SparkLabs Global Ventures Technology

and Internet Market Monthly Review

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April 20 , 2017

Monthly Highlights

Global Trends
The esports economy will grow 41% to $696 million in 2017
The esports economy will grow 41.3 percent to $696 million in 2017, according to market researcher Newzoo.
The total market is expected to nearly triple to $1.5 billion by 2020. Brands will contribute roughly $516 million
in revenue in 2017, and the study suggests that brand investment will more than double by 2020. That number
is broken down into $155 million on advertising, $266 million on sponsorship, and a further $95 million on
media rights.The report also show that consumer spending on tickets and merchandise this year will amount
to $64 million. Another $98 million is invested by game publishers into the esports industry through partnership
deals with white-label organizers.

Meanwhile, Newzoo believes the global esports audience will reach 385 million in 2017 and will grow another
50 percent by 2020.The esports audience in 2017 includes 191 million esports enthusiasts and is expected to
grow to 286 million in 2020. In addition, occasional esports viewers will likely grow from 194 million in 2017 to
303 million by 2020.North America is currently the largest esports market, with anticipated revenues of $257
million in 2017. That is expected to more than double to $607 million by 2020. Most of these revenues come
from sponsorships, which will likely total $113 million in 2017.

Asia Pacific
China
Ofo gets $450M to accelerate global bike-sharing service
With todays US$450 million injection, Chinas top two bike-sharing apps have raised a total of US$920 million
in disclosed funding from investors. Ofo announced the biggest ever funding round in this space to help it fend
off arch-rival Mobike as both push their pushbikes into cities across the globe. This investment makes Ofo the
first bike-sharing unicorn worth more than a billion dollars, reports Bloomberg. Ofo has more than 20 million
users in nearly 40 cities in China, Singapore, and the UK. It has 1,000 bikes in Singapore, plus 500 in
Cambridge and London, a spokesperson tells. A US launch is now in a trial phase. The bruising battle is
being fought over a service that costs just a few cents. In China, the apps charge around US$0.07 to $0.14 for
a 30-minute ride. Each startup buys its own bikes and there are no docking stations, so bikes can be left
anywhere. But that has resulted in thefts, vandalism, and thoughtless users parking the bicycles in inaccessible
places. Ofos series D round is courtesy of Citic Private Equity, Matrix Partners, Coatue Management, Atomico,
and Macrolink Group. Chinas ride-hailing giant Didi is a previous investor.

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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Electric car rental startup UU cars shuts down service

UU car creased operations due to financial difficulties, local media is reporting. The companys operation plan
was thrown out of whack when an investor did not provide funding as scheduled, said the firms CEO Li Yu.
The Beijing-based electric car rental firm was founded three years ago. It started out as a P2P private car
rental platform before switching to the electric car timeshare rental service in October 2015. During this period,
the startup won an aggregate US$ 20 million backing from investors including Yiche, Lightspeed China
Partners, K2 Ventures, as well as angel investor Wang Gang. The startup ended up in burning through all of its
cash in three years, plagued by high costs in vehicle purchasing, operation, and maintenance, as well as the
slow development of charging stations. In recent years, electric vehicle timeshare rentals are picking up steam
in major Chinese cities, with government support. Since 2015, roughly 15 firms have been engaged in such
timeshare rental operations in major Chinese cities.
Baidu rumored to invest in electric car startup solidifying autonomous car strategy
Chinese internet giant Baidu reportedly plans to invest US$100 million in the countrys electric car maker
NExtEv, in a renewed drive to boost its faltering autonomous driving business. The details of the deal have not
been made public. The alliance between Baidu and the electric car startup is another major move for the
internet technology giant to turn itself around after being hit by falling profits. As the first company tapping into
unmanned vehicles in China, Baidu will focus on unmanned driving technology-related software, providing
sensor modules and self-driving car brain to its partners. The collaboration with NextEV is in line with such
strategy. NextEV is committed to the research, development and production of high performance electric
sports cars. The electric vehicle startup has raised more than US$ 600 million via three funding rounds since
June 2015 and the tie-up with Baidu will be its series D funding round. Investors include Sequoia Capital,
Tencent, JD.com, Hillhouse Capital, Joy Capital, Temasek, and TPG Growth. With more players joining the
race, this purchase could set Baidu up for success as competition in this field gets harsher.

Japan
Ookami, offering social network app for sports fans, secures series A round
Tokyo-based Ookami have announced that the ompany raised an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment
Partners (IMJ-IP), Gree Ventures, The Asahi Shimbun, and a number of confidential individual investors in a
Series A round. Ookami was founded in April of 2014 and have since released the mobile app Player! for
iOS, and pivoted from a sports news distribution platform to the one that reports sports games live, with a
social network function that allows users to share their reactions in real-time with other users watching the
progress and results of the same game. It was labeled the App Store Best of 2015. Ookami revealed plans to
strengthen the news distribution functions of Player! In addition to revamping the news functions, they will
partner with a major data stadium for the broadcasting of sports scores, and information regarding both J-
league football and B-league basketball games in Japan will be offered in real time. Additionally, their
information can be further enriched through their partnership with the Asahi Shimbun, a company that
participates in some 180 sports events in Japan yearly.
Geo-analytics startup Nightley secures $1.1M funding in series A round
Tokyo-based Nightley, the Japanese startup developing geo-analytics solutions, announced that they have
raised a total of US$1.2 million from Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Legend Partners in a series A
round. Initially, the company operated the Milcle app which facilitated communication between shop operators
and customers, but then pivoted their business to data collection and analysis specializing in location
information. In addition to Inbound Insight, a tool capable of analyzing the behaviors of visitors for inbound
businesses launched in July of 2015, they have released a series of services including ABC Lunch, an app that
connects users and regional restaurants using SNS big data; ZouZou, a tourism support app for visitors to
Japan; and Pokmon GO Insight. The company offers a premium service with more than 4,000 clients
including major advertising companies, convenience stores, rail companies, and marketing research
companies. Nightley plans to use the funds raised this time around to expand their app and location
intelligence business. Specifically, they are looking to improve and increase the plans for Inbound Insight,
targeting companies looking to promote visiting foreigners to Japan and companies providing solutions for
inbound actions.

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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South Korea
Paypal just invested in Koreas answer to Venmo
Toss, a simple and sleek money transfer app thats essentially Koreas answer to Paypals Venmo. Having
already raised US$29 million from investors, Lee and the team are celebrating their biggest boost yet a
US$47.5 million injection from Paypal, Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures, Partech Ventures, and
lead investor GoodWater Capital. Tosss users are now number six million, and theyve wired each other a
grand total of US$3 billion since launching two years ago. The app supports cards issued by nearly all of
Koreas major banks. Those are some strong numbers in a country of 50 million. Toss reduces all the tedious
and complicated steps of mobile banking in Korea, with 3 simplified steps: type in the recipients bank account
or phone number, set the amount, then input your password or scan your fingerprint on your phone. And yet
its still a secure system. In a bid to build a fintech empire, Founder SG Lee has steered Toss beyond
transfers, adding microloans, credit score management, and a handy personal finance dashboard. The loans
function is being tested within a small sample about six percent of its user base. Next on the agenda:
overseas transfers, loan brokerage, and insurance. Also on the road map is international expansion. Likely
2018, 2019, Lee states.

Fashion AI startup Omnious to receive a $885K Investment from Korea Investment Partners
Omnious, a fashion image recognition company announced that it has received a total of US$885,000 from a
venture capital company Korea Investment Partners. Omnious had attracted a 300 million KRW in seed
investment from Mashup Angels and Big Basin Capital last year. Omnious is a startup that develops fashion
image recognition solutions with Deep Learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The company has
developed technology that recognizes various fashion attributes ranging from images to items, colors, shapes,
details, prints, and materials, and search for similarities between different product images. Omnious recently
applied image recognition AI technology to the fashion field by accumulating more than 2.8 million fashion
images and 800,000 fashion images as its learning data. Through the accumulated training datasets, the
company aims to develop an image recognition solution that automatically tags and classifies fashion images
with only images, and ultimately an image search engine that enables users to find similar product information
quickly and accurately. With this investment, Omnious plans to establish strong connections with domestic and
foreign commerce and fashion companies as well as other companies that need image recognition solutions.

Singapore
Bigo Live now valued at $400m after series C round
Bigo Live, the social video streaming app that has taken Southeast Asia by storm, has closed its series C
funding round, led by Ping An Overseas Holdings. The undisclosed sum brings its total funding to date to
US$180 million and its valuation to over US$400 million, the company says in a statement today. Other
investors include BAI (Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund), Morningstar Capital, and Gao Rong Capital. Bigo
Live allows its users to broadcast videos anytime and anywhere, and follow other users they like. Its heavy on
game-like elements: you can send digital gifts that are paid for by diamonds purchased through cash. Those
gifts are turned into beans, which can be exchange for diamonds or cashed out for real money. In a year since
its launch in March 2016, the app has attracted 70 million registered users worldwide, who use it for an
average time of 40 minutes daily. Monthly active users have reached close to 30 million. Bigo Live has topped
the Google Play and App store download charts in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and
the Philippines numerous times. Following its success in Southeast Asia, it plans to expand its footprint to new
markets.

Singaporean insurtech startup PolicyPal secures seed funding from 500 Startups
Singapore-based digital insurance app PolicyPal announced that its secured an undisclosed amount of seed
funding in a round led by 500 Startups. Some angel investors also participated in the round, but the startup
refrained from disclosing further information. PolicyPal, which launched in April 2016, displays all your existing
insurance coverage plans on a single screen. Itll tell you when to renew specific plans as well as when a
premium payment is due. Users sign up on the app just by taking a snap of their existing insurance policy

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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summary sheets. PolicyPal leverages optical character recognition tech to analyze the key points. Itll also give
recommendations to improve coverage. Embedded within all this is tons of artificial intelligence and machine
learning. CEO and Founder Val Ji-Hsuan Yap says that premiums worth over US$4.3 million have been
uploaded on the app to date. She adds that about 9,000 users have signed up. Its using the fresh injection of
capital to strengthen product development efforts as well as to enter the Monetary Authority of Singapore
(MAS)s fintech regulatory sandbox. This is a live environment where financial institutions and fintech startups
can test new products and services.

Singaporean startup raises $2.4M to bring its AI-powered digital marketing tools to mobile
Singapore-based Ematic has announced its closure of a US$2.4 million round. The round was led by existing
investor Wavemaker Partners and joined by MDI Ventures and Convergence Ventures. New investor Walden
International joined this round. The startups online intelligence platform integrates into a business email
service and produces insights to help target its communications better. A suite of tools helps it analyze data
and design more effective marketing campaigns. The funding will go toward staffing up across the startups
regional offices and boosting its product and technology teams. Besides continuing to refine its online
platform, Ematic plans to expand its offering to mobile apps. App operators will then be able to feed their
users behavioral data into their email marketing system and benefit from Ematics analysis and automation.
Over time, the startup hopes to make its full suite of services available for mobile apps as well. Ematic hopes
to have a minimum viable product ready by the time it has closed its series A, after which it will ramp up
development. Further down the line, it hopes to create a version of its product thats available to anyone
online. This will allow the startup to scale its services globally, potentially opening doors to new markets it can
then land in. Ematic has over 180 clients across Southeast Asia at the moment. Its revenue had tripled year-
over-year by July 2016. Since October, it has doubled every six months.

Singaporean startup just built a smart pet monitor

As a pet parent, it isnt easy to leave your favorite furry creature at home when you step out for work.
Singapore-based Pebby feels it has a solution up its sleeve. Its built a robotic pet system that allows pet
parents to interact with and entertain their animals from anywhere in the world. At the heart of this system is
the Pebby Ball, which connects to your wifi and can be controlled via its companion app. The gizmo has a
wide-angle video camera embedded into it and is powered by three lithium-ion batteries, giving it
approximately 1.5 hours of playtime. It also includes built-in speakers, a laser toy, and LED lights. Other neat
features include the option to livestream your pets current activity as well as an Auto Play mode that keeps
your pet entertained. Users can also sign up for notifications that tell them when their pet starts playing with
Pebby or if theres any barking. The final piece of Pebbys pet system is a smart wearable that works just like
Fitbit does for humans. Itll track your pets daily activity and ping you with insights into the behavior and health
of the animal. Pebbys Kickstarter launches today with a goal of US$50,000. Early bird pet systems are
available for US$124. Hansen says manufacturing has already commenced in Taiwan due to the sheer
number of pre-orders that theyve generated. If the Kickstarter exceeds its target, production might be shifted
to Shenzhen.

India
Alibaba takes lead in Indias Paytm Ecommerce with fresh $177M funding
Jack Mas Alibaba continued its quiet global expansion today, leading a US$200 million funding round in
Indias Paytm Ecommerce to give it control over the newly launched Paytm Mall site and app. Paytms parent
company One97 Communications recently split Paytm into two entities Paytm E-commerce Pvt. Ltd. and
Paytm Payments Bank. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma diluted his stake in One97 to invest US$48
million in Paytm Payments Bank for a controlling stake in it. Paytm has not issued a statement regarding the
funding, but according to documents submitted to the registrar of companies accessed, the Alibaba Group
which includes its affiliate Ant Financial will put US$177 million into Paytm. The remaining US$23 million will
come from SAIF Partners. Paytm, which started out doing payments, has started to push its ecommerce
business. This week, the startup launched Paytm Mall, which is similar to Alibabas Tmall in China. The
platform has 140,000 sellers with over 68 million products in electronics, consumer durables, home
furnishings, and fashion. Alibabas investment in Paytm can pose trouble for the existing players, especially
homegrown duo Flipkart and Snapdeal.
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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Y Combinator-backed startup takes a shot at dominating car repairs in India

There are over 28 million cars on Indias roads. In 2015 alone, there were 118,438 road accidents recorded.
This is the field ServX is playing in. The startup has a mobile app that helped close to 90,000 users get their
cars repaired over 150,000 repairs last year. One-year-old ServX is in the current Winter 2017 batch of Y
Combinator and will be launching afresh in March. It has plans to grow threefold this year. ServX tied-up with
authorized service centers offering them a stream of customers. And in return, got them to sweeten the deal
for the customers with good quality service at a discounted price. The company has established a network of
500 service centers in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) around it. ServX charges them a
commission of 20-25 percent if the service is cosmetic like a car wash and 10-15 percent for regular
maintenance and repair. Last September, ServX was processing around 800 orders per day that was the
peak, Akansh says.

Indonesia
Pawoon app for small businesses raises series A
Pawoon, one of the point-of-sales startups targeting Indonesias millions of small and medium businesses, has
raised a series A round of funding. The main backer in this round is Kejora Ventures. The exact amount
invested wasnt disclosed, but CEO Ahmad Gadi says its within the range of a regular series A investment in
Indonesia. The current median deal size for this stage sits at US$3 million. Pawoon offers a software and
hardware solution that businesses such as shops and restaurants can use to manage things like inventory and
payment. Its software can be installed on any Android device. Pawoon launched in the middle of 2015. Now
Ahmad says it has more than 30,000 businesses registered to use its service. The majority of those are using
Pawoons freemium plan, while some have upgraded to the paid plan. With fresh funding, Ahmad plans to
increase spending on sales and marketing, as well as R&D to keep working on the product. The startup is also
experimenting with an additional app that businesses can use to market themselves and build relationships
with their customer.

Micro-lender Amartha scores funding from major bank

Indonesian peer-to-peer lending firm Amartha said today its raised a series A investment led by Mandiri
Capital Indonesia (MCI), the VC fund of Indonesias largest bank by assets, Bank Mandiri. Lynx Asia Partners
and Amarthas existing investor Beenext and Midplaza Holding also participated. The exact amount of the deal
was not disclosed. However, it is stated to be in the common range of an series A investment, which is
between US$2 million and US$5 million. Amarta is a group lending institution, similar to Bangladeshs
Grameen Bank. Its concept was to work together with big banks to disburse loans to members of lending
groups in rural areas. In 2016, Amartha changed its business model to P2P lending, allowing individuals, not
only banks, to become investors on the site. Lending groups managed by Amartha consist of around 15 to 20
people. They can apply for loans from US$225 to US$750 in size. Amartha gets its revenue from taking a cut
from both lenders and borrowers once the loan and interest is paid back. Amartha has disbursed US$5.1
million in loans to 30,000 microentrepreneurs in Indonesia. The average interest rate on loans was at 19.8
percent in 2016. Amartha claims to have a maintained a track record of zero percent non-performing loans for
the past seven years. With this investment, Amartha hopes to extend its loan offer to more people around the
island of Java.

Malaysia
With $600k funding, flower delivery startup sets its sight on weddings
The Malaysian startup delivers unique artisan flowers in a bespoke box on-demand and on a subscription
basis. The flowers come straight from the farms. Today it announced it has raised US$600,000 in seed
funding from Singapore-based venture builder and capital firm REAPRA to build up its delivery business into
the wedding space. It also plans to foray into new markets such as Singapore and Indonesia. BloomThis
claims to have seen a 1,200 percent surge in sales for the past year. It declines to disclose absolute figures
and other financial information. The company meets our growth strategy of investing in startups that have a
good fit of a traditional business and technology to drive it forward, says Vikram Bharati, investments lead at

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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REAPRA. The company previously graduated from MaGICs accelerator in 2015, raising US$200,000 towards
the end of the program.

Hong Kong
Klook nets $30M series B from Sequoia to grow hottest sector in travel
Eric Gnock Fahs Klook has announced a US$30 milllion in series B funding led by the venerable Sequoia
Capital. Existing investors including Matrix Partners and Welight Capital also contributed to the fresh funding.
The service, which saw 5 million bookings in 2016, now covers 80 destinations around the world. Most of its
users are in Asia. We want to grow our market share not only in existing markets where were currently quite
strong, which is Hong Kong, Taiwan, and to some extent Singapore, but this money will be used to open up
new markets and really grow in Southeast Asia, Eric says. He continues to state, 2017 is where well really
go deep-dive into all the meaningful markets in Asia. Thailand will be launching very soon, Eric adds, referring
to a local language version of the site. And then Indonesia. Korea we just did. Japan will be [later]. And then
India. The startup takes a commission from each tour booked. he next phase is to expand to connecting
travelers with other things theyll need during their vacations, such as restaurants and useful services like
airport rides and pocket wifi. Aside from geographic expansion, these new service offerings will be a big focus
for the team in 2017.

United States
Airbnb raises $1 billion more, and its profitable
Airbnb has announced the close of an oversubscribed round of more than $1 billion. In September 2016, the
hospitality giant filed forms with the SEC to indicate it had raised $555,462,180. Recently, the startup filed
a form D with the SEC confirming an additional $447,849,885, a source close to the company told us. In total,
Airbnb raised $1,003,312,065 in this newly closed round. The San Francisco-based tech unicorn turned
profitable in the second half of 2016, the source tells us, and anticipates continued profitability in 2017 (both
measured by EBITDA). The company is reportedly valued at $31 billion. Regarding a potential exit, Airbnb has
no plans to go public anytime soon, the source tells us. The company has raised over $3 billion since it was
founded in 2008.
IoT patform Evrythng raises $24.8 million to help companies connect things to the web
Internet of things platform provider Evrythng has raised $24.8 million in a Series B round led by Sway
Ventures, with participation from Generation Ventures and Bloc Ventures. Previous investors include such big
names as Cisco Investments, Samsung Ventures, and Atomico, some of whom also participated in this latest
round. Founded out of New York in 2011 and launched in stealth a year later, Evrythng has IoT smarts to help
connect consumer products to the internet, serving companies with real-time data on usage. The digitization
of products to drive data intelligence, connect directly with end-users, and deliver new business models is now
mission-critical, said Evrythng cofounder and CEO Niall Murphy. In 2016, Evrythng made huge progress in
growing our business and digitally enabling products at massive scale for the worlds brands. This funding
round is a signal of the maturing and adoption of the Internet of Things in the enterprise. He further says the
latest cash influx will be used to support its growth through, partnerships, the expansion of its team, and
continued development of its enterprise-focused IoT platform. Evrythng now counts a team of 58 spread
across its offices in New York, London, and San Francisco.
Bringg raises $10 million for its real-time enterprise logistics platform
Bringg, a logistics platform for enterprise, has raised $10 million in a new round of funding. The funding round
was led by Aleph VC and joined by Coca-Cola and previous investor Pereg Ventures. The company will use
the money to expand around the world. The company plans to leverage the new funding to grow its marketing
and sales presence in existing and new markets across the globe. It will also expand its R&D and support
teams. Bringgs products are used by retail, ecommerce, consumer products, food, and logistics companies in
more than 50 countries, including some of the worlds leading brands. Every company that delivers goods and
services is facing a set of serious logistical challenges these days. Bringg says it offers companies a powerful
yet flexible solution that enables them to streamline their entire delivery ecosystem. Bringgs solution
creates the optimal customer experience on the front end while ramping up operational efficiencies on the

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in

Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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backend through real-time visibility, elastic logistics, and integrated processes. Aaron Rosenson, partner at
Aleph VC, said in a statement, We are excited to partner with Bringg. We are strong believers in the ability of
technology to disrupt the logistics world and already made two investments in that space.
Flow raises $13 million to optimize online global sales
Flow wants to help brands and retailers go global online. The startup, which provides software for businesses
to improve their international ecommerce sales, today announced it has received $13 million in a funding round
led by Bain Capital Ventures. Merchants integrate their websites with Flows API in order to customize their
display catalog, prices, and taxes to reflect local currencies. Flow also provides several international payment
options and shipping carriers to choose from. The company offers its customers a subscription model, rather
than charging a commission. Existing solutions are all revenue-share and as a result are more expensive than
a subscription model, especially for larger merchants, CEO/Co-founder Rob Keve wrote in an email.
Furthermore, Flows software uses artificial intelligence to determine the types and categories of each product
sold in order to assess how much duty/tax is applicable. It also speeds up shipping and reduces costs by
virtualizing part of the shipping. But Flow isnt the first player to address online globalization. Ecommerce
giants like Alibaba and Amazon are also competing to take over cross-border sales. This new capital will be
used to expand globally, build additional features, and add more carriers and payment methods for the sellers.
Bike-sharing startup LimeBike raise $12 million led by Andreessen Horowitz
LimeBike has a different approach to bike-sharing. he startup aims to create networks of shared bikes that
depend neither on docking stations nor government subsidies. Backed by $12 million in funding from investors
like Andreessen Horowitz and DCM, the startup came out of stealth mode. The funding is LimeBikes first
institutional round. ed by Andreessen, the round includes other investors, such as IDG, DCM, Jason Zeng and
Free Wu (Tencents founding team), Immersion Ventures, Gang Wang (Didi Chuxings angel investor), and
Danhua Capital. The new money will be used to hire more people, launch in different cities, manufacture bikes,
and further develop the app. LimeBikes are sleek, citrus-colored bicycles that connect to the startups app over
cellular networks to track position and availability, and collect payments. Once the app launches in a month or
so, customers will be able to locate the closest bike and scan its QR code with their smartphones to unlock it.
The app will automatically charge one dollar for every 30 minutes or $0.50 per ride for students. Contrary to
other bike-sharing companies, LimeBike doesnt require that riders return its bikes to a docking station.
Although LimeBike hasnt announced a presence in any cities, Co-founder Toby Sun said his team is in final
discussions with a number of cities and college campuses in California, as well as other areas of the country.
GitLab acquires software chat startup Gitter, will open-source the code
GitLab, a tartup that provides open source and premium source code repository software that people use to
collaborate on software, is announcing that it has acquired Gitter, a startup that provides chat rooms that are
attached to repositories of code so that collaborators can exchange messages. Terms of the deal werent
disclosed. Gitter has popped up more and more on GitHub, which is arguably GitLabs biggest competitor. But
Gitter chat rooms are also sprinkled throughout GitLab. For example, a repository for a command-line interface
(CLI) for talking on Gitter itself has a Gitter chat room. GitLab wont bundle it in its community edition or its
enterprise edition yet, but it will open-source the Gitter code for others to build on, GitLab cofounder and
CEO Sid Sijbrandij stated. Gitter launched in 2014 and in a year announced a $2.2 million funding round.
Investors included Index Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Nexus Ventures. Three of Gitters six employees are
joining GitLab, whose team is remote. Gitter cofounders Mike Bartlett and Andrew Newdigate will remain in
London. More than 800,000 developers have registered on Gitter since it launched, and today it has around
300,000 monthly active users.
Confluent raises $50 million led by Sequoia Capital
Confluent, a startup that provides commercial support for the Apache Kafka open-source software announced
a funding round of $50 million. Sequoia Capital led this funding round, with existing investors Benchmark and
Index Ventures also participating. The technology allows companies to easily access data as real-time streams
and make it available throughout their IT systems. Jay Kreps, Confluents cofounder and CEO, would not
disclose the exact number of customers in an interview. But he did point to a statement saying 2016 was a
banner year in which the company saw over 700 percent annual contract value (ACV) subscription bookings
growth (year over year) and the number of employees nearly tripled. The startup services many industries,
including retailers, connected car manufacturers, and financial services like trading firms and hedge funds

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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basically any sector that needs updated data in real time. Pricing is on an annual subscription base and
depends on the size of the company. This latest pile of cash brings Confluents total raised to $81 million. The
startup will use the new money to stay ahead of the pack, said Kreps. This includes hiring more engineers,
broadening marketing efforts, and expanding globally.
Instacart raises $400 million at a $3.4 billion valuation
Food delivery startup Instacart has raised $400 million in a series D round of funding led by Sequoia
Capital. Other investors include Wellcome Trust, Y Combinator Continuity, Andreessen Horowitz,
FundersClub, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Initialized Capital, Thrive Capital, and Valiant
Capital. he San Francisco-based startups valuation has gone up to $3.4 billion, according to a source familiar
with the deal. Founded in 2012, The Y Combinator alum has a rich history of fundraising from Sand Hill
powerhouses that include Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and, of course, Sequoia
Capital, which led an $8.5 million investment back in 2013. Sequoia previously tried its luck with online food
delivery service Webvan. The company went public in the dot-com boom but ended up bankrupt. Now Sequoia
is going all in and doubling down on Instacart. Sequoia declined to comment on the round. Instacart did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yelp acquires restaurant waiting list tech startup Nowait in a $40 million all-cash deal
Founded out of Pittsburgh in 2010, Nowait integrates its technology with that of restaurants to streamline and
optimize front-of-house operations, including table turnover and waiting lists. The company had raised around
$22 million in funding since its inception, including a strategic $8 million investment Yelp made in the
company back in August. The $40 million Yelp is paying for Nowait includes the stake it already acquired. The
partnership was also designed to enable Yelp users to verify restaurants waiting times and start
queuing remotely all without leaving the Yelp app. The full integration of Nowait allows us to provide real-time
seating availability that better equips diners to make informed decisions, said Yelp cofounder and CEO
Jeremy Stoppelman, This acquisition gives Yelp a direct artery into the waiting list setups in thousands of
restaurants Nowait is already live in around 4,000 restaurants across the U.S. and Canada.
Identity management company Okta files to raise $100 million in IPO
Okta, a company that provides identity management and single sign-on (SSO) software, today filed an S-1
form kicking off the process for an initial public offering (IPO). The company is initially looking to raise $100
million, according to the filing. Even though Oktas revenue more than doubled from $41 million to $85.9 million
year over year, the companys net losses also increased, from $59.1 million to $76.3 million. Almost all
revenue comes from subscriptions the rest comes from professional services. Okta had more than 2,900
customers. Customers with an annual contract value of at least $100,000 include Adobe, Bose, Con Edison,
News Corp, and Western Union, the filing shows. The San Francisco-based company has raised a total of
$231.5 million to date, with investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures,
and Sequoia Capital, according to the filing.
Google confirms acquisition of data science startup Kaggle
Google announced that it has acquired Kaggle, a startup whose website has hosted competitions in which data
scientists solve challenges that other companies provide. Terms of the deal werent disclosed. Kaggle
competitions have historically provided one way for data scientists to stand out in the crowd in order to get
jobs. Now its part of Google. But Kaggles team will stay together, and Kaggle will keep operating and running
competitions as a distinct brand under the Google Cloud. Making Google Cloud technology available to our
community will allow us to offer access to powerful infrastructure, scalable training and deployment services
and the ability to store and query large data sets, Kaggle cofounder and chief executive Anthony Goldbloom
wrote in his own blog post. Furthermore, Fei-Fei Li, chief scientist of Google Cloud AI and Machine Learning
wrote in a blog post, We must lower the barriers of entry to AI and make it available to the largest community
of developers, users and enterprises, so they can apply it to their own unique needs. With Kaggle joining the
Google Cloud team, we can accelerate this mission.

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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 SparkLabs Global Ventures Technology
and Internet Market Monthly Review
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April 20 , 2017

Europe
SolarisBank raises $28 million to expand its European fintech platform
German-based solarisBank announced a fresh round of financing to extend the reach of its service. The
company said it raised $28 million in a round led by Arvato Financial Solutions, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann
Group, and Japanese investor SBI Group. Seed round investors FinLeap and Hegus and yabeo Capital also
participated. solarisBank has a banking license that allows it to offer financial services. It has used that license
to create a platform that lets other fintech startups legally offer their services in a kind of marketplace for
consumers and small businesses. The company has managed to expand that license to cover six European
countries, which means all services on its platform are also available in those countries. The company also
announced that it has hired Roland Folz as CEO. Folz had previously been an executive at a previous fintech
startup, DAB Bank. I am looking forward to helping solarisBank in the further expansion of its business, as
well as its internationalization, Folz said in a statement. The company says it now has 20 partners on its
platform. Its hoping the strategic partnership with its new investors will help attract more.
Alibaba leads $18 million round into augmented reality car nav startup WayRay
Switzerland-based WayRay has raised a $18 million funding round led by Alibaba. WayRay has now raised a
total of US$30 million. Other investors include Sistema, a Russian joint stock financial corporation. WayRay,
based in Switzerland, builds heads-up displays for drivers, as well as fully augmented reality and virtual reality
immersive systems intended for eventual use in self-driving cars. At the moment, WayRay is the worlds only
developer that integrates augmented reality systems into cars, Vitaly Ponomarev, company founder and CEO,
said in a statement. It gives us an advantage over traditional HUDs and provides the opportunity to collaborate
with the largest global car brands. In addition to the funding, WayRay announced that it has partnered with
Banma Technologies, a startup funded by Alibaba and Chinas largest automaker, SAIC Motor, to develop a
new car navigation and infotainment system. In 2017, we aim to release a consumer version of Navion, our
AR navigation system, and to sign contracts with major global car manufacturers to implement our ground-
breaking infotainment system, Ponomarev said. The company has a research and development center in
Moscow and is in the process of opening its first Chinese office in Shanghai.
LoopMe raises $10 million to optimize mobile video ads using AI
LoopMe, a digital advertising firm that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize mobile video advertising, has
raised $10 million in a funding round led by Impulse VC and Harbert European Growth Capital, with
participation from Holzbrinck Ventures and Open Ocean Capital. Founded out of London in 2012, LoopMe
unifies all the popular mobile video ad formats, covering pre-roll, HTML5, and the VAST ad-serving standard.
In a nutshell, the platform replaces humans with algorithms that determine the placement of ads in real time,
based on metrics such as purchase intent or offline sales. The technology learns how viewers are reacting to
the ads and changes them based on how a user is responding. The companys platform has been used by a
host of well-known brands, including Microsoft, Disney, Airbnb, and Honda. With this latest cash influx, the
company says it will continue to push its global growth and continued investment in artificial intelligence
technology, according to a company statement. LoopMe says it reached its first full year of profitability in 2016
and opened new offices in Los Angeles, Bangalore, Johannesburg, and Moscow, with additional
hubs scheduled to open this year in Amsterdam, Singapore, and Chicago.
LivingLens secures 1.5 million to expand to the US
LivingLens, a UK-based software provider for video mining and analytics, just secured 1.5 million fresh
funding from Angel CoFund and a number of angel investors, including investors from the startups time in
the Collider Accelerator. LivingLens brings the consumer into the very heart of marketing decision-making,
allowing brands to see and hear what they are saying, doing and feeling. It captures and analyses video
content via speech, actions and sentiment, translating human behaviour into insights. The platform allows
consumers to share video (and also images and audio), but more importantly it enables this media to be
analyzed without language barriers. The open platform takes media from anywhere and allows brands to
combine content from multiple sources within a single integrated video intelligence platform. Living Lens plans
to use the funding to accelerate development of its Enterprise video analytics technology platform. In addition,
the company will further expand its sales, marketing, and customer success teams including opening
operations in the US in order to service its rapidly-growing US client base.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in

Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
9
 SparkLabs Global Ventures Technology
and Internet Market Monthly Review
th
April 20 , 2017

Currencycloud secures $25 million to accelerate the global expansion

Currencycloud, one of the worlds leading cross border payments platforms, announced $25 million in Series D
funding with a new investment from GV and additional funding from the existing investors Notion Capital,
Sapphire Ventures, Rakuten FinTech Fund, and Anthemis. Currencycloud provides the tools to build cross-
border products and applications. The London-based company counts over 200 customers in 35 countries and
millions of end-users have access to its platform through their payment providers. Klarna, Travelex, Standard
Bank, Revolut and Azimo, have all built products using Currencyclouds APIs. Users of the platform include
challenger banks, pre-paid cards, digital payment firms and PSPs. To date, $25 billion has been sent through
Currencyclouds infrastructure to over 200 countries. This new funding will be used to fuel the companys
continued growth and ongoing global expansion, as it reimagines the way money flows through todays digital
economy, using its flexible APIs to remove the friction and costs of traditional cross-border payments.

Israel
Dyadic Security raises $12 million to virtualize cryptographic keys
Telavi-based Dyadic Security, which provides cloud-based security software, announced today a new fund of
$12 million. Goldman Sachs, Citi Ventures, and Eric Schmidts Innovation Endeavors led the round. Since its
foundation in 2014, Dyadic has raised a total of $15 million, with an additional grant of 2 million (about $2.1
million) from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Dyadics software allows
companies to store, manage, and use cryptographic keys on servers, laptops, smartphones, and Internet of
Things (IoT) devices, either on premises or in the cloud. The startup hopes to eliminate the need for dedicated
hardware, as customers can choose the device on which to run the software it offers subscription plans for
its services. Dyadic is competing in three sectors: hardware security modules (HSMs), key management
solutions, and advanced authentication solutions. The new money will be used to expand Dyadics sales and
marketing operations in North America.
ScyllaDB raises $16 million to facilitate app building
ScyllaDB, an open-source NoSQL database that enables developers to easily build applications, announced a
new round of $16 million. Western Digital, Samsung, Magma Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures led todays
round. Bessemer Venture Partners also participated. This brings ScyllaDBs total funding since it was founded
in 2012 to $25 million. The startup redesigned the open-source Apache Cassandra NoSQL database software
in order to provide a product that can be deployed both on premises and in public clouds. CEO Dor Laor claims
his software is 10 times faster than Apache Cassandra, improving throughput to 1,000,000 read/write
transactions per node. Hundreds of open-source users and 20 enterprises are currently using the software,
according to Laor. Paying customers include AppNexus, IBM, and Investing.com. The open-source model is
free, but the enterprise offering is subscription-based. The new money will be used to increase sales and
marketing and further develop the product.
Intel is paying $15.3B to acquire Mobileye, a computer vision firm specializing in autonomous cars
Intel is buying Israeli computer vision company Mobileye in a deal worth $15.3 billion. Reports of the
acquisition first started circulating in local publications, but Mobileye has now formally announced the
deal. Intel is offering $63.54 per share in cash, which represents a premium of around 33 percent
on Mobileyes previous market closing price. Mobileye develops the visual smarts behind cars driving
assistance systems and includes adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings, and distance keeping. Its
technology is already used by major brands, including BMW, Volvo, Buick, and Cadillac. Back in July, BMW,
Intel, and Mobileye announced plans to put self-driving cars into full production by 2021, and earlier this year
the trio committed to putting 40 autonomous test cars on public roads in the second half of 2017. The new unit
will constitute Mobileye and Intels Automated Driving Group and will be headed by Mobileye cofounder and
CTO Amnon Shashua out of Israel. The transaction is expected to close within the next nine months. By
pooling together our infrastructure and resources, we can enhance and accelerate our combined know-how in
the areas of mapping, virtual driving, simulators, development tool chains, hardware, data centers and high-
performance computing platforms, explained Ziv Aviram, Mobileye cofounder and CEO.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in

Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
10