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July 18th, 2015

Bi-monthly Highlights

Global Trends

Market forecasts, regulatory barriers, top vendors, and leading commercial applications of drones
The fast-growing global drone industry has not sat back waiting for government policy to be hammered out
before pouring investment and effort into opening up this all-new hardware and computing market. A growing
ecosystem of drone software and hardware vendors is already catering to a long list of clients in agriculture,
land management, energy, and construction. Many of the vendors are small private companies and startups,
although large defense-focused companies and industrial conglomerates are beginning to invest in drone
technology. The global commercial drone market will take shape around applications in a handful of industries:
agriculture, energy, utilities, mining, construction, real estate, news media, and film production. Most growth in
the drone industry is on the commercial/civilian side, as the shift away from the military market gains
momentum. Many of the notable early commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) manufacturers are
emerging outside of the US market. The commercial-drone industry is still young but has begun to see some
consolidation and major investments from large industrial conglomerates, chip companies, and defense
contractors.

Health-tech in Southeast Asia: Emerging trends and enduring realities

As growing connectivity and new regulatory frameworks make health information increasingly available to
people everywhere, patients will become more empowered to navigate the healthcare system and take their
health in their own hands. Healthcare consumer empowerment and engagement will increase in Southeast
Asia too, but at a slower pace in the regions developing markets, where medical paternalism remains strong.
In Southeast Asias emerging markets, infrastructure gaps remain a major impediment to telemedicine, but as
connectivity improves, many new telemedicine services are getting funding and traction. In the developed
world, the biggest challenge will be creating protocols for access and sharing of the vast quantities of data that
already exist, but in Southeast Asias emerging markets, much of that data will need to be created in the first
place. Hospital information systems, electronic medical records and other tools for managing health data are
still just beginning to get deployed in places like Indonesia and the Philippines, but their inevitable adoption will
create new opportunities for data analytics. Southeast Asia still has a long way to go with regard to regulatory
reform and harmonisation, though ASEAN-led initiatives may play a role in bolstering regional cooperation in
the coming years.

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Asia Pacific
China

China car hailing app Didi Kuaidi raises US$2B as Uber rivalry intensifies
Chinas dominant mobile car-ride hailing company Didi Kuaidi announced that it raised US$2 billion in a
fundraising round as competition was U.S rival Uber Technologies Inc heats up on its home turf. This funding
will lift its cash reserves to US$3.5 billion. Didi Kuaidi, which has the largest market share of car-hailing apps in
China, announced that the funding amount may rise by another few hundred million due to tremendous
interest from global investors. The president of Kuaidi President Jean Liu that the company would remain
focused on China and the transport market, and would establish their leading position in the full service
transportation platform worldwide. The companys new investors now include Capital International Private
Equity Fund and Ping An Ventures, part of Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd.

Alibaba-backed Meituan raising US$1B at US$15B valuation

Beijing-based startup Meituan, an online deals marketplace backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, is said to be
raising US$1 billion at a US$15 billion valuation. Until now, Meituan has been valued at US$7 billion on funding
about US$1 billion in total, the most recent of which was a US$700 million Series D round in January this year.
Existing investors from the January round include Beijing-based investment firm Hillhouse Capital Group and
Fidelity Management & Research Co. Meituans other notable backers include Sequoia Capital China, Boyu
Capital, and General Atlantic Inc. Meituan was founded in 2010 and now claims 200 million active users with
operations across 1,000 Chinese cities and saw about US$7.4 billion in transactions on its platform last year.

China's iMaibo secures US$4M in Series A from Guotai Junan

iMaibo has announced that Guotai Junan Securities, one of Chinas leading brokerage firms, has committed
US$4 million to its Series A funding. Back in March, the company announced that it had reached its million
mark in registered users and served 100,000 daily users. Since then, it has accumulated an additional 500,000
registered users and 50,000 daily users, claimed the company. Founded in 2012, Guangzhou-based iMaibo
has cultivated its own community of nearly 100 homegrown investment professionals. The site has about
50,000 monthly active users who can choose to pay for value-added services, such as following the investment
professional of their choice. iMaibo plans on focusing on going forward to stand out from the competition by
providing high-quality portfolios at a disruptively low cost to retail investors, including the use of quantitative
analytics

Wozlla raises US$2M to expand its HTML5 games beyond China

HTML5 game developer Wozlla is announced on July 7th that it has raised US$2 million to expand beyond
China. Investment came from Greenwood Asset Management, a private equity firm that has backed a number
of Chinese tech firms.The Beijing-based Wozlla makes titles based on the HTML5 format, the lingua franca of
the web, and it had a hit recently with the launch of its Summoner of Time: Hero Reborn in the Chinese market.
HTML5 games can run on any device with a web browser, enabling one game to reach players on PCs,
consoles, smart TVs, and mobile devices. Wozlla plans to use the funds to continue developing original games
and expand in the Americas. The company is planning on creating an office in Mexico.

Chinas Ourpalm invests US$2.3M in Garfield game maker Animoca Brands

Chinese web and mobile game developer Ourpalm has invested US$2.3 million in Animoca Brands, the maker
of mobile games such as one based on the Garfield cartoons. Under the deal, Ourpalm is investing $2.3 million
into Animoca Brands to obtain newly issued shares that give Ourpalm 11.11 percent of the companys capital.
Ourpalm was founded in Beijing in 2004 as a government-licensed telecommunications and service provider,
and it transformed itself into a mobile and social web game developer. In May 2012, Ourpalm went public on
the Shenzhen Stock exchange. The company has more than 2,000 workers and has made more than 200 titles.
The deal will help Animoca expand to the Chinese mobile game market.

Alibaba's online bank locks in funding; now valued over US$45B

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Alibaba has now raised an undisclosed amount of funding, valuing the company at an estimated US$45-50
billion. With this, Ant Financial, Alibabas Alipay, not only goes head-to-head with rivals Tencent and Juneyao
Group, but also state-owned banksThe company sold off its stakes to external investors, including China
Development Bank Capital C, reports Bloomberg. Chinas National Social Security Fund also joined in as a
strategic investor, acquiring five per cent.Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group (formerly
Small and Micro Financial Services Group) will have a 30 per cent ownership in the new bank.

Korea

South Korean restaurant discovery app MangoPlate raises US$6.1M

South Korean restaurant discovery app MangoPlate announced that it has secured US$6.1 million from
venture investment group of Qualcomm Incorporated, Qualcomm Ventures, as well as SoftBank Ventures
Korea and YJ Capital, a venture capital firm established by Yahoo!JAPAN. This marks YJ Capitals first
investment in a Korean company. Launched in October 2013 during SparkLabs a startup accelerator in
South Korea second Demo Day, MangoPlate makes personalised restaurant recommendations to its users
based on restaurant data, individual preferences and social networks such as Kakao Talk and Facebook.
MangoPlate tunes the users selection based on over 30 different factors such as friends recommendations,
price range, category of restaurants and even whether the restaurant provides parking lots, shared an official
release. MangoPlate will use its funds to focus on customer acquisition, feature enhancement and expansion

Life.SREDA, Marvelstone eye Korea with joint US$20M fund

Singapore-based venture capital firm Life.SREDA, which this year relocated from Moscow with its US$100
million fund and launched its InspirAsia fin-tech accelerator, today announced that it has inked a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) with international investment group Marvelstone to co-invest a combined US$20
million into promising Asian fin-tech startups with a special focus on Korea.

Japan

Japanese Startup, Arcterus Raises about US$1M for Digital Note-Sharing App
Tokyo-based Arcterus has raised 130 million (approximately US $1.05 million) in a Series A round from
Dentsu Digital Holdings, Startia and Bon Angels, reports Tech in Asia. Like many edtech startups in Japan,
Arcterus targets the countrys ubiquitous juku, or cram schools after-school tutoring academies that have
grown into a US$10 billion industry, Arcterus company offers a digital notebook app that allows students to
upload and share class notes, along with an assessment tool for teachers and students. It also runs its own
tutoring center. Founded in 2010, Arcterus was initially self-funded by its founder to the tune of 70 million
(approx. US $567,000).

India

Indias music-streaming leader Saavn raises US$100M, adding 1M users each month.
Savanna announced that it had raised US$100 million and now has 14 million users. The latest funding was
led by Tiger Global Management. The company announced that it would use money for product development,
customer accession, and investing in its advertising technology. Savanna has been exploding in popularity by
focusing primarily on its home country and the Indian diaspora around the world. The company now projects it
will have 20 million monthly active users by the end of this year. Saavn is one of the many, many international
streaming services that are seeking to ride the surge from digital downloads to streaming.

Lybrate bags US$10.2M funding from Tiger Global, Nexus, Ratan Tata
Lybrate, a healthcare communication and delivery platform, announced that it has secured US$10.2 million in
Series A funding from Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, and existing
investor Nexus Venture Partners. Founded in 2013, Lybrate aims to solve the fundamental problem of
healthcare delivery in India, namely inaccessibility of doctors compounded by the gap between supply of and
demand for healthcare professionals. By connecting doctors with patients across geographies, Lybrate helps in

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solving the need for medical care in a country with a population of 1.2 billion. The startup plans to use its funds
to develop products, recruit talent, augment technology and scale operations.

News In Shorts raises US$20M in Series B funding from Tiger Global

News curator News in Shorts has raised US$20 million from Tiger Global in Series B funding. The startup had
raised US$4 million in February 2015 through a Series A round led by Tiger Global, with participation from
Rebright Partners of Japan and existing angels Ankush Nijhawan, Gaurav Bhatnagar, Manish Dhingra and
Flipkart Founders Sachin and Binny Bansal.News in Shorts gives 60-word summaries of the days top stories
spanning across a range of categories, including sports, entertainment, national and international news. Each
summary is written by its in-house team of editors and includes a single link out to a story with further
information. The app is getting a strong traction from the increasingly mobile youth and claims to have more
than one million downloads. The startup announced that its investments will be used primarily for expansion of
the team and improving the user experience.

Fin-tech startup IndiaLends raises funding led by DSG

IndiaLends, a Delhi-based credit underwriting and analytics platform for unsecured consumer lending, has
raised an undisclosed amount in funding led by Singapore-based DSG Consumer Partners, with participation
from a few angel investors including private equity investor Siddharth Parekh. IndiaLends captures and
analyses a variety of relevant data points that help in assessing a borrowers credit worthiness. Available on
both the web and mobile, IndiaLends uses proprietary algorithms to connect borrowers with the right financial
institutions. The startup plans to utilize its funds to grow its operations, improve technology and analytics
capabilities and acquire talent. It also plans to expand its operations to other cities soon, starting with Mumbai
and Bangalore.

US-Indian Big Data Firm Axtria secures US$30M in Series C funding led by Helion
Axtria, a Big Data analytics company, has announced US$30 million in Series C funding led by Helion Venture
Partners, with an investment of US$15 million. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Desh Deshpande, along with
existing investors Amar Sawhney, Rick Braddock and Fred Khosravi, also participated in this round. Axtria is a
company that provides consulting, outsourcing and technology solutions to help companies make better datadriven decisions in functions like sales, marketing and risk management operations.The funding will be used to
accelerate hiring, build a sales force, increase marketing, develop products and expand markets including new
verticals and geographies.

Flatchat to use funding from CommonFloor to boost expansion

The mobile-only app to hut for flatmates, Flatchat, has just raised US$2.5 million from CommonFloor, a realestate listing sites in India. Flatchat claims to have crossed more than 50,000 users across both Android and
iOS platforms, with 80 per cent of the traffic coming from Android. With the new funding, Flatchat is aiming to
make its product team stronger by hiring 10-12 people. The fund will also be used to scale up operations and
establish a foothold across the country, especially in the cities that have a higher population of students and
bachelors. In addition, the startup will use funds to enter new cities within India and expand to global markets

Indias BankBazaar secures US$60M in Series C led by Amazon

BankBazaar, a financial marketplace for customised rate quotes on loans, credit cards or any other personal
finance products, has raised US$60 million in its Series C round of funding led by Amazon, with participation
from Fidelity Growth Partners and Mousse Partners.Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Walden
International also participated in the round.E stablished in 2008, BankBazaar allows a user to instantly search
for offers, compare, customize it as per his or her needs or profile and apply for their finance products on
BankBazaar, as well as the BankBazaar app for Android and iOS. The latest round of funding will be used
towards technology integration, hiring and strengthening partner relationships. The company will also invest to
upscale its marketing and branding effort to reach out to a larger number of consumers.

Vietnam
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Garena backs Vietnam's Foody with "seven-digit" Series B round

Three-year-old Vietnam-based food delivery startup Foody has raised undisclosed Series B funding from
Garena, the consumer Internet platform provider based in Singapore and valued at more than US$1 billion.
While the company did not reveal the exact amount, it is estimated definitely to be seven digits dollars. Its
previous investment rounds (seed and Series A) came from CyberAgent Ventures and Pix Vine Capital
Investment. The company is planning on focusing on user growth, content and expanding into other Southeast
Asian markets markets where the likes of Rocket Internet-backed foodpanda lurks, carefully guarding its turf.
On the numbers front, Foody claims to have reached more than 115,000 POIs (points of interest), 275,000
reviews, 1.5 million photos, 1.9 million collections with about eight million monthly visitors, and 500,000 app
downloads.

Malaysia

Malaysia's Offpeak secures US$800K Series A funding from Gobi Partners

Malaysia-based dining app, Offpeak, has announced that it has secured US$800,000 in Series A funding from
sole investor, Gobi Partners. Offpeak is a company, which caters to more than 600 eateries and has served
over 50,000 diners, aims to use these funds to expand into new markets within Southeast Asia and establish
local teams and ramp up marketing efforts. Currently, it is only available in major cities in Malaysia, but will
soon be established in Thailand.With this investment, Off-peak will expand into new markets, as well as ramp
up hiring and marketing efforts.

Indonesia

Indonesian adtech startup ADSKOM raises 7 figures in Series A

Jakarta-based programmatic advertising startup ADSKOM has announced today that it has raised an
undisclosed sum of 7 figures from Japan-based adtech startup Geniee. Convergence Ventures, as well as
existing investor, East Ventures also joined the round. DSKOM is looking to grow its revenue by 300 to 500 per
cent and expand into markets within the region like Malaysia and Thailand. The startup will also look into
delivering its programmatic ad services to mobile and video platforms. ADSKOM will use the funds to extend
its services to other platforms as well as expansion into Malaysia and Thailand

Ex-Monk's Hill associate raises US$500K seed for Fabelio in Indonesia

Fabelio, a furniture e-commerce startup out of Jakarta announced a US$500,000 round of seed funding led by
500 Startups. The funding round saw participation from KK Fund and IMJ Investment Partners. Fabelio was
founded to bridge the gap between designers and consumers and provide platforms for Indonesian furniture
designers to showcase and sell their creations. Currently, the startup is offering more than 350 items on its
website, due to grow to more than 2,000 by year end. It also plans to expand to Singapore, Thailand and
Australia as its first foreign-market stops outside its home turf.

Bizzy joins Indonesia's young B2B e-comm space with US$2.5M funding
Ardent Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies in Southeast Asia, has
announced the launch of Bizzy.co.id today, with a funding of US$2.5 million. Founded in February 2015,
Bizzys 37-strong team manages a B2B platform that carries products from merchants in office supplies,
electronics, cleaning, pantry and services, which is sorely lacking in Indonesias B2B e-commerce space. Bizzy
helps merchants make the shift to online and meet the logistical demands of B2B business customers, by
integrating multiple shipments from multiple vendors, known as crossdocking, through the fulfillment centre of
its partner aCommerce. With investment from Ardent Capital, Bizzy aims to improve the countrys business
supplies and services market.

Taiwan

Taiwanese chat messaging app Pal+ secures US$1.3M Series A

Pal+ (formerly Cubie), a Taiwan-based chat messaging application, has raised US$1.3 million in its Series A
round of funding from Asiasoft, a publicly-listed Southeast Asian game publisher in Thailand. Taiwanese
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venture capital firm Expert Idea, besides its existing investor FunP, also participated in the funding round. Pal+
is a startup run by Pomelo Network, a Singapore incorporated company, with its R&D team located in
Taiwan.Pal+ is a forum-based app that offers wide varieties of discussions for like-minded individuals to
participate in. Users can share or discuss topics that they love such as life, entertainment, games, and
animation, and favorite or share them with friends instantly, shared an official release.

Thailand

Thailand's Playbasis raises US$1.8M in Series A funding

Thailand-based startup, Playbasis, has announced that it has raised US$1.8 million in their Series A round led
by InVent, the VC arm of InTouch holdings. InVent invested a total of US$1,545,000 alongside Cherubic
Ventures and 500 startups. This brings the total funding that Playbasis has raised to US$2.6 million. Playbasis
aims to make it easy for businesses to implement game-like services onto their customer-facing or back-end
web platforms to incentivize workers and customers. Playbasis will use its funds to ramp up product
development, customer success, secure more partnerships as well as expand into new markets

Philippines

Philippines' LoanSolutions raises funding from KK Fund, Kickstart Ventures, others

Philippines-based fin-tech startup LoanSolutions has raised an undisclosed round of funding from a group of
international investors led by KK Fund, with participation from other venture capitalist funds and angel
investors, including Kickstart Ventures and John Dang, CEO of Zipmatch. LoanSolutions is an online platform
that matches borrowers with financial institutions. Unlike traditional loan comparison portals, LoanSolutions
puts borrowers first by using algorithms and hands-on concierge services in the form of loan advisers to ensure
that borrowers can secure a competitive loan. The startup will use its funds to scale operations to meet the
startups goal of financial inclusion.

Singapore

Tech in Asia raises US$4M from SB ISAT Fund, Eduardo Saverin, among others
Singapore-based tech startup media platform Tech in Asia (TiA) has secured US$4 million in new funding. The
funding was led by SB ISAT Fund, which according to TiA counts SoftBank and Indosat as its key partners.
The funding round also saw participation from Facebook Co-founder and Singapore resident Eduardo Saverin,
Walden International, Marvelstone, m&s Partners, and Andrew James Solimine, Co-founder of Nitrous.
TiA(Tech in Asia), founded in 2011, recently revamped its platform to a more Reddit-like model, creating a
more community-focused approach to media and content TiA has announced that it will use the investment to
build more relevant features for its community. The company is also looking to expand its team in the region.

GrabTaxi raising US$200M funding at US$1.5B valuation

GrabTaxi is about to receive US$200M in fresh capital mainly from US hedge fund Coatue Management LLC.
The funding round also included existing investors also SoftBank and Tiger Global Management. GrabTaxis
valuation is now at US$1.5 billion. GrabTaxis last funding, a record-breaking US$250 million round, happened
just seven months ago in December 2014 on the back of strong regional growth that saw the company become
a dominant player in the taxi booking space in this part of the world. It was reported that GrabTaxi could
increase the size of the round with the inclusion of additional investment in coming weeks.

Singapore's fin-tech startup Call Levels is raising US$500K

Singapore-based real-time financial monitoring app Call Levels announced that it is raising a US$500,000
bridge round to spur growth. The funding round, which is still open but partially committed, is expected to close
in the coming weeks. Call Levels has previously raised US$140,000 in angel funding since its launch in
October last year, led by angel investor and former JP Morgan executive Timothy Teo. The remaining funds
came from private undisclosed hedge fund managers. Call Levels is an app that provides real-time financial
monitoring and notification service on the cloud, covering more than 5,000 assets including US equities, Forex,
Futures and now Bitcoin.

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United States

WeWork raises a hefty US$433M funding round

On July 7th, coworking space startup disclosed a US$433.9 million funding round in a new document on file
with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. Back in December when it was reported that WeWork had
raised a $355 million funding round, the companys valuation was approaching $5 billion, which now is at $10
billion. The valuation puts the small New York-based company in the same league as social bookmarking site
operator Pinterest Inc. and media and Internet company. WeWork, founded in 2010 and headquartered in New
York City, currently has over 35 workspaces globally. The five-year-old company divides up rented office space
and sublets largely to startups. Technology companies are the main occupants, taking up about 40 percent of
the space on average. WeWork was not immediately available for comment but Miguel McKelvey, the
company's cofounder, told Techworld last month that he's considering opening UK spaces in areas like Dublin,
Glasgow and Manchester.

Digital Ocean raises US$83M

Digital Ocean just raised US$83 million in new funding. Data companys analysts estimate DigitalOcean to be
valued at about $680 million after this round of funding. New investor Access Industries led the round with
participation from existing backer Andreessen Horowitz. The Chief Executive Officer Ben Uretsky of Digital
Ocean said that a bulk of the capital will be used to hire employees for the product engineering team, and
much of the rest will be used to build new data centers. DigitalOcean maintains and provides cloud
infrastructure that applications run on. Unlike top cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google
Compute engine, and Microsoft Azure makes available a long list of instance types and storage services for
developers to choose from and tie together, Digital Ocean offers convenient droplets of compute and storage
power for rent by the hour. Digital Ocean announced that more than 6 million of these droplets have been
deployed by more than 500,000 developers. Till 2014, the company was at $50 million debt due to its facility,
and it was announced back in May that Digital Ocean was the second largest hosting company in the world (
second to Amazon) by only one metric.

Splunk acquires cybersecurity startup Caspida for US$190M

Publicly traded log analytics company Splunk, which makes software that helps businesses and organizations
sort and analyze machine-generated big data from websites, servers, apps, and other sources, announced on
July 9th that it acquired Caspida, a cybersecurity startup for US$190 million. First Round Capital, Redpoint
Ventures, and True Ventures have invested in the startup. Caspida is a startup focused on finding new threats
that may not be previously known, lurking APTs, new malware and unpredictable insider threats through a
novel behavioral threat detection approach. It was announced that Splunks purchase of Caspida will beef up
Splunks security offerings.

A16Z, HP, and INKEF Capital give US$30M to Shapeways

Shapeways, a service and marketplace that lets users upload, download, and print 3D signs, announced that it
took $30 million injection from INKEF Capital.The Netherlands based investor), Hewlett Packard Ventures, and
Andressen Horowitz. HP Partnered with Shapeways in 2014 to work on faster and better quality 3D printed
products. Shape ways announced that funding will be used to invest in its community, continue to work on new
features and materials for its platform, and boost the companys world-class production environment and
supply chain. Since Shapeways launched in 2008, the company has 3D printed more than 2.5 million
products. Of 620,000 members, 30,000 sell their unique products on the Shapeways marketplace.

HackerOne raises US$25M to make the Internet safer via bug bounty programs
HackerOne, the platform for running and managing security bug bounty programs, today announced that it has
closed a $25 million round led by New Enterprise Associates. This figure brings the total amount raised to $34
millions. This additional money is going towards encouraging hackers to find exploits, who will be paid when
they responsibly notify companies so they can fix issues before attackers have a chance to exploit them.
HackerOne is a company that makes money in a very simple way: the startup charges a 20 percent
commission on top of each bounty paid through its service (it waives the fee for free open source software).
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Previous investor Benchmark and the following angels joined in this new round including Salesforce Chairman
and CEO Marc Benioff, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Digital Sky Technologies Founder Yuri Milner, and
Dropbox cofounder and CEO Drew Houston.

Snowflake raises US$45M and makes its cloud data warehouse generally available
Snowflake Computing, a startup that has built data warehouse software based in the Amazon Web Services
cloud, announced a new US$45 million funding round and made its software generally available. Altimeter
Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Wing Ventures participated in the new funding round.
Snowflake Computing started in 2012 and is based in San Mateo, California. Till now, the startup has raised at
least $71 million. The startup plans to use this money to expand the company (it currently has 80 employees).
While Snowflake will likely hire a few engineers, the focus of will be on expanding the salesforce in the U.S.
with an international push coming at a later date.

Crosscut Ventures raises US$75M fund for early-stage tech and gaming startups in LA
Crosscut Ventures announced its new US$75 million fund to invest in early-stage startups and seed
investments in the Los Angeles area. The funds establishment shows there still exists strong interest in
investing in Southern California startups and gaming enterprises as well. The firm already has $50 million
under management from two previous funds. Crosscut was started in 2008 and its vision was to build
companies in Los Angeles. Crosscut has made 45 investments via the previous funds and have had 10 exits to
date. Crosscut will make about eight to 10 investments per year, mostly in Southern California. It will also
invest across the U.S. with strong local co-investors. It will focus on areas that include software as a service, ecommerce, adtech, mobile, marketplaces, and gaming.

Artificial intelligence startup DigitalGenius raises US$3M to help companies automate customer
service
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup DigitalGenius has announced its first venture capital funding, nabbing US$3
million in a round led by Metamorphic Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Lowercase
Capital, RRE Ventures, Lumia Capital, and a handful of strategic angel investors. The New York-based
companys platform automates question-and-answer conversations, perfect for companies that want to offer a
text-based customer support service without requiring actual people. The company aims to use the $3 million
to fuel its operations and growth plans, and most importantly, to productize its AI offerings and transform the
way brands communicate with consumers at scale.

Asian investors jump in on Airbnb's US$1.5B funding round

In Airbnbs latest funding round, at least four major Asian investors have entered the picture. These were
investors that were notably absent from previous rounds into the home-rental giant that has raised US$2.3
billion to date. Hong Kongs Horizon Ventures, Singapores Temasek Holdings, Chinas Hillhouse Capital
Group (which has more than US$20 billion in funds), and China Broadband Capital all got a slice of the pie this
time around. Asia is already an important market for Airbnb. China, Korea and Singapore have seen especially
strong traction. Currently, among venture-backed startups, only Xiaomi and Uber now carry higher valuations
than Airbnb.

Y Combinator-backed GitHub competitor GitLab raises $1.5M

GitLab, a startup behind open-source Git repository management software for storing and collaborating on
source code, announced that it has raised a $1.5 million seed round. The funding round was led by Khosla
Ventures, 500 Startups, CrunchFund, Sound Ventures, and Liquid 2 Ventures. GitLab like GitHub allows users
to explore projects on the web and host your own projects online for free, by making its core Community
Edition available under an open-source license. Currently, over a hundred thousands organizations are using
GitLab to build software that puts people in space (NASA, SpaceX), helps discover new particles (CERN) and
move computing forward (IBM, Qualcomm), among many others.

Self drive rent-a-car booking app Zoomcar secures US$11M

Bangalore-headquartered self-drive rent-a-car booking company Zoomcar has secured US$11 million in fresh
funding from Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels and NGP Advisors India. Zoomcar allows users to rent cars by
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and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review
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the hour, day, week or month. Started with seven vehicles in February 2013, Zoomcar now operates 1,500
vehicles including Ford Figo and Ecosport, Honda City and Amaze, Mahindra Reva,Maruti Ciaz, BMW 3
Series, and the Mercedes A class and more. The company announced that the funds from this round will be
used primarily to add new vehicles, continue hiring and continue to build out the tech and product on the back
of successful recent product launches like our special Zoom Commute package for office goers who are
looking for an economic weekday self-drive option.

Dating app Once finds US$3.5M to help you find the one
New York-based app Once announced that it received a US$3.5 million seed round from Partech Ventures and
some private investors to help users find their soulmate by getting away from having multiple dating options.
Once recently opened offices in Paris, and it is soon opening offices in London. The company announced that
it will use its funds from the round to fuel the companys growth as well as very edgy and very different app
features coming by the end of the year.

Europe

Babbel raises US$22M to help grow its language-learning platform in the Americas
Language-learning startup Babbel has raised US$22 million to help expedite product development and
expansion across the Americas. This announcement puts the companys total known funding past the $30
million mark, including $10 million raised in 2013. The latest funding round was led by new investor Scottish
Equity Partners (SEP), with contributions from existing investors, including Reed Elsevier Ventures and Nokia
Growth Partners (NGP). Babel was launched in 2007 by Germany-based Lesson Nine GmbH, and has
emerged as one of the leading brands in the online language-learning fraternity, with mobile apps and a
website covering 14 languages including English, Spanish, and Russian. Babble currently seeks 120,000
downloads each day and to help boost uptake it recently launched a version for Apple Watch.

US$800K for in-app merchandising startup FabZat

French in-app merchandising startup FabZat announced that it took US$800,000 in a funding round. Alderville
Holding led the round for the startup which lets video game developers sell merchandise 3D printed figures,
t-shirts, posters, etc. The companys plugin works for Facebook, web, and PC games. Kima Ventures,
Nestadio Capital, Credit Agricole Acquitaine Expansion, and Expanso Capital also participated in the round.
FabZat, founded in 103, currently has a specific niche in both 3D printing and the gaming industry. The funds
will be directed to expansion in the U.S and Europe.

British social network Tagstr raises additional US$1M, announces it hit 500K user mark
British social network Tagstr has announced that they have pulled in US$1 million in additional seed funding,
bringing the total amount that they have raised to $2.6 million. Tagstr has an app that allows users to share
videos, photos, and audio through themes, as opposed to following. Users can check out all audio and video
content posted for a particular event, such as Glastonbury, rather than simply seeing what friends post. Tagstr
has become quite popular since it launched in August 2014, reporting that they now have 500K users and that
users have shared 20 million pieces of content. The Cheltenham-based startup intendeds to use the latest bit
of funding, which comes from an undisclosed investor ), to build partnerships and continue to develop the
platform.

Reward-card platform ZenCard picks up about US$2.23M from local investors

Polish startup ZenCard, which launched in December 2014 with the purpose of offering businesses a system
through which they can turn their payment terminals into a universal loyalty and rewards card platform, has
revealed that they have closed an agreement for about US$2.23 million (2 million) in funding with domestic
investors Experior Ventures and SpeedUp Group. Having already started to build a presence in their home
Polish market, the company intends to use this latest round of funding to expand within Europe, particularly
targeting the United Kingdom.

Israel
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and Internet Market Bi-Monthly Review
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Checkmark caps giant week of startup fundraising with US$84M round

Insight Venture Partners invested US$84 million in Checkmark. New York-based Insight has more than US$10
billion under management and invested in over 200 companies, including Chinese online giant Alibaba and
social media firm Twitter. The Israeli software security company Checkmark, whose product tests software for
security vulnerabilities early in the development process, announced that the money will be used on global
expansion and product innovation and purchasing stocks from existing shareholders. Founded in 2006,
Checkmark employs more than 150 people 100 of them in Israel and has Salesforce, SAP, Coca Cola, and
the U.S Army among its 700 customers. Currently, Checkmark has raised $14.5 million in funding in total.

TrapX Security secures Series B investment of US$9M

Security startup TrapX Security announced on July 10th that it closed a series B round led by Intel Capital and
Liberty Israel Venture Fund together with current investors BRM Group and Opus Capital. The US$9 million
round will be used to help the companys global expansion. TrapX Security aims to rapidly detect, analyze and
defend against new zero-day and APT attacks in real time. The startup has raised at least $14 million in
investments since 2014. Previous investors BRM Group and Opus Capital follow also participated in the round.
TrapX will use its investment to accelerate growth across the business, spanning the development of deception
technology, the hiring of engineering and marketing talent, and the expansion of global sales initiatives.

CA Technologies buys Israeli IdMlogic for around US$20M

Fifteen-year-old Israeli enterprise startup IdMlogic was acquired on Monday by management software
solutions leader CA Technologies for approximately US$20 million. Although CA Technologies has acquired 12
Israeli startups, including retrieval solutions company XOsoft for $100 million in 2006, big data startup Nolio for
$40 million in 2013, and a similar startup called Eurekify, which oversees IT permit systems, for about $25
million in 2008, the move is surprising considering CA Technologies rocky month in Israel.

Israels Pluristem raises US$17M to bring placental stem cells to the masses
Israeli company Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a Haifa-based company that went public in 2003, has raised
US$17 million from private investors through a shelf prospectus. The company has raised over $100 million on
the NASDAQ so far. Pluristem uses cells derived from an after-birth placenta rather than using fetal stem cells,
which are the subject of great ethical controversy. In May of last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
reviewed Pluristems comparability studies of its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) cell products and granted
approval for the company to manufacture these products in its new commercial-scale cell manufacturing facility
in Haifa, Israel

Redis Labs raises US$15M to market a database service that could be a goldmine for social networks
Israeli Redis Labs announced that it raised US$15 million in Series B funding largely to expand the marketing
and sales activities of its NoSQL hybrid database offering Redis Cloud, which is popular for processing
unstructured data on consumer websites, especially social networks. Carmel Ventures and Bain Capital
Ventures led the funding round with participation from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing the companys total funding
to date to $28 million. This funding occurred in large part because of the success of its fully-managed cloud
service Redis Cloud, which has grown 116 percent in the last year. The company now has more than 4,900
paying customers, including Hotel Tonight, Docker, and Bleacher Report.

Israel's cloud-based security startup Octopus gets US$2.5M

Israel-based Physical Security Information System (PSIM) startup Octopus has raised US$2.5 million from
Singulariteam. Octopus, which offers a cloud-enabled physical security management system, plans to use the
funds to expand into US and Asia. Its expansion plans will be aided by that fact that Singulatriteam is backed
by two of Chinas biggest Internet companies Tencent Holdings and Renren to the tune of US$100
million. The companys clients in Israel are Coca-Cola, VISA (CAL), ICL, three national banks as well as the
government of Israel.

SparkLabs Global Ventures (http://www.sparklabsglobal.com) is a global seed-stage fund with partners in

Silicon Valley, Chicago, London Tel Aviv, Singapore, and Seoul.
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