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Bi-monthly Highlights

Global Trends
Tech IPOs doubled in the last half of 2016, setting the stage for a robust 2017
Last year was a bumpy one for tech entrepreneurs. Between shaky markets and a tense political climate,
some private companies that had planned for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2016 delayed their exit. Only
eight U.S. tech IPOs occurred over the first six months, according to a report released today by CB Insights.
But the number doubled in the second half, with 17 U.S. tech startups entering the public markets. This trend
was also reflected on a global level, with 36 IPOs in the first half of the year, compared to 62 in the second
half.

For U.S. startups that chose to forego an IPO, 2016 saw a flurry of mergers and acquisition activity. While the
year started off strong with a whopping 862 M&A deals, the second part of the year saw an eight percent
decrease, to 793 deals. This result may be a reflection of the uncertain markets, as M&A deals went up when
IPOs were down, and vice versa.

As expected, California-based companies led the way with the highest number of tech exits. New York came
in second, and Massachusetts tied with Texas. CB Insights reported that SV Angel led in terms of the number
of backings for tech exits, followed by Intel Capital, 500 Startups, Andreessen Horowitz, and Northwest
Venture Partners. Google was the most active buyer in 2016, making tech acquisitions that include Eyefluence
and API.AI, among several others. Salesforce and Accenture tied for the second spot. Regarding corporate
investments, Intel Capital led, with GV (Google Ventures) and Salesforce following.

Looking forward in 2017, there are a lot of highly anticipated IPOs, the most notable of which is Snap, which
should be filing publicly this week.

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Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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Asia Pacific
Southeast Asia startup funding at record high in 2016, thanks mainly to Grab, Go-Jek
Total startup funding in Southeast Asia hit US$2.6 billion, up over 60 percent from the previous years US$1.6
billion, according to the Tech in Asia Database. The number of deals fell for the first time in five years to 365
from 380 in 2015. Singapore and Indonesia continued to figure prominently on investors radar, accounting for
US$1.4 billion and US$967 million of the investments, respectively. Malaysia was next (US$84.8 million),
followed by Thailand (US$79.3 million), Vietnam (US$60.9 million), and the Philippines (US$14.6 million).

China
Foxconn invest in bike-sharing startup Mobike
Weeks after securing US$215 million in funding, Chinese bike-sharing startup Mobike has received investment
cash from Foxconn. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, sees Foxconn helping with manufacturing of the
startups smart bikes, which can be unlocked, paid for, and locked again using an app. The plan is to double
annual production to 10 million as Mobike expands to new cities across China. Mobike is also plotting global
expansion, starting with an upcoming debut in Singapore. This partnership is all about bringing more bikes to
more cities around the world, said Davis Wang, co-founder and CEO of Mobike. He wants to enable residents
in a hundred cities in China and internationally to turn to the services bikes as an alternative to cars or public
transport for short trips. Mobike and its many rivals have been plagued by vandalism of its bikes, as well as
inconsiderate users leaving them in inaccessible places.

Riding on its AI research, Baidu opens AR lab

Chinese tech giant Baidu is making use of its artificial intelligence research through augmented reality. The top
search engine firm unveiled its AR Lab, a spin-off from its Institute for Deep Learning. Baidu plans to use its
new Beijing lab, as well as technology from its AI research to build smartphone-based AR applications. Our
cell phone-based approach has enabled us to ship augmented reality experiences to a significant number of
users in a very short amount of time, says Andrew Ng, chief scientist at Baidu, in a press release. There is an
appetite for this technology. One of the main goals of Baidus AR Lab is to help it find new commercial
opportunities. Baidu just saw its quarterly revenue drop for the first time ever, a consequence of the
governments crackdown on Baidus lucrative healthcare advertising business after multiple medical scandals
last year. AR products, especially AR marketing, could be a new channel of revenue for the Chinese tech firm.
Thats why Baidu is focusing on smartphones, which are not only more accessible than hardware like
Microsofts HoloLens, but can connect to Baidus existing online services. Several Baidu apps already have AR
functionality, including Mobile Baidu, its Siri-esque app. The AR team, is now about 50 people, and are also
working on tech based on simultaneous localization and mapping, something crucial to robotics and self-
driving cars so that a single-camera phone, which lacks information about depth, can generate 3D maps of
its environment.

Alibabas lifestyle unit Koubei snags $1.1B to accelerate local expansion

Alibaba have announced a USD$1.1 billion financing round for its local life commerce arm Koubei. Investors
include Silver Lake, CDH Investments, Yunfeng Capital, and Primavera Capital. Alibabas billionaire founder
Jack Ma is one of the founders of Yunfeng Capital. It is interesting to note that the current round marks the first
money from external investors. Although the exact amount contributed by each investor wasnt clear, Xie Fang,
managing director of CDH Investment, confirmed with local media that this is their largest single investment
in the TMT sector. Koubei is a joint venture founded in 2015 by Alibaba and its mobile payment affiliate Ant
Financial to tap into Chinas rising O2O initiative. Fan Chi, CEO of Koubei, said they will continue to invest in
data-supported services in a bid to let offline merchants enjoy the benefits brought by internet technologies. At
the same time, Koubei will cooperate with more third-party partners to create a local life ecosystem that
includes all kinds of supports from platform, traffic, marketing, and supply chain. Koubei has partnered with
over 1.5 million offline merchants, recording daily orders of 15 million. The platform generated 10.5 billion USD
payment volume through Alipay during the fourth quarter of 2016, representing a 52 % increase over the prior

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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quarter. Despite the growth, Koubei is still recording losses. The e-commerce giant pledged to have
aggressive growth with Koubei.

Japan
Enechange lands $4.4M to beef up marketing of energy price comparison site
The Japanese electric power industry was deregulated back in April of 2016. Since then, tech giants
like Softbank and Rakuten have set up their subsidiaries to enter the new power supply market. In European
countries that allow consumers to choose the power source from multiple suppliers, an outstanding vertical
from the startup space is probably the energy price comparison site. Enechange, have announced that it has
fundraised USD$4.4 million from Opt Ventures and IMJ Investment Partners. This follows their USD$3.3 million
funding from Energy and Environment Investment as well as Hitachi back in Feburary 2016. Since its launch
back in April of 2015, Enechange has been offering a power supplier switchover service for enterprises as well
as a SIM card comparison site for companies and consumers. In partnership with UK-based SMAP Energy, a
smart meter-based data analytics startup born from Cambridge University, the company has also been offering
consulting services to electric power companies in Japan.

Video production startup Viibar finds $3.5M in funding, partners with Nikkei
Tokyo-based Viibar, a startup specializing in all things video productions, announced that it has it has secured
funding from and partnered with Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei). The company plans to work closely with
Nikkeis newly established digital marketing organization called N Brand Studio, in building a team to develop
and provide new services and advertising products that go beyond the companys current main role of
supporting the creation of video materials. Along with this business partnership, Viibar also received USD$3.5
million in the latest funding round from Dentsu Digital Holdings and Globis Capital Partners as well as Nikkei.
Viibar, who has supported the crowdsourcing of video materials for companies, has undertaken a new
development: an investment and corporate alliance with the media. From the onset, they did not simply provide
crowdsourcing for video production, but also dabbled in the media, with funds received from Yahoo Japan in
their previous round, and Bouncy, their version of distributed contents. With recent developments, it appears
they are ready to go from testing the waters to jumping straight in head first.

Mobingi secures $2.2 million to put forth cloud DevOps automation platform
Cloud automation startup Mobingi announced that it has secured USD$2.2 million in its series A round from
Draper Nexus and Archetype Ventures, both its current investors. It is a follow-on investment subsequent to
the tens-of-millions-of-yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars) fundraising from the above two firms last
February. Coinciding with this fundraising, Akira Kurabayashi of Draper Nexus was appointed Outside Director
of Mobingi. The startup provides an operation / maintenance or DevOps automation platform for cloud services
such as Amazon Web Service. Targeting lack of funds available for small- and medium-sized enterprises in
securing human resources specialized in operation, the firm offers an ideal environment where it is easy for
engineers to focus on development. With the money secured this time, the firm plans to strengthen
development and operation of an application construction automation platform for cloud services named
Mobingi ALM which has been already provided, and to launch an application operation-on-cloud automation
platform named Mobingi Wave this summer. Although most of its current clients are Japanese companies, he
said his ambitions are for the firm to commence service provision to Chinese companies within this year and
secure a certain sales amount from them utilizing cloud computing.

Korea
Streaming Curation Service MFlare Secures Funding from InfoBank Corp
MFlare, a childrens picture book based curation service, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from
InfoBank Corp. MFlares IWING service allows users to narrate over existing digital storybooks and provides
users with video files of the content with personalized audio. With over 200,000 downloads and 6,000,000
cumulative views since its beta launch in October 2014, IWING has been able to provide educational content
to infants and young children, particularly appealing to families with full-time working parents. Currently, IWING
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has over 40,000 books available for streaming, and it has been creating 2,500 new books each month for
children of all ages. Simultaneously, InfoBank Corp. is working on advancing its interactive messaging services
and smart car embedded software R&D, while continuously striving to discover and aid key startups through
investments and consultation.

Baptime launched a real-time communication service Cook talk for cooking

Startup Baptime which helps people prepare meals, has started a new service called Cook Talk. People can
share cooking related questions, answers, their own cooking tips or personal cooking experiences with real-
time communication service. When users upload questions on the Baptime, they will receive alerts when their
questions get answered. Answers are written by community leaders with rich cooking experiences, also known
as Cooking Managers, and other users who have already uploaded the corresponding recipe. Baptimes co-
founder Gawon Jung and Eunyoung Lee are industry vertans, and have successfully launched Oh My Chef,
which has more than 3.5 million downloads.Jung and Lee seem to have done it again, with Baptime mobile
application being downloaded more than 200,000 times in just three months after its official launch. Baptime
was originally made for solving housewives worries about planning every meal, however have exploded into
interest. Baptime have also secured an investment from the early stage investor, The Ventures investment.

Singapore
Singapores MC Payment acquires a fintech startup to work with Alipay
MC Payment announced it has acquired a controlling stake in Genesis Payment Solutions. The terms of the
deal are undisclosed. MC Payment chief investment officer David Wang tells Tech in Asia the acquisition was
made with a combination of cash and MC Payment shares. Through the deal, MC Payment gains access to
Genesis clients, mostly small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the firms merchant-acquiring license
with Alipay. Genesis is a Singaporean payments company that is licensed by Alipay to acquire merchants for
the Chinese online payments provider. It also helps businesses adopt payment methods by Global Payment
Asia Pacific, Wirecard Singapore, and American Express. Genesis claims to have signed on more than 50
merchants for Alipay over the last three months and deployed more than 100 units of Alipay payment
terminals, processing over 300 Alipay transactions. Its clients include Singaporean businesses like Metro
department stores, Sincere Watch, City Tour, Batam Fast Ferry, and more. However, despite the acquisition
Genesis will continue as a standalone company. MC Payment will continue to look for acquisition opportunities
in the region to access more clients and work with more payment providers.

10-year-old startup has gone public to turn Asias building green

Anacle, a startup that specializes in property and energy management for buildings, is going public in the Hong
Kong Stock Exchanges Growth Enterprise Market. Anacle makes money by building enterprise management
software for sectors including real estate, healthcare, oil and gas, and more. Its heart, though, lies in energy
management products that can paint old buildings green. This means it makes them more energy efficient by
retrofitting them with smart sensors and wireless equipment. These gadgets measure and regulate energy
consumption, wastage, and quality of the power used by the building. Anacle is currently building a new energy
management system, called Tesseract, that will take advantage of the internet of things. It allows customers to
have a living system, CEO Alex says. Once installed, you can upgrade its capabilities through software its
a system that can keep growing without having to reinstall the hardware. It can also be used for a smart home
or smart office platform. Alex describes the IPO as the next stage in Anacles growth journey. We havent
reached our full potential we may not reach it for the next 20 or 30 years, he says. Anacle issued 100 million
shares, currently trading between US$0.06 and US$0.10 apiece. The listing is expected to finance the
companys growth into the next stage of its life.

Singaporean crowdfunding startup makes headway into China

Singapore crowdinvesting startup CoAssets has poured cash into Chinese crowdfunding startup Da Xian Bing,
the company announced yesterday, buying a 10 percent stake for US$146,000. The deal gives CoAssets
access to Da Xian Bings over 300,000 users who are well versed in crowdfunding. The deal is one way for

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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CoAssets to gain a larger foothold in China. The company also entered into a joint venture with Chinese real
estate development company Fujian Yaosheng Zichan in November 2015. CoAssets owns a 40 percent stake
in the joint venture, which lets the Chinese firm put CoAssets platform to use for its property developments in
Fujian and neighboring provinces. However, there is a significant difference as CoAssets is a platform for users
to invest into real estate and small businesses, as to Da Xian Bing whom have a more product-focus, like
Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Even so, Getty is confident CoAssets can entice users to its own service. From
February 2017, the two services will start sharing technology as well. CoAssets listed on the Australian
Securities Exchange in September, raising US$5 million. It reports over 70,000 registered users, of whom over
56,000 are in Singapore, around 12,000 in China, and over 2,000 in Australia.

PouchNATION raises another round to build out its data capabilities

PouchNATION, which helps organizers manage huge events, has raised a seven-digit sum in US dollars to
move towards being a data-driven solution. The undisclosed round came from a group of private Singaporean
investors and Malaysias early-stage venture fund, Cradle Seed Ventures. PouchNATION is an event
management system that uses NFC wristbands, which have become popular during concerts, sports fests,
exhibitions, and fairs. The bands replace paper tickets as passes and are used to pay for goods inside the
venue, allowing people to go cashless. PouchNATION packs in an offline mode so events dont get disrupted
in case the wifi network crashes. Because it works offline, PouchNATION can collect data on user behavior
with higher levels of precision than GPS and other tracking tools that depend on an internet connection. CEO
Ilya Kravtsov says they will use the money they raised to build out their analytics capabilities. He believes that
this information is highly valuable not only for event organizers but also for big brands that consider offline
activations vital in an era when online user acquisition costs have gone through the roof. Last year, the startup
helped manage 50 events across Southeast Asia, including one of the regions largest sports gatherings the
Tafisa Games. Those events saw 1 million transactions recorded and approximately 30 million data points
collected.

India
Startup wants to cut 20 minutes off your parking time
Parking Rhino, a Bangalore-based startup is looking to help users book parking spots through an app.
ParkingRhino, selected by Nasscom 10,000 Startups and Google Launchpad, is available on Google Play and
can help drivers in Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Pune book their spots. Drivers using ParkingRhino can
log in and search for verified parking spaces around their destination. To book a space, they pay around
US$0.75 to US$0.90, plus the price of the parking spot ParkingRhino takes 20 percent of the parking fee.
Spaces are verified through a combination of the startups team, which goes out and examines parking spots
for viability, user reviews, and trackers that show how often or not a spot is used on the app. Owners of
small parking lots can use the app in conjunction with a small invoice printer to print tickets via Bluetooth.
Larger lots will pay more to use the startups software-as-a-service (SaaS) system, which gives the owner real-
time analytics and connects to existing cameras and parking management systems. The app will also cover
Chennai and Hyderabad in the following month. It currently has 5,500 monthly active users who make use of 1
million parking spaces.

Practo raises $55m series D led by Tencent

Practo, a healthcare startup, has raised US$55 million in series D funding led by Chinas Tencent. Three new
investors Thrive Capital, Ru-Net, and Recruit joined the existing investors in this round, the team
announced. Shashank ND, Practos founder and CEO, said the funds will be used to foray into health
insurance, partnering with leading health insurance providers, and will look at bundling them with its consumer-
facing services. Practo started in 2008 as a practice management software just for doctors, but launched the
doctor discovery platform as we know it today, only in 2013. Aggregating over 200,000 doctors across a
network of 10,000 hospitals, 8,000 diagnostic centers, and 4,000 wellness and fitness centers in India, Brazil,
Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, the startup does everything from connecting patients to
doctors, helping clinics manage their customers, and creating customized fitness digital products. The service
gets the majority of its revenues from enterprise clients, while international markets such as Indonesia and

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Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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Brazil account for 20 percent. Practos enterprise segment saw 60 percent growth in 2016, Shashank said.
With this, Practo expects to turn profitable in certain segments this year, but its still some way away from a
company-level break-even.

Thailand
Digital outsourcing startup raises $3m to grab Thailands mobile dev market
Thailand-based software development and outsourcing startup D8 announced it has secured funding to the
tune of US$3 million. The funding round was led by Thailands Kuvera Capital Group. The fundraise has not
yet been completed, according to D8 founder and president Jayson Ho, who says that the specifics of the deal
are still being finalized. D8 provides a wide range of technology-related services to business clients. Its areas
of focus include automation, security and data analytics, and software development. It also offers consultancy
in areas like finance, insurance, and human resources. The funding will help D8 staff up in order to improve
capability on mobile development, augmented and virtual reality, social media, and digital marketing. The
startup hopes to employ 1,000 people across Thailand by 2020, 85 percent of which will be technical roles. D8
has generated over US$600,000 in revenue in the past six months.

Indonesia
Sociolla bags series B from Japanese fashion portal, East Ventures
Sociolla, an ecommerce site for all kinds of cosmetics and beauty products just freshened up with a new round
of financing. The startups series B comes from Istyle, a Tokyo stock exchange-listed fashion company that
operates, among other things, popular beauty website @cosme in Japan. East Ventures also participated in
the round. The terms werent disclosed. The Jakarta-based startup Sociolla claims it offers 140 local and
foreign beauty brands. It competes with names like Luxola, a Singapore-based beauty ecommerce firm that
covers most of Southeast Asia and was acquired by LVMH back in July 2015. Istyle plans to expand its
business operations to Indonesia through its partnership with Sociolla. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand will
follow later this year, Sociolla said in a statement. Its series A in November 2015 was a seven-figure round led
by Venturra Capital. East Ventures also invested then, along with angel investor Steve Christian of Indonesian
online portal KapanLagi Network.

From aggregator to news producer, Baca plans to pump $10m into community site
Baca, a news reader app for Indonesia, no longer just aggregates news from other sources. The startup
launched its own citizen journalism site, Nulis. Baca plans to pump US$10 million into this endeavor, it
announced today. On Nulis, anyone can sign up as contributor and publish stories. Theres financial
compensation based on revenue sharing, so what contributors earn depends on the click-through rate on ads
associated with their content. Baca is the Indonesian brand of a well-funded global company called News in
Palm. Its based in Hong Kong but operates apps in Indonesia and Brazil. The firm claims to have raised more
than US$20 million in its series B round last year, from investors such as Bertelsman Asia Investment. A chunk
of the money now seems to be flowing into Nulis. Baca earns through ads that are served alongside the
content, so its goal is to attract as many eyeballs as possible. The firm has been at the center of a controversy
over advertising practices that make use of nudity or otherwise provocative imagery to attract readers.
However, Baca promised to increase its safeguards against indecent content.

Australia
Startup raises series B to plug clean energy into Southeast Asian grids
Melbourne-based GreenSync has bagged US$8.7 million in series B funding to take its technology to
international markets, including Southeast Asia. The round was led by the Australian Governments Clean
Energy Finance Corporation and Southern Cross Venture Partners, which is partly owned by SoftBank China
Venture Capital. GreenSync uses software and algorithms which it calls smart control to plug renewable
energy like solar and wind, as well as battery storage systems, into power grids. The software sits above the
traditional grid, managing dispatch among energy providers and giving consumers access to a particular
energy resource at a time. By managing electricity loads, our technology harmonizes the use of renewable,
stored, and where needed, traditional energy resources ensuring a reliable, clean, and affordable flow of

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energy is available, founder and CEO Phil Blythe states. Were a key player in helping create a decentralized
energy economy. Phil says they will use the funds to scale up in Australia and expand to new markets,
starting with Southeast Asia after having recently opened an office in Singapore. Pilots are also underway in
the US and Europe.

Europe
Sales CRM startup Pipedrive raises $17 million from Atomico and others
Sales software startup Pipedrive has closed a $17 million Series B funding round led by Skype
cofounder Niklas Zennstrms Atomico, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners
and Rembrandt Venture Partners.Founded out of Tallinn, Estonia in 2010, Pipedrive serves up customer
relationship management (CRM) software to help salespeople in small businesses plan their activities, track
deals, and record conversation history. It also integrates with more than 50 third-party software products,
including Trello, MailChimp, Google Apps, and Zapier. The company claims to serve more than 30,000 small
business customers globally, though it also has teams from big companies such as Amazon on its client base.
It counts 200 employees in Tallinn and its headquarters, which is now based in New York. Its latest cash influx
will allow it to develop its product, grow its partner ecosystem, and scale customer growth globally, according
to a company statement. And grabbing Atomico as an investor is a major coup, as the London-based VC firm
has some notable people at the helm, with some big brands in its portfolio, such as Skype, Supercell,
Truecaller, Viagogo, Rdio, and Jawbone. As part of the deal, Wardi will join Pipedrives board, with Atomico
founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrm joining as board observer.
Vestiaire Collective raises $62 million to grow its market place for premium secondhand fashion
Vestiaire Collective, a marketplace for premium secondhand clothing and fashion accessories, has raised 58
million ($62 million) from Vitruvian Partners, with participation from Eurazeo and Idinvest Partners. Founded
out of Paris in 2009, Vestiaire Collective is one of a number of online marketplaces specializing in connecting
sellers with buyers seeking high-end fashion goods. The platform claims to offer 600,000 items, each of which
has been manually checked for quality and authenticity, and today claims 6 million customers across 48
countries. One of Vestiaire Collectives core selling points is that it claims to be the only consumer-to-consumer
marketplace where 100 percent of the products are physically checked by a team of experts. The company
has now raised around $130 million in total since its inception and says it will use its latest cash injection to
consolidate its leading position in Europe, fuel its growth in the U.S., and allow for expansion into new
markets, including Asia Pacific, according to a company statement. It will also invest in a new logistics hub in
France and plans to create 120 new jobs globally over the next couple of years.
Doctolib raises $28 million to be the top doctor-booking platform in Europe
Doctolib, an online booking app and management software for doctors in Europe, has raised 26 million ($28
million) in a series C round led by French public investment bank Bpifrance, with participation from existing
investors Accel, PriceMinister cofounder Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, and BlaBlaCar cofounder Nicolas Brusson.
Founded out of Paris in 2013, Doctolib offers a range of software services to enable doctors to manage
bookings and communicate with patients online. The subscription-based model caters to a range of medical
clients, from single-GP practices to entire hospitals, while it also serves to help patients find nearby doctors,
make bookings, and track appointments around the clock. The company says it has 300 employees across 35
cities in France and Germany. The company will use the newly found funding to consolidate the platforms
leadership position in France and Germany, as well as push to grow across Europe in the longer term. It
currently plans to recruit 150 new employees throughout 2017.
Raisin announces $32 million round to continue its international fintech expansion
Berlin based Fintech startup Raisin have announced that it has raised another $32 million in funding, bringing
its total raised to $64 million as it seeks to expand its next generation banking service across Europe. The
latest round was led by U.S.-based Thrive Capital, but also included previous investors Ribbit Capital and
Index Ventures. The company offers a marketplace that lets clients compare and open accounts at banks
across Europe. Overall, the European financial system remains a fractured one, with banks generally unable to
operate across borders. Raisin has made progress by bridging that divide. The company says it tripled the
amount of funds that passed through its marketplace last year. And it doubled the number of banking partners

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Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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last year to 27. That growth was driven in part by an expansion last year from just Germany and Austria to 31
European countries. It also hopes to use the latest round to expand the investment and savings options it
offers and to push deeper into the countries where it now operates.

Paris fintech company Spendesk raises strong 2 million seed round

Parisian fintech startup Spendesk has raised 2 million in seed funding from the likes of Xavier Niels Kima
Ventures and the Funders Club, the company announced early Tuesday in an email statement. Spendesk runs
an expense management service that has already roped in big name customers like music startup Deezer,
Frances answer to Spotify. They call their service a trackable spending process which includes smart
company cards for selected or all team members, a centralized dashboard, and automated bookkeeping.The
round included not only Kima and Funders but also angels Edward Lando, Stupeflix founder Nicolas
Steegmann, and Frdric Montagnon. The founders of Birchbox, AB Tasty, La Belle Assiette and Tinyclues
who are all Spendesk customers also contributed, though they did not specify if all co-founders did among
those startups or just some. Founded in June, the company brags it has handled 8 million in transactions
since opening, with 3,000 per week.

Israel
Earnix raises $13.5 million to drive new predictive analytics fintech solutions
Earnix has raised $13.5 million from investors Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) and Vintage Investment
Partners, who were joined by newcomer Israel Growth Partners (IGP). This investment reflects our continued
support and belief that Earnix is becoming the leading predictive analytics provider in the financial services
industry, commented JVPs Managing Partner Raffi Kesten in his statement to the press. Earnix produces
software that has the statistical models and algorithms to better determine the potential outcomes based on
their clients data. The company says that their product has been used mainly for pricing and offering the
customer the next thing that they might want, based on their previous behavior. According to the company, the
funding will be used to accelerate Earnixs growth strategy, taking aim at what they are calling a deeper dive
into the banking sector and developing new products. While perhaps better defined as a small fintech company
rather than a startup, due in part to their long time profitability, they have already raised $11 million since their
start. Alongside their announcement of the funding was news that Reuven Ben Menachem would be joining the
company as their new Chairman.

Cowork startup Mindspace raises $15 million round to lay groundwork for challenge to WeWork
Tel Aviv-based Mindspace is going on an expansion drive with announcement it raised $15 million in a Series
A funding round. They will push themselves as the aesthetically-minded coworking space, promising exciting
and inspiring design. They are hoping to bring their global number of branches up to nine with at least 5,000
members and take up 350,000 square feet. At the moment they have 40 employees, but the company informs
they will at least double that figure once their expansion is complete if not earlier. So far they have taken their
desire to move forward to Germany with a sport on Friedrich Street in Berlin and Rdingsmarkt in Hamburg.
Mindspaces website is already promising the opening of a new Munich workspace Viktualienmarkt and two
new Berlin branches on Krausen Street and Skalitzer.

United States
Snapchat will file for IPO next week
Snap Inc., the secretive technology company that owns the popular messaging service Snapchat, is due to
reveal its financials within a week as it moves toward its eagerly awaited initial public offering (IPO), sources
familiar with the situation confirms. The Venice, California-based company will publish the registration
document it secretly filed with U.S regulators last autumn, containing a dossier of tightly held finances and its
plans for operating as a public company. Snap Inc expects to go public as soon as March and could be valued

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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at $20 billion to $25 billion, based on reports of its latest round of funding, which would make it the largest U.S.
technology IPO since Facebooks in 2012. Snapchat is expected to offer new investors no-vote shares as
part of its IPO, the sources said. Such a structure will deny investors voting power over the companys
corporate decisions, leaving more control in the hands of its board and co-founders.

Public cloud infrastructure provider Faction raises $11 million

Cloud infrastructure provider Faction announced today a funding round of $11 million - $5 million in equity and
$6 million in debt. Several players participated in the round, including existing investors Meritage Funds and
Sweetwater Capital. New equity investors Charterhouse Strategic Partners and Rifkin-Pottle Group joined, with
debt money coming from Ares Capital. The Denver-based company provides infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
and more. Our FIX (Faction Internetwork eXchange) product extends those private clouds to public providers
in a patent-pending, unique way for new multi-cloud use cases, said Luke Norris, chief executive. In terms of
customers, Norris said the company has hundreds of service providers that have tens of thousands of
customers collectively running on its system. A private cloud subscription from Faction starts at $800 per
month. action is profitable, Norris wrote, but he wouldnt disclose revenue. He did say that revenue increased
44 percent year over year from 2015 to 2016. Faction will use the new money to add more data center
locations and make acquisitions.
Cisco buys app performance management company AppDynamics for $3.7B ahead of expected IPO
Cisco has announced that it has acquired AppDynamics, an application performance management software
company that had filed to go public just last month, for $3.7 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third
quarter of Ciscos 2017 fiscal year, according to a statement. The move is rare and surprising; earlier today
AppDynamics raised the price range for its shares from $10-12 to $12-14. AppDynamics was aiming to raise
as much as $193.2 million in the deal. AppDynamics was planning to start trading on the Nasdaq Global Select
market on January 26, according to Nasdaqs website. The move broadens further the capabilities of Cisco,
which specializes in data center networking hardware. With this insight, companies will be equipped to
improve customer experiences and accelerate revenue opportunities. The acquisition of AppDynamics also
supports Ciscos strategic transition toward software-centric solutions that deliver predictable recurring
revenue. Cisco corporate development head Rob Salvagno wrote in a post. Cisco has also bought Internet of
Things (IoT) company Jasper for $1.4 billion last year in its repertoire. AppDynamics chief executive David
Wadhwani will remain in charge and will report to Ciscos Rowan Trollope.
The Bouqs Company raises $24 million to deliver eco-friendly flowers to your door
Online flower delivery startup The Bouqs Company has raised $24 million in a Series C funding round led by
Partech Ventures, with participation from NextEquity Partners, Reimagined Ventures, Azure Capital Partners,
KEC Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, and Robert Herjavec. Founded out of Los Angeles in 2012, The
Bouqs Company promises to use eco-friendly sustainable flower farms from around the world. The company
has now raised more than $43 million since its inception, and with its fresh cash injection says it will be better
positioned to grow and innovate, according to a statement. The company also says it became cash-flow
positive in Q4 2016, and reported multiple days with more than $1 million in sales. As part of the funding
round, Partech Ventures partner Mark Menell will join The Bouqs Companys board of directors. The current
global floral industry is reported to be worth around $50 billion a year, with the U.S. market alone constituting
around $5 billion.
Plex acquires streaming news app Watchup
Streaming media app Plex has acquired streaming news app Watchup. All of Watchups employees are
expected to join the company and Plex will be integrating news into its main app. Terms of the deal were not
disclosed. The Stanford-based startup is trying to change how people consume news by offering a
personalized and trusted user experience. The app lets you queue up news videos and watch them
uninterruptedfrom local, national, and international news sources. Watchup has over 150 video news
publishers, such as CBS, CNN, Vox, Euronews, and Hearst Television. Buying Watchup is meant to grow Plex
as the content streaming service. Plex gives two reasons for the purchase: the aforementioned partnerships
with publishers and Watchups engineering group that uses machine learning to process the news and
generate a personalized feed. Plex has over 10 million users who organize their video, photo, and music
content in the app so they can stream it to their devices. Integrating Watchup means the app will be able to

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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offer news, as well. Thats the pitch to users. As for content providers, Plex believes this consolidation will
make it easier to get the news in front of users, get useful user data, and get fair branding attribution.

Razer acquires smartphone startup Nextbit, will keep it around as an independent division
Razer, a startup that makes computers, mice, and keyboards, has acquired Nextbit, which built a smartphone
that stood out thanks to its green case and its emphasis on cloud storage. Terms of the deal werent disclosed.
The Nextbit Robin phone came out last year, but its unclear how well it sold. Now it wont be sold anymore,
although Nextbit will provide software updates and security patches between now and February 2018,
according to a blog post from Nextbit cofounder and chief executive Tom Moss. Nextbit will operate as an
independent division inside Razer, focused on unique mobile design and experiences. To put it simply, well be
doing exactly what weve been doing all along, only bigger and better, Moss wrote. The company was started
by Google and Motorola veterans and appeared promising its product lead, Scott Croyle, previously worked at
HTC. Nextbit was founded in 2012 and based in San Francisco. Investors include Accel and GV.
Mobile payment startup Qvivr raises $5 million led by Khosla Ventures
Mobile payment startup Qvivr announced today a funding round of $5 million. The round was led by Khosla
Ventures, with participation from other investors. Founded in 2013, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup has
been developing Swyp (pronounced Swipe) over the past two years. The product is a connected card, or
smart wallet, that consolidates any credit, debit, or loyalty cards. Users can then taptically select which card
they want to use and connect Swyp to the Qvivr mobile app to customize and control every transaction. Tens
of thousands of people have preordered the card, Qvivr founder and chief executive Ashutosh Dhodapkar
stated. Swyp was initially scheduled to be shipped to customers in 2016. However, due to logistical problems,
the product will only be shipped later this year. In the meantime, Qvivr is working on a second product,
especially designed for millennials. The new product is a fresh take on consumer payment cards that
transforms every payment into a social experience, Dhodapkar wrote. The startup will release more
information about it later this year. The new money will be used to expand sales, accelerate product
development, and introduce Qvivr into new markets.
DigiLens raises $22 million to make eyeglass-thin augmented reality displays
Display technology maker DigiLens has raised $22 million to create better augmented reality and virtual reality
products in which digital information lies on top of transparent glass. Strategic investors include Sony,
Foxconn, Continental, and Panasonic, along with venture investors Alsop Louie Partners, Bold Capital,
Nautilus Venture Partners, and Dolby Family Ventures. The company plans to use these strategic relationships
to bring to market several augmented reality displays and sensors for enterprise, consumer, and transportation
applications. The Sunnyvale, California-based company makes diffractive optical waveguide technology and
nanomaterials for AR and VR, which could be a $108 billion market by 2021, according to tech advisor Digi-
Capital. DigiLens technology can enable eyeglass-thin AR heads-up displays for motorcycle helmets, car
windshields, VR headsets, aerospace applications such as fighter jets, and AR smartglasses, said Jonathan
Waldern, CEO of DigiLens. The startup states that its fundamental target is the military and aerospace market,
however will look beyond. They have currently generated revenue through HUDs, going into
production on automotive HUDs that it showed with BMW last year. To date, DigiLens has raised $35 million. It
employs 42 people.
Connected doorbell startup Ring raises $109 million from DFJ, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, others
With the IoT taking a giant leap forward in 2016. The new year is setting off on a similar note, with connected
doorbell startup Ring announcing a $109 million investment: a series D round led by DFJ Growth, Goldman
Sachs Investment Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from entrepreneur Richard Branson,
American Family Insurance, Shea Ventures, and True Ventures, among others. The funding round also
includes a debt element from Silicon Valley Bank. The startup offers a doorbell equipped with Wi-Fi connected
cameras, that alerts the home owner via mobile phone on whose there once pressed. However, Ring has
revamped their products and features including a Ring Chime, motion-detection technology, solar panels,
standalone security cameras, and a cloud video-storage service. Ring now claims around 1,000 employees in
eight countries and, with another $109 million in its coffers, the company says it will continue on its mission of
reducing crime in neighborhoods around the world, according to a company statement. Ring says that its
products are now on sale in 100 countries, and can be bought in 15,000 retail locations.
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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