ArpexCapital

Brazil:

·         Dualtec Cloud Solutions, Brazil’s first cloud services broker, has received an investment from Brazilian VC firm, Astella Investimentos.  The funds will be used to accelerate its growth. This increases Astella’s portfolio to five companies and positions Dualtec to reach its goal of a 36% increase in sales.

o   http://bit.ly/nITZ6p

·         The Brazilian government is going to allocate R$ 2 billion for FINEP, a government development agency, to increase the release of funds for business innovation projects.  The funds will be released through BNDES, the national development bank, through the Investment Support Program at rates of 4%-5% per year.

o   http://bit.ly/qU2onk

·         O2 Games, a Brazilian online social gaming company, has received a new investment from Bossa Nova, a group led by business angel, Pierre Schurmann.  The funds will be used to strengthen the business, keep it in Belo Horizonte, and then increase its market share through new games.

o   http://bit.ly/pJ2zCE

·         Latin America’s largest group buying site, Peixe Urbano, has announced that it will sponsor start-ups participating in incubator, Startup Farm, that try to create some sort of solution using its API.

o   http://bit.ly/ni4NEJ

·         In keeping with its internet expansion movement, the federal government will penalize internet operators and internet providers that limit the access of certain internet services.  Essentially, the government is imposing net neutrality.

o   http://bit.ly/o5kQAG

 

United States:

·         Silicon Valley based social enterprising company Jive files its S-1 this week. Jive’s IPO is expected to be at $100M. Their software combines computing with social collaboration to offer fully-featured social networks for businesses.

o   http://tcrn.ch/qka2mY

·         Tel Aviv based cloud-supported music service, Mecanto launched an affordable streaming and storage service.  The service promises unlimited music streaming and storage to listeners all over the world without the price of competitors.

 

o   http://tcrn.ch/oMTBYo

·         Auto industry digital marketing platform Dealer.com raises $30M led by Accel Partners. Based in Burlington, VT, Dealer.com sells a SaaS application that manages auto dealers’ web presence from start to finish.

o   http://tcrn.ch/rlVVsJ

·         Revenue performance management company Eloqua Limited files for an initial public offering estimated at $100M. Eloqua’s software solution is a SaaS platform that provides its clients with analytics to help predict revenue performance.

o   http://bit.ly/mXgBux

·         Online gaming veterans Chris Chung and Rick Lambright have formed Motiga, a startup dedicated to making cloud-based mobile games. In addition, the company has created a scalable cloud-based mobile game server technology.

o   http://bit.ly/pjAx6m

 

American VC/Industry:

·         Y Combinator startup, MarketBrief, launched last week.  The startup aims to process SEC filings and create a simplified version of the filing document.  The startup plans to include FCA, FCC, and other agency documents as it matures.  The company will operate on a freemium model.

o   http://bit.ly/o9OaOa

·         Technology company incubator YouWeb has raised $2MM from its existing investors.  The funds will be used to help expand the incubator in both its program size and personnel.

o   http://bit.ly/pWJyiD

·         OpenFeint, the mobile social gaming network, has announced that it will allow third-party app developers to use its own identification code in response to Apple’s earlier announcement of its exluding unique device identifier numbers in future Apple projects.

o   http://bit.ly/nOShD2

·         Venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital, is raising a new growth fund and principals fund.  The amounts being sought have not yet been disclosed.

o   http://bit.ly/re6RwM

 

Brazil:

·         Following a Brazilian courts injunction against Vostu in the Zynga vs. Vostu lawsuit, an American Judge said that the Brazilian Court cannot shut down the Brazilian startup. This is due to Zynga’s decision to use the US courts as its first forum.

o   http://tcrn.ch/piGRk6

 

·         Brazilian accelerator, Startup Farm, has announced three scholarships for women.  One will be a complete scholarship with the other two covering 50% of costs.  The goal is to increase the amount of woman participants given their low representation.

o   http://goo.gl/mtuAP

 

·         Sao Paulo-based startup Ledface has launched its beta of what it calls “the collective brain,” which is essentially a crowdsourcing platform. The Brazilian startup is a platform that aims to harness collective intelligence to answer questions.

o   http://tnw.co/ow77OD

 

·         Start-Up Lab, as presented by Artemisia Neogicos Socias and The Hub, is hosting a pitch session event in Rio de Janeiro at August 25th. This is a part of a week of programs that cover a variety of topics from August 21-August 28^th.

o   http://bit.ly/pGuoJk

 

·         American VC fund, Redpoint Ventures, will be hosting office hours in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on August 15^th (SP) and August 18^th (RJ).  Redpoint will select 30 companies to participate in this event.

o   http://goo.gl/10R9z

 

United States:

·         Foodspotting, a service built around sharing photos of meals with the goal of food discovery, attained 100M users this week. In response to this the startup is adding a new “Follow” tab in order to augment the social aspect of the app.

o   http://tcrn.ch/rkE4mJ

 

·         Facebook released mobile messaging app, Facebook Messenger. The new app merges the technology from the company’s acquisition of group messaging service, Beluga, and a revamped Messages product.

o   http://tcrn.ch/qw8L6r

 

·         Google+ has launched its own games section that features titles from Facebook game companies such as Zynga and others.  More importantly, Google is undercutting Facebook by charging a 5% revenue fee versus Facebook’s 30%.

o   http://goo.gl/Je5C2

 

·         In a new partnership with Foursquare, DVD rental service RedBox is now offering discounts when customers check-in with the location based service. This comes as the latest push to encourage Redbox users to connect the kiosks to their mobile devices.

o   http://on.mash.to/n8XolE

 

·         In order to circumvent Apple’s new in-app subscription rules, Amazon has launched a new HTML5 app called Kindle Cloud Reader that allows you to read Kindle books in your browser both online and offline.

o   http://on.mash.to/mXfcQk

 

·         URL shortening service Bit.ly acquired social publishing tool, Twitterfeed. The social tool automatically publishes RSS feeds to social networks with a title and shortened Bit.ly link.

o   http://on.mash.to/oZ3pEO

 

·         Zulily, a daily deals site that specializes in toys and children’s clothes closes a $43M fundraising round led by Meritech Capital Partners. No plans were announced for the new

funds.

o   http://tinyurl.com/3k5r4oq

 

 

American VC/Industry:

·         Gaming giant Zynga filed an amended S-1 for their IPO, slightly altering their previous filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, Zynga confirmed that it now has a $1B credit facility, as well as an increase in employees.

o   http://bit.ly/o7nJoT

 

·         Rovio, the company behind the smash game Angry Birds is in the process of fundraising a round that would value the company at over $1.2B.

o   http://bit.ly/oRK7Xs

 

·         Visa has announced that it will deploy dual-mode chips to pave the way for NFC based mobile payments.  Furthermore, Visa has announced a 3 year, 3 step plan that will induce merchant-credit card companies infrastructure changes.

o   http://goo.gl/Rf22N

 

 

Brazil:

·         Zynga has now sued Vostu in Brazil where a judge has granted a preliminary injunction against Vostu.  Vostu and Orkut must now remove four games within two days or incure $13K in daily fines.

o   http://tcrn.ch/nmJ3zo

·         IDC Institute has found that Apple’s iPhone dominates Brazilian phone sales, gaining 19% of the market.  This level of market share represents an increase of 140% over the previous year. Apple’s rise  is in stark contracts to Nokia’s 30% fall.

o   http://bit.ly/n9RvD6

·         Buscape Challenge has selected four winners in its business plan contest. The winners: Urbanizo (an internet real estate site), HotMart (a platform for operating and distributing digital content), Anuncie La (a social virtual marketplace), and Meu Carrinho (a mobile app for grocery store prices) will receive R$1MM from Buscape and other qualitative aid.

o   http://bit.ly/poWZ1l

·         Brazilian incubator Aceleradora has selected five startups for its 2011 mentoring cycle.  The companies: AcessoZero (online social city guide), Anuncie.La (a social virtual marketplace), Crowdtest (crowdsourced testing service) EuDecido (reverse group buying system), and Vozis (call routing platform) will receive constant mentoring sessions and even small capital investments if needed.

o   http://tnw.co/raoRL5

 

United States:

·         Social gaming company Kixeye raised $18M in a series C round led by Jafco Ventures. The company focuses on “games for gamers” and with the new funds looks to expand in both personnel and titles.

o   http://tcrn.ch/oF9zK4

·         American Express has teamed up with Verizon Wireless to support AmEx’s Serve digital wallet platform.  Under the agreement, Verizon customers will be able to use Serve to make payments for transactions done on their smartphones.

o   http://bit.ly/ql7qko

·         Educational gaming startup Airy Labs, which creates social learning games for children that are compatible with mobile, tablet and browser, raised $1.5M in seed funding from Google Ventures among others.

o   http://tcrn.ch/qiYo99

·         Social gaming company Zynga launched Words With Friends for Facebook. The new version of the game offers continuous play; meaning if you start a game on your mobile device, you can continue it on Facebook and vice-versa. 

o   http://on.mash.to/prm0AE

·         Kinvey, a startup that helps mobile developers build apps faster, raised $2MM in a seed round.  The seed money will be used to hire more employees and add new features.

o   http://bit.ly/rcXiGR

·         WhosHere, an iOS app for location-based social networking, has raised $1.25MM in its first round.  The company plans to scale the business and expand its team with West Coast developers and East Coast operations personnel.

o   http://bit.ly/oPRyBK

·         ChoozOn, a coupon aggregator, raised $3.2MM in angel funding.  The company is currently In beta testing.  With the new funds ChoozOn intends to grow from 40 employees to 50 employees.

o   http://bit.ly/qfYLnV

·         Quirky, a social network for product development, has raised $16M in a Series B led by Norwest Venture Partners. The crowdsourcing site plans to use the new funds for talent hires, specifically in the product development and design areas.

o   http://tcrn.ch/qaNfLg

 

VC/Industry:

·         A study by PlaySpan and VG Market Study found that a third of online gamers buy virtual goods. Furthermore, it was found that women are three times more likely than men to use Facebook credits to purchase virtual goods.

o   http://bit.ly/rnh9NJ

·         Startup incubator AngelPad has decided to offer applicants an additional $100K in funding. The funding is from two VC firms and does not have major diluting effects.

o   http://bit.ly/p4iFZD

·         McKinsey has published a research article in which the population of heavy users of digital activities has almost tripled.  Nonetheless, a quarter of the population still does not own a smartphone or engage in digital activities and lacks an intention to do so.

o   http://rww.to/q3PcTW

 

 

 

Brazil:

·       Challenge: Brazil hosts its final competitions in Belo Horizonte and Campinas August 5^th-8^th.  The competing groups will be evaluated by VCs and entrepreneurs with the winners moving on to the national competition. The event is open to the public.

o   http://bit.ly/pwMw6A

 

·       Airbnb, a vacation rentals site, has raised $112MM in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $1.3B valuation. The new funds will be used for international expansion with Brazil as a priority market.

o   http://bit.ly/qMGnVY

·       Innovation Institute has launched StartupFarm, an unpublished acceleration program for digital entrepreneurism. The program promises to accelerate digital startups in 30 days. Applications for the Sao Paulo program are open.

o  http://bit.ly/qfAxtZ

·       Daniel Capobianco of the Center of Entrepreneurialism and New Business of FGV has started “Estagio em Startup”.  This program facilitates start-ups to find and hire interns from FGV.

o   http://bit.ly/pAT0u9

·       Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo believes that with the beginning of the federal government’s broadband plan internet costs will drop.  Furthermore, he stated that the government plans to construct another submarine international communications cable.

o   http://bit.ly/n2gCRO

United States:

·       New York City based advertising company Yext just closed a $10M series D round led by WGI Group. Yext’s main service is  pay-per-call ads for local businesses. The new funds will be used to integrate 100 more local sites and apps.

o   http://tcrn.ch/q9KCTi

 

·       Hearsay Social, an SaaS dashboard for national businesses and their local branches to manage social madia pages, has raised $18MM from NEA and Sequoia Capital. The company will add more features to the program including a hierarchal structure.

o   http://tcrn.ch/ptzkHP

 

·       Thinknear, a New York startup that uses mobile banner ads to create hyper-targeted daily deal offers for local merchants raised $1.6 M in a series A round led by IA and Google Ventures.

o   http://tcrn.ch/oH4olh

 

·       Google acquired facial recognition service PittPatt, as it begins to explore opportunities with the new technology. 

o   http://tcrn.ch/ohB2Go

           

·       In an effort to court advertisers, Facebook has introduced a new site called Facebook for Business. According to a company rep, the site “provides step-by-step guidance for how to best use Facebook’s marketing tools.”

o   http://on.mash.to/pRXzDY

 

·       Tokyo-based DeNA, and its subsidiary, ngmoco, launch new social networking platform, mobage. Using the Adroid OS, the services allows developers to deploy their games so that they can be discovered and shared by gamers.

o   http://bit.ly/nZRHdM

 

 

·       Zynga has teamed up with Jordanian payment hub, Gate2play, to bring their games and services to Africa and the Middle East without credit cards.The partnership creates prepaid Zynga Game Cards.

o   http://bit.ly/nIjJGJ

 

VC/Industry:

·       According to a recent report from Nielsen, based on June data, Android now controls 39% of the smartphone market. Apple has 28% of the market, while RIM is down to 20%.

o   http://on.mash.to/prNDe5

 

·       Smartphone (phones that support app creation) sales are expected to reach 420MM units this year or 28% of the total phone market.  IMS expects this figure to reach 1B units by 2016.

o   http://tcrn.ch/oPpIzN

 

·       New York based RRE Ventures is raising a $250MM tech-focused fund with a $300MM hard cap.  This is the early-stage firm’s fifth fund.

o   http://bit.ly/poTAg5

 

·       Professor Mark Cannice of the University of San Francisco has published a VC confidence survey that shows a drop in confidence by venture capitalists. He attributes this drop to macro concerns, capital availability, and inflated valuations.

o   http://on.wsj.com/qq7iJn

 

·        Softbank Capital has announced a series of fund updates that include a shift in investment focus toward seed and early series A rounds and in smaller doses.  Moreover, more investments are being made in New York City based startups.

o   http://tcrn.ch/pGNEvh