increased value-adds from Scompany’s second internal overhaul in a month rescue it? Poor technology, brands and services over those from manufacturing. performance in a struggling PC market suggests not. His strategic vision converted the company from simply a producer, into a tech presence with its own personality, and he Both Wong and the man he was supposed to succeed, former could do it again. Precedence bodes well for Shih, as returning the buck a chairman and CEO J.T. Wang, are leaving due to the company’s founder to a seat of power worked for Apple. recent performance according to Acer. The legacy PC vendor’s revenues have decreased by almost 12 percent since Q3 last year. Shih founded Acer in 1976 and left the company fat and happy From a slim positive profit third quarter 2012, the company slid when J.T. Wang took control in 2005, having steered the Taiwan- deep into the red this year with Q3 losses at more than $440 based firm through dire straits twice before. The story of the first worrying million. In an effort to reverse this worrying trend, Acer has restructure in the 1990s is detailed in Jason Dedrick and Kenneth pinned its hopes on the returning Taiwanese tech legend Shih. L. Kraemer’s 1998 book, “Asia’s Computer Challenge: Threat or Opportunity for the United States and the World?” Acquisitions Today, the company ranks fourth in terms of PC shipments with caused problems and clashes over management style between trend an 8.2 percent worldwide share behind Lenovo, HP and Dell. Shih and Leonard Liu, president of Acer America, prompted Shih Though Acer has been downgraded since ousting Dell as second- to volunteer to resign. However, it was Liu who left and Shih built biggest PC provider in 2009, the years have also proved unkind to Acer back up. the company’s competitors. In the three months beginning May 4, 2013, Dell reported net income of $130 million, a $505 million The company restructured again in 2001, when it spun off its decline from the same period the year before. Meanwhile, HP’s contract manufacturing and peripherals units, according Bart non-GAAP net earnings were down $300 million in the third Slob, writing in a 2005 profile on Acer for SOMO, the Centre quarter of 2013, compared to the same period in 2012. Yet Lenovo for Research on Multinational Corporations. Acer evolved from has seen an increase in profits, posting a 31 percent gain between a producer to a provider and distributor, with positive results. the second quarter of 2012 and the same time this year. Operating revenue at Acer increased by almost 60 percent between 2003 and 2004, then again between 2004 and 2005. Shih’s company Acer performs okay in a failing category — hardly a point of pride. reaped more than NT 7 billion ($236,518,100) net income the year The company’s worldwide market share fell from 9.5 percent in Q3 he left — a three year-low, as net income reached more than NT 2012 to 6.7 percent a year later, and shipments dropped by almost 8.6 billion ($290,540,680) in 2002. 3 million units during that time. Acer announced on November 5th it will lay off 7 percent of its 8,000-person workforce. However, But Shih now seems to feel obligated to resume his old job. “Due given the consolidating PC industry (IDC reports total shipments to the situation that now faces Acer and my personal social down 7.6 percent), Shih must do more than bail water to keep responsibilities, I must stand up and take the reign without Acer afloat. salary,” he stated in the company’s release. His interest might also be piqued by his personal, 0.62 percent stake in the tech producer. Facing competition from companies that have adapted to In Acer’s statement announcing Jim Wong as the new CEO, Shih shrinking demand for PCs, Acer plays the schooner to Apple spoke in a veiled way about changes ahead for the company now and Samsung’s 300-foot yachts. As merely 2.5 percent of tablets returned to him. “After making structural adjustments, we will shipped last quarter were Acer’s, it’s clear the company has brand introduce more competitive products within the existing PC, awareness and agility issues. The lion’s share of its products are tablet, and smartphone business and stabilize our market share,” netbooks, Chromebooks, ultrabooks and notebooks, all souped- he said. “This will be the basis of our transformation and for up laptops. Though the company has broken into mobile, its developing new business opportunities.” smartphone sales had not topped 1 million units as of the end of February 2013. Acer was among the 34.2 percent of providers PCs remains the core of Acer’s business, according to Acer’s selling 153.7 million mobile phones combined in Q3 2013, with annual report from last year. In 2012, notebook PCs accounted for each company holding less than 1.9 percent global market share, 66 percent of Acer’s total revenues from ICT product lines, while according to Gartner. desktops contributed 16 percent, and displays 8 percent, the report states. Shih has revamped and recharged the company before, Following the announcement of Shih’s appointment, Acer’s share but nothing quite so disruptive as the rise of cloud computing or prices rebounded from a historic low at TW 14.90 (roughly 50 the spread of smart mobile devices occurred during his previous cents, USD) to TW 16.40 (55.4 cents) days later. However, a few tenure. Though Acer currently relies on PCs to make money, days’ incremental gains can’t erase years’ worth of price slides. many wouldn’t bank on that industry for profitability, or success 2009 www.idtvc.com Analysts generally recommend cashing out of Acer. Prices reflect in the modern technology market. deteriorating analyst and consumer confidence in the company as it heads into new industries.
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interface and content has trumped that of subscribers and proudly revealed that the Amazon and Hulu, its two main rivals. Bill company’s revenues will hit $1 billion in Niemeyer, senior analyst at The Diffusion 2013. Netflix brings in that amount in a Group says the lack of competition at the single quarter. Hulu has aired its own start of Netflix’s acendency was startling. shows since 2011, but no marquee hit “It’s like Batman versus the Joker, except has made its creative efforts as notable as the Joker naps through most of the film.” Netflix’s. Hulu’s platform still incorporates But Amazon and Hulu are now looking commercial-break style advertising, to catch up, and technology such as TV something users don’t have to deal with Everywhere also poses a threat. on either Netflix or Amazon.
Currently, Hulu teams with five of six U.S. Netflix retains an broadcasting bigwigs to bring network shows online. But sojourns into original enormous market programming may bring users to the platform over the draw of episodes from advantage, but last week’s shows. Last year, Hulu debuted 20 original shows and wants to deploy competitors have 40 more in coming years. New episodes of Hulu Originals ranked in the top ten begun to establish most-watched programming on the site, footholds. according to the company. Other challengers are catching on to new Netflix Streams Ahead Lately, Amazon has poured cash and technology trends like TV Everywhere, resources into content licensing and which would let TV subscribers like those video services. Netflix CEO Reed of TimeWarner watch content on mobile. in ever changing market Hastings estimated in 2012 Amazon Though Netflix deploys its own content, it spent anywhere between half a billion may have trouble competing with people’s to one billion dollars a year on content. favorite primetime shows given first run etflix’s history has the makings services choose Netflix, which earned on networks, especially when users can of a great movie: humble revenues of $1.1 billion during the third Projections from Q3 last year had Netflix spending $2.1 billion on content in 2013. watch wherever they want. Embattled beginnings, more than one near- quarter of this year. The company now startup Aereo may disrupt business as Ndeath experience, and redemption by way serves more than 40 million people well, as the service will enable people to of a $17 billion-plus market cap redux — across 41 countries. Amazon revealed “millions” subscribed to Prime in its third quarter earnings carry cable TV programming in their everything except an antagonist. pockets. Netflix built its business on Recently Netflix has added to its streaming report, and sources gauge membership at convenience — giving subscribers what Netflix began as a humble DVD-by- success with original content. Shows such upwards of 10 million people. But Prime they want to watch exactly when they mail rental service, and now reigns as as ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Orange is the New doesn’t just offer an instant video service, want it — and may have trouble beating the uncontested king of the streaming Black’ have won the company credibility but also free shipping, meaning not all a company that offers the same, but with industry, accounting for 31.6 percent of and Emmys. Netflix entered the upper Prime members are streaming content. more up-to-date options for screening. downstream traffic on fixed networks, echelon of programming providers. After Hastings sees Amazon as a major hazard according to Sandvine. Once a cut-and- trying its hand at film production with to his business, though his comments about the company seem to indicate Before the company thanks the Academy, dry distributor, the company has recently Red Envelope Entertainment early in it’s in for a fight. Netflix retains an delved into original programming. Since the company’s lifecycle, Netflix recently Prime Instant Video won’t scare him until Amazon spends more on content enormous market advantage, but 1997, web platforms and traditional jumped into Oscar competition with two competitors have begun to establish TV incumbents have taken their time films they acquired, The Short Game and acquisition. ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Orange is footholds. Meanwhile, the potential the New Black’ have won Netflix responding to the company’s disruptive The Square. Movies studios should watch introduction of TV Everywhere and content delivery solutions. Their inertia their backs, as Netflix’s future may rest Meanwhile, well-funded Hulu, owned credibility and Emmys with original by ABC, NBC and Fox, has had less luck other, mobile cable-streaming services content has cost them as Netflix has taken control in bringing silver screen pictures to the may dramatically overhaul the industry. of the market. smaller ones on users’ computers and fighting Netflix, even with a $750 million injection from its backers this summer. From its top spot, Netflix must both smart device. defend and continue to gain ground in an According to Nielsen, almost 40 percent The company recently announced its ever-changing market. of people who use online streaming Up to this point Netflix’s superior user base had grown to 5 million Hulu Plus
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exit. Additionally, the businesses must that they all receive the same slice of the late stage investments collapsing at the demonstrate a clear revenue model with a carried interest (the portion of profits after Nasdaq’s doorsteps. The second fund, driven team. Speaking to Meritech’s past or their investors get paid), which produces Meritech II raised $1 billion and once Meritech present portfolio companies quickly shows a collaborative mindset. “We all share the the partners realized they were punching a pattern. same lack of confidence in things we do not above their weight, they downsized it to know” says Craig Sherman, the only new $720m. Besides, as usual things do not go Meritech partners can afford to sit out and recruit since 1999. He contends that “most as predicted even in the late stage world. take their time deciding whether to back partnerships have two great producers and Some of Meritech’s portfolio companies Blazes ideas, often rejecting proposals until the weaker ones, but not in this case here and did not fare as well as expected, such as timing is right. Tom Burns, CEO of one of that is why I joined after a lot of research Homsetead according to Craig Sherman. Meritech’s portfolio companies, Glaukos, in 2011”. The partners also missed a few good leads. explains that when dealing with Paul One that Madera remembers and regrets Madera and Rob Ward, they told him “No, vividly was Netflix because as he confesses a Trail Paul Madera, founder not now” initially. Burns pursued Meritech candidly he just “did not get it”. of Meritech in 1999, further and was denied again in Series D, Meritech partners currently focuses on until Madera took the plunge in Series E When all is said and done, the returns the SaaS, storage, and then delivered $30 million to lead the can afford to sit out are the only metric in the VC world – in late stage e-commerce, financial Series F. Meritech eventually invested more and take their time and they have been stellar. In football technology, digital money in the glaucoma technology than in parlance, the firm has made the playoffs consumer, and medical any other portfolio company but Facebook deciding whether to every year since 2005 and won kudos for investment device sectors. Today Glaukos is an internationally back ideas, often its consistent choices. Meritech has scored acclaimed life science company on its way a first tier IPO, the largest software, gaming of radically changing its field. rejecting proposals or SaaS acquisition, or the best performing IPO in the tech and health science world he vast world of venture capital invested in and exited Fortinet, Imperva contend they were lured by the attractive Meritech’s disciplined investment mirrors until the timing is right. every year. It has routinely exceeded and hosts a small and select club — and Netezza) while Mike Gordon focused 2 percent management fees. In spite of its internal operation, and the company’s participated in exits surpassing $1 billion. a group of late stage backers and on communications, networking and this competitive landscape, and after its partners borrowed the best pages from financiers invested in mature mobile (which eventually led to Back trials and errors, Meritech has thrived and the old school venture capital manual. Entrepreneurs respect Meritech for its A large number of under the radar Ttechnology companies which are all en- Broadsoft and Good Technology). Paul earned its stripes on the field. They still put time and legwork themselves attitude on good and bad days. During companies such as Yammer, Pop Cap, route to an IPO. These discrete VCs do Madera had a taste for consumer internet into screening and monitoring portfolio the tougher times, a combination of Hybris have fared as well in terms of not aspire to the big buck returns found and enterprise software, no surprise Almost paradoxically, the company companies, enabling better coordination honesty and an unruffled approach to returns as the bigger celebrity companies, in early stage investment, and are happy to then when he supported Salesforce and benefitted from the inauspicious and decision processes and rub elbows problem solving garners appreciation and earned Meritech limited partners and take more modest rewards from solid bets Facebook. All of them had a decade of environment it was born into. The four daily with entrepreneurs at the partners’ from the companies it invests in. Mike investors big pay days. These LPs, as they on mature companies. Among this select tech banking under their belts at Morgan investment partners coat-tailed Accel’s level. There are no junior analysts or young Gustavson, ex-CEO of Blue Arc and now are called in the VC jargon, include well- band of investment brothers is Meritech, Stanley, Montgomery Securities or pristine early stage practice, Riverbed, MBAs, bristling with confidence, reading at Virident, remembers the composure as known pension funds such as 3M and fast becoming an exception that has gained Deutche Bank, evaluating and setting up whose successful IPO took place in 2006 business plans in the hallways. The 2,500 Blue Arc faced competitors’ lawsuits and the State of Delaware, foundations Alfert command of the landscape it operates in. start ups financings. They also had a secret and preceded security companies like square feet office nestled in the heart of Palo recapitalization efforts on its way to its Dupont and Kauffmann and internationals, weapon, the unyielding support from Imperva or Fortinet. Although celebrity- Alto is far from flashy. Located two blocks public offering. Burns praises Meritech’s including Alcatel and Eurazeo. They have During the dot-com bubble, the late stage Accel Partners leaders, Jim Swartz, Art level firms shone under brighter spotlights, away from Accel, the firm which now has partners for their even keel demeanor, no complaint, having forked out another investment world was severely hit. Its Patterson and Jim Breyer, who gave them less conspicuous companies have returned just over $2 billion under management, the which he believes is anchored in their past. $425 million in Meritech V in 2011, half of participants catered to pre-IPO companies an early boost by putting their own money more money due to three major factors: building boasts no impressive art deco or It’s a viewpoint echoed by Madera himself, it already earmarked. which faltered and collapsed at the Nasdaq in the fund. Unaware of the industry’s a rigorous investment philosophy, an old modern paintings on the walls. referring to his past as a pilot. “Having had gates. Some resounding failures ensued, upcoming debacle, the trio started with a school internal structure and a strong massive amounts of adrenaline pumping Meritech’s partners know that they current such as Bowman Capital, which at its peak bang and raised a whooping first time fund culture. The third factor of Meritech’s success through my body on very complex missions cycle will bring its own challenge. As the could do no wrong and folded almost of $1.1 billion, a record for a team without “cannot be quantified,” according to as well as crossing the ocean multiple times money flies around, valuations are sky- overnight. With an uncanny sense of prior track record, and a reflection of the Meritech’s investment philosophy has Jonathan Ord, Dealer Socket”s CEO and and having only myself to rely on for 12 rocketing and each potential deal attracts timing, in the months leading to the peak mood of the time. remained the same since its inception. one of the firm’s oldest investments. “It’s hours, you become mentally tough and higher bidders. Despite this, there is great of the bubble, three former technology It finances promising ventures which about the intangible. Just sit down and disciplined,” he says. promise in their portfolio, such as Tegile, investment bankers decide to join force To add to the pressure, traditional early have achieved a certain level of lunch with Paul Madera and you can tell Glaukos and a myriad of others. But the and start their own shop. stage players such as Battery, Matrix, commercialization or a minimum the difference,” Ord adds. In fact, all of the The company certainly needed that road remains uncertain, asserts Madera. and Kleiner Perkins entered the fray and trailing revenue threshold of $10 million. five partners at the Palo Alto firm stand composure during its first few years. “We are just riding along, the hard work is Meritech’s founders come with solid created their own Series D and growth Secondly, candidates must be on their out from a crowd. One of them piloted bus Its first fund, Meritech I, fumbled like made by the entrepreneurs”, he concludes. credentials. Rob Ward brought security practices. This was supposedly to cater way to an IPO, and committed long term planes for the Air Force, and Madera flew most of those launched in 1999, and Unflappable, as always. and software industry expertise (he later to their portfolios, although critics — meaning they aren’t looking for a quick fighter pilot jets. The partnership dictates barely returned the money, crippled by
238 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 239 Feature Story Feature Story
Was Snapchat right to reject Facebook’s $3 billion? Is Amazon’s drone plan all for show Almost certainly not
hen you send a than $3 billion, despite making zero to introduce advertising, and the second is Snapchat message revenue. These are all signs of a possible to sell virtual goods. But neither of these bubble, but there also needs to be needle- are groundbreaking, nor do they carry the user on the other like events that can pop that bubble. One anything approaching a guarantee of Wend has a limited period of time possibility is the cut back of quantitative success. Advertising has the potential to to read it, before it disappears easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve in the drive users away, and while selling virtual ? forever. Investors in the near future. Interest rates are currently goods has seen success in the past, its close to zero as the Fed pumps money into company may be able to relate success in the games industry has been the economy, but if this stopped, money patchy at best. — as the startup’s decision to would prove less easy to get hold of. Paul reject a $3 billion takeover bid Denninger, senior managing director at Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel told a recent Late last year Amazon announced plans During Bezos’ appearance on 60 Minutes, he appeared keen to Evercore Partners, told the Red Herring show just how important innovation remains to the company. from Facebook may have wiped Goldman Sachs event in Las Vegas that to take to the skies with a fleet of delivery Global conference last year that those users are sending 400 million ‘snaps’ every “We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark out the temporary chance of a seeking investment should hope the Fed drones, which would send customers’ orders alleys and see what’s on the other side,” he said. The drone day, and almost half of them had tried the hugely profitable exit. doesn’t pull back it’s stimulation of the U.S. directly to them within 30 minutes of an order announcement almost seemed like a publicity stunt, by a man new ‘stories’ feature, which allows users to economy, or they may find it more difficult being placed. The idea seems impractical, not known for courting media attention previously. The motive combine messages to form a narrative. The As technology investment flourishes, the to find companies willing to inject cash for Bezos’ out-of-character actions is unclear. company does not disclose its number of potentially dangerous and extremely unlikely, threat of an impending downturn means into their companies. but the retail giant could benefit from a the company may never see another users. perceived emphasis on innovation. Amazon’s third quarter earnings from report from 2013 offer such as this one again. Meanwhile, Noted investors also expressed concern revealed a company making progress towards profit, but not The messaging application market is Snapchat is still not making money, that market conditions are starting to look yet achieving it. The e-commerce giant recorded a loss of $41 crowded, and dominated by the likes mazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the drone delivery something it will need to remedy if it is bubble-like. “I just worry a little bit that we million, or 9 cents per share, over the three months up to the project on CBS’ 60 Minutes and attracted wide media to attract a higher valuation in the future. are edging back to the ‘eyeball-and-click’ of WhatsApp, which was subsequently A end of September — a big increase from last year, when the attention. He revealed it was still very much in the development Ultimately, the sheer size of the offer thing we had just before the year 2000,” bought by Facebook, WeChat and Viber. company lost $274 million over the same period. Revenue phase, and didn’t expect it to go into operation for a number of makes Snapchat’s rejection difficult to Art Cashin, Managing Director of UBS But the ‘secret’ messaging app market is increased 24% in the third quarter to $17.09 billion, compared years. understand. Financial Services told CNBC. “It’s not also becoming more popular. Facebook did with $13.81 billion a year ago. quite frothy yet, but it won’t take that much make a play in this space, but it’s offering,
Drones will be able to deliver packages weighing up to 5 pounds, Technology startups are enjoying an stirring to get there. Poke, failed to take off in any meaningful Delivery is one of the largest expenses Amazon incurs, and the which covers 86 percent of all items the company handles, increasing amount of funding pouring way. There are more serious competitors company has invested heavily in new high-tech warehouses this according to Bezos. The devices, currently being tested, have into the sector. Deals worth tens of For Snapchat a crash is potentially lethal out there, such as Wire, set up by two ex year. Fulfillment costs, which covers distribution, increased to eight helicopter rotors, stand on four legs, and can cover a 10 millions of dollars are being announced in timing. The exact reasons behind the $2.034 billion in the third quarter of 2013, up from $1.51 billion Amazon employees, and Wickr, which mile radius from the delivery center they start out from. every day and multi-billion dollar exits are messaging service’s decision to reject in the same period in 2012. In the past, the company has sought offers an encrypted messaging services. becoming more common. But this uptick Facebook’s $3 billion are yet to emerge, but new ways to make these distribution centers more efficient, But the idea has almost too many flaws to list. The notion of brings a large helping of skepticism with it seems the company is holding out for a as boosting performance could trim costs and increase thin Given current trends, any startup may hundreds of drones flying around a city would cause major it, as well as suspicion for the future. At valuation nearer $6 billion further down margins. The Amazon drone delivery fleet clearly represents think twice about making a profit before security concerns for the Federal Aviation Administration the recent Red Herring Global event in the line. the more ambitious side of this effort. exiting. It seems those with no revenues (FAA), which already has stringent rules on small flying Santa Monica, investors advised startups are making all the money, and in a way to take the money now, rather than later, But a bubble is not a forgone conclusion. vehicles. The devices could even pose a terror threat, should it makes sense. If a company attempts someone deliver explosives via the same medium. Amazon’s fullfillment center as a decline could be lurking just around There are some key differences between to make money and fails, its value will the corner. the market now and in 1999. One is decrease dramatically compared to an idea Despite this, the announcement of project will work in the the number of IPOs – there were 308 with a great deal of potential and nothing favor of Amazon, according to analysts. “To be in the news There is genuine, and justified, concern in 1999, compared to 28 so far this year, and be seen as innovative, especially when you are technology- that the market is heading for a crash. although the values of IPOs this year were else. But for this strategy to work, the centric like they are, is probably good for the brand, so I don’t In October, Dow Jones revealed that significantly larger. company must exit at the right time, and see any downside to this,” says Rob Enderle, principal analyst at valuations of U.S. based venture capital for Snapchat, surely this was that time. the Enderle Group. “The only downside to this would be if they companies reached pre-bubble levels, For many, the key question is — how will For the market, it’s a worrying sign that actually rolled this thing out and we have drones either running and were up by more than three times Snapchat make money? The company is companies are turning down $3 billion into airplanes, colliding with cars and windows, which would in less than four years. The value of the not making a profit at this point and the pre-revenue as it suggest bubble-like be likely, and falling out of the sky. That would do tremendous technology IPO market has surged, and road to revenue generation is unclear. conditions, but for Snapchat it’s not just brand damage.” the likes of Snapchat are valued at more There are two major options open – one is worrying – it’s almost certainly foolish.
240 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 241 Feature Story Feature Story
European firms look to Israeli model n the first day of trading in 2014 Samsung shares Samsung dropped 4.59%, wiping nearly $9 billion off the company’s market value. One of the chief causes for suffers Oconcern for investors was the ever-growing market of budget for U.S. success smartphone devices, and the impact it could have on prices. drop Samsung reported its slowest profit growth since 2011 for the or many years Israeli companies can spot the trends of innovation, that’s as great companies held back by the fourth quarter of 2013. The company’s performance in mobile have moved to Silicon Valley in where the market is and it is also where the investment ecosystem in Europe, or as remained flat from the previous year. If cheaper phones continue their infancy. They benefit from partnerships are. And candidly, that’s also marks ready to squeeze money out of. Alex as budget to prove popular, the firm may have to decide between keeping the vast opportunities the U.S. where the exits may be,” says Scality CEO Fries, president of Ecosystem Ventures, its gigantic market share, and slicing its profits margins. Fmarket has to offer and leave their research and founder Jerome Lecat. a Silicon Valley-based venture capital smartphones and development departments back in company, says 90 percent of the time the Newer, cheaper offerings are starting to push down the price Israel, where wages are lower and talent Moving to the U.S. is not easy, especially main reason European startups move to the of devices. Google’s Motorola division recently unveiled the is in abundance. But in a twist on an old for a young company. One of the biggest U.S. is to search for capital. Companies in disrupt Moto-G, as it looked to target less affluent consumers with a trend, European companies are now difficulties: hiring the best talent. Silicon Europe grow more organically, and slowly, very capable, cheaper smartphone. And this week Google cut starting to follow a similar pattern. Valley’s finest are unlikely to choose to due to difficulties finding an investor. market the price of its flagship device, the Moto-X, from $550 to $350. work for a European company unknown to The Moto-X, is in direct competition with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 One such company is Scality, a French firm them over a big name or a small business But when the European companies get device, which is sold for $600 without a contract. that provides software-only solutions to with proven backing. Other challenges here, they are in a vulnerable position. handle exponential data growth. The firm include logistical ones, as the U.S. side “There are a lot of so-called sharks, a lot Budget smartphones are extremely popular in China, and there was founded in 2009 and made a decision of the business starts work just as the of consultants and service providers that has been much disruption in that region. Apple recently signed early on to move to the U.S. Scality’s vision Europeans go home. This has the potential take advantage as soon as they smell some a deal with China Mobile to sell iPhones in China, an agreement was to structure the company with a to create a rift, effectively creating two money they can get out of these European which will reportedly add up to $3 billion in added revenue this global headquarters in Silicon Valley and a different companies. startups,” says Fries. “It can be very costly year. But it is the budget market that is really heating up. European headquarters in Paris. for them to find the right investor or Chinese low-cost smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi announced Scality’s solution to the recruitment partner.” France boasts a healthy education system problem was to move Lecat out to the U.S. plans to double sales of its devices in 2014. Xiaomi reportedly and its universities produce talented IT Immediately. This allowed the firm time The economy in Europe is still struggling sold 18.7m devices in 2013, an increase of 160% from the engineers. Scality takes advantage of to find the best recruits and avoided a to recover from the crisis which caused previous year. The company projected it would sell 40 million this by hiring company engineers and scenario in which average employees were chaos across the continent for a number devices this year. developers in France, while recruiting a hired in the early days. Another answer is of years. Meanwhile, startups in the U.S. Xiaomi brings a new business model to the smartphone market. sales force in the U.S. to take advantage of to secure funding from a U.S. investor as raise an astonishing amount of money. It’s Hugo Barra, who joined Xiamoi from Google’s Android team, the market there. soon as possible. no wonder that really ambitious European said last year that the firm is happy to sell its phones at cost, and companies move to the U.S. in order to find then make its money from the services it provides. The firm’s By operating out of Silicon Valley, Scality Lecat moved to the U.S. at the Series A funding, get closer to their customers and main offering, the Mi3 smartphone, is available for around $330 can reach 40 percent of its market in just investment stage of the company. The firm prosper in a better economic environment. and the company reported the first 100,000 were sold out in one country. Although a French company, recently received $22 million Series C in a It may not be long before the business plan 90 seconds when it was released in October. The company only Scality earns 50 percent of its revenue from round led by Menlo Ventures. It was the used so effectively by the likes of Scality is operates in China, Taiwan and Singapore currently, but the the U.S. But it is not just sales numbers that first time the California-based investor put as common as the Israeli model which has appointment of Barra strongly suggests the firm will go global attract companies to head to the U.S. money into a French company. worked so well in Silicon Valley. soon. “If you want to be a worldwide success, U.S. investors see these European that’s where the action is. That’s where you companies in one of two ways – either Another Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei, unveiled its ‘Honor’ series of phones in December, which also target the budget market in China. The most powerful of the two phones announced, the 3X, will be sold for around $280 without a contract.
The budget market in China will become even more competitive as more devices are launched and costs drop lower. And this boom in cheap smartphones is likely to be replicated all over the world. The most pertinent question now is – will the likes of Samsung and Apple adjust accordingly?
242 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 243 Feature Story Feature Story
VeriSilicon property accounts for 20% of the company’s its leadership despite ups and downs. As company’s website, far lower than the 50 revenues, a growing percentage since 2010. part of the Series A funding terms about chips designed by VeriSilicon. 10 years ago, Koh required Dai to give up What makes a But in an industry where Dai claims there his professorship at the University of Santa VeriSilicon has a substantial geographical is “not enough innovation,” it is difficult Cruz to put all of his focus into VeriSilicon, reach; while all of its manufacturing for one company to distance itself from the a challenge that Dai took in his stride. operations and over half of its engineers smartphone so smart? pack. Global players like San Jose-based “I learned that he’s dedicated, he’s very are based in mainland China, 70% of eSilicon and Open-Silicon, headquartered passionate, he’s always thinking about new its revenues is earned from customers phone can boast a great camera, high in Milpitas, California, secure their share things,” Koh says. And as long as Dai’s spanning the USA, Europe, Taiwan, and Aresolution screen and a revolutionary of the market. ESilicon is an ever-present entrepreneurial spirit remains strong, Koh Japan. Its commitment to global growth operating system, but if the hardware can’t in the South Asia region, while Open- believes in the company and will walk the and innovation is unquestioned with support the software, then the phone, Silicon’s footprint in India is second to journey alongside him. uncharacteristic research and development despite its sleek aesthetics, is just a physical none. Dai understands that he will likely centers in Sofia Antipolis (France), Japan, object that lacks functionality. Underneath not monopolize the industry, accepting and San Jose. Verisilicon’ sales growth has the hood of the latest high end devices, like that competition fuels the innovative By leasing its IP and collecting been 40% since 2010, and Dai asserts that the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, lies process. “We cannot be the only guy,” he royalties, VeriSilicon adds an the company will grow another 35% in a design chip that bridges the hardware says. “I wish the other [companies] well.” additional dimension to its the next three years thanks to market tail and software to optimize the device’s business and supplements winds blowing in its favor. performance. VeriSilicon, a semiconductor Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman of Walden its revenue model with higher International and a veteran of The consumer marketing and electronics company dually headquartered in margins. Shanghai, China and Silicon Valley, stands semiconductor investments, says it is not craze is spreading like wildfire. Global and on the front lines of this booming market. easy for design service companies, such local brands including Google, Amazon, as VeriSilicon, to scale and develop high Dai, a UC Berkeley alum, is not oblivious to Alibaba, and Baidu competing on every The worldwide smart connected device margins. “Design service is different from this market volatility and is making strides level with the dominant incumbents market, comprising of PCs, tablets and the design companies. Design companies towards scalability. VeriSilicon enables like Apple, Samsung, and Sony. With smartphones grew 27.8% year over year like Broadcom have their own product, “repeatability, scalability, and a high barrier electronic devices set to be churned out in 2013, according to a recent report from Shanghai by the visionary Wayne Dai, “Right now, fabless does not suffice, since they can sell, scale, predict. Design service to entry” through its IP platform. Using the in the next year faster than bread and market intelligence company IDC. IDC also has positioned itself in a unique category, IP costs rise so much, hence the next wave companies like VeriSilicon [design] for VeriSilicon platform, multiple, specialized, butter, VeriSilicon is sitting on a veritable predicts that shipments of smart devices attempting to utilize its ‘design lite’ model. is design lite,” says the bespectacled Dai. somebody else. It’s very hard to predict high quality chips can be produced or re- goldmine: “those are the people that know will exceed two billion units by 2015. With Twenty years ago, wafer foundries such because they don’t own their own product, produced without starting from scratch, the software business but not the hardware notable industry leaders placing stakes in Dai, serial entrepreneur and CEO of as TSMC created the fabless chip industry and therefore they depend on customers allowing for the diversification that business,” Dai claims. “They need the dynamic hardware market — Google VeriSilicon, acknowledges that his $100 through manufacture outsourcing, a and when they give you a contract. is essential to the company’s business hardware silicon strategies.” His sentiment phones, Amazon’s Kindle, and Microsoft’s million per year company has adopted wave led by companies like Qualcomm, [They provide] a derivative product.” model. While most of VeriSilicon’s client is echoed by his long-time friend, Lip-Bu XBox One being quintessential examples an unorthodox position in the market. Broadcom, and Marvell. Now, design With VeriSilicon’s derivative designs list is undisclosed, its known customers Tan: “[VeriSilicon] is quite strong on the — the demand for semiconductor designs “We stand between large semiconductor foundries like VeriSilicon enable the reliant on contracts and the cyclicality of include IBM, Marvell, and Samsung on system side,” he says. “[The] system side and updates is set to rapidly expand. companies, and fabless,” he says. VeriSilicon design-lite chip industry through design its customer’s products, client turnover the traditional semiconductor side, and is better, [and] their margin will be better. discards the “one size fits all” mantra outsourcing with a turnkey service. In remains high, says Tan. companies like Microsoft and Sharp on [Growth] would also be more predictable, Traditionally, semiconductor companies in favor of tailored custom silicon chip other words, VeriSilicon’s design foundry the electronic hardware side. Using his rather than depending on the [traditional] fit into one of three categories: the direct solutions. The company produces systems- model strives to both tailor each chip The market for specific chips can be repeatable platform, Dai hopes that he semiconductor customers.” manufacturers of chips (those who could on-chip (SoC) solutions that combine all from scratch and build a sophisticated IP unpredictable, which makes it difficult has created a customer “stickiness” that endure the $5 billion capital expenditure components of an electronic system onto platform from which production can be for those in the industry to scale. Multiple ensures his A-list of clients will continue to While the company has not yet disclosed its to open a production plant), the fabless a functioning chip. Such solutions fill a flexible and cost efficient, while the quality companies have seen their efforts come to return, while the company simultaneously future plans, Dai hints that an IPO might companies that design chips, and the void for systems companies that engineer of the end product remains high. Since fruition, but it is hard to scale past the $100 forays into the health sector and other be coming as early as this year. Consumers foundries that handle outsourcing projects an initial design but outsource later stage 2008, the Shanghai and Silicon Valley team million valuation point to $500 million or domains to expand its market footprint. worldwide are creating the demand for the from the latter two. The foundries, often upgrades and developments. As the result have delivered 50 chip designs per year and $1 billion, because semiconductors cater electronic hardware devices and fueling a Taiwanese or Chinese, eventually turned of SoC, the core competence of chip are able to produce 20 chips concurrently to a derivative market, according to Tan. Dai is confident that even in economic market opportunity that VeriSilicon can into the mammoth public companies such companies ‘move up’ so they can outsource in Shanghai for first-tier customers. Without their own tools and IP, there is a slumps, VeriSilicon’s diversification will exploit. It is likely that many of the new as TSMC and SMIC. According to an IBS design implementation and reduce high fortified ceiling on the growth potential of lead to exponential growth. “In downturns, smartphone, PC, and tablet purchases report, R&D expenditures as a percentage R&D costs. On the other hand, the system By leasing its IP and collecting royalties, these companies. companies tend to download their chip made in 2014 will bear VeriSilicon’s mark. of revenue from a semiconductor are companies ‘move down’ to own a chip for VeriSilicon adds an additional dimension design strategy to companies like ours and higher than that of pharmaceutical and differentiation and customization. Both to its business and supplements its revenue But Soo Boon Koh, founder of iGlobe we can even acquire IP during those times,” biotechnology companies; in fact, they are system companies and chip companies model with higher margins. This dual Partners and long-time investor in says Dai. Competitor eSilicon produces the highest among all industries, exceeding work with VeriSilicon to deliver their model differentiates VeriSilicon from its VeriSilicon, believes in the company and 20 chip designs per year, according to the 17% in 2013. VeriSilicon, launched in custom silicon solutions effectively. competitors. Dai disclosed that intellectual
244 RED HERRING | SPECIAL EDITION 2014 www.REDHERRING.com 245 Scality–Industry Leading Petabyte Scale Object Storage
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