Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Bi-monthly Highlights
Global Trends
VR headsets are coming and success will rest on the games and experiences created by developers
Virtual reality (VR) headsets are finally hitting the mass market, offering a revolutionary and immersive platform for
content developers to reach consumers. The tech industry has promoted the prospect of VR a computergenerated simulation of an environment for the past few decades. But only now, with headsets backed by big
names like Sony and Facebook, is VR finally becoming a concrete product with mass market potential. While VR
technology is largely associated with the gaming industry, the platform offers a new set of content opportunities in
entertainment, advertising, and more. According to BI Intelligence, VR headset manufacturers are driving both the
development and distribution of VR content by investing significant technical and monetary resources in developers,
in an effort to build up an exclusive content library. High demand for VR headsets by mobile and console gamers will
fuel demand for VR content. The VR content market will take an increasing portion of the mobile gaming software
industry. Beyond gaming, VR video entertainment will remain short form until demand for VR headsets increases.
Membership-based delivery services are beginning to disrupt the US$600 billion-a-year grocery industry
The cost and complexity of delivering groceries is what ultimately led to the downfall of Webvan and other startups
that have tried to disrupt the US$600 billion-a-year grocery industry. But a new wave of promising delivery startups
are relying on a tried-and-true model to disrupt groceries: membership. Membership grocery services help secure
consumers as repeat customers and allow companies to lower individual shipping fees on every order. Shipping fees
are typically a big barrier to grocery delivery because orders must be delivered fast to guarantee freshness. The
grocery delivery model is attractive because it guarantees that customers are getting fresh food straight from their
local supermarket, without having to waste time in the store. The typical American family of four visits the grocery
store twice a week, according to the USDA. For example, Amazon charges Prime customers $99 annually ($299 for
Amazon Prime Fresh) in exchange for a bevy of benefits ranging from free two-day shipping to access to premium
video and music content. BI Intelligence estimates that there are approximately 53 million Prime members worldwide
and 25% of those members live outside the US.
Forecasts, tech timelines, and the benefits and barriers that will impact adoption
Self-driving cars are no longer a futuristic idea. Companies like Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla have already released,
or are soon to release, self-driving features that give the car some ability to drive itself. Tech companies are also
trying to pioneer the self-driving car. Recently, Google announced that it would be testing its prototype of a driverless
car on roads this summer in California. Self-driving cars are not some futuristic auto technology; in fact there are
already cars with self-driving features on the road. According to BI Intelligence, self-driving is any car with features
that allow it to accelerate, brake, and steer a car's course with limited or no driver interaction. By the end of the
forecast period, the report expects there will be nearly 10 million cars with one of our defined self-driving car
features.
SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
1
Asia Pacific
China
Intel continues drone push with US$60M investment into Chinas Yuneec
Intel just announced a more than US$60 million investment into Shanghai-based drone maker Yuneec. The news
comes the same week that fellow Chinese drone company Ehang raised US$42 million, and Sony unveiled its own
drone prototype due out in early 2016. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich called Yuneecs technology a game changer in the
drone industry, and said the investment falls in line with Intels vision of a smart and connected world propelled in
part by the evolution of drone technology. Yuneecs main rival in China, SZ DJI Technology, also raised $75 million
at an $8 billion valuation earlier this year. Intel has notably previously invested in drone companies PrecisionHawk (a
$10 million Series B in November) and Airware (an undisclosed amount in April).
Chinas top meal delivery startup bags US$630M funding to take on web giants
Chinas biggest meal delivery startup, Ele.me (which means Are you hungry?), revealed that it has secured
US$630 million in series F funding. The blockbuster investment was led by CITIC Capital and supermarket chain
Hualian. Previous investors Tencent, JD, and Sequoia Capital also threw in some of the cash. The extra money
allows Ele.me whose blue-uniformed deliverymen on their electric scooters are fast becoming a fixture of major
Chinese cities to keep up the pace as web giants Alibaba and Baidu seek to catch up to local, on-demand web
services such as meal delivery. Ele.me, which started up in 2009 in Shanghai, has now raised a total of US$1.09
billion in VC funding, making it Chinas third most-funded startup.
Chinese P2P lender Dianrong raises US$207M round from Standard Chartered
Chinas P2P lending market is a crowded space, but one thing that can help you stand out in the crowd? Money. At
least, thats what Chinese P2P lending startup Dianrong will be hoping following the close of a massive US$207
million round of fundraising. The round, which was co-led by Standard Chartereds private equity arm and China
Fintech Fund, is one of the largest in Chinas P2P sector. P2P lending in China has exploded over the past year,
thanks to a lack of lending services available from traditional banks for their market: individuals and SMEs. In just the
past few months, weve seen some big rounds raised in the P2P space: Yooli raised US$46 million, FirstP2P raised
US$41 million, and Yinker and Baocaiwang have also raised rounds of above US$20 million. Dianrongs latest round
seems to put it head and shoulders above these competitors.
Korea
Japan
Japans cloud accounting startup Freee raises US$30M at US$250M valuation ahead of IPO
Freee, a Tokyo-based cloud accounting and payroll service that launched in March 2013, announced a US$30
million Series C round that takes its total raised funding to date to US$43 million. Existing investors in the round
include DCM and Recruit Holdings, with Japan Co-Invest Limited Partnership coming on board for the first time.
While financial software company Intuit is perhaps the most familiar name in its space with flagship products like
QuickBooks, Freee claims it is already the market leader on its home turf and Intuit notably lacks a presence in
Japan. The money will mainly be used for sales and marketing, but the company also has ambitious hiring plans to
double its employee base to 200 over the next year.
Japans GMO Payment Gateway deepens alliance with Neweb through US$1M investment
GMO Payment Gateway, an online payment subsidiary of Japans GMO Internet, announced that it has doubleddown on its alliance with Taiwans Neweb online payment service, investing a further US$1 million into the
partnership that began last year. GMO says that the expanded investment will be used to build out the companys
presence in East Asia and introduce Neweb to Japan. GMO Payment Gateway first teamed up with Neweb back in
2014, but the Japanese company has been active outside of East Asia too. It has local companies in Singapore,
Malaysia, and Thailand (as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan) that it uses to build payment solutions for Japanese
ecommerce companies wishing to enter foreign markets. At the same time, its GMO Global Payment Fund which is
where this US$1M investment came from invests in local payment-related startups.
India
Grey Orange adds wings to its international expansion plans with US$30M funding round
Gurgaon-based hardware startup Grey Orange has raised US$30 million in a series B funding round led by Tiger
Global Management and existing investors Blume Ventures. Grey Orange builds robots that operate in the
warehouses of retail, logistics, and ecommerce companies with the goal of enabling quicker deliveries and minimal
errors. The startup was initially launched in 2009 by Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta as an education and training
company in the robotics space. Later on, it evolved into an industrial robot manufacturing company. The company
set its international expansion plans in motion some time ago and this funding round is meant to boost those plans.
Internationally, Grey Orange competes with major players like Swisslog, Kiva Systems, and Fetch Robotics.
Thailand
Workplace chat app Eko gets US$5.7M series A funding to make teams productive, quit Slacking
While Slack gets all the headlines, most people around the world are using one of dozens of other workplace
messaging apps. One of those apps, Eko, revealed that it has secured US$5.7 million in series A funding to help it
pick up new users. The investment in the Thai-American startup was led by China-based Gobi Partners. It comes
16 months after the Eko team nabbed seed funding led by 500 Startups. Earlier backers also contributed to the
series A round. Whereas Slack is very strong for companies with under 50 employees, our product is not as strong
for that segment, says Korawad Chearavanont, the 20-year-old founder and CEO of Eko. Our product only begins
to truly add value to bigger companies. Our biggest revenue-generating customer has approximately 150,000
employees, for example.
Malaysia
Carsome lands US$350k in seed funding to take auto sales portal regional
Malaysia-based automotive portal Carsome announced it has raised US$350,000 in seed funding. The round was
led by 500 Startups and Idea River Run, and will go towards expansion plans into multiple cities, which will be
announced later this year Specifically, the startup will be going to two other countries in the last quarter of the year,
and four more early next year. The portal aims to be a one-stop shop for car buyers to compare, research, and
select the best price offered by Carsomes certified dealers. Its main difference from local incumbent Carlist a
classifieds site for new and used cars is that it provides a smarter end-to-end car buying experience.
Indonesia
Singapore
Investors dont love dating apps? This one just raised a US$3M series A round
Yogrt is a location-based dating app that uses games and quizzes as a tool to break the ice between couples-to-be.
The startup announced that it has raised a US$3 million series A funding round from Centurion Private Equity and
Linear Venture. With the funds, it plans to strengthen the apps presence in Indonesia and expand into other
Southeast Asian markets. Kongko Digital is the Singapore-based parent company of the app. It was co-founded by
Jason Lim, who is a former managing director of Acer Indonesia, Roby Muhamad, who holds a PhD in sociology
from Columbia University, Kevin Xu, and Albern Xu. Yogrt believes its unique way of mixing gaming with dating has
potential all across Asia. The app offers a weekly updated set of games and quizzes, including dare-games like
have you ever?, and trivia quizzes. Yet with just over 500,000 registered users, the user base can still be
considered quite small. The startup has yet to reveal its monetization strategy.
Braidio Hires New Team in Singapore To Meet Demand For Employee Learning And Talent Development In
Asia Pacific Market
Braidio, a cloud-based learning and talent development platform, today announced its Asia Pacific (APAC)
expansion with the appointment of a regional team in Singapore. The expansion addresses the growing demand,
among an increasingly global and connected business environment, for scalable and affordable employee learning
management systems across industries and markets. Braidios Singapore team has a proven track record in
executing and growing new territories for technology brands, and will focus on expanding Braidios reach and
supporting customers and partners.
United States
Search startup Qbox raises US$2.4M to develop a front end for non-technical users
Qbox, a startup that operates a cloud-based version of the Elasticsearch open-source search database for use in
other companies applications, announced that it has raised US$2.4 million. Currently the startup makes it easier for
companies to deploy and maintain services once theyve chosen to use Elasticsearch. Developers no longer need to
take time out to set up the database on top of server and storage infrastructure. Qbox has it ready to go in several
locations within the Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM SoftLayer, and Rackspace clouds. Support is
available, too. The service has attracted around 350 customers, including Nordstrom, Renault-Nissan, and Yahoo
Small Business.
Big data startup BlueData partners with Intel and takes on US$20M
BlueData, a startup with an application companies can use to run big data software like Hadoop and Spark on their
existing data center infrastructure, announced a new US$20 million round of funding. The company also announced
a major new partnership deal with chipmaker Intel. Well be optimizing our software on Intel architectures to provide
flexible, elastic, high-performance Big Data deployments on-premises, BlueData cofounder and chief executive
Kumar Sreekanti wrote in a blog post on the news. And well be working together to bring this innovation to our
SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
6
Analytics startup Mode raises US$7.5M and adds support for multiple charts in each report
Mode, a startup which has built a cloud service that data analysts can use to query and run reports on data,
announced a US$7.5 million funding round. The startup is also introducing new features, including the ability to
include multiple charts and explanatory text in each report. The new ability to throw many charts into each report
and effectively tell a story in Mode which happens to be where you can get at the data and make further iterative
queries. Mode has the potential, then, to be a place where multiple people collaborate. To date, Mode has raised
$10.5 million, including the $2 million round from last year. Foundation Capital led the new round in Mode. Existing
investors Goldcrest Capital and Arnold Capital also participated.
Ding dong: Richard Branson leads US$28M funding round into smart doorbell startup Ring
You know youre onto something when big-name entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson come knocking on your
door with their checkbook in hand. And thats exactly whats happened to Ring, a startup thats invented smart
doorbell technology for your house. The Santa Monica-based company has announced a US$28 million Series B
round led by Branson, Shea Ventures, and American Family Insurance, and follows on from its US$4.5 million
Series A round last December. Rings video doorbell calls a user on their phone when its activated, which is
SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in
Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
7
API development startup Apiary raises US$6.8M and launches a testing service
Apiary, a startup with a web service developers can use to design and make documentation for application
programming interfaces, announced a US$6.8 million round of funding. The startup is also launching a new tool for
testing APIs to make sure they work as they should. Its like a continuous integration system for testing and
deploying source code, but its for APIs. The funding for Apiary follows years of funding and acquisitions in the
domain of API management. Most recently Apigee went public. That sort of software, which public cloud market
leader Amazon Web Services recently started to offer, is now a commodity. Around 130,000 developers at around
33,000 companies use Apiary, with hundreds of paying customers, including Akamai, Microsoft, L.L. Bean, and
Salesforce, Nesetril said.
Rocket Internet may be raising a new US$1.1B venture fund for late-stage companies
Several reports indicated that Rocket Internet, the controversial German startup factory, could be raising US$1.12
billion for a new venture fund. Rocket, which went public last year, likes to take what it calls proven Internet
business models and create its own startups around them. While the company argues that its process is an efficient
and effective way to create startups for regions like Europe, Africa and Asia, its critics (typically in Silicon Valley),
see it as just copying other peoples ideas. Either way, it appears Rocket may be raising its ambitions even higher.
According to the reports, even though the new fund may be officially outside of Rocket, the likely name will be
Rocket Internet Growth Fund. And the sole general partner may be Oliver Samwer, Rockets chief executive. The
result would likely be even more complex financial structures than Rockets current set up.
Life360 Acquires Chronos To Add Quantified Self Tracking To Its Family Locator App
Life360, the maker of mobile applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone that help keep families connected,
has acquired Chronos Mobile Technologies, a startup behind a number of mobile apps that passively collect data
from users smartphones in order to highlight trends and connections between various behaviors. Terms of the deal
were not disclosed, but Chronos had closed on a small seed round from Maven Ventures, Draper Associates and
Major League Baseball earlier in 2015. The app itself was then designed to appeal to quantified self enthusiasts,
who wanted an easier way to gather data about their activities, including things like how long they were at work,
how long they slept, how much time they spent commuting, and more. Following the deal, which was a combination
of both cash and stock, Chronos will continue to operate its standalone products up until the point that the Chronos
technology is integrated into Life360, whose app today is used by 50 million families
Europe
European payments processor iZettle raises US$67M and launches a cash advance service for SMBs
European mobile payments processor iZettle has announced a fresh US$67 million raise. The round was led by
Intel Capital and Zouk Capital, both existing investors, and takes the companys funding to almost US$168 million.
While Jack Dorseys Square has been setting out to disrupt the epayments market for small to medium-sized
businesses in North America and Japan, iZettle has been doing the same in its native Sweden, as well as Finland,
Denmark, Norway, U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. Part of the companys new $67
million cash influx will be used to help support the rollout of iZettle Advance, as well as fueling the companys overall
business.
European VC firm Lakestar launches new US$400M fund for local and U.S. startups
Europes Lakestar has announced a fresh US$400 million fund, as the Guernsey-based venture capital (VC) firm
looks to plow more cash into European and U.S. startups. Founded and chaired by European VC Klaus Hommels,
who was an early investor in Skype, Spotify, Facebook, and other well-known tech companies, Lakestar II is a followup to the US$154 million fund launched in 2013, which is still active. The new fund will be used to invest in all
stages, though it will particularly focus on early-stage and growth-stage investments across a wide range of
sectors. And given the firms focus on the U.S. and Europe, it says it aims to embrace connections between the
two regions in other words, it wants to help foster relationships between complementary companies in its portfolio.
Online job service Mobile Job brings total external funding to more than US$1.118M
German startup MobileJob.com, which connects blue-collar workers with vacancies, has raised an undisclosed
amount of funding from Muller Medien, drawing their total backing to more than US$1.118 million (1 million Euro).
This is the second round for the startup, which also counts High-Tech Grunderfunds as investors. Their plans are a
bit vague, but the startup intends to put the newly-obtained funding towards expanding and strengthening their
market position. In addition to the funding, Mobile Job has announced a partnership with company-builder
etventure. As the name suggests, Mobile Job maintains a mobile focus, helping employers fill slots from top 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.
9
Debt and equity-crowdfunding platform Invesdor raises US$1.118M to fund internationalization plans
Invesdor, a Finnish debt and equity crowdfunding platform which grabbed attention in May when it became the first
such service to obtain an E.U.-wide license, has raised US$1.118 million (1 million Euro) to fund their plans to
expand operations internationally. It is perhaps only fitting that the startup decided to raise the funds through its own
platform, taking on 143 investors from 16 countries. Invesdor says that the license that they obtained enables them
to accept investment from international backers, as well as organize funding rounds anywhere in the EEA. At the
moment, the startup is working to conduct the necessary notifications and create country-specific due diligence
processes.
Home-cleaning service Book A Tiger secures seven-figure funding from new and current investors
Book A Tigerbookatiger-cleaning, a German home-cleaning service which we profiled a few months ago, has
revealed that they have reached a deal for millions more (7 figures) in funding from current investor Avala Capital,
as well as a smaller pro-rate backer. They are currently not revealing the identity of the lead investor. This latest
round, which the company intends to use to solidify its presence in the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)
region, brings the total amount raised by the startup to well over 10 million Euro. One other interesting detail from
this announcement is that Homejoy, which operated in Germany and recently announced that they are shutting
down (despite raising $40 million), has recommended that their cleaners and customers switch over to Book A Tiger.
Book A Tiger launched in April 2014 and has spread to more than 200 German cities, as well as gone international
by serving Vienna and Zurich, Switzerland.
Israel
StoreDot raises US$18M to help build instant-charging batteries for electric cars
StoreDot, an Israeli startup that makes ultra-fast charging batteries using bio-organic technology, has raised US$18
million to help fund a new electric vehicle business unit. The company first demoed its prototype technology last
April and had raised US$48 million before this announcement, including a hefty US$42 million less than a year ago.
While much of its funding to date has been used to refine the underlying technology technology that promises to
fully charge a smartphone in 60 seconds StoreDot has revealed that the burgeoning electric car industry is now
firmly on its radar. As well as iterating on the existing FlashBattery technology, the funding will also be used to help
develop a powerful new charging station and create a new fast-charging standard.