企业沟通协作工具 Slack 获得8000 万美元融资用于的应用开发基金Slack Raises $80 Million Fund to Support Platform Strategy
据华尔街时报消息，企业沟通协作工具 Slack 透露已获得 8000 万美元新一轮融资，此轮融资将用于应用商店的投资基金。另外，Slack 还宣布将更新手机端App，这次更新将整合一些功能，如将支持亚马逊的网页服务。
Slack 的创始人兼 CEO Stewart Butterfield表示，希望这次融资能为投资者带来回报，但这并不是融资的目的，而是希望融资能激发大家更好地开发 App。
据悉，Slack 曾在 11月被华尔街日报评为 2015年的技术创新者（Technology Innovator），Slack 去年客户规模增长了 10 倍，达到了 125 万，其中 50% 为海外客户。
硅谷
2015年12月16日
硅谷
以色列大数据公司 Anodot 获 300 万美元 A 轮融资
Anodot日前在 A 轮系列融资中获得 300 万美元，投资方为 Disrupt-ive，融资总额已达 450 万美元。
Anodot 是一家提供实时分析和异常检测的大数据创业公司，成立于 2014年6月，总部位于以色列，还在森尼维尔市、加利福尼亚、以色列的瑞安那等多地成立了办事处。
Anodot 通过已获得专利的机器学习算法，实时在大量的数据中发现异常的数据并把他们转为有价值的商业信息，以消除商业观察中的延迟，支持快速的商业决策，目前主要应用在广告技术、电子商务和物联网行业。
值得一提的是创始团队成员都是连续创业者，Anodot 的 CEO David Drai 曾是 Cotendo 公司的联合创始人兼 CTO，这家公司最后被 AKamai 以两亿六千八百万美元收购。而 Anodot 的首席数据分析专家 Dr.Lra Cohen 是惠普软件的前 CTO。研发副总裁 Shay Lang 同样有多年相关经验。此外，董事会的成员还包括 Impreva CEO 兼总裁 Anthony Bettencourt，O’ Reilly Media 的首席数据分析师 Ben Lorica。
今年早些时候就有行业分析称，BI 将会在未来快速发展，到 2018年 之前，有望以每年8.3%的增率、两百亿美金的市值增长。正如很多 BI 公司已在 2015年 拿到了融资，例如以色列创业公司 Pyramid Analytics 和 Sisence 都在今年获得了 3000 万美元的投资，Looker 也在今年3月 份融到了 3000 万美元，Adaptive Insights 则在 6月 份获得了 7500 万美元。
Disrupt-ive 的合伙人兼 Anodot 董事会成员 Tal Barnoach 此前曾发表声明：“通过自动化、实时的对大数据指标和关键信息进行提取分析，来变革商业智能，这有着巨大的市场潜力。”
Anodot 的 CEO David Drai 也表示：“拿打车 APP 来说，订单都是基于短信系统，若出现问题则至少需要 3 天来进行修复，动则会损失上万美元。这就是我创立 Anodot 的初衷，希望利用机器学习和自动监测来进行实时分析，降低由延迟发现问题造成的损失。”
据悉，知名科技公司 WIX 和 Avantis 都已是 Anodot 的客户，本轮融资将用于在物联网、电子商务、广告技术等的市场扩张。
Israeli business intel startup Anodot scores $3 million in Series A
Anodot, a business intelligence startup that specializes in anomaly detection, exited stealth on Wednesday and announced a $3 million Series A funding round led by Tel Aviv- and New York-based Disrupt-ive Fund. Its total funding to date is $4.5 million.
They use machine learning algorithms to identify system anomalies. Already counting prominent tech companies Wix and Avantis among their clientele, the new round will help them expand their sales strategy toward IoT, e-commerce, and adtech companies abroad.
“There is a huge opportunity to disrupt the BI market by enabling automated and real-time insights into big data pools of metrics and KPIs,” said Disrupt-ive Fund general partner and Anodot board member Tal Barnoach in statement to the press.
Its co-founders have impressive resumes: CEO David Drai is also the co-founder and former CTO of Cotendo, which was acquired by Akamai for $268 million, and the former CTO of Gett. Chief Data Scientist Dr. Ira Cohen is the former CTO of HP Software and VP of R&D Shay Lang has experience at several tech companies. Their board includes the likes of Imperva CEO and President Anthony Bettencourt and O’Reilly Media chief data scientist Ben Lorica.
“As a mobile taxi app, SMS text orders were dropped by the carrier, but it could take up to three days to spot critical issues and fix them, costing tens of thousands of dollars per incident,” Drai said. “That’s where I got the idea for Anodot—to employ the latest advances in machine learning to detect performance problems automatically and in real-time, eliminating the latency.”
BI is flying high
The business intelligence market is expected to grow 8.3% per year to a value of $20.8 billion in 2018, according to an industry analysis by MarketsandMarkets published earlier this year. Consequently, BI companies have raised a lot of money in 2015. Fellow Israeli startups Pyramid Analytics and Sisense both raised $30 million rounds this year. Other companies include Looker, which also received $30 million in March, and Adaptive Insights, which brought in $75 million back in June.
The company was founded in June 2014 by co-founders CEO David Drai, Chief Data Scientist Dr. Ira Cohen, and VP of R&D Shay Lang. They maintain offices in Sunnyvale, California and Ra’anana, Israel.
本文来源：geektime.com
硅谷
2015年12月15日
硅谷
在线教育网站Jigsaw Academy获得300万美元A轮融资
Jigsaw Academy 成立于 2011 年，总部位于印度。公司为一家在线教育网站，致力于为用户提供关于大数据处理，数据挖掘以及数据分析等课程。据公司负责人称， Jigsaw Academy 已经为全球 30多个国家，超过40000 名学生提供课程服务，课程主要包括零售，电商，人力资源。
本轮领投的公司为同样为用户提供课程测试和教育的Manipal Global Education Service (MaGE)公司，此外Mohandas Pai，MaGE CEO以及数位投资人也加入此次的融资。本轮融资的金额将会用于更多的课程开发，同时也将会利用 领投公司MaGE 在全球市场的优势拓展市场。
来源：vccircle.com
硅谷
2015年12月14日
硅谷
印度版58同城UrbanClap获今年第四轮融资
12月11日，印度服务类平台UrbanClap 获 Ratan Tata 投资，融资金额尚未公布。该创业公司本次融资距上次融资不到一个月的时间（11月19日），上次融资金额为 16 亿卢比（约 1.54 亿元），投资方为 Bessemer Venture Partners、Accel Partners 和 SAIF。本次投资方为之前参与投资的 Accel Partners 和 SAIF。
UrbanClap 发表声明称会将这些资金用于市场扩张和服务种类扩展，预计下一年发展到 25 座城市，种类达到 100 种。同时，UrbanClap 还准备将员工数量扩大到现在的 2 倍，并且有收购其他公司的打算。本年4月 份，UrbanClap 种子轮融资金额为 150 万美元，6月 份，获 1000 万美元融资。
UrbanClap 声称现在每天大约有 5000 名用户，专业人员超过 25,000 名。目前服务地区有班加罗尔、孟买、海德拉巴、金奈、普纳和德里首都区，正在招聘产品人员、市场营销人员、工程师和业务拓展人员。2014年10月Varun Khaitan、Raghav Chandra 和 Abhiraj Bhal 创办了 UrbanClap，服务种类高达 75 种，包括管道维修、婚礼摄像、音乐课程、瑜伽课程和室内设计。
UrbanClap raises an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata
Services marketplace UrbanClap has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in his personal capacity. This comes less than a month after the startup raised Rs 165 crore from Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investors Accel Partners and SAIF.
At the time UrbanClap had said it would use the funds for geographical and category expansion; 25 cities and 100 categories in the next one year. It said it would also double its employee count and acquire other companies. Note that UrbanClap had also raised $10 million in a round of funding from existing investors in June and raised seed funding of around $1.5 million (Rs 10 crore) in April.
UrbanClap claims to serve 5,000 customer requests daily, and has a seller base of over 25,000 professionals. It is currently operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Delhi NCR and is hiring across product, marketing, engineering and business development. Founded by Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra and Abhiraj Bhal in October 2014, UrbanClap provides professionals for over 75 services, including plumbing, wedding photography, music lessons, yoga classes and interior designing.
本文编译自：medianama.com
商旅计划应用 Travo 获 240 万美元融资 Startup pitch: Travo raises $2.4M to simplify business travel
这家 base 在洛杉矶的出行应用 Travo 便将商旅预订流程化，通过数据分析，帮助商旅人士快速找到匹配的航班、食宿和本地交通，并且实现动态打包。
举例来说，一个人要在周四上午 10 点，在巴黎参加一个活动，下午 5 点结束，那么这里面需要的相关信息：
你知道什么时候达到和离开？
达到之后，你准备做什么？
你要住在哪里？
活动完结后，根据航班时间你什么时候赶赴机场？
总预算是多少，结合舒适度、价格、时间来看又是怎样？
而 Travo 得到这些信息之后，能够在一分钟左右构建你的出行行程。Travo 在 11月 上线了 beta 版本，目前仍是邀请制。
近日，Travo 也宣布完成 240 万美元种子融资，投资方包括 Great Oaks Ventures、Baroda Ventures、Valence Ventures、 TYLT Lab，以及个人投资人，包括高盛执行董事（managing director）Rob Sweeney ，IVP 投资 GP Dennis Phelps 等。
关于盈利模式，Travo 会跟 OTA 或者酒店等上游资源合作，达成利益分成。创始人 Tae Lee 预计，商旅市场目前能占到整个旅行市场的 1/3，他们只是初步聚焦在出行计划工具上面。
不过，Travo 在国外也会面临竞争对手，比如 NexTravel、Rocketrip以及潜在的 Expensify。另外还有 Cinch Travel 和30 Seconds to Fly 这样的小型公司。
本文参考：Tnooz.com 作者：孝羽，如若转载，请注明出处：http://36kr.com/p/5040725.html
以下是英文访谈：
A Q&A with Tae Lee, founder:
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
For many small businesses I’ve been a part of, signing up with a travel agency or a managed travel service is very low on the priority list.
At the same time, I’ve always felt that the gap for trip planning assistance between managed corporate travel vs. DIY leisure focused OTAs is too great. Even though I had no experience in the travel industry, I knew there was a significant market being underserved.
I’ve had successes with startups bringing innovation in a wide-range of industries. I’ve previously grown companies from 20 to 250 employees as the chief operator and been part of three successful exits in digital media, ad tech, and consumer electronics. So why not travel?
After all, the trait I saw for what determines an entrepreneur to bring disruptive technology to market has never been industry experience. More than anything, every successful startup I’ve been part of had one common trait: speed. Move fast, fail fast, and when something works, as Jeff Weiner would say, “next play”.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
Travo is comprised of 10 employees. Every employee is in product and/or engineering with a background in big data, game theory, and algorithms.
Funding arrangements?
We raised a $2.4 million funding round led by leading institutional and angel investors.
Estimation of market size?
Business Travel is approximately 1/3rd of travel – but we start with a much smaller segment of business travel. Our initial target market is focused on travel planners and travellers within a specific demographic we have yet to disclose.
Competition?
Short term, it’s everyone trying to make travel planning fast and easy. There are a LOT of solutions out there and we’ll learn from their successes and failures.
Long-term, our competitors are corporate travel agencies who currently help business travellers plan and book travel.
Although our product won’t be able to completely replicate the services offered by travel agents, we believe many travellers prefer to have control over their trips as long as it’s fast and easy.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We have partnerships with some of the best OTAs and directly with brands in the hotel space. As we do not book on our site, we’re happy to pass along highly qualified traffic to our partners for commissions.
What problem does the business solve?
Let’s say you’re going to an event in Paris that starts at 10AM on a Tuesday and ends 5PM on a Wednesday. Now think about the logistics for that trip.
Do you know what day you need to leave to get there on time?
Once you’re there, how are you going to get around?
Where are you going to stay?
After your meetings, based on traffic conditions and your transportation, when are you going to need to leave to get to the airport on time so you don’t miss your flight?
How much is all this going to cost, and does it combine the right level of comfort, price, and timing that is in tune with a business trip?
With Travo, we can generate a scientifically calculated end-to-end itinerary in around a minute so you can feel confident in your trip planning.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
We tested many features and even platforms at different stages of developing the product. In the beginning we started too wide and too feature heavy.
In fact, our first version of the product (which was completed in February) had more features than our product does today.
However, I believe this is a death sentence for many startups. In the beginning, nobody knows who you are. Which means, if it takes you longer than a sentence to describe what your product does, people tune out and don’t know what you really do.
Throughout all the changes and pivots we’ve made, the biggest realization we came to was determining we WON’T do.
For example, we don’t do post-booking itineraries like TripIt or Worldmate does. We don’t do bookings on our site because that would lead to a need for a massive customer service team (which is not our core competency).
We don’t do corporate travel restrictions and backend financial integrations that companies such as Egencia and many others are doing. Rather, we are partnering with the best companies who do these things extremely well.
Why should people or companies use the business?
We make business travel planning simple, fast, and cost effective.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
We’re going to be razor focused on a particular demographic of users. This means marketing at events that they attend, being where they are on the web, and offering promotions that encourage change in user behavior.
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
We’re not interested in turning TRAVO into a nice little business. I think the investors and I started this company to shoot for the moon in what is arguably the largest and the most competitive industry.
So, in three years we’ll either be out of business or we’ll be one of the most successful startups in travel.
I’m obviously betting on the latter but it won’t be easy. The biggest challenge with any travel startup is customer acquisition and how much your spending to acquire that customer.
The other challenge comes after you’ve successfully acquired a customer to try your product – how you’re going to change user behavior?
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
I think “wrong” is a strong word as there’s pretty much a solution to any travel need at this point. Companies in this space have been around for a long time and have innovated a great deal.
However, there are parts of the travel industry that I think would benefit from applying more focus.
For us, that is helping business travellers with the actual planning of the trip before they make selections to book.
Logistically, it’s pretty complex piecing together a unique trip based on preferences of the traveller while simultaneously taking into account price, location and time requirements.
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style… and why?
One of the companies I have a ton of respect for in the trip planning space is Roadtrippers. They have a fantastic road trip planning tool that is easy to use and like Travo, looks at your trip from start to finish and recalculates based on choices you make.
Developing this product, we can certainly appreciate how complex things are to make a product like that run smoothly.
I’m not sure how big the road-trip market segment is in the US, but these guys do 3+ million unique users per month. That’s a whole lot of Roadtrippers!
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
Great thing about the travel industry is there is no shortage of companies making investments in the travel space. I think software companies from Microsoft to pure-play travel companies like Priceline all can make acquisition in this space.
As for us, it’s not a topic we even think about. We’re more focused on turning Travo into the best solution for business travellers and building a profitable, fast growing business that can stand on its own.
Describe your startup in three words?
Business travel simplified
硅谷
2015年12月06日
硅谷
个性化营销公司 Bluecore获2100万美元 B 轮融资
据科技媒体 VB 消息，日前，个性化营销方案提供公司 Bluecore 获得 2100万美元 B 轮融资，本轮融资由 Georgian Partners 领投。
据网站介绍，这家公司的发展速度非常快，全年经常性收入（ARR）的增速为每 45 天增加 100 万美元。
Bluecore 提供的方案可以让营销人员很好的利用，主要是通过一些行为数据和电子邮件与客户接触；
在产品方面， Bluecore 还提供一个产品目录数据，方便企业改变价格和库存。
目前包括Staples、Express和Cabelas 等电子商务公司都采用 Bluecore提供的营销方案。B轮融资的资金提供方Georgian Partners 非常看好提供企业服务且成长迅速的初创公司，之前投过的公司还有Shopify、Tealium和FreshBooks。
Bluecore raises eight-figure series B for email personalization
Bluecore, a marketing automation solution focused on personalization, has raised $21 million in its series B round of investment.
The company has been growing quickly, adding $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) every 45 days, and doubling AAR every six months. A number of top ecommerce retailers are now customers, including Staples, Express, and Cabelas.
This kind of growth has impressed investors, including Georgian Partners, which led the round. Georgian has focused investments in companies applying analytics to improve or automate existing processes. Previous investments include companies like Shopify, Tealium, and FreshBooks.
What sets Bluecore apart?
Bluecore lets marketers use behavioral data to personalize customer engagements, primarily via email. We’ve found in our own research that behavioral data is often the most valuable type of data for marketers. Behavioral data provides real-time insight about a consumer’s interest and intent, most of it coming from web and mobile activity.
Yet most marketers today haven’t been able to capitalize on this data. One reason for Bluecore’s success is its ability to capture and process large volumes of behavioral data, like product page views, search term use, and cart abandonment. In conjunction with behavioral data, Bluecore also uses product catalog data, including changes in price or inventory.
Consumers increasingly expect personalization and are unsubscribing from irrelevant emails. As a result, marketers are looking to personalization as a way to increase relevance, along with key metrics and revenue.
In ourublishe report on email personalization pd yesterday, we found that the vast majority of marketers reported increased open rates and click-through rates (CTR) by employing some form of email personalization (including even the most basic personalization tactics).
We also found that email personalization reduces unsubscribe rates and increases revenue by an even greater factor (around 6x).
Most marketers still rate poorly on our email personalization maturity framework, but growing interest will continue to fuel investment in marketing automation and personalization tools like Bluecore.
For those interested in the technical details, Bluecore explained in an email that it drives personalization in several ways, including:
Similar products versus recommendations based on co-view and co-purchase models
Aggregated profile data based on session searches, category navigation and facets, as well as wish list, add to cart, and purchase behavior.
Audience data based on product catalog analytics, used to personalize emails by answering questions like “If the inventory drops on a product by more than 50%, which customers are the most likely to buy the fastest?”
The new round of funding will bring Bluecore’s total funding since 2013 to $28.2 million.
来源：VB
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