SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy

and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew

July 14, 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
Digital health startups have taken US $2.2B in funding so far in 2014 (Rock Health report)
A new report from Rock Health states that halfway through 2014 more than US $2.2B has been invested in
digital health startups. This figure is already more than US $1.97B, which is the amount invested in this field
during all of 2013. The funding deals have gotten bigger as well: the average round in 2014 is over US $15m
whereas the average round in 2013 was around US $10m. Furthermore, Rock Health report states that year
over year the amount invested in digital health startups has grown by more than 160%. The most active
venture capital firms that have invested in this field so far have been Qualcomm Ventures, Andreessen
Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Emergence Capital, Google Ventures, Matrix Partners and Venrock.
Additionally, the largest funding deals so far this year include NantHealth (US $135m), Flatiron Health (US
$130m), Alignment Healthcare (US $125m), Proteus (US $120m), MedHOK (US $78m), Lumeris (US $71m),
Zenefits (US $67m) and Doximity (US $54m).

330 million smartwatches will be sold worldwide by 2018 (ON WORLD report)
A new report from ON WORLD projects that by the end of 2018, 330 million smartwatches will have been sold
worldwide which is significantly more than under 4 million in 2013. The report also projects that 700 million
wearable tech devices of all classes will be sold over the next five years for a global annual market worth of US
$47.4B. Additionally, ON WORLD reports that women will be put into the role of early adopters and will be the
first movers on smartwatches. Furthermore, the firm conducted surveys on 1,000 online consumers and found
that smartwatches are the wearable technology consumers say they would most likely purchase and that
fitness is the most desired use for a wearable device. Additionally, the survey found that while 40% of
consumers would be willing to pay US $99 or more for a smartwatch that had sensors to measure blood
pressure, heart rate and activity, only 8% would be willing to pay US $299 or more.
72 million kids in the world currently want smart toys (GameByte study)
According to the GameByte study by market research firm Interpret, the number of children that want smart
toys has increased to 72 million worldwide. Examples of such toys are digital toys like Skylanders and hybrid
video games and toy products from Activision. The firm reports that toys that integrate both physical toys and
video games are more likely to succeed across most of the major children markets; the demand is spread
across a number of different geographic markets. Additionally, the firm reports that while the US already has a
booming market for smart toys, emerging gaming markets such as China, Brazil and Russia present strong
growth opportunities.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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

PCs are making a comeback and tablet sales are slowing down according to a report by Gartner
According to the information technology research and advisory company Gartner, the personal computer (PC)
market is on track to diminish only by 2.9 percent this year as compared to 2013 and tablet sales will also be
slowing down. For its study, Gartner separated the PC market into two categories. The first category includes
desktops, laptops and ultramobile devices (such as the MacBook Air or hybrids like the Surface Pro 3) and is
projected to contract only by 2.9 percent in 2014 in comparison to its 9.5 percent decrease in 2013. The
second category includes only traditional desktops and laptop devices and is seeing a revival as it is only set to
decrease by 6.7 percent this year and 5.3 percent in 2015. Gartner attributes this trend to the death of
Windows XP and the subsequent need for people, especially businesses, to upgrade their machines. The firm
predicts that about 60 million professional PC devices will be replaced for this reason. Additionally, Gartner
predicts a slowdown of tablet sales and expects a 23.9 percent increase in tablet sales from last year.
Bitcoin market value grows 800%, and other stats from an amazing year
Bitcoin news site CoinDesk has just released stats on Bitcoins year-over-year growth from June 2013 to June
2014: Its total market worth (the capitalization of all Bitcoins in circulation) is up 800 percent to $8.3B, and a
rough measure of Bitcoin owners is up 700 percent. Additionally, media attention, a rough measure of
popularity and legitimacy, is up 300 percent (measured by mentions in Reuters, NYT, WSJ and a few other big
media outlets).

Asia Pacific
China
Tencent takes 19.9% stake in Chinese Craiglist 58.com for US $736m
Chinese Internet giant, Tencent invested US $736m in 58.com, one of the largest local listing sites in China, for
a 19.5% stake in the company on a fully-diluted basis. One of Tencents properties, WeChat that has 300
million active users using it for mobile communication, sharing content, reading articles from public accounts,
and services from business, has been exploring potential in m-commerce. 58.com is expected to be integrated
into WeChat as the rating and reviews service Dianping had been. The listing service 58.com offers is similar
to the Craigslists, but different from the latters business model because a larger part of the revenues 58.com
makes, 57% in Q1 2014, is from membership fees charged to merchants instead of paid ads. When it comes to
paid ads, the company launched a real-time bidding system in the first quarter of 2013. While it is estimated
the top line growth of 58!s and other Chinese Craigslist-like services will continue, their expenses in sales and
marketing as a percentage of revenues are believed pretty high for an Internet-based business, thanks largely
to the competition. 67% of the total revenues 58.com made in Q1 2014 were spent on sales and marketing,
with 26% of the total on advertising.
Chinese publisher and localizer of Fruit Ninja and Temple Run 2 files for $115M US IPO
Chinese third-party mobile game publisher iDreamsky filed for an initial public offering on US stock exchange
NASDAQ. It plans to raise up to US $115m. iDreamsky is known for successfully localizing western games for
the Chinese market. For example, it brought Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 to
China. Temple Run 2 peaked at almost six million daily active users and 50 million monthly active users.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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
Essentially, the company translates and localizes artwork and other content for the Chinese market, then
distributes it to Chinas myriad of third-party Android app stores. It also runs the games local social media
pages and sets up payments for in-game purchases. Chinese Internet behemoth Tencent, the maker of
WeChat, is iDreamskys biggest shareholder, which gives iDreamsky a powerful and lucrative gatekeeper
position. According to iDreamskys prospectus, the company has 98.3 million monthly active users and 25.8
million daily active users. iDreamsky was profitable last quarter, with total revenue at US$28 million.
Shenzhen-base maternal social platform Lmbang raises US $20m in Series B Funding
A Chinese social network for mothers LMBang has recently raised US $20m in Series B Funding. This latest
round was led by Greenwoods Asset Management with participation of Morningside Ventures, VIP.com, Matrix
Partners and K2 Ventures. The new capital from this round will be used towards exploration of a new business
model as well as towards branding and team construction. This mobile platform for mothers was launched in
May 2012 and has more than 20 million registered users with around 2.6 million daily active users and a
monthly retention rate of 60%. On this platform mothers can discuss and share tips regarding a variety of
topics ranging from child rearing, diet, beauty, emotions, and delicacies to sexual health.
Chinese Domestic Ticket Service Gewara Raises US $32m of Series C+ Funding
Gewara, a Chinese online ticket service has just raised RMB 200m Yuan (around US $32m) of Series C+
funding from China Media Capital (CMC). This raises the total amount of the companys Series C round of
funding to over US $50m; the company received US $20m from CHD Investment last October. These new
funds will be used towards improving Gewaras service and expanding into third- and fourth-tier cities. Gewara
currently has online ticket purchasing deals with over 1,000 movie theaters across nearly 200 cities in China.
The company covers nearly 70% of Chinas domestic online movie ticket market.
Chinas second-biggest ecommerce firm JD launches Kickstarter-like crowdfunding site Coufenzi
Chinas second-biggest ecommerce firm JD launched a new Kickstarter-like crowdfunding platform called
Coufenzi. The platform has 12 projects to date, ranging from gadgets to concerts. The site appears similar to
Demohour, currently the biggest crowdfunding site in China with a focus on consumer electronics. There are
numerous competitors including Dreamore, Knewbie, Angelcrunch, and iChuangye. Coufenzi is part of
Jingdongs other financial products and services like an ewallet and loans. The launch comes shortly after rival
ecommerce giant Alibaba announced its own crowdfunding tactic for domestically-produced movies. The
financial product allows anyone to invest as little as RMB 100 (US $16) and up to RMB 2,000 (US $320) in a
select movie of their choice. Coufenzi is just a pilot program for now, but JD will probably open the service up
to more manufacturers in the future.
With new Pomelo photo app, successful Chinese startup MeituXiuXiu hopes to go global
A Chinese photo app, MeituXiuXiu, has been a smash hit in its home country and has so far accumulated over
200 million downloads and 10 million active users. The startup is trying to go global and has launched the
brand-new Pomelo. According to Meitus Lisa Lynn, the company believes that with the more minimal UI, it will
find a whole new audience from US, Europe and other markets. Pomelo comes with filters arranged in five
groups LOMO, Pola, Film, Vintage, and B&W. Within each group there are eight variations, and there is also
a slider for changing the intensity of the filter. In the 10 days since the launch of Pomelo, the new photo app
has racked up over three million downloads. Founded in 2008, Meitu built an app empire around fun apps
focused on photos, GIFGs, and videos, and has over 200 employees.
For smoggy China, Vogmask makes stylish pollution masks
California-based Vogmask wants to make pollution masks that are purely fashion accessory as they are a
health precaution in China. Bridging the gap between the fun and ineffective screen-printed cloth masks sold
on the street and the more pragmatic options like Totobobo, 3M, and Infipure, Vogmask periodically introduces
a new line of trendy designs to choose from. The latest collection comes from Beijing- and Hong Kong-based
Face Slap, a professional face and body painting startup founded in 2009 by Nina Griffee. The masks ranges
from RMB 180 to RMB 225 (US $29 to US $36). Vogmasks are designed to mold to the wearers face over
time, and they filter out just shy of 100 percent of the harmful particulate matter that plagues Chinas air.
Customers can also get an optional exhale valve and carbon filter. Considering the statics that back in 1952
when London had the Great Smog, there was an estimated of 12,000 fatalities, Vogmasks holds a strong
stance as both effective masks and fashion accessories.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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

Korea
Samsung Foresees a Decline in Profit
Samsung published a financial earnings preview that forecast a profit of about KRW 7.2tn (US $7.1bn). This
shows a decline of 24% from the same period a year ago. The forecast also missed analysts expectations of
about KRW 8tn. In Samsungs statement, it blamed the disappointing forecast on the slowdown in growth of
the overall smartphone market as well as increased competition in China and in some European markets. In
order to improve its sales of smartphones, it had to increase spending on marketing promotions, which also
reduced its profit. The declining profit in the overall smartphone market is not unique to Samsung, largely
because many people who want a smartphone already have one. Samsung, which offers a range of phones at
various prices, is feeling pressure from all sides of the market. In the high end, it faces competition from Apple,
and in the low and midtier phone markets, it faces competition from emerging Asian phone makers like Lenovo,
ZTE, Xiaomi and Huawei.
International Startup Team From LG & Google Raises $1M To Trounce Dropbox
Having founded ASKTech in 2013 after leaving LG Electronics, an international startup team developed their
while-label cloud service, Cloudlike, and have now secured their first major clients. Cloudlike has also raised
US $1.5 million from three Korean VCs to extend their capabilities, especially in global sales. Leading the
round was Bon Angels, with Coolidge Corner and The Ventures participating. Cloudlike is a white-label service,
which is licensed to mobile service providers (MSPs), unlike Dropbox which targets individual users. According
to the cofounder Maksim Azorov, originally a developer at Google, explained that for a fraction of the
development cost that is typically incurred while developing a comparable service from the scratch, Cloudlike
offers a platform with the full range of end-user applications. In addition, Cloudlike and other services like it are
compelling in Korea because KTs cloud service, which benefits from local servers, allows for upload speeds of
a similar file in only three seconds, unlike Dropbox where the average music file takes around 58 seconds to
upload.
6 Korean products top global market
The survey of the worlds top products based on their market shares showed South Korea, home to the worlds
leading electronics giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, shared fourth place with China by topping
the six product categories, down from eight in 2012. Samsung Electronics manufactured the products selected
as No. 1 in the categories of smartphones, flat-panel TVs, NAND flash memory and DRAM, while Samsung
SDIs lithium-ion batteries ranked No. 1 in its category. LG Display was selected for liquid crystal display
panels. The United States came first with 18 products and services, down from 19 in 2012, followed by Japan
with 11 and the EU with 8. Chinese PC maker Lenovo, the only global PC maker that increased the volume of
its shipments last year, became the worlds largest PC manufacturer, outpacing Hewlett Packard. Meanwhile,
Sony topped the game console category with its PlayStation 4. Danish firm Vestas ranked first in the wind
generator market, outdoing General Electric.
SK Telecom, Ericsson join hands for 5G
South Koreas top mobile carrier, SK Telecom Co., has forged ties with Sweden-based Ericsson to jointly
conduct studies on the fifth-generation network, which has drawn the attention of the global telecom
industry. SK Telecom and Ericsson will focus on the study of ultra-wideband and low-latency technology used
for remote driving, gigabyte-level data transmission, converging time division duplex and frequency division
duplex, the mobile carrier said. The 5G network is expected to be 1,000 times faster than the existing long-
term evolution service, allowing users to download an 800-megabyte movie in one second, compared with 40
seconds on the LTE-Advanced network, currently billed as the worlds fastest.

Japan
Japanese E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Launches US $100m Global Investment Fund
Japans Amazon, Rakuten has just launched its new US $100m global investment fund, which will focus on
startups not only in the Southeast Asia region but also those in Israel, the U.S. and the Asia Pacific region.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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
This new fund will be based in Singapore and run by Rakuten Ventures managing partner Saemin Ahn. While
Rakuten has not yet disclosed which companies it may potentially invest in, it has stated that it will invest in
startups that have strategic significance and those that could eventually lead into acquisitions. Rakutens
investments in Southeast Asia have been focused on mobile commerce companies like Carousell, which is a
consumer-to-consumer marketplace, and e-payments company CodaPayments, as well as digital content
consumption such as Visenze, a visual search tech startup.
AirAsia Starts Budget Airline in Japan With Rakuten
Malaysia-based AirAsia has recently announced that it will be setting up a low-cost airline in Japan with
Rakuten, Japans largest online retailer, and other companies. AirAsia Japan will hold 49% stake in the new
company while Rakuten will own 18%, Noevir Holdings 9%, Octave Japan Infrastructure Fund 19% and Alpen
5%. Rakuten has entered this endeavor with AirAsia because it sees great potential in the budget travel market
in Japan and also because it wants to strengthen its own online travel site which is already one of the largest in
Japan. The new carrier, AirAsia Japan, will have an initial capitalization of 7B (US $69m) and will start flights
in about one year with a fleet of five Airbus A320 aircrafts. Additionally, the airline plans to fly to domestic and
international destinations but has yet to decide which airport will be its base.
New Japanese VC Femto invests US $1.5m in real-time web analytics firm
Japans Femto Global Ventures, founded in 2013 with a fund of approximately US $16m, has recently
announced an investment of US $1.5m (nearly 10% of its cash) into Plaid, a real-time web analytics firm still in
closed beta testing. In addition to this investment, Femtos general manager, Tetsuya Isozaki will become
Plaids outside director. Plaids goal is to enable online merchants to approach potential customers in the same
way that a real store manager can observe customers before making contact to carry out a sale. In order to
achieve this goal, Plaid has developed its main application: Karte. This program provides a platform through
which ecommerce sellers can automatically observe the actions of potential online shoppers in real time and
respond in a way that will increase the likelihood of shoppers buying the sellers products. Plaids initial capital
before this investment was US $850,000 and the new capital will be used towards building up the companys
technical capacity.
Mobile game developer Gumi raises $50M and partners with Sega Networks
Tokyo-based mobile game developer Gumi secured a JPY 5 billion (US $50 million) fundraising round led by
Silicon Valley VC World Innovation Lab (WiL). Sega Networks also participated in the latest investment and will
aid Gumi with further expansion into US and international markets. Sega Networks also took part in the latest
investment and will reportedly aid Gumi with further expansion into US and international markets. JAFCO, B
Dash Ventures, Shinsei Business Investment, GREE, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and DBJ Capital also
participated. WiL, established in California but founded and managed by Japanese executives, states its goal
as bridging the gap between Japan and the Valley. It also pumped US$15.5 million into printing-focused
ecommerce site Raksul earlier this year. Gumi is most known for Brave Frontier, a smash-hit mobile RPG with
the majority of players in South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, and grossed JPY 10 billion (US $98 million) in
sales. According to Gumi founder and CEO Hironao Kunimitsu, he plans to file for an IPO by the end of the
year and also turn Brave Frontier into a TV series.
Hybrid cloud storage firm Cloudian receives $24 million
Cloudian, California-based company raised US $24 million financing round from existing investors like Intel
Capital as well as newcomers Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Fidelity Growth Partners
Japan. The firm plans to use the fund to power Cloudians global sales and marketing. Cloudian is a hybrid
cloud storage firm with a major presence in Japan. Cloudian calls its service hybrid because it facilitates the
creation of private corporate clouds via third-party providers. The company often touts its compliance with
Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System (Amazon S3), which means a private corporation can use
Amazon S3 for general storage while preserving sensitive data on its own systems.

India
Zomato makes first ever acquisition to boost listings of New Zealand restaurants
The India-based restaurant finder site Zomato has made its first ever acquisition of New Zealands MenuMania

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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
for an undisclosed sum. According to Deepinder Goyal, Zomatos CEO and founder, the two startups will be
the largest resource of restaurant information in New Zealand. This acquisition is the first of more to come in
our mission to be the dominant player in this space across the globe. Zomatos main competitor is Yelp.
Zomato expanded rapidly in 2013, venturing into the UK, South Africa, Indonesia, Turkey, and Brazil. It now
covers 230,000 restaurants in 41 cities across 12 countries. The startup received $37 million in funding led by
Sequoia Capital last November to continue its globe-trotting.
TripHobo raises over US $1m in Series A Funding from Kalaari Capital
Indian travel startup TripHobo has recently raised over US $1m in Series A Funding from Kalaari Capital. Vani
Kola, managing director of Kalaari Capital and Sumit Jain, principal of the fund, will also be joining the board of
TripHobo. Currently, the website has over 25,500 curated and verified itineraries written by travelers, covering
around 10,000 tourist hotspots in 170 cities around the world. With this new capital TripHobo plans to create
more itineraries and travel resources for their website. One of TripHobos greatest strengths is its algorithm
which is called Trip Optimizer. This self-learning algorithm allows travelers to optimize their itineraries using a
number of parameters such as distance from hotel, operating times of places to visit, etc.
Indian startup Pokkt that exchanges your free time for mobile credits raised $2.5M
India-based startup Pokkt (Pocket) has raised US $2.5 million series A round led by JAFCO Asia, a Singapore
headquartered venture capital firm. The startup has come up with a unique way to enable mobile payments in
emerging markets, where credit card penetrations are low. Essentially, it has created a marketplace for
consumers to get apps, games, and other digital content without paying a single cent. Instead, they pay with
their time by consuming content from some 100 advertisers, who pay to plug into the platform. Pokket not only
wants to give consumers easier access to digital content, but also provide developers a way to monetize from
users who use their apps for free. It also launched a new product this month: Pocket Money, a consumer-
facing Android app in which users consume advertisers content in exchange for credits. They can then use the
money to redeem mobile recharges on Indias major telcos like Aircel, Airtel, and Tata Docomo. According to
Pokkt founder and CEO Rohit Sharma, the startup has between 8,000 to 10,000 transactions a day, up from
500 a day from the first quarter after it launched in October last year.

Thailand
Juice Cubes developer Pocket PlayLab acquires Philippine gaming startup
Thailand-based Pocket PlayLab has acquired Philippines-based Anino Games for an undisclosed sum.
According to Pocket PlayLab co-founder Jakob Lykkegaard, the acquisition will double its current team size.
Both gaming startups make casual games for iOS and Android. The Thai startup, founded in 2012, is best
known for Juice Cubes, which is published by the Rovio Stars program run by the Angry Birds developer.
Pocket PlayLab has over one million daily active users on its three games. The Philippine team has created
over 60 games and is most popular for Robot Bop. The acquisition is a strong turn-around for Pocket PlayLab,
a startup that was struggling to stay afloat with no funding until Rovio spotted Juice Cubes and decided that it
should be published under the new Rovio Stars banner. The acquisition comes a few weeks after Thailand-
based ecommerce service provider aCommerce raised one of the largest venture capital rounds in Southeast
Asia to date.

Hong Kong
HotelQuickly raises US $4.5m in funds
Hong Kong-based HotelQuickly has just raised US $4.5m in its latest round of funding. This Series A round
was led by publicly-listed Tokyo-based company GREE with participation from William E. Heinecke, CEO and
Chairman of Thai-based Minor International. HotelQuickly, focused on the Asia Pacific region, is a last minute
hotel booking app for iOS, BB10 and Android that offers users hotel rooms for heavily discounted prices. This
app also offers hotel an efficient way to sell their spare inventory without eating into their existing market or
diminishing their brands value through excessive discounting.


SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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
Australia
Expedia purchases Australian travel giant Wotif Group for US $658m
Expedia Inc. has recently acquired the Australian firm Wotif Group for roughly US $658m (AU $703m). Wotif
Group is the company behind a number of online travel brands in the Asia Pacific region such as Wotif.com,
Lastminute.com.au, Travel.com.au, Asia Web Direct, LateStays.com, GoDo.com.au and Arnold Travel
Technology. Expedias chief Dara Khosrowshahi has said that this acquisition will allow both Expedia and Wotif
Group to continue driving growth opportunities by leveraging the unique strengths each brings to the table.
This latest deal follows Expedias June acquisition of the Auto Escape Group, a European car-rental firm.

United States
Google Ventures goes to Europe with new $100M fund
Google Ventures launched a new fund dedicated to European startups that will initially have about $100 million
to work with. Managing partner Bill Maris wrote in an official blog, We believe Europes startup scene has
enormous potential. Weve seen compelling new companies emerge from places like London, Paris, Berlin, the
Nordic region and beyond SoundCloud, Spotify, Supercell, and many others. The firm will open a new office
in London with five partners: Google Europe executive Eze Vidra, entrepreneur Tom Hulme, angel investor
Peter Read, Code.org UK head Avid Larizadeh, and current Google Ventures partner MG Siegler (formerly a
writer for VentureBeat). Google Ventures is one of the few U.S. firms to launch a dedicated European fund, but
it faces stiff competition from a whole slew of Europe-based firms, such as Index Ventures, Earlybird Venture
Capital, Balderton Capital, Runa Capital, and many others. Major U.S. venture capital firm Accel Partners has
long maintained a presence in Europe, with multiple dedicated European funds.
Malwarebytes raises US $30m during its first round of funding since launching in 2008
San Francisco-based Malwarebytes has just taken in US $30m in venture cash in their first round of funding
ever. The entire amount was invested by Highland Capital Partners. Malwarebytes creates anti-virus security
software that protects computers and mobile devices for more than 206 million clients. The company was
launched in 2008 when Malwarebytes chief executive Marcin Kleczynski was a freshman at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During the first year of business, the company made $500,000 without taking
any funds from outside investors.
Google buys music streaming service Songza
Google acquired music streaming service Songza. Founded in 2007, Songza uses information about the user
and context to determine the best playlists for the user at any given time, all of which are curated by music
experts. Songza also has tons of data around what people like to listen to based on the time of day, the
weather, location, and activity, which can be immensely valuable to a company like Google who is looking to
seamlessly integrate technology into every corner of users lives. Originally, Google was reported to be
targeting the US $15 m mark for this acquisition, though the company has not officially disclosed the terms of
the deal. Songza currently has around 5.5M active users. Apple recently acquired Beats Music for US $3B for
similar reasons and Amazon has launched its own Prime Music service, which millions of people are using.
MakersKit raises US $1.5m in seed funding to launch a DIY empire
Launched in February last year, MakersKit has raised US $1.5m in seed financing, inked distribution
agreements with Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, and published a book through Amazon. The company
packages the most popular tutorials and sell them as kits. However, instead of including instructions in the kit,
the company provides the link to online videos that walk customers through the projects. Its competitors are
For the Makers, Darby Smart and WhimseyBox. So far, MakersKit has sold 45,000 kits in a little over a year at
around $25 per-kit. Stone expects the company to more than double that figure in 2014. In addition to the
online and retail presence the company has through its own site and its brick-and-mortar retail partners,
MakersKit also has collaborations with other web-based vendors like Birchbox and Zulily.
MapR gains US $110m in funding led by Google Capital
San Jose-based startup MapR Technologies raised US $110m in funding led by Google Capital. MapR, which
helps companies around the world deploy Hadoop, raised US $80m in private equity from Google Capital,

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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.
8
Qualcomm Incorporated, and existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, NEA
and Redpoint Ventures. The company raised another $30m in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing
the total up to $110m. This is more than double the amount raised in past rounds and makes for a total of
$174m in funding since 2009 for the company. The startup plans to use the funds to continue its growth in the
big data and analytics segment.
Cloud storage company Box raises US $150m and delays IPO
Online storage startup Box raised US $150m from private-equity firm TPG. The funding comes ahead of the
companys initial public offering, which has already been pushed back. Box was slated for its IPO in April, but
decided to hold off. According to the companys S-1 filing, it had a net loss of US $168 million from the fiscal
year that ended on January 31, and therefore this round of funding was much needed. Box is a competitor to
Dropbox in the race to become the dominant cloud storage provider for enterprises. Dropbox is also planning
to go public and has been raising a lot of capital, making strategic hires, and securing a giant line of credit prior
to filing. During Boxs last funding round in November, the company netted $100 million at a $2 billion valuation.
3D-sensing camera startup Matterport raises US $16m
Founded in 2011, Matterport, a California-based startup that has designed a physical camera for creating
three-dimensional models of rooms and a cloud service for storing and sharing models, raised US $16m in
new venture funding led by DCM Ventures. Matterport is one of numerous companies building technology that
could lead to more immersive experiences for a wide range of application. Recently, Amazon has incorporated
3D elements and motion sensing into its new Fire Phone and Apple bought 3D imaging startup PrimeSense.
While Matterport does take in revenue from sales of its existing iOS-compatible physical cameras aimed at real
estate, retail, construction, and insurance uses the gadgets cost $4,500 each the startup could stand to
grow into a hit on regular peoples smartphones. Matterport has collaborated with Google on Googles Tango
ATAP project and wants to take part in Googles consumer-grade Tango-ready device.
Opendoor is almost ready for business after its US $10m funding and a long list of big-name investors
Keith Raboiss new startup, Opendoor, has recently raised its first round of funding of US $9.95 million. The
new venture is in the real estate realm to help people sell their houses faster. According to Rabois, if the users
put in their address, the company will tell them what the houses are worth instantly and will buy the houses
from them for that price. The company will analyze relevant data to help home sellers set optimal prices and
then sell their homes to the company immediately, in just a few clicks. Opendoor then sells the house to a new
homebuyer, presumably pocketing any markup as profit. This round of funding will be used for investing into its
data science team, the models it will build for its operation, and other personnel needs. The founding team is
comprised of Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois, former Trulia head of geo Eric Wu, former Square data
science lead Ian Wong, and former Addepar vice president of product JD Ross.
Robin, A Company that Makes Offices Smart Raises US $1.4m
Boston-based company Robin raised US $1.4m seed round of funding led by Atlas Venture, Deep Fork Capital,
Boldstart Ventures and Space Pirates. The startup plans to use the fund to continue product development,
grow the number of its Robin-powered offices, and do a small amount of hiring. Designed for use in the
workplace, Robin uses iBeacon and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices to detect nearby people and things.
It can automate conference room bookings for users just by them walking into a room. And after they enter,
Robin can update the screens in the room and the nearby devices to give them control. Robin was spun out
from twin brothers Sam and Zach Dunns earlier company One Might Roar, an agency that did work for brands
like Budweiser, Facebook and Chipotle.
Duetto raises US $21m to expand hotel profit optimization services globally
Hotel profit optimization company Duetto has recently raised $21m in new funding to market its service
worldwide. This latest round was led by Accel Partners and followed by previous investors Battery Ventures,
Altimeter Capital, Thayer Lodging CEO Leland Pillsbury and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Duetto sells
subscriptions to its cloud-based software, which helps hotels sell their rooms for the highest possible profit.
The company does this by gathering and analyzing many disparate data sets such as flight times, air traffic,
weather patterns and Internet hotel shopping behavior. Using this software, hotels are able to predict the
demand levels for certain time periods and set prices accordingly.

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SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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RetailNext raises a US $30m late-stage round of investment
RetailNext, a company that specializes in providing data analysis tools to real-world retailers, has recently
finished raising US $30m in a late-stage round of investment. This is the companys fourth round of funding
and brings its total capital raised to US $59.4m. This round was led by Nokia Growth Partners (which included
investments from Qualcomm Incorporated, Tyco and American Express) and was followed by new investor
Activant Capital Group and existing shareholders August Capital, StarVest Partners and Commerce
ventures. The new capital will be used towards product development, R&D, and to expand into Europe, the
Asia Pacific region and Latin America. RetailNext is a compay that provides e-commerce-style metrics for
brick-and-mortar stores using sensors that record the actual physical activity of customers. Sensors include
video cameras, point-of-sale systems, payment cards, weather sensors and guest Wi-Fi networks.

South America
Linio, Latin America's Amazon-style e-commerce marketplace, raises US $79m in funding
Linio, an Amazon-style e-commerce marketplace currently operating in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru has
recently raised US $79m in funding. This latest round was led by new investor Northgate Capital and Access
Industries (investor in Beat Electronics and Spotify competitor Deezer) and this new capital will be used toward
expanding into other large Latin American markets such as Chile. Currently, the company does not have any
relevant competitors challenging it across all countries and its only main competition is traditional retailers that
also sell their products online. This brings the total funding raised by Linio, founded in 2012, to over US $150m.
The company has not disclosed its valuation to the public yet and nor has it revealed any sale figures, details
on profitability, customer numbers or any other financial statistics. Linio is a company of Rocket Internet, a
Berlin-based e-commerce incubator.

Europe
Mobile-only bank Osper raises US $10m to aim at UK youth market
Osper, a new UK startup, has just raised US $10m in its latest round of funding. This round was led by
Londons Index Ventures (which has also backed SoundCloud and Etsy) and followed by Horizons Ventures,
Peter Jackson (CEO of Travelex) and Darren Shapland (ex-Chairman of Sainsburys bank). Targeted towards
the UKs 7 million 8-18 year olds, Osper is a mobile-only, branchless, banking service that offers a pre-paid
debit card for youths whose activity can be monitored and controlled by their parents via a mobile app. Osper
Cards are free for the first year and then cost 10 per year after the first year. The company plans to make
profits through revenue from the interchange when a transaction is made, interest on deposits and the annual
subscription fee. The capital from this round will be used towards launching the service out of beta in the UK
and hopefully expanding the company to locations globally.
Sweden-based Hansoft raises US $10m
Hansoft, Swedish project management and collaboration software startup, raised US $10m in funding led by
investment firm Hasso Plattner Ventures. Hansoft makes the team collaboration tool Agile, which game
companies such as Capcom, id Software, and EAs Bioware have used. According to chief executive of
Hansoft, Patric Palm, the startup plans to use the funding to hire more people, including a chief growth officer
and chief revenue officer, at its San Francisco office. The company said it has been profitable since day one
and wholly and equally owned by its founders Erik Olofsson, Hans Andersson, and Patric Palm. It previously
raised funding from Nordic venture capital firm Creandum, the first institutional investor in Spotify.
BlaBlaCar raises astounding US $100m VC round to create a global long distance ride-sharing network
BlaBlaCar has recently raised the largest VC round of all time for a French startup. This round which sums up
to US $100m was led by Index Ventures and followed by existing investors Accel Partners, ISAI and Lead
Edge Capital. BlaBlaCar is a marketplace where you can find a driver who is driving from one city to another
and book a seat in advance. It has the same business model as Airbnb users pay or get money every time
they ride or drive, and the company takes a 10% cut on average. Drivers can make a bit of money while riders
can travel for cheap. The average 200 miles ride costs US $25 on average. BlaBlaCars biggest strength is that

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SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
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its marketplace is improving all the time the more people use it, the more rides you will find close to your
home, even if youre going from a tiny city to another small city. BlaBlaCar now operates in 12 countries and
has 8 million members (after announcing 7 million members in May 2014), with a million monthly active users
a BlaBlaCar active user is someone who has shared a ride in the last month. At the same time last year,
only 330,000 people used the service every month.
Moscow-based Runa Capital closes US $200m fund to invest in European startups
Runa Capital, a Moscow-based global tech-focused venture capital firm, has announced that it has closed its
second fund, Runa Capital II. The funds target total size is US $200m and will invest in tech companies
worldwide, with a special geographical focus on Central, Eastern and Western Europe, along with Turkey and
Israel. Investors for this fund come from across Europe, Russia and the USA, with large commitments from
investors in the first Runa Capital fund. Runa Capital II will be focused on cloud computing, hosted services,
virtualization, mobile applications and IT-solutions for education, healthcare, social and fintech. Individual
investments will range between $1m to $10m while the average investment will be around $3m to $5m. The
fund has had three exits so far: in 2012 its UK portfolio company Thinkgrid was acquired by ColtTelecom, in
2014 its USA portfolio company was acquired by CloudFar, and in 2014 its French portfolio company Capptain
was acquired by Microsoft.
Creator of MedEye, pill-scanning medical safety device, raises US $6m in Series A funding
Mint Solutions, a hardware startup that has developed a scanning device designed to ensure that hospital
nurses give each patient the right medicine and the correct dosage, has just raised "4.425m (US $6m) in
Series A funding. This latest round was led by European investment firm Life Sciences Partners (LSP) and co-
led by Seventure Partners, with participation from existing investors. Mint Solutions medication verification
device is called MedEye and uses computer vision to identify tablets placed in its front drawer. The device can
identify the medication based on physical characteristics such as the size, shape, colour and markings of
individual pills. The goal of this device and Mint Solutions is to improve medical safety in hospitals and also to
streamline the pill-dispensing process for nurses. The MedEye device has currently been deployed to hospitals
in the Netherlands and the new capital will enable Mint Solutions to release the device to hospitals in the UK
and Germany. Mint Solutions participated in the Netherlands-based, hardware-focused accelerator
Startupbootcamp High Tech XL last year and this funding is a record raise for Startupbootcamp.
Scytl receives US $20m in funding
Barcelona-based Scytl has just received US $20m from SAP Ventures so that it can expand globally. Scytl is a
startup that is making an attempt to move voting processes online and its goal is to make elections more
efficient, accessible and transparent. Its software is focused on providing voter registration and voting services
along with election night reporting. More importantly though, Scytls software offers security as it has
developed election-specific cryptographic security technology protected by more than 40 international patents
and patent applications. Currently the company is working with government and other organizations in 35
different companies.

Israel
Perion buys Grow Mobile for up to US $42m to build up its mobile marketing business
Tel Aviv-found Perion is paying US $17m up front (US $10m in cash, US $7m in equity) as well as up to
another US $25m in cash and equity over the next two years based on performance targets to acquire the
relatively new ad aggregation platform Grow Mobile. Perion is a publicly-listed mobile app services company
and has made this acquisition to further build its mobile business. Grow Mobile will become a part of Perions
new Lightspeed mobile marketing division and while for the time being Grow Mobiles standalone product will
continue to operate as is the ultimate plan is to integrate Grow Mobile into a bigger platform that Perion is
building. Grow Mobile was launched about one year ago with the intent of creating a platform for any app
maker to acquire users just like big-name gaming companies do. The resulting product was a dashboard that
brings in over 75 different market sources where app publishers can plan their media campaigns, spend their
marketing budgets and then track the results.

SparkLabs Gl obal Ventures Technol ogy
and Internet Market Bi -Monthl y Revi ew
July 14, 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.
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Private cloud firm CTERA bags $25M to wean enterprises off Dropbox & Box
CTERA Networks has just raised US $25m during its latest round of funding. This latest round was led by
Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Benchmark Capital, Cisco and Venrock.
Founded in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2008, CTERA creates file-sharing and backup software that allows companies to
bring their cloud storage solution in-house. In addition to this software, the company also sells hardware that
converts external hard drives into network-attached storage devices. CTERA sells its technology directly to
enterprises with their own existing cloud infrastructure and also to telecommunication provides that resell this
technology to their own customers.