SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy

and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew

September 22, 2014

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.
1
Weekly Highlights

Global Trends

The travel industry is booming on smartphones as mobile bookings hit 40 percent
Americans are rapidly moving away from desktops and getting comfortable booking all of their travel reservations on
tablets and smartphones. In other words, people are making their travel plans on mobile devices, not desktops and
laptops. For the first six months of 2014, over 40 percent of Americans booked travel reservations flights, hotels,
cruises, for example on mobile devices, up more than 20 percent for the same period last year, according to
Criteos new Travel Flash Report. Criteo is Paris-based with offices in New York and the Bay Area. Criteo, a virtual
brand retargeter that helps clients retain customers in marketing campaigns, also queried over 1,000 of their clients,
many of whom reside in the online travel ecosystem, for example, like Expedia and Hotels.com. Other findings
indicate that mobile devices now account for 21 percent of hotel bookings. Peer-to-peer apartment rentals booked
through mobile is now 34 percent globally, not just in the States. Mobile penetration trends in Asia, Latin America,
and Europe, mirror, more or less, the mobile numbers in the States. Indeed, Asia has seen a 20 percent growth on
those booking through mobile devices. But in Germany, the biggest economy in all of Europe, online booking with a
mobile device stood at a paltry 10 percent.

How Apple Pay is set to change commerce
Recently, Apple announced two new iPhones that included Near Field Communication (NFC) for wireless payments
for the first time. The companys new Apple Pay service provides a full digital wallet for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus,
which enables consumers to pay by phone using NFC with simplicity. NFC Payments have been around a while, but
Apple Pay has the potential to make widespread adoption of digital wallet payments a reality at last. With mobile
payments, it is the intersection of four key Apple capabilities, combined with a very slick customer experience that
makes this a game changer: Touch ID, Passbook, iTunes, and NFC. Touch ID technology is now on at least 14
million smartphones around the world. Passbook, the digital wallet app is deployed on 200 million iPhone. Also,
there are well over 800 million iTunes accounts with stored credit card information. Lastly, a method of connecting to
a point of sale terminal when in close proximity, NFC technology is already embedded into 395 million smartphones.
What this means for in-store payments is that Apple finally has a chance to succeed in making a phone a wallet. The
user experience is very slick and this will draw an influential and affluent new segment of consumers into NFC
payments. There are still some hurdles, of course: Many more retailers will need to upgrade their POS terminals to
accept NFC; more merchant acquirers will need to support Apple Pay; and customers will need to upgrade their
phones.

The rise of Uber and the demise of taxis, in one chart
The taxi business has taken a massive hit thanks to the extraordinary rise in ride-sharing services. A new report
from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency finds that since 2012, the average number of trips per
taxi has plunged from 1,424 a month in March 2012 to 504 in July 2014 a 65 percent drop. The report
underscores how fast consumers will take advantage of better options once they are available. A recent study from
UC Berkeley found that during the evening rush hour, 92 percent of ride-sharing services such as UberX and Lyft
arrived in under 10 minutes, while just 16 percent of taxis did so. Thirty seven percent of taxis took longer than 20
minutes. The same study found that 39 percent of ride-sharing users would have taken a taxi had Uber or Lyft not
been available. Rather than trying to out-innovate their new
competition, taxi groups have pressured the state government to
impose paralyzing regulations. Full report can be found here.










SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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
Asia Pacific
China
Alibaba Raises $21.8 Billion in Initial Public Offering
The Alibaba Group, the Chinese Internet juggernaut, raised US$21.8 billion in its initial stock sale, as investors
flocked to buy a piece of the company that is poised to continue dominating Chinas burgeoning e-commerce
industry. The company priced its shares at $68 each, at the top end of an already raised range. At that level, the
online market operator will have a market value of about $168 billion much more than eBay, Twitter and LinkedIn
combined. The stock sale also marks a coming of age of the Internet in China, a country with nearly 1.4 billion, less
than half of whom venture online. Alibabas main pitch to investors in a globe-spanning roadshow over the past two
weeks has been the enormous potential wealth that can be made as more Chinese citizens log onto the Internet and
shop for goods.

Tencent Leads US$20M Funding in Chinese Outbound Travel Site Woqu
Woqu, launched in April this year, is a Chinese travel site currently focused on only one market, the U.S.. The site
secured US$20 million in Series B round of funding led by Tencent and joined by existing investor MorningSide
Ventures. The site announced multi-million dollars in Series A from MorningSide shortly after its launch. Woqu is
founded Huang Zhiwen, former president at Chinese travel site Mangocity.com. The new funding will be used for
developing mobile services and expanding to other markets, such as Australia, New Zealand and Europe according
to the company. China outbound tourism has been developing fast. In the 12 months ending in March 2014, 102
million border crossings took place in China, according to a report by China Outbound Tourism Research Institute
(COTRI). 1.4 million Chinese traveled to the U.S. in 2012 and 2013 saw a 27% increase, according to Woqu. It is
expected the number will reach 2 million by the end of this year.

Chinese Game Developer Feiyu Technology Files for Hong Kong IPO
Feiyu Technology, a Chinese mobile and web game developer, has filed for an IPO on Hong Kong market. Xiamen
Haloer and CAIROT, two of Chinas leading game developers, merged together into Feiyu Technology July this year
for scale operation. Legendary Chinese angel investor Cai Wensheng is the backer for both of the companies.
According to prospectus released by the company, Feiyu Technology has recorded revenue of around US$21
million in H1 this year, of which mobile games account for 69.6% of the total revenue. As of June 30, 2014, Feiyu
Technologys RPG games have registered 198.55 million users and the monthly active user for this June is around
2.30 million. The total registered user of Feiyus casual games is around 173 million with monthly active users for
June stands at 22.5 million. The company has rolled out altogether seven mobile and plans to launch new games
like Carrot Fantasy: Magic Forest, Jiongxiyou II, Battery Run, etc. from H2 2014 to 2015. The prospectus mentioned
the companys plans to enrich game categories and expand R&D teams by investment or acquisition.

Nova Founders Capital receives US$50M from Hong Kongs Pacific Century Group to boost fintech in Asia
Nova Founders Capital, an Asia-focused VC firm created by Rocket internet alumni Mads Faurholt-Jorgensen and
Raphael Strauch, announced it just received a US$50 million investment from Pacific Century Group, an investment
company founded by Richard Li, son of Hong Kongs Li Ka-Shing. A spokeswoman for Nova Founders Capital says
that the firm will use the funding to tilt its focus towards fintech firms. Not unlike Rocket Internet, it has committed not
just to investing in companies, but also building new ones and possibly acquiring old ones. Even though Nova
describes itself as a global-facing venture capital firm, its investment portfolio leans heavily towards Asia. Its teams
include the Compare Asia Group, which runs a batch of financial product comparison sites in Taiwan, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. The Nova-Hong Kong connection also
warrants attention. Two of the citys high-profile startups work in fintech 8 Securities recently raised US$9 million
from Velocity Capital and others, and in May DemystData raised US$5 million from a bevy of investors including
Arbor Ventures, a Hong Kong-based VC firm that specializes in fintech.

Financial Social Media Snowball Raises US$40M in Series C Funding Led by Renren
Snowball Finance (Xueqiu in Chinese), the Chinese financial social media, announced that the company raised
US$40 million in Series C funding led by Renren Inc. and joined by existing investor MorningSide Ventures.
Xueqiu.com is now one of the most popular financial social networks among Chinese investors in China. The
company raised Series B funding of US$10 million last year and US$3.2 million in Series A in 2011. Renren, the
notorious Facebook copy, didnt turn out to be successful in China even though Facebook hasnt been accessible
here. The company reported 42% year-over-year decrease in total revenue in Q2 2014. Gaming, which used to be

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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
the only profitable business of the company, began declining from the second quarter of last year and decreased
57% year-over-year in the second quarter of this year.

Korea
South Koreas SparkLabs accelerator reveals the startups joining its fourth batch
SparkLabs, the Seoul-based accelerator announced the roster for its fourth batch of startups. Unlike the accelerators
previous two batches, which maintained a rough 50:50 ratio of local teams to foreign teams, the startups comprising
its current batch mostly hail from South Korea, with one hailing from the United States and another hailing from
Chengdu, China. SparkLabs has always sought to distinguish itself as an accelerator that gives equal attention to
domestic South Korean startups and international startups, leveraging its networks both in Seoul and Silicon Valley.
The accelerator grants teams US$25,000 in funding upon entering the three-month program in exchange for up to six
percent equity. To find out more about each company, read the article here.

Organic food retail, Hello Nature receives US1.4M
Hello Nature (Byung Yul Park, CEO), an online grocery retail startup, announced US$1.4 million investment attraction
from Softbank Ventures and Mirae Asset Venture Investment on September 16th. Organic foods are popular among
Koreans. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the organic food market is expected to
reach near four billion dollars by 2014. Unlike other online grocery retailers in Korea, Hello Nature offers compact
package delivery services called nature-friendly grocery shopping. The service sorts, packs, and delivers portions of
fresh groceries that better serve individuals and smaller households. In the beginning, the service started with 100
package variations, and has now further diversified its product line to more than 1,000 variations. Hello Nature
recently revamped its website and mobile app, upgrading its UI and customer loyalty program. It also introduced food
recipes designed for each package. Hello Nature also offers free shipping for purchase of $40 and above, and a 50%
discount to new customers.

US$500K investment from Bon Angels Helps Jocoos Discover New Talents
Bon Angels Venture Partners announced its US$500,000 investment in Jocoos, a tech startup that recently released
a mobile video based audition application. The investment appoints Bon Angels as the strategic partner of Jocoos
that will support the business both legally and financially, as well as with marketing efforts. Jocoos was founded in
2011 by Chang Hun Choi, a former system engineer at KT (Korea Telecom) Cloudware and Tmaxsoft, Koreas
largest middleware developer. As its first app product, Jocoos released Audition Show Your Talent!, an open
mobile audition platform. Chang Hoon Choi, the CEO of Jocoos said that the company is planning to bring in more
software engineers and experienced marketing experts to strengthen its foundation while actively incorporating Bon
Angels wide networks to expand and improve its business.
Japan
Education startup Mana.bo receives US$3.07M to enter B2C sales
Mana.bo, the company providing real-time tutoring help via a virtual whiteboard raised US$3.07 million in series A
funding from Bennesse Holdings, Nissay Capital, and MUFJ Capital. The funding comes after a US$374,000 round,
led by CyberAgent Ventures, in May last year. The startups new cash is earmarked for marketing, launching a
business-to-consumer (B2C) division, and development on new features. Mana.bo wants to generate revenue by
monetizing its ability to provide and manage tutors and students. The B2C initiative, which will start from October, is
notable as Mana.bos clients have so far only been students attending classes via Bennesse. Aside from its
investment activity, Bennesse is a well-established correspondence education and textbook provider. Mana.bo has
found traction in Japan by offering tutoring services in a manner more tailored to student needs. When a user has a
question about a particularly difficult problem, he or she can message a Mana.bo tutor. When the tutors are
available, they will set up a voice or text conversation and explain the key to the problem while demonstrating on the
digital whiteboard.

Japans Yamanashi prefecture launches US$2.9M fund for local startups
Yamanashi, a prefecture located two hours from Tokyo by train and best known for the scenic Mt. Fuji five lakes
region, is making a small splash in the startup world. The prefecture, in association with a variety of local
businesses, is establishing a US$2.92 million fund. According to San-nichi, the Fuji Kyuko railway company, the Fuji
Yoshida Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Central Bank of Yamanashi, and the Central Banks venture
capital arm all joined forces with the prefecture to create the fund. Though established on August 26, Yamanashi

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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
only just made the official announcement. The Central Bank confirmed that the fund will focus on startups operating
in five key areas medicine, agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and the environment. Startups, which receive
funding, will receive a variety of support, including introductions to new business partners or research institutes. The
proactive approach of Yamanashi prefecture is a welcome change from misguided plans proposed by local
governments like Tokyo.
.
India
Classifieds portal Quikr gets US$60M in funding
Though less than one fifth of Indias 1.3 billion people are online, the country already ranks number three globally in
terms of the aggregate number of Internet users. So its not surprising that investors are pumping money into
technology startups in India. Just five months after Quikr, a cross-category classifieds portal, announced a US$90
million funding round, it has now secured another US$60 million. The latest round is led by US investor Tiger Global
Management LLC. Quikr lists a wide range of classifieds in around ten categories, including mobile phones,
household goods, cars, real estate, jobs, services, and education opportunities. Launched in 2008, Quikr claims to
be Indias no.1 online classifieds platform with over 30 million unique users a month across 940 Indian cities. Its
current investors Warburg Pincus, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth
Partners, Omidyar Network, and eBay Inc have each participated in the latest round which, according to a company
statement, will be used to boost product development and expand its mobile business.

Indias WhatsApp for mobile customer support Haptik bags US$1M
Indias messenger app for consumer support Haptik raised US$1 million in its first round of funding from Kalaari
Capital. This mobile app lets users get instant help for products and services using a WhatsApp-like messaging
channel. With this round, Bangalore-headquartered venture firm Kalaari Capital comes on board as Haptiks first
investor partner. The Kalaari portfolio includes Indian ecommerce leaders Snapdeal, Myntra, and Urban Ladder.
Haptik will use the investment to scale up, build its operations center, and develop new product features. Founded in
August 2013 by two friends Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Radjev, Haptik currently has an in-house team which will get
back to any query regarding 180 companies across 12 categories, including electronics, banking, and ecommerce,
within four minutes. The app launched in India in April processes over 200,000 messages each month. Homegrown
messenger Hike is growing rapidly, crossing 35 million registered users. It recently raised funding of US$65 million
from Tiger Global Management and Bharti SoftBank (BSB), a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Japans
Softbank Corporation.

Bigbasket gets US$32M funding ahead of Indias online grocery shopping boom
Indias ecommerce boom is at high velocity, but the nations online groceries sector has been a lot slower to take off.
But the recent US$32 million funding round for Bigbasket seems to indicate that this niche area is now gaining
traction. Bigbaskets series B round comes from Helion Ventures and Zodius Capital, reports NextBigWhat. It comes
a surprising two-and-a-half years after the startups US$10 million round. Bigbasket currently operates in three
Indian cities Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The new VC money will be used to expand its reach to 10 cities
by the end of next year, says CEO VS Sudhakar. The online grocer is handling 5,000 orders per day at present. The
startup is up against local rivals such as Zopnow and Ekstop. However, Zopnow only covers Bangalore, while
Ekstop is restricted to Mumbai. All these startups will get a shock soon when local retail giant Reliance starts its
long-anticipated ecommerce business.

Business insights provider Nielsen acquires Indian analytics firm
Business intelligence provider Nielsen acquired Indian niche data analytics firm Indicus Analytics. Indicus mines
custom economic insights using analytics and data products. It provides information about the economy and
consumers at extremely granular levels specific to city, district, and neighborhood. Within this, the information is
further segmented into income groups. The firm was founded in 2000 by Dr Laveesh Bhandari, who holds a PhD in
economics from Boston University and has taught economics there and at IIT, Delhi. Indicus methodologies include
patent-pending algorithms that are capable of distilling insights from the data. These insights are valuable for
decision-making. Indicus clients include ministries, policy groups, companies, and consultants. The financial terms
of the Indicus acquisition have not been disclosed. Headquartered in the US and the Netherlands, Nielsen has a
foothold in 100 countries. Through Nielsen, Indicus will now have access to a wider clientele. Though the flow of
venture capital into Indian technology startups has picked up momentum in the last four years, mergers and
acquisitions have been few and far between. Seen in that context, the acquisition of Indicus will enthuse investors
looking for opportunities in India especially in the data analytics space where Indian tech talent comes into play.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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


Vietnam
Rockit Online secures $500K funding to tackle Vietnams education market
Rockit, an online education startup secured a US$500,000 investment from three investors in the Silicon Valley,
Learn Capital, John Katzman, and Formation 8. Rockit is a live online education company that focuses on teaching
students courses in math, science, English and test preparation (IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC). It aims to connect young
middle and high school students with teachers who work with students in class sizes no more than five people at
once. According to an official statement, although Rockit is starting in Vietnam, it plans to expand throughout
Southeast Asia in the near future. Learn Capital, specifically, has a $100 million fund dedicated to investing in
education startups across the world and is keen to focus more on Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, there are only a few
education online startups. These include DeltaViet, which has cloned Udemy (a Silicon Valley skills learning
platform) for the Vietnamese market, and Topica, which hosts over one thousand teachers on its online certification
programs. Zuni, LeeRit, HocMoi, GiapSchool and more are also among the many startups trying to crack Vietnams
education market, which is in desperate need of disruption. 40 percent of Vietnamese parents pay up to ten percent
of their income on education.

Vietnam plans to launch a nano satellite into orbit in 2016
Recently, Vietnam announced plans to send a 10 kilogram nano-satellite into orbit in 2016. This project is designed
by a team made up of 100 percent Vietnamese engineers and experts. This nano-statellite is named NanoDragon.
With a two-year countdown remaining, many scientists are excited to see this made in Vietnam dragon fly.
Nanotechnology refers to the precise engineering of materials on atomic and molecular scales. Most of these
artificial satellites will weigh between one and 10 kg (2.222 lbs). Nanosatellites are appropriate for Vietnam
because of their size and affordability for low-budget science projects. Furthermore, engineers and scientists can
also use it to piggyback on bigger plans in the future. With that in mind, associate professor Dr. Pham Tuan Anh,
director of the Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC), also revealed that Vietnam will be capable of
manufacturing and operating full-scale commercial satellites weighing 500 kg by 2018. Last year, VNSC also
successfully launched a micro satellite called Pico Dragon, which weighed 1 kg For the time being, Vietnam is
building an Aerospace Centre with an ODA investment from Japan worth $505 million.

Indonesia
Indonesias Yammer for education receives seed funding
Indonesias online education space just got another boost of confidence today as Kelase, a private social network
for education, received an undisclosed amount seed funding from PT Insights Investments, a financial and
investment firm in Indonesia. The money will be used for Kelases product development, recruitment, and system
maintenance. Kelase rolled out its trial version on June 2014. The startup allows education institutions to have their
own social networks. Teachers and students can store and share numerous files on Kelase including education
videos, e-books, and academic calendars some of which Kelase itself provides. Kelase users can also link up with
other members from external institutions on the platform. They all can sign up for Kelases education communities,
which offers online classes on various topics. However, only institutions and members of those institutions can apply
for Kelases service. Individuals who have no affiliation with any registered entities wont be able to sign up.
According to Kelase team, they now have 700 registered institutions using the product, over half of which they
consider active.

This startup aims to empower Indonesian women as household CFOs
According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, consumer spending on savings and investment products in
Indonesia is set to reach US$565 billion by the year 2030, roughly a 465 percent increase from what it is today.
Those figures are encouraging to Jocelyn Pantastico, founder of LiveOlive a money management startup for
Indonesian women. LiveOlive claims to be Indonesias pioneer of the finance-for-females tech space. The site walks
women through major life events such as marriage, new jobs, and having children, aiming to ensure that they make
the right financial decisions at each stage. The homepage includes advice posts on the basics of money
management, an age-specific content section, home and auto loan calculators, and a money toolbox that features
budget, retirement, and unisave widgets. LiveOlives rate comparison section zeroes in on savings and time
deposit products, and also offers a built-in currency converter. Pantastico says that Indonesia represents a US$100

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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
billion market where less than 10 percent of locals have insurance and less than two percent of women have any
form of investment at all. Currently, LiveOlive is a bootstrapped operation, but Pantastico says the company is now
looking for investors.

Taiwan
Line brings its Q&A app to Taiwan in advance of its plunge into local ecommerce
The team behind the popular mobile messenger Line has rolled out Line Q, a social Q&A app not unlike Yahoo!
Answers, for domestic users. The app works much as one might expect users register with a pseudonym, choose
a few categories theyre interested in, and can then begin posting questions and replying to submissions from other
people. Line Q has been available in Japan since January, but Taiwan marks its first market beyond its native
borders. Earlier this week, Line also announced on its official blog that it will launch an ecommerce app in Taiwan.
The app will follow the peer-to-peer marketplace model that its Japanese and Thai counterparts implement, and is
currently recruiting buyers and sellers to join an early test phase before an eventual launch in November. In
Taiwan, however, Lines in a position to make a splash when it comes to mobile shopping. As Focus Taiwan
reported back in June, the islands ecommerce market is expected to reach US$33.7 billion by 2015, and
transaction volume is growing at a rate of 20 percent annually. Meanwhile, penetration wise, Taiwan is probably
Lines strongest market. It claims to have 17 million registered Taiwanese users thats about 75 percent of the
total population.

United States
Salesforce launches US$100M fund to back apps enlarging its ecosystem
The CRM/marketing giant announced today it is launching the $100 million Salesforce 1 Fund as the first dedicated
fund of its rebranded investment arm, Salesforce Ventures. Salesforce has been investing successfully in startups
for the last five years, with financial bets placed on 100 companies, but until now it invested simply under the
Salesforce name. According to EVP of corporate development/strategy John Somorjai, Salesforces investments are
unique because they are trying to build the largest ecosystem of enterprise cloud companies on the planet. The
unifying thread of the new fund is that all the companies are delivering integrated experiences to our customers by
extending the mobile- and social-oriented Salesforce 1 Platform. Five companies will be the initial recipients of the
Fund, including several well-established ones. Salesforce declined to reveal the amounts, but noted they vary in size
and are all co-investments.

Wellframe raises US$8.5M to grow mobile patient engagement platform
Healthcare providers are under pressure to better monitor and care for older and at-risk patients between doctor visits.
Current systems focus on providing care only after a patient has gotten sick enough to return to the doctors office (or the
ER). So caregivers need an effective way to stay in touch with patients and keep them following doctors orders while
theyre at home. Outcomes could be improved, costs could be contained, and patients could be healthier and happier.
Boston-based digital health company Wellframe has built a care platform as a solution to create personalized care
protocols for patients and communicates them to the patient via a mobile app. The app delivers sets of to-do lists for
patients and enables direct communication between patient and caregiver. Wellframe closed a $1.5 seed round in
February with investments from Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush and DFJ Founder Tim Draper, among others. Its now
announcing a new $8.5 million round of funding led by DFJ, with participation from Formation 8, Waterline Ventures, and
Queensbridge Venture Partners. The company was part of the Rock Health accelerators fourth class of startups in 2012.

Two-factor authenticator Authy gets US$3M to help secure the web
Two-factor authentication service Authy received a US$3 million funding round. So far, the company, which
launched a year and a half ago, integrates with 1,000 sites including, Bitcoin wallet Coinbase, website optimizer
CloudFlare, videogame watching platform Twitch, and Columbian online marketplace MercadoLibre. Authy also has
plugins for many sites like WordPress and Google that super proactive users can download to add two-factor
authentication to any of the services they already use. Authy president and COO Mark Boroditsky says that the way
to make the user login experience with two-factor authentication less cumbersome is to have a single authenticator
meaning one authenticator for all your many accounts. Like using your Facebook account to log into other apps
as opposed to having a different authenticator for every account. This round of funding will be used to help the
company get integrated with more and bigger companies. To date, Authy has $3.8 million in funding. Cryptocurrency

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
September 22, 2014

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
Partners and Y Combinator invested in its seed round, though there is no additional investor information about
Authys Series A.

Veracode builds security into your app while youre developing it, pulls in US$40M
Application security firm Veracode just landed $40 million in funding led by Wellington Management Company. The
company focuses on building security infrastructure into mobile and web applications. Veracode works with
developers as the app is being constructed to make sure its built securely from the get go rather than trying to
secure the app after its been developed. The company can also test the security of any third-party applications
exchanging information with the app being developed, for possible security holes. The company is part of a growing
number of security companies like Palo Alto Networks and FireEye that are taking a software-as-a-service approach
to securing applications and enterprises. Veracode was first formed eight-and-a-half years ago by members of
security startup @stake, which Symantec acquired in 2004. Since the companys founding in 2006 it has raised over
a $100 million dollars in funding. In 2012 it acquired mobile app security firm Marvin Mobile, which undoubtedly
helped fuel its expansion into mobile app security. Flush with a new round of cash, Veracode is focused on bulking
up its sales, marketing, and research and development teams so it can expand its global reach.

PrecisionHawk raises US$10M for its land-surveying drones
PrecisionHawk, which produces unmanned areal vehicles (UAV), commonly knows as drones, raised US$10 million
in a second round of institutional funding. PrecisionHawk sells drones that are equipped with sensors and cameras
that collect various data about the land they survey. PrecisionHawk offers about a dozen different sensors for its
drones, which customers can pick from, or even add on their own. The data that the drones collect and store is then
analyzed, and customers are notified when their survey reports are ready, which can be as quickly as by the time
the drone comes back from its surveying flight. As it continues to make data a priority for its customers, the company
will release at the end of the month its DataMapper tool, a sort of dashboard where customers can work more in
depth with data from their surveys. The company is also working to expand into new use cases, including oil and
gas, and emergency response, and to be able to support the demand from a growing number of potential
customers. With its new funding, the company plans on doubling its team. PrecisionHawk was founded in 2010 by
Ernest Earon and Christopher Dean, and is based in Raleigh, N.C. The company previously raised $1 million in
seed funding from Bob Young and The Innovate Indiana Fund.

Augmate raises US$2.8M to put smart eyewear in the enterprise
One of several companies trying to leverage smart wearables in the enterprise is New York City-based Augmate, a
wearable-technology software startup that specializes in the development and deployment of enterprise applications
for smart eyewear. Founded in 2013, Augmate raised US$2.8 million in seed funding. The startup plans to use the
new capital to market its smart wearables tech to more enterprise customers. The company provides enterprises
with developer tools through a device-agnostic software development kit and a data visualization platform. To further
help people optimize wearables, Augmate has a new consulting practice called InnoVision, which sets forth a
strategic path for businesses to evaluate, validate, pilot, and scale wearable technology in real-world environments.
The round was led by Tim Draper, with participation from UPS Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital, Simon Venture
Group, Rothenberg Ventures, Excell Partners, Camp One Ventures, FP Angels, and a consortium of angel
investors.

Shippo grabs US$2M for its shipping API for small businesses
Founded in 2013, Shippo, startup seeking to make shipping a breeze for small businesses, closed UUS$2 million in
seed funding and a new partnership with GoDaddy to instantly connect with all of GoDaddys small business
customers. Shippo can be thought of as a service that is as convenient as going to FedExs website and creating,
prepaying, and printing a shipment label. But with Shippo, its interface is integrated into your businesss online
storefront dashboard. In fact, Shippo has accounts and partnerships with a large variety of shipping providers, so it
gives the users the best deal for each shipment. With its new funds, Shippo plans to focus on customer acquisition
(it hopes for 20 percent month-over-month growth) and to continue building out features to cater to its larger
customers, such pre-printed return labels for subscription services. It is also working to make sure its service can
scale and handle larger volume of traffic and shipping requests as its customer base grows. SofTech led this round
of funding, with additional participation from Version One Ventures, FundersClub, Dave Morins Slow Ventures, 500
Startups, East Ventures, Digital Business Factory, Joanne Wilson, Fabrice Grinda, Karl Jacob, and Fadu Ghandour.

Hazelcast adds US$11M to grow its business based on an open-source in-memory data grid

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Hazelcast, a startup looking to challenge legacy database providers like Oracle and fast-growing startups pushing
open-source databases, landed US$11 million in new funding. The money should help the startup grow into a bigger
business as it expands beyond just commercial support for the Hazelcast in-memory data grid. Developers often use
Hazelcast open-source software as a key-value store to keep information associated with various inputs. And that
makes it compete with other key value stores and open-source databases, some of which have startups bringing in
venture rounds as of late. Earlybird Venture Capital led the new funding round. Ali Kutay, Rod Johnson, and Bain
Capital Ventures also participated. To date, Hazelcast has raised $13.5 million, including the $2.5 million round it
announced last year. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Hazelcast employs 35 people. A year from now, though, 50 or more
people should work there, Matsumura said. Customers include Apple, AT&T, Atlassian, Cisco, and Ericsson.

Code Climate, a set of digital eyes to inspect your code, brings in US$2M
Code Climate can be thought of as a development teams robot in the cloud that runs standard tests on code without
actually executing it. It can uncover security vulnerabilities, potential bugs, repetition of existing code, and
unnecessarily complex programming, in Ruby and JavaScript. Support for PHP is in public beta. Founded in 2011,
Code Climate raised its first venture funding, a US$2 million seed round. The money comes a few months after a
business with software for on-premises automatic code testing, Coverity, found itself being acquired by Synopsys for
$375 million. The service has since become increasingly popular among engineering squads. Code Climate claims
more than 1,200 paying customers, including GitHub, New Relic, Kickstarter, LivingSocial, and Zendesk. NextView
Ventures led the funding round after checking with chief technology officers and vice presidents of engineering to
get their impression of Code Climate.

Mobile marketing automation firm Swrve raises US$10M
Founded in 2010, Mobile marketing automation startup Swrve raised US$10 million to fuel its sales, marketing, and
engineering expansion. The second round of funding is one of the first tasks accomplished by Christopher Dean,
who became chief executive of San Francisco-based Swrve three months ago. Swrve combines elements of an ad
network, analytics solution, user engagement engine, and user acquisition tool. It now has more than 500 million
unique device identities, and it processes more than 3 billion events every day. Some customers include Activision,
Warner Brothers, Beamly, Electronic Arts, and Tagged. Those companies use Swrve to find out data about their
best users, what their preferences are, and how to get them engaged with a game. It offers multivariate testing of
options, a dashboard for easier analysis, and an ability to personalize the users experience with an app in real-time.
Swrve has raised $22 million to date. The backers in previous rounds included Intel Capital, SV Angel, the founders
of Mochi Media (Jameson Hsu and Bob Ippolito), as well as two co-founders of Playfish, Sami Lababidi and Shukri
Shammas.

SocialChorus lands US$7.5M to help more employees spread their companys message
Founded in 2008, advocacy-marketing platform SocialChorus received US$7.5 million in Series B funding led by
Kholberg Ventures. SocialChorus is helping organizations become social businesses by going outside those small
teams, utilizing employees for social selling, recruiting, content marketing, and employee engagement initiatives. In
these ways, the firm, which currently has about 50 customer companies, enables employees to do more than just
their job descriptions. The new Series B funding brings the total investment in the company thus far to $15.5 million.
The San Francisco-based firm, which recently opened an engineering and product development facility in
Vancouver, said the money will further develop the platform for the needs of the Fortune 1000.


Europe

Import.io raises US$3m seed round backed by Yahoo and MySQL founders
Web-data platform Import.io raised a US$3 million super seed round that will help it expand its new San Francisco
office. The London- and San Francisco-based startup extracts data from websites and allows users to access it all
via an API, without writing a single line of code. They describe their service as web data extraction made easy. The
investment comes from an number of high profile investors including MySQL co-founders David Axmark as an angel
and Michael Widenius through his fund Open Ocean Capital, and Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang through AME Cloud
Ventures and Wellington Partners. The companys mission is to make the Internet accessible to everyone and this
investment will help it progress towards that goal. The new investment follows a $1m seed round in February 2013
which was followed by a win at Dublin Web Summit in the Beta Pitch competition.


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Berlins Adjust app analytics firm raises US$7.6M as it expands overseas
Berlins Adjust, a mobile analytics and attribution startup, raised US$7.6 million in third funding round led by Active
Venture Partners and existing investors Target Partners, Iris Capital, and Capnamic Venture. Founded on the notion
of bringing accountability and transparency to mobile marketing, the company plans to use the money to expand in
the U.S., China, and Japan. Adjust also plans to use the money to expand product development. Adjust says it is
signing up 100 new clients a week, and about 40 percent of its revenue comes from Asia and the U.S. already.
There are lots of competitors such as MobileAppTracking by Tune, Kochava, AppsFlyer, Ad-X (Criteo), and
Localytics. But Adjust says that it puts an emphasis on scientific stats, a good user interface for understanding those
stats, and efficient product updating. At its core, the company helps mobile marketers understand where their most
valuable users come from, what they do, and how to re-engage with them inside or outside their app. Adjust is also
an official Facebook and Twitter Mobile Measurement Partner and integrated with more than 300 networks and
partners globally.

Swedish startup scores US$3M to make custom clothing the new normal
Sweden-based startup Volumental raised US$3 million in seed funding led by Stockholm-based MOOR Capital, the
investment arm of Kaj Hed, majority owner of Angry Birds-maker Rovio, as well as from Silicon Valley-based
Founder.org. The startups vision is to make tailored products the norm rather than a luxury. To accomplish that
long-sought mass customization, the company a 2012 spinoff of Stockholms Royal Institute of Technology is
employing consumer-level 3-D cameras to first conquer shoes. Currently, the software is integrated with data from
GoPlae, a maker of shoes for children, but the company is working towards integration with other manufacturers.
The software will be cloud-based and available for free to consumers. An API connecting Volumental to shoe sellers
online will enable the company to take a fee from sales. The startups plans to expand to any wearable that could
benefit from a precise fitting, such as eyeglasses, custom shirts, suits, medically required products like shoe insoles.

Odilo raises US$2.8M to help libraries lend books digitally
Odilo, a startup aiming to modernize brick-and-mortar libraries with digital lending services and inventory tech,
announced a US$2.8 million funding round led by Active Venture Partners. Based in Spain and the U.S., the startup
plans to use the funding to accelerate expansion in Latin America and the U.S. The three-year-old company claims
to already allow more than 5 million users to access digital content offered by their libraries, schools, universities,
professional associations, corporations or municipalities. According to Odilo chief Rodrigo Rodriguez, Odilo
removes the technology barriers, allowing any institution to offer all kinds of digital content to its users whilst
ensuring compliance with copyright laws.

Brain trainer Memorado stealthily collects US$1.3 million in funding, 1 million users
Two ex-Wimdu employees received a US$1.3 million seed round for a brain training games website called
Memorado. The company also announced that it already has 1 million users. The list of investors is filled with Berlin
founders: Former Wimdu founder Arne Bleckwenn, eDarling founder Lukas Grosseder and David Khalil, Home24
founder Philipp Kreibohm, Fox & Sheep founder Verena Delius, as well as Zalandos founder Robert Gentz and
David Schneider. The website is as of right now available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherland, Poland,
France, Italy, Spain, UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, China, Japan, the United States, and Canada. The iOS app is
available in English, French, and German. Memorado offers a free trial, but lets users pick from one of subscription
models below.

Israel
Israeli malware prophet CyActive snags Siemens funding
CyActive, the Israeli-developed cyber-security system announced that it received a substantial investment from the
Venture Capital Unit of Siemens. CyActive CEO Liran Tancman said the funds would be used for research and
development as well as marketing, as CyActive seeks to spread its predictive cyber-security technology around the
world. The funding for CyActive marks the first investment of Siemens Industry of the Future Fund in Israel. The
Venture Capital Unit of Siemens joins Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), a top 10 global venture capital fund, in
investing in CyActive. CyActives ability to prophesy the creation of new viruses and malware what they are going
to look like, what they might do, and most important how to defend against them is built on big data analysis. In
todays busy world, even hackers dont have time to bake malware from scratch. Instead, they take existing
malware, make adjustments to it, and send it off on its damaging mission. Using predictive technology, the CyActive

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system can extrapolate the permutations of what a virus will look like in the future enabling organizations to
prepare for the next attack before it happens, and even before the malware that is going to be used in the attack has
been created.

Top fintech right here in Israel, says MasterCard
When it comes to picking winners, MasterCard and Citi have a good track record and that bodes well for
Pricence, the winner of the third annual MasterCard Israel Technology Award. Now $25,000 richer, Pricence will get
a coveted spot in Citis Israel financial technology accelerator, and have the opportunity to present its technology to
top European investors at the MasterCard/Citi Accelerators in Dublin, Ireland. Pricence, which uses big data
analysis to set prices for on-line retailers automatically raising or lowering prices to maximize revenue, based on
traffic, historical data, consumer behavior, and other factors is the kind of company MasterCard is looking for in
Israel, said Andras Hemberger, Israel and EMEA country manager for the company. There were 54 companies
enrolled in this years contest, all of them specifically in the fintech sector. Fintech is quickly becoming one of Israels
strongest technology sectors, according to Garry Lyons, MasterCards chief innovation officer. Previous winners of
the competition were CallVU and KitLocate, which are making progreses in the business sector and have formed
strong relationship with MasterCard.

Australia
Australia-based beauty box startup bellabox grabs US$2.7M in funding
Australia-based beauty startup bellabox announced securing over US$2.7 million from digital publisher Allure Media.
The nearly three-year-old beauty subscription service and e-commerce platform received US$5.4 million from Allure
Media, but a portion of that went to outgoing shareholders. The company intends to use the funds to boost hiring
efforts, especially in managerial positions, and explore new markets, primarily in Asia Pacific. Additionally, it will start
looking at various subscription services targeting other customer segments. Currently, bellabox has three target
markets: women, men and babies. Recently, a number of competitors in the Asian beauty box space have
withdrawn, either with a pivot to run as a social networking or e-commerce site or completely shutting down
operations. bellabox, on the other hand, is still keeping the beauty box fire alive and going. At the moment, the
company has 40,000 monthly members and more than 600 brand partners in Singapore and Australia. Brands
include Elizabeth Arden, benefit and DKNY. In January 2013, bellabox received US$1.17 million from various
investors in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.