Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bi-monthly Highlights
Global Trends
Market forecasts, regulatory barriers, top vendors, and leading commercial applications of drones
The fast-growing global drone industry has not sat back waiting for government policy to be hammered out
before pouring investment and effort into opening up this all-new hardware and computing market. A growing
ecosystem of drone software and hardware vendors is already catering to a long list of clients in agriculture,
land management, energy, and construction. Many of the vendors are small private companies and startups,
although large defense-focused companies and industrial conglomerates are beginning to invest in drone
technology. The global commercial drone market will take shape around applications in a handful of industries:
agriculture, energy, utilities, mining, construction, real estate, news media, and film production. Most growth in
the drone industry is on the commercial/civilian side, as the shift away from the military market gains
momentum. Many of the notable early commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) manufacturers are
emerging outside of the US market. The commercial-drone industry is still young but has begun to see some
consolidation and major investments from large industrial conglomerates, chip companies, and defense
contractors.
Asia Pacific
China
China car hailing app Didi Kuaidi raises US$2B as Uber rivalry intensifies
Chinas dominant mobile car-ride hailing company Didi Kuaidi announced that it raised US$2 billion in a
fundraising round as competition was U.S rival Uber Technologies Inc heats up on its home turf. This funding
will lift its cash reserves to US$3.5 billion. Didi Kuaidi, which has the largest market share of car-hailing apps in
China, announced that the funding amount may rise by another few hundred million due to tremendous
interest from global investors. The president of Kuaidi President Jean Liu that the company would remain
focused on China and the transport market, and would establish their leading position in the full service
transportation platform worldwide. The companys new investors now include Capital International Private
Equity Fund and Ping An Ventures, part of Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd.
Korea
Japan
Japanese Startup, Arcterus Raises about US$1M for Digital Note-Sharing App
Tokyo-based Arcterus has raised 130 million (approximately US $1.05 million) in a Series A round from
Dentsu Digital Holdings, Startia and Bon Angels, reports Tech in Asia. Like many edtech startups in Japan,
Arcterus targets the countrys ubiquitous juku, or cram schools after-school tutoring academies that have
grown into a US$10 billion industry, Arcterus company offers a digital notebook app that allows students to
upload and share class notes, along with an assessment tool for teachers and students. It also runs its own
tutoring center. Founded in 2010, Arcterus was initially self-funded by its founder to the tune of 70 million
(approx. US $567,000).
India
Indias music-streaming leader Saavn raises US$100M, adding 1M users each month.
Savanna announced that it had raised US$100 million and now has 14 million users. The latest funding was
led by Tiger Global Management. The company announced that it would use money for product development,
customer accession, and investing in its advertising technology. Savanna has been exploding in popularity by
focusing primarily on its home country and the Indian diaspora around the world. The company now projects it
will have 20 million monthly active users by the end of this year. Saavn is one of the many, many international
streaming services that are seeking to ride the surge from digital downloads to streaming.
Lybrate bags US$10.2M funding from Tiger Global, Nexus, Ratan Tata
Lybrate, a healthcare communication and delivery platform, announced that it has secured US$10.2 million in
Series A funding from Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, and existing
investor Nexus Venture Partners. Founded in 2013, Lybrate aims to solve the fundamental problem of
healthcare delivery in India, namely inaccessibility of doctors compounded by the gap between supply of and
demand for healthcare professionals. By connecting doctors with patients across geographies, Lybrate helps in
US-Indian Big Data Firm Axtria secures US$30M in Series C funding led by Helion
Axtria, a Big Data analytics company, has announced US$30 million in Series C funding led by Helion Venture
Partners, with an investment of US$15 million. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Desh Deshpande, along with
existing investors Amar Sawhney, Rick Braddock and Fred Khosravi, also participated in this round. Axtria is a
company that provides consulting, outsourcing and technology solutions to help companies make better datadriven decisions in functions like sales, marketing and risk management operations.The funding will be used to
accelerate hiring, build a sales force, increase marketing, develop products and expand markets including new
verticals and geographies.
Vietnam
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
Malaysia
Indonesia
Bizzy joins Indonesia's young B2B e-comm space with US$2.5M funding
Ardent Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies in Southeast Asia, has
announced the launch of Bizzy.co.id today, with a funding of US$2.5 million. Founded in February 2015,
Bizzys 37-strong team manages a B2B platform that carries products from merchants in office supplies,
electronics, cleaning, pantry and services, which is sorely lacking in Indonesias B2B e-commerce space. Bizzy
helps merchants make the shift to online and meet the logistical demands of B2B business customers, by
integrating multiple shipments from multiple vendors, known as crossdocking, through the fulfillment centre of
its partner aCommerce. With investment from Ardent Capital, Bizzy aims to improve the countrys business
supplies and services market.
Taiwan
Thailand
Philippines
Singapore
Tech in Asia raises US$4M from SB ISAT Fund, Eduardo Saverin, among others
Singapore-based tech startup media platform Tech in Asia (TiA) has secured US$4 million in new funding. The
funding was led by SB ISAT Fund, which according to TiA counts SoftBank and Indosat as its key partners.
The funding round also saw participation from Facebook Co-founder and Singapore resident Eduardo Saverin,
Walden International, Marvelstone, m&s Partners, and Andrew James Solimine, Co-founder of Nitrous.
TiA(Tech in Asia), founded in 2011, recently revamped its platform to a more Reddit-like model, creating a
more community-focused approach to media and content TiA has announced that it will use the investment to
build more relevant features for its community. The company is also looking to expand its team in the region.
United States
HackerOne raises US$25M to make the Internet safer via bug bounty programs
HackerOne, the platform for running and managing security bug bounty programs, today announced that it has
closed a $25 million round led by New Enterprise Associates. This figure brings the total amount raised to $34
millions. This additional money is going towards encouraging hackers to find exploits, who will be paid when
they responsibly notify companies so they can fix issues before attackers have a chance to exploit them.
HackerOne is a company that makes money in a very simple way: the startup charges a 20 percent
commission on top of each bounty paid through its service (it waives the fee for free open source software).
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
Snowflake raises US$45M and makes its cloud data warehouse generally available
Snowflake Computing, a startup that has built data warehouse software based in the Amazon Web Services
cloud, announced a new US$45 million funding round and made its software generally available. Altimeter
Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Wing Ventures participated in the new funding round.
Snowflake Computing started in 2012 and is based in San Mateo, California. Till now, the startup has raised at
least $71 million. The startup plans to use this money to expand the company (it currently has 80 employees).
While Snowflake will likely hire a few engineers, the focus of will be on expanding the salesforce in the U.S.
with an international push coming at a later date.
Crosscut Ventures raises US$75M fund for early-stage tech and gaming startups in LA
Crosscut Ventures announced its new US$75 million fund to invest in early-stage startups and seed
investments in the Los Angeles area. The funds establishment shows there still exists strong interest in
investing in Southern California startups and gaming enterprises as well. The firm already has $50 million
under management from two previous funds. Crosscut was started in 2008 and its vision was to build
companies in Los Angeles. Crosscut has made 45 investments via the previous funds and have had 10 exits to
date. Crosscut will make about eight to 10 investments per year, mostly in Southern California. It will also
invest across the U.S. with strong local co-investors. It will focus on areas that include software as a service, ecommerce, adtech, mobile, marketplaces, and gaming.
Artificial intelligence startup DigitalGenius raises US$3M to help companies automate customer
service
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup DigitalGenius has announced its first venture capital funding, nabbing US$3
million in a round led by Metamorphic Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Lowercase
Capital, RRE Ventures, Lumia Capital, and a handful of strategic angel investors. The New York-based
companys platform automates question-and-answer conversations, perfect for companies that want to offer a
text-based customer support service without requiring actual people. The company aims to use the $3 million
to fuel its operations and growth plans, and most importantly, to productize its AI offerings and transform the
way brands communicate with consumers at scale.
Dating app Once finds US$3.5M to help you find the one
New York-based app Once announced that it received a US$3.5 million seed round from Partech Ventures and
some private investors to help users find their soulmate by getting away from having multiple dating options.
Once recently opened offices in Paris, and it is soon opening offices in London. The company announced that
it will use its funds from the round to fuel the companys growth as well as very edgy and very different app
features coming by the end of the year.
Europe
Babbel raises US$22M to help grow its language-learning platform in the Americas
Language-learning startup Babbel has raised US$22 million to help expedite product development and
expansion across the Americas. This announcement puts the companys total known funding past the $30
million mark, including $10 million raised in 2013. The latest funding round was led by new investor Scottish
Equity Partners (SEP), with contributions from existing investors, including Reed Elsevier Ventures and Nokia
Growth Partners (NGP). Babel was launched in 2007 by Germany-based Lesson Nine GmbH, and has
emerged as one of the leading brands in the online language-learning fraternity, with mobile apps and a
website covering 14 languages including English, Spanish, and Russian. Babble currently seeks 120,000
downloads each day and to help boost uptake it recently launched a version for Apple Watch.
British social network Tagstr raises additional US$1M, announces it hit 500K user mark
British social network Tagstr has announced that they have pulled in US$1 million in additional seed funding,
bringing the total amount that they have raised to $2.6 million. Tagstr has an app that allows users to share
videos, photos, and audio through themes, as opposed to following. Users can check out all audio and video
content posted for a particular event, such as Glastonbury, rather than simply seeing what friends post. Tagstr
has become quite popular since it launched in August 2014, reporting that they now have 500K users and that
users have shared 20 million pieces of content. The Cheltenham-based startup intendeds to use the latest bit
of funding, which comes from an undisclosed investor ), to build partnerships and continue to develop the
platform.
Israel
SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
9
Israels Pluristem raises US$17M to bring placental stem cells to the masses
Israeli company Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a Haifa-based company that went public in 2003, has raised
US$17 million from private investors through a shelf prospectus. The company has raised over $100 million on
the NASDAQ so far. Pluristem uses cells derived from an after-birth placenta rather than using fetal stem cells,
which are the subject of great ethical controversy. In May of last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
reviewed Pluristems comparability studies of its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cell products and granted
approval for the company to manufacture these products in its new commercial-scale cell manufacturing facility
in Haifa, Israel
Redis Labs raises US$15M to market a database service that could be a goldmine for social networks
Israeli Redis Labs announced that it raised US$15 million in Series B funding largely to expand the marketing
and sales activities of its NoSQL hybrid database offering Redis Cloud, which is popular for processing
unstructured data on consumer websites, especially social networks. Carmel Ventures and Bain Capital
Ventures led the funding round with participation from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing the companys total funding
to date to $28 million. This funding occurred in large part because of the success of its fully-managed cloud
service Redis Cloud, which has grown 116 percent in the last year. The company now has more than 4,900
paying customers, including Hotel Tonight, Docker, and Bleacher Report.