Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Index Ventures

Etsy Raises $40 Million In Series F

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:05:48 +0000

Etsy is an online marketplace known for selling handmade and vintage goods. The company has raised $40 million in a Series F round of venture funding from Index Ventures, Accel Partners, and Union Square Ventures. Etsy has raised a total of $51 million.

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson took the position last July after Rob Kalin, one of the original founders of Etsy, was removed by the board. Dickerson was the company CTO before that. After Etsy took over at the company, Etsy went through several changes. Last year Etsy had the biggest holiday sales in its history.

Dickerson said that the new round of funding was not a move to cover operational costs. Etsy has been profitable since 2009 and has 300 employees around the world. “This summer, Etsy will be a seven-year-old company,” said Dickerson. “But it’s not a mature company from a business perspective. I really feel like there is still a lot of growth for Etsy and its community.”

Etsy plans to hire community managers and open offices in countries where Etsy can grow quickly like Australia and Canada. “There’s a huge opportunity for Etsy to grow the opportunities for sellers,” he added.

Etsy has 875,000 sellers and 15 million users around the world. Every month Etsy receives 40 million unique visitors. Last year Etsy processed $525 million in sales. About one-third of the transactions on Etsy happen with a seller or buyer outside of the U.S.

Dropbox Now Valued At About $4 Billion [RUMOR]

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:40:46 +0000

Cloud storage company Dropbox is now valued at about $4 billion according to a rumor. This is based on an investment round led by Index Ventures. Supposedly some venture capital firms even considered giving Dropbox an $8 billion valuation. Dropbox was founded by MIT graduates Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi as a Y Combinator startup. Dropbox’s 2010 revenue was estimated to be around $100 million. [TechCrunch]

Groupalia Raises $26 Million

Riley Kennysmith — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:13:05 +0000

Groupalia, a European online group buying company, has raised $26 million in funding. The startup’s investors include Nauta Capital, Caixa Capital Risc, General Atlantic, Insight Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Lucas Carné and José Manuel Villanueva. The daily deals company is just two years old and has 10 million users. [TechCrunch]

Microsoft To Acquire Skype For Between $7-$8 Billion

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:16:30 +0000

A few days ago I wrote about how Google and Facebook were in talks to form a partnership with Skype. Looks like those talks have ended because Microsoft is going to acquire Skype Technologies Inc. for between $7-$8 billion according to several sources. Including the long-term debt associated with Skype, the deal is worth about $8.5 billion. This would be Microsoft’s largest acquisition since Yahoo! turned down the $48 billion offer.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis founded Skype in 2003. eBay acquired the company in 2005 for $2.6 billion in cash and stock. eBay was going to integrate the service into their auction website, but that plan never happened. So eBay sold off 70% of Skype in 2009 to Silver Lake Partners, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Last year, Skype’s revenues were $860 million and operating profits was $264 million. The company reported $686 million in long-term debt as of the end of this year. Skype uses VoIP technology for people to make phone calls to each other on-the-cheap.

Skype can also conduct video calls, which may be a reason why Microsoft is interested in the company. Skype could allow Microsoft to integrate video chatting into the Windows Phone 7 operating system to compete with the FaceTime feature available on the iPad 2, iPod Touch, and iPhone 4. Skype filed documents to go public last August, but changed the plan after they hired Tony Bates as CEO.

[WSJ]

Big Switch Raises $13.75 Million In A First Round Of Funding

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:38:45 +0000

Big Switch Networks has raised $13.75 million in a first round of funding. Big Switch Networks is working on building a platform that will bring virtualization and a cloud architecture to enterprise networks. Four new directors will be joining the board at Big Switch Networks as a result of the funding: Mark Leslie, Bill Meehan, Shirish Sathaye, and Mike Volpi. The investors in this round include Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. [San Jose Business Journal]

Architecture Directory Social Network OpenBuildings.com Raises $2 Million Series A

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 06:30:24 +0000

OpenBuildings.com has raised $2 million in a series A round of funding led by BlueRun Ventures and Index Ventures. John Malloy (BlueRun) will be joining the board of directors at OpenBuildings.

“OpenBuildings aims to promote the sharing of architectural knowledge and gives a platform for discourse between professionals and the general public. What I find exciting is that OpenBuildings allows people to discover buildings and then share and discuss them in a completely new way. I think this is going to really stimulate people’s interaction with architecture.” stated OpenBuildings co-founder and CEO Adel Zakout.

OpenBuildings has over 50,000 registered users and stores information about over 40,000 buildings. OpenBuildings also has an iPhone application that has been downloaded over 250,000 times.

Confirmed: Flipboard Raises $50 Million At A $200 Million Valuation

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:58:54 +0000

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue has confirmed that the company has raised $50 million at a $200 million valuation. Insight Venture Partners led this round of funding. “We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” stated McCue. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

Other investors in this round includes Comcast Interactive Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Jack Dorsey, Dustin Moskovitz, Ron Conway, Ashton Kutcher, and Peter Chernin. Flipboard was co-founded by McCue and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll.

Flipboard grabs information from media RSS feeds, Twitter, and Facebook data. Then it re-organizes the data in a tablet format. Flipboard plans on using the funding to increase the staff from 32 to 50 along with expanding internationally.

[AllThingsD]

Spanish Group Buying Website Groupalia Raises $15 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:37:01 +0000

Groupalia is a Spain-based group buying website that has raised $15 million from their current shareholders and new investors. Investors in this round include General Atlantic, Insight Venture Partners, and Index Ventures. Like Groupon.com, Groupalia has a daily deal in the form of discount coupons and they are expecting to turn over about $150 million in 2011 revenues. The extra funding will be used for consolidating their position in the countries that they are already established in. Groupalia has about 6 million users, 400 employees, and is present in 8 countries. [TC Europe]

Social Media Reading App Company Flipboard Raising Funding At $200 Million Valuation

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:03:42 +0000

Social media reading application company Flipboard is raising funding that would give them a $200 million valuation according to sources with AllThingsD. The valuation is subject to change. Flipboard was co-founded by Mike McCue and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll. When Flipboard launched in January, they had raised $10.5 million in VC funding from Kleiner Perkins, Index Centures, Jack Dorsey, Dustin Moskovitz, Ron Conway, Ashton Kutcher, and Peter Chernin. Flipboard has zero revenue thus far. [AllThingsD]

Menu Aggregator Services Just-Eat Raises $48 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:13:54 +0000

Just-Eat is a local online takeaway menu aggregator service that has raised $48 million in a second round of funding. The company plans to use the funding to expand internationally. Just-Eat says they are expecting to generate over $500 million in revenue for partner restaurants in 2011. Just-Eat is available across 10 countries and has 15,000 restaurants listed. Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, and Redpoint provided this round of investment. Just-Eat formed in Denmark in 2001 and moved to London in 2008. The company raised $17.9 million in 2009. [paidContent]