Market Analysis & Industry News
“2.3 billion people are now globally connected by the Internet. There are 1.1 billion mobile 3G subscribers. Almost 30 percent of all US adults now own a tablet. Mobile is cited as source of 8% of all e-commerce.” from Forbes citing Mary Meeker’s 2012 Internet Trends
A must read post by Rick Segal on the Secret VC Handbook. If you are considering raising institutional money, you should read Rick Segal’s (@ricksegal) The Secret VC Handbook:
“The debate between building native applications vs. mobile web sites has raged.” from Adam Nash’s (@adamnash) User Acquisition: Mobile applications and the Mobile Web
“Global population 7 billion. Mobile phone subscriptions 6 billion. Internet users 2.3 billion.” from The App Generation
What are the typical top sources of customers for early-stage SaaS companies?
Company Announcements
Mike Beltzner joined Wattpad as Head of Product.
Extreme Startups Demo Day featured keynotes from 500 Startups Paul Singh (@paulsingh) and Mayfield Fund’s Tim Chang (@timechange), with launch of Shoplocket, Granify, Gijit, and SimplyUs and Verelo.
Plug and Play Tech Center announces cohort of Canadian startups for StartupCamp that includes Pinerly and Willet.
Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone announced four new tech startups moving in including: Komodo OpenLab, YC grad KytePhone, Electric Courage and Virtual Next.
Financings
| Company | Description | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wattpad | Wattpad is the world’s largest online community of readers and writers. | $17.3MM | Khosla Ventures, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Union Square Ventures, Golden Venture Partners |
| Lightspeed | LightSpeed’s technology provides retailers with powerful tools that reinvent the shopping experience using Mac computers, iPads, and iPhones for retail management tools | $30MM | Accel Partners |
| BuildDirect | BuildDirect is North America’s largest online destination for heavy weight building materials | $16MM | OMERS Ventures |
| Blacksquare | BlackSquare is a leading market innovation for direct to consumer wine ecommerce globally. | Seed | Undisclosed |
| CommunityLend | $3MM | non-brokered private placement from a single investor | |
| Novidev Santé Active | Novidev Santé Active is a Québec agri-food business that has developed Vegetal IntelligenceTM, a unique process that preserves all the fruit’s natural bioactive compounds, and will be marketing its first ’super fruit juices’ under the Anti+ brand. | $1.3MM | 15 private Anges Québec investors including Charles Boulanger and Desjardins Innovatech |
David Crow focused on product design, customer development and go-to-market implementation on $0. He is available as a consultant. He is a mentor at ...
