RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MARKETING TECH

• Lumata, provider of mobile marketing and advertising solution for telcos, has been acquired by Evolving Systems. Link
• Insert, a mobile engagement platform has been acquired by Pendo. Link
• Pressly, a content curation platform, has been acquired by Vision Critical. Link
• SpotRight, a user identity management and consumer insights company, raises $5.07M in a series D financing round. Link
• Wizer, an AI enabled consumer research platform, raises $4M in a Series A round lead by State of Mind Ventures, with participation from its earlier investor, Nielsen Innovate. It’ll use the funding to accelerate its global growth, increase brand awareness, and expand R&D team. Link
• ActivePipe, a real estate marketing platform, raises a $1.8M in a pre-series A funding round to expand across Australia and internationally. Link
• Rainking, a marketing database provider, has been acquired by DiscoverOrg. Link
• Zarget, a conversion rate optimization suite has been acquired by Freshworks for an undisclosed amount. Link
• Meltwater, a media intelligence platform, has acquired data analytics platform Algo. Link
• WorkSpan, a co-marketing platform, raises $9M in a series A round led by Mayfield. Link
• Semcasting acquires Transparency.AI to expand its marketing offerings for automobile dealers. Link
• Sigstr, an email signature marketing solutions provider, raises $5M in a series A funding round led by Hyde Park Ventures and Hubspot with participation from Battery Ventures. Link
• StoryStream, an AI enabled content marketing platform, raises $1.55M in a series A funding round, led by MMC Ventures. Link
• GhostLamp, an influencer marketing platform, raises $1M in a seed round led by Brunnur. Link
• Teak, a gaming focused marketing automation platform, raises $5.8M from undisclosed investor(s). Link
• LiftIgniter, a website and app personalization platform, raises $6.4M is a series A funding round led by Storm Ventures with participation from NTT Docomo and others. Link
• VuduMobile, an SMS marketing platform, has been acquired by AtmanCo. Link
• SnapApp, an interactive content marketing platform, raises $10.2M in a series B funding round led by its existing investor Providence Strategic Growth. Link
• OneSignal, a push notifications platform, raises $7M in a series A funding round led by SignalFire. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Element Marketing Hub (2016, Austin) – AI and Cognitive computing based Digital Asset management solution for marketers using deep learning to automatically classify and tag images. Winner of the 2016 Oracle Innovation award.
YouFirst (2015, Bratislava) – One of the first AI based Emotion pretesting for influencers and brands to automatically search for important moments in online videos. Uses Signal processing, ML and Computer vision to predict the content engagement ratio.

LEADER BOARD – MARKETING TECH

Omni-Channel Marketing – Suite
Marketo (2006, San Mateo, IPO, Acq.) – Provides cloud-based software for automated marketing to engage visitors on multiple channels. Features include in-bound marketing, lead scoring and lead management, visitor tracking and CRM tools. Went public in 2013.
Salesforce (1999, SF, IPO) – SaaS platform for Marketing, sales and service operations. Offers customer data integration and engagement tools. Went public in 2004.
Hubspot (2006, Cambridge, IPO) – Offers an integrated platform which provides inbound marketing software for businesses. Features include lead management, landing page optimization, social integration and email marketing. Went public in 2014.

Email Marketing
Campaign Monitor (2004, Sydney, $250M) – Provides an email marketing platform with customizable templates, A/B testing, Dynamic Content, Social Sharing and mobile ready capabilities. Backed by Insight Venture Partners.
ReturnPath (1999, NYC, $97M) – Offers an email marketing solution that includes email optimization to ensure deliverability of emails, other features include inbox monitor, reputation monitor, inbox insight, inbox preview, email client monitor, and email fraud protection. Backed by BVP, Costanoa VC, Foundry Group, Vista Equity Partners and Union Square Ventures.
MailChimp (2001, Atlanta) – Provides an email marketing service to send email newsletters, manage subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Offers integrations with systems such as PayPal, Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento and Salesforce.

Social Suite
Hootsuite (2008, Vancouver, $225M) – Social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively launch and manage campaigns across multiple social networks. Backed by Insight Partners, Accel and Omers Ventures.
Sprinklr (2008, NYC, $239M) – Full suite of social media management tools to post across social networks and measure engagement for enterprise. Backed by Battery, Iconiq and Intel Capital.
LiveWorld (1996, San Jose, IPO) – Services and software company that enables brands to enhance the customer experience in social media. Provides strategy, campaign management, content moderation, customer engagement, customer service, and social analytics and listening tools. Went public in 1999.

Campaign Management
Opal Labs (2010, Portland, $26M) – Planning, collaboration and management platform for brands to distribute marketing content across multiple social channels. Backed by Madrona Venture Group.
Buffer (2010, SF, $4M) – Platform to schedule social media posts to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn & Google+. Backed by RedSwan VC and Collaborative Fund.

Analytics
Adobe (1982, San Jose, IPO) – A comprehensive social media marketing platform that provides analytics on content performance and extracts customer intelligence. Went public in 1986.
Dataminr (2009, NYC, $180M) – Tools to extract value from social media for clients in the finance and government sectors. Backed by Fidelity, Venrock and Institutional Venture Partners.
Opera Solutions (2004, Jersey City, $122M) – Tools to extract and apply insights from complex data environments in the financial services, healthcare, travel, hospitality, retail, and telecommunications industries. Backed by Wipro, Tola Capital, SilverLake and Accel.

Social Monitoring
Brandwatch (2007, Brighton, $64M) – Media Monitoring tool to analyze and utilize social media conversations in marketing. Backed by Nauta Capital, Highland Capital Partners and Partech Ventures.

Social Monitoring – Competitive Intelligence
TrackMaven (2012, Washington DC, $16M) – Tools to automatically aggregate competitive intelligence data from paid, earned and owned media channels. Backed by NEA and Bowery Cap.

Social Monitoring – Brand Protection
Reputation.com (2006, RedWood City, $88M) – Tools to help businesses and individuals in improving search results, protect privacy, and get more positive customer reviews. Backed by August Capital, Jafco Ventures, KPCB, BVP and Insight Partners.

Customer Data Platform
Zeta Global (2007, NYC, $312.58M) – Provides a marketing platform that unifies customer data from disparate sources for multi-channel engagement. Backed by Franklin Square Group, GCP Capital Partners, GSO Capital Partners and Madison Capital Funding.

Content Marketing Suite
Newscred (2008, NYC, $87M) – Content marketing and syndication platform that connects publishers and brands. Backed by InterWest Partners, FTV Capital, Mayfield, FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures.
Seismic (2011, CA, $64.5M) – Enterprise sales enablement and content management software provider. Backed by General Atlantic, Jackson Square Ventures and JMI Equity.
ScibbleLive (2008, Toronto, $59M) – End-to-End SaaS based content marketing platform to create, distribute and measure content. Backed by SummerHill, Rogers VP, BlueCloud Ventures and Georgian Partners.
Pulsepoint (2011, NYC, $43.5M) – Advertising technology platform that fuses programmatic targeting, distribution and optimization with content marketing. Backed by SVB, DFJ, VantagePoint Capital and Updata Partners.

Content Creation
Persado (2012, NYC, $66M) – Email Content Optimization platform using Machine Learning. Backed by American Express Ventures, Bain Capital, Citi Ventures and StarVest Partners.
Narrative Science (2010, Chicago, $29M) – Analyzes data and transforms it into narrative reports using NLP and Machine Learning. Backed by Battery, Sapphire and Jump Capital.
Captora  (2012, Mountain View, $27M) – Platform to identify product demand and push relevant content. Backed by Bain Capital and NEA.
Skyword (2010, Boston, $25.5M) – Marketplace for influential writers, designers, and videographers. Backed by Cox Media Group and Progress Ventures.

Content Curation
Martini Media (2008, NYC, $41M, Acq.) – Digital media and content Marketing platform for engaging the Affluent and the Influential. Backed by Venrock, Granite Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. Acquired by Evolve Media in 2015.
Ahalogy (2012, Cincinnati, $20M) – Platform to source, optimize and publish content on Pinterest. Backed by CincyTech, North Coast Angel Fund, Vine St. Ventures, The Brandery, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and JobsOhio.

Content Workflow
Percolate (2011, NYC, $74.5M) – SaaS platform for planning, execution and publishing marketing campaigns. Backed by LSVP, Sequoia, GGV, First Round and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
Kapost (2010, Boulder, $19M) – SaaS based workflow management system for creating and pushing branded content. Backed by Access VP, Cue Ball, Iron Gate and Salesforce Ventures.

Mobile Marketing Suite
Localytics (2008, Boston, $60M) – Provides a lifecycle engagement platform for web and mobile apps. Allows marketers to gain insights into app user behavior, and create automated marketing programs through targeted push and in-app messaging, and a personalized in-app experience. Backed by Foundation Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Polaris Partners.

Referral Automation
Influitive (2010, Toronto, $50M) – Provides a platform to manage and mobilize customer advocates in a central location to enable referral leads, reference calls and social media advocacy. Backed by Georgian Partners, HWVP, Converge Venture Partners and Relay Venture Partners.
Extole (2009, SF, $48M) – Provides a social media customer acquisition platform through referrals, promotions and testimonials. Backed by Trident Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Redpoint, Shasta Ventures and NVP.

Account Based Marketing
Radius (2009, SF, $133M) – Predictive marketing and sales platform for sales professionals to reach over 20M SMBs. Backed by Founders Fund, Glynn Capital, SalesForce, AME Cloud Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, American Express, SLow Ventures, Western Technology Investment and Comcast Ventures.
Bloomreach (2009, Mountain View, $97M) – Offers a big-data ML based engine to analyse customer interaction data and provide personalized product recommendations and web experiences. Backed by Bain Capital, NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SalesForce and Battery Ventures.

User Identity Management
Gigya (2006, Mountain View, $106M) – Offers a Customer Identity Management Platform that businesses can use to identify customers, aggregate data & personalize campaigns. Backed by Adobe, Intel, Common Fund, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures.

Tag Management
Signal (2009, Chicago, $90M) – Offers a people based cross channel marketing platform. Backed by I2A Fund, Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures, Jumpstart Ventures, Pritzker Group, Silicon Valley Bank and Tommorow Ventures. Combined with BrightTag in 2014.
Tealium (2008, San Diego, $113M) – Offers an enterprise tag management and customer data integration platform. Backed by Bain, Battery Ventures, Georgian Partners, Presidio Ventures, Tenaya Capital and Silver Lake Partners.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

LokaVidhya (2016, Mumbai), video based P2P knowledge sharing application for farmers and artisans. Founder is ex-Hungama Digital Media, and is an alumni of IIT Bombay. Local comparable is Mobile Harvest (2012, Delhi). Global comparable is GrowDiaries (2015, California).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Creator’s Gurukul (2017, Gurgaon), managed co-working space provider, raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Rajit Nanda CIO of ACWA Power Dubai, Rohit Nanda, Smarak Bhuyan and Sashwat Brahma. Link

XPrep (2015, Delhi), mobile application for tutors to engage with parents and students, raises an undisclosed amount of funding from Netherland based venture fund Rising Stars. Link

TBS Planet (2016, Bangalore), creator of comic books and graphic novels, raises an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding from a group of angel investors, including Startup Buddy founder Amit Singal and HuHuba Comics Reader founder Rohit Prakash. Link

Amazon (1994, Seattle), international e-commerce website, sets up imaging studio BLINK in Gurgaon. Link

Google (1998, Mountain View), multinational technology company with focus on internet based products and services, plans to launch payment app ‘Tez’ in India. Link

Lodha Group (2002, Mumbai), developer of real estate projects, and Zone Startups India launch Palava Accelerator. Link

SoftBank founder’s brother Taizo Son in partnership with GSF accelerator and indo-Japan business consultancy, launches agri-food tech accelerator Gastrotope in India. Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Braavo Capital (2016, Canada), integrated financing platform for mobile app businesses, raises $70M in debt and equity round of funding led by Mark 2 Capital, including participation from angel investors and family offices. Link

StoreDot (2012, Herzliya), developer of fast charging bio-organic batteries, raises $60M in Series C round of funding led by Daimler’s Trucks division with participation from existing investors Samsung Ventures and Roman Abramovich. Link

MycoTechnology (2014, Aurora), food processing technology platform for filtering compounds, raises $35M in Series B round of funding led by S2G Capital with co-leads Bunge Ventures Ltd., and Emerson Collective and others. Link

Federated Wireless (2013, Arlington), SaaS based spectrum efficiency solutions provider, raises $42M in Series B round of funding led by Charter Communications, American Tower Corporation, ARRIS International plc  and GIC. Link

Digital Marketing Institute (2008, Dublin), provider of certified courses on digital marketing, raises $31M in funding from Spectrum Equity. Link

Sixgill (2007, Los Angles), provider of sensor agnostic device management & monitoring solutions for IoT applications, raises $27.9M in Series B round of funding led by an affiliate of DRW Venture Capital and Mobile Financial Partners of Alexandria and VA. Link

KeyMe (2012, NYC), cloud-based locksmith services provider, raises $25M in Series D round of funding led by Comcast Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benefit Street Partners, Questmark Partners, Riverpark Funds, 7-Eleven, and White Star Capital. Link

Abris Capital Partners (2007, Warsaw), venture capital firm, closes third Central and Eastern Europe mid-market fund, at $594M. Link

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – SMART GRID

• CyanConnode Holdings raised $11.4M through a placing of shares post-IPO. Link
• Sympower, a smart energy startup, raised $1.2M from Angel Investors and Investment fund Enfuro Ventures. Link
• Labrador has raised $1.3M in its Seed funding round led by Hambro Perks. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Modularity  (2017, London) –  Modularity is a virtual power plant, that leverages artificial intelligence and blockchain, for autonomous real time control and management of the generation of electricity from prosumers with distributed resources (solar, batteries etc.) for distribution. This enables seamless demand-based sharing of electricity within an ecosystem of consumers, prosumers and producers. iT enables owners of rooftop solar, batteries etc. who are connected to a grid, to sell their surplus electricity directly to their neighbours

LEADER BOARD – SMART GRID

Horizontal
Silver Spring Networks (2002, Redwood City, IPO) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Backed by KPCB, Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Northgate Capital Group and DFJ Growth. Went Public in March 2013.
LandisGyr (1896, Zug, $265M, Acq.) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Acquired by Toshiba in May 2011.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Smart Meters
Elster (1994, Ocala, Acq.) – Provide AMI and AMR metering solutions for electricity, gas and water segments. Acquired by Honeywell in December 2015.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Communication Systems
Power Plus Communications (2001, Mannheim, $15M) – Broadband powerline communication systems for smart grids,smart metering, and smart homes.Backed by Siemens Venture Capital, British Gas, Climate Change Capital, Siemens Financial Services.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Meter Data Management
eMeter (1999, San Mateo, $69M, Acq.) – Offer software solutions and meter data management software. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Northgate Capital Group, Foundation Capital, DBL Investors and Siemens Venture Capital. Acquired by Siemens in December 2011.

Load Management
Ice Energy (2003, Santa Barbara, $92M) – Energy storage system and demand side management for the smart grid. Backed by Energy Capital Partners, Second Avenue Partners, Good Energies and Goldman Sachs.
Green Charge (2009, Santa Clara, $66M) – Load balancing using battery storage devices. Backed by TIP Capital, K Road DG. Acquired by Engie in May, 2016.

Transmission Automation
Smart Wires (2014, SF, $79M) – Smart wires to push power from overloaded line to under utilized lines. Backed by RiverVest Venture Partners, Jane Capital Partners, ARPA-E.

Distribution Automation
Gridco Systems (2010, Woburn, $54.5M) – End-to-End hardware and software platform to solve distribution challenges. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Lux Capital, RockPort Capital, Reinhausen.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Suite Solutions
Trilliant Networks (1985, Redwood City, $146M) – Provides single dashboard management of an entire smart grid infrastructure. Backed by MissionPoint Capital Partners, Zouk Capital, VantagePoint Capital Partners, GE, ABB and Capital Growth Investments.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Distributed Energy Resources
GridPoint (2003, Arlington, $294M, Acq.) – Energy management solution(EMS) provider with  real-time data collection, big data analytics and cloud computing to maximize energy savings. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Advantage Capital Partners, Skypoint Capital, Altira Group. Acquired by TFC Utilities in November 2015.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Suite
Opower (2007, Arlington, $65.5M, Acq.) – Cloud-based software comprising energy reports and demand response programs. Backed by New Cycle Capital, Accel Partners and KPCB. Acquired by Oracle Corporation in May 2015.
Nexant (2000, SF, $65M) – Cloud-based business process management software platform for utilities to analyze the demand response. Backed by Oak Investment, Intel Capital, TeleSoft Partners and Beacon Capital.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Customer End
Tendril (2004, Boulder, $124M) – Cloud-based software platform which provides the infrastructure, analytics, and personalized energy services for demand response. Backed by VantagePoint Capital,  Vista Ventures, Access Venture Partners, Appian Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital.
FirstFuel (2011, Lexington, $45M) – Building-wide energy analytics that help utilities and government agencies deliver energy efficiency across commercial building portfolios. Backed by Next World Capital, Battery Ventures, Vast Ventures, Nth Power, RockPort Capital, E.on, Electranova Capital, Idinvest Partners.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Utility End
Space-Time Insight (2008, San Mateo, $54.5M) – Real-time analytics by capturing data from various assets. Backed by  Informatica, Opus Capital, NEC Corporation, EnerTech Capital, Novus Energy Partners, Start Up Farms International, Zouk Capital, E.on.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Smart Grid feed

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally 

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MARKETING TECH

• Verve, a marketing intelligence platform, has been acquired by Jones Media. Link
• Bluecore, an eCommerce marketing and intelligence platform, has raised $35M in a Series C round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Link
• VuduMobile, a SMS marketing platform, has been acquired by AtmanCo. Link
• Visual IQ, a marketing attribution and intelligence platform, has been acquired by Nielsen. Link
• PlayBuzz, an interactive content creation platform, has raised $35M in a Series C round led by Viola Growth. Link
• CallRail, a call tracking and analytics software solutions provider, has raised $75M from Sageview Capital and Leaders Fund. Link
• SpotRight, a User Identity Management platform, has raised $6.75M from TechOperators and Silicon Valley Bank. Link
• GroupSolver, a market research platform, has raised $1M seed round led by Tech Coast Investors. Link
• Synnup, a local marketing management platform, has raised $6M in a Series A round led by Vertex Ventures. Link
• Mobify, a mobile commerce platform, has raised $15M in a Series B round from Vistara Capital Partners, Impulse International, and Comercia Bank. Link
• ScribbleLive, a content marketing suite, has acquired interactive content platform Ion Interactive. Link
• mParticle, a customer data platform, has raised $35M in a Series C round led by Harmony Partners with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and Social Capital. Link
• Skyword, a content marketing platform, has raised $6M in debt financing from Multiplier Capital. Link
• Wevo Conversion, a website testing platform, has raised $1.6M in a seed round. Link
• Swrve, a mobile marketing and engagement platform, has raised $25M in a Series D round led by Summit Bridge Capital and other existing investors. Link
• VE Global, an ecommerce personalization platform, has raised $19.9M from existing investors. Link
• SendinBlue, an email marketing platform, has raised $36M in a Series A round led by Partech Ventures. Link
• Brandfolder, a digital asset management platform, has raised $5M in a Series A round led by Telescope Partners. Link
• Local Biz Now, a local marketing management platform, has been acquired by Ansira. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Shrlck (2017, San Jose) – Sentiment analysis tool for businesses which is capable of identifying 130+ emotions in 100+ languages.
Resonate AI (2016, San Francisco) – Content optimization platform which is capable of predicting the emotional appeal of written text.

LEADER BOARD – MARKETING TECH

Omni-Channel Marketing – Suite 
Marketo (2006, San Mateo, IPO, Acq.) – Provides cloud-based software for automated marketing to engage visitors on multiple channels. Features include in-bound marketing, lead scoring and lead management, visitor tracking and CRM tools. Went public in 2013.
Salesforce (1999, SF, IPO) – SaaS platform for Marketing, sales and service operations. Offers customer data integration and engagement tools. Went public in 2004. 
Hubspot (2006, Cambridge, IPO) – Offers an integrated platform which provides inbound marketing software for businesses. Features include lead management, landing page optimization, social integration and email marketing. Went public in 2014. 

Email Marketing
Campaign Monitor (2004, Sydney, $250M) – Provides an email marketing platform with customizable templates, A/B testing, Dynamic Content, Social Sharing and mobile ready capabilities. Backed by Insight Venture Partners. 
ReturnPath (1999, NYC, $97M) – Offers an email marketing solution that includes email optimization to ensure deliverability of emails, other features include inbox monitor, reputation monitor, inbox insight, inbox preview, email client monitor, and email fraud protection. Backed by BVP, Costanoa VC, Foundry Group, Vista Equity Partners and Union Square Ventures.
MailChimp (2001, Atlanta) – Provides an email marketing service to send email newsletters, manage subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Offers integrations with systems such as PayPal, Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento and Salesforce. 

Social Suite
Hootsuite (2008, Vancouver, $225M) – Social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively launch and manage campaigns across multiple social networks. Backed by Insight Partners, Accel and Omers Ventures.
Sprinklr (2008, NYC, $239M) – Full suite of social media management tools to post across social networks and measure engagement for enterprise. Backed by Battery, Iconiq and Intel Capital.
LiveWorld (1996, San Jose, IPO) – Services and software company that enables brands to enhance the customer experience in social media. Provides strategy, campaign management, content moderation, customer engagement, customer service, and social analytics and listening tools. Went public in 1999.

Campaign Management
Opal Labs (2010, Portland, $26M) – Planning, collaboration and management platform for brands to distribute marketing content across multiple social channels. Backed by Madrona Venture Group.
Buffer (2010, SF, $4M) – Platform to schedule social media posts to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn & Google+. Backed by RedSwan VC and Collaborative Fund.

Analytics
Dataminr (2009, NYC, $180M) – Tools to extract value from social media for clients in the finance and government sectors. Backed by Fidelity, Venrock and Institutional Venture Partners.
Opera Solutions (2004, Jersey City, $122M) – Tools to extract and apply insights from complex data environments in the financial services, healthcare, travel, hospitality, retail, and telecommunications industries. Backed by Wipro, Tola Capital, SilverLake and Accel.

Social Monitoring
Brandwatch (2007, Brighton, $64M) – Media Monitoring tool to analyze and utilize social media conversations in marketing. Backed by Nauta Capital, Highland Capital Partners and Partech Ventures.

Social Monitoring – Competitive Intelligence
TrackMaven (2012, Washington DC, $16M) – Tools to automatically aggregate competitive intelligence data from paid, earned and owned media channels. Backed by NEA and Bowery Cap.

Social Monitoring – Brand Protection
Reputation.com (2006, RedWood City, $88M) – Tools to help businesses and individuals in improving search results, protect privacy, and get more positive customer reviews. Backed by August Capital, Jafco Ventures, KPCB, BVP and Insight Partners.

Customer Data Platform
Zeta Global (2007, NYC, $312.58M) – Provides a marketing platform that unifies customer data from disparate sources for multi-channel engagement. Backed by Franklin Square Group, GCP Capital Partners, GSO Capital Partners and Madison Capital Funding.

Content Marketing Suite
Newscred (2008, NYC, $87M) – Content marketing and syndication platform that connects publishers and brands. Backed by InterWest Partners, FTV Capital, Mayfield, FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures.
Seismic (2011, CA, $64.5M) – Enterprise sales enablement and content management software provider. Backed by General Atlantic, Jackson Square Ventures and JMI Equity.
ScibbleLive (2008, Toronto, $59M) – End-to-End SaaS based content marketing platform to create, distribute and measure content. Backed by SummerHill, Rogers VP, BlueCloud Ventures and Georgian Partners.
Pulsepoint (2011, NYC, $43.5M) – Advertising technology platform that fuses programmatic targeting, distribution and optimization with content marketing. Backed by SVB, DFJ, VantagePoint Capital and Updata Partners.

Content Creation
Persado (2012, NYC, $66M) – Email Content Optimization platform using Machine Learning. Backed by American Express Ventures, Bain Capital, Citi Ventures and StarVest Partners.
Narrative Science (2010, Chicago, $29M) – Analyzes data and transforms it into narrative reports using NLP and Machine Learning. Backed by Battery, Sapphire and Jump Capital.
Captora  (2012, Mountain View, $27M) – Platform to identify product demand and push relevant content. Backed by Bain Capital and NEA.
Skyword (2010, Boston, $25.5M) – Marketplace for influential writers, designers, and videographers. Backed by Cox Media Group and Progress Ventures.

Content Curation 
Martini Media (2008, NYC, $41M, Acq.) – Digital media and content Marketing platform for engaging the Affluent and the Influential. Backed by Venrock, Granite Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. Acquired by Evolve Media in 2015.
Ahalogy (2012, Cincinnati, $20M) – Platform to source, optimize and publish content on Pinterest. Backed by CincyTech, North Coast Angel Fund, Vine St. Ventures, The Brandery, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Origin Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and JobsOhio.

Content Workflow
Percolate (2011, NYC, $74.5M) – SaaS platform for planning, execution and publishing marketing campaigns. Backed by LSVP, Sequoia, GGV, First Round and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
Kapost (2010, Boulder, $19M) – SaaS based workflow management system for creating and pushing branded content. Backed by Access VP, Cue Ball, Iron Gate and Salesforce Ventures.

Mobile Marketing Suite
Localytics (2008, Boston, $60M) – Provides a lifecycle engagement platform for web and mobile apps. Allows marketers to gain insights into app user behavior, and create automated marketing programs through targeted push and in-app messaging, and a personalized in-app experience. Backed by Foundation Capital, Sapphire Ventures and Polaris Partners.

Referral Automation
Influitive (2010, Toronto, $50M) – Provides a platform to manage and mobilize customer advocates in a central location to enable referral leads, reference calls and social media advocacy. Backed by Georgian Partners, HWVP, Converge Venture Partners and Relay Venture Partners.
Extole (2009, SF, $48M) – Provides a social media customer acquisition platform through referrals, promotions and testimonials. Backed by Trident Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Redpoint, Shasta Ventures and NVP.

Account Based Marketing
Radius (2009, SF, $133M) – Predictive marketing and sales platform for sales professionals to reach over 20M SMBs. Backed by Founders Fund, Glynn Capital, SalesForce, AME Cloud Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, American Express, SLow Ventures, Western Technology Investment and Comcast Ventures.
Bloomreach (2009, Mountain View, $97M) – Offers a big-data ML based engine to analyse customer interaction data and provide personalized product recommendations and web experiences. Backed by Bain Capital, NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SalesForce and Battery Ventures.

User Identity Management
Gigya (2006, Mountain View, $106M, Acquired) – Offers a Customer Identity Management Platform that businesses can use to identify customers, aggregate data & personalize campaigns. Backed by Adobe, Intel, Common Fund, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures.

Tag Management
Signal (2009, Chicago, $90M) – Offers a people based cross channel marketing platform. Backed by I2A Fund, Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures, Jumpstart Ventures, Pritzker Group, Silicon Valley Bank and Tommorow Ventures. Combined with BrightTag in 2014.
Tealium (2008, San Diego, $113M) – Offers an enterprise tag management and customer data integration platform. Backed by Bain, Battery Ventures, Georgian Partners, Presidio Ventures, Tenaya Capital and Silver Lake Partners.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – IT OPERATIONS

• LogTrust, which provides an IT Operational Analytics platform, raises $35 M in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners. Link
• OpsRamp, which provides a platform for monitoring the IT infrastructure in an enterprise, raises $20 M in Series C funding from Sapphire Ventures. Link
• Apica, which provides a website monitoring platform, raises $12 M in Series D funding led by Oxx and participation from existing investors Nordic VC Industrifonden, SEB Venture Capital and KTH Chalmers Capital. Link
• Blue Medora, which provides an application performance monitoring platform, raises $8 M in Series B funding from an undisclosed investor. Link
• DivvyCloud, which offers a cloud governance platform, raises $6 M in Series A funding from RTP Ventures. Link
• Stackify, which provides a cloud-based platform for application performance management, raises $1.5 M in Series A funding from undisclosed investors. Link
• Spibackup, which provides cloud-to-cloud backup services for enterprises using Google Apps, raises $500 K in seed funding led by Aventus Capital. Link
• Datadog acquires Logmatic, a log management platform provider, for an undisclosed amount. Link
• Avi Networks acquires StacksWare, the provider of an agent-less software asset management platform, for an undisclosed amount. Link

 SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Simian CI (2017, Jalisco) – software for testing the infrastructure related to applications.

LEADER BOARD – IT OPERATIONS

Event Processing
Datadog (2010, NYC, $147M) – SaaS based metrics & event monitoring and analytics solution. Backed by OpenView VP, Index Ventures, RTP Ventures, Amplify Partners, IA Ventures, Contour VP, RRE Ventures, NYC Seed and Neu VC.
Moogsoft (2011, SF, $53M) – Machine-learning based event & alert management and collaboration solution. Backed by Redpoint Ventures, Northgate, Wing VC, Cisco Investments, Singtel Innov8, and Mosaic Ventures.
Zenoss (2005, Annapolis, $46M) – Open source IT management and monitoring company. Provides agentless event collection solutions that integrates events, faults, errors, and alerts from every system and source. Backed by Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, Boulder Ventures, Amplifier VP, InterSouth Partners, Grotech Ventures and Summit Partners.
BigPanda (2012, Tel Aviv, $29.5M) – Provides data analytics based automated IT incident management solution. Backed by Sequoia, Battery Ventures and Mayfield Fund.

Anomaly Detection
Netuitive (1997, Reston, $43M) – Provides behavior analysis based alerting & performance management solutions. Backed by Noro-Moseley Partners, Flagship Ventures, BVP, Columbia Capital, Cross Creek Capital, MK Capital, Thomas Weisel VP and Rembrandt VP.
Numenta (2005, Redwood City, $30M) – Machine intelligence software providing anomaly detection and text analytics.
OpsClarity (2013, Sunnyvale, $22M) – Monitoring and Anomaly detection for web-scale apps by maintaining an Operational Knowledge Graph of the application infrastructure. Backed by NEA, Pinnacle Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Morado VP.

Operational Analytics
Splunk (2003, SF, IPO) – Operational intelligence software used to monitor, report and analyze real-time machine data and historical data–located on-premise or in the cloud. Went public in 2012.
Nexthink (2004, Prilly, $65M) – Machine learning based end-user monitoring, threat detection and analytics. Backed by Waypoint Capital, VI Partners, Highland Europe, Mannai, Galeo Ventures and Auriga Partners.
Blazent (2000, San Mateo, $41M) – Provides a Data Intelligence Platform that includes a big data engine and patented Data Evolution Process, giving insights into IT data. Backed by StarVest Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Benchmark, Pequot Capital Management, LinkSV, HighBar Partners, Catamount Ventures, Walden Venture Capital and Keynote Ventures.
SignalFx (2013, San Mateo, $28.5M) – Provides time series DB based advanced monitoring platform for applications. Backed by a16z and Charles River Ventures.

Monitoring – APM
AppDynamics (2008, SF, $314.5M, Acq.) – Application performance management solution that simplifies the management of complex, business-critical apps. Backed by LSVP, Greylock, IVP, KPCB and Silicon Valley Bank and acquired by Cisco in 2017.
New Relic (2008, SF, IPO) – SaaS based web and mobile application performance management provider for the cloud and datacenter. Went public in 2014.
Riverbed (2002, SF, IPO, Acq.) – WAN Optimization and application performance platform. Went public in 2006 and acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2015.

Monitoring – NPM
SolarWinds (1999, Austin, IPO) – Develops software for managing networks – LANs, WANs, network configuration, network traffic and bandwidth, VoIP, IP addresses. Went public in 2009.
SevOne (2005, Wilmington, $202M) – Delivers fast, scalable, and comprehensive real-time monitoring, troubleshooting and performance reporting solution to ensure application performance and reliability. Backed by Osage Partners, Bain Capital, Westfield Capital Management, Brookside Capital and HarbourVest Partners.

Monitoring – IPM
Virtual Instruments (2008, San Jose, $86M) – Analytics platform for Infrastructure Performance Management, servicing workloads residing on physical, virtual, or cloud computing infrastructure. Backed by Next World Capital, General Catalyst Partners, LSVP, Riverwood Capital, HighBar.
Groundwork (2004, SF, $29M) – Integrates availability, performance and event data together, providing of infrastructure availability and performance metrics. Backed by Canaan Partners, Mayfield Fund, Jafco Ventures and Sapphire Ventures.
AccelOps (2007, Santa Clara, $15M, Acq.) – Virtual appliance software manages security, network performance and compliance. Automatically discovers, analyzes and automates IT issues in machine and big data across organizations’ data centers and cloud resources. Acquired by Fortinet in 2016.

Monitoring – CPM
CloudHealth Technologies (2012, Boston, $40M) – Provides a SaaS software CloudHealth, a Business Performance Management software product for the cloud. Backed by .406 Ventures, Sigma Prime Ventures, Timo Lehes – ScaleVC and Sapphire Ventures.
CliQr (2010, Santa Clara, $39M) – Provides hybrid cloud-application migration and management solutions. Backed by Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Translink Capital and Polaris Partners.

Monitoring – Website
Gomez (1997, Lexington, $66M, Acq.) – Web performance monitoring solutions for optimizing the performance, availability, and quality of web and mobile applications. Acquired by Compuware in 2009.
Catchpoint Systems (2008, NYC, $39M) – Provides real time analytics in the end to end website performance. Backed by Battery Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

Monitoring – Server
Librato (2008, SF, $29M, Acq.) – Real-time monitoring that accepts metrics from any source for real-time aggregation and transformation, anomaly detection, alerting, visual analysis and storage. Acquired by SolarWinds in 2015.

Monitoring – Database
Datavail (2007, Broomfield, $61M) – Provides remote database management services along with design and architecture, database administration, outsourcing services. Backed by Boulder Ventures, Meritage Funds, Montis Capital and Catalyst CTMS.
SQL Sentry (2004, Huntersville, $25M) – Offers a suite of products for performance monitoring, tuning, job scheduling, and alerting for SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS and Windows. Backed by Mainsail Partners.

Management – Log
Sumo Logic (2010, Redwood City, $160.5M) – Cloud-based service provides customers with real-time interactive analytics at petabyte scale. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Greylock, Sutter Hill Ventures, DFJ Growth and IVP.
Loggly (2009, SF, $43M) – Provides cloud-based log management service. Backed by Trinity Ventures, Cisco, Data Collective, True Ventures, Matrix Partners, Harmony Partners and True Global Ventures.

Management – Server
Intigua (2010, Herzilya, $30M) – Provides software defined & policy driven server management tools. Backed by Intel, BVP and Cedar Fund.
UXcomm (2002, Beaverton, $28.2M) – Provides software products to monitor, control and optimize virtual and physical server environments. Backed by Foundation Capital, OVP Venture Partners and Intel Capital.

Management – Disaster Recovery
StorageCraft (2003, Draper, $187M) – Provider of backup solutions, disaster recovery, system management and virtualization solutions. Received PE of $187M in January 2016.
Zerto (2009, Herzilya, $130M) – Disaster Recovery for virtualized environments. Backed by IVP, Access Industries, 83 North, Battery, Harmony VP, USVP, Greylock, Charles River Ventures, Claltech and RTP Ventures.

Infrastructure Orchestration
Chef (2008, Seattle, $105M) – Provides IT automation for speed and creating a model for automating IT infrastructure and applications. Backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ignition Partners, Battery Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Scale VP, Citibank, Amplify Partners, DFJ Growth and Millennium Technology VP.
Puppet Labs (2005, Portland, $85.5M) – Provides configuration management tool. Backed by True Ventures, KPCB, GV, VMware, Cisco and Triangle Peak Partners.

IT Automation
Arago GmbH (1995, Frankfurt Am Main, $55M) – Enterprise automation solution based on AI and machine learning technology. Backed by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Enigmatec ( 2002, London, $32.50M) – Enterprise data center automation solution. Backed by Amadeus Capital, Herald Investment Management, Pentech Ventures and Intel Capital.

ITSM
Troux (2001, Austin, $355M, Acq.) – IT Planning and asset management platform. Acquired by PlainView in 2015.
Apptio (2007, Washington D.C., $136M) – Provides cloud-based technology for business management (TBM) applications. Backed by a16z, Shasta Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Greylock, Cisco, T. Rowe Price, Janus, The Hillman Companies, 137 Ventures and SharesPost.
LogicNow (2004, Dundee, $82M, Acq.) – Cloud-based ITSM solution. Acquired by SolarWinds in 2016.
Solidcore System (2002, Cupertino, $45M, Acq.) – Provides software for change management auditing, configuration control, PCI compliance and system lockdown. Acquired by McAfee in 2009.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit IT Operations feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

HopQ (2017, Gurgaon), cloud-based self-checkout system for offline retailers. Founders are ex- Affine Analytics, Slice Pay, Bank of America, and are alumni of Birla Institute of Technology and Science. Local comparables are Perpule (2016, Bangalore, $650K) and Blupay (2016, Bangalore). Global comparables are Standard Cognition (2017, Palo Alto, $5.1M) and Skip (2014, Seattle, $750K).).

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

TransferWise (2010, London), international money transmitter based on currency swaps, raises $280M in funding from Old Mutual Global Investors and IVP. Link

InVision (2011, NYC), platform to create prototypes for applications, raises $100M in Series E round of funding from Battery Ventures, Accel, Tiger Global Management, FirstMark and ICONIQ Capital, along with new investors Spark Capital and Geodesic. Link

Globetouch (2010, Oakland), connectivity platform and OSS/BSS solutions provider, raises $40M in Series C round of funding from Hermes Growth Partners, Spark Telecom Ventures, Wholesale, Impact Venture Capital, including Verizon Ventures and Zeev Ventures. Link

Markforged (2013, Waltham), developer of carbon fiber printing 3D Printer, raises $30M in Series C round of funding led by next47, the Siemens-backed venture capital firm, with participation from Microsoft Ventures, and Porsche Automobil Holding SE (Porsche SE) and new investors Matrix, Northbridge, and Trinity. Link

Kano (2013, London), maker of open source coding kit for 6+ age kids, raises $28M in Series B round of funding from Thames Trust, Breyer Capital, Index Ventures, LocalGlobe, Marc Benioff, John Makinson, Collaborative Fund, Triple Point Capital, and Barclays. Link

Brighteye Ventures, Paris-based education technology venture capital firm, closes first fund, at $58.2M. Link

Viola Ventures, Israel based venture capital firm, raises over $170M for fifth fund to invest in early-stage companies. Link

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION

• Elastic acquires enterprise search startup Swiftype for an undisclosed amount. Link
• InVision acquires Brand.ai, a tool to manage digital assets and introduces Design System Manager. Link
• Blueprint Software Systems, a project management software provider receives growth capital investment from Vistara Capital Partners. Link
• SpiderOak, a tool that enables users to share and sync data raises $1.5  million in Series B funding. Link
• South Africa based Digital Cabinet, a cloud-based storage startup raises $355,000 in seed funding. Link
• Resilio, a file transfer, and synchronization solution raises seed funding of $600,000 from undisclosed investors. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Resolvd (2016, Kyiv) – Resolvd is a task management application for a team of designers or developers helping them improve their productivity during product design.

LEADER BOARD – ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION

Collaboration Suite
LogMeIn (2003, Boston, IPO) – Provider of SaaS and cloud-based remote connectivity services for collaboration, IT Management & customer engagement. Went Public in 2009.
Atlassian (2002, Sydney, IPO) – Enterprise collaboration software solutions provider offering tracking, collaboration, real-time communication, code hosting and repository management. Went public in December 2015.

Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing
Box (2005, Los Altos, IPO) – Enterprise file sharing cloud storage platform with secure cloud content management and collaboration. Went public in 2015.
Dropbox (2007, SF, $607M) – Dropbox offers cloud storage, file sharing and synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Backed by BlackRock, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital.

Enterprise Content Management
OpenText (1991, Waterloo, IPO) – Provider of enterprise information management software solutions to help companies manage their unstructured business information. Went Public in 1996.
SpringCM(2005, Chicago, $113M) – Provider of enterprise class, on-demand workflow automation, and document management for legal and sales team in a completely web-based environment. Backed by Foundation Capital, NBVP, Growth Equity, Panorama Point Partners, Bluestem Capital, Goff Capital, Wellington Financial, SVB, and Square 1 Bank.

Knowledge Management
Bowstreet (1991, Tewksbury, IPO) –  Provider of portal-based tools and technology that helps companies bring together corporate applications, documents, databases and other enterprise information into a single, integrated portal application. Acquired by IBM in December 2005.  
Inkling (2009, SF, $86M) – Provides a mobile publishing platform for learning content. Backed by Sequoia Capital.

Collaborative Workspaces
Quip (2012, SF, $46M, Acq) – Provides cloud-based word processor to collaborate on documents. Acquired by Salesforce for $750M in August 2016.
Mindjet (1994, SF, $33.2) – Provides mind mapping and innovation management software.

Enterprise Social Networking
Jive Software (2001, Palo Alto, Acq.) – Provider of communication and collaboration solutions to businesses. Acquired by ESW Capital’s Wave Systems for $462M in 2017.
Yammer (2008, SF, $142M, Acq.) – Enterprise social network for employees to create groups to collaborate on projects and share & edit documents. Acquired by Microsoft in 2012.

Enterprise Communication – Unified Communication
Cisco (1984, SF, IPO) – Offers full UC suite of integrated on-premise and cloud based applications and services based on its Unified Communications Manager. Went public in February 1990.
Mitel (1973, Kanata, IPO) – Provider of unified communication solutions for businesses focused on VoIP products. Went public in May 2006.

Enterprise Communication – Conferencing
Vidyo (2005, Hackensack, $172M) – Provides both software based technology and product based visual communication solutions.
BlueJeans Network (2009, Mountain View, $175M) – Cloud-based video conferencing solution provider. Backed by NEA, Battery Ventures, NVP, Glynn Capital, Accel Partners, and Quadrille Capital.

Enterprise Communication – Messaging & Chat Apps
Vocera (2000, San Jose, IPO) – Provides mobile communication solutions for integrated, intelligent communication in healthcare and other mission-critical mobile environments. Went public in 2012.
Slack (2009, Vancouver, $841M) – SaaS team communication tool for enterprises. Backed by Social Capital, GV, Accel Partners, SV Angel.

Project Management
Workfront (2001, Lehi, $95M) – Cloud-based enterprise work management solution for marketing, IT, and other enterprise teams. Backed by Greenspring Associates, JMI Equity.
Smartsheet (2005, Bellevue, $120M) – Provides online collaborative work platform used by individuals and companies of all size to manage projects and get work done from any device or browser.

Meeting Management
Diligent (2001, NYC, $30M) – Cloud-based board portal software for collaboration among corporate boards and senior executives. Got acquired by Insight Venture Partners for $624M in 2016. 
Teem (2012, Salt Lake City, $21.5M) – Provides room booking software and workplace analytics software. Backed by NGP, Origin Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, Greycroft Partners, GE Ventures, Peak Venture, Royal Street Ventres and more.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Enterprise Collaboration feed.

Analyst Picks

• Kubric (2017, Bangalore) – AI enabled assistant for video creation
  Market: MarketingTech > Content Marketing > Content Creation > Tools > Video

Funding Rounds

Series B, $50M
Throtle (2015, New York City, $50M) – Customer data platform for businesses
Investors: TransUnion, Auren Hoffman

Series C, $21M
Leadspace (2007, Hod Hasharon, $56M) – B2B Lead Scoring Platform
Investors: Arrowroot Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Vertex Ventures

Series C, $19M
NGData (2012, Mechelen, $44.4M) – Interactive Big Data consumer intelligence company
Investors: HPE Growth Capital, Idinvest Partners, Pamica, SmartFin Capital, Capricorn Venture Partners, Nausicaa Ventures

Series B, $11.5M
Seven Rooms (2009, New York City, $16.4M) – Restaurant reservation and CRM software
Investors: Comcast Ventures

Series B, $9M
Affinio (2013, New York City, $14M) – Social Insights Platform for Marketing
Investors: Whitecap Venture Partners, Social Starts, Round 13 Capital, Build Ventures

Series B, $5M
Artesian (2007, Winnersh, $16.1M) – Customer Intelligence platform for Sales Optimization.
Investors: Columbia Lake Partners

Series C, $4.6M
Kaizen Platform (2013, San Francisco, $22.4M) – Website UI testing marketplace and optimization platform
Investors: SBI Investment, Dentsu Innovation Partners, Mizuho Capital, YJ Capital

Series A, $4M
Nylas (2013, San Francisco, $12M) – Open source email platform
Investors: 8VC, CrunchFund, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rubicon Venture Capital

Series A, $3.3M
CaliberMind (2014, Boulder, $4.4M) – NLP and ML based account based marketing platform

Series A, $3.2M
SpringBig (2012, Boca Raton, $6.3M) – Tablet based loyalty program management for SMB’s
Investors: Green Acre Capital, undefined

Series D, $3.0M
Lattice (2006, San Mateo, $78.0M) – Lead Scoring and Conversion App for Marketing and Sales

Series A, $2.5M
ConDati (2017, Menlo Park, $3.5M) – AI & ML enabled marketing analytics solution for businesses
Investors: The Entrepreneurs’ Fund

Series C, $2M
Wyng (2010, New York City, $33.5M) – Digital and Social Content Marketing platform

Seed, $1.5M
Zesty (2010, San Diego, $2.8M) – Content management platform for businesses and freelancers
Investors: ClearVision Equity Partners

Seed, $1.2M
PhoneWagon (2017, New York City, $1.2M) – Call tracking and analytics for businesses and marketing agencies test
Investors: Birchmere Ventures, Active Capital

M&A

• Dentsu Aegis Network Acquires DWA to Further Boost B-to-B Capability at MerkleBusiness Wire
• Zeta Global acquires commenting service Disqus TechCrunch
• Scaleworks announces pre-holiday surprise with Keen IO acquisition Technology News Article
• Cision Agrees to Acquire PRIME Research PR Newswire
• Sprout Social Acquires Social Analytics Leader Simply Measured Business Wire
• Research Now and SSI Merger Successfully Completed PR Newswire
• Quark Acquires Docurated: Enterprise Sales Asset Management Meets Content Automation GlobeNewswire
• ModusLink Announces Acquisition of IWCO Direct for $476 Million in Cash PR Newswire
• IMImobile acquires Healthcare Communications UK Limited directorsclub.news
• ConversionPoint Technologies Acquires Leading e-Commerce Technology Provider, Sellpoints GlobeNewswire

New Product Announcement

• AWS launches Alexa for Business Telecompaper
• Optimization startup Taplytics expands beyond mobile apps with its new Experience Cloud TechCrunch
• Vidyard Brings Enhanced Video Platform with Social Video Capabilities MarTech Advisor
• Reputation.com : Introduces Unified Customer Experience Solution 4-Traders
• Findit Launches Findit Prime Package that Provides Members with the Benefit of Online Marketing Tools at a Cost Effective Price Point NewMediaWire
• SimilarWeb’s New Ad Intelligence Enables Users to Monitor and Grow Advertising ROIMarTech Advisor
• Zignal Labs Launches Strategic Government Relations Solution GlobeNewswire
• Digimind Launches Social Wall, the Most Powerful Data Visualization Tool to Share Consumer Voice Across the Business PRWeb
• Fastbase Will Predict the Future with its New Web Analytics Software PR Newswire
• M Science Launches Alibaba Advertising Spending Data Product Ad Tech Daily
• Baifendian releases China’s 1st industrial AI decision-making system Chinadaily
• Swrve Introduces Intent Engine With Support for Real-Time Audience Profiling Marketwired
• Branch Announces the Mobile Industry’s First People-based Attribution Engine PR Newswire
• Dynamic Yield Launches Email Personalization Suite To Drive Engagement MediaPost
• Leanplum simplifies personalized app marketing with Campaign Composer Business of Apps
• Heap Introduces New Platform to Derive Customer Insights Technology-Signals
• Lingotek Introduces the Translation Industry’s First Technology Solution for Automating Linguistic Quality Evaluation GlobeNewswire
• LiftIgniter Announces Personalized AI Machine Learned Email GlobeNewswire

New Market Entry

• Netcore Solutions enters Indian marketing & customer analytics segment Deccan Herald

New Geo Entry

• Sentiance to enter Chinese market with PNP Telecompaper

Business Partnership

• SDL Selects Appian for Digital Transformation GlobeNewswire
• Sigstr Joins Marketo® Innovate Partner Ecosystem to Enhance Content for Account-Based Marketing Campaigns Business Wire
• SinglePoint and Smart Cannabis Corp. Sign Joint Venture to Integrate, Distribute ‘SMART APP’ for Cannabis Businesses GlobeNewswire
• RedPoint Global Expands Partnership With Acxiom PR Newswire
• Bidalgo and AppsFlyer Team Up to Bring Attribution Solution for Search Ads Technology-Signals
• PossibleNOW Announces Partnership with Scribe Software for Enhanced Data Integration Services PRWeb
• SmartAction Joins NICE inContact DEVone Program to Provide AI-Powered Intelligent Self-Service to Contact Centers on CXexchange Marketplace Business Wire

Earning Release

• Yext sees 39% revenue growth in latest quarter TechCrunch

Key People Movement

• App Annie Adds to Executive Team Amid Rapid Company Growth PR Newswire
• Merkle Appoints Michael Komasinski as EMEA President Business Wire

Analyst Picks

• Spectral Insights (2016, Bangalore) – Hyperspectral medical imaging solutions
  Market: Medical Devices (by Specialty) > Diagnostic Platforms
• V-Patch Medical Systems (2014, Melbourne) – Cardiac mHealth System for arrhythmias
  Market: Medical Devices (by Specialty) > Cardiovascular > Diagnostics > Cardiac Diagnostics > Electrodiagnostic Testing (ECG) > Home Based > Wearable

Funding Rounds

Series E, $150M
InSightec (1999, Tirat Karmel, $306.9M) – MR-guided ultrasound treatment for multiple diseases
Investors: Koch Industries

Series B, $114M
Semma Therapeutics (2014, Boston, $158M) – Bio-Artificial Pancreas for Type 1 Diabetes treatment
Investors: Eight Roads Ventures, Cowen, MPM Capital, FPrime Capital Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Medtronic, Novartis, JDRF, Shuanghu capital investment, Sinopharm Capital, WuXi Healthcare Ventures

Series E, $58.5M
Respicardia (2006, Minnetonka, $147.3M) – Manufacturing implantable stimulation device to improve cardiovascular health by restoring natural breathing at night
Investors: ZOLL AEDs

Series C, $45M
Vayyar (2011, Yehud, $79M) – Develops mobile, low-cost 3D imaging sensors
Investors: Walden Riverwood Ventures, Claltech, Battery Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Israel Cleantech Ventures, Amiti Ventures

Series D, $44M
Fractyl (2011, Waltham, $115.3M) – Endoscopic procedure for type – 2 diabetes
Investors: GV, True Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Domain Associates, Mithril, Emergent Capital Partners, Deerfield, iDo Fund

PE, $40M
EasyStand (1987, Morton, $40M) – Standing frames for kids and adults

Conventional Debt, $40M
Accuray (1990, Sunnyvale, $1.4M) – Robotic radiosurgery planning and delivery systems
Investors: MidCap Financial

Series B, $37M
Bigfoot Biomedical (2014, Milpitas, $72.5M) – Closed loop automated insulin delivery system
Investors: Janus Henderson Investors, Senvest Capital, Visionnaire Ventures, JDRF, T1DExchange, undefined

Series C, $28.7M
Lumicell Diagnostics (2008, Wellesley, $61.5M) – Intraoperative imaging system to detect cancer margins
Investors: LaunchCapital, BlueIO

Series B, $25M
Taris Biomedical (2008, Lexington, $108.8M) – Drug delivery device for bladder diseases
Investors: Yonghua Capital, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Flagship Pioneering, Polaris Partners, RA Capital Management, Roman Abramovich

Conventional Debt, $20M
Vital Connect (2011, Campbell, $71M) – Biosensor patch for body vitals monitoring
Investors: Oxford Finance

Series B, $18M
Virtual Incision (2006, Lincoln, $31.2M) – Multi-quadrant surgery using miniature robots
Investors: Sinopharm Capital, Bluestem Capital, Prairiegold Venture Partners

Post IPO, $18M
Titan Medical (2008, Toronto, $55.6M) – A surgeon-controlled robotic surgical system for MIS

Post IPO, $15.6M
Wright Medical (1993, Memphis) – Orthopaedic medical device company focussed on extremity & biologic solutions

Venture Debt, $15M
Aerin Medical (2011, Sunnyvale, $27.5M) – Radiofrequency medical wand to reshape nasal tissue to improve airflow
Investors: Horizon Technology Finance

M&A

• Roche and Ignyta Reach Definitive Merger Agreement Business Wire
• On a deal spree, Mallinckrodt bags Sucampo and two late-stage rare disease drugs for $1.2B EndPoints News
• Edwards Acquires Harpoon Medical PR Newswire
• Entellus Medical Announces Definitive Agreement To Be Acquired By Stryker Corporation For A Purchase Price Of $24.00 Per Share In Cash Med Device Online
• Exactech and TPG Capital Announce Amended Merger Agreement Providing for Increase in Merger Consideration to $49.25 per share Business Wire
• BD Statement On MOFCOM Clearance Of Bard Acquisition PR Newswire
• Pappas Capital Portfolio Company Rotation Medical Acquired by Smith & Nephew PR Newswire
• Centinel Spine Completes Acquisition of prodisc Assets PR Newswire
• Endonovo Therapeutics Acquires Assets of Electroceuticals Developer, Rio Grande Neurosciences, and Settles Lawsuit GlobeNewswire
• Oxford Performance Materials Sells Aerospace & Defense Business to Strategic Investor Hexcel Corporation GlobeNewswire

IPO

• Quanterix Corporation Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering Business Wire
• Eyenovia eyes $35M IPO to trial smart ocular delivery tech FierceBiotech
• Belluscura Pulls Plans For USD 13 Million UK-Based IPO Medical Buyer

FDA Approval

• SteadyMed Announces FDA Agreed Pathway to Trevyent NDA Resubmission BioSpace
• Boston Scientific Stock Up As FDA OKs Vercise Deep Brain Stimulation System RTTNews
• Intersect ENT : Announces FDA Approval of SINUVA™ Sinus Implant, a New In-Office Treatment Option for Recurrent Nasal Polyps 4-Traders
• FDA Approves Investigational Device Exemption for SetPoint Bioelectronic Therapy Clinical Study in Rheumatoid Arthritis Pharmacy Choice
• Arch Therapeutics Withdraws 510(k) with Plans to Resubmit After Further Discussions with FDA 4-Traders
• Sernova Receives US FDA IND Allowance to Initiate a US Clinical Trial of its Cell Pouch for the Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes pipelinereview.com
• Gynesonics Announces Submission of FDA 510k for Incision-Free Treatment of Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids Business Wire
• XableCath Receives FDA Clearance for Broadly Effective Catheter Aimed at Peripheral Arterial Disease Market Business Wire
• Chemence Medical Receives FDA Clearance for Exofin Fusion® Skin Closure SystemBusiness Wire
• Glaukos Announces Submission of Premarket Approval Application for the iStent Inject Trabecular Micro-Bypass Eyewire Today

New Product Announcement

• Surgical Device Maker Xenco Medical Unveils TraumaGPS, the First Trauma Surgery Delivery App for Spinal Implant Systems Business Wire
• Companion Medical Announces U.S. Commercial Launch of Smart Insulin Pen SystemPR Newswire
• ImpediMed Launches FDA-Approved SOZO BioSpace
• Launch Of First FDA-Cleared HD Duodenoscope With Disposable Distal Cap Announced by PENTAX Medical Medical Device News Magazine
• Anatomage Inc. Launches Cloud Platform For Easy Medical Image Sharing PR Newswire
• OrthoPediatrics Corp. Launches New Wrist Fusion Plate System GlobeNewswire
• Smith & Nephew Announce European Launch of Handheld Imaging Technology Heralding a New Era of Evidence-Based Decision Making in Wound Care Business Wire
• PTS Diagnostics Announces New Portable Data Capture System for Screening Professionals BioSpace

New Geo Entry

• EDAP’s Focal One® Robotic HIFU Treatments Performed at Acibadem Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey GlobeNewswire
• Fresenius Medical Care achieves a milestone in expanding its Asian operations 4-Traders

Business Partnership

• Accenture and Roche Collaborate to Enhance Digital Healthcare for Cancer PatientsBusiness Wire
• SoftBank and Vayyar announce IoT collaboration Seeking Alpha
• Audax Private Equity : Announces the Recapitalization of Belmont Instrument Corporation 4-Traders

Company Announcement

• Ionis Pharmaceuticals Licenses IONIS-HTT Rx to Partner Following Successful Phase 1/2a Study in Patients with Huntington’s Disease pipelinereview.com

Research Partnership

• Apple launched a study to look for irregular heart rhythms on the Apple Watch TechCrunch
• Janssen Enters Worldwide Collaboration and License Agreement with Chinese Company Legend Biotech to Develop Investigational CAR-T Anti-Cancer Therapy PR Newswire
• TARIS and Bristol-Myers Squibb Announce Clinical Trial Collaboration Business Wire
• ClearPath Development Company Launches Third Collaboration Under Strategic Partnership With Astellas Pharma To Develop Staphylococcus Aureus Vaccine With Boston Children’s Hospital Pharmacy Choice

Board Updates

• Zimmer Biomet : Announces Appointment of Bryan C. Hanson as President and Chief Executive Officer 4-Traders
• Spineology Announces Appointment of Mr. Richard Nigon as New Board of Directors Member Business Wire

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Biot Motors (2017, Delhi), Developer of electric motorcycles. Founders is ex-Ericsson. Local comparables are Tork Motorcycles (2010, Pune, $4.6M) and Menza Motors (2016, Ahmedabad). Global comparables are Zero Motorcycles (2006, Scotts Valley, $148M) and Alta Motors (2010, SF, $65.3M).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

HackerRank (2009, Bangalore), technical recruitment platform and code-challenge community, raises $30M in Series C round of funding led by JMI Equity. Link

MoneyOnMobile (2010, Mumbai), mobile wallet, recharge, and payments service provider, raises $5M in Series H round of funding from S7 Group. Link

Drivezy (2015, Bangalore), online self-drive car rental service provider, raises $5M in funding from initial coin offering. Link

Pandorum (2011, Bangalore), designer and manufacturer of functional 3D living human tissues, raises $3.5M in Series A round of funding from 021 Capital, IAN Fund and Sunil Munjal. Link

Littlemore (2010, Chennai), devices for writing descriptive examination, raises $3M in Series A round of funding from Kalpavriksh, a private equity fund of Centrum Group. Link

Holachef (2014, Mumbai), online curated marketplace for chef prepared meals, raises $311k in Angel round of funding from Laxmi Diamond Pvt Ltd. Link

Cashify (2013, Gurgaon), online platform/service for buy back of used gadgets, raises an undisclosed amount in Debt round of funding from Trifecta Capital. Link

Awaaz De Infosystems Pvt. Ltd (2010, Ahmedabad), mobile voice-based social platform for information services through phone calls, raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Tribe Impact Capital LLP, a subsidiary of impact-investing firm Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group. Link

GroupM, NYC-based venture capital firm, acquires majority stake in The Glitch (2010, Mumbai), digital ad agency, for an undisclosed amount. Link

Ola (2011, Bangalore), app-based asset-light cab operator, partners with Hike (2012, Delhi), mobile messaging and calling app, to bring a hassle-free experience of booking a cab from Hike itself. Link

Spring House (2015, Gurgaon), co-working space provider, partners with BLIP Initiatives LLP to set up space in Janakpuri. Link

Kissht (2015, Mumbai), EMI-based purchase loans platform, launches ‘Scan And Pay Later’ credit wallet facility. Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Apttus (2006, San Mateo), CRM based SaaS pricing, quoting, and contracts solution provider, raises $75M in Series F round of funding from Golub Capital. Link

InfluxData (2012, SF), open source time series database platform, raises $35M in Series C round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures, along with Battery Ventures, Mayfield Fund and Trinity Ventures. Link

Tipalti (2010, Palo Alto), automated online mass payment system and account payable platform, raises $30M in Series C round of funding led by Zeev Ventures.. Link

Bitpesa (2013, Nairobi), bitcoin based remittance service provider, acquires Transferzero(2016,  Las Rozas De Madrid), online money transfer service provider with multiple cash receiving options, for an undisclosed amount. Link

Fitbit (2007, SF), wireless wearable sensors to track person’s activities, acquires Twine Health (2013, Cambridge), platform for collaborative chronic disease care, for an undisclosed amount. Link

Analyst Picks

• Rocket (2017, San Francisco) – AI based recruitment solution
  Market: HRTech > Candidate Sourcing > Job Board > Job – Matching
• VinHRM (2017, Kozhikode) – Attendance and payroll management software
  Market: HRTech > Contingent Workforce Management > Suite
• MiMxHR (2017, Bangalore) – Online HR management software
  Market: HRTech > HRMS > Suite > SMB
• Job Bank (2017, Blackburn) – Recruiting and staffing software
  Market: HRTech > Recruitment Process Management > Suite
• Skill TIN (2017, Delhi) – Recruitment platform for employers
  Market: HRTech > Candidate Sourcing > Job Board > Discreet Job Board

Funding Rounds

Series C, $60M
Reflektive (2014, San Francisco, $101.6M) – Real Time Feedback and Company Performance platforrm
Investors: TPG, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Series B, $50M
ZipRecruiter (2010, Santa Monica, $113M) – Job-board distribution Platform
Investors: IVP

Series C, $30M
HackerRank (2009, Bangalore, $58.2M) – Technical recruitment platform and code-challenge community
Investors: JMI Management, Khosla Ventures, Battery Ventures, Randstad, Chartline Capital Partners

Series B, $22M
Peakon (2015, Copenhagen, $34.1M) – SaaS-based analytics platform for employee engagement and retention
Investors: Balderton Capital, EQT Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Sunstone

Series A, $18M
Uncommon (2015, Palo Alto, $18M) – Stealth-mode job matching application for candidates.
Investors: Canaan Partners, Spark Capital

Series B, $13.3M
SmartHR (2015, Tokyo, $32.2M) – Benefits Management
Investors: CVC Capital Partners, 500 Startups Japan

Series B, $13M
SmartHR (2013, Shibuya, $13M) – Document Management Software
Investors: 500 Startups

Series A, $11.5M
Jobcase (2009, Cambridge, $18.5M) – Blue collar networking and recruitment platform
Investors: Providence Equity Partners

Series A, $11.5M
Shiftboard (2002, Seattle, $17.4M) – Online Scheduling Software
Investors: NewRoad Capital Partners, Voyager Capital, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors

Series B, $8M
gr8 People (2009, New Hope, $14M) – Talent Engagement Solution for Hiring
Investors: Ascent Venture Partners, Delancey Street Partners, Randstad

Venture Debt, $7.4M
Jobandtalent (2009, Madrid, $85.6M) – Job listing and matching platform for blue-collar jobs

Series C, $7.3M
Hireology (2010, Chicago, $32.4M) – Cloud-based ATS suite for SMBs

Series A, $5M
Joveo (2015, Hyderabad, $5M) – Programmatic job advertising platform
Investors: Nexus Venture Partners

Series A, $4.8M
Shift (2012, Brea, $4.8M) – Veteran sourcing platform for employers

Series B, $4.0M
Picwell (2012, Philadelphia, $14.0M) – Predictive Analytics for personalized health insurance decision-making
Investors: Aflac, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, MassMutual, Springfield

M&A

• Adecco buys digital recruitment firm Vettery, price not disclosed Reuters
• Monster announces sale of APAC business to strengthen focus on North America and European Markets PR Newswire
• MOVE Guides Acquires Polaris Global Mobility PR Newswire
• HR services firm PeopleStrong buys referral recruitment platform GrownOut VCCircle
• StayWell Acquires Digital Health Startup Provata Health, Expands Capabilities in Population Health HIT Consultant
• TS2 Holdings Acquisition Creates California Recruiting Powerhouse PR Newswire
• Palamon acquires Thomas International Private Equity Wire
• Morson acquires Canadian recruitment specialist Strategic Infusion Recruiter
• AI Focussed HRTech Startup Bash Acqui-Hires Wemo Inc42
• PeopleAdmin and Performance Matters Will Combine to Form First Comprehensive K-12 Talent Management Suite Linking Educator and Student Assessment Data with Actionable Insights to Enhance Teacher Performance and Improve Student OutcomesBusiness Wire

New Fund Launch

• Workday Ventures Reveals $250 Million Fund for AI, Blockchain, AR Sector Publishing Intelligence

New Product Announcement

• Onfido Brings Biometric Customer Authentication to Arro Money Find Biometrics
• Welltok Launches EngageME to Streamline Member Communications PR Newswire
• Talview announces the launch of Qton, a talent assistant chatbot People Matters
• Macmahon signs with LiveHire to meet recruitment demands Australian Mining
• Limeade Fosters Inclusive Workplaces with New Inclusion+ Solution GlobeNewswire
• Zugata Introduces Zugata Insights, AI-Powered Analytics to Measure, Monitor, and Improve Organizational Performance Euroinvestor
• Toptal Launches Elite, On-Demand Talent Network for Blockchain Engineering Business Wire
• SmartLinx Solutions Unveils SmartLinx 6 Workforce Management Suite PRWeb
• Qualtrics Announces Online Community Connecting Experience Management Platform Users Retail News
• LinkedIn launches ‘Scheduler’ to ease hiring process THE WEEK
• Gusto introduces Gusto for Partners Accounting Today
• Limeade Expands with New Employee Engagement Product GlobeNewswire
• Paycor Announces HR Center of Excellence GlobeNewswire
• Smart Pension switches on Alexa skill Finextra
• CodeFights Releases AI-Driven Sourcing Assistant To Help Recruiters Find Qualified Engineering Candidates Faster PR Newswire
• Jobcase Unveils Blockchain as Newest Component of Technology RoadmapGlobeNewswire
• Blockchain Engineer Network Launched By Toptal BlockTribune
• Lattice adds Snap 60GHz modules Electronics Weekly

New Geo Entry

• New To The Market: 19-23 February 2018 Recruiter
• Fast-Growing Tech Company Paycom Opens Salt Lake City Sales Office Business Wire

Business Partnership

• Cornerstone OnDemand Expands its Global Relationship with LinkedIn Technology-Signals
• ADP Partners with ZipRecruiter to strengthen HR technology solutions Suite Technology-Signals

Company Announcement

• As 99designs turns 10, CEO Patrick Llewellyn plans for an Australian IPO TechCrunch
• Uncommon.co Launches Recruiting Industry%uFFFDs First Qualification-Based Talent Marketplace VCA Online

Earnings Release

• Cornerstone OnDemand Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Results Business Wire
  

New Feature Release

• LinkedIn’s Scheduler to automate interview scheduling Indiatimes
• Microsoft’s LinkedIn Resume Assistant rolls out to Office 365 SiliconAngle
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator Announces New Features and Updates to Help Sales Professionals Technology-Signals

Key People Movement

• SpringRole appoints Alex Waters as advisor Asian News International
• iCIMS Welcomes Valerie Rainey as Chief Financial Officer Sector Publishing Intelligence

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

neuu (2017, Bangalore), marketplace for online interactive yoga sessions. Global comparables are Asana Rebel (2015, Berlin, $6.5M) and Yogaia (2013, Espoo, $3.63M).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Lemon Tree Hotels (2002, Delhi), operator of a chain of hotels and resorts, raises $48M in funding from anchor investors including Scottish investment firm Aberdeen and a New York pension fund ahead of its initial public offering. Link

Auxilo Finserve (2017, Mumbai), NBFC providing education loans, raises $5.7M in funding from Balrampur Chini Mills. Link

Soulfull (2011, Bangalore), manufacturer and distributor of breakfast cereal, instant mixes and ragi grains, raises $5.36M in funding from impact investment fund Aavishkaar Bharat Fund. Link

i2iFunding (2015, Noida), P2P lending platform, raises $766k in funding led by SucSEED Venture Partners, serial entrepreneur and investor Manish Poddar and a group of Angel Investors. Link

Nuo Bank (2018, Mumbai), decentralised crypto banking platform, raises $250k in Seed round of funding from PayU India’s CEO Amrish Rau and MD Jitendra Gupta. Link

PhonePe (2015, Bangalore), UPI based payment app, has secured $79.3M in funding from it’s Singapore based parent entity Flipkart. Link

Infosys invests $1.5M in Waterline Data Science (2013, Mountain View), automated data cataloging in Hadoop and GDPR compliance. Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Tempus (2015, Chicago), oncology platform for sequencing, analytics and informatics, raises $80M in Series D round of funding from New Enterprise Associates and Revolution Growth, as well as new investors Kinship Trust and funds advised by T. Rowe Price. Link

ServiceTitan (2012, Glendale),provider of field service management software for contractors, raises $62M in Series C round of funding led by Battery Ventures. Link

Samsara (2015, SF), IoT gateway & cloud solution to record and analyze machine data, raises $50M in Series D round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. Link

Blade (2014, NYC),  on-demand helicopter  to connect Manhattan with surrounding airport, raises $38M in Series B round of funding from Colony NorthStar and Lerer Hippeau, along with LionTree Ventures. Link

aXpire (2017, NYC), blockchain technology based spend management software company, raises $20M in Series A round of funding from undisclosed investors. Link

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

VideoTap (2016, Noida), Cloud-based interactive smart video platform, Founder is Ex-COO ITV Network, CEO Network18 & Pugmarks and alumnus of Harvard Business School. Global comparables are Viewbix (2011, Beit Shemesh, $6.1M) and Rapt Media (2011, Boulder, $4.23M).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Travel Triangle (2010, Noida), Marketplace for traveler-agent communication for customized trip planning, raises $12M in Series C funding from Fundamentum, SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, RB investments. Link

LoanZen (2015, Bangalore), Unsecured working capital loans platform, raises an undisclosed round of funding from Kae Capital. Link

Cycle Pure (1948, Mysore), Incense sticks brand, raises undisclosed amount of funding from Motilal Oswal Private Equity Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Link

Mahindra Electric (1994, Bangalore), Manufacturer of Electric cars and commercial vans, partners with ZoomCar (2013, Bangalore), Online self-drive car rental service provider, to offer 100 electric vehicle ‘e20 plus’ on the Zoomcar platform in Delhi. Link

PayPal (1998, San Jose), Internet payment services provider, partners With Inc42 (2013, Delhi), Niche content production and digital publishing, to enable freelancers to leverage the global opportunity. Link

ICICI Venture, Mumbai-based venture capital & private equity, raises third real estate fund, at $77M. Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Knotel (2015, NYC), Managed co-working space for startups, raises $70M in Series B funding from Newmark Knight Frank, The Sapir Organization, The Wolfson Group, The Moinian Group, and Wainbridge Capital. Link

The Access Group (1991, London), ERP solution provider for the manufacturing industry, raises $43.741M funding from HgCapital Trust PLC. Link

StackRox (2014, Mountain View), Provider of Cybersecurity solution for trusted computing, raises $25M in Series B funding from Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Amplify Partners. Link

Expel (2016, Mclean), Cybersecurity solution to maintain security systems, raises $20M in Series B funding from Scale Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Greycroft, Lightbank, New Enterprise Associates, Paladin Capital Group and Profile Capital Management. Link

Instapage (2011, SF), Landing Page Management Platform, raises $15M in Series B funding from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. Link

Huron Capital Partners, Detroit-based private equity firm, closes its 6th Investment Fund at  $142M. Link

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – SMART GRID

• CyanConnode Holdings raised $11.4M through a placing of shares post-IPO. Link
• Sympower, a smart energy startup, raised $1.2M from Angel Investors and Investment fund Enfuro Ventures. Link
• Labrador has raised $1.3M in its Seed funding round led by Hambro Perks. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Modularity  (2017, London) –  Modularity is a virtual power plant, that leverages artificial intelligence and blockchain, for autonomous real time control and management of the generation of electricity from prosumers with distributed resources (solar, batteries etc.) for distribution. This enables seamless demand-based sharing of electricity within an ecosystem of consumers, prosumers and producers. iT enables owners of rooftop solar, batteries etc. who are connected to a grid, to sell their surplus electricity directly to their neighbours

LEADER BOARD – SMART GRID

Horizontal
Silver Spring Networks (2002, Redwood City, IPO) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Backed by KPCB, Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Northgate Capital Group and DFJ Growth. Went Public in March 2013.
LandisGyr (1896, Zug, $265M, Acq.) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Acquired by Toshiba in May 2011.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Smart Meters
Elster (1994, Ocala, Acq.) – Provide AMI and AMR metering solutions for electricity, gas and water segments. Acquired by Honeywell in December 2015.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Communication Systems
Power Plus Communications (2001, Mannheim, $15M) – Broadband powerline communication systems for smart grids,smart metering, and smart homes.Backed by Siemens Venture Capital, British Gas, Climate Change Capital, Siemens Financial Services.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Meter Data Management
eMeter (1999, San Mateo, $69M, Acq.) – Offer software solutions and meter data management software. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Northgate Capital Group, Foundation Capital, DBL Investors and Siemens Venture Capital. Acquired by Siemens in December 2011.

Load Management
Ice Energy (2003, Santa Barbara, $92M) – Energy storage system and demand side management for the smart grid. Backed by Energy Capital Partners, Second Avenue Partners, Good Energies and Goldman Sachs.
Green Charge (2009, Santa Clara, $66M) – Load balancing using battery storage devices. Backed by TIP Capital, K Road DG. Acquired by Engie in May, 2016.

Transmission Automation
Smart Wires (2014, SF, $79M) – Smart wires to push power from overloaded line to under utilized lines. Backed by RiverVest Venture Partners, Jane Capital Partners, ARPA-E.

Distribution Automation
Gridco Systems (2010, Woburn, $54.5M) – End-to-End hardware and software platform to solve distribution challenges. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Lux Capital, RockPort Capital, Reinhausen.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Suite Solutions
Trilliant Networks (1985, Redwood City, $146M) – Provides single dashboard management of an entire smart grid infrastructure. Backed by MissionPoint Capital Partners, Zouk Capital, VantagePoint Capital Partners, GE, ABB and Capital Growth Investments.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Distributed Energy Resources
GridPoint (2003, Arlington, $294M, Acq.) – Energy management solution(EMS) provider with  real-time data collection, big data analytics and cloud computing to maximize energy savings. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Advantage Capital Partners, Skypoint Capital, Altira Group. Acquired by TFC Utilities in November 2015.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Suite
Opower (2007, Arlington, $65.5M, Acq.) – Cloud-based software comprising energy reports and demand response programs. Backed by New Cycle Capital, Accel Partners and KPCB. Acquired by Oracle Corporation in May 2015.
Nexant (2000, SF, $65M) – Cloud-based business process management software platform for utilities to analyze the demand response. Backed by Oak Investment, Intel Capital, TeleSoft Partners and Beacon Capital.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Customer End
Tendril (2004, Boulder, $124M) – Cloud-based software platform which provides the infrastructure, analytics, and personalized energy services for demand response. Backed by VantagePoint Capital,  Vista Ventures, Access Venture Partners, Appian Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital.
FirstFuel (2011, Lexington, $45M) – Building-wide energy analytics that help utilities and government agencies deliver energy efficiency across commercial building portfolios. Backed by Next World Capital, Battery Ventures, Vast Ventures, Nth Power, RockPort Capital, E.on, Electranova Capital, Idinvest Partners.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Utility End
Space-Time Insight (2008, San Mateo, $54.5M) – Real-time analytics by capturing data from various assets. Backed by  Informatica, Opus Capital, NEC Corporation, EnerTech Capital, Novus Energy Partners, Start Up Farms International, Zouk Capital, E.on.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Smart Grid feed