SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

Bi-monthly Highlights

Global Trends

• Majority Of Mobile Apps In Don’t Retain Users For More Than A Week China may be the world’s largest app market when it comes to downloads, but new data indicates that those download numbers aren’t translating into loyal users who return to apps on regular basis. According to a report from eMarketer, citing data from Alibaba-owned analytics platform Umeng, the majority of mobile applications launched in China struggle to retain users. In fact, most apps don’t engage users for more than a week, the research indicates. The Umeng report, which was based on data from the apps tracked on its platform – the firm tracks 780 million smart devices in China, it says – found that no category of mobile application has retained even a quarter of its users after the first week. The best-performing apps get close to that number, however. Educational and learning apps retain 23.6 percent of their users over the first week, and finance and wealth management apps do roughly as well, with a 23.5 percent retention rate. Health apps, navigation/GPS apps, and lifestyle are next in line, retaining at least one in five users one week after they launch.

• Email personalization is the antidote to declining click rates, and the key to high returns Email is still the leader in marketing return on investment, and the preferred channel for customers, too. But not everything in the world of email marketing is looking up, according to a new study authored by VB Insight’s Andrew Jones. The report shows that email is seeing a decline in click rates, largely because people have less time and less patience. Irrelevant content is being punished in the most terminal way — via the dreaded unsubscribe link. The increase in relevance gained from email personalization reduces the rate of unsubscribes. In a survey of 257 email marketers, a large majority reported an increase in open rates and click-through rates (CTR) by employing email personalization of some kind. And those tactics included the most basic types of personalization. Experian Marketing Services has found that subscribers who receive its personalized content have not only higher opens and CTR, but a 6x increase in transactions.

• Facebook Messenger and Snapchat declined in popularity among college kids this year Though Facebook and Instagram still reign supreme among apps, it looks like Messenger is losing steam with younger users. A new poll from WayUp queried 1,000 college students around the country about their favorite apps and found some fairly expected results. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat remain students’ go-to entertainment apps. According to this study, the majority of apps that students use revolve around social media. Among smaller brands, students cited Pinterest and Spotify as must-haves. While a number of apps saw a drop-off in mentions at the beginning of the school year, two apps have continued to maintain student interest. Two photo-sharing apps, VSCO Cam and Instagram, grew consistently over the year. What was surprising about the study was the top three apps in decline. WayUp found that Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Venmo were mentioned less and less frequently over the course of the year. WayUp says it’s possible that students were initially intrigued by the novelty of Messenger after its split from Facebook, but that its charm could be wearing off, since it hasn’t introduced new features in a while. Its recent partnership with Uber could possibly reverse that trend.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, , and Seoul. 1 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

Asia Pacific China • UploadVR raises US$1.25M in funding from China’s Shanda Group A year ago, UploadVR was formed as one of many meetups for developers interested in virtual reality. The company has raised US$1.25 million in seed funding from China’s Shanda Group. After Facebook bought Oculus VR for US$2 billion in the spring of 2014, the rage around VR grew. Taylor Freeman and Will Mason started their meetup to build a community around virtual reality enthusiasts in Silicon Valley. The company also started its own web site for VR news, and that is what drew the attention of investors. Shanda Group is a private investment firm owned by Tianqiao Chen, a game industry veteran. It has invested in other VR and augmented reality (AR) startups, including Solfar Studios, an Icelandic VR game developer. Shanda Group has US$5 billion in , and it is focused on the virtual future. “With the investment, UploadVR will retain full control over the content on the site and will continue to operate with a high standard for editorial ethics,” Mason wrote.

• Ambi Climate is gunning for US$2 million to become the ‘Nest of Asia’ In mid-November of last year, -based startup Ambi Climate raised US$115,000 on Kickstarter (off a goal of US$25,000), to build a “smart add-on for your air conditioner,” complete with an iOS and Android app that acts as a monitoring and control hub. The US$179 Ambi Climate unit is a small, plastic, white rectangular device that doesn’t feel especially premium, but is good enough for a first generation product. While not currently incubated at any accelerator, founder Julian Lee said the team enjoys a “good relationship” with Hong Kong-based hardware accelerator Brinc, whose PMQ (Central) location is just up the road from Ambi Climate’s office in Sheung Wan. Going into 2016, Ambi Climate is looking to raise US$2 million.

• Team behind Chinaccelerator launches mobile-only accelerator in Taiwan aimed at ‘next four billion’ SOSV, the firm behind Chinaccelerator, announced Mox, a new accelerator program based in Taipei and designed for startups aiming to develop a presence in South and Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The accelerator is targeting the “next four billion” – that is, the current portion of the world’s population who are still largely offline. Startups accepted to the program are required to have mobile-only businesses. All companies admitted to Mox will receive an initial US$500,000 in free advertising promotion, and will have access to monetization methods in target countries. In exchange, Mox’s standard requirement will be 6 percent of in each startup. The eight-week accelerator will begin its first batch on January 4, with its first planned demo day on March 3. The inaugural program will launch with eight companies.

• Freemium is not the only way: VMFive gets US$6m series A to turn ads into playable demos The angle taken by VMFive is to create a system whereby app developers can offer people a way to try out an app or game without having to download anything. Essentially, it’s an ad that you can play. “The playable ad is the future of mobile ads,” says Jessie Wu, director of marketing at VMFive. The Taiwan-based startup last week revealed a series A funding round worth US$6 million. The investment comes from CDIB Partners, Trend Micro, GMobi, and Cherubic Ventures. For now, VMFive, boosted by its series A funding, is looking to expand to new markets. “AdPlay is targeting markets with a mature mobile gaming and advertising industry, and good wireless internet infrastructure as well,” says Jessie, explaining why VMFive is now focusing on Japan and South Korea. “Both of the countries ranks top five on Google Play’s game revenues list.” China is next.

• Alibaba to pump US$1.25 billion in Chinese online food delivery service ele.me Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has agreed to invest US$1.25 billion in Chinese online food delivery service ele.me. The agreement, reportedly inked on 17 December, will see Alibaba become the majority stakeholder with 27.7 per cent of shares. It is expected to be competed after the Spring Festival in China in February 2016. This latest round of funding comes after Ele.me, which roughly translates as “Hungry now?”, raised US$630 million in August this year. Its valuation is estimated at US$4.5 billion now. With Tencent Holdings also an investor, Ele.me now has two members of the pyramid of power collectively known as “BAT”, which also includes Baidu

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 2 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

and Alibaba, backing it. The trio have been actively making power plays in the China’s internet business landscape this year.

Korea • Korea’s Yello Mobile Raises US$47M More at A US$4B Valuation Led by Formation 8 Korea’s Yello Mobile has made a name for itself raising US$100 million and using it to hoover up more than 80 startups to build its mobile apps business, which now serves 18 million users. Now, Yello Mobile is raising again: it has racked up another US$47.2 million in financing, led by existing investor Formation 8. The funding comes as convertible debt at a US$4 billion valuation. To date, the company has raised just under US$210 million. “We are proud of the progress we have made establishing Yello Mobile as the clear mobile leader across the SMATO verticals,” said Lee Sang-hyuk, founder and CEO of Yello Mobile. (‘SMATO’ is a reference to ‘Shopping, Media, AdTech, Travel, and Offline-to-online’) “Our two leading apps, Coocha and Pikicast, continue to see strong user growth and increasing monetization, and we look forward to using this new capital to drive continued growth in those.” The valuation makes Yello one of Korea’s most valuable startups — but not the most valuable of all. That title remains with Coupang, the US$5 billion e-commerce marketplace backed by the likes of SoftBank and Sequoia.

• Goldman Sachs invests US$33M in real estate app operator Goldman Sachs said that a consortium of investors led by the U.S. investment bank will invest 38 billion won (US$33 million) in local real estate app operator Zigbang, seeking to expand its presence in the fast-growing e- commerce business. Zigbang is Goldman Sachs' second investment in a Korean online service provider. In November 2014, the bank led a 40 billion won (US$34 million) investment in Woowa Brothers, operator of food delivery service app Baedal Minjok. Zigbang welcomed the investment, saying the company will use it for the development and expansion of its nationwide services. Launched in January 2012, the company connects real estate agents and renters in the country through its mobile app. As of October, the app has accumulated more than 10 million downloads, posting over 2.5 million rental unit listings.

• Buzzvil Attracts US$11.05M Investment in Series B Buzzvil, a Korean smartphone lock screen advertising platform company, announced that it has attracted investment worth 13 billion won (US$11.05 million). The investment was jointly made by five investment companies, including LB Investment, KTB Network and POSCO Capital. Also, it is the first investment two years after the company received 4 billion won (US$3.4 million) from Softbank Ventures in December 2013. With the latest investment, Buzzvil plans to horizontally expand its lock screen platform business, which has hit its stride. After launching its first lock screen advertising app service, HoneyScreen, in January 2013, the company currently has 6 million users in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Later, Buzzvil released the Buzzscreen SDK, which activates the lock screen function in existing apps with simple insertion in May, starting the lock screen platform business in earnest.

Japan • Japanese megapublisher Colopl announces US$50M fund for virtual reality gaming While traditional gaming powers in Japan are nearly all focused on mobile, one of the country’s biggest publishers is looking toward a virtual future. Colopl, which produces dozens of hit mobile games for iOS and Android, announced that it is starting a US$50 million fund that it will use to help upstart developers working in virtual reality. The publisher made the announcement on its Japanese website, where it explains that it is searching for partnerships with VR studios. The company also said that it will use its expertise to guide studios that it invests in. Tech advisor Digi-Capital has previously predicted that the VR and augmented reality markets will potentially generate as much as US$150 billion in revenue by 2020, and Colopl specifically cited that report as one of the reasons it is chasing after this exciting technology.

• Fresvii raises US$4M for AppSteroid social network with mobile voice chat Fresvii has raised US$4 million from Japan’s Nissay Capital to expand AppSteroid, its mobile gaming social networking service. The funding shows the huge demand for bring social to mobile games, which have become a US$30 billion industry worldwide. Fresvii’s cloud-based AppSteroid platform is integrated in the Q

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 3 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

Universe game, which has been a big success in Japan was hugely successful in Japan and just launched in the U.S. last week. Q Universe is now the the No. 2 puzzle game in the Google Play store. Fresvii’s clients include Japanese game developer Liica, which has integrated AppSteroid into Q Universe. In Japan, that title was downloaded 8 million times in six months. Fresvii said it will use the money to expand its team of engineers, paying off convertible debt, and designing new tools to supplement its existing suite of social offerings.

• Whomor, Japan’s Crowdsourced Comic Studio, Raises US$1.6M from Digital Garage Tokyo-based Whomor, the Japanese company offering a crowdsourcing platform focused on illustrations and 3D computer graphics, unveiled that it has fundraised 200 million yen (about US$1.6 million) from DG Incubation and DK Gate. DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet giant Digital Garage while DK Gate is a joint venture company of Digital Garage and Kodansha, a Japanese leading publishing company. In addition to receiving outsourced comic productions, they have been developing original comic series based on their intellectual property as well as monetizing new comic media. In partnership with Kodansha Advanced Media, DK Gate is dealing with digital distribution and global expansion of Japanese books and comic publications. Through the partnership with DK Gate upon latest funding, Whomor is expected to accelerate the global expansion efforts of their original content.

• Japan’s Dentsu Ventures invests in health tracking lab-in-a-box developer Cue Dentsu Ventures, the corporate venture capital of Japanese ad agency Dentsu, announced that it has invested an undisclosed sum in San Diego-based Cue, the startup developing a health tracking device under the same name. Financial details have not been disclosed. For Dentsu Ventures, this is the fifth investment in a startup followed by Jibo (communication robot), Agolo (curated content generation), Nextbit (cloud-based smartphone), Sensai (big data analysis), and others. Cue has developed a health tracking platform consisting of a lab-in-a-box device, five kinds of cartridges, and sampling sticks. Cue fundraised US$1 million in a seed round, followed by securing US$7.5 million in a series A round led by by Sherpa Ventures with participation from life science-focused fund Immortalana. Immortalna also invested in Cue in an angel funding round.

• Yahoo Japan Bids to Buy Travel Booking Site Ikyu for Around US$830M Yahoo Japan, the joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo, has launched a bid to buy Ikyu, a popular online travel and restaurant reservation platform in Japan, for around US$830 million. Yahoo Japan is offering to pay 3,433 JPY (US$28.36) per share for Ikyu, which is listed on the Japanese stock exchange. That represents a 42 percent premium on Ikyu’s most recent share price, and it means Yahoo Japan could pay just over 100 billion JPY for the transaction. (That adjusts to around US$829 million based on current exchange rates.) Ikyu was founded in 1998 and it began offering online bookings for hotels and Japanese-style ‘Ryokan’ inns two years later. It branched out into restaurant bookings in 2006 and, today, it claims 4.13 million customers and also has a ‘no frills’ hotel offering for business users, spa bookings, and an overseas hotel booking platform.

India • PepperTap closes Series B funding round with US$40 million PepperTap said it received US$4 million from InnoVen Capital as part of a series B funding round which it now closed after raising US$40 million (Rs 265 crore). The Gurgaon-based on-demand hyperlocal grocery delivery firm had earlier received US$36 million in this round from investors including SnapDeal, Sequoia , SAIF Partners, Ru-Net, Beenext and JAFCO Asia. With this, PepperTap has so far raised about US$51.2 million. Peppertap said it has taken over Bengaluru-based hyperlocal grocery delivery startup Jiffstore for an undisclosed amount. Jiffstore's team will join PepperTap's Gurgaon and Bengaluru offices. PepperTap has also entered into marketing tie-ups with other startups to collaborate on cross-marketing activities to offer attractive gifts for the users.

• Amazon Leads US$23M Investment in India-Based Home Services Startup Housejoy Amazon has led a US$23 million investment in India-based Housejoy, a startup that — as the name not-so- subtly suggests — is much like Homejoy, the home services on-demand company that closed its doors this summer. The U.S. e-commerce giant was joined in the Series A round by existing investor Matrix Partners,

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 4 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

and new backers Vertex Ventures, Qualcomm and Ru-Net Technology Partners. Unlike U.S.-based Homejoy — which had raised nearly US$40 million and was the most visible player in an emerging category — Housejoy offers more than just home cleaning services. It caters to plumbing, electrical/appliance repairs, beauty, fitness, laundry and pest control and more. The startup is less than a year old, it previously raised US$4 million, and is currently available in 11 cities across India. With this new funding, CEO Saran Chatterjee said that it plans to expand to cover 25 cities by the end of next year. Beyond its expansion, Housejoy plans to use the money to ramp its quality assurance protocols which evaluate and assess the ‘service providers’ who work for the company.

• Rivigo, An Indian Logistics Startup That Uses Tech to Ensure Driver Safety, Raises US$30M Series B Rivigo, an Indian startup that wants to build a more reliable and safer logistics network, has raised a US$30 million Series B led by SAIF Partners. The funding, which includes equity and debt financing, will go toward improving Rivigo’s proprietary hardware platform, which it uses to reduce driver fatigue, find the best traffic routes, and monitor the performance of its trucks. Launched in 2014, Rivigo (which was previously called TrucksFirst) claims that it can lower transit times for deliveries by 50 to 70 percent. Founder Deepak Garg said that the company’s goal is to make sure that long-haul road shipping is just as quickly and reliably as shipments by plane. Companies like Rivigo are staking their prospects on the growth of India’s manufacturing, e-commerce, and retail industries, which expected to boost India’s logistics market at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.17 percent to US$302 billion by 2020, according to Research and Markets.

• India’s Shuttl Raises US$20M to Accelerate Its Smart Shuttle Bus Service India’s transportation app future isn’t just about Uber and billion-dollar homegrown rival Ola. That’s because Shuttl, an eight-month-old startup that provides air-conditioned minibuses, just raised US$20 million from Lightspeed, Sequoia and Uber-investor Times Internet to develop its technology and expand its service. Founded by IIT Delhi alumni Amit Singh & IIT Kanpur alum Deepanshu Malviya, the service lets commuters find a route, buy their ticket and take a bus via its iOS, Android and Windows Phone apps. Shuttl is currently active in Delhi, where it offers 50 routes and 500 buses, and handles 15,000 rides per day across the metropolitan area. The company said its prices range from around 20-100 INR, or roughly US$0.30 to US$1.50. To date, it says it has completed 800,000 customer rides. • Ecommerce aggregator iPrice gets US$1.2M funding boost to focus on mobile Malaysia-based iPrice, which aggregates a multitude of ecommerce sites in Southeast Asia into a single shopping destination, announced it raised US$1.2 million in seed funding – its second round. Existing investor Asia Venture Group led the investment, while 500 Startups, IMJ Investment Partners, Venturra Capital, F2 Capital, and Startstrike Ventures participated. This new amount brings iPrice’s total funding to US$1.75 million to date. “Internet consumption in Asia is heavily driven by mobile platforms, and our traffic data firmly backs this up. Apportioning part of this funding to enrich the mobile viewing experience is, in our opinion, the most logical way to grow,” says co-founder and CEO David Chmelař. Besides enhancing the mobile experience, iPrice is also tapping media publishers around the region to extend its coupon and deal offerings.

• Health and wellness startup PurelyB closes US$500k seed round led by 500 Startups PurelyB, an all-women Malaysia-based startup that announced a US$500,000 seed round (roughly RM 2.1 million), seeks to make a difference in this area. Available in English and Chinese, PurelyB claims it’s building Asia’s first health and wellness content integrated marketplace. The platform is holistic in the sense that it covers all aspects of wellness (nutrition, fitness, psychology, relationships) and provides consumers the convenience of a list of places to buy healthy goods and services. By 2016, these products and services will be available for purchase from merchants directly on PurelyB’s site. With the US$500,000 funding from Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups, Brunsfield Ventures, and an , PurelyB will further develop its technology, solidify its presence in its home market and in Singapore, and expand to new markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Asia-Pacific is the market showing the biggest growth in the global health and wellness industry, with expected retail sales of over US$200 billion in 2015 alone, according to the company.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 5 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

• Asian Netflix Clone iFlix Is Raising US$150M to Expand to Africa, Middle East And Europe iFlix, one of video streaming services sprouted up in Southeast Asia, which is available in Malaysia, and Thailand, is currently talking to investors with a view to raising up to US$150 million in fresh funding to fuel a major global expansion. A pitch deck to investors dated November 2015 states that iFlix — which is co-founded by Malaysia-based group Catcha Group and raised US$30 million in April — is “looking to expand actively into other ASEAN markets as well as specific high-potential areas outside of ASEAN”. More specifically, the company plans to spend the money expanding its presence in Southeast Asia and moving into new markets in the wider Asian continent, the Middle East, Africa, and CIS (Eastern Europe). Further, iFlix claims it is in “ongoing distribution agreement dialogue” with operators across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company has used telecom partnerships to gain reach in its existing markets, to date, so that would represent a continuation of that strategy.

Singapore • This Singapore startup tracks biz news in Asia and it just got funded As Southeast Asia emerges as a leading financial hub, the need for digging out business news from the region has shot up. For over a year now, Singapore-based digital platform DealStreetAsia has been doing exactly that. And here comes a sure sign that it’s headed in the right direction. DealStreetAsia, which covers financial and economic news on Southeast Asia, has bagged seed funding of an undisclosed amount from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, and Singapore Angel Network (SGAN). Hindustan Times Media Group, which publishes business daily Mint in India and MintAsia in Singapore also took part in the round. The investment comes ahead of a larger series A round of venture funding which DealStreetAsia plans to close in the first quarter of 2016. The funds will be used to strengthen its India and ASEAN teams, expand operations to Hong Kong and China, and work toward the launching the company’s deal analytics and data platform.

• Social payments startup Kashmi is ready to launch with new seed funding Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments startup Kashmi has secured S$700,000 (US$497,000) in seed funding. The startup allows users to send and receive money regardless of which bank they’re using, and to split payments between groups. They can top up their mobile e-wallet using credit and debit cards or even wire transfer, and can sign up to the app with just a name and a phone number or email address. The funding was led by Akbar Group Sri Lanka and VAMM Ventures, a Dubai-based venture capital firm that invests in early and seed stage companies. It was joined by a number of angel investors and corporates from Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Kashmi will use the funds to continue working on its product, expand its reach in Southeast Asia, and beef up its sales and marketing resources in order to grow faster. Meanwhile, the startup enters a busy space, particularly in Singapore where both startups and larger companies are looking into P2P payments.

• Singapore’s Perx raises series A to become more than just a loyalty app Singapore’s Perx is morphing. The startup says it will expand from being just a mobile loyalty app to a platform that manages brands’ customer engagement – from user experience to customer data and marketing analytics. Fueling this new vision is a “single-digit million dollar” series A funding it raised from Golden Gate Ventures and other investors, including Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Perx CEO Anna Gong, and its CTO Rob Roach. Anna and Rob, now heading the revamped Perx (the original co-founders Andrew Roth and Jon Sugihara left the firm), believe the move makes sense. The Perx team didn’t give details, but Anna and Rob say that the startup will be able to help businesses “make informed and impactful decisions, accelerate time to market, and remove hassles in creating or managing acquisition and engagement priorities.” Other benefits include the ability to test various marketing campaigns, real-time breadth and depth of customer feedback, and segmentation of customers based on spending and location patterns, as well as browsing behavior.

• Migme Raises Fresh Capital, Acquires ’s Hipwee and Shopdeca Since listing on the ASX in 2014, social entertainment platform Migme has been on an acquisition spree. It earlier bought LoveByte, a chat app for couples, and invested in games developer MatchMe. It also snapped up AlivenotDead, an online community for celebrities to connect with fans, and ecommerce platform Sold. It announced two more acquisitions, this time Indonesian social news site Hipwee and Indonesian fashion estore

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 6 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

Shopdeca. Migme says the new investments will grow its foothold in Indonesia, one of its “key target markets.” CEO Steven Goh said the deals amounted to a total of A$3 million (over US$2 million) in cash and equity, and were partly funded by proceeds of a A$3.5 million (US$2.5m) convertible note placement to new investors, led by Lucerne Investment Partners. Apart from Indonesia, the company is looking at other priority markets, namely India and the Philippines.

United States

• ProSky Gets a US$2.3 Million Seed for Its Hiring Tech Hiring processes can be a pain for both the recruiter and the applicant. Dozens of people apply for one position, and resumes do not necessarily reflect the applicants’ skill sets. San Francisco startup ProSky found an opportunity in this flaw and stepped in to design a hiring solution in which companies can train, test-drive, and hire new talent. The model offers applicants two paths. They can either go through training sessions to acquire or enhance the skills required by the employer, then take on a three-week project for the company, and then move on to the hiring process; or they can skip the training. ProSky announced that it raised a US$2.3 million seed round led by to further develop its product and invest in marketing. Kapor Capital, University Ventures, 500 Startups, and Learn Capital also participated in the round.

• Verlocal Raises US$2.65M to Teach You to Cook Ramen and Dance like Beyonce Verlocal, a marketplace for classes and tours, raised a US$2.65 million seed round from VenturesLab, Seven Seas Partners, Amidzad Partners, and Big Basin Capital. Verlocal is like an for experiences, where locals can host lessons for other locals and travelers, such as this DIY Ugly Sweater Workshop (other classes include “Don’t Worry, Be Yonce“). With this new fund, Verlocal aims “to become the largest marketplace for experiences in the world,” challenging the similarly-branded Airbnb, plenty of related sites, plus niche marketplaces like the fitness-focused ClassPass. With two lead investors operating in Asia — VenturesLab and Seven Seas Partners — Verlocal plans to expand to “China, Korea, and Japan … within six months.” But as of today, the one-year-old company operates in New York, San Francisco, and seven other U.S. cities.

• Slack Hits 2M Daily Active Users, Launches Third-party App Directory, US$80M Developer Fund Slack has made its next move in building out its platform. At a major press event in San Francisco, the company announced that it has launched a third-party App Directory aimed at being the de facto source for certified integrations. In an effort to foster its growing ecosystem, Slack has also established an US$80 million developer fund, backed by Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Spark Capital, and Social Capital. The goal is to help find the next Slack-first app. Slack and the venture capital firms will provide the money, and funded startups will become part of Slack’s distribution network. These announcements come as Slack reveals that it now has 2 million daily active users, a 16 percent jump from October, when the service had 1.7 million users. It also now has 570,000 paid seats, up from 470,000 two months ago.

• Google Launches a 6-month Accelerator to Help Startups Build Mobile Products Google has joined the ranks of Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars in launching an accelerator. The program is built on the company’s Launchpad initiative and is a long-term engagement with select startups from around the world to give them the best resources, access to great mentors, and help accelerating their product. Called the Launchpad accelerator, the program will be available to startups in India, Brazil, and Indonesia, three countries which Google’s Roy Glasberg told VentureBeat could represent the next billion dollar markets. The team has already selected its first batch of startups to participate in the program. Google is targeting two things with this endeavor: helping startups build products on its platform and become successful doing it and ensuing that every startup has access to the best resources that the ecosystem can provide. Startups participating in the accelerator will receive US$250,000 worth of assistance, including US$50,000 in seed funding with zero equity taken, credits to use Google products, physical space in their country to work, access to a two-week boot camp in Mountain View, California, and six months of mentorship in the program before they graduate.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 7 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

• Datavail Adds Tyler Newton and Susan Bihler to its Board Along With Raising US$47m Funding Led by Catalyst Investors Growth equity firm Catalyst Investors led the recent US$47 million majority investment in Datavail. Tahosa Capital and Lumerity Capital Partners participated in the round, as did existing investors Boulder Ventures, Meritage Funds and MC Investment Fund. Catalyst Partner Tyler Newton and Principal Susan Bihler joined the company’s Board of Directors along with Tahosa Capital’s Derek Pilling. Datavail provides outsourced database administration services for enterprise and mid-market clients that rely on 24/7 monitoring and response for mission critical databases. The Company provides managed services, project consulting services, staff augmentation and operational support for Oracle, Oracle Applications, SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, MongoDB and SharePoint. “Having more than quadrupled our size in the last four years, Datavail is poised to seize opportunities in the growing database administration and even broader data-driven services markets,” said Mark Perlstein, President and CEO of Datavail.

• Drone Maker Lily Announces a Product Delay and New Funding Last month, a British start-up that raised US$3.4 million on Kickstarter to build Zano, a handheld drone, collapsed after shipping only about 600 of the about 15,000 drones ordered. The start-up, Torquing Group, blamed a variety of unforeseen technical problems for the calamity. Now another young start-up, Lily, is running into a problem of its own. The company says it will delay delivery of its drone, which people have paid US$499 to US$799 to preorder. In announcing the delay on Thursday, Lily, a San Francisco start-up, tried to reassure customers by revealing a significant round of funding from a group of private investors. The company said it had raised US$15 million in a funding round led by Spark Capital, a venture capital firm that invested in Twitter and other start-ups. SV Angel, the Stanford-StartX Fund, the musician Steve Aoki and the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana also invested in Lily.

• Gusto Raises US$50M At A US$1B Valuation To Take On Zenefits Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll) has raised US$50 million at a US$1 billion pre-money valuation, CEO Joshua Reeves said. That’s only natural for the startup, which is increasingly competing with the well-funded — and cash burning — Zenefits. Originally focused on payroll services, the company recently expanded into HR and benefits tools, an area where Zenefits is quickly growing after raising US$500 million at a US$4.5 billion valuation. Getting a war chest will be important for the startup, which while competing can capitalize on some issues Zenefits is having with its burn rate and growth. Gusto raised US$60 million in April this year at a US$560 million post-money valuation with its eyes on continuing to expand, which includes growing its headcount. Investors in the round included Google Capital, General Catalyst, Obvious Ventures and other existing investors. The company is processing several billion dollars in annual payroll, Reeves said.

• Google X Alum Flux Factory Raises US$29M Series B One of Google X’s former moonshots is raising cash as it looks to disrupt the architecture design space with its specialized collaborative data exchange service. Flux Factory, Inc. announced US$29 million in Series B funding co-led by Temasek and Surbana Jurong Private Limited. Far East Ventures, DFJ, South Park Ventures, Borealis Ventures, and Obvious Ventures also participated in the round. The company has raised US$8 million to date from investors like Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The company’s first project is aimed at assisting architects and building professionals to save precious time when swapping files and making changes. The cloud-based collaboration service allows contractors, engineers and architects to add helpful plugins into their existing work flows and saves them crucial time in simplifying file transfer, data conversion, and data-merge. Flux is currently compatible with programs like Grasshopper, Excel, and Dynamo and is looking to add support in early 2016 for popular tools like Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max and SketchUp.

• NetApp Acquires Flash Storage Vendor SolidFire for US$870M Publicly traded storage hardware company NetApp announced that it has acquired SolidFire, a startup that made a name for itself selling fast all-flash storage hardware, for US$870 million in cash. This is a big deal in the storage market, where heavyweight EMC has gradually embraced flash, partly through the acquisitions of XtremIO and stealthy DSSD. Cisco bought all-flash storage maker Whiptail in 2013. NetApp announced its first all-flash storage hardware product back in 2013, but the company has not been known primarily for flash storage. SolidFire, meanwhile, has won business from several service providers, including 1&1, Colt,

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 8 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

Datapipe, and SunGard. Some companies have resisted adopting all-flash arrays because of their price relative to more traditional gear packed with hard disk drives, and the rise of hybrid storage supports the notion of having both flash and disk on hand for different use cases as the price of flash per gigabyte gets closer to disk. However, this acquisition suggests that the days of flash in the data center are closer than ever.

• Nutanix Files to Go Public With US$200 Million IPO Nutanix, a company selling data center hardware that combine elements of servers and storage arrays, filed a form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, officially kicking off the process of going public. The company says it aims to sell a maximum of US$200 million in shares in the . Shares of its stock will trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol NTNX. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse are the lead underwriters of the deal. Nutanix has long been expected to go public, and now the wheels are officially in motion. It’s not clear when the IPO will be, but given the late date of the year, the company may have been hustling to file before the 2015 IPO window closed. Based in San Jose, California, and established in 2009, Nutanix registered a net loss of US$126 million on US$241 million in revenue for the fiscal year that ended on July 31. Investors include Blumberg Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Riverwood Capital Partners, and Fidelity.

• Speech Recognition Startup Semantic Machines Raises US$12.3 Million Semantic Machines, a startup with speech recognition technology and talent from Apple and Google, disclosed that it has raised US$12.3 million in new funding. Investors from Bain Capital Ventures and General Catalyst Partners are listed in the filing the startup submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Last year, Semantic Machines named Larry Gillick as its chief technology officer. Gillick was previously chief speech scientist for Siri at Apple. Now Semantic Machines is looking to go further than Siri and other personal digital assistants currently on the market. “Semantic Machines is developing technology that goes beyond understanding commands, to understanding conversations,” the startup says on its website. “Our Conversational AI represents a powerful new paradigm, enabling computers to communicate, collaborate, understand our goals, and accomplish tasks.” The startup is building tools that third-party developers will be able to use.

• Salesforce buys quote-to-cash company SteelBrick for US$360 million Salesforce has acquired SteelBrick, a company with software for helping sales reps figure out the right price quotes to give customers, for a total of US$360 million. The US$360 million figure, with US$300 million in net of cash acquired, involves a deduction resulting from money Salesforce Ventures has previously invested. SteelBrick’s quote-to-cash software is part of the more general configure-price-quote market. The software integrates natively with Salesforce. In addition to figuring out the right prices for products, SteelBrick’s tools can take care of orders, contracts, billing, and payments. SteelBrick announced an US$18 million funding round earlier this year. Investors include Institutional Venture Partners, Emergence Capital, and Shasta Ventures. As of February, SteelBrick had 350 customers.

• Palantir Has Raised US$880 Million At A US$20 Billion Valuation Palantir, the data analytics platform used by government agencies and law enforcement pocketed US$880 million in new funding, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission. This latest round of funding is part of an earlier US$679.8 million raised so far, according to an updated version of the SEC filing. Palantir began raising the round in July, according to the filing. The startup has now raised US$2.32 billion in total. Palantir also now has a valuation of US$20.33 billion, up from US$15 billion in 2014. The new valuation makes it the fourth most highly valued tech startup, just under Airbnb, Xiaomi and Uber. Morgan Stanley and S F Sentry Securities Inc. are listed on the filing as brokers in the deal.

• RNTS Media Buys Mobile Ad Network Heyzap for US$45M Heyzap, a provider of mobile advertising for app developers, has been acquired by RNTS Media in a move intended to beef up its own offering in the space. In total the deal is for US$45 million. Based in San Francisco, Calif., this Y Combinator alum specializes in not only helping developers make money off of their app but also getting them discovered, similar to the likes of AppLovin and others. Its magic is in the use of machine-learning algorithms which recommends mobile ads based on social platform data. In 2014, the

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 9 SparkLabs Global Ventures’ Technology and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review January 4th, 2016

company claimed that more than 5,000 games and apps use its service and that it had a revenue run rate of more than US$13 million. The grab by RNTS Media is an effort to capitalize on mobile advertising mediation, a way by which developers can display ads from multiple networks in a transparent way. By doing so, ads can be optimized to show the most appropriate one to the right person.

• OrbiMed Launches New, Nearly US$1 Billion Biomed Venture Fund OrbiMed, a global biomedical venture capital firm headquartered in New York, announced it had raised US$950 million from limited partners for its sixth fund. They tout several prominent institutions as investors as well as sovereign wealth funds and major endowments. The new fund tops the previous one’s tally of US$735 million and will offer big sums between US$10 million and US$75 million. Previous funds include US$300 million launched in 2003, US$530 million in 2007 and US$550 million in 2010, according to Bison. Bison lists previous investors as CalSTRS, Oregon PERF, San Francisco City & County ERS, and Texas County & District RS. While a press release says the focus will be on North American and European companies, the firm has offices in China, India, and a medtech hub in Israel. The same statement indicated that they seem to plan to hit every major vertical in the industry: biopharmaceuticals, healthtech, medical devices, and diagnostics solutions.

Europe

• Technology Will Save Us raises US$1.8 Million to Help Kids Build Their Own Gadgets A U.K. startup that creates DIY gadget-building kits for kids has closed a £1.2 million (US$1.8 million) seed round led by SaatchInvest, with participation from European seed-stage VC fund Backed, along with a handful of other individual investors. Founded out of London in 2012, Technology Will Save Us is one of a number of companies across the country offering starter kits designed to tempt youngsters into technology — there’s Kano, which invites kids to build their own micro-computers, and Raspberry Pi, which offers something similar. This announcement follows the previous £750,000 (US$1.1 million) in angel and grant funding the company received from Google, Nesta, SaatchInvest, and some angels. The fresh cash influx will be used to expand the company’s DIY product range and build more retailer partnerships.

• Songkick Raises US$10 Million to Help Thwart Scalpers and Sell Concert Tickets Direct to Fans Songkick, the company behind the eponymous cross-platform app that lets you track when and where all your favorite bands are playing live, has raised an additional US$10 million in funding from Access Industries. Founded in 2007, Songkick had previously raised US$32.6 million from a range of notable investors, including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and Access Industries. The London-based startup has built a solid reputation in the live music sphere over the past eight years for the way it helps users discover live gigs based on the music they listen to. It scans a user’s music collection — locally stored or cloud-based — and matches it with Songkick’s inventory of live shows. Users then receive alerts whenever an artist in their collection is scheduled to play nearby.

• Customer-analytics Startup CustomerGauge Closes US$2.5 Million Series A CustomerGauge, a Dutch startup which has developed customer-success software for businesses, has announced that they have closed a Series A round worth US$2.5 million with Dutch investor Newion Investments leading the round. The startup, which counts “hundreds” of businesses, including H&R Block, Canon, BMW, Philips, and others as clients, says that it intends to put this new funding towards building out its engineering, sales, and marketing team, as well as supporting its expansion into the American market. As the name of the startup indicates, CustomerGauge focuses on helping businesses to gauge the satisfaction of their customers with a platform that allows them to send out personalized surveys and to then have the data made available to all employees. And then, CustomerGauge can also analyze the health of various accounts, based upon feedback, and determine which ones are struggling and which have potential.

• Webrazzi Ventures Launched to Fund Early Stage Startups in Turkey

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul. 10