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Go4Venture Advisers
European Venture & Growth Equity Market
Monthly Bulletin | February 2015
Technology / Media / Telecoms / Internet / Healthcare / Cleantech / Materials
About Go4Venture Advisers
Providing innovative, fast-growing companies and their investors
with independent corporate finance advice to help them
evaluate, develop and execute growth strategies
www.go4venture.com
Equity Capital Markets (ECM)
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)






Equity private placements
Growth equity financings and secondaries
Pre-IPO advisory
Sellside
Buyside / Buy and build
Valuation services
Visit www.go4venture.com/bulletin to read past Bulletins
Go4Venture Advisers LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Published by Go4Venture Research, the Equity Research unit of Go4Venture Advisers LLP
Go4Venture Advisers LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
© Go4Venture Advisers 2015
February 2015
Contents
This Month in Brief
2
Headline Transaction Index (HTI)
5
Large Transactions Summary
6
Large Transactions Profiles
8
List of Acronyms
29
About this Bulletin
The Go4Venture Advisers’ European Venture & Growth Equity Market Monthly Bulletin provides a summary
of the most prominent private investment transactions among emerging European TMT companies.
Investment activity is measured using Go4Venture’s European Tech Headline Transaction Index (HTI),
which is based on the number and value of transactions reported in professional publications. The HTI
captures transactions at all stages of investment, from seed to pre-IPO, and is an early indicator of the
progression of the private market cycle.
The Bulletin provides analysis of Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) financings, including growth
equity and financing rounds with single secondaries components (recapitalisations), of a value greater than
or equal to our Large Transaction threshold (£5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn). Transactions below the threshold
are captured in the HTI, but not profiled in the Bulletin.
Europe is defined as Western, Central and Eastern Europe, excluding Israel.
For more details, please refer to the Methodology Note available on our website.
Please note that no part of the Bulletin can be reproduced unless content is duly attributed to Go4Venture
and the details of republishing are notified to g4vBulletin@go4venture.com.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 1
February 2015
This Month in Brief
Dear Clients and Friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of the Go4Venture Monthly European Venture & Growth Equity Market Bulletin,
featuring our proprietary Headline Transaction Index (HTI) of investment activity.
A Market On Fire
Racing on, but keep the wheels down!
The European venture and growth market is going gangbusters. Whichever way one looks at it, the
metrics are like nothing seen before:


February 2015 is the highest ever on record (in terms of both volume and value of Large HTI deals).
Where we usually see a lull (after the January rush to close deals which didn’t quite complete by yearend), this year we see a redoubling of activity.
No fewer than three transactions fit in a new category of deals – which we have termed “Mega
Deals” – of more than €100mn, compared to three in the whole of last year. Notably, the first Mega
Deal appeared in Europe in 2010.
Granted, two of the largest February transactions (Delivery Hero and HelloFresh) are the work of Rocket
Internet thanks to the €1.6bn proceeds of its October 2014 IPO. In many ways, Rocket Internet is redefining
European venture and is arguably at the vanguard of taking venture global:


Through its execution power, Rocket is bringing a level of aggression akin to Silicon Valley investing
that is quite foreign to European venture’s traditional ways.
Many of its ventures are orientated towards emerging markets, which have historically been largely
ignored by venture providers. Rocket is one of few venture players exploring this opportunity, together
with the likes of Amadeus Capital, Atomico and Kinnevik – if we exclude the handful of US firms that
set up dedicated funds for India and China in the mid-2000s.
What is also fascinating in the February numbers is the demonstration that enthusiasm is spreading within
the market (as one would expect at this point in the cycle):
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 2
February 2015



Remarkably, February fundings are virtually equally split between Series A, Series B and Late Stage,
whereas the market has hitherto been skewed towards the two extremes. In short, the market is now
funding high-velocity companies at the Series B stage – but for those seeking a Series B with
modest traction, life is very difficult.
The UK is roaring ahead and maintains its solid (and growing) position as the #1 investment
destination in Europe, followed by Germany. France is also up there but now alongside the likes of
Switzerland, the Netherlands or Sweden (as far as Large HTI Transactions are concerned – which we
keep as ≥ £5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn despite fluctuations of the Euro compared to the £ or $).
Internet services of all kinds (fewer e-commerce; more marketplaces and consumer fintech)
continue to lead. Software is the second target sector for investment, but within this we see a greater
diversification of themes beyond the simple SaaS trend. Cleantech, hardware, medtech and telecom
services also appear on the list – but most of these investments follow the IoT theme of applicationdriven devices connected to the network in the most cost-efficient (and often, therefore,
environmentally friendly) way.
For a more complete view of the velocity of the European venture and growth market, you may want to have
a look at this presentation on the changing European growth and venture landscape, which we delivered
to the International Venture Club at the Tech Tour Growth Forum.
As in past issues, it is worth re-examining the question of where we are in the cycle, and of course whether
we are in for a market correction any time soon. All the commentators (and we agree) point out that, this time
round, it will not be nearly as bad as in the early 2000s (in short due to better fundamentals). We know from
experience, however, that markets overshoot and therefore the correction will feel like a freeze when it
comes, regardless of how good the fundamentals of these companies are.
In terms of timing, it is becoming more difficult to predict and we are now less confident of our prediction
of a market correction after Summer 2015:


On one hand, signs of market exuberance are accumulating: valuation inflation (Series A priced like
Series B, etc.); the first spectacular failures of famed ‘unicorns’ ($1bn-valued companies) like Fab
(sold to PCH International for a rumoured $15mn, according to TechCrunch); a month-old startup
(Meerkat) raising $12mn at a $40mn valuation.
On the other hand, the European Central Bank has now started its $1 trillion quantitative easing (QE)
programme. Together with the collapse in oil prices (essentially the world’s largest ever global tax cut),
we now have one of the most potent growth boosts ever devised, which will continue feeding
the growing atmosphere of economic optimism.
In short, the bubble could last a couple more years, even if of course this is at the mercy of accumulating
geopolitical risks (Ukraine, Iraq-Syria, Iran, Israel, etc.).
PS: For those readers interested, we helped compile the Tech Tour Growth 50 – a list of 50 drawn from
Europe’s fastest-growing, pre-exit investor backed technology companies.
Enjoy the reading. Please direct any questions or comments to g4vBulletin@go4venture.com. If you do not
wish to receive future HTI updates from us, please send an email with the title "unsubscribe"
to g4vBulletin@go4venture.com.
The Go4Venture Team
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 3
February 2015
Where to Meet the Go4Venture
www.go4venture.com/contact




Advisers
Team
in
April
2015
–
see
April 8 – London, UK – Startup Braga Reception, Portuguese Embassy
April 9 – London, UK – Tech Champions 2015
April 14-15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Red Herring Europe
April 27 – London, UK – LSE Elite Event
For more details about the Headline Transactions Index (HTI), please visit our website.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 4
February 2015
Headline Transaction Index (HTI)
Go4Venture HTI Index by Deal Value
2012
2013
2014
2015
Value of Transactions per Month (€mn)
1,400
Includes Delivery Hero (€496mn)
1,200
1,000
Includes Rocket Internet (€768mn)
800
600
400
200
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Source: Go4Venture Advisers HTI Database
Go4Venture HTI Index by Cumulative Deal Value
Cumulative Value of Transactions (€mn)
2012
2013
2014
2015
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Source: Go4Venture Advisers HTI Database
February
Large Transactions
#
€mn
Other Transactions
All Headline
Transactions
2014
2015
Var.
Year-to-Date
14
22
57%
Large Transactions
235
1,150
390%
#
17
43
153%
€mn
53
83
57%
#
€mn
31
65
110%
288
1,234
328%
€mn
Other Transactions
All Headline
Transactions
2014
2015
Var.
27
40
48%
488
1,653
239%
#
28
75
168%
€mn
83
171
106%
#
56
115
105%
571
1,825
220%
5
22
340%
217
1,339
545%
€mn
Of Which:
Landmark Transactions
#
Of Which:
#
€mn
2
10
400%
85
988
1062%
Landmark Transactions
#
€mn
Definitions
Large Transactions: ≥ £5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn
Other Transactions: < £5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn
Landmark Transactions: subset of Large Transactions ≥ €20mn
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 5
February 2015
Large Transactions Summary
(≥ £5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn)
Ranked by Round Size (€mn, including estimates) in Descending Order, then Alphabetically
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
Delivery Hero (Germany)
www.deliveryhero.com
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
496.0
Operator of a portal for
centralised ordering from a
variety of takeaway food
suppliers
Rocket Internet
2
HelloFresh (Germany)
www.hellofresh.com
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
114.6
Provider of meal kit delivery
service
Insight Venture Partners, Rocket
Internet
3
Sigfox (France)
www.sigfox.com
Telecom
Services
Late
Stage
101.3
Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
communications operator
ALIAD, bpifrance, Elaia Partners,
Elliot Management Corporation,
Eutelsat, GDF SUEZ, Idinvest
Partners, Intel Capital, iXO Private
Equity, NTT DOCOMO, Partech
Ventures, SK Telecom, Telefonica
4
WorldRemit (UK)
www.worldremit.com
Internet
Services
B
88.1
Retail cross-border currency
remittance service
Accel Partners, Technology
Crossover Ventures
5
Kobalt (UK)
www.kobaltmusic.com
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
52.8
Online music publishing and
royalty collection platform
Google Ventures, MSD Capital,
MSDC Management
6
Silent Circle (Switzerland)
www.silentcircle.com
Software
Late
StageN
44.0
Developer of private
communications apps
Undisclosed Investors
7
MVF Global (UK)
www.mvfglobal.com
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
27.0
Provider of scalable digital
marketing and customer
acquisition services
Bridgepoint Development
Capital
8
Carmudi (Germany)
www.carmudi.com
Internet
Services
B
22.0
Online portal for selling used
and new vehicles
Asia Pacific Internet Group,
Holtzbrinck Ventures,
Tengelmann Ventures
9
WeTransfer (Netherlands)
www.wetransfer.com
Internet
Services
A
22.0
Provider of a file-transfer and
storage service
Highland Capital Partners
Europe
10
Jahia (Switzerland)
www.jahia.com
Software
A
20.0
Open source User Experience Invus Group
Platform (UXP) vendor
11
Cambridge Clean Energy (UK)
www.cambridgecleanenergy.com
Cleantech
A
18.5
Provider of renewable energy
management software and
services
Amadeus Capital Partners
12
Borro (UK / US)
www.borro.com
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
17.2
Provider of an online
pawnbroking service
Augmentum Capital, Canaan
Partners, Eden Ventures,
OurCrowd, Rocket Internet
13
poLight (Norway)
www.polight.com
Hardware
C
16.7
Provider of autofocus lenses
for camera phones
Alliance Venture, Industrifonden,
Investinor, SINTEF, TD Veen,
Viking Venture
14
Lamudi (Germany)
www.lamudi.com
Internet
Services
B
16.0
Provider of an online real
estate marketplace
Asia Pacific Internet Group,
Holtzbrinck Ventures,
Tengelmann Ventures
15
Skimlinks (UK)
www.skimlinks.com
Software
C
14.1
Provider of a content
monetisation platform
Bertelsmann Digital Media
Investments, Frog Capital,
Greycroft Partners, Sussex Place
Ventures
16
App Machine (Netherlands)
www.appmachine.com
Software
A
13.4
Developer of a range of
mobile applications
Endurance International Group
#
Company
1
Source: Go4Venture Advisers HTI Database
Key
Bold indicates lead investor(s)
* Internal round
N
Deal not profiled due to undisclosed investors
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 6
February 2015
Large Transactions Summary (Cont’d)
(≥ £5mn / €7.5mn / $10mn)
Ranked by Round Size (€mn, including estimates) in Descending Order, then Alphabetically
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
17 KnCMiner (Sweden)
www.kncminer.com
Hardware
B
13.2
Developer of Bitcoin mining Accel Partners, Creandum,
equipment and provider of Individual Investor
cloud-based Bitcoin mining
services
18 Wandera (UK / US)
www.wandera.com
Software
B
13.2
Provider of mobile data
security software for
enterprises
83North, Bessemer Venture
Partners
19 TrialReach (UK / US)
www.trialreach.com
Medtech
B
11.9
Provider of a marketplace
for clinical trials
Amadeus Capital Partners, Octopus
Investments, Smedvig Capital
20 ClusterHQ (UK)
www.clusterhq.com
Software
A
10.6
Provider of data
management systems for
container-based
application development
Accel Partners, Canaan Partners
21 Shopa (UK)
www.shopa.com
Internet
Services
A
9.7
Provider of a social
shopping app and website
Notion Capital, Octopus Investments
A*
8.0
Provider of a dynamic
forecasting and pricing
platform for hotels
Partech Ventures, Tekton Ventures
#
Company
22 PriceMatch (France)
www.pricematch.travel
Software
Investors
Source: Go4Venture Advisers HTI Database
Key
Bold indicates lead investor(s)
* Internal round
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 7
February 2015
Delivery Hero
Germany | www.deliveryhero.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
1
Internet
Services
Late Stage
496.0
Operator of a portal for centralised ordering
from a variety of takeaway food suppliers
Rocket Internet
Delivery Hero (Germany), an operator of a portal for centralised ordering from a variety of takeaway food suppliers, raised
€496.0mn in a Late Stage round from new investor Rocket Internet (DE:RKET). The money, which gave Rocket Internet
a 30% stake in the company, will be used to expand internationally and move towards Delivery Hero’s long-term vision of
transforming the food delivery industry “for the sake of transparency, quality, convenience and speed”, according to CEO
Niklas Östberg. It might also support its (now official) plan for an IPO in 2015 or 2016.
We last saw Delivery Hero in our September 2014 issue when it raised $350mn (€271mn) in a late-stage round led by
existing investor Insight Venture Partners with support from fellow existing investor Kite Ventures and new investor Vostok
Nafta. The money was used to support further international growth and bolster the firm’s position in existing markets, with
the company since increasing the number of restaurants on its platform from c.75,000 to c.90,000 across 24 countries
(including Argentina, Austria, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Korea, Paraguay, Poland, Slovakia,
Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay).
Founded in Q4 2010, Delivery Hero operates a takeaway-ordering service by placing menus of peer-reviewed restaurants
online and processing payments. The company now counts more than 1,500 staff (including 500 in its Berlin headquarters)
and processed more than 62mn orders in 2014. Its restaurant partners generated more than a billion euros in annual sales
in 2014 from orders through its web and mobile applications.
As pointed out in our September 2014 issue, it is vital for companies in this sector to have a critical mass of restaurants on
their platform at a local level. Without this, they can offer only a limited choice of food, struggle to attract consumers, fail to
generate significant revenues and are thus unable to cover their operating costs. This was emphasised by the November
2014 agreement between Delivery Hero and competitor Foodpanda (another Rocket Internet-backed online food delivery
service, but with a focus on emerging markets) to purchase each other’s affiliates in strategic regions.
Investors
This round brings total investment in Delivery Hero to c.€1bn, making it the best-funded company in our Bulletin to date, in
addition to the biggest investment this month.
Founded in 2007 and with more than 25,000 staff globally, Rocket Internet is a Berlin-based e-commerce group that has
recently been very active in our Bulletin, with two other investments featuring this month – a €114.6mn late-stage round for
provider of meal kit delivery service HelloFresh (see page 9) and a €17.2mn late-stage round for provider of an online
pawnbroking service Borro (see page 18). It also appeared as an investor in January 2015, December 2014 and October
2014 – the same month it listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in a €6.5bn IPO – and as an investee in August 2014,
receiving €768mn from PLDT and United Internet.
Rocket is currently making major consolidation moves in the food delivery business. In addition to acquiring this 30% stake
in Delivery Hero, it has purchased 10 food delivery services companies since November last year. This includes six
companies in Asia (among which Just Eat India and Room Service Deliveries – both subsidiaries of competitors, namely
Just Eat and Food Runner), three companies in Europe and one in Central America. Of these acquisitions, all except one –
the c. €150mn February 2015 purchase of Kuwait-based online food delivery service Talabat – are part of the FoodPanda
brand.
Only one day after its investment in Delivery Hero, Rocket, which “identifies food and groceries as the next frontier of ecommerce”, announced the creation of Global Online Takeaway Group combining its stakes in Delivery Hero and
Foodpanda, as well as 100% of online food delivery services La Nevera Roja in Spain and Pizzabo in Italy. On a combined
basis, the group is present in 64 countries and works with 140,000 restaurants. This is Rocket’s second major vertical
consolidation after putting (along with Kinnevik and other investors) five of their emerging market fashion e-commerce
brands (Dafiti, Jabon, Lamoda, Namshi and Zalando) into Global Fashion Group, a fashion e-commerce group valued at
€2.7bn at inception in 2013.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 8
February 2015
HelloFresh
Germany | www.HelloFresh.com
#
Sector
2
Internet
Services
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
Late Stage
114.6
Provider of meal kit delivery service
Insight Venture Partners, Rocket Internet
HelloFresh (Germany), a provider of a meal kit delivery service, raised €114.6mn in a Late Stage round from existing
investors Insight Venture Partners and Rocket Internet. According to TechCrunch, the funding will be used for at least
100 new hires, as well as new facilities, improvements to supply chain and general enhancements to consumer experience.
According to PitchBook, this round gives HelloFresh a pre-money valuation of $581mn (€551mn).
HelloFresh was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany with additional offices in Austria, Australia,
France, Germany, Holland, the UK and the US. The firm’s service delivers “meal kits” (pre-portioned ingredients for meals,
along with step-by-step cooking instructions) directly to customers’ houses. It typically delivers c. 3–4 meal kits per
customer per week and charges between £5–6 (€7–8) per meal kit (including delivery). Via the company’s online portal,
customers select the number of people they are cooking for and the number of meals they wish to receive, as well as
specifying any dietary requirements or preferences. Customers are able to alter their orders weekly and cancel/pause the
service at any time. HelloFresh sources its ingredients via bulk standing orders from local suppliers (such as independent
butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers), and targets its service primarily at enthusiastic home cooks and healthconscious or time-limited individuals.
HelloFresh claims it is able to beat the majority of supermarket prices due to pre-weighing ingredients to exact portions
(so there is no waste and customers do not pay for surplus ingredients they are unlikely to use again) and buying
ingredients at low cost (by giving trusted suppliers a significant and dependable order each week). As of June 2014, the
company stated that it delivers more than 1mn meals a month.
Companies offering similar services to HelloFresh include BlueApron, Carolinas Grocery, Chefday, FreshDirect and Plated
(in the US), Gousto and Housebites (in the UK), Kochzauber, KommtEssen and Unsere Schlemmertüte (in Germany), and
ChefMarket (in Russia). The company’s largest competitors, BlueApron and Plated, both raised funds in the last year the
former $50mn (€47mn) in April 2014 and the latter $15mn (€14mn) in August 2014), while London-based Gousto recently
raised a €6.3mn Series B round to feature in our September 2014 issue. Within the wider food delivery sector, it is also
important to mention Delivery Hero (provider of a portal for centralised ordering from a variety of takeaway food suppliers)
which features on page 8 for its €496mn late-stage round.
This is the second time HelloFresh features in our Bulletin. It previously appeared in June 2014 for its €36.8mn late-stage
round. The company has now raised c. $200mn (€189mn) to date.
Investors
Regular readers will be familiar with Insight Venture Partners (€378mn (2014); AUM €4.8bn), which has featured in 12 deals
in our HTI since 2004. Its most recent features were in September 2014 and June 2014 for leading Delivery Hero’s €271.1mn
late-stage round and HelloFresh’s previous €36.8mn late-stage round.
Founded in 1995, the firm is primarily a late-stage investor and has c. 70 employees. It is based in New York, US with
subsidiaries across 12 additional countries including China, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the UK. Some of the firm’s
notable exits include cloud-based enterprise event management platform Cvent (IPO’d in August 2013 with c. €950mn
market cap), hotel booking search engine Trivago (acquired by Expedia for c. €480mn in December 2012) and mediaoriented microblogging platform Tumblr (acquired by Yahoo in May 2013 for c. €850mn). To date the firm has invested in
more than 200 companies across the data-services, eCommerce, internet and software sectors from 65 different countries.
It has participated in 53 funding rounds since 2013 (8 in 2015 and 45 in 2014) according Pitchbook.
Berlin-based e-commerce group Rocket Internet is currently making major consolidation moves in the food delivery space.
These and the firm are detailed extensively in this issue’s earlier feature of Delivery Hero’s €496mn late-stage round.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 9
February 2015
Sigfox
France | www.sigfox.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
3
Telecom
Services
Late
Stage
101.3
Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
communications operator
ALIAD, bpifrance, Elaia Partners, Elliot Management Corporation,
Eutelsat, GDF SUEZ, Idinvest Partners, Intel Capital, iXO Private
Equity, NTT DOCOMO, Partech Ventures, SK Telecom,
Telefonica
Sigfox (France), a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications operator, raised $115.0mn (€101.3mn) in a Late Stage
round from new investors ALIAD, Elliot Management Corporation, Eutelsat, GDF SUEZ, NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom
and Telefonica, as well as existing investors bpifrance, Elaia Partners, Idinvest Partners, Intel Capital, iXO Private
Equity and Partech Ventures. The money will accelerate its worldwide network roll-out in Asia, Europe and the US.
Founded in 2009, Sigfox operates a low-bandwidth cellular network targeted at M2M communications and designed to
facilitate the Internet of Things (IoT). The company’s patented Ultra-Narrow Band (UNB) technology operates over licenseexempt frequencies commonly used for baby monitors and cordless phones (868 MHz in Europe and 915 MHz in the US),
at which it is possible to transmit over relatively long distances using minimal energy and at a low cost. For example, Sigfox
claims that UNB requires 1,000x fewer antennas than GSM to cover the same surface. It is therefore a good alternative to
other technologies for low-bandwidth (<1kb/s) applications, as Wi-Fi covers a short range, 3G and 4G are too expensive,
and both require too much power. Sigfox currently offers coverage across France, Russia, Spain and the Netherlands, and
intends to expand into 60 additional countries in the next five years.
There are a number of competing technologies in the market, such as UK-based Neul’s Weightless standard – a wireless
network utilising the unlicensed TV White Space spectrum (made available by the retirement of analogue television
broadcasting) which we covered in our June 2011 Bulletin. Neul was acquired by China-based Huawei for $25mn
(€19.4mn) in September 2014. Other alternatives include US-based On-Ramp Wireless’ Random Phase Multiple Access
(RMPA) network, which operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and has focused on providing smart monitoring solutions
to utilities firms, while US-based Semtech (NASDAQ:SMTC) is manufacturing new RF transceivers based on Long Range
(LoRa) modulation that complement M2M cellular infrastructure by enhancing network ranges and capacity, as well as
improving battery life of end-user devices.
Sigfox last featured in our March 2014 Bulletin for raising a €15mn Series C round led by bpifrance and Idinvest Partners,
and has now raised a total of €128mn to date. The company is headquartered in Labege, France with additional offices
and facilities in Spain and the US, and employs more than 80 staff.
Investors
Elliot Management Corporation (AUM €22bn), a US-based asset manager specialising in multi-strategy hedge funds, is the
only new financial investor in this round. The firm’s flagship fund Elliot Associates was founded in 1977, initially focused on
distressed debt and convertible arbitrage, making it one of the oldest hedge funds in the world. Elliot is particularly famous
for its activism in pressuring companies to improve both their governance and performance.
Of the strategic investors participating in this round, half are international telecoms operators. NTT DOCOMO (TSE:9437),
a Japan-based Mobile Network Operator (MNO), invested through its venture capital arm NTT DOCOMO Ventures (AUM
$250mn). SK Telecom (KOSE: A017670) is South Korea’s largest wireless telecommunications operator, while Telefonica
(CATS:TEF) is a Spain-based mobile and fixed-line operator that is already expanding into the M2M communications
industry (with more than 500 enterprises using its managed service).
The other half of the strategic investors comprised French industrial conglomerates. ALIAD is the corporate venture arm of
engineering firm Air Liquide (ENXTPA:AI) and works in collaboration with the organisation’s innovation lab (i-Lab) to gain
preferred access to key technologies developed outside the group. Eutelsat (ENXTPA:ETL), featuring in our Bulletin for the
first time, is a communications satellite operator. Finally, GDF SUEZ (ENXTPA:GSZ), a global electric utility company,
invested through its venture capital arm GDF SUEZ New Ventures, which was founded in 2014 with €100mn to invest across
Asia, Europe and North America in the energy control, power production and storage sectors.
All the existing investors participating in this round will be familiar to our readers and the list is akin to a who’s who of French
investors. bpifrance (€380mn (2011); AUM €1.8bn) is a state-backed fund investing across all stages. Idinvest Partners
(AUM €4.4bn) is a lower mid-market private equity and venture capital firm, with more than 80 investments to date in
cleantech, healthcare and IT companies. Elaia Partners (€45mn (2012); AUM €128mn) is a venture capital firm investing in
growth technology companies, with a preference for early-stage investments. Strategic investor Intel Capital (€80mn (2014);
AUM €1.0bn) is the investment arm of Intel and first invested in Sigfox in September 2012. iXO Private Equity (€180mn
(2014); AUM €411mn) invests in venture capital, LBOs and expansion capital rounds. Finally, Partech Ventures (€200mn
(2015); AUM €775mn), a Paris-based fund with a long-established US presence, recently closed its first €200mn growth
equity fund, targeting investments of €11mn to €44mn in late-stage companies.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 10
February 2015
WorldRemit
UK | www.worldremit.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
4
Internet
Services
B
88.1
Retail cross-border currency remittance
service
Accel Partners, Technology Crossover
Ventures
WorldRemit (UK), a retail cross-border currency remittance service, raised $100mn (€88.1mn) in a Series B round led
by Technology Crossover Ventures with support from existing investor Accel Partners. The money will be used to
expand internationally and develop partnerships with telecoms companies operating mobile payment services in Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
The company was founded in December 2009 by Ismail Ahmed, a Somali-born remittance specialist, who previously
worked more than 20 years in the field as an academic researcher, compliance advisor to the United Nations (UN) (where
he worked in the UN remittance programme) and consultant for money transfer companies. Ismail launched the company
with a focus on being digital from day one and the aim of improving the international money transfer process, enhancing
compliance and reducing costs to the customer.
WorldRemit operates a remittance platform in the cloud. Through their web browsers, smartphones or tablets, customers
can send money from 50 countries to over 117 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas. Money can
be delivered as cash, phone credit, a deposit into a mobile wallet (which can be used for airtime top-up) or into a
conventional bank account. In contrast to traditional firms (such as MoneyGram or Western Union), WorldRemit’s
remittance service does not depend on a network of bricks-and-mortar agents (such as newsagents and corner shops)
and it can thus offer significantly lower fees – c. 5% of transaction value, compared to an overall average rate in Africa of
12%. However, despite its online model, the company is still unprofitable, in line with concerns raised by the Financial
Times regarding the marketing spend required to win customers from established players. The company has said that its
revenues tripled in 2014 to £15.2mn (c. €19mn) and that it expects similar growth in 2015. It now employs more than 150
staff (+275% year on year) at its London headquarters.
WorldRemit has developed partnerships with blue-chip companies such as MasterCard, Symantec and Visa, and in
January 2015 announced a partnership with South African telecoms giant MTN (JSE:MTN), which will enable it to service
an additional 22mn customers in 16 countries across Africa. Access to this substantial new customer base should help the
company reduce its marketing costs and overcome the Financial Times’ aforementioned concerns.
This is another example in our Bulletin of European money transfer companies attracting US investors, following UK-based
TransferWise raising €49.7mn and Spain-based peerTransfer raising €18.9mn in Series C rounds (both of which we
profiled in January 2015). It illustrates the attractiveness of UK Fintech companies preparing moves into the US market,
with WorldRemit recently having opened offices in Denver, Colorado (where it aims to employ more than 200 people) and
planning to be fully licensed across the country by the end of this year. There it will face high-profile competitors including
MoneyGram, Western Union and Xoom (NASDAQ:XOOM), a major platform which has a market capitalisation of c.
€530mn).
Investors
This round, raised at a €352mn pre-money valuation, brings total investment in WorldRemit to date up to €117mn. We last
saw WorldRemit in our March 2014 issue when it raised $40mn (€28.9mn) in a Series A round from Accel Partners.
New investor Technology Crossover Ventures (€1.6bn (2014); AUM €6.2bn) is a US-based venture capital firm targeting
technology companies across Europe, North America and other selected regions. Unlike other investors, it operates what it
calls a cross-over model in which it invests both pre and post IPO. The firm last featured in our Bulletin when it contributed
to cloud-based contact centre solutions provider NewVoiceMedia’s €36.9mn late-stage round.
Well-known to our readers, returning investor Accel Partners (€877mn (2014); AUM €8.4bn) is a Palo Alto-based venture
capital firm with a dedicated European fund (AUM €475mn). It last featured in our January 2015 Bulletin for its participation
in Deliveroo’s €21.5mn Series B and peerTransfer’s €18.9mn Series C rounds. Accel Partners also features later in this issue
for its participation in rounds for KnCMiner (see page 23) and ClusterHQ (see page 26).
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 11
February 2015
Kobalt
UK | www.kobaltmusic.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
5
Internet
Services
Late
Stage
52.8
Online music publishing and
royalty collection platform
Google Ventures, MSD Capital, MSDC Management
Kobalt (UK), an online music publishing and royalty collection platform, raised $60.0mn (€52.8mn) in a Late Stage round
from new investors Google Ventures and MSDC Management, as well as existing investor MSD Capital. The money will
be used to develop and scale the firm’s suite of technology solutions, which will involve doubling the size of its R&D team
and opening new offices in Brazil, South East Asia and the US.
The company was founded in London in 2000 by Swedish businessman Willard Ahdritz, who believed his publishing,
finance and transportation industry experience would enable him to improve royalty collection in the music sector. With a
€0.6mn investment from AIM-listed British investment group Spark Ventures in 2002, Kobalt started by acquiring Swedish
music publishing company Diesel 2 Publishing and Management. This gave it an established music copyright catalogue
and additional industry expertise.
Kobalt offers an online platform allowing music artists to publish and distribute their work through various online channels,
and efficiently manage the royalty collection (in terms of both time and cost). Traditionally, songwriters and other artists
receive publishing royalties 9-24 months after they are earned and even when they arrive, up to half of the gross payments
go to various middlemen. Moreover, in the pre-internet era, transparency was limited to the extent that writers and artists
often had no idea if they were getting all the money due to them. Nowadays, the problem exists but in a different way – a
single hit song can have over half a million separate income streams, which makes tracking and collecting royalties even
more difficult. Kobalt’s system is said to reduce royalty collection times by up to 50%, as well as improving collection
efficiency and increasing transparency. Additionally, artists who previously would have given away part ownership of their
work to receive an advance on their royalties, can be offered much cheaper pipeline advances from Kobalt (c. 1-3% of
expected earnings).
Kobalt currently counts more than 8,000 songwriters and 500 publishing companies using its platform, with a diverse range
of artists including Foo Fighters, Kelly Clarkson, Sir Paul McCartney and Skrillex. Its music tracking service covers c.
400mn people worldwide, with the intention to increase this to c. 1.5bn people in the next six months by adding more
streaming services. Furthermore, the firm boasts a 98.5% artist retention rate and continues to expand beyond music
publishing and royalties’ administration, also offering music label services (e.g. campaign management and data analytics
for artists’ online presence). Kobalt has grown revenues at a rate of 40% year-on-year for the last four years and projects
revenues for the year ending June 2015 of $260mn (€229mn). The firm currently employs more than 200 people across
its offices in Australia, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US.
Although Kobalt Founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz claimed on February 2014 that Kobalt had no competitors, the company
operates in a space including other players such as iCopyright, R2G and RoyaltyShare.
Investors
Kobalt’s last fundraising, a $25mn (€18.1mn) late-stage round led by MSD Capital covered in our March 2014 Bulletin,
ended up being of a similar magnitude to this round after it was extended by Balderton Capital and several undisclosed
individual investors in June 2014.
Lead investor in this round Google Ventures (€88mn (2014); AUM €1.8bn) is the corporate venture capital arm of search
giant Google and is widely considered one of the most active venture capital investors in the world. The firm is stageagnostic, targeting European and US companies in the consumer, data, enterprise, health, mobile and science sectors.
Founded in 2009, Google Ventures has invested in more than 250 companies to date, including DocuSign, Slack and Uber.
The firm is headquartered in the US and has an additional office in the UK.
Established in 1998, MSD Capital (AUM €8.7bn) is the family office of Michael Dell. With a staff of 80 in Los Angeles, London
and New York and a rumoured $12bn (€8.7bn) under management, MSD is one of the largest family offices globally. MSD
is sector-agnostic and does not have a preference for technology-related investments. The firm normally invests in publicly
traded securities, real estate and private equity, including alongside third-party managers. With respect to its private equity
investments, the equity portion of the deal is usually between $100mn (€72mn) and $250mn (€180mn). It is unusual for
MSD to do a venture capital deal and the firm would have considered leading Kobalt a special opportunity.
MSDC Management (AUM €3.9bn) is a New York-based asset management firm, founded in 2009 by the principals of MSD
Capital. Although the firm’s funds are also headed up by Managing Partners of MSD Capital Glenn Fuhrman and John
Phelan, the firm has a distinct set of limited partners as well as the Dell family’s backing. The firm was created for this exact
purpose, to enable institutional investors to invest in strategies developed by MSD Capital. MSDC Management currently
runs three funds specialising in credit opportunities, distressed European debt and energy investments.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 12
February 2015
MVF Global
UK | www.mvfglobal.com
#
Sector
7
Internet
Services
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
Late Stage
27.0
Provider of scalable digital marketing and
customer acquisition services
Bridgepoint Development Capital
MVF Global (UK), a provider of scalable digital marketing and customer acquisition services, raised £20mn (€27.0mn) in
a Late Stage round from its first institutional investor, Bridgepoint Development Capital. The funding was used to open
its first overseas office in Austin, Texas and has been earmarked as a ‘war chest’ to support acquisitions that will further
accelerate its expansion.
MVF provides companies with technology-driven marketing and customer acquisition services. The company works
alongside its clients’ marketing and sales teams, going as far as accessing their Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) software to generate and identify prospects and complete sales. Providing this service through a blend of manpower
and scalable technology (such as proprietary digital marketing automation and branding webpage generation software, as
well as algorithmic prospect qualification) has allowed MVF to grow into a global player with 200 employees serving
customers in c. 50 countries, specialising in helping clients expand internationally.
MVF was founded in London in 2009 by five serial entrepreneurs that had already worked together for 10 years on various
other projects. These include: Titus Sharpe (CEO), who previously founded Approved Index (one of the UK’s top B2B leadgeneration companies, sold in 2008 to Reed Elsevier for an undisclosed amount) and Moodia (web development agency
specialising in website optimisation, sold in 2009 to Zone Content for an undisclosed amount); Tom Morgan (New Ventures
Director), formerly MD at EDR (the UK’s largest email marketing agency); Simon Venturi, former senior developer at
Moodia; Jules Hopkinson, who also co-founded Approved Index and Moodia; and a fifth founder who has since left the
company.
The digital marketing sector is expected to grow 8% in 2015, according to Gartner. Though the market size is famously
difficult to estimate (due to the inherent differences in what is defined as ‘digital’ marketing), Gartner estimates it as between
9-13% of total marketing spend, depending on company size.
As opposed to many European startups that raise capital to establish a US presence, MVF is opening an office in Texas,
not California. CEO Titus Sharpe stated “We chose Austin because it’s in the centre so it’s quite easy to sell most of the
day to the west coast and most of the day to the east coast… We’re sending two guys out initially. We envisage by June
we’ll be at six.” Despite having no historic US sales presence, American clients already account for 20% of MVF’s sales.
The company is also considering adding offices in Asia or Australia, but sees the US as the clear priority in the short term.
MVF operates in the crowded space of digital marketing and customer acquisition services where competition in Western
Europe is fierce with products and services from inside Europe and abroad being readily available to all internet users in
the region. Example of competitors include Sharabh Technologies and ExactTarget, which was acquired by
Salesforce.com in a €1.8bn deal.
Investors
MVF appears for the first time in our Bulletin, despite this being a late-stage round, as it has managed to successfully
bootstrap itself for five years. The company attributes this not only to its founders already having sufficient capital, but also
to the scalability of its technology.
This investment reportedly gave Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) (€341mn (2009); AUM €11.5bn) a 40% stake in
MVF, valuing the company at £30mn (€40.5mn) pre-money. Part of the Bridgepoint private equity group, BDC provides
growth equity as well as financing buyouts, typically for western European businesses with enterprise values of between
€20mn and €150mn and with a preferred investment size of €10mn to €75mn. BDC’s sector remit is very broad, including
consumer and leisure, financial services, healthcare, industrial, media and technology and services businesses. The firm
has taken part in over 50 transactions – many of which involved a significant component of cross-border execution. Recent
exits include the sales of Hallmark Hotels (to Topland) and IT infrastructure services provider Pulsant (for €250mn to Oak
Hill Capital Partners, covered in our June 2014 issue), the latter reportedly yielding a 2x return. Most recently, BDC appeared
in our November 2014 issue for a €23mn investment in Swedish Trustly, a payments platform operator.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 13
February 2015
Carmudi
Germany | www.carmudi.com
#
Sector
8
Internet
Services
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
B
22.0
Online portal for selling used and new
vehicles
Asia Pacific Internet Group, Holtzbrinck
Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures
Carmudi (Germany), an online portal for selling used and new vehicles, raised €22.0mn in a Series B round from new
investors Asia Pacific Internet Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures and existing investor Tengelmann Ventures. The firm
has stated it will used the funds to strengthen its international operations, specifically in seven Asian markets (Bangladesh,
Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam) as well as Mexico.
Founded in Germany in 2013, Carmudi is now headquartered in Mexico and has c. 25 employees. It provides an online
portal which allows users to buy and sell used and new cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles, exclusively in emerging
markets. Once a user is registered, they can upload ads for vehicles to the website (on which Carmudi charges a listing
fee) or contact other users about making purchases. The company is now present in 20 emerging market countries –
including Mexico and the seven aforementioned Asian markets, nine countries in Africa (Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Ivory
Coast, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia) and three in the Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates). As well as a web portal, Carmudi’s service is also offered as an app, which (according to pctechmag) has
now been downloaded c. 300,000 times, with mobile visits accounting for 60-70% of total traffic. This is a reflection of the
emerging markets which Carmudi targets, where many users access the internet primarily through smartphones or tablets.
Other automobile-related internet companies to recently raise funds include San-Francisco car insurance comparison and
sales platform Coverhound (which raised a $14mn (€13mn) Series B round in March 2015) and, with specific relation to
Carmudi, China-based second-hand vehicle marketplace providers Youxinpai Information Technology and Beijing Peak
Technology (which raised $170mn (€157mn) and $110mn (€102mn) late-stage rounds in January 2015 and March 2015,
respectively). Cardekho, an India-based provider of an automobile-focused social media website, also raised a €54mn
late-stage round in January 2015. With regard to European activity in the space, we recently profiled car journey-sharing
platform provider BlaBlaCar for its July 2014 €74mn Series C round.
Investors
Together with its previous €9.3mn Series A round in April 2014, the company has now raised a total of $35mn (€33mn)
to date.
Readers will be familiar with well-known German venture capital firm Holtzbrinck Ventures (€313mn (2015); AUM
€700mn), which has contributed to 26 deals in our HTI database since 2004 and featured in our Bulletin 11 times. The
firm also features in this month’s issue for Lamudi’s (online real estate marketplace) €16mn Series B round. Prior to this
it most recently featured for its participation in Quandoo’s (operator of a reservations platform for local businesses such
as restaurants) €18.4mn Series C round, Auctionata’s (operator of an online auction house and sales portal) €21.7mn
Series C round, and Outfittery’s (online personal shopping service for men) €13.0mn Series B round, in July 2014, April
2014 and February 2014 respectively.
Holtzbrinck’s other portfolio companies within the automotive vertical include Autoda, Car-Sale 24, and MeinAuto
(Germany-based operators of online portals for selling and buying used cars). Focused on investments in the internet
sector, the firm has made more than 140 investments since its inception and has c. 60 active portfolio companies.
Tengelmann Ventures is the venture capital arm of German retail giant Tengelmann (€11bn in 2012 revenues, c.84,000
employees). Tengelmann Ventures has participated in six deals in our Bulletin to date, most recently Delivery Hero’s
€61.6mn late-stage round in April 2014 and Westwing Home & Living’s (operator of an online furniture shopping club)
€72.0mn late-stage round in March 2014 as well as Lamudi’s aforementioned Series B round.
Asia Pacific Internet Group (APACIG) also features in this issue on page 20 for Lamudi’s aforementioned Series B round.
A joint venture between Berlin-based ecommerce group Rocket Internet (profiled in this issue’s earlier feature of Delivery
Hero’s €496mn late-stage round) and Ooredoo (LON: ORDS; a Qatar-based telecommunications services provider with
c. 17,000 employees and a market capitalization of $26bn (€24bn)), APACIG was established in 2014 to fund and develop
internet-based startups in the APAC region and currently manages the operations of 13 such companies
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 14
February 2015
WeTransfer
Netherlands | www.wetransfer.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
9
Internet
Services
A
22.0
Provider of a file-transfer and storage service
Highland Capital Partners Europe
WeTransfer (Netherlands), a provider of a file-transfer and storage service, raised €22.0mn in a Series A round from
new investor Highland Capital Partners Europe. The money will be used to develop its product, expand internationally
– with a particular focus on Europe and the US – and develop partnerships.
WeTransfer was founded in 2009, with the aim of enabling people to send large files easily (without logins, subscription
forms, data capture and banner advertising), by Bas Beerens (CEO) and serial entrepreneur Ronald Hans (Co-Founder).
Known as Nalden (his childhood nickname, also the name of his blog and his LinkedIn page), Ronald Hans previously
founded Present Plus, the Netherlands-based innovation studio specialised in design, film and software development that
built and designed WeTransfer.
WeTransfer enables users to transfer files (e.g. music, photos, high-definition videos, word documents) globally by simply
entering the recipient’s email addresses, sender’s email address and an optional message. The company enables anyone
to transfer up to 2GB at a time free of charge, and up to 10GB by paying €120 per annum for its monthly subscription
service “Plus”. Transfers expire seven days after being sent with the free service, while users of the “Plus” service can
extend this period (from a four week default) as far as their storage space allows. “Plus” service subscribers can also
increase their number of recipients (up to 100), protect the files they send with passwords, share the files via social
networks (Facebook and Twitter) and store up to 50GB of files on their online account. WeTransfer provides its services
online, as well as via Android and iOS mobile apps, the second of which features an additional option enabling file transfer
from any other app.
In addition to its premium service, the company generates revenues by featuring full screen advertisements (from a
community of artists, brands, filmmakers and photographers) on its landing page. Selected advisers include G-Star Raw,
Google Chrome, Mini Cooper, Qatar Airlines, Shutterstock, Square Space and Vodafone.
WeTransfer which claims that it is “consistently profitable” since 2013 has more than doubled its revenues in 2014 to
€20mn, of which 60% comes from its premium product and 40% from advertising. The company employs 30 staff in
Amsterdam, counts over 25mn monthly active users and processes over 70mn transfers each month. According to
TechCrunch, the company is working on a new feature called WeTransfer TV, “a TV program based on the background
pictures and videos” that the service shows to free users.
The company’s competitors include big names such as BitTorrent Sync, Box, Dropbox, Hightail and other platforms
enabling individuals and businesses to share and transfer large documents, media files and other content too big to send
by email.
Investors
According to TechCrunch, this first round of investment values WeTransfer between $100mn (€88mn) and $200mn
(€176mn), The CEO has claimed that the investment was not “something we proactively looked for”, but “having been
approached by a significant number of investors from across the globe in the past two years, we realised there were bigger
opportunities to grow as a service and a brand.”
Founded in the 1980s, Highland Capital Partners (HCP) (€327mn (2013); AUM €2.4bn) has grown into a stage-agnostic
technology investor investing throughout China, Europe and North America from its offices in Boston, Geneva, London,
Palo Alto and Shanghai. Of the c. 230 companies that the firm has backed, the best known are Ask Jeeves, Lycos,
MapQuest and VistaPrint.
Investing in Europe as Highland Capital Partners Europe since 2007, recent HCP investments that we have covered include
Intersec in November 2014 and Outfittery in February 2014. This is one of the first investments by HCP’s first independent
European fund – a €250mn tech growth fund closed back in May.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 15
February 2015
Jahia
Switzerland | www.jahia.com
#
Sector
10
Software
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
A
20.0
Open source User Experience
Platform (UXP) vendor
Invus Group
Jahia (Switzerland), an open source User Experience Platform (UXP) vendor, raised $22.5mn (€20.0mn) in a Series A
round from Invus Group. The money will be used to develop its platform, increase marketing operations, accelerate its
distribution strategy and partnerships, strengthen its presence internationally (mainly in Europe and North America) and
make new hires (the company aims at doubling its global workforce by 2015, including by fleshing out its sales teams and
technical expertise).
Jahia was founded in 2002 by serial entrepreneur Elie Auvray, who previously founded software vendor Voice in 1996 and
managed to attract high-profile customers such as Credit Lyonnais, TF1 and Vivendi Group, before selling it three years
later to Reef Software for an undisclosed amount.
A UXP is an integrated set of technologies (including analytics, collaboration, content management, mashup tools, portals,
Rich Internet Application (RIA) tools, search and social/mobile tools) to facilitate interactions between a user and a set of
applications, content, processes, services and/or other users. Jahia’s Java open source UXP provides features for building
multi-channel online websites and portals, as well as marketing tools which can be integrated with companies’ existing
software such as their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. These can be developed using a large range
of programming languages and with simple drag-and-drop functions. Jahia is currently developing a subscription offering
for e-commerce solutions, for which it has already partnered with payment providers including Buyster, Chronopay,
Moneybrookers, Netpay, Ogone, Onlinedata, Paybox, Payline, Paypal, SIPS, Skrill, SystemPay, USAepay and Wordpay.
The company also provides professional services and training around its UXP.
Jahia’s main competitor is commonly cited as Alfresco, an open source applications company, which recently raised a
$45mn (€39.6mn) late-stage round led by Sageview Capital with participation from Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and
Sapphire Ventures (formerly known as SAP Ventures). Another key player is Drupal, also a provider of an open source
enterprise content management platform, which is yet to seek institutional financing. Jahia has sought to differentiate its
product through its unique architecture, relying on a mature open source Java project that uses a module-based design
typical of more traditional PHP-based tools.
Headquartered in Geneva, Jahia has additional offices in Canada and the US, as well as throughout Europe. The company
counts hundreds of global brands and government organisations among its customers (including Abercrombie & Fitch,
Europcar, the European Parliament, HomeAway, Samsung and Sodexo), across more than 20 countries globally. In 2014,
Jahia won both the Critics' Choice CMS Award for the best Java CMS for small to mid-size businesses, and the Critics'
Choice for Best Enterprise Java CMS.
Investors
Transaction leader Invus Group (AUM €3.4bn) is an evergreen fund founded in 1985 with offices in Asia, Europe and the
US. The firm last appeared in our Bulletin in January 2014 for its participation in a €7.3mn late-stage round for FlatFrog, a
Swedish supplier of multitouch screens based on optical in-glass technology.
Invus acts exclusively for Artal Luxembourg, a private investment vehicle representing a number of affluent Belgian families.
It differs from most VC funds in that it charges neither management nor transaction fees and makes all of its money from
profitable exits.
Invus is sector-agnostic, historically investing in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), software, life sciences and
professional services sectors. While most of these investments have been in Europe and the US, the firm has a global
remit. One of its best known investments is Weight Watchers International (WWI), which was bought for $750mn (€696mn
)in 1999 and was floated in 2001. Invus still retains a 55% stake in WWI.
At the same time as acquiring WWI, the firm set up WeightWatchers.com (WW.com) with a $100k (€88.1k) of equity
investment. Created as a separate entity to distance the main investment from internet mania, Invus also went against the
contemporary obsession with valuing internet businesses purely based on numbers of users, insisting on a subscriptionbased revenue model from the start. Invus was vindicated in 2005 when WWI – by this stage a public company – bought
WW.com at an enterprise value of $550mn (€510mn).
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 16
February 2015
Cambridge Clean Energy
UK | www.cambridgecleanenergy.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
11
Cleantech
A
18.5
Provider of renewable energy
management software and
services
Amadeus Capital Partners
Cambridge Clean Energy (UK), a provider of renewable energy management software and services, raised $21.0mn
(€18.5mn) in a Series A round from new investor Amadeus Capital Partners. The money will be used to support the
integration and rollout of new installations in Africa and India.
Cambridge Clean Energy (CCE) was formed through the merger of direct competitors Cambridge Energy Resources (CER)
and Clean Power Systems Holdings (CPS). These both provided renewable energy generation equipment and energy
usage management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for Mobile Network Operators (MNO), but in India and Africa
respectively. CER and CPS had each already achieved substantial revenues and combining the two businesses enabled
significant operational efficiencies.
CCE serves emerging market MNOs and base station tower providers by offering both solar power generation units and
energy usage management software and services. In emerging markets, connectivity to the electricity grid can be
unreliable or even unavailable, particularly in rural areas. Traditionally, MNOs have addressed this problem by installing
diesel generators at their base station tower sites as both primary and back-up sources of power generation. However,
these are expensive due to high opex in the form of fuel consumption and maintenance costs, as well as having a
detrimental impact on the environment. The problem of ensuring a consistent energy supply in remote areas is not limited
to MNOs, and CCE claims to also have a strong pipeline of commercial opportunities with ATM operators, banks and fuel
station chains.
CCE’s solution consists of three parts, the first being a set of energy efficient hardware including solar panels, DC air
conditioners, smart hybrid controllers and batteries. The company handles all installation and procurement costs of the
solar power generation system, in exchange for its clients committing to multi-year contracts. Secondly, it offers a choice
of two services to assist MNOs in managing their energy consumption and generation at each base station tower location
– a managed service where CCE does so from its network operations centre, and a SaaS version where clients can do so
themselves. Finally, the firm offers an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to MNOs, as well as a dedicated team
of engineers for the ongoing physical maintenance of such sites.
CCE claims that its solutions typically take a maximum of a year to provide clients with a positive Return on Investment
(ROI), with estimated cost savings of c. 55% versus traditional solutions over a period of five years. The firm already boasts
an impressive list of clients including leading MNOs such as Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, MTS and Vodafone. Increasing the usage
of renewable energy sources in the mobile industry has received industry wide support in recent years, with GSMA
launching its Green Power for Mobile programme with a target of powering more than 118,000 base stations in developing
countries in this way. It estimates this could represent a total saving of $2.5bn (€2.2bn) on diesel expenditure for MNOs,
as well as a reduction in annual CO2 emissions by more than 6.8mn tonnes. Perhaps the most well-known competitor of
CCE is IHS Towers, a Nigeria-based provider of mobile communications infrastructure, specifically focused on base station
towers and renewable energy solutions. The company currently has solar cells deployed at c. 10% of its sites, and as well
as installing these at the base stations it owns, is also intending to sell its renewable technology to other large
telecommunications infrastructure providers and network operators. IHS Towers is also participating in GSMA’s Green
Power for Mobile programme.
The firm is headquartered in London, but maintains product development teams in India and the US (where the majority
of its hardware manufacturing takes place, as both CER and CPS previously had operations in Cambridge, MA). The firm
employs more than 50 staff across its offices and this round is the first external financing it has received.
Investors
Amadeus Capital Partners (€27mn (2011); AUM €788mn), based in Cambridge, UK, is a multi-strategy venture investor
focused on the technology sector that has backed more than 90 companies to date. This is the first of the firm’s investments
to feature in our Bulletin this month, with Amadeus having also participated in UK-based provider of a marketplace for
clinical trials TrialReach’s €11.9mn Series B round featured on page 25.
This investment is the second made from Amadeus’ $75mn (€66mn) Global Digital Prosperity Fund, which targets venture
and growth companies developing applications and services for the rapidly expanding middle classes in Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Middle East. Interestingly, the largest limited partner in the fund is South African emerging market MNO
MTN Group. Amadeus has identified 19 emerging markets in which it intends to invest including Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India,
Malaysia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Last year, the fund made its first investment by leading an $8.9mn (€7.8mn)
Series B round for Brazilian online price comparison and insurance brokerage company Bidu.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 17
February 2015
Borro
UK / US | www.borro.com
#
Sector
12
Internet
Services
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
Late Stage
17.2
Provider of an online
pawnbroking service
Augmentum Capital, Canaan Partners, Eden Ventures,
OurCrowd, Rocket Internet
Borro (UK / US), a provider of an online pawnbroking service, raised €17.2mn in a Late Stage round from lead investors
OurCrowd and Rocket Internet with support from existing investors Augmentum Capital, Canaan Partners and Eden
Ventures. According to the company’s CEO, Paul Aitken – who also founded Movota (a provider of mobile services for TV
and Radio broadcasters and producers, sold to Bertelsmann in 2005 for an undisclosed amount) – the funding will be used
for “moving into new geographical markets and [providing] more financial services”. Aitken has further stated that Borro
will be “tapping into Rocket Internet’s expertise” to support its expansion into emerging markets in South America and Asia,
as well as “using know-how from OurCrowd” to expand the instruments it uses to finance its loans (with new features
including a LendingClub-style crowdfunding platform).
Founded in London in 2009, Borro opened an additional office in the US (New York) in 2012 and now has c. 75 employees
in total. The company provides an online pawnbroking service which allows individuals and small businesses to put assets
up as collateral in exchange for cash loans. It has stated that c. 45% of assets are antiques / art, c. 40% are jewellery /
watches and the remaining c. 15% items such as cars, fine wines and handbags. The average value of an asset is c.$50k
(€47k). Unlike a typical lending service, the only determining factor of a loan’s size is the value of the collateral (of which
65-70% is loaned), and no credit or background checks are performed. According to Borro, the entire application and
approval process can be completed within 24 hours (during which the company sends an appraiser to visit the customer
and validate, value and collect their assets), and typical interest rates are between 3% and 7% per month.
Borro itself has already featured in our Bulletin four times – in March 2014 for its €81mn late-stage round, in October 2012
for its €20mn late-stage round, in April 2011 for its €8.5mn Series C round and in March 2010 for its €11mn Series B round.
The company has now raised more than $200mn (€189mn) to date. Other fintech companies to recently feature in our
bulletin include Funding Circle (an online marketplace for investors to lend directly to small businesses) in July 2014 for its
€47.4mn late-stage round, and TransferWise (a money transfer platform) last month and in June 2014 for its €49.7mn
Series C and €18.4mn Series B rounds.
As well as competing with traditional brick and mortar pawnbrokers, Borro competes with UK-based same-day online loan
providers such as Pounds to Pocket, Wonga (which featured in our February 2011 and June 2009 issues for its €86.3mn
Series C and €15.9mn Series B rounds) and QuickQuid.
Investors
Augmentum Capital (€72mn (2010); AUM €72mn) is a London, UK-based venture capital firm financed by RIT Capital
Partners – the FTSE listed investment trust of the Rothschild family. Founded in 2009, the firm last featured in our October
2012 and April 2012 issues for its participation in Borro’s €19.8mn late-stage round and Bathrooms.com’s €9.1mn Series
B round. Augmentum has a high profile founder and CEO in Tim Levene, the serial entrepreneur responsible for the Crussh
chain of juice bars and online betting exchange Flutter.com (now part of BetFair.com). Three of the firm’s seven listed
portfolio companies are from the Fintech space – Bullionvault (a gold investment and exchange platform), Interactive
Investor (an investment services provider) and Zopa (a peer-to-peer lending platform).
Canaan Partners (€642mn (2014); AUM €4bn) is a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm. Founded in 1987, it primarily
seeks to invest in seed and early-stage technology and healthcare startups in the US, India and Israel. The firm last featured
in our April 2014 and October 2012 issues for its participation in SilverRail’s €29.0mn late-stage round and Borro’s €19.8mn
late-stage round, respectively.
Returning Investor Eden Ventures (€133mn (2007); AUM €250mn) last featured in our July 2014 and April 2014 issues for
its participation in NewVoiceMedia’s (developer of cloud-based contact centre solutions) €36.9mn late-stage round and
Brightpearl’s (provider of a cloud-based multi-channel retail management platform) €7.2mn Series C round, respectively. A
UK-based venture capital firm with offices in London and Bath, Eden typically seeks to invest between £200k (€242k) and
£6mn (€7.3mn) in early-stage (seed and Series A) companies across the technology sector. As it is primarily an early-stage
investor, Eden features rarely in our Bulletin.
Founded in 2012, OurCrowd is a Jerusalem, Israel-based provider of an equity-based crowd funding platform aiming to
combine crowdfunding with venture capital. Its platform is built exclusively for a select group of accredited investors to
provide venture capital funding, with a minimum investment from each party of $10k (€9.5k). Notably, $6mn (€5.7mn) of
this round came from OurCrowd, which (according to Techcrunch) makes it “the single largest equity crowdfunding round
ever completed”. While OurCrowd was initially set up to fund Israel-based companies, according to PitchBook c.40% of its
serviced companies are now based in the US and c.10% in Hong Kong. This is the third deal in this month’s issue which
features Rocket Internet, which has been profiled in depth as part of Delivery Hero’s €496mn late-stage round.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 18
February 2015
poLight
Norway | www.polight.com
#
Sector
13
Hardware
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
C
16.7
Provider of autofocus lenses for camera
phones
Alliance Venture, Industrifonden, Investinor,
SINTEF, TD Veen, Viking Venture
poLight (Norway), a provider of autofocus lenses for camera phones, raised €16.7mn in a Series C round led by new
investor Industrifonden, with support from existing investors Alliance Venture, Investinor, SINTEF, TD Veen and Viking
Venture. The investment will be used to help finance commercialisation, and represents the next step in the company’s
stated strategy of a public listing.
poLight was established in 2005 as a spin-out from Ignis ASA (a company specialising in optical components and tuneable
lasers for fibre-optic communications). The company’s primary product is its TLens – an autofocus lens designed for use
in camera phones with features including high image quality (>95% transmittance, HD video compatible and Megapixel
independent), extremely small size (poLight claims it is the smallest on the market at 3.2 x 3.2 x 0.4mm), ultrafast response
focus-time (<1ms) and high energy efficiency (<1mw). poLight also offers a developer’s kit which allows developers to
easily integrate the TLens into their own camera modules. The company’s patented technology consists of a deformable
polymer film ‘lens’ mounted between two glass supports; application of voltage to piezo-electric films on one of the supports
then deforms the polymer ‘lens’ into the right focus.
The entire TLens can be made on a silicon wafer, as opposed to having to separately manufacture (i) a traditional lens
and focusing motor and (ii) CCD or CMOS based image detector. Furthermore, it is robust enough to be ‘reflowable’ (i.e.
it can be attached to the rest of the phone during manufacture, by heating the module until the solder re-melts). Both these
factors make the modules smaller and cheaper to manufacture, in addition to which (according to poLight) its technology
is faster than Voice-Coil Motor (VCM) focusing and reduces power consumption by c. 50%. poLight last featured in our
July 2011 issue for its €12.8mn Series B round from Alliance Venture, Investinor, SINTEF Ventures and Viking Venture,
and has now raised $46mn (€42mn) to date.
With regard to poLight’s competition, other recent fund-raising and M&A activity within the camera phone-component sector
includes California-based LensVector’s (provider of optical components for camera phones) €11mn December 2014 latestage round and Lite-On Technology’s acquisition of Taiwan-based Larview Technologies (manufacturer of built in phone
camera lenses) for TD$500mn (€14.6mn) in June 2014.
Investors
Leading this round is new investor Industrifonden (AUM €431mn) – an independent evergreen fund set up by the
Swedish government in 1979 to help Swedish startups expand internationally. With c. 30 employees, the firm seeks to
invest in small to mid-sized companies across the TMT sector. It currently has c. 70 active portfolio companies, and last
featured in our May 2014 issue for participating in Fyndiq’s (operator of an online marketplace for retailers to sell excess
inventory and slow-moving stock) €16mn Series A round.
Founded in 2001, Alliance Venture (€50mn (2006); AUM €73mn) is an Oslo, Norway-based venture capital firm, which
seeks to invest in seed and early-stage companies across the oil and gas and TMT sectors. The firm last featured in
our December 2014 issue for its participation in Novelda’s (developer of radar-based technology for use in sensors)
€9.7mn Series A round.
Investinor (AUM €79mn) led poLight’s Series B round. Set up in 1990, the firm is an evergreen fund backed by the
Norwegian Government. It provides both venture capital and growth equity funding and aims to support Norwegian firms
looking to expand internationally. It is not a technology specialist and has also backed aquaculture, biotech and oil and
gas businesses in the past. The firm last featured (alongside Alliance Venture) for its participation in Novelda’s
aforementioned Series A round.
SINTEF is a Norway-based contract research organisation. Founded in 1985, it currently has c. 2,100 employees. It
has made 11 investments to date and last featured in our bulletin for poLight’s Series B round.
TD Veen is a Norway-based venture capital firm, founded in 1986 and with a focus on the healthcare sector.
Viking Venture (AUM €229mn) is a Norway-based venture capital firm focused on investments into the clean technology,
electronics, materials, oil & gas and software sectors. According to the company, it typically looks to invest in companies
which have “passed the seed phase and are ready for the commercialisation phase”. It last featured in our Bulletin for
its participation in poLight’s Series B round.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 19
February 2015
Lamudi
Germany | www.lamudi.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
14
Internet
Services
B
16.0
Provider of an online real estate
marketplace
Asia Pacific Internet Group, Holtzbrinck
Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures
Lamudi (Germany), a provider of an online real estate marketplace, raised €16.0mn in a Series B round from new
investors Asia Pacific Internet Group and Holtzbrinck Ventures with support from existing investor Tengelmann
Ventures. The money will be used to strengthen operations in Asia and Latin America, and for product development.
Founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Paul Philipp Hermann (who also founded DGAN, a recruiting platform for students
and alumni), Antonius Salis and Kian Moini, Lamudi started operations in October 2013 out of Rocket Internet’s
headquarters in Berlin. Indeed, the company emerged from Rocket Internet’s consolidation of four of its real estate services
providers (Nigeria-based Vamido, Mexico-based Ubilista, and Asia–based House and Zamudi) to create a single real
estate classifieds platform. Lamudi followed Rocket Internet’s traditional model of launching startups in markets where
existing online players are not yet present.
Lamudi is an online and mobile property portal operating exclusively in emerging markets. The company has been online
since day one, but only released its Android and iOS apps in 2014 with the aim of meeting the growing demand for mobile
property search in emerging markets. According to Managing Director Paul Philipp Hermann, Lamudi is pitching the
internet to property developers and real estate agents who still rely on offline channels for business. To this end, the
company offers months-long free trial periods in certain countries, and is currently working on transitioning those testing
its service into paying subscriptions (via monthly listing fees and/or banner advertising space). Lamudi now operates in 32
countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, employing 800 staff and hosting more than 800k property
listings globally.
This investment follows Lamudi’s announcement of the merger of its Asian and Latin American businesses to create
“Lamudi Global”, which it aims to support with the money from this round. According to Hermann, the African and Middle
East businesses will remain affiliated, but separate, since they are respectively part of Africa Internet Group (an incubator
of African startups supported by Millicom, MTN Group and Rocket Internet) and Middle East Internet Holding (a joint
venture between MTN Group and Rocket Internet to invest in startups in the Middle East).
We have recently seen increased activity in the Proptech industry with our coverage of Purplebricks (a fixed-fee online
estate agent which raised €10mn in a Series B round in August 2014), the launch of easyProperty (another online estate
agent which raised £1.4mn in crowd-funding at a valuation of almost £70mn in September 2014) and Zoopla (which raised
£351mn in a London Stock Exchange IPO in June 2014). Other key players in the space include online advertising
companies US-based Trulia and Zillow, as well as London-based Rightmove.
Investors
This round brings total investment in Lamudi up to €20mn, following its April 2014 €5mn Series A round from Tengelmann
Ventures and other undisclosed investors to boost its Asian operations.
Asia Pacific Internet Group is a joint venture founded in 2014 between Ooredoo and Rocket Internet, further described
above in our write-up of Carmudi.
Based in Germany, Holtzbrinck Ventures (€284mn (2015); AUM €654mn) launched in 2000 as the investment arm of
German publishing group Holtzbrinck, but went independent in 2010. It typically invests between €500k and €2.5mn in seed
and early-stage companies, with notable investments to date including well-known internet companies such as
Brands4Friends, Delivery Hero, Groupon, Quandoo, Outfittery, Westwing and Zalando.
Tengelmann Ventures is the Germany-based venture arm of international retailer Tengelmann Group, also further described
above in our write-up of Carmudi.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 20
February 2015
Skimlinks
UK | www.skimlinks.com
#
Sector
15
Software
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
C
14.1
Provider of a content monetisation
platform
Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Frog
Capital, Greycroft Partners, Sussex Place
Ventures
Skimlinks (UK), provider of a content monetisation platform, raised €14.1mn in a Series C round from new investor Frog
Capital with support from existing investors Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Greycroft Partners and Sussex
Place Ventures. The money will be used to develop its platform to increase publishers’ earnings from their commercerelated content.
Skimlinks was founded in 2006 by former Head of Products at Vodafone Alice Navarro. The company was first launched
as SkimIt.com, a decision-making tool aimed at helping friends share and make group decisions. Novarro then developed
Skim-in-a-box, a white-label version of the social decision-making tool. It was while trying to monetise the user-generated
content on SkimIt.com and Skim-in-a-box that she launched Skimlinks as a stand-alone solution for online publishers in
November 2008. Skimlinks is now the sole focus of the company.
Skimlinks helps online publishers make money through affiliate programs (which allow publishers to get a cut of the revenue
when their link drives a purchase on an e-commerce site). Skimlinks (and competitor VigLink, which raised $20mn (€16mn)
in a Series C round in November 2014) has managed to automate this process, such that affiliate links are automatically
updated without any work from the writer or editor.
In 2014, Skimlinks' publishers used the platform to generate more than $625mn (€600mn) in sales for over 20k retailers.
The company claims to have built a network of 1.5mn websites and apps (including Vox Media, Time, Gawker Media and
Condé Nast), and processes 300mn clicks a month on over 1.5mn sites globally.
Last year, Skimlinks increased its revenues by 60% and expanded its team by 40% to 80 staff. It also opened a second
office in the US (in New York), to complement its existing offices in London and San Francisco.
Investors
Although this round is Skimlinks’ fifth, it is the first covered in our Bulletin. The company has now raised total investment of
€19.4mn.
Lead investor Frog Capital (AUM €103mn) is a venture capital firm which typically invests up to €20mn in European growth
technology companies with revenues up to €30mn in the digital media, IT and resource efficiency sectors. Frog Capital's
team has invested in over 100 businesses and, in the last five years, the firm has exited companies with a total transaction
value over €1bn.
Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (AUM €64mn) – also known as BDMI – is the New York and Berlin-based venture
capital arm of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, which operates in 50 countries and reached revenues of €15bn
in 2014. BDMI seeks to invest between $500k (€440k) and $3mn (€2.6mn) in early-stage digital media technology
companies based in Europe, Israel and North America.
Existing investor Greycroft Partners (€176mn (2014); AUM €528mn) is a US-based venture capital firm with offices in Los
Angeles and New York. It typically invests up to $20mn (€17.6mn) in early-stage and growth companies based near its
offices, but can also make opportunistic investments globally.
Sussex Place Ventures (€36mn (2014); AUM €44mn) – formerly known as LBS Venture capital (London Business School
Venture Capital) – is a UK-based venture capital firm targeting investments of between £100k (€140mn) and £1mn
(€1.4mn) in early-stage software and SaaS companies with revenues up to £2mn (€2.7mn).
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 21
February 2015
AppMachine
Netherlands | www.appmachine.com
#
Sector
16
Software
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
A
13.4
Developer of a range of mobile applications
Endurance International Group
AppMachine (Netherlands), developer of a range of mobile applications, raised $15.2mn (€13.4mn) in a Series A round
led by Endurance International Group, which acquired a 40% stake in the company as a result. The money, which will
be used to boost international expansion and further develop AppMachine’s software, also brings Endurance International
Group a technology partner to enhance its mobile app offering for small and mid-sized business globally.
AppMachine was founded in February 2011 by serial entrepreneur Siebrand Dijkstra (who previously founded
communication and security software provider Quality Netware Tools, and school administration software provider
Schoolmaster) along with 18 developers. Prior to founding AppMachine, Siebrand Dijkstra also held CEO positions in
companies including Appstra, FastGuide and Speak, spending much of his time in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. He
was nominated for the Rising Star Award 2013 by Deloitte and was elected CEO of the Year by professional ICT magazine
Computable in both 2014 and 2013.
AppMachine is both the name of the company and its software solution. Developed in C#, a .Net language, the software
enables users with no programming skills to build apps (for Android, Windows Phone and iOS) within hours to days by
using “building blocks” (pre-programmed parts that can be designed and modified to personal preference) which can then
be integrated into the app with simple drag-and-drops. The company offers more than 30 such “building blocks” for features
including emails, payments systems (e.g. PayPal), push notifications and integration with social networks (e.g. Facebook,
Twitter). Developers can also perform more advanced functions such as integrating their own JavaScript code (via
AppMachine’s own built-in line editor), editing source code, scanning companies’ websites to extract key information such
as images and contact information (via a built-in scraper tool) and exporting apps as HTMLs. Other features offered by
AppMachine include apps analytics and an online platform for increasing apps’ visibility.
AppMachine enables developers to create apps for free, only generating revenues when users start publishing their apps
in the app stores (Apple App Store or Google Play Store). For this, it offers two monthly (or yearly) subscriptions, namely
“Plus” (from £29 per month) and “Pro” (from £49 per month), the features of which can be seen here. While these two
subscriptions currently enable customers to develop only mobile apps, the company is planning to add functionality for
HTML5 web apps in Q2 2015, at which point it will also introduce a third subscription for HTML5 only (for £24 per month).
Additionally, AppMachine offers app design services for a £392 fee.
This investment also represents the start of a partnership between AppMachine and Endurance International Group, where
the former will provide the tools for businesses to build apps and mobile websites, and the latter distributes these to its
millions of users looking to move beyond the desktop. This investment can be seen as the first step towards a future
acquisition, according to AppMachine, who mentioned that Endurance acquired its 40% stake “with the potential to increase
additional ownership over time”.
AppMachine now counts c. 150,000 users (including from high-profile customers such as Armin van Buuren, Club Eden,
Markus Schulz, The Next Web Conference and VentureBeat) across 140 countries. It employs 40 staff (including 20+
programmers) across its headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in Brazil, Germany and the US.
Investors
Endurance International Group (NASDAQ:EIGI) is a US-based provider of application and web hosting services, as well as
domain name services, for consumers and businesses globally. It has 3.8 million users across its subsidiaries which include
companies such as Bluehost, Domain.com, HostGator and ResellerClub. The firm, which listed on NASDAQ in October
2013, employs more than 2,500 staff across its offices in Brazil, China, India, Israel, UK and the US. It reached revenues
of €592mn (+21% year-on-year) in 2014, and had a market cap of €2.3bn as of March 18, 2014.
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 22
February 2015
KnCMiner
Sweden | www.kncminer.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
17
Hardware
B
13.2
Developer of Bitcoin mining equipment and
provider of cloud-based Bitcoin mining services
Accel Partners, Creandum, Individual
Investor
KnCMiner (Sweden), a developer of Bitcoin mining equipment and provider of cloud-based Bitcoin mining services, raised
$15.0mn (€13.2mn) in a Series B round from new investor Accel Partners, with support from existing investor Creandum
and an individual investor. The money will be used to increase the company’s Bitcoin mining capacity and further develop
its Bitcoin processing infrastructure.
Founded in 2013 by Andreas Kennemar and Sam Cole, KnCMiner (KnC) is a joint venture with outsourced Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design firm ORSoC (also based in
Sweden). Initially, KnC bootstrapped itself with hardware sales, before commercially releasing in Q3 2014 its first 20nm
ASICs, which can be used for various applications including Bitcoin mining (the recording of transactions into Bitcoins’
public ledger in return for a small fee of Bitcoins). However, as the size of the market for such specialist hardware is
relatively small, KnC has transitioned its focus to proprietary and hosted mining services (as similar firms, such as BitFury
in our May 2014 Bulletin, have done). It has also been developing partnerships with several other Bitcoin services
companies (including Circle Internet Financial and BitPay) to improve liquidity and thus end-user experience, and further
diversified its activities through the release of a mobile Bitcoin wallet (KnCWallet) in October 2014,
KnC began mining Bitcoins directly on an industrial scale in February 2014, through which it has generated $100mn
(€88.1mn) of revenues to date. Its cloud-based services allow customers to get into Bitcoin mining at low cost – just over
$40 (€31) per month for a six-month contract – and without any of the maintenance, set-up and security worries of running
their own hardware. It is a testament to the quality of KnC’s architecture that the business remains viable, as mining
requires high energy usage and the price of a Bitcoin has fallen significantly in recent months (to c. $238 (€210) from
previous highs of c. $1000 (€881) at the end of 2013), leaving many of its competitors unprofitable. A key part of KnC’s
success is the location of its operation, a former aircraft hangar in Swedish Lapland, where the polar environment
significantly reduces the expenditure required to cool its facilities.
The funding received in this round will be used to enter the production phase of a 16nm chip that KnC has developed in
partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which will enable the company to generate Bitcoin at a
more reliable rate. The company has also announced that it intends to invest a further $150mn (€132mn) in upgrading its
equipment and maintaining its data centre over the next 18 months, and is developing other financial products related to
cryptocurrency mining, transacting and asset management.
Although press coverage has generally centred on Bitcoin price volatility, the market for Bitcoin and other Blockchain
applications has been expanding dramatically. Blue-chip merchants such as Dell, Expedia or Microsoft now accept Bitcoin,
while leading payments companies such as PayPal and Stripe have added Bitcoin products. Bitcoin orientated companies
have seen a number of investments over the last twelve months, including BitFury (€14.6mn series A in our May 2014
Bulletin), BlockChain (€24.1mn Series A in our October 2014 Bulletin) and Xapo (€13mn series B in July 2014).
Investors
Well-known to our readers, Accel Partners’ (€881mn (2014); AUM €8.5bn) 30-year track record includes investments in wellknown names such as BitTorrent, Facebook, HailO and Ubiquisys. The firm focuses on infrastructure, internet and consumer
service companies, software and cloud-enabled services, and mobile businesses. As well as being prepared to invest
anywhere, and from seed to growth stage, Accel claims to have the financial firepower to follow its money for as long as it
takes. It raised two funds last year – a $475mn (€418mn) early-stage venture fund (Accel XII) and a $1bn (€881mn) latestage growth fund (Accel Growth Fund III). It also has a $475mn (€418mn) fund dedicated to London, raised in 2013. Accel
last featured in our Bulletin in January 2015 when it invested in UK-based provider of a restaurant food ordering portal
Deliveroo’s €21.5mn Series B round and Spain-based provider of a payment platform for students to pay for higher education
peerTransfer’s €18.9mn Series C round.
Returning investor Stockholm-based Creandum (€154mn (2013); AUM €308mn) previously led KnC’s $14mn (€10.8mn)
Series A round, which featured in our September 2014 Bulletin. Creandum is a stage-agnostic investor targeting consumer,
software and hardware businesses. Founded in 2003, the firm has made c. 50 investments to date (and realised six exits).
Its previous investments that have appeared in our Bulletin include Vivino in July 2013, Wrapp in January 2012 and Cint in
September 2010.
The individual investor in this round, Martin Wattin, is a Swedish angel known for investing in Sweden-based location
platform Rabble. Wattin was previously founder and CEO of Contur Software (provider of electronic laboratory notebook
software to the scientific field), which was sold to Accelrys for $13mn (€11.5mn) in 2011.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 23
February 2015
Wandera
UK / US | www.wandera.com
#
Sector
18
Software
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
B
13.2
Provider of mobile data security software for
enterprises
83North, Bessemer Venture Partners
Wandera (UK / US), a provider of mobile data security software for enterprises, raised €13.2mn in a Series B round led
by existing investor 83North, with support from fellow existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners. According to
83North, Wandera has stated it will use the funds to “facilitate aggressive expansion plans across Europe and particularly
in North America”.
Wandera was founded in 2012 by British brothers and serial entrepreneurs Eldar Tuvey (CEO) and Roy Tuvey (President).
It is the second security company they have launched – following ScanSafe (a provider of anti-malware SaaS, which scans
employees’ web browsing for viruses and hacking attempts), which they sold to Cisco in December 2009 for €125mn.
The company provides cloud-based mobile data security solutions to enterprises globally, via a gateway platform and
mobile app. Through its Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) ecosystem (EMM Connect), companies are able to use
their existing Mobile Device Management (MDM) to deploy the Wandera app directly on end-user devices running either
Android or iOS operating systems. Once deployed, Wandera directs encrypted data traffic across the apps and browser
through its in-line cloud proxy distributed across multiple global data centres. It then provides security alerts and service
notifications enabling administrators to be alerted in real-time to threat and usage anomalies by order of severity, and
implement granular automated policies for remediation and content control. The company also provides analytics, such as
reports on which apps and websites employees are using. It operates in 60 countries, processes more than 350mn content
requests per day and has developed partnerships with blue-chip companies including AT&T, BT and Samsung. Wandera
helps enterprises protect mobile data from external threats, and also optimise data usage to reduce costs, by compressing
data in the cloud before it is sent to an employee’s phone or tablet. The company has stated that its offering enables
enterprises to cut data usage by up to 60%. This is particularly relevant as, according to The Financial Times, businesses
spent $29bn (€27bn) in 2012 on roaming data charges alone due to workers ditching laptops for tablets and smartphones.
According to Allied Market Research, the global mobile security market was worth $3.0bn (€2.8bn) in 2013 and is expected
to reach $35bn (€32bn) by 2020 (a CAGR of more than 40%). Many large enterprise software and hardware vendors have
been making acquisitions in the space to build out their existing offerings, such as IBM acquiring Fiberlink, Blackberry
acquiring Secusmart and AVG acquiring Location Lab. One of the larger fundraisings in the space was Lookout, based in
San Francisco, which in August 2014 raised $150mn (€140mn) from a T.Rowe Price-led consortium of venture capital
firms and banks (including the likes of Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley); at the
time, Lookout had c. 50mn users. In addition to the above companies , Wandera also competes with companies such as
Certage, which instead of software, provides a physical smart card – which once inserted into users’ smartphones provides
a full range of cyber-security functions.
Investors
Lead investor in this round is Israel-based venture capital firm 83North (€176mn (2015); AUM €484mn). 83North began
as Greylock IL (an affiliate fund of Silicon Valley-based venture capital giant Greylock Partners, which was based in
Israel and had its own general partners), before being rebranded and launched as a separate company in January 2015
following the successful closing of a new $200mn (€176mn) fund. The previous Greylock IL fund is said to have
effectively been run as a separate organisation, and therefore this spin-off is a natural progression. The company’s new
fund is stage-agnostic and seeking investments in the consumer and enterprise technology space.
As one of the oldest investors to appear in our Bulletin, Bessemer Venture Partners (€1.4bn (2015); AUM €11.1bn) has
invested in more than 110 companies that have resulted in exits via an IPO. Bessemer was founded in 1911 as the
family office of Carnegie Steel co-founder Henry Phipps and is named after the British inventor of the steel
manufacturing process which made him rich. The firm targets companies in the cloud computing, cyber security,
financial services, healthcare, IT infrastructure, marketplaces, mobile and space tech sectors. It is also particularly keen
on investing in India (citing the growth in middle class prosperity and innovation) and, to date, has invested in more than
20 Indian companies. It last featured in our July 2014 Bulletin for its participation in UK-based cloud contact centre
solutions provider NewVoiceMedia’s €36.9mn late-stage round. The firm is a truly global investor and has offices in six
different countries, including Brazil, India, Israel and Russia. As part of its drive to inspire and reward innovation, it also
publishes an ‘anti-portfolio’ – a list of successful companies it decided to pass on at the time and the (invariably good)
reasons why it did so.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 24
February 2015
TrialReach
UK / US | www.trialreach.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
19
Medtech
B
11.9
Provider of a marketplace for clinical
trials
Amadeus Capital Partners, Octopus
Investments, Smedvig Capital
TrialReach (UK / US), provider of a marketplace for clinical trials, raised $13.5mn (€11.9mn) in a Series B round from
new investor Smedvig Capital, with participation from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners and Octopus
Investments. The money will be used to support the growth of the company’s platform and to pursue further expansion
into the US.
Founded in 2010, TrialReach seeks to solve a challenge prevalent in the medical research industry, namely finding suitable
patients for clinical trials. There are two aspects to this problem, the first of which is a lack of awareness among patients
of their eligibility (that is, many patients who have exhausted existing treatments are unaware that clinical trials are an
option available to them). The second aspect is a data problem, in that because clinical trial protocols write their inclusion
criteria in free-form text, there is no quick and easy way to utilise the data. As a result of these two factors, one in five
cancer trials in the US fails to find a single participant and only 3% of adults participate in cancer research. For
pharmaceutical companies, trial delays can equate to more than $8mn (€7mn) of daily lost revenue per drug, while for
patients delays reduce the number of potentially life-saving drugs available to them.
TrialReach’s platform is designed to aggregate and structure all clinical trial listings worldwide so that patients can be easily
matched with specific trials for which they are eligible. A typical clinical trial protocol comprises more than 100 pages and
is written with physicians and health regulators in mind. TrialReach takes this original unstructured information and
translates the dense scientific and legalese into simpler language, using a combination of its proprietary natural language
processing engine and human editing, after which the revised descriptions are evaluated by the institutional review boards
that oversee clinical trials (to ensure continuity and accuracy have been maintained). The approved trials are then posted
to the TrialReach platform and patients are automatically matched with trials for which they are eligible. Finally, patients
can request to connect with trial sponsors and participate in trials. The platform is free to use for patients and is monetised
by charging trial sponsors for each eligible patient with whom they are successfully connected.
TrialReach has also developed partnerships with leading online health portals (such as CenterWatch, Everyday Health
and Healthline) and patient networks (such as CureClick and WEGO Health), by offering its clinical trial data as
embeddable widgets for their websites. Combined, these sites reach an audience of more than 60 million people per
month. Additionally, the firm is building a relationship with the World Health Organisation, with the intention of tripling the
number of trials on its platform from the existing figure of 270,000. As a marketplace for clinical trials, TrialReach operates
in very niche space and as such, has no direct competitors as of yet.
TrialReach’s platform is already being used by 75% of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies to support their clinical trials
(including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche), as well as leading research institutes (including Columbia University,
the University of Oxford and the University of Washington). The company employs more than 20 staff across its offices in
the UK and the US.
Investors
Lead investor Smedvig Capital (AUM €802mn) was founded in 1996 to manage the venture capital and private equity
investments of the Smedvig family (primarily known for Smedvig ASA, a Norwegian offshore oil rig company which they
owned prior to its acquisition by rig newcomer SeaDrill in 2006). The firm typically invests between £2mn (€2.7mn) and
£15mn (€20.2mn) in UK and Nordic-based businesses across all sectors (including outside technology). In addition to
making direct equity investments, it also acts as a fund-of-funds and helps family offices put together private equity
programmes. Smedvig last featured in our March 2014 Bulletin when it led UK-based provider of content marketing services
Quill’s €6.1mn Series B round.
Co-founded in 1997 by Herman Hauser (the Austrian entrepreneur who co-founded Acorn Computers and the Cambridge
Network), Cambridge-based Amadeus Capital Partners (€27mn (2011); AUM €788mn) has raised ten funds in its 18-year
history, which have together invested in more than 90 early-stage technology companies. Major listed technology companies
that were previously invested in by Amadeus include CSR (LSE:CSR), Optos (LSE:OPTS) and Solexa (acquired by Illumina
(NASDAQ:ILMN)). The company last featured in our April 2014 Bulletin for its participation in UK-based provider of energy
efficient power amplifiers for the telecom industry Nujira’s €14.7mn late-stage round.
Octopus Investments (€54mn (2013); AUM €6.7bn) is a UK-based venture capital firm. Founded in 2002, it offers a range
of retail investment products including Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs), Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) and Inheritance
Tax (IHT) solutions, investing between £250k (€337k) and £5mn (€6.7mn) in UK-based early-stage businesses across all
sectors, Octopus has invested more than £30mn (€41.5mn) to date, and last featured in our November 2014 Bulletin for its
participation in UK-based developer of event booking app YPlan’s €19.2mn Series B round.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 25
February 2015
ClusterHQ
UK | clusterhq.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
Description
Investors
20
Software
A
10.6
Provider of data management systems for
container-based application development
Accel Partners, Canaan Partners
ClusterHQ (UK), a provider of data management systems for container-based application development, raised $12mn
(€10.6mn) in a Series A round led by Accel Partners with participation from Canaan Partners. The money will be used
to grow its software engineering team and to increase its visibility and participation in the container developer community.
This is the first time that ClusterHQ appears in our Bulletin and, in fact, the first time any startup related to container
technology appears here. Linux Containers are a nascent alternative to virtual machines that reduce computing overhead
and increase performance, by allowing multiple instances of an application to run on a server without having to simulate a
separate computer (and its associated hardware) for each application. The growing popularity of containers has been
driven by Docker, creator of an open platform that simplified the creation of container applications.
Traditionally, databases have been a key challenge to container applications as they are difficult to reliably transfer from
one hardware environment to another. ClusterHQ’s Flocker tool, also open source, allows developers to manage data
volumes in Docker clusters, making data as portable as their Docker containers. Like many open source companies,
ClusterHQ generates revenue through paid add-ons and services related to Flocker.
Founded in 2008 and based in London, ClusterHQ has management in California and its engineering team in Bristol. While
the company does already offer paid services, it has stated that commercialisation of its solution has yet to fully begin;
instead, it remains focused on building out features for Flocker.
As the market for container technology is still nascent, there have so far been very few acquisitions in the space. In March,
however, Docker acquired US-based Kitematic (a tool which allows developers to create and deploy Docker containers on
Macs using a graphical interface) for an undisclosed sum.
Another container company of note is Commerce Guys (a Go4Venture Advisers client) which, as well as offering open
source e-commerce software for Drupal, has launched a Docker-like Platform-as-a-Service called Platform – a groundbreaking hosting and development tool currently supporting Drupal, Symphony and PHP web applications.
Investors
This investment brings total investment in ClusterHQ to $15mn (€13.2mn). Its $3mn (€2.7mn) seed round, raised in May
2013, was led by DN Capital and also featured Charlotte Street Capital alongside some angel investors.
Well-known Accel Partners (€877mn (2014); AUM €8.4bn) is a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm. Highly prolific, this is
the third investment by Accel featured in this month alone. The others include cross-border retail currency remittance service
WorldRemit (see page 11) and Bitcoin mining equipment developer and provider of cloud-based Bitcoin mining services
KnCMiner (see page 23). Notably, the firm launched “Accel London IV” – its $475mn (€440mn) Europe-focused fund in
March 2013.
Interestingly, this transaction will see Accel’s Kevin Comolli join ClusterHQ’s board. A veteran investor from the US with a
background in investment banking, robotics and engineering, Kevin has been an expat in London for several years.
Recognised on the Forbes Midas List of Top Venture Investors and as VC investor of the year 2014 by Investor Allstars, his
previous investments include Varonis Systems (which IPO’d on the NASDAQ in March 2014 for $98mn (€90mn)), Icera
(acquired by NVIDIA for €340mn) and Cape Clear (acquired by Workday for an undisclosed amount).
Canaan Partners (€440mn (2009); AUM €2.6bn) last featured in our April 2014 Bulletin for its €23.9mn investment in
SilverRail, a British developer of rail ticketing and information platform technology. The US venture capital firm typically
invests in technology companies (specifically within the communications, digital media and healthcare sectors). Founded in
1987, it has made more than 250 investments, and realised 150 exits (95 through trade sale and 55 through IPO), to date.
Some of its better-known investments include DoubleClick (sold to Google in April 2007 for €2.3bn) and SuccessFactors
(sold to SAP in December 2011 for €2.7bn). The firm is based in California, with additional US offices in Connecticut and
New York and overseas offices in India and Israel.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 26
February 2015
Shopa
UK | www.shopa.com
#
Sector
Round
€mn
21
Internet
Services
A
9.7
Description
Investors
Provider of a social shopping
app and website
Notion Capital, Octopus Investments
Shopa (UK), a provider of a social shopping app and website, raised $11.0mn (€9.7mn) in a Series A round from new
investors Notion Capital and Octopus Investments. The money will be used to expand its social shopping offering into
China and India, having launched in the UK and the US last year.
Founded in November 2012, Shopa provides a social shopping platform that connects retailers with customers through
personal recommendations. The firm was founded by Peter Janes, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded The Post
Network – a social media network for sports, music, films and gaming, which was sold to Convers Sports Initiatives in May
2011 for an undisclosed amount.
Currently accessible via the web or an iOS app, Shopa users create a personal profile akin to a social network and then
customise their own product feed for items and brands they like. They can then recommend brands or products to friends
(receiving discounts where this results in a purchase), follow other customers or ‘like’ the purchases of other customers.
The key to monetisation lies in Shopa’s ability to track everything that happens to retailers’ products across any platform
and device. This data is fed into an analytics platform which can provide retailers with real-time insights into who the top
purchasers of their products are, which products are trending among users, which platforms deliver the best Return on
Investment (ROI) and how user sharing translates into purchases. According to the company, a social recommendation of
a product is 45 times more effective in generating a sale than any traditional marketing or advertising method.
Social shopping has been an emerging investment area for the last two years, creating competition for Shopa, although
none have been as successful in raising capital from early-stage investors. In the UK alone, Shopcade raised $4mn
(€3.5mn) in seed funding from individual investors in October 2013, Nuji raised $2mn (€1.8mn) from Seedcamp, Samos
and TAG in March 2014, Depop raised $7.4mn in a Series A round led by Balderton Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures in
January 2015, and Favr.tt is rumoured to have begun a fundraising process towards the end of 2014. The success of these
companies will arguably depend on their ability to crack the US and beyond that, the burgeoning middle class in emerging
markets such as China and India.
Shopa currently has more than 400 brands on its platform, including both high-street retailers (such as River Island) and
luxury fashion houses (such as Jimmy Choo and Gucci). The firm’s users are typically aged between 18-30 with relatively
high disposable incomes. Shopa has been critically acclaimed in the technology sector, having won IBM Global
Smartcamp’s European Start-up of the Year award in 2013. The company employs more than 30 staff in its London office
and has raised c. $12mn (€10.6mn) to date.
Investors
This investment was Shopa’s first round of funding from institutional investors and has been widely cited as one of the
largest Series A investments ever made in a UK-based company.
Notion Capital (€107mn (2012); AUM €152mn), a UK-based venture capital firm with an office in Silicon Valley, invests
mainly in UK (and sometimes European or US) B2B companies providing cloud computing and SaaS (and, more
specifically, the communication, content management, enterprise productivity and security segments). It typically invests
between £250k (€335k) and £5mn (€6.7mn) in early to growth-stage companies, and last featured in our July 2014 Bulletin
for its participation in UK-based provider of cloud-based contact centre solutions NewVoiceMedia’s €36.9mn late-stage
round.
This is the second time that UK-based venture capital firm Octopus Investments (€54mn (2013); AUM €6.7bn) features in
our Bulletin this month, further to its participation in TrialReach’s €11.9mn Series B round covered on page 25. One of
only two fund managers to have ever been rated AAA by Citywire, Octopus’ venture portfolio currently includes leading
companies such as Artesian Solutions (provider of a B2B sales intelligence and support platform), Calastone (provider of
a global transaction network for the fund management industry) and Graze (provider of a mail order subscription service
for healthy and organic snack boxes).
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 27
February 2015
PriceMatch
France | www.pricematch.travel
#
Sector
22
Software
Round
€mn
A*
8.0
Description
Investors
Provider of a dynamic forecasting and
pricing platform for hotels
Partech Ventures, Tekton
Ventures
* Internal round
PriceMatch (France), a provider of a dynamic forecasting and pricing platform for hotels, raised €8.0mn in a Series A
round from existing investors Partech Ventures and Tekton Ventures.
Founded in 2012 by five graduates – four of which from top French engineering school Polytechnique – including Arthur
Waller (CEO; he ranked amongst the HSMAI Top 20 European Extraordinary Minds in Sales, Marketing and Technology
across Europe in 2014) Khalid EL Guitti, Quentin de Metz, Raphael Theron and Tancrède Besnard. PriceMatch was
developed with the aim of enabling independent hotels to fill more rooms and increase revenues by adjusting rooms’ prices
dynamically – a service usually managed by full-time employees in large hotel chains such as French operator of hotels
Accor.
PriceMatch provides a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) yield management platform for mid-scale and luxury
hotels. The platform enables hotels to dynamically change their rooms pricing and provides pricing recommendations
based on supply and demand levels. These are evaluated via data mining and advanced econometric tools using historical
and real-time information such as competitors’ prices, e-reputation, the hotel’s reservations history, local events,
seasonality and weather forecasts. The platform relies on machine learning algorithms aiming at predicting future demand
and enabling hotels to optimise their price. PriceMatch’s platform is compatible with a large range of hotel management
software including c. 150 Property Management Systems (PMS) such as MisterBooking and Multi-Micro, as well as 70
hotel channel management software such as Bookassist and FastBooking. The company offers three subscription services
starting from €127 per month for hotels managing up to 50 rooms, to more than €900 per month for hotels managing 500+
rooms. Subscriptions can be paid monthly or annually, and prices depends on the number of rooms managed by hotels
as well as their region of operation, i.e. the Americas, Asia Pacific or EMEA. PriceMatch claims that its platform increases
on average hotels’ Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) by 7% in the first year of implementation.
Prior to this investment PriceMatch had raised €1mn in a seed round from private equity firms Partech Ventures and Tekton
Ventures along with angel investor Jai Cho (Founder and Managing Partner at Tekton Ventures) in November 2013. The
money aimed to be used to enhance the company’s product, boost sales and expand internationally, mainly by opening
offices in London and Rome. At that time PriceMatch had over 200 clients, offered a free service for tracking competitors,
and a paying room price optimisation service starting at $10 (€9.3mn) per room per month. While the company has not yet
expanded into the UK, its platform is now used in more than 30 countries by more than 700 hotels including BestWestern,
Monarch Hotel, TimHotel and Waterford Hotels. PriceMatch employs 73 staff across its offices in France, Italy,
Netherlands, Spain and the US.
In December 2014 the company acquired (for an undisclosed amount) yield management SaaS provider PowerYourRoom,
which at time of acquisition was used by more than 100 hotels in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordics and
Switzerland. Through this acquisition PriceMatch increased its presence in Northern Europe and acquired experienced
managers.
Competitors include US-based hospitality industry Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provider IDeaS (acquired
by SAS in 2008 for $50mn (€46mn)) and hotel price optimisation SaaS provider Duetto Research, which raised more than
$33mn (€31mn) in three rounds since inception in 2012.
Investors
Both investors became involved in the company in October 2013 when they invested €1mn in a seed round in PriceMatch.
Partech Ventures (€210mn (2015); AUM €570mn) is a Paris-based fund which has traditionally had a presence in the US
(via its San Francisco office). Recently, the firm launched a seed fund, established its Partech Shaker – a shared ninestory
building in Paris for use by startups, and closed its first growth equity fund (Partech Growth), making it one of the larger
and more international European funds.
Tekton Ventures is a US-based seed and early-stage investment firm targeting companies operating in the e-commerce,
information technology, mobile and software sectors.
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 28
February 2015
List of Acronyms
Financial Terms
k
used as abbreviation for 1,000 for example, €1k means €1,000)
mn
Million
bn
Billion
AUM
Asset Under Management
CEO
Chief Executive Officer
EBIT
Earnings before interest and tax
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
ECM
Equity Capital Markets
FINMA
Financial Market Supervisory Authority
IPO
Initial Public Offering
JV
Joint Venture
LBO
Leverage Buyout
LLP
Limited Liability Partnership
M&A
Merger and Acquisition
PLC
Public Limited Company
SME
Small-Medium Enterprise
VC
Venture Capital
Business / Technical Terms
ASIC
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
CRM
Customer Relationship Management
EIS
Enterprise Investment Schemes
EMM
Enterprise Mobility Management
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning
FMCG
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
FPGA
Field Programmable Gate Array
IHT
Inheritance Tax
IoT
Internet of Things
IPO
Initial Public Offering
LoRa
Long Range
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 29
February 2015
M2M
Machine-to-Machine
MDM
Mobile Device Management
MNO
Mobile Network Operator
ms
microsecond
mw
milliwatt
PMS
Property Management Systems
RevPAR
Revenue Per Available Room
RIA
Rich Internet Application
RMPA
Random Phase Multiple Access
ROI
Return on Investment
SaaS
Software-as-a-Service
UN
United Nations
UNB
Ultra-Narrow Band
UXP
User Experience Platform
VCM
Voice-Coil Motor
VCT
Venture Capital Trust
-
©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
Page 30
February 2015
Go4Venture Advisers LLP
48 Charles Street
+44 (0)20 7529 5400
Berkeley Square
g4vbulletin@go4venture.com
London
W1J 5EN
This report was published on May 13, 2015
Disclaimer
This report has been prepared and issued by Go4Venture Advisers LLP
who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
All information used in the publication of this report, has been compiled
from publicly available sources that are believed to be reliable, however
no representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited is given
as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions
contained in this report. Opinions contained in this report represent those
of Go4Venture Advisers LLP at the time of publication. This research is
non-objective. This document is provided for information purposes only
and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation for investment.
Furthermore, as the information contained in this document is strictly
confidential it may not be reproduced or further distributed.
The value of investments and any income generated may go down as
well as up. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future
performance. Investors may not get back the amount invested. This
publication is not intended to be relied upon in making any specific
investment or other decisions. Appropriate independent advice should
be obtained before making any such decision.
This report has been compiled by Jean-Michel Deligny, Managing
Director – for and on behalf of Go4Venture Advisers.
Copyright: 2015 Go4Venture Advisers. All rights reserved.
Registered address: 10 Wellington Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HW Incorporation number OC336611
Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
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©Go4Venture Advisers 2015
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