Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Matrix Partners

BuyWithMe In Negotiations For Acquisition and Lays Off More Than Half Of Their Staff

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:22:26 +0000

Gilt Groupe is rumored to be in the final stages to acquire daily deals service BuyWithMe. BuyWithMe laid off over half of their staff last week to attract potential buyers. Matrix Partners is an investor in BuyWithMe and Gilt Groupe. BuyWithMe is expected to be rolled into Gilt Groupe starting November 1st. BuyWithMe was considered to be the number three player in the daily deals market after Groupon and LivingSocial. BuyWithMe is expected to be rolled into Gilt City. [BetaBeat]

Verizon Acquires Cloud Computing Company CloudSwitch

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:46:22 +0000

Verizon Wireless has acquired cloud computing company CloudSwitch. CloudSwitch acquired $15.4 million in venture capital funding before the acquisition from Atlas Venture, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and Matrix Partners.

CloudSwitch creates software to make it easy for customers to move applications to the cloud. CloudSwitch provides an interface for porting applications to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Windows Azure, and Terremark.

CloudSwitch co-founder and VP of Products Ellen Rubin said that the company’s multi-cloud support will stay intact. The team at CloudSwitch will now report to the president of Verizon subsidiary Terremark Kerry Bailey.

[GigaOM]

Human Resources Software Company TribeHR Raises $1 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:40:33 +0000

TribeHR is a human resources software company that has raised $1 million in seed funding from Matrix Partners. TribeHR’s software was designed for small and medium businesses.

TribeHR’s SaaS platform automates companies’ ability to track employee’s development and vacation sick time. Goal setting and job postings can be maintained on TribeHR’s platform.

The pricing for TribeHR is $19 per month for 15 employees to $399 per month for unlimited staff members. TribeHR plans on using the funding for product development and sales/marketing expansion.

[TechCrunch]

Invoicing Company Taulia Raises $8.5 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:09:22 +0000

Taulia is an invoicing company that has raised $8.5 million in Series B funding led by DAG Ventures. Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures also participated in this round. Taulia has now raised a total of $12 million in funding.

Taulia allows corporations to pay their invoices early on. The early invoicing is made possible with the SaaS Dynamic Discounting software. Some of Taulia’s customers include Pfizer and Coca-Cola. Taulia plans on using the funding for sales and marketing.

CloudBees Raises $10.5 Million For Java in the Cloud

Riley Kennysmith — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:05:22 +0000

Java platform company CloudBees has raised $10.5 million in funding for their cloud-based service. The investments come from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners. CloudBees also previously received funding from Robert Bickel and Marc Fleury. The company turns 1 year old in November and has already acquired companies InfraDNA and Stax Networks. [TechCrunch]

Gilt Groupe Raises $138 Million From Several Investors and Is Valued At $1 Billion

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:01:27 +0000

New York based discount flash sales website Gilt Groupe has raised $138 million in venture capital funding. Investors in this fifth round of funding include Softbank Group, General Atlantic, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, NEA, DFJ Growth, Pinnacle Ventures, TriplePoint Capital, and Eastward Capital.

Softbank is putting $62.5 million in the round, which will go towards Gilt Groupe USA. Softbank is also putting a smaller amount into Gilt Groupe Japan. Gilt Groupe has raised a total of $240 million in funding. This values Gilt at $1 billion.

Gilt CEO Kevin Ryan is known for being an early employee at DoubleClick. Gilt was launched in November 2007. Gilt plans on using the funding towards launching new verticals and for acquisitions.

[AllThingsD]

HubSpot Raises $32 Million In Series D

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:41:28 +0000

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded HubSpot Inc. in 2006 and they have recently raised $32 million in Series D. The funding was provided by new investors Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Salesforce.com. Existing investors General Catalyst, Matrix Partners, and Scale Venture Partners also participated in this round. HubSpot has raised a total of $65 million thus far.

Halligan and Shah met while they were Sloan Fellows at MIT’s School of Management in 2004. HubSpot is a service that helps small businesses set up blogs, SEO, lead management, marketing analytics, e-mail marketing, landing pages, etc. About 4,000 companies in 31 countries use their services.

“We agree with HubSpot’s belief that search engines, social media and mobile devices have fundamentally changed how businesses should market themselves,” stated Google Ventures partner Rich Miner. “We’re thrilled to support their efforts to help thousands of small and medium businesses reach potential customers.”

Zendesk Raises $19 Million In Series C

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:55:16 +0000

Zendesk has raised $19 million in Series C led by Matrix Partners with participation from Benchmark Capital and Charles River Ventures. Zendesk has raised a total of $25.5 million thus far.

Zendesk is a help desk and support ticketing website that launched in 2008. Zendesk gives companies a way to manage incoming support requests from customers. Some of their customers include Yammer, Twitter, Groupon, Foursquare, MSNBC, Sony Music, etc. They are adding 20 new customers per day.

Zendesk is launching Facebook integration soon. The price of using Zendesk ranges from $9 to $59 per support agent per month and a one month free trial. The funding will be spent on sales and marketing.

[TechCrunch]

CloudBees Raises $4 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:33:20 +0000

CloudBees is a Java Platform-as-a-Service company that has raised $4 million in Series A funding. The Series A funding round was led by Matrix Partners. JBoss founder Marc Fleury and former JBoss vet Bob Bickel also invested in CloudBees. The $4 million round of funding will be used to accelerate the development of CloudBees’ RUN@cloud platform. [TechCrunchIT]

BuyWithMe.com Raises $16 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:34:55 +0000

BuyWithMe.com has raised $16 million in funding. Matrix Partners was one of the investors in this round. BuyWithMe.com is competitors with Groupon, a coupon service that encourages local businesses to lower prices if a group of people are involved. BuyWithMe was founded in Boston and was founded by Andrew Moss.

Cheryl Rosner became CEO of BuyWithMe when she joined in April 2010. Rosner used to be President/CEO of TicketsNow and is the former President of Expedia Corporate Travel.

BuyWithMe distinguishes itself from Groupon by offering deals that last a week long instead of a 24 hour click that Groupon gives to consumers. They currently offer their services in NY, DC, Boston, and San Diego and plan to expand to about 20 other markets in 2010.

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