Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

In-Game Ad Company Kiip Raises $4 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:46:10 +0000

Kiip is an in-game advertising company that has announced $4 million in Series A funding in a round that is led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, and True Ventures. Kiip has not revealed how they plan on using the funding. They plan on using the funding to “bridge the gap between mobile advertising and mobile gaming.” Hummer Winblad partner Lars Leckie will be joining the board of directors at Kiip. Kiip has hired former director of sales at Digg Chris Kobran as VP of sales and former EA Mobile employee Dan Silberberger as VP of business development. [Vator TV]

Widget Developer Community Widgetbox Raises $12 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:22:58 +0000

Widgetbox is an online community comprised of widget developers. The company has raised $12 million and renamed themselves to Flite. The third round of funding was provided by General Catalyst Partners, Sequoia Capital, Hummer Winblad, and NCD Investors. Over 120 brands are associated with Widgetbox including Microsoft and Toyota.

“Over the past several years, Widgetbox has been a pioneer in helping make the Web a more interactive, entertaining and fun experience, while helping businesses better monetize their Web properties,” stated Flite CEO Will Price. “Our platform has evolved to become a powerful way for top brands to deliver a new category of Web ads — a new standard for how display ads are created, monetized and shared.”

[DigitalMediaWire]

Aria Systems Raises $20 Million From InterWest, Hummer Winblad, and Venrock

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:11:49 +0000

Aria Systems is an on-demand billing and subscription management company that has raised $20 million in funding led by InterWest Partners, Hummer Winblad, and Venrock. Now Aria has raised a total of $34 million. Aria’s platform can handle the entire online transaction process from the beginning to the end. Aria can automate recurring revenue models to manage the lifecycle of subscribers. Aria clients include Disney, DreamWorks, and Roku. Aria plans to use the new funding for international expansion, product development, and building their sales/marketing teams.

Crowd Factory Raises $6.5 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 07:03:36 +0000

Crowd Factory is a social marketing company that has raised $6.5 million in funding led by Storm Ventures. Hummer Winblad, Peninsula Ventures, and several other angel investors are participating in this round of funding. Crowd Factory lets people optimize marketing campaigns and manage analytics from one centralized dashboard. Some of Crowd Factory’s clients include HBO and Sony.

Call Center Software Company Five9 Raises $8.6 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:29:01 +0000

Five9 is a call center software company that has raised $8.6 million in equity funding from private equity firm Adams Street Partners. Other investors that participated in this round include Winblad and Partech International. Five9 has tripled their revenues and customers in about three years. Five9 has raised a total of $37 million thus far.

Digital Marketing Company Baynote Raises $13 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:21:17 +0000

Baynote is a personalization and marketing optimization company that has raised $13 million in Series C funding. The investment was led by SingTel Innov8. All of Baynote’s existing investors Hummer Winblad, Steamboat Ventures, and JK&B Capital also participated in this round. Baynote has raised a total of $28 million thus far. Full press release is below:

Baynote Closes $13 Million Investment Led by SingTel Innov8

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Baynote, a leader in personalization and digital marketing optimization, announced today that it has closed $13 million in Series C financing. The investment was led by SingTel Innov8, the corporate venture arm of the SingTel Group, Asia’s leading communications group with 368 million(1) mobile customers across Asia and Africa. All existing investors, including Hummer Winblad, Steamboat Ventures and JK&B Capital also participated in the round. Concurrently, Baynote announced that former SAP executive Doug Merritt has been named president and CEO to lead the company through its next phase of investment and growth (see press release for additional details: http://www.baynote.com/?p=2889).

Both announcements come on the heels of 2010 being another record year for Baynote as the company grew year over year revenues by approximately 75 percent. This momentum drove the board’s decision to invest in several functional areas that will allow the company to scale with heightened demand for its adaptive web solutions among digital marketing and e-commerce executives at Global 2000 organizations. The new capital, which brings total funding for Baynote to more than $28 million, will be used primarily to advance the company’s entrance into new high-growth industries, such as telecommunications and financial services, and accelerate product innovation. Funds will also be used to more aggressively expand Baynote’s brand exposure worldwide.
“Through SingTel Innov8′s investment, we hope to tap into the SingTel Group’s expansive markets and capabilities to help take Baynote and our technology for digital and e-commerce professionals to the next level,” said Jack Jia, founder and chairman, Baynote.

“We believe Baynote’s thought leadership around the adaptive web and its disruptive collective intelligence technology for digital marketers and merchandisers will continue to fuel the company’s growth in an area which is becoming more important for enhancing customer experience,” said Yvonne Kwek, CEO of SingTel Innov8. “With Doug’s appointment to CEO and the latest financing, Baynote is now poised for what we expect will be a period of very explosive growth for the company worldwide.”

“Baynote has done an excellent job growing between 70 and 120 percent each year since the company was founded in 2005,” said Doug Merritt, Baynote’s newly appointed president and CEO. “Based on the founding team’s incredible success to date and the increasingly strong reception to our technology among digital marketers, the board and management team expect our growth rate to be multiple times higher by the end of 2012. We’ll use the funding to be more aggressive in product innovation, marketing, and channel development to scale with this exciting opportunity.”
About SingTel Innov8

SingTel Innov8, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group, is a corporate venture capital fund with its own set of decision making, approval and funding processes. It has an initial fund size of $200 million. SingTel Innov8 focuses its investments on technologies and solutions that lead to quantum changes in network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services and enablers to enhance customer experience. It works closely with the ecosystem of leading innovators, developers, government agencies, R&D and capital providers to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the various markets the SingTel Group operates in.

About SingTel Group
SingTel is Asia’s leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms as well as infocomm technology and pay TV. The Group has presence in Asia and Africa reaching 368 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. It also has a network of 36 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.

About Baynote
Baynote provides personalization and digital marketing optimization solutions that power the adaptive web, an emerging standard in customer experience that is always personal, relevant and convenient. By observing engagement patterns among like-minded individuals to understand user intent, the Baynote Adaptive Web Suite™ automatically optimizes and adapts the online experience, leading to increased conversions, revenue and loyalty. Baynote’s customers include: AT&T, CA, Dell, Expedia, Intuit, Fox, Urban Outfitters and VEVO. The company is based in San Jose, Calif. with additional offices in the U.K. and Germany. For more information, please visit www.baynote.com.

(1) As of September 30, 2010

SOURCE Baynote

HTML5 Publishing Tool Company Strobe Raises $2.5 Million Funding

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:04:59 +0000

Strobe is a start-up company that is creating publishing tools that focuses on a new generation of web standards. Strobe raised $2.5 million in funding as a first round. O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners participated in this round of funding. Strobe CEO and co-founder Charles Jolley announced the funding earlier this week.

Strobe’s technology is based on a project called SproutCore. Jolley has been working on SproutCore for years, including when he was working at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Jolley left Apple to go full-time on Strobe this past July.

“You build your app using Web technologies like HTML5,” stated Jolley. “You can then deploy to either the Web or package and ship in the app store.” Over seven companies wanted to invest in Strobe because it is a good time to be in the web toolmaking business. Strobe currently has about 9 employees and they plan to hire 3 more by the end of January. Bryce Roberts (O’Reilly) and Lars Leckie (Hummer Winblad) will be joining the Strobe board of directors.

[CNET]

Microsoft Corporation Invests In Move Networks, Inc.

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:40:37 +0000

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has invested in Move Networks, Inc. to help support the company’s initiative to develop video technology using Microsoft Silverlight. The official announcement should be released soon on Microsoft PressPass.

Although it is not known how much was invested by Microsoft, a source claims that it was an add-on investment on a $46 million Series C that closed last summer. Other investors that participated in Move’s Series C includes Comcast, Cisco Systems, Benchmark Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Steamboat Ventures. Move is now valuated at around $150 million.

Related Link:
1. PEHub