Our regular academic commentators write that the number of high-technology ventures that undertake international business from an early stage is increasingly growing worldwide.
Month: March 2014
The clean deal: Reduce, reuse – and recommerce?
As a younger man in the salad days of my career in clean-tech financing, I frowned slightly on investors that were looking to back information and communication technology (ICT) enabled resource and energy-efficient technology companies. I thought they were not really getting their hands dirty in the gruelling but noble art of long-term capital-intensive… Continue reading The clean deal: Reduce, reuse – and recommerce?
Gaule’s Question Time: Secrets to a longer venturing life
Gaule: Give us an introduction to the foundation, when it was formed and who is behind its formation. Hopkins: Alacrity Foundation has come out of a company called the Wesley Clover Corporation, which was founded by telecoms entrepreneur Sir Terry Matthews. The CEO is Simon Gibson. They were the driving force behind creating the foundation.… Continue reading Gaule’s Question Time: Secrets to a longer venturing life
News focus: Conference dreams of lean
The lean start up approach, which involves experimentation with fast development of “minimal viable products” – those launched early into the public domain and tested through iterations, in contrast with a carefully perfected product launch – is being thrust front and centre by those peddling innovation at the world’s corporations. Widespread talk of such… Continue reading News focus: Conference dreams of lean
Feature: Industrial sector roars forward
Corporate venturing units in the industrials sector continued to forge ahead over the past year. Because it was a busy period for GE Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based industrial conglomerate, we have again named it the most influential group in the sector, as it puts its $150m annual venturing commitment to work.
Venture world reborn amid disruption
Venture capital is at a crossroads. As our publication frequently reports, corporations are taking a larger share of the venture industry, while developments such as crowd-funding and the trend towards incubators and accelerators are providing significantly diverse arrays of capital to help entrepreneurs set up companies. This dynamic is providing alternatives to venture finance and at the same time producing a dizzying spectrum of promising companies for capital-rich investors to choose from.
Warner Bros targets Machinima’s millennial males
Machinima, a US-based YouTube video entertainment network and app publisher aimed at 18-34 year-old males and claiming to be “a network for the gamer lifestyle and beyond”, has closed an $18m series D financing led by Warner Bros. Entertainment. Also participating in this financing were Machinima’s other existing investors, MK Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Google… Continue reading Warner Bros targets Machinima’s millennial males
Verizon sets CloudBees buzzing
CloudBees, a US-based, enterprise platform-as-a-service (PaaS) technology provider for developers to build and deploy new business applications, has closed a $11.2m series C financing round led by Verizon Ventures, the investment arm of Verizon Communications, and including existing investors Matrix Partners and LightSpeed Venture Partners, as well as new investor Blue Cloud Ventures. The series… Continue reading Verizon sets CloudBees buzzing
Susquehanna leads Payoneer funding
Online payments company Payoneer raises series D financing round of $25m, led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, to “transform the way small businesses around the world get paid for selling products and services across borders”.
GuideSpark catches $15m
GuideSpark, a US-based video technology startup which provides HR departments with employee communications videos, has raised $15m series B funding from new investor New Enterprise Associates along with existing investors IDG Ventures, an investment network whose limited partners include IT media company International Data Group, and early stage venture capital investor Storm Ventures. In August… Continue reading GuideSpark catches $15m
John Lewis goes back to the future with JLab
John Lewis is launching a technology incubator, JLab, to be housed in Level 39 and timed to coincide with its 150-year anniversary celebrations later in 2014.
SKTA aims to put silicon back in Silicon Valley
SK Telecom Americas (SKTA), the US-based business development and venture capital unit of South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom, has launched a new accelerator – the SKTA Innovation Accelerator – with a mission is to “put the silicon back in Silicon Valley” by funding the data center and core technologies needed for modern computing. “Over… Continue reading SKTA aims to put silicon back in Silicon Valley
New model fund Reinventure steps out into SocietyOne
Westpac Banking Corporation, an Australia-based bank and financial-services provider, has become the largest investor in the Reinventure Fund, a $50m early stage investment fund, independently managed by Reinventure Group and dedicated to investing in Australian technology ventures. Westpac Group, besides its investment, will provide a strategic relationship to Reinventure’s startup entrepreneurs. The Reinventure Group, founded… Continue reading New model fund Reinventure steps out into SocietyOne
Big Deal: eating the farmers’ data
“In the face of increasingly volatile weather, the global $3 trillion agriculture industry depends on the company’s unique technologies to help stabilize and improve profits and, ultimately, help feed the world.” This statement from crops company Monsanto underscores how data and technology are starting to underpin the latest economic sector’s transformation from product to service.… Continue reading Big Deal: eating the farmers’ data