Follow The Money: 10 Recent Tech VC Investments To Watch In July
Dollars And Cents
The business equivalent of "throwing a bone" to a good idea that needs a little leverage to get off the ground often comes in the form of venture capital investments. From the single-digit millions on up, investors have been actively supporting startups both financially and from the boardroom as well. Despite a 33 percent drop in VC funding dollars last quarter over the previous quarter, there was no shortage of investment capital flowing in July. Here's a look at 10 of the hottest tech VC investments to keep an eye on from July.
Hortonworks
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
CEO: Rob Bearden
New Funding: $50 million
Round: Undisclosed
Backers: Tenaya Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Yahoo
Hortonworks, a Hadoop platform developer, focuses on open source distribution of its Apache Hadoop data program and related services. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company continues to plan for the release of Hadoop 2.0 and Apache Hadoop YARN, the latest data architecture programs, set to debut later this year. The latest round of funding, led by new investors Tenaya Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group, is geared toward growing field operations around the world and investments in the company's engineering organization, according to a company blog by CEO Rob Bearden.
Kapost
Headquarters: Boulder, Colo.
CEO: Toby Murdock
New Funding: $5.6 million
Round: C
Backers: Lead Edge Capital, Floodgate, High Country Venture
Kapost, a content marketing software platform, focuses on process management and analytics solutions for businesses by consolidating multistep management into a single platform. The company's tools include a workflow system for creating content, a distribution system for consolidating several content channels for easy publishing and an analytics system to track it. The additional funding, led by new investors Lead Edge Capital and Floodgate, will go toward growing the company's platform and its organization to meet the needs of its customers, according to a company statement.
Pixate
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
CEO: Paul Colton
New Funding: $3.8 million
Round: A
Backers: Accel Partners
Pixate, a mobile application engine, helps developers design and code native apps using its software and allows for streamlined changes to CSS style and graphics. The company's main product, Pixate 1.0 for iOS, launched in January. The company plans to invest its new funding in expanding its staff of engineers to bring the software to Android and Mac platforms, release a full free version of the program, and improve samples and guides for developers, CEO and Co-Founder Paul Colton said in a company blog post. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup also plans to launch Pixate Labs, where it will publish beta versions of its software and other prototypes or experiments.
Predixion Software
Headquarters: San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
CEO: Simon Arkell
New Funding: $20 million
Round: C
Backers: Accenture, GE Ventures, DFJ Frontier, EMC, Miramar Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures, Frost Venture Partners
Predixion, a predictive analytics startup, focuses on developing portable predictive application solutions that provide data to customers in various sectors of health care, marketing, government and e-commerce. The latest round of funding comes from current investors as well as two new ones, Accenture and GE Ventures, and is geared toward accelerating product development as well as scaling sales for future growth, according to a company statement. In addition to its backing, Accenture plans to develop analytics solutions for its customers in conjunction with the startup, using Predixion's software.
Sequent Software
Headquarters: Redwood City, Calif.
CEO: Robb Duffield
New Funding: $12 million
Round: B
Backers: SBT Venture Capital, Opus Capital, Jado Investments
Sequent Software, a mobile commerce software and services company, allows users to download payment card information to their mobile devices, via its Trusted Service Manager (TSM) program. With TSM, users can access information and offers from various mobile carriers, stores and banks, as well as make mobile purchases. The new round of funding, led by SBT Venture Capital, the venture branch of Russian bank Sberbank, is set to drive worldwide growth of the company's wallet program and commercial deployments to mobile operators, card issuers and leading banks, according to a Sequent press release. In the same announcement, the Redwood, Calif.-based company also said that a member of SBT Venture Capital, Mircea Mihaescu, will join the Sequent Software board as a way to expand the company's industry team.
TrustRadius
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
CEO: Vinay Bhagat
New Funding: $5 million
Round: A
Backers: Mayfield Fund
TrustRadius, a Yelp-like enterprise organizational operations software company, allows professionals to post reviews and tips about business tech products for peers online. The crowd-sourcing platform provides users with objective feedback on marketing, business intelligence and sales software, as well as product comparisons and tips for use and implementation. The funding from Mayfield will go toward growing the company's staff, membership and base of content as well as the development of new features, according to a company statement. The company also announced the addition of Mayfield Fund Partner Rajeev Batra to its board of directors as a way of solidifying the partnership.
uSamp
Headquarters: Encino, Calif.
CEO: Alan Gould
New Funding: $15 million
Round: D
Backers: OpenView Venture Partners, DuPont Capital Management
USamp, an online marketing research company, provides customers with realtime insights and sampling solutions focused on mobile research. Its flagship platform Instant.ly, a consumer insight engine, combines mobile surveys with access to an audience of consumers as a way for companies to collect and analyze new data. The latest funding is set to go toward accelerating the development of Instant.ly to provide users with several ways to understand and interact with its customer base, according to a uSamp press release.
Yottaa
Headquarters: Boston
CEO: Coach Wei
New Funding: $16 million
Round: Undisclosed
Backers: Intel Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Stata Venture Partners, Cambridge West Ventures
Yottaa, a web optimization solution provider, markets software that it claims displays websites 30 percent faster than alternatives. The Boston-based company was founded in 2009 and released its software last September with the help of its 30-engineer staff, CEO Coach Wei said in an interview with the Boston Business Journal. The new funding, led by Intel Capital, will go toward building sales and marketing, growing its engineering team and accelerating its investment in the company's hybrid cloud network, according to a company statement.
Zimory
Headquarters: Berlin
CEO: Ruediger Baumann
New Funding: $20 million
Round: Undisclosed
Backers: Deutsche Boerse, Creathor Venture, High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF), IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (IBB), KFW, T-Venture
The Berlin-based cloud management software company allows customers to utilize the extent of cloud computing's capabilities through its Cloud Suite, which speeds up the process of creating, launching and managing various cloud environments. With its new funding, led by Deutsche Boerse, in addition to established investors, Zimory plans to expand its management platform internationally, according to a company statement. Zimory also announced a partnership with its leading investor in a vendor-independent cloud services marketplace called Deutsche Boerse Cloud Exchange, focused on enabling the quick trade of IT resources electronically.
Zoomdata
Headquarters: Reston, Va. & Menlo Park, Calif.
CEO: Justin Langseth
New Funding: $4.1 million
Round: A
Backers: Columbus Nova Technology Partners (CNTP), Razor's Edge, CIT, B7
Zoomdata, a next-generation data analytics startup, provides customers with a visualization platform to analyze realtime and historical big data. The company's software analyzes multiple streams of data to produce data visualizations that continuously update and can be shared with co-workers. The latest funding round, led by Columbus Nova Technology Partners, is set to go toward expanding the company's engineering, operations and sales teams, as well as open a Silicon Valley office, according to a company statement. The startup also announced that its application is now certified on Cloudera CDH and that it's the first data analysis vendor designed specifically for Cloudera Impala, an open source query engine.